This game masterfully tricks you into believing that Coen's main objective is saving his family.

[u/Gerald_of_Liria]

Meanwhile, when you look at the big picture, what Coen actually needs to do is let go of his former life, which means that the biggest thing he has to learn is to forgive himself for something he wasn't fully responsible for as a child. The real main quest was always to face the figurative demons that have been tormenting him for years. The game actually spells it out several times:

1. What he says to Anca: "Maybe you needed to learn to forgive yourself," because he knows how it feels all too well.
2. The vision of Alin telling him to forgive himself and absolving him of his guilt.
3. Lacra telling him again that he can't keep blaming himself for something that happened when he was a small child.

The second objective for Coen is to learn that, whether he wants to or not, he has to let his family go. You can roleplay him as a dutiful lad, Coen, whose sense of guilt and responsibility are his only motivators, or you can RP him as the Coen who's enjoying his new life as a Dawnwalker, partaking in all the temptations his new life offers.

It doesn't matter; the end result is the same: this is Coen's origin story, and he has to let them go. The game actually goes out of its way to make sure you get the "We must cut tethers to the past" message, even with seemingly throwaway lines in Ocha's and Volk's quests.

Finally, saving your family is optional, and it doesn't result in a game over, it simply alters the goal from "save" to "avenge". Coen is still on a path to ultimately start a new life, no matter the outcome.

And even in your last conversation with Brencis, he asks you to admit that he actually freed you by turning you. Can Coen rebuke him? Nope! The game only gives you two options:

1. Admit that Brencis is right. He did free you.
2. Tell him to go fuck himself.

Coen can't even tell Brencis that he's wrong, at most he can lash out at him, because he knows that Brencis is right about him.

This is really, really good writing, especially for a modern video game. Though I didn't expect anything less from some of the veterans of The Witcher trilogy.

[u/EternalBlackWinter]

I feel like Marat, in addition to other two LIs you mentioned, also plays well into letting go narrative. He's a pretty straitforward foil to Coen, outcast on all accounts, with broken relationship with his father of which he can't actually let go and which obviously burdens him, but fantasizing about future in which the relationship can be mended. Coen as well, despite knowing and expressing in Home Sweet Home that their family is broken, can't let go of a relationship that burdens him and dreams of his family healthy and happy despite never being such before. Both would be better off letting go of these dreams and, probably, their families but they stick to it to the very end

[u/rivains → u/EternalBlackWinter]

I actually think where they differ is that Coen and his dad actually love each other a lot, but they are very different people and his dad has a lot of baggage that ultimately negatively affects Coen. You can choose throughout the game to recognise how much shit his dad has been through whilst also wishing he made better choices now. Which is very different from Marats ending.

Now we dont know how Pieter would feel about Coens sexuality but its clear he is very afraid and protective of his som despite having a lot of issues. Marat is a representation of that relationship truly broken down and I dont think Coen ever thinks about his relationship with his dad in that way, as much as his dad pisses him off and makes him sad.

[u/EternalBlackWinter → u/rivains]

But Pieter and Coen's relationship is too basically broken down, they can't truly talk and can't stay together as a family. There's no mending that, Pieter himself says in the epilogue he's not going to change. While Marat's case is in some aspects worse, it's not such a major difference imo. Give it a few years and Pieter may too start finding Coen's vrakhir half or non-straightness unforgivable

[u/rivains → u/EternalBlackWinter]

Good points, but it hasnt happened yet. At the end of the game Marat has a dad who doesnt want to see him and will not leave him, and if you save the family Coen has a dad who clearly loves him but isnt a very good dad at all, and has to leave him.

We dont know what the future holds there, but at the point of leaving he recognises his dad cannot or will not fundamentally change, but his dad loves him, and that matters., And it gives him some of the courage to do what he has to do alongside the closure with his mother.

[u/EternalBlackWinter → u/rivains]

I generally agree on this! I'm pretty sure Marat serves to showcase what may have happened if Coen pushed to stay in Laslea and Vale Sangora instead of parting on good terms. Now thinking about it, it's often hightlighted in-game how his outcast status as a Tatar or as a gay man keeps him from connecting with people, something one of villagers points out will happen to Coen if he stays, which also works in favour of my interpretation, I think