Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Halsin Romance, Expectations and Obligatory Poly

I hope the next patch fixes his point n click / combat voice lines. That's one of the reasons why he seems so empty in act 3.

None of you good folks talking about how these characters are written, have ever actually participated in game production in any way.

You really need to keep that in mind while you rant.

Honestly yeah, this is what I decided to do for my last two-to-three runs (if I even get through them at all, tbh).

Druid of the Spore romance with Emperor. So far, I enjoy the slow burn of it a lot more than the "be nice to them a few times or do heroic things a couple of times, and they jump on you" approach with most of the companion (before anyone tries to argue that SH, Wyll, Gale, and Karlach don't "jump on you" - I know, I'm being facetious. They all do get really attached to you really quickly though). I also enjoy how for the most part, the two of you focus on the overall narrative rather than each other and your individual issues (at first).

While I still have plenty of problems with the insane timeline of the game's major and core events, and the main campaign itself, I at least prefer the approach to it with Emperor over other romances (besides Astarion).

Which, on that note - if I get to a next playthrough, likely going to ignore a large portion of side stuff and just bring Astarion + some hirelings along, at best. Maybe finally bring Minthara, since I'll be playing a Durge again. Which means no grove, so no Halsin, so no awkward possibly-bugged dialogue flags.

I still wish Halsin - and most of the companions - were either written better or treated better than they are. Maybe DE will address it, maybe not - but it isn't really enjoyable to drag a lot of people with you anymore, tbh. I'm either bringing the two who are most decently written + a spare to swap out with Jaheira in Act 2, or just hirelings.

Actually my uncle works at Larian so I know.

Let's keep it to discussing the game, about which all opinions expressed in accordance with forum rules are welcome and valid.

*just an update of my adventure and a little bit of whining*
I almost finished the game, the last battle is ahead, and I had conversations with those who are in my party (including Halsin). And... I don't know man it was so painful, even more painful knowing what happens in the very end. How can a guy who says these words to Tav just... ruin everything with no epilogue and no options to be with him?
This little scene brought up tears to my eyes cause you can feel he really loves Tav with all his heart and he is sure they will be together. God damn it!

I'll put a video of this moment (it is not mine, just as an axample)
I feel devastated. But nonetheless, I still love Halsin. I cannot unlove him. I really cannot remember a single characted who touched my heart on such deep level. Oh, how much I wish best for him, best for his epilogue.

Indeed, most of his romance dialogue is very sweet. He can be such a teddy bear. It's appropriate that he also has a wild side - would like to continue experiencing both when the game is over, please, kthxbye.

My only complaints about Halsin that I actually want to see fixed are:

1. It would be nice if the player could tell Halsin they personally don't wish to date others, but it is okay if he does so (so that if the player doesn't want to do it themself, they can still have that boundary, while still respecting this fundamental part of who Halsin is and not demanding he change it for them)

2. Halsin's sexual assault. It has been addressed many times already, but I think it's the bare minimum that Halsin's sexual assault should be treated AS a sexual assault by the narrative. The way they continuously have Halsin insist he enjoyed it is so beyond hurtful, especially because he also intersperses it with comments that imply Stockholm Syndrome, but are not treated as such. If he feared for his life while imprisoned, it was by definition IMPOSSIBLE for him to give consent- every action he made was under duress. Even if he WASN'T (and he says he was), there is a reason it is in real life considered impossible for prisoners to consent to sex with prison guards. The power imbalances mean that meaningful consent is impossible.

3. I wish we could go with Halsin in the ending. Especially if this could include the player's other love interest, if they have one, coming with them. I could see Karlach being delighted to help out the kids after her engine is fixed, Astarion could be offered protection from the sun, and Shadowheart would just be over the moon to finally get to climb Mount Halsin herself.

Everything else is either perfect or minor enough that I don't think it really needs any changing.

Or they could just rewrite him to be mono in the first place, just like the other 7 romance companions. Solves this issue with it.

All the more reason his romance just needs a proper rewrite.

I think you'll find that sufficient arguments have been given here to have these interactions entirely removed, not further expanded upon. It doesn't fit the narrative for any of the companions in the slightest, including Halsin himself, and rewriting them to a point where it does would require infinite time and effort, and likely ruin their actual romance in the process. Considering how incomplete some romances already feel in act 3, if they were to do anything, they'd be better off spending their time working on their actual romance while giving Halsin a fitting mono romance that doesn't require complete rewrites or character assassination of other companions and he himself. Not this out of character side story arc they've thrown in for them at random that at the moment is thankfully all but fleshed out (less than 5 minutes of dialogue with no consequences removes it about as far from canon as it can be).

Uh, no, that would not solve the issue. That's like saying the answer to less than ideal queer rep is to make the character straight instead. You said it yourself- the other seven characters are primarily monogamous. If monogamy is so important to you, you can romance them instead of taking away the ONLY representation poly people have.


This has nothing to do with wanting Halsin to conform with traditional values, so no, rewriting his romance wouldn't fix this. I want Halsin's trauma to be acknowledged, not for him to abandon the values he grew up with.

On second thought, I've changed my mind- I now want EVERY character to be open to poly with Halsin and all of them to live together in a giant polycule in the epilogue.

Let's not start this. People are more than welcome to express they are happy to retain Halsin as a character who prefers open or poly relationships without those who have already made their views clear multiple times jumping in just to repeat their preference yet again, let alone to appear to try to claim - again - that their particular take has somehow a more objective grounding than others'. Everyone is entitled to hold and express their own views and preferences, but everyone should equally recognise when they've made themselves amply clear and accept that others are still going to disagree and that is fine, and it's just going to send us round in circles if they pipe up to let us know they still think the same thing every time someone expresses a different view.

Not at all, but first of he's not even poly right now. Secondly, poly wouldn't make sense if there's no one to be poly with. You're asking to have a mono path for him as well, but what's the difference if there's nobody else in the relationship anyway? And the second you add another companion, you'd be adding a mono companion into a poly relationship. Which wouldn't make sense, but it's what they tried right now.

And rewriting other companions to suddenly be okay with it would take too much time and effort. The only logical conclusion with their current romance arcs is that you bully them into accepting it. Choices are positive, but these choices need to make sense. If, for example, Halsin would work perfectly fine in an evil playthrough because 'suddenly' he cares about Goblins and hates Tieflings and the Druids just because you sided with the Goblins, that'd make no sense for his character. That's exactly what they tried here, but for romance instead.



I said that because close to nothing in his act 3 romance arc currently works out the way people want it to. This is included.


And you are completely free to have that opinion.

Sorry, double post. Forums having a stroke.

Just a quick reminder.

@Bigli, there is no reason for you to remind folk how to ignore users if noone has asked. In this context it looks like an underhanded way of saying that someone's views aren't worth listening to, which would be rude.

There are a number of people now contributing here who were instrumental in getting a previous Shadowheart thread locked for repetitive posting that failed to show sensitivity to the fact these topics impinge on very personal aspects of people's real lives, and apparent unwillingness respect others' right to express and hold views other than their own. I do not want that to happen to this thread and consider there has already been enough warning, so if I start to get the vibe that people are starting up here again what happened with the Shadowheart thread, I'm probably going to move fairly swiftly to handing out some timeouts.

I know this might seem like a bit of an overreaction to some fairly mild posting here, but my patience hasn't had time yet to fully replenish and I'm still a bit frustrated at how much moderator time and attention a few topics and posters have consumed despite multiple attempts to clarify the forum standards.

So, let me get this straight. You want every character to be poly, even the ones that are written as monogamous, but it's not ok for anyone to want a poly character to be monogamous? Alrighty, then.

I personally read it as a joking overreaction, illustrating why the original request was felt to be equally unreasonable.

Come on, folks. Let's recognise when a bit of joking hyperbole is actually understandable and, in context, a friendly way of responding to a post that I had felt warranted my intervening as a moderator. And given I had already intervened, let's also now move on.

EDIT: In other words, I read the post in the same way as Estelindis, who was posting while I was drafting my response.

Yes, it was a joking hyperbole. Thank you both for understanding it, and thank you RedQueen for moving the thread along.