Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Problems with Halsin's character, advances, LI and general character interactions, etc.

Can't speak for Astarion. But Shadowheart does care for sure 1 way or another(how you look at it). Telling Tav to "not forget about her" is a bit icky while calling Mizora "inferior goods"(there is more to this of course, but there 2 things are the most obvious anyway).

It really seems to have been a bug in my first game. Now Yenna and Grub are happy, Halsin has found his true purpose and fate spins along.

Just checked; the dev note says she is unthreatened at the "inferior goods" line.

I feel like the game wants to players to read into dialogue and situations and have their own interpretation. The Emperor is a great example of this. So I don't think anyone's interpretation is wrong; the dev notes are just what the devs (apparently) intended based on their instructions to the voice actors.

Unthreatened=/=everything is ok. As Astarion says, Mizora is a cambion, she hardly can fall in love or smth like this. Shadowheart obviously is not threatened by this yes, but whole dialogue and situation is not ok and lines like "inferior goods", "swan", "don't forget about me", "justification with sharran upbringing(on selune route is xd)" kinda give it away for me.
But anyway you can read it as: She is not okay because you didn't ask(which is obvious and thats a cheat afterall) or She is not okay overall(with cheating or you sleeping with Mizora).

Devnotes is not everything on a side note. I think in the first kiss scene with Shadowheart there is the dev note saying that she is worried if sharran curse hurted you or not, however an author confirmed that she bit there(yes, she bites).

I need to see the dev notes, because some of that sounds wack. I hope I don't see that Karlach was somehow secretly okay with the Mizora scene.

Checking out the dev notes can be quite enjoyable as they provide an additional layer of content. However, I can't help but think that if the players' interpretations of scenes are so far removed from the intended effect that they require the dev notes, then perhaps the writing may not be the strongest.

Not my work, and almost certainly not the only source. It can be difficult to find what you are looking for.

I mean...

Astarion as companion: being close to someone brings up feelings of disgust and loathing.
Narrator in Astarion's origin: the sun on you skin feels like a caress of a lover.

Strays, flings were forbidden but also encouraged. (C) Shadowheart
I don't want to be your spare lover...until act 3 of course. (C) Shadowheart
I like to watch Tav getting beat up by the priest(leading to some believing that I am a freak and like BDSM), but also if I hire 1 drow twin(girl), I ll tell her that I had enough pain in my life and I don't want any pain anymore. (C) Shadowheart

Just from the top of my head.

Astarion can go get beat up by that priest and not have a single little thought of all the beatings he's lived through in the past 200 years.

The writing may indeed not be the strongest.

The frequency with which they forget the Netherese Orb:

Astarion gets poisoned when drinking from Origin-Gale during bite night. The next morning, you can still offer Astarion a nightly nibble. However, when it's time to talk about who tastes how, Astarion has a modified line about how the taste of Gale's blood has put him off the wizard's neck.

Aunty Ethel complains at length about the netherese magic around the tadpole, that the whole wizard is full of the stuff, is not worth a mention. Same with Omeluum, you'd think he notices that there is a connection or that it in some way influences his potion.

Consistency is not their strongest suite.

I don't mind a few inconsistencies here and there, especially when they occur between acts (the characters' develop). However, the sex scenes in Act 3 seem a bit out of place in terms of how the characters were written and where they are in the last act. Although I'm okay with the horny content, they give off the feeling of "we wanted to include these in the game, but couldn't find a good way to integrate it into the romance paths".

Alright, if we're really going there, here's my favorite one. Act 2 Durge thing with Astarion.

Our buttler: he's so afraid, so so afraid, of everyone except you.
Narrator immediately after: your companion sleeps without a fear in the world.

As a straight man wanted to romance a straight woman as a real world not like that. The poly and open relationshit is cucking disgusting stuff there is no real man would ever wants his girl to be with someone else or any thing such as what some abnormal people prefer called 4some or 3some or any kind of the weird shit that cuckold human might enjoyed and the dialogue about someone else other then her main character who doing eveything to help her in the game to make sure she is safe and secure from the past she left does not make any sense. they made her act like a whore. she must refuse that kind of thing then after all of it. like this how she repay him back that was. Its cheating its just a disgusting thing. we getting tired from these perverts keep ruined the games with their ideas its all become propaganda and fetishes.

But of course after all its a game a shit game.

I would chill a little bit, however I will say that Larian had definitely done a shit job of implementing this type of content beyond just getting the attention of the sex obsessed. Clearly it worked, and it got people talking. There was no real point to it at all besides marketing. Even the dev notes relating to stuff like cheating with Mizora probably exist to make the horny players feel less garbage about what they did if they romanced the most popular companions (It feels to me that they're basically trying to tell you that 1+1=1000). I wouldn't say that this one bit ruins the game to the point that it's garbage, I mean is the game overrated? Possibly, but this doesn't completely ruin it. Just shows that a certain writer's companion(s) are to be avoided like the plague because he can't control himself.

Well if we exclude her stupid Halsin behaviour in 2 instances(Brothel, where it's more on Halsin being complete creep, but her reaction doesn't help either. Banter, where Halsin again shows himself as complete creep, but her reaction doesn't help either), she repays you with being ok with pretty much everything you want. I want exclusivity and she gives you that, without any words.

Hey, we're all entitled to our own opinions, but let's try to be constructive and focus on the game instead of being disparaging and attacking actual people.

But the creeping act about her still in my mind after everything i did as MC for her so disrespectful. thats just so weird. I dont like it. But even so the bear i already killed him with cold blood in the goblin camp with no mercy. Its a punishment for anyone try to cross my BOUNDARY smile . if they didnt change this on the future or making these kind of again . Ill never buy any thing from larian anymore. Such distasteful and dissatisfied experience ever. I rescue her from tadpole colony and on the Lae'zel fighting. how she become ungrateful like this ?

I agree to some extent. It's not about helping her here and there, more about her swering her "love" to MC and then you get those things shoved into your face. There are few factors.
1.) Halsin general behaviour/writing, idk what writer wanted to show with this, but he is very much problematic and not only regarding SH obviously, killing him so far is the most right thing in my mind so far.
2.) Her reactions to things outside Halsin are fine(drows/mizora), I think the intent was to make her completely playersexual(you can shape her as you wish, literally Minthara words btw).
They need to fix shit up around Halsin and everything will be much much better(you know, in some countries for that words that she says, she can be executed by stoning and it is considered pretty normal there)

There are obvious issues with Halsin, but the bigger problem is that it's not just Halsin, who is poly (and horny) but also Shadowheart and Astarion. And at no point does the game flag this information to the player. So, the player spends 80-100 hours being involved in a romance, just to learn some major information about their love interests' relationship preferences around the end of the game. And when we finally learn this information, it's through a few lines of dialogue, which really isn't the pinnacle of BG3 writing.