The "normal" of romances in RPGs seem to be a relationship where your NPC lover needs someone to lean to(at best being just socially awkward), or is in outright need of a savior/therapy, which IMO makes most RPG romances unethical or taxing relationships with lopsided power dynamics. Basically the uneven standard power dynamic is as follows: your companions are kinda doomed without your influence(or incredibly malleable by you) in their lives, while the PC can manage even without them.
I'd be happy with even one "easy" companion(romantic or otherwise) to whom having a relationship with doesn't feel like you're committing to suicidal levels of self harm by falling/caring for a literal/figurative homicidal parasite, or by becoming a 'parental figure'/psychotherapist and/or lover to someone in need of rescuing. Of the current characters only Lae'zel is (barely) passable in this regard.
Though I get the feeling Lae'zel is punished on a narrative level for so strongly voicing her viewpoint on how the group should resolve their predicament(hell, she's even given her her very own little "airship" she can ineffectively shout commands from after bossing us on the nautiloid), by being the companion most in need of rescuing/handling in cutscenes/events. It's also quite possible the caring she needs in act 1 is only a prelude to even more dependant relationship in later chapters. Given her hatred for the mind flayers, her persona and general harshness of giths, It wouldn't suprise me if she needed player guidance to stop her from suiciding, when we eventually reach the gith creche.
(In regard to previous comment about Lae'zel being hard to please, I don't think there's any mystery to pleasing her. I mean she's quite vocal about her desires and beliefs: Just don't be the savior of the weak who don't matter to her, don't submit to... well anyone else besides her, or side with the people she hates, don't treat her as a lesser being by impeding her or speaking for her, don't back down from fights and don't question the general awesomeness of the gith and their absolute nonsen... knowledge, or her personal superior prowess at everything.)
And then there's Shadowheart...
...while she seems sort of independent in a backstabby, sociopathic way, she just comes off as unwittingly suicidal due to her Shar worship coupled with her amateurish intrigue skills, her overwhelming need to love and be loved/accepted by others and the self-destructive nature of this love. Its especially sad to witness her affirming her misguided and self-harming, love/worship to Shar, whose love takes the form of unmaking, forgetting, erasing and exploiting others. Basically Shadowheart seems like a Viconia 2.0: unwittingly heading for the communal bonfire reserved for the pathological/evil scapegoats of society. While I suppose I can relate to Shadowheart, basically romancing her feels like you'll be charged with handling her on so many levels its just plain evil: Like you're taking on, not only the role of a lover, but also that of a psychotherapist/mentor/mother/father trying to teach her a less suicidal way to exist. But who knows, maybe the persona she is feeding us is "just" a lie and she is not so vulnerable she seems. I doubt it though.
