I avoided this thread because I didn't like the title but I see some good posts so here goes --

I'm with @abits on this one. There is a difference between disliking a character and thinking the writing is bad. I don't like Gale, he's manipulative, he mansplains, and I think he's a phony. He's Anomen + Yoshimo. Like Yoshimo he's superficially charming but I think he's hiding his real motives and will sell us out the Raphael. Still, the fact that he annoys me tells me that I think of him as a person and that tells me he's well written.

Now, like others, I want some friendly companions of both genders. Where is Imoen, my best friend who always had my back? Where is Mazzy, the eternally optimistic Joan of Arc character?

But what I don't want is to change Shadowheart into Aerie. With Patch 3 there is a disconnect between SH words and her facial expressions. SH gets the tension of the situation: we need to think about our own needs, we have a timebomb our head -- in just few short days we are going to have tentacles exploding from our mouths. We have time to help others, why, exactly? Yet, despite those words, she is walking around with slight smile on her face. It's like she's been possessed by Aerie.

The BG2 logo had multiple meanings -- it was about alignment, the battle of good and evil, about the struggle between the drow and surface elves and it was about your companions. The golden feathered headdress of an avariel (with a hamster tucked in) and the cowl of a drow. Viconia and Aerie were designed to be polar opposites -- one NPC was moody and often insulted the party; in a romance Viconia initially resisted all attempts at intimacy but, in a classic tsundre move we find that her exterior hides a gooey center. Aerie, on the other hand, was all sugar and spice quick with the compliment and ready to commit and have children with the first man she ever slept with.

BG3 has replicated the battle of light and dark but instead of surface elves and drow we have Shar and Selune. Shadowheart is Viconia and we need to have an "Aerie" to balance her out. But we shouldn't try to make SH into Aerie.

The line about seeing promise in the relationship should only come near the end of the game where SH has either renounced Shar or persuaded Tav to join the dark choir. Shar doesn't want he followers to see promise in a relationship or to look to new horizons. Shar wants her followers to nurse their resentments and cling only to the hope that they will one day experience the eternal darkness of the spotless mind.

Clearly the people who disliked SH aren't happy with the changes so I really hope they revert to personality 1.0