A third of people who participate in romances are romancing Shadowheart. This is Larian's own data. So again, please do not assume the loudest voices in the room is equivalent to the majority.
The thing is Shadowheart is obviously the default romance for male characters and we've already seen the average player is a human male fighter. That she only managed to net 31% of players is seriously weird. It's an open goal, no-one else is even on the pitch yet she's still managing to miss more than half the shots. Even if you assume the male female split is 51/49 Shadowheart should still be the breakout most popular choice. The dudebros have spoken and they are not impressed.
Originally Posted by AvatarOfSHODAN
Again, the game is designed for people to have different takeaways of these characters, and its within your right to dislike them, but clinging to first impressions doesn't mean they are poorly written. There is so much content in the game in regards to the characters that you are guaranteed to miss something. The order you talk to them changes how much they say, who you have recruited changes what they might say, how often you camp, how you resolve certain quest lines, who you have in your active party, etc.
I'm not sure what alternative takeaway there really is to have of Lae'zel. Bag of angry rats on the outside, bag of insecure angry rats on the inside is about as deep as she seems to get. Shadowheart has the kind of depth an angsty teen might make their first character
She's a priest of Lathander who thinks she's a priest of Shar and pretending to be a priest of someone else but she hasn't really put any thought into who.
but I'm not sure how you spin that in a good light.
