This is such an incisive comment. "Subverting expectations" is so boring and lazy. Gifted writers can make a take a vanilla character and give it subtlety and nuance. CRPGs currently make you travel with a freak show that confuses wackiness with interesting. Just give me one normal person like Alistair from DAO or Ashley from Mass Effect. If anything, companions should be archetypal to allow the PC to explore all the various character possibilities.
I will continuously point to Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous. A lot of the companions are kinda freak shows on a surface level, but they're written extremely well, and you still get to steer their development in ways similar to your ability to harden Alistair and Leliana in DAO. That game has legit changed how I view party member writing in every other game. Best set of party members in all of gaming thus far, and I cannot wait for everyone to see for themselves once the game fully launches in about 2 and a half months from now.
One major example: You know how in most games, party members don't even bring up the topic of their family and their current relationship to them? Most of the WotR companions do, to the point where you actually get to meet some of the family members throughout the game. There's a subtle underlying theme among them all about what each of them thinks about the concept of family.
Even one of the evil companions is revealed to have a lot of depth when you have the option to talk to him about his mother, in a way that highly implies that his extended family treats him as a curious oddity or a burden due to his equally noble status among them (and more astute players will put a lot of pieces about him together from this statement, he and the hellknight are probably the most well-regarded evil companions I've ever seen judging from beta feedback thus far).
There's one other party member who is literally working as an assassin as his primary means of income for his own family, and he maintains a professional stance on his career instead of treating it like something to be ashamed of, or something to enjoy. He's probably the most 'normal' party member you get in that game from a personality standpoint.
