Of course it's very subjective when it comes what people like. You can be somewhat objective only if you'll make a proper statistical analysis of people preferences. If we go by coherence criteria then only 4 characters fit in the well-written category for me: Camellia, Daeran, Woljif, and Regill. Out of those only Regill is somewhat likeable.
And yet you realize Regil would be considered a bordrline psycopath in any modern society, right?. He's dutiful and analitical for sure but he's also willing to let people die if they hinder his plans or the efficency of his troops, so not exictly likeable by most people standards.
Quote
If she's so pacifistic she shouldn't have been a companion, just an NPC. Alternatively, Owlcat should have made a special rules for her in combat, where she is prohibited to use any attacks that cause direct damage, only sleep, charms, fear, dispels, buffs and similar spells.
They could have done that but then mechanically no one would have played her unless her powers were absolutely out of scale. And of course she can go all "redeem you by fire and sword" in which case such powers wouldn't really have made sense. Btw I actually find Ember to be pretty tragical as a companion given what has happened to her. She's not really a child as she's as old or older than Woljif (who used to play with her until it wasn't cool to do so and he started throwing stones at her instead...), she's elven so she's long lived but she's also physically AND mentally traumatized. I think what the authors wanted to convey with her was that there's a fine line between sainthood and insanity.
Quote
Path of redemption doesn't mean being meek, submissive, naive, or idiot. I expect her to behave like a hundreds years old wise and responsible woman who knows and understands the consequence of her actions, not as a teenage schoolgirl who blush and freak out if someone touched her hand. Imagine if someone touched kind grandma by her hand...
First, Aru is meek only if you try to redeem her. If you want to corrupt her she's not meek at all. As for your idea of her being portrayed as a wise and responsible woman... she's not a woman, she knows NOTHING about being a woman. She's demon who's trying to change her ways but doesn't exactly know how to. You see this right from the start with her: she manipulates you in going to the desnan church to hunt down the hag. She's doing this for good reasons but she acts the way she does because that's what she knows. And she freaks out if someone touches her because, being a succubus she's deathly scared she'll suck someone's soul out of their body (Desna did not remove her powers she can still do that). She only learns how to control her powers if you redeem her btw, so midgame she's not "putting herself in horny jail", she's hiding herself because she's got a well founded fear she can kill people even not wanting to.
Quote
I'm not saying that it is easy to make good believable characters, I'm saying that Owlcat mostly failed, probably they should have made less characters but give them more content and make fewer asshole companions. Another annoying thing is, by some reason, devs think that evil characters must like other evil characters. Evil characters work together only if someone powerful keeps them under the iron boot but characters despise each other even working together.
I don't think there are many asshole companions. There are companions, with their history and personality and I find it better to have some remarkable ones rather than having a lot of bland ones. Seelah for example is not obnoxius but she's terribly bland, Sosiel is not much better. I'll take Aru or Daeran over them any day of the week (well, not really, in the case of Seelah I want her in my party because I need a 2nd melee warrior and I don't want to play with mercenaries).
