I see it exactly the same way. Shadowheart gives me the most problems (e.g. What is the role of Shar in the story?, How is Shadowheart related to K. Thorm?, What is the weapon from and for?), at the same time she is the one who is physically the most attractive to me and surely will be in the party if it really closes after Act 1. I'm already worried what would happen if I had to do serious story decisions later on. Maybe a cute male halfelf companion comes along in Act 2 and offers an alternative.
Aha! Well, thank you for finally saying it.
Let's all at least be honest, that the only reason people *want* to like SH and to *desperately* try to make her be "good"/to "redeem" her, is because she is attractive and she gets to bat those eyelashes at you. To me, Lae'zel is by far the more legitimate companion for receiving the benefit of the doubt or for "redemption" by the PC, and yet nobody cares about any of that with her. Why? Because she is not cute like SH (same argument can be made about Astarion).
