I also love that the companions are sort of thrust together because of their shared dilemma and wouldn’t normally be friends. It makes it really interesting to see the way their personalities and opinions are at odds with each other and I’m looking forward to seeing how their relationships develop. If you were reading this as a novel, you wouldn’t want all the characters to get along all the time, that would be boring.
Right? Like a found-family held at gunpoint.
Sublime take on a trope
Maybe this will improve on full release, but so far there isn't really a lot of them being at odds with each other, not beyond superficial stuff anyway. Like aside from Lae'zel and Shadowheart, and Lae'zel and everyone else, the group gets along quite well and are overall quite civil with each other. No one makes any sort of deal about Astarion being a vampire or Shadowheart being a Sharran. They pretty much do all get along aside from a the occasional minor point friction/disagreement. Really, there are no interesting bonds or connections in the group, positive or negative.
And on the subject of "if this were a book" I think a lot of people taking issue with the companions don't view the game as reading a book, a detached activity. They view it as coming to a gaming table with other players, and their frustration comes from being stuck with people who are "disrupting" the good time they come to the game to have.
