I don't like using "virtue signal", I find it very seldom leads to a good discussion. And I'm not convinced that this was a "oh, let's make a gay couple" thing (could be wrong though)
I will say however, that they focused a 'bit' much on the 'Now we are going to have sexy sex, you know, because we're together, we're both female, you know, lesbians. Did we mention that we're having sex?' It was lacking in any sort of subtlety. That said, this is Larian, are we honestly expecting any sort of nuanced writing from them? I'm not. That's why I didn't mind it, it was on par with all the other silly writing Larian does.
I think what you�ve written is my main problem. I don�t have a problem with a lesbian relationship as the centrepiece of the final sequence in Act 2. I�m bothered at how poorly written it is and how it is representative of all the other problems with Larian�s writing.
In theory, Aylin and Isobel are two parts of the tripartite tragedy of the Thorm family. This tragedy is about a loving family whose daughter falls in love with a demigod and then experiences a premature (and annoyingly unknown) demise with her mother. The father, in his grief, seeks apparent vengeance for this death from one particular god, while Aylin� just watches I guess. Then he is defeated and seeks to return what he lost before he turned to the first god from a completely different god (what was the point of the first god again?) who offers his daughter back in exchange for his soul. At some point during this process he imprisons his daughter�s lover for immortality, when he apparently used to have a problem with immortality (or was that just a poorly conceived stand-in for the big bad dad not approving of his daughters relationship). Then when he finally gets his daughter back, she sees how every piece of him that he traded away has left her father a monstrous husk and flees. Finally, Aylin is set free and you end the tragedy once and for all.
In practice: Aylin refuses to let you talk Ketheric into redemption, when you can nearly do it several times, and he still carries the note from Isobel on his body. Then when you and Aylin kill Ketheric and reunite her with Isobel, ALL THEY TALK ABOUT IS HOW MUCH THEYRE GOING TO FUCK. THAT�S IT. IT IS SUCH AN AMATEUR SCRIPT WITH THE MOST ADOLESCENT TAKE ON EVERYTHING YOU, THE PLAYER, KNOW.
The basic ingredients of a compelling tragedy and romance are all there. It could have been brilliant. Instead, it is squandered by a script ripped straight from young adult fanfiction.
