Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Shadowheart Romance and the Hidden Fetish - (Spoilers inside)

-Shadowheart, romance, kinks and character ruination-

Isn't that a juicy title!

(My apologies if the formatting is off, my first time posting on reddit.)

Now that we got that out of the way, nice of you to join me. I'll try to keep this short but do bear (ugh) with me.


Spoilers obviously!


In all honesty I've been playing this game excessively for the past month and despite my enjoyment of it the only feeling I am left with is disappointment.

I've tried it all, I've explored it all and the deeper I delve into it the more this game falls apart for me.

From the poor performance (memory leaks, frame rate drops) to the bugs (quest breaking, items disappearing, flags not being properly set) and even the big bad cut content (companions talking about events that can't happen in the game, NPCs that are not finished showing up - Alfira/Dragonborn bard etc.) my main gripe with this game has always been its writing.

As always writing and what someone enjoys has always been subjective but despite me never expecting stellar writing from video games, Baldur's Gate 3 has lead me to the point where my suspension of disbelief just isn't working anymore.

From the Emperor to the Githyanki, from Karlach to Minsc every so often you can run into some scene that make no sense and would leave you baffled. But if I were to start writing about all of it this post would never end.

So I will stick with one thing that's been irritating me to no end. Maybe I'm just mad on the internet but the audacity of the writers to put this into the game has left me laughing.

I honestly don't know what the intent behind this was. Not seeing how it would be interpreted as? Trying to be stealth like and shove their fetish into the game at the expense of a character and the players enjoyment? Or strait up malice? But whatever it is I haven't seen anyone that has discovered it like it.

And what am I talking about, what am I making so dramatic as to pull you in so you would read my post you ask. Well romance of course, Shadowhearts to be more precise.

When I play RPGs I like to role play as different characters and experience the world through their eyes and one of those character (3rd playthrough) ended up romancing Shadowheart.

From her ties to the main story to her romance everything seemed nice but unfortunately all of that fell apart because of one little companion banter popping up.

Shadowhearts story is one of self discovery and choosing how to deal with her trauma. Kidnapped from her parents at the young age the only thing she has know was abuse. Forty years of her life have been in the embrace of a jealous and uncaring goddess that she so desperately tries to impress. But despite her ties to Shar throughout her story you will find out that there is more to her than meets the eye.

If you decide to go through her romance you will experience something sweet. From heartbreak to finding love, a true fairytale romance if you want to call it that. (At least the reject Shar route) Obviously there was an idea when it came to this character and they leaned into it heavily. And that is exactly what everyone that blasted through the main romance with her ended up getting.

But underneath that sickly sweet romance hides something else. One writers poorly written fan-fiction that is entirely divorced from her story and if you accidently stumble upon it (damn youtube) you will realize how it ruins her character.

What do I speak of? Halsin, polyamory and cheating. I won't go into the whole zoo and bear thing that Larian was more than willing to brag about but even he ended up being a shallow character because of the overreliance on kink and not enough development.

If you went through Shadohearts entire story and romance you would know that she is not really keen on sharing and even if the opportunity arises for something spicier she wants the focus to be on her and the main character. And yet this is the party banter that shows up after finishing her storyline, unprompted without ever having a conversation about it or pursuing both she flirts with another companion after professing her love to the MC.



Maybe its a bug that came from all of the flags being broken and that banter was meant for a MC that is pursuing both, maybe. But seeing what other little things show up after finishing her romance lead me to think otherwise.
The famous drow twins scene that you admittedly need to go out of your way to initiate still leaves a bitter taste behind, implying that these thoughts are there even if you don't go through with it.

Despite talking about love and spending the rest of her life with the romanced MC.





Despite being portrayed as someone that is opposed and upset with the idea of opening her relationship and sharing, (which by the way happens with every single companion in the game and even if you don't romance her she tells Wyll when he flirts with her that she will not play a second fiddle to anyone).





She straight up goes into thirst mode for him to the point where the MC is being ignored, an the funniest thig about this whole situation isn't even the fact that both Shadoheart and Halsin share the same writer is that if you reject Halsin, Shadowheart disaproves.







I'm sorry but I can't look at this scene and the sharing/poly conversation where Shadowheart is down to opening the relationship with Halsin (again despite rejecting everyone else and talking about not wanting to share and be your spare lover) as nothing more than some writers self insert/fetish. Halsin is obviously a writers pet and for some reason characters that were established a certain way should change so he can get the fan-fiction that he wants. (Even Astarion that doesn't feel comfortable with sharing is okay with Halsin)

Even better is the fact that the drow and poly scenes are divorced from the rest of these companions stories to the point that the game still treats it as if it never happened. So it does feel shoved in.

This is a perfect example of one writers idea ignoring the focus of any video game and who or what is meant to be the focus. (the player)

Even if someone wants to bring up the Mizora scene and Shadowhearts past about her being mind wiped every week and encouraged to have fleeting relationships/casual sex with other acolytes (which is another discussion about abuse and tricking an amnesiac) she still isn't into sharing/open relationships and is mad you didn't ask. Open relationships/poly =/= hook ups.



[img]https://i.postimg.cc/SKkXyBbX/9.png[/img]

So no I don't want to go through a whole game where a character is portrayed one way but as soon as you finish their story suddenly the writers cuck fetish rears its head and contradicts everything the character had said up to that point.

If they really wanted that option they had the perfect opportunity with the dark Shadowheart (embrace Shar). Because at least in that version it makes sense seeing how Shadowheart fully commits to Shar and Sharan way of life, no commitments/quick pleasurers of the flesh and cheating.

And its not even a Shadowheart thing, if it was any other companion I would have the same reaction. Because believe it or not I don't like it, like I don't like many other things in this game that make no sense. Like that Astarions ending scene being played up for laughs. Yeah he's burning in the sun, way to ruin the moment.

How would people feel if Alistair after romancing him went onto flirt with Morrigan, disapproving if you don't allow him to have a threesome with her and talk about how he really wanted her and he's been thirsting/dreaming about her while ignoring the MC. I don't think many people would've been happy with that.

What about Judy from Cyberpunk having a quick phone call at the end of her romance where she tells Maiko how she really wants her.

Regardless of you gender, race or sexual orientation I would say that the majority of people playing videogames are not looking for a surprise cuck option but a power fantasy (at least in some shape or form).

If you wanted to write a character that focuses on cheating and betrayal or even a properly written poly relationship why not do it? Why opt for trickery and hide it. People had no issues with Isabela from Dragon Age 2 because there were no hidden scenes and you knew what you were getting with her.

Either way I'm honestly getting tired of it and just want to enjoy video games. Hope they remedy that shit alongside other problems this game has when the Definitive Edition comes.

Thanks for reading my rant I guess