One small thing: Larian did try this before with The Red Prince, who did the exact same thing in DOS2. They did the exact same thing as in DOS2 where half of the LI left the main character. The very very nearly killed off half the party like they did in DOS2. And all of this was HATED and complained over again and again.

And I did The Red Prince romance, and you know what? It has NOTHING on Halsin. That romance The Red Prince is up front, but it is hated for a reason.

For all Larian listens, they also repeat the same mistakes over and over.

And if I remember correctly this was all done by the same author who wrote Halsin.

So, they had all the data they needed to know this, and the dark version of this is: They added Halsin as a romance based on player feedback, but then based him on one of the most hated romances in their previous games on purpose.