I created a thread in their feedback channel on their discord, in case you guys want to reinforce it, it's called "Shadowheart Romance Inconsistencies" (yeah, I know, not the best title, I'm not perfect with words, but hope that will be enough). I didn't go as deep as we did here, but you could keep commenting things there, and hope for Larian to see it.
Having made the journey from one side of this debate to the other I can help explain what you need to focus on to reach people. At first glance this appears as a classic case of player entitlement, which is how I reacted at first.
You need to approach the discussion from the point of view that it's not a problem that Shadowheart views romantic attraction and sexual attraction as separate and consequently is open to the idea of casual sex and sharing. That is just a matter of personal preferences and feelings, and feelings are not facts.
But there are two big issues:
The consistency issue Here she is deeply in love with Tav, with both romantic and sexual attraction, and also dependant on Tav. Remember that it is Shadowheart that has the higher stakes in this relationship, Tav still has their life outside of the relationship with Shadowheart somewhere and plenty of interested parties looking for their affection. That Tav is the main source of stability and happiness in her life is not up to interpretation based on what she says. We have also established that she prefers to be discreet and likes to keep her cards close to her chest. Why in the nine hells would she risk everything she has with Tav by suddenly being completely blunt and upfront about something that she doesn't even know if Tav is comfortable with? If the player has already romanced Halsin, then it makes more sense and the target audience probably want something to develop between Shadowheart and Halsin here as well. But this happens regardless of whether Tav has shown any interest in Halsin or not, and even worse, even when Tav has clearly rejected Halsin.
The cringe issue Halsin's behaviour is absolutely cringey and toxic, and Shadowheart's as well in at least one instance of how it plays out. Again, if some players want a spicy consentual sex orgy with their companions, that's entirely up to them and I am not telling them how they can enjoy their game. But there is a terrible lack of consideration, communication and consent in the writing. The disapproval reactions goes against everything we are trying to achieve in our modern society around healthy sexual communication. If your partner is not comfortable with something, you should never express disappointment in them, respect and support their feelings! Is it really that f***ing hard to get these things right in a game written in 2023? They supposedly even had intimacy coordinators and editors that read everything to ensure that the player could give consent in all sexual encounters. Who the hell read this one and approved it?
