Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Halsin Romance, Expectations and Obligatory Poly

I'm not convinced you're reading what anyone says and not just ranting at random people.

Yes. Everything about her romance points to her wanting you and only you.

What about this entire conversation makes you think she wants a polyamorous relationship?
Or when she tells you with a smile about telling bedtime tales to future children?
Or her father telling you your relationship reminds him of him and her mother when they first met? Who by all accounts are monogamous together.

I could post more examples but you get the point.
Yes I know, Halsin thread but Halsin is the reason her romance has been ruined for so many people with this god awful bait and switch only because they share the same author. You cannot convince me her willingness to open up the relationship for ONLY him is not just some degenerate fantasy this author wanted to put in the game for himself with this self-insert.

Sorry, you wrote "I don't think it's a strong argument for us to tell the writer his characters are not ... in character. I'm not bothered by someone like SH making an exception for someone she finds personally attractive."

So i am giving you some examples how out of character they act.

No, they're not wrong. Given SH and Astarions situations it makes sense they would be in a very vulnerable state. Stability tends to be the best medicine during times like that, not orgies.

It is not unknowable, though, because it is not the first time the conversation happens.

You can have this exact conversation regarding EVERY other companion in act 2. Shadowheart shows she is attracted to Karlach throughout the entirety of the game up to that point. Karlach is the perfect partner for a poly relationship since she's a ticking time bomb and thus won't possibly be harm to a lasting relationship because unless she's fixed there couldn't be one. Yet, she doesn't want it with Karlach. Or any of the other 4, for that matter.

There is absolutely no reason for her to do a 180 with Halsin then, who she has shown no prior interest in, while knowing that she has also, on at least 5 occasions, shown no interest in a poly relationship. And this is all in mind that she also has not actually had sex with the PC, which makes her willingness to share something she hasn't even had yet even less likely. The drow twins - as much as I dislike that interaction too - proves this as well. She is not willing to share you there, not until your first time.

So she has had 5 occasions to accept poly before, one of which was with someone she's shown to be attracted to and is technically the perfect poly partner, and she had 1 occasion of sharing you sexually and denied it. Insert Halsin, who's only character defining trait in act 3 is someone who wants to have a poly relationship with you and your partner, and all of those points are suddenly moot.

And that's ignoring the fact that throughout act 1 and act 2 she was significantly more confident than she is by the time you get to act 3.

So no, again, it's not unknowable. It's very knowable.

It's a matter of fundamental understanding. If the writer decides SH will only wear green from now on, for literally no reason? Not out of character. If he decides she's aromantic? Not out of character. There is absolutely nothing that can be out of character. The closest concept available is "inconsistency". Even then, inconsistency requires a second person when unintentional. Someone to interpret the character, and create a derivative in their mind through it. The character in the author's mind is always the original and is hence not capable of OOC. It's a concept you find relevant in fanwork and fanfiction. Not overly complex.

Similarly, there is always one antifan about to die mad when they think the author "committed OOC". It's a one way road to madness. I'm not going there. You're invited to rage at the author, but I get flashbacks to levels of cringe otherwise unimaginable. No thank you

Very offtopic but when the hell does she ever talk about the bedtime tale for children? Never seen that dialogue.

At the start of the game you have a dialogue option that says "What do you think of all that's happened to us so far?" which then opens up to more questions. The problem is the first time you ask this it turns in "I want to talk to you about all that's happened to us so far" and you never get to ask her that again and has less options and you can only ask her how you're holding up to her estimations. If you go the entire game while not asking her "What do you think of all that's happened to us so far?" she'll say that some time into act 3 when you finally do ask her.
Probably a bug or something.

Taken from google about characters acting out of character.

[When a character acts out of character, what this really means is that the writer has failed to sustain the causal believability of his character's actions. And the result? Readers become distanced from the character, and their suspension of disbelief is, at best, endangered.]

This is what we mean when we say out of character. His writing is unbelievable in act 3 regarding SH and Halsin.

So the TL:DR is that the author can do no wrong. Thank you for your contribution. You are dismissed. Because there's no arguing against that. It's just wrong. It's the same as saying that class balance in a game is fine when one character does 1 damage and the other 2 and they have no other interactions, just because that's how it's made.

I'm back in there for a moment, I think it's funny. I don't think the author will change anything, Isn't he even the main author?
So he knows about everything and wanted to see SH and Halsin together in Act 3 at the latest, when Halsin becomes a romance.
The author seems to want this SH thing...

Oh I agree I don't think he'll change it either. Anybody with a brain can put two and two together and see that this only exists in the game because he wrote both of them and Halsin is the most blatant self-insert for an author in the history of fiction.

Cherry picked and informal definition. Because characters evolve, it is impossible to tell how their opinions may or may not change. The author will always set the limit. You're free to use it in any way you like, of course. "Writer does not understand their own character" is unfortunately the default and I have had enough of it.

I don't know who's worse, Seho or Silver/.
Both are like arguing with a brick wall who have in their mind that Larian and the writers are god's gift to video games and can do no wrong.

If anything interesting comes out of this evening, it's that I've rarely met anyone so full of themselves. You can taste the salt.

This was hilarious, considering the beginning of this thread and my general complaints. Thank you

You gave an ultimatum that can't be argued against. The author has the final say on what happens. You are completely correct on that. That doesn't mean that he can't be wrong, but you act like he can't.

I've seen many a game or series die because the authors (read: developers, screenwriters) thought they couldn't do wrong. Just look at the Witcher's netflix series. I'm not saying BG3 will die from this simple situation, of course, don't get me wrong. It won't even harm their reputation in the slightest, I'm just proving my point that if something like this - the exact same issue - happened on a larger scale, it would.

Either way, since you won't change your stance that the author can't do wrong, what's the point of arguing? You have one opinion. That opinion is, unfortunately, a flawed fact, and the only counter argument is wallets. One that I doubt anyone is planning to use. We are just here to talk about how the situation could be better, according to us. The final say will, indeed, remain with the author. No point telling us that. We know.

Folks, if you think someone is a troll, or that arguing with them is pointless, please just block them and move on. We've already had enough moderator warnings in this thread.

Yes they do evolve, gradually. There has to be something that is noted in previous actions/interactions to properly pull off such a drastic change for the audience to maintain its believability.

The author could get away with anything if you use "characters evolve" as an excuse. I mean what if SH stated acting and talking like Karlach for no reason? Oh I guess she's just evolved lol Make it make sense dude.

Why shouldn't we also talk about SH or Astarion, the matter has to do with poly and Halsin.