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

We're on the story & companion forum, it's fine to have a different opinion, but 2 lines of text usually doesn't make for a very compelling argument. There's a reason court cases aren't half a page long.

I can write and express my opinion, it's a story forum and his story is important to me.

I don't think Seho is a troll. Even so, there are many different issues to be had with the current state of the romance and people will complain in, well, the one and only thread for it.

I've already written so much and I don't want to keep repeating myself. I'm tired, Larian I hope that's all I can do.

I could cry, really.

I think you guys need to take a breather. Stop tying yourselves to fictional characters to such a degree that you find any criticism or disagreement of how they are as a personal attack.

Agree to disagree and move on.

I don't like him either and there's a part of me that wishes they didn't make him a companion. But since that's not going to happen I think we need some sort of compromise.

I see the biggest issues with Halsin being him obstructing the romances with SH and Astarion and his romance ending. The writing just doesn't make sense as it stands now. They're out of character, it's frustrating.

I would delete all of the Astarion and SH stuff with Halsin because neither of them would be interested in that, especially not in the state they're in. As for the romance ending, I don't know because Im not going to romance him. Any suggestions?

Yes, there are 20 pages of sentences if you cut out repetitions.

The suggestion wasn't bad, his substance should remain. I wrote it was ok, but nothing happened.

Good night, it's night here (Germany)

You just said 10 minutes there was nothing wrong with it and nothing needs to change. Your suggestion is to leave nothing changed yes?

I'm tired, no, Cowoline's suggestion isn't bad, he can stay as he is and yet we trick him.
The end of the romance isn't good for me either.

English is not my native language, I would prefer to keep it short, I'm really not a troll.

I understand. That makes sense why you would want to keep your answers short. Goodnight.

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.

If (considerable *if*) Astarion's romance isn't meant to be uncomfortable when combined with Halsin's, that could use work. The romance triggers altogether can use work. Even a simple combined fix of better epilogues and getting to go with Halsin would improve the experience a lot. This is about as far as I can stretch my expectations, along with maybe a few more scenes.

What is with you people and acting like Larian and the writers can do no wrong?
You ever heard of death of the author? Just because he wrote the character doesn't mean things aren't open to interpretation. And plenty of fucking people thought Shadowheart's romance, especially Selune route, was something special and monogamous between the two of you so to see her do a compelete 180 for ONLY Halsin who she just happens to share a writer with is awfully fucking suspicious.

I disagree. People see patterns and can spot inconsistencies. While I think some of the criticism here is overly harsh toward Halsin's writer, the writing certainly isn't above criticism. We know Halsin didn't get as much development time, and it shows. As a writer myself, I know editing and constructive feedback is really important and takes time. I doubt the writer really had much time to go through that process, leading us to Halsin being complained about. Of course, I recognize it's more difficult to edit when voice acting/mocap etc. is also being done at various stages of development.

She never shows any interest in Halsin ever the whole first 2 acts and he's in your camp for most of it. She makes no comments about his looks or anything.

In act 2, she does however roll her eyes, looking annoyed, say he's taking up too much space in camp. And then there's all of the nasty stuff she says to him in gauntlet of shar.

Her suddenly showing attraction to him in act 3 is convenient for his sudden poly preference.

Death of the author is a horrendous approach when giving feedback to said author. The intentions involved here make or break the fact that this is supposed to be a romance, and not a fling. The intentions involved make or break the arguments around SH and Astarion. You cannot death of the author yourself through this in any meaningful fashion.

Oh, it is convenient. It is even poorly written. Yet, is it out of character for SH to consider such a relationship? That is unknowable. The author will always have the last word.

SH is not a good example, she has had both in her life and she is not 350 years old and apparently only went in one direction.
Halsin can stay as he is, but thanks to our oratory skills we persuade him to enter into a relationship and who knows what the future will bring, headcanon.
This works with just a few dialogues, nothing more needs to be done, no rewriting and still a relationship.
So I'm out too, ciao.

That's why tools like foreshadowing are so handy. From what we see about SH in the first 2 acts is the opposite of what the author is trying to sell in the third. She breaks up with you if you even kiss another companion, that is in line with monogamy. So doing the opposite of that breaks believability.

Please, in first 2 acts Shadowheart states that she doesn't want to share Tav, and even breaks relationship if you even kiss another character, sudenly in act 3 she is open to sharing and orgies with Halsin, please tell me how is it good writing.

Also they chose 2 most (emotionally) broken characters in the camp, so Halsin can prey on someone, i would assume after everything that happens to Astarion and Shadowheart they would need stable relationship, but no apparently they need orgies to heal.

Also this: