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

I guess Larian decided not to change anything in Act 1 since, I think, it was already filled with events and polished. Even though I had a short conversation with him there were no hints about his personal life.
The only reason for him being polygamous/polyamorous is his race. That's it. That's the only explanation I see. He doesn't really fit for this role if you look at what we have now in game. Again, I'm ok with his preferences since it's a racial lore but (again, as many people already said) the writer decided to make Halsin a mix of several... fetishes/non standard sexual preferences (with no strict logic) which ended up badly. If Halsin was only poly, he would have nothing against "relationships', but he also has this " free love/sex/no responsibilities" ideas which, combined with his odd poly scenario, turn him into I don't even know who.

It's an interesting thought. They keep claiming the game is this good in large thanks to feedback during EA. However, if this is how feedback is received, can they still expect to get any in the future? I think most people who wanted Halsin as romance companion would've rather been ignored than have what it turned out to be now.

Unless things change they burned bridges with you lot for the sake of a few extra sales from people who likely quit in act 1 and will not buy their next product.

Or this character tells openly about their preferences. For example, Astarion is a man who flirts a lot but the more you learn about him the more you understand why exactly he acts like this and you realise he is a bad choice for poly romance.

Yes, but Halsin was just shoved in as fan service without actually doing the work. And it seems to be backfire now.

Sad part is, I doubt they're going to make any changes to him with how quiet they have been. And since the ignored it with the Red Prince.

This. I decided this a long time ago: if Halsin and the epilogues are not fixed in a reasonable time, I will not buy a Larian title again until I have read the forums and see that everything is complete and acceptable. For me the current situation is not at all acceptable, I pay for a complete and well-made game not because you remove the things that you announced weeks before and kill Halsin looking for the meme. But that's my opinion.

There are not a few of us in this thread pointing out the defects in the realization of the character. If Larian was looking for a meme that will be forgotten in a short time, if he was looking to create a memorable character it is an absolute failure. I want to believe as a software developer that they have gotten carried away by the rush to get it out quickly and the possibility of "publicity" derived from this, but that they will fix everything because nobody wants their characters to be forgettable like Halsin is right now

I would say he is worse than forgettable. He is infamous. I'll haven't seen this much dislike of a character since Anders from DA2 and Solas from DAI - and they at least had a compelling stories with fleshed out motivations.

It's like he was Alistair/Solas in the first two acts and then made a hard left turn in Isabella, but without any of the interesting parts.

Isabela was all about consens and she never forced herself on you that way tbh.

And yeah, I don't think I have seen so much hate for one character even with Anders and Solas included. maybe Skadge.

Khm, Koth 'the genocidal maniac did nothing wrong' Vortena. Nice to see a SWTOR player.

Never heard that people hate Solas. Well, maybe people who romanced him dislike him because of ending of romance (I am one of them and it was sad but at least there were reasons for such events)... Not sure. And with Anders - oh yeah, he differs much from the character we saw in Awakening (plus he has problems in one particular dialogue when you just want to be friendly but get two love options and one negative option). And yeah, what he did close to tne end of the game...
I like your comparison, Halsin really looks like a mix of Alistair and Solas (and I comepletely forgot about bald elf): wisdom, kindness, sence of humor, emotions.

Hello

I don't think Koth was that hated. He still had a consistent character at least. Quinn wouldmaybe be another example from SWTOR.

This will probably be the route they go if they ever do decide to try and fix things.

Unfortunately it doesnt work for me personally. I feel like these 2 things are what is fundamentally wrong with how they wrote Halsin and they need to do some massive rewriting in order to truely fix him.

Which is exactly my point. Better written by far, though romantically she has similarities to Halsin - or rather what they ATTEMPTED to do with Halsin.

Waves from SWTOR!

I love that game!

And yes Koth, but at least you had some agency in that shit happening. With Halsin you have nada. And that is my majot issue - they bragged about agency, used Halsin as an example of player choice... And ultimatum is NOT agency *grumbles*

I fear that too. Which isn't really a fix as much as it is "minimum effort."

From what I remember Koth had a sizable hatebase when the Valkorion expansions came out but you are right, his writing/character was at least consistent. Quinn is a good candidate tho.

The difference is that they were meant to be a bit antagonistic/disliked whereas I don't think Larian had the same intentions with Halsin. Or did they? You never know with this writer, he seems to have certain predilections when it comes to his characters that people dislike.



Oh they bragged about a lot that we didn't end up getting.

I mean I really like his writting on Shadowheart overall(aside from obvious).

Look, you can complain about Quinn all you want, but again he was also consistent in his writing. And Quinn at least has a redemption arch. Halsin is just an inconsistent mess.

And that's totally fine. I can't say the dude has no skill/talent when it comes to writing (he did manage to write some enjoyable parts of the story) but if you are paying attention you'll notice that all 3 companions that he has written have the same (how should I put this in diplomatic terms lol) 'issue' popping up. And I'm willing to put money on the table that his next one is going to have the same problem.


Oh no doubt about it. Quin has his redemption arc and is consistent (being a weasel that he is). What I meant was more in a way that he is a good candidate for being a hated companion/npc and not how he was written.

Oh, yes. Though his romance (as long as you don't romanticise it and model any real relationship after it) is actually rather adorable....

I don't have good luck with video game men. I thought Halsin was the good one /cries

Ok so can I just gush for a moment about a random thing Halsin did in my game? Or at least I think its random. Either way it kind of reinforces who I thought he was and was going to be.

So when I was fighting Marcus and his goons at the inn, Halsin was downstairs with crazy guy, so he got wrapped up in the battle like everyone at the inn. I was surprised that Halsin kind of booked it for the stairs killing who he could on the way and made his way up to the second floor where we all were fighting, even though there were other enemies downstairs he could have also helped fight. He never quite made it to us but we ended up just outside Isobel's room and he had just gotten up the stairs when the battle ended.

It really made me swoon. It was like he heard us upstairs and came running to our aid, and I thought it was so sweet.