This is a WILD take about a game where character development and possible interactions are so heavily affected by choice up to and including not recruiting any of them at all. Canon in a game like this, until established by a sequel further defining it, (or maybe it won't as some sequels carry choices forward) is whatever you choose and run in to.
Not as wild as you make it out to be considering it has absolutely no consequences and thus isn't actually part of her character development whatsoever. It's only mentioned then, never before (read below) and never again, and her dialogue for the rest of the game doesn't change whatsoever.
Originally Posted by Auric
And as I mentioned in both of my previous posts, Shadowheart absolutely can make more than one implication. The first one is played a little closer to the chest if you suggest a quick fling because it's much earlier during some of your first rests, and one is a lot more open because you've already established the relationship by that point. You can choose not to read the first one as her being familiar with casual sex, but the latter if you decide to indulge with Mizora should in hindsight further the implication of it in the first one. In my opinion this is actually pretty solid writing.
The first one doesn't imply any of it. This is literally how it goes:
Shadowheart: Finally, some good furtune. Come morning, we know what to do. Shadowheart: The sooner we find this 'Priestess Gut', the better. I can't wait to get this thing out of my head. Tav: You know, this could be our last night together. Shadowheart: I hadn't thought of that. What do you have in mind? Tav: We could find somewhere discreet right now... away from the camp. Shadowheart: Hmmm... Brambles on bare skin aren't as fun in practice, I'm afraid. Shadowheart: Besides, I can't afford to tire you out - we still have work to do. Rest well.
All she does is shut your suggestion down. And that's with the knowledge that she even likes you. Unless you're referring to one that only happens if you have low approval, where you can say that you're fine with throwing all caution to the wind or something and she'll just jokingly say maybe one of these nights might get cold and she'll need company. But thanks to the power of this being a videogame, when she does invite you for one of those nights, we know that with 'company' all she means is sharing a bottle of wine, and there she also shuts your suggestion for more down. If it were encouraged, she's defying Shar in all three occasions, something she would surely not do at that point in the game.
So the Mizora scenario is still the only one, being completely optional, with no consequences, and out of character.
Originally Posted by Auric
Yeah I don't see us coming to an agreement on anything here. What's discouraged is the full romance Shadowheart continually expresses nervousness about. She at no point expresses any distaste for a casual fling other than her own personal lack of desire to initiate one with you, the player. Emphasis on the "with you." She, like a real person, is fully capable of experiencing something and just deciding it's not for her regardless of encouragement. She is equally capable of trying out something she's always wanted to give a try and changing her mind (especially once she's already committed to the actual thing she's discouraged from doing, may as well try what she can while she can). None of this is inconsistent, it's just the range of human experience and as ever circles back to that post way back on page 7 about how your choices as the player are what lead into these slight nuances of character. It shouldn't be removed, it should be made better and as part of what we disagree on, I don't think it would take much rewriting at all, rather it would take a fair amount of new additional writing. But like, mostly involving how underdeveloped all the poly stuff is, not this stuff about the cult and Mizora which are pretty much fine.
The only time you can have a sex scene with her as Dark Justiciar is when she finds an excuse to do so. It's not meant as a romantic scene. You then get another one in the epilogue, she calls both an exception, and she breaks up with you even in a casual sense.
Earlier in the game she also says that intimacy under Shar was looked down upon and they had to find excuses or do it in secrecy. I do not remember exactly where and when, however this does perfectly fit the fact that she 1. doesn't do it in act 1 or act 2. 2. doesn't do it in act 3 without an elaborate excuse, despite wanting it. 3. Her relationship with Nocturne was no more than platonic, despite being the only person there she got along with. 4. The only memories she has when you enter the House of Grief are related to her having lessons about torturing and infiltration.
So yes, it does require rewriting in addition to more dialogue hinting at it. And it'd require all this to go in a direction people don't seem to want in the first place; not the ones that like Halsin and not the ones that like Shadowheart.
