narratively it's already a little hard to take halsin leaving the grove seriously- the ARCH DRUID gets captured by some goblins, even though he can turn into a bear and shit, which is already like... okay I guess. I don't care THAT much but I wasn't expecting a bear and some big giant wood elf to be the helpless captured druid we're after
so I rescue him obviously, understanding immediately that the bear is supposed to be this halsin character, and eventually he decides to roll with the gang. oh, a companion? no, he's just chilling at the camp... alright i guess, volo is here too, weird that volo doesn't get his own tent though. either way i dont have a problem with it
but then not only is he taking a vacation from the grove, by the end of the act he's totally ready to roll out with us. really? mister archdruid is just leaving his whole guild? well, he wasn't ready to be an archdruid, and i guess most companions already have some pretty questionable acts going on, so whatever. cool, a druid companion!
oh, well, he's not actually a companion? he's still just a guy chilling in our camp? i guess his story isn't over yet but it feels weird at this point since the other camp visitors have all moved out. but that's fine, as an avid video-gamer i understand that he probably has some stuff to do in the sections we're going to... well, not the underdark, and not the mountain pass, but he seems to know some stuff about the shadow lands and moonrise towers, so clearly that's his role in the story- to offer us some guidance in act 2. still feels weird that he isn't a companion but i guess he's just a quest giver
and eventually, he is! i do the stuff with the shadow kid, thaniel wakes up, halsin is chilling with his buddy, i do the super cool portal defense quest... oh, NOW he's a companion?
wow, this guy seems to have a lot baked into him. he gets to be an act 1 supporting character, act 2 questgiver, and then join the party? man, i wonder what he's got going on in act 3.
wait, why is this guy even following us? i can understand him not wanting to stay at the grove, but he seems to have a lot of ties to this place. he doesn't wanna stick around to see the shadow lands get cured and stuff? seemed like it really mattered to him. and his buddy that he cared so much about is just cool with staying here too? i mean, even isobel and dame aylin are coming with us for whatever reason, but they aren't companions
him not having a tadpole of his own made me question why he was coming with us at all at that point, him staying behind in act 2 is the narratively satisfying conclusion. and then i was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, like well if he's joining us NOW he clearly has more stuff to do.... oh my god, jaheria is a companion too? wait, why are we even getting halsin now when he's getting immediately overshadowed by JAHERIA? why would i never pick halsin over j-dog like that?
just for me to get to act 3 and find out... he DOESN'T have anything else going on. we do all his quests BEFORE we recruit him. meanwhile, the rest of my companions are incredibly interactive in act 3 and have so much going on. WHY would i ever pick halsin over aastarion, wyll, shadowheart, laezel, literally any other companion with ties to baldurs gate? halsin by the time he joins me is just HERE. he's a background character that got plussed into being a companion for pretty much nothing.
i wouldnt question it as much if they did some super simple stuff. why didn't get somehow run into getting a tadpole at the goblin camp? give him a REAL reason for staying with us. him being the only non-tadpole'd character traveling with us at that time just feels wonky. at least then i wouldn't question him wanting to leave act 2 after we do all of his shit for him. and there's pretty much no reason to not let him be an actual companion through act 2 and have him stay beside the bed at the inn until we do his quest- there are other times where you pretty much totally lose control of an NPC already, like laezel running down to say hi to the dragon guy
he doesn't have a tadpole, his reasons for leaving the grove are questionable, he doesn't have a reason to leave act 2, he's immediately overshadowed by JAHERIA, and you recruit him after you do all of his quests. which feels totally, completely backwards.
this isn't like minsc, this isn't some bonus character you happen to get along the way, he's an important NPC for 2 acts and an unreactive companion in the 3rd. it feels completely hamfisted, and after learning that the writer for halsin is shadowfart's writer, i could clearly see that this guy liked to play favorites with his characters, considering shadowfart is the real main character of the story in the first place and has an entire act that feels like it's dedicated to her
it smells like he couldn't handle his favorite little blorbo not getting as much attention as everyone else. promoting halsin to the role of a companion was a mistake on multiple fronts and he isn't well adjusted to the rest of the game at all. and that's even looking beyond some of the stuff the other threads are saying about him- my BIGGEST issue with this guy is that, narratively, he's all over the place and doesn't make sense. his traumatic drow-slave backstory is relegated to a one-off line treated like a joke, the game gives you beastiality and says it's okay because he's shapeshifted (as if having sex with an animal with the brain of a human changes the fact that you're still having sex with the body of an actual animal), there's the disapproval from him and shadowheart if you don't want him involved in the relationship, he still flirts with the characters even if you try to be in a monogomous relationship, and the absolute worst thing is that, narratively, he makes no sense at all.
even on top of the other issues it's a very questionable way of introducing a polyamory option in your game, even more so considering the entire cast is otherwise playersexual but their own flexibility with their relationships are stagnant, and ONLY change when halsin is involved- shadowheart and halsin, or aastarion and halsin. but no aastarion and shadowheart. what's going on there? so weird
when orin showed up and told me she kidnapped halsin, it meant pretty much nothing to me. i never had any reason to use this guy and i feel like a lot of the awful writing that went into halsin is overlooked because ooooh big daddy elf fuckmeat or something. as if a character being attractive makes us capable of overlooking everything that's actually wrong with them.
i cannot help but question the writing, specifically the person who wrote shadowfart and halsin. just seems like the wrong steps were taken with halsin as a character every single step of the way. guy has the depth of a puddle, and has nothing left by the time you actually recruit him. it's just bad
imagine if all that time they spent hamfisting halsin to a companion role was spent ironing out minthara lol
