Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Shadowheart Romance and the Hidden Fetish - (Spoilers inside)

Wanting to be primary partner is exactly why she should accept Karlach...pragmatism in knowing Karlach will die off in a few weeks anyway.

Shadowheart wouldn't let the player follow Karlach to Avernus, but any fate less than that she should in theory be fine with. It's like taking a very temporary concubine.

Why are we talking about adding more poly options when this thread is about being blindsided by poly stuff when you thought you were getting a monogamous relationship with Shadowheart. The ability to have a monogamous relationship with her needs to be fixed before anything else.

The problem is that SH isn't ready to bed the player until Act 3 because of her Shar stuff. Karlach having to wait on SH before she can be touched would be brutal tbh.

Karlach and Lae'zel on the other hand would absolutely be compatible. It's not like Lae'zel doesn't compliment Karlach every chance she gets lol And they wouldn't have to wait on anyone.

It would be worth the wait for the player though. Of the three of them, only Shadowheart can give the player a family. Lae'zel has odd biology and lays eggs, and Karlach wouldn't survive a pregnancy in Avernus.

It's the family in the end option that makes it wise for Tav to wait. ...the other other option is the very canon Minthara actually Giving the player babies.

Yes, you're right. It was all good fun though, just hypothetical. We've already established that SH isn't interested in polyamory or casual sex anyway, canonically.

The problem isn't that Shadowheart is poly, it's that she's so very inconsistent about it. I at least want her character to flow better...it's clear Shadowheart has got some serious kinks to satisfy but only rarely reveals them.

I'm not sure about this in game necessarily but it's fun to headcanon at least

That she has kinks is certain, whether she's meant to be monogamous or not isn't so clear.

Even if she does end up monogamous she'll be first in line to tie Tav up...or be tied up given she insists on Tav making moves.

Yeah throughout this thread we've analyzed everything about SH. Her behaviors and dialogue all point to her being only interested in the player and the player only - monogamy. To be clear, that doesn't include the optional, noncanon stuff because that stuff doesn't count.

Should be a couple pages back, but there's a couple posts by Michieltjuhh that bring the receipts on this and we simply can't argue the facts.

Yeah I could see her being into some light bdsm at least, with Tav

This would be hypothetical at best because it's never implied to be the case plus she clearly states she wants you alone regardless. But then you have to remember that the Halsin proposal happens before her final romance scene and suddenly this argument is void.


That said, some minor rewriting and making Karlach an option for open relationship would be the obvious first step to fixing this inconsistent stuff in a direction where she would work as poly, though I'd argue sharing someone you haven't bedded yet is.. odd nonetheless. And then her devotion in act 3 comes out of left field instead.
Other than the Abdirak scene, when is this actually implied though? The drows? There she's out of character in the first place. And during the Abdirak scene she still has fond memories of her actions at the House of Grief, the torture she inflicted and all that, due to having been recently mind wiped into thinking so. Which is confirmed upon first meeting Raphael, and upon failing the first persuasion check in her first romance scene and some other scenarios I can't recall exactly.

At the House of Grief she starts remembering and noticing the less pleasant parts of it and is disgusted by her actions. Then Shar brings all the negative memories back. After that I can't fathom she'll look at any of those scenarios with anything more than PTSD. It'll just remind her of what she did to her parents.

Either way, that's theory. Reality is at least that she calls the epilogue night together 'perfect' and while we don't get to see what happens there, it's clear we're capable of satisfying whatever she wants.

I think minor rewriting in her conversation about Halsin proposal would do better honestly. To make her maybe less enthusiastic about it?
And again just removing Halsin/SH banter or locking it behind double romance only(Alternatively they could rewrite it of course) and tweaking Drow convo(Remove disapproval at least, rewrite scene itself to include options to avoid certain writer's fetish. Or just remove halsin self-insert if not romanced completely) would do amazing already.

She is good as she is, just Halsin stuff needs to be fixed as he is the catalyst for all this.

So long as she accepts the Halsin proposal, I consider it out of character, no matter how unhappy she would be about it. Same way I consider Astarion's version out of character for him, and he doesn't show the same enthusiasm. The second either of them agrees regardless of the tone of their voice, I'd want to be able to ask "why Halsin and not the others though?" and that would need some serious explaining that will never happen.

And yes, the banter needs removal entirely regardless unless they rewrite her to be poly from the ground up (a lot of work right there since her act 3 romance arc will no longer fit her character), and then it should be locked behind romancing both.

Her entire act1-2 needs to be rewritten to justify poly and so are Astarion's and Karlach's because they are not interested in poly either, but they will agree to include Halsin. So AGAIN its just a Halsin problem. At worst they could just specify that Halsin is not even a relationship, but just fling, casual sex source and SH/Astarion/Karlach don't feel "threatened" in their relationship with Tav. I like my Shadowheart the way she is(If I close my eyes and pretend that Halsin doesn't exist and gets fixed somehow), plus its probably way easier to fix Halsin than rewrite 3 characters to justify him, lmao. Thats my take.

The mere thought of them rewriting her to justify poly better makes my skin crawl.
The poly crowd has already been pleased just fix what's there for the people that want a monogamous relationship with her. If they rewrite her to make poly her default I'm never touching this game again or any Larian game in the future.

Actually, even the healthy poly crowd despises what is there. It's so toxic and actually has nothing to do with Polyamory.

Halsin is just a sex addict looking for FWB.

All I want is good mono relationship with SH. And I dont want to feel "cucked" if I decide to go to drows(It has nothing to do with poly, scene is just questionable), I don't want to get disapproval for rejecting Halsin there, I don't want to hear flirt banter if I'm not in duo romance.

Could not agree more.
While not something I have interest in, hiring sex workers you'll never see again for a single night of fun with your significant other should not automatically lead to you having to open the relationship to somebody you're much more closely involved with as a companion and I guess friend. And when you try to make this point people jump down your throat like how dare you try to control her or like why are you the only one that gets to pick who you sleep with. Like I don't get how people can't see the difference here.

And this is why Halsin should just be out of the picture entirely, and a SH Karlach Lae'zel + Tav ( might as well add Minthara cuz why not) should just work instead.

I'd prefer they just keep them all mono to be honest, instead of adding diversity options. Normally I'd be completely fine with it, but I feel act 3 is already lacking so much content for just their mono paths. It makes me worried that if they were to add more options, they'd just spread their resources too thin and we'd just get more half baked romance stories instead of one full fledged one per companion.