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

If you look at threads like in their Discord then problems with this get 65+ votes to change this thing with Shadowheart and Halsin, while the once campaigning to preserve it don't even reach 15.

So the vocal majority/campaigning majority against this is larger.

You also need to remember that this is not just this, bit Halsin's character. And his character has MASSIVE issues. He is the least used companion, there are multiple reasons why people dislike him, there are thread everywhere about him.

Articles are published about how horrible his romance is and how people are saying he should never have been made a companion.

The Shadowheart may seem small to some, but since Halsin's character as a whole is a disaster to many who requested him in the first place, and I have been in contact with 17 SA victims who have been severely triggered by Halsin.

Halsin fans and Shadowheart fans are currently supporting each other.

I can't promise anything will happen, but there is more attention put on this than you suggest.

Maybe if I post a link to the last moderator warning in this thread, it will prevent them from having to post another one...

We're discussing why this issue is unlikely to ever be changed or acknowledged by Larian I fail to see the issue.

Honestly hope you're right about this, but from what I've seen I don't have too much faith.

I am right about the information, but if they will do anything about it is anyone's guess.

From what we know about the internal passion at Larian for this content, and that the major flaws surrounding the Red Prince was never fixed - I don't have great hopes.

I wish they would fix it so I could actually play the game again without being constantly triggered by multiple traumas.

I love Halsin, but at this point I just want the option to dismiss him from camp.

*member of team Halsin here* I can say the same about Halsin. I was just exploring EA, I met him and had a short conversation, then the game was released, I reached act 2 and OMG this man just won my heart. I also don't remember the time when I was so interested in a fictional character so I could fell in love with him.
And there was act 3 and... well.. I can only say (and people in both our threads would agree) we are colleagues in misfortune. Feels like their writer has some strange relationship towards SH and Halsin, like he loves them and dislikes them at the same time or he didn't really know what to do with them at some point of the story.

I believe, in most cases at least, it's just misunderstanding of SH character overall, and most importantly the timing this whole stuff gets revealed. And it gets revealed after 2 acts of anticipation, 2 acts of you working hard to earn her trust, to know her better, help her to remember her past, to become that person she's been missing her whole life and getting so close, that under your influence she defies evil goddess whom she served all life as she can remember. Then you get long-awaited love scene and the dialog about your future, basically securing your bond. And she specifically says, how she wants to share her life with you. At this point there should not be even a thought about poly relationship, yet here we are. And game actually plays out like it should, unless you have halsin, and only him, as an active member of your party.

This is pretty much where I'm at too. Just getting to dismiss him is the least they can do.

Everything else is hope for the best, expect the worst/nothing. I won't be buying any future games from Larian though.

I'm very hopeful that a "Dismiss Halsin" mod will be made fairly soon. That doesn't sound like such a leap from what I'm seeing modders doing recently.

And ditto, this is my first and will be my last Larian game. I'm also glad that this one was a gift so I didn't spend any money on it.

Where would we be without modders, they are such godsends. I feel bad for console players though who won't have that option.

I'm so jealous, I spent $90 (CDN) on this and I'm deeply regretting it...But now I'm invested financially and emotionally dammit lmao I really don't feel like I got my monies worth tbh.

Haha, I love the idea that people use that one line as an argument AGAINST her being mono. That line is one of the best in the game. If John wrote it I have to give him massive credit for such beautiful foreshadowing. It's literally at the start of the first act and it foreshadows the very epilogue of the game.
The line goes as follows, after Gale (I think) asks if the others have someone in Baldur's Gate:
Shadowheart: You mean just waiting, like a lovesick puppy? Short-term amusements are much less hassle.

Of course, we know exactly why she's not hyped about relationships. Shar doesn't want them to have one, and she's been recently mind wiped into being a perfectly good Shar slave before you meet her and cause her to fall in love with you and abandon Shar for you.

Now look at the epilogue. She has devoted herself fully to you. To the point that if you decide not to be with her, after she specifically asks you to do so, she'll say that she will be - you guessed it - waiting for you. Like a lovesick puppy.

Of course you're not meant to choose that, you're supposed to be with her unless you've been the one leading her on all along. However, it shows she has become that which she supposedly disliked, because she found her true self throughout the game - with you. It's amazing character development, and incredible foreshadowing for something that can be overlooked so easily. And apparently, has been overlooked by many. The writers don't get enough credit sometimes.

I don't understand the need for a mod. Everything discussed in this thread can be 100% avoided without any mods.
The issue is it existing at all contradicts so much about her romance and characterization to the point that it ruins her for people. Honestly after reading some of the posts in the last couple pages I don't believe it belongs in the game at all at least for her. I no longer think there should be any compromise for people that want poly content for her and that if they want poly content it should be given to a brand new character or someone else like Karlach who would make so much more sense than Shadowheart. I do not view her as poly in any way, shape, or form.

I was too dumb to put that together but another excellent point. Again, she is not poly.

At best she has an attraction towards Karlach but that's about it.

Just remember that even when you bring Halsin along and any of this dialogue plays, it has absolutely no impact on the future dialogues. It's completely inconsequential. That alone should tell you enough about how canon and intended it really is - it doesn't change anything. Just shrug it off for now and see it for what it is - it's a videogame and sometimes things just don't work out logically. If you haven't played Dark Urge yet, just know that you'll have to get used to doing that as Dark Urge in act 3 anyway. There are a lot of out of character dialogues regarding Dark Urge from companions I'm afraid.

So she is still the character that wants to be with you for the rest of her life, starting a family on a farm with an infinite amount of pets, with or without her parents around. Even when she randomly flirts with Halsin, or.. isn't always as thoughtful about some Dark Urge reveals.

And lets just hope they'll fix things. And if not, at least we'll hopefully get an extended epilogue that cements our argument that she's devoted to Tav, as that's how she has obviously been written otherwise.

I thought it was more of a practical thing. Like she was just commenting on how big of an asset Karlach would be for the team but it's open to interpretation

I considered it a bit of both.

Honestly it'll probably be a while until this gets fixed, if it even does. The game has so many bugs, plus Karlach and Minthara seem to be ahead of us in priority I guess. Super disappointing

Would be nice if they at least acknowledged this problem with SH and Halsin.

It's definitely a bit of both, based on her dialogue when Karlach enters the camp (not the random line upon meeting her, which can be from any other companion). She basically just says Karlach's going to take a lot of rations because those muscles don't grow from nothing and that at least she'll be useful in a fight. So she's both in awe by her physique but also seems to imply she thinks Karlach's not useful beyond beating things up.

Granted, because she's obviously playersexual, she calls you attractive as well in act 2 even when you're a halfling.

Yes and no. It's obviously not a lot of work (remove some triggers and the main issue is gone), and Halsin should be high priority as well with all the feedback going around about him. That is, assuming they care about feedback at all of course.

Plus they're supposedly working on epilogues. An extended epilogue of her main romance story is perfectly fine as well. The more consistent canon content we get, the easier it is to headcanon out the inconsistencies.

Nah the one where SH compliments Karlach and says something about carrying her over her shoulders or something... brb finding quote...

"I like her. She looks like she could throw me over her shoulder and carry me to safety, should the need arise."