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

Our problem is a rather niche problem, it makes sense that it doesn't get that much attention. Halsin is a much bigger problem. If the Halsin problem gets fixed, our problem gets (partially) fixed with it. I don't know how Larian reacts to feedback so I have no idea how likely it is, though. Evidently they make an effort to have it at least seem like they care otherwise they wouldn't give us so many tools to provide it.


The breakup line shows that she's not intent on giving you the chance to reply if you do something she's really disappointed about. Other companions let you either explain yourself or ask you if that's truly what you want (at least for Karlach and Wyll).

She doesn't blame Mizora for it, that's something Karlach does. Karlach specifically says that she understands how devils are with their tricks. Karlach is also truly disappointed in you and you have to be very careful with dialogue choices to not have her break up with you. That's what I at the very least expected from Shadowheart as well. But all she does is say she understands and even if you pick the most brutal dialogue options indicating that you're more or less planning on doing it again, she just reacts sarcastically. There's no disappointment, no sadness, no "my world just broke apart, is this what I abandoned Shar for?" level of breakdown you'd expect if she was truly as insecure as you think she is and you double down on the decision to cheat on her.

The "swan" stuff is where she essentially says she expected you to cheat on her, because if she didn't want to get cheated on she'd have gotten together with a swan. It's ridiculous.

And yes, at the very least there should be a massive approval drop. But that's the case for all companions. Approval just feels more or less abandoned as a system in act 3.

It has nothing to do "expecting you to cheat", its more of "I understand that other ppl are attractive too, but we are in relationship, so please ask me about it next time".
Yes it's shitty and I dont like it too, however they'll need to rework whole conversation if changes are to be made. I don't think Larian will do that. Thats why I talk about just adding disapproval, because it makes sense.
P.S. I won't cheat on her anyway, so I'll stay as pure as swan.

I also believe that the best course of action to fix Shadowheart's character inconsistencies is to remove everything related to the orgy/poly relationship with Halsin. She has displayed a kinky side to her in earlier acts for sure (Abdhirak whipping you, mentioned being tied up with some rope), but that shouldn't mean that she's interested in orgies. Halsin should be the only one that's able to do the drow twin orgy with you, if anything.

Saying "If I wanted something pure, I'd have bedded a swan." is synonym for saying "I did not expect you to be pure."

That means that at the very least, it didn't surprise her. I think that's ridiculous. She wouldn't abandon Shar for you if she had that little faith in you.

It's unlikely that they'll change this, yes, even if the biggest skeleton in the closet during that dialogue is still the massive contradiction about how she was raised. But I think the vast majority of people don't even notice that because this entire dialogue is a F5 -> F8 situation and expecting perfection from the writing is a little extreme.

That kinky side is very likely gone by the time she realizes what she had actually been doing when you reach the House of Grief. Remember that all she had was good memories of the atrocities she inflicted upon others (including her parents) there due to Sharran Mind Wipe MagicTM making her forget the rest. The tied up stuff is just her lowkey flirting with you. She asked what you'd do if she started to turn, you can say you'd tie her up and look for a cure, she says she'd kill you on the spot if you started to turn and that you shouldn't dream of tying her up.

Halsin fan here, been lurking the last few pages of this thread. Im biased of course but I think this is the best route for Larian to take. Ultimately Halsin is the problem.

While Im pessimistic about a real fix I think it would behoove Larian to do something. I myself went through their official feedback thing and pointed them in the direction of the Halsin thread, ultimately because all of his issues are too complex to put in their system, and we have also discussed the SH issue there as well.

The game is only a couple months out of release so its really just going to be a wait and see situation for at least a few months but probably longer just to see if theyd even consider it.

Even if they do fix Halsin, they're not going to remove their precious porn content with the orgy. Sex sells - the uptick in sales, after the bear scene was revealed, is proof of that. A lot of ppl are perfectly fine with porn without plot. They don't care if it makes sense, or they'll do mental gymnastics to make it fit for them. Anything for a bit of erotic content. Larian also doesn't care if it makes sense if it improves sales.

You would think a writer would care about maintaining their characters integrity, but it's also possible someone higher up forced this decision. Either way, it's not going anywhere. So we either have to ignore it and focus on the good content we have or choose not to play the game anymore. It's unfortunate that Larian did this to it's characters and the genuine fans of them. For that reason, this is the first and last Larian game I'll ever buy or play.

Don't be so harsh, I have faith in them.
You have to remember that only 50% players left act 1. Also this whole Halsin/SH fetish thing or w/e is not easy to come across(Halsin is probably less taken in group than obvious Jaherira), many probably genuinely enjoy the game and SH romance.

So far I don't think a lot of people know about this whole thing. Hell, I didn't at all until a few days ago. Maybe once the post nut clarity starts and the rose tinted glasses come off more people would talk about this.

I have no faith in them. The fact that they added this at all proves that I shouldn't. There's no fixing certain aspects of the game, they purposely put in, for nothing but meaningless erotic entertainment. They should never have lowered SH's character to that, it's demeaning. I'm going to try and focus on her romance, but I can't forget what they've done. I paid $90 for this bullshit and I won't forgive them for this disgusting lack of care.

Maybe more ppl will agree once they know about it, but I doubt it will change anything about the porn stuff.

Larian just doesn't care about Shadowheart as a character, otherwise they would have never done this to her, it contradicts everything about her. So screw Larian, they don't deserve the praise they're getting.

I agree with you. This is definitely the very last game from them I bought or played. I bought this game 2.5 years ago while it was in EA. The only thing I asked was better inventory management and it was not only me. I guess this is a lesson for pre-ordening/early access.

They can fix it, they can remake orgy to make sense and other interactions.

This is how I feel about Halsin's character. Hes really popular right now but the game is still so new, I wonder what will happen as more and more players who romanced him solo get his ending.


Again, this is how I feel about what they did to Halsin. Its gross and sad and I dont like it, and as more people make their way through the game they will hopefully start seeing what we all see.


Im gonna go ahead and leave it at that since this thread is for SH. But it seems we feel very similarly about these charactera doing seemingly out of character things and the game getting a little too ridiculous with the sex for these characters.

We should form an alliance

That wouldn't be "fixing" it. That would be retconning her character entirely to force it to fit. So instead of changing her specifically for the porn content, you would rather see them change her character entirely just so that porn stuff makes sense? She wouldn't be the Shadowheart we know anymore if they did that. That would completely ruin her.

Yeah I believe most of us are on each other's sides here. I would love for you guys to get what you want and deserve, and I know a lot of Halsin fans want the same for us.

The more I think about, the more I'm convinced that this whole drow twins thing is just a bad joke from the devs.

Because, really, not only Halsin and Shadowheart act out character there. Take Minthara and Lae'zel for example. Sure, they won't join on a foursome, but players can still hire one of the drow for themselves and the only consequence is a few points of disapproval. They would break up over Mizora, but not over this? Why? It's not like Mizora thing is somehow more serious than the drow.

So much character consistency compromised just for horny players to look at black screen for a minute. Masterclass of trolling.

Lmao wait I would've genuinely expected Minthara to break up over that. She's a drow herself, she should be furious for you even considering going with a lesser drow.

THIS THIS THIS

As a Halsin fan I dont want to try to work with the bad stuff they gave us. I want them to take it back and give me good stuff instead.

Why did they even do that with Mizora anyway. It came out of no where when she propositioned me.