I mean this topic is more of a SH's inconsistency regarding Halsin, so.
I'm quoting you more as a jumping point, most of this isn't directed at you. While that's generally become true of the topic there are definitely a couple people that have been very frequently vocal about how they they don't accept Shadowheart being read as anything but monogamous (I saw one person repeat that "we determined she's just monogamous and the rest isn't canon" several times even in other threads). The interactivity IS there and should remain there though, and I see a lot more fetishizing of that interactivity from the people calling it pornographic who can simply choose not to make the choices that trigger that content than I do from the game itself (barring Halsin's totally inappropriate interjections and the general state of his content in Act 3 which most people seem to all agree is very bad). The closest the game gets to pornographic is the Minthara goblin camp scene and that has entire other types of gratuitous fantasy fulfillment and moral problems tied into it (which is referring to a lot more than the grove stuff you have to do to get the scene). A scene being very sexual, or a character opening up about their sexual interests is simply not the same thing as being fetishistic or pornographic. This is true of movies too, lots of sexual content can be depicted without it being pornographic.
Being poly and sex involving more than two people in general are only fantasy fulfillment or a fetish for people that fantasize about it or fetishize it. They're otherwise kinda just normal things that can and do happen in real relationships and it's actually truly a nice thing that a game like this somewhat allows people to express that instead of the greater industry constantly shying away from that aspect of human life. It absolutely could have been better developed but the dev cycle ended up being what it is, so that's unfortunate. I've said before I don't read any inconsistency with Shadowheart's character and more specifically I think triggering some of those lines later in the game because you genuinely want your Tav to make those choices can and should change the context of how you understood things she's said prior the same way you'd do in real life when you learn more about a person you become close with, but specifically for that Tav. After all if you don't make those choices you don't learn those things so your read of the characterization won't have a reason to change, and simply knowing the content exists also should not change your read of the character, especially if you're never going to make those choices anyway. Sure, Shadowheart can absolutely be monogamous. But she can also be open to poly pending your choices and how an individual reads the results. There's a more involved discussion about characters being a little too malleable based on player choice and "show don't tell" (the game does show if you pursue it far enough so I don't understand that particular thing as an argument against it) but most of the time this stuff just won't be perfect and we have to be able to deal with that.
But nah Halsin in Act 3 absolutely needs a revamp, I just don't talk about it in this thread beyond that basic acknowledgement cuz the greater conversation about that already has its own thread.
I don't claim to be some expert writer or anything, but it's basic writer 101 that when you've already established a character in a certain way, throughout all of the story, that suddenly making them pull a 180 often leaves the audience confused and even sometimes angry. A writer can make a 180 work, but there has to be foreshadowing for them to pull it off properly.
There simply isn't any foreshadowing to this change in SH. Nothing in her main story has ever even implied she's interested in anything other than monogamy with the player.
I have no issue with polyamory if it's written properly and makes sense for the character. But in this case, with everything established about her, it doesn't make sense for SH. It's actually quite obvious that she was always intended to be this way, but when they added Halsin last minute, they shoehorned her into being a poly/open option for him and never changed her characterization. It's like trying to fit your left foot in the right shoe, it just doesn't work.
They would be better off scrapping SH and Astarion as the poly options for Halsin and just create characters that actually were designed to fit. That way people are given the polyamory they want and deserve, but then leave SH and Astarion to be the characters in which they were always designed to be.
