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

This is where the crux of all the perceived inconsistency comes from. The design choice to not only have all the companions flirt with each other, but to to have cases like Karlach volunteer themselves to be involved only to heelturn on it later because of a general lack of development. The entire dynamic that was advertised to us got pinned on Halsin doing an absolutely terrible portrayal of it, and signs of a better dynamic that DOES involve the other origins they didn't get to develop it for remain leaving us all disappointed with the dynamic we were left with.

People do change their minds all the time. But this is a video game. Random 180 changes to characters should be explained. If she would no longer be interested in mono after she was written to want it in act 2, then that needs to be implied. Add conversations with her about it, where she shows displeasure with the way things are in the relationship, and that she'd rather have it be an open one.

Now don't get me wrong, nobody actually wants this, but at least it'd remove the inconsistency from it.

We're reaching next page now so I'll repeat my question to Auric and KillerRabbit before it gets buried.

Where or when is it established that player is open to including Halsin and is not threatened by him?

That's a good point. I didn't realize that she suggested that before Tav hired the twins. Again, wouldn't be opposed to having it gated behind that point but the following doesn't seem like a strange conversations:

A: We should have a foursome with some sex workers.
B: Okay, but I want to include that hippie body builder so make it fivesome

You got it entirely right, but that's why it's not "perceived" inconsistency, that's why it IS inconsistency. They, for reasons only they know, decided to have all origin companions be mono. Any kind of flirting they did with each other becomes irrelevant by the time you're nearing the end of act 2, because you are forced to choose a companion, meaning their character development has reached the stage where they are no longer interested in each other. At least not together with you. They want you, or nothing.

If they chose to have some of the more obvious choices be poly (Shadowheart/Karlach/Tav or Astarion/Lae'zel/Tav) then there wouldn't be a problem anymore. But they didn't do that, they instead wrote them all to be mono and gave them mono romance progression. Thus, the inconsistency when Halsin suddenly shows up.

That's a bugbear of mine. A relationship is monogamous / exclusive when two people agree it is, not before.

You've misunderstood me. Halsin's forced involvement that even breaches consent is absolutely THE problem. I'm on about Shadowheart as polyamorous being a totally valid read of the characterization if your choices pursue that in general.

Except for most people that isn't the case. Most people are monogamous, therefore the relationship is assumed to be monogamous until discussed and agreed otherwise.

What? If you want to be poly more power to you but let's not pretend like monogamy isn't the default for the vast majority of people on this planet.

This is going to start going in a direction that will be uncomfortable for everyone so let's just not argue what type of relationship is or isn't default on behalf of a planet full of people being presumed to be spoken for.

It genuinely doesn't even matter which is the norm. You mutually agree to mono in act 2 anyway, and that mutual agreement is never written to have changed after that.

I think it's always a good idea to talk about the bounds of a relationship - unexpressed assumptions cause problems in relationships. I think mono people can learn some things from poly sorts

And, no, the best assumption is that you are dating until you agree on exclusivity. And once you agree to be exclusive it's good idea to share your assumptions of what the relationship will look like.

If they took Halsin, the drows, Mizora, all that optional content out of the game, SH is shown as being naturally monogamous throughout her whole romance with the player. Just because the player has the option to make her join a polyamorous/open relationship doesn't mean she is written to be like that normally.

I don't remember that conversation. Do you have video of it?

So they need to give us a god damn way to do that with her in game. That is what people are asking for in this thread. Let us define the relationship as exclusive with her so, as it is implied throughout the entire romance, people don't get upset when this stuff is sprung on them out of nowhere.

Every single conversation where you ask for a shared relationship between the origins. They'll all shut it down, saying they want you and will not compromise, establishing mono.

It's a lot of dialogue, and it happens between a lot of different companions.

I guess I wouldn't be opposed to but it seem really easy to avoid.

Say no to Halsin, don't hire sex workers = problem solved. I guess I still don't get why this is so important to people.

It is established that the player and SH are exclusive at the end of act 2. Plus most people will assume she means she wants to be with you now and always, as meaning only you. You may look at things differently, but the vast majority would take this as meaning monogamy.

I'd say the conversations where she forces you to pick between her and <other origin companion> are even more telling, but yes, this too, just to a lesser extent because if you really feel like reading between the lines you can still find ways to say "Nah man she meant otherwise" even if that would be blatant bad writing.

Well if you would read more than 4 or 5 posts you might undersand why its important to people

Edit: