I'll start this off by saying I'm a lesbian and Karlach was my romance on my first playthrough. Karlach's romance is so sweet and I can't recommend it enough. On my second playthrough, I decided to give Shadowheart's romance a try and I have to say, I was honestly floored. It's HORRID. It's alright until you get to Act 3 and then it's like a "mask off" situation with her. Shadowheart threatened to physically hurt me (with a serious tone) if I embarrassed her in front of the love dryad and then started flirting with Halsin right in front of me. I looked up a video of the potential fivesome on Youtube and she also admits there that she's been fantasizing about having sex with him while you're in a relationship with her? Boundaries much, lady? I'm not even sure what to make of this. Does Larian think crossing boundaries, physical abuse, and emotional cheating are fine if a woman is doing it? This might legitimately be the worst romance in the game. One of the worst romances I've ever seen in a videogame, actually. It's a shame because up until Act 3, her romance wasn't bad at all
I'll be honest, if they did a heel turn like this with Karlach, I would have broken down crying. I feel really bad for anyone that romanced her and I'm shocked Larian hasn't changed anything. Before this, I heard a little about this issue but I never looked into it much because I wasn't that into Shadowheart. It was even worse than I thought it would be and I'm a little scared to even buy a Larian game in the future because I'm afraid they'll do it to my favorite character next
