Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Problems with Halsin's character, advances, LI and general character interactions, etc.

I actually don’t expect you to care at all.

Honestly, I have no idea what was going through the writer's mind when they thought it was a good idea to include this crap. Now, every time I play Baldur's Gate in the future and
remember the romance with Shadowheart, the first thing that will come to my mind will be "oh Shadowheart, that girl who fantasized about a muscular man while with me and probably
masturbated at night thinking about him, and who disapproved of me when I forbade her from bang with him." All the writer did with this was tarnish her character's reputation,
so much so that I've already seen some comments calling her shadowWh**e. If this is the image the writer wanted to portray of their character, well congratulations, they've achieved
it. What a stupid way to ruin what could have been one of the most beautiful romances in the game. That's all I'll say

Most comments like this come from the same people pearl-clutching about how she can only ever be purely monogamous and any interaction that can lead to implications contrary to that (like the thread title) should be removed from the game. They call her that simply because the content exists, and ignore that it's only accessible through player choice; choices they themselves will never make and only develop the character in that direction in the context of those choices being made. So it rings a little hollow that they instantly start hurling misogynist insults toward what is otherwise their favorite waifu when in their own playthroughs those interactions will never happen don't you think? Projecting such insults about a fictional character because of content they'll never personally engage with beyond their intense anger at watching it on youtube has nothing to do with the writing or its quality and everything to do with the... social values (or lack thereof) and insecurity of the people making such ridiculous insults.

You are right, that is unhealthy. I didn't even read ops post, only the more light hearted ones after. But this is totally unhinged and not ok.

I think what the people defending the extremely questionable choice the writer made with the orgy fail to realize (or blatantly ignore) is that it just screws the mono people romancing her. It was never done in a way that would show that Shadowheart is flexible, if he wanted to do that he could have just kept dialogue the same with Halsin or without Halsin being there but he didn't. Nope, the writer went out of his way to force that bumbling oaf with no self-control into the relationship. With that being said, I'm not going to condone violence against the writer no matter how much he pisses me off with this rubbish.

Yeah, like, all this proves is that the player base is just as capable of casual misogyny and sex negativity/slut shaming as the rest of the population, which is hardly a shock. Yes, we are well aware that some people think women who have fantasies about other people without the "permission" of a man deserve judgment and that men with nonconventional sexual preferences deserve to be spun as freaks. All this thread shows is that people are just as narrow-minded about video game pixels as they are about real people.

OP is very unhealthy, I think we established that. Threatening devs with violence over some unimportant vidoegame characters is not acceptable.
However you should accept, that people have different tastes and opinions. I couldn't care a fig about that drow scene, since that doesn't happen in my game, so it doesn't exist for me. I think, Halsin is not well written in general and his creepiness in approaching you is just ewww. I have nothing against sex positive characters - nobody is complaining about Lae'zel right? She comes at you basically at the beginning, but when you say no, she will never bother you again. And she has story and character development - Halsin has ... nothing but his sex addiction in act 3. Hell (pun maybe intended) I didn't even see people complain about that Haarlep interaction and I think your li can stand nearby during that (? - never did that, Haarlep died in my games). But with Halsin it's just a 180 degree change of character and they way, he is written is needy and creepy. Everyone else is just making you an offer and accept a No, even an evil priest of Loviathar (I mean, it'S basically a BDSM session, so it counts) - only the supposedly good and wise druid can't take a No.
All this could be avoided, if we had the option to decline Halsin joining the party at the end of act 2. I mean, I use him as Orin bait, so that the useful companions don't get snatched and teh cat doesn't get killed, but I would be as happy to just tell him to go home.

I can both accept that different opinions exist, and call out very obvious toxic masculinity (like is rampant in this thread even beyond the OP) when I see it.

I haven't seen a problematic post apart from op tbh. Just different opinions.

I have to disagree, I read enough on Discord, Steam and Reddit and many of them, especially the gentlemen, were against SH's openness and thought they knew better what SH was like, better than the author.

I think situations like SH/Halsin can hit a bit too close to home for some people, depending on their real life experiences.

I mean, I'm a lesbian woman and I think it's out of character and I was talking about this thread anyway and not all social media out there

I know lots of players claim you can refuse once and it is enough, but well, that is not how it happened in my first playthrough. And even though I don't like this new version of Halsin, I think there is a double standard in how certain companions get judged. I've found Astarion's dialogue downright creepy when refused a second time, but posting any criticism of his character was met with a very personal reacion from some of his fans. It was also same with Gale's romance bug.

I know I wrote 'especially' and here was a thread and I was attacked for not taking it seriously...

I honestly never had a problem with Astarion at all. He initiated once a dialogue, where I could have flirted with him, but I didn't and he just said, I'm no fun and left it at this. The topice never came up again. Same with Gale, same with Wyll, Karlach or Lae'zel. SH doesn't even approach you directly.
I mean, I guess, it depends in which order you talk to the companions at the party, but I never got creepy vibes from any of them.

It was long after the party. I have played EA so I assumed it would work like this, that the party was the deciding moment and that was it. But then Astarion approached my character a second time, so I think Larian might have put other triggers depending on whom you had highest approval with. Gale's bug was weird, he just assumed that he was in relationship with the main character. Tbh, I have no insight into the mechanics, but later Larian posted that it was a bug that all companions were into Tav so much. And well, it is expected that people have different experiences, but it felt like a double standard when trying to have a discussion about certain characters back then.

Honestly, new epilogue made it way easier for me, I do not hate Halsin anymore and I think he is cool in epilogue. However I think they should smooth SH/Halsin interactions in a fair way.
It would be much more acceptable if her reaction was similiar to Astarion's one to include Halsin there. At the very least they can just remove disapproval if they don't want to rewrite her dialogue. Also theier banter after her scene should be triggering when you romance both. I think this is fair, don't you think? Nothing changes for those who romance both of them, but for those who prefer to romance only Shadowheart - things will be much more acceptable and easier.

The whole brothel thing has issues, it's more than just Shart or Halsin. All dialogue relating to Gale is horrible and how you can talk about the whole thing with Halsin but not with the two guys who have a horrible time if you drag them along .... There's too few books in the library.

A bit offtopic, but this discussion reminded me of a similar situation from Biowares DAO.


I wonder how people here feel about the difference of implementation in DAO and BG3 and if it is even a good comparison?

I don't think, that this needs spoilers tbh, since it is neither important for DAO or BG3. I think, they did it better in DAO, where it seems, that all involved are on board and not made a fuss out of it. I haven't had the scene myself, only Isabela asking and I said no and had both Leliana (who, I think, was my romance then) and Zevran in teh group and none of them had a problem. Zev made a joke and that was it.