If she came to that realization there is no written dialogue to actually show this, there are no dialogue options where you can actually say that to her or argue a case.
Oh I don't mean that you have literally read her mind or heard her say this in that moment, the "Trust Shadowheart - do not interfere." for me is based off of trust built up in act 1 and 2 leading up to this moment, which was enough trust for me. And for me personally it couldn't have been hindsight because I went in blind, it just felt intuitive in my journey and watching her character growth throughout story events and conversations. Totally valid if you didn't feel that trust in your playthrough at that time of course, everyone experiences things differently and I could have been wrong about Shadowheart there and would have faced the tragic consequences in that case, but in this case I apparently read the situation and her character well enough to get the outcome I hoped for. You say it's coddling and she has no right to expect the way I've treated her in that situation, and it's fine that you think so, but I saw from a mile away early in act 1 that I was dealing with a cult victim that needed a bit of "coddling" throughout the journey to break free from that.
She didnt make it alone and what happens to Nightsong is whole group's responsibility.
Same can be said about our PC character, but throughout more than 95% of the game all companions trust you to make all the big decisions mostly alone, even as Durge with their questionable outbursts. They might briefly chime in, you can get some approval and disapproval here and there and they'll give their thoughts about the aftermath, but with things that are the whole group's responsibility they will largely leave it to you and leave people's life or death in your hands. Hell, even though she hates the idea of it, even when Shadowheart still has the Astral Prism herself, she still goes along to straight up walk into a Githyanki creche to see if the Zaith'isk can be a cure for the tadpole because you have decided that's what the group is going to do. I know for the purpose of gameplay someone simply has to be the leader, but narratively speaking there isn't really a reason why everyone would defer to you.
The fact is, the dialogue could have had much more depth and nuance
It always can, there isn't a single part in BG3 that I would consider perfect. From what I'm gathering though, I think I'm simply a bit more accepting with moments here and there being a 7/10 and you're leaning more towards striving for everything in the game to get as close to a 10/10 as possible. Ideally this moment definitely would have more companion reactivity in the moment rather than you making the rounds with your companions and hear their thoughts when you speak to them, but as it's largely on par with how they've done their writing up to this point in the game as well as how they've implemented companion reactivity through, I didn't really notice the flaws when I was playing through it blind.
any and all lack of reactivity is for budgetary reasons, unfortunately a lot of which is spent on things that in general matter less to most people like origins and other little features.
Fully agree with that especially since, from what I remember at least, statistics early on in EA already showed that only a small minority actually played origin-specific rather than their own custom Tav or Durge, but a lot of developmental time still went into it. When it comes to that I'm actually very much hoping that modders can galvanize origin-specific dialogues and cutscenes and integrate them into a Tav and Durge playthroughs to significantly add towards companion reactivity. When Astarion talks about his fear of Cazador and if he trusts you enough, he could for example show the nightmare he had early on in camp when you do an Astarion origin playthrough, much like Shadowheart shares the wolf memory. And from what I remember seeing in Astarion's origin playthrough for example after refusing to use the ritual to ascend, people like Karlach will directly tell him how proud they are. If that kind of conversation could be modded so that it's integrated as companion reactivity in a Tav or Durge playthrough, that would be a wonderful addition to the game in my opinion. The voice lines and even cutscenes are there already in the game files, they're just stuck in the origin-specific playthroughs and for now you'll sadly never experience them in Tav and Durge playthroughs.
Your rationalizing on the level that you could rationalize why a guy in act 3 that was buried by Minsc doesnt recognize Minsc in your party even if Minsc himself digs him up and he speaks to him. Like "Honestly it makes sense, he forgot and he's confused from being buried!".
Haha, that's exaggerating a bit that I'm rationalizing things to that extent, don't you think? I already mentioned that for act 3 I have various standout moments where I think the game needed far more polishing and clean-up when it comes to companion reactivity, (lack of) party banter, but also straight up bugs or contradictory things occurring even now still. It's just that for where I'd give the encounter with Nightsong something like a 7/10, there are moments in act 3 where it can fall to a 5/10 for me. And in act 3 especially because other moments right around the corner can then be a 9/10 for me, it can feel very disjointed and take me out of the experience. Most of the main stuff in act 2 stayed around an 8/10 and I personally wasn't aggrieved by some moments feeling a little less fleshed out than others.
They are companions and many of them are friends from eachother, it would be far more likely that they'd speak frequently and encourage/give advice and input on what is going on especially when they see an innocent chained up and one of their companions/friends is considering murdering her in cold blood.
No argument there, I've just learned to accept that this isn't in the game for the most part and that companions will mostly just give their thoughts on the aftermath instead. It's a developmental decision, as you said likely because of budget and focus on other things, and I've just come to terms with that. Having adapted to this mindset, I'm more pleasantly surprised when a situation occurs where they do interject in the moment, rather than it feeling like a let-down every time it doesn't happen. So I'm hoping modders will at some point scavenge dialogue and cutscenes from the origin-specific playthroughs to increase companion reactivity in Tav and Durge playthroughs, but for now it's just the way it is and it'll have to be good enough as it is.
