I also think romances are most popular with women, and online fandom participation is more popular with women. So it does not surprise me that Astarion fans eclipse the fans of other characters in fandom spaces. No hate on that since I am part of that demographic. But I wouldn't use that as a metric of which character is the best written since I've seen many of these same fans boot or kill Shadowheart because she overrides Astarion's scenes. Give Astarion a chance by all means, but do the same to the others lol.
I don't think so. Bioware have a history of releasing stats on their romances and players have always tended towards their straight dudebros. Astarion is eclipsing Lae'zel and Shadowheart because Lae'zel and Shadowheart are disasters of character writing. The fact that no-one is romancing Shadowheart in spite of the fact she's the only human looking option available for the largest section of the playerbase is a sign of quite what a mess she is.
Quote
"Check out last week’s update for the stats on that. Somewhat contradicturally, [Gale]’s the most “romanced†of the party. He’s been “romanced†by 33% of players. Shadowheart came second, falling in love with 31% of players, and in return 31% of players fell in love with Shadowheart.
1.37% of players chose to sleep alone. Which is cool too! We have the other stats, but thought it might be fun if you gave it a shot and guessed them. One thing we’re seeing is the stan memes aren’t correlating with the actual “romance dataâ€. For sure, there’s enough tinder in the campfire to ignite some flames."
A third of people who participate in romances are romancing Shadowheart. This is Larian's own data. So again, please do not assume the loudest voices in the room is equivalent to the majority.
Neither of these character have disastrous writing, and I rather enjoy discussions on their character and where their plot lines will go in forums and group chats elsewhere. I've done the most character analysis on Lae'zel in particular, so you mentioning her as poorly written is personally entertaining.
Again, the game is designed for people to have different takeaways of these characters, and its within your right to dislike them, but clinging to first impressions doesn't mean they are poorly written. There is so much content in the game in regards to the characters that you are guaranteed to miss something. The order you talk to them changes how much they say, who you have recruited changes what they might say, how often you camp, how you resolve certain quest lines, who you have in your active party, etc.
Originally Posted by KillerRabbit
This is a crisis of faith story. Shar isn't about hope and new beginnings -- that's Lathander. Shar is about loss, pain and hidden resentments. What do you do when you worship loss and find hope?
Pretty sure the answer isn't: spend the next day smiling and flirting.
That's because she probably
isn't a diehard Shar worshipper and is under some one else's deception or maybe a bit of her own.
Much of the dialogue and the story was probably written and recorded ages ago. SH's romance scene is more than enough evidence of her true nature for me.
