What disappoint you in BG2 romances?
Masterteo
Member Posts: 111
For me it's the whole pregnancy thing, because it's way too stupid.
In my opinion, the girl you romance shouldn't follow you in ToB.
Because you don't put a pregnant woman in the middle of a damn war.
This is not logic at all.
In my opinion the best way to please gamers and common sense would have be (let's say you have Aerie) :
1- first of all you make Aerie stay in a safe place for 9 months. Like in the elf city of SoA.
2- you do ToB, and kill 3 of the 5 baalspawn.
3- when all you have to do is only kill Baltazar + Sendai or Abazigal, a cutscene plays.
4- in the cutscene first of all you learn that 10 months passed since when you started ToB. Then Aerie comes, telling you that your son/daughter is born but left for safety in the elf city.
Then, like the good wife she is, she force-join your party and you can't kick her out anymore. Obviously in the 10 month that she passed among the elves, Aerie trained her magic and priest spells.
Meaning that she get the level of charname + all her SoA equipments + a bonus that should make you more happy to have her in your party as a companion forced on you by the romance plot. (that bonus could be a animal or familiar..)
In my opinion, the girl you romance shouldn't follow you in ToB.
Because you don't put a pregnant woman in the middle of a damn war.
This is not logic at all.
In my opinion the best way to please gamers and common sense would have be (let's say you have Aerie) :
1- first of all you make Aerie stay in a safe place for 9 months. Like in the elf city of SoA.
2- you do ToB, and kill 3 of the 5 baalspawn.
3- when all you have to do is only kill Baltazar + Sendai or Abazigal, a cutscene plays.
4- in the cutscene first of all you learn that 10 months passed since when you started ToB. Then Aerie comes, telling you that your son/daughter is born but left for safety in the elf city.
Then, like the good wife she is, she force-join your party and you can't kick her out anymore. Obviously in the 10 month that she passed among the elves, Aerie trained her magic and priest spells.
Meaning that she get the level of charname + all her SoA equipments + a bonus that should make you more happy to have her in your party as a companion forced on you by the romance plot. (that bonus could be a animal or familiar..)
2
Comments
I like Aerie. I think she's a bit like Daenarys Targareyns first couple of seasons of game of thrones really except without the army or tendencies to extreme vengeance. Which are both fairly big differences, don't get me wrong.
Not logic at all.
Help.
For girls being the only LI is crime enough, but being the only LI AND to have a romance so dry (IMHO - quite badly too) written does not help either (sorry, Mr. Gaider, I know he was the first one, and Alistair, who obviously came out of that experience is brilliant, so you needed that experience and I am glad you had it).
I'd say many modders only follow the trend.
As for other romances, the only one I have problem with is Jaheira's romance. Just can not justify it's existence.
On the other hand I absolutely can't stand Alistair and take sadistic pleasure in doing terrible things to him. Everything's a matter of taste I suppose.
In all fairness, I'm not that fond of BioWare romances in general.
which funnily enough is my favorite type of character development. someone who is a jerk and not the greatest person who over the course of the journey becomes a better person.
He doesn't suddenly become everyones best friend after getting knighted though. He still mocks haers fighting capabilities, and dislikes sarevok for been sarevok for starters, but he doesn't yell quite so much.
A couple of points of INT more and he would have known, like every intelligent person perfectly knows, that Blade>F->C
I've played the Aerie romance, but I much prefer Viconia. I found the epilogue to the Viconia romance extremely disappointing and also nonsensical considering that curing poison has been one of easiest things to do for most of the game and I usually have her wear a ring that gives her protection from poison anyway. I think it would be nice if there were some way to have a better epilogue result while romancing Viconia. This could either be by doing quests differently in BG2 or as an option to somehow save her in BG3.
Also, being able to have a baby with Viconia in game might be interesting provided that the baby could actually do something and/or have interesting dialogue associated with it. Maybe the drow in Sendai's enclave could react in some way to seeing a baby of half-drow and half Bhaalspawn heritage.
For that matter, it seems as though the issue of Bhaal's essence in the baby should be addressed in the epilogue in some way. Maybe it is with Aerie's and I just can't remember since it has been a long time since I played it.
Not sure what the developers were thinking.
She's an emotionallly scarred wreck and then she gets up the duff?
After what, a couple of months?
Now there's a relationship that ain't going to last, Charname would be grabbing that offer of Godhood with both hands.
It's logic only in a cartoon. Nothing more than that.
And yes, after the pregnancy she has no problem to put his baby under costant threat of death. Because she is an epic level cleric that can raise her dead baby all the times that she desires. She is such a sweet and caring mother.
I'm starting to think that this is not the right place to try to apply logic...i think i will slowly back away.
"I'm starting to think that this is not the right place to try to apply logic...i think i will slowly back away. "
Yep, probably best to.
It's a silly story/plot idea thought up by people who actually gave it as little thought as humanly possible but thought it would "play" in a "neat" way.
"Look guys, we can put the baby in the inventory".
Plus, who says Avariel handle pregnancy the same way humans in the real world do?
A funny/interesting plot twist would be if she somehow did survive and showed up in Throne of Bhaal with charname's child right when things were getting serious with whichever NPC charname was in a romance with at that time.
Now, these things are not part of his romance storyline, so arguably his romance storyline develops him as a character in a way that puts him in a better light, but most people aren't convinced to follow that thread due to the appalling opening impression he dishes out. The opening dialogue of his romance is a sceptical critique of your adventuring history based on the lone fact that you are a woman, so that isn't a winner for a lot of people either.
For my part, I've done the Anomen romance before, and I find that its okay, but there's nothing too riveting there for me. It goes in a very predictable direction, and although the dialogue branches out a bit post-verdict on his knighthood, the actual narrative remains the same until the end of ToB. It's a bit too much 'growing pains' for me, where you're constantly affirming the validity of his emotions and actions. With respect, @Kurona I wonder if you mean he is one of the most developed party members in the sense that he has a lot of dialogue and content attached to him compared to others. As a 3-dimensional, multi-faceted pursuit, I would greatly disagree that he shows more layers than some of the less intensely attended NPCs.
Jaheira and Viconia, contrastingly, are great romances because in both instances there is little doubting the fact that you're dealing with women who have life experience. They aren't there to be told that they're fun, interesting, or pretty. They have moments of doubt, and moments of strength, and whilst the general theme of the dialogue is that you, as the PC, have to service their concerns (this is the case with all the original BG romances), it comes less in the form of pandering and flattery (Anomen/Aerie) and more in proving through dialogue that you can engage with their perspectives on an intelligent and patient level.
I haven't done the Aerie romance because frankly it seems like a monotonous series of dialogues in which the objective is to "be nice". I've tried to do it for the sake of being a completionist, but I lost interest halfway through the playthrough and scrapped the whole thing. On another instance I tried to take her along, sans romance but the same thing happened. Of the original NPCs of BG:SoA, she is the only party member I have never finished SoA or ToB with. I doubt that shall ever change.
Even Hexxat is almost polite to a fault and does her business behind the scenes. They are evil, but can be tolarated by a good or neutral pc to a degree. Korgan has his softer side for kids and Mazzy, Edwin is incompetent and a bit of funny butt-monkey for other npcs to taunt, Viconia can be redeemed and has an interesting backstory, same goes for Big S. etc.
But Dorn has to be in your face 'I put countless women and children to the sword, now let's go and chop everyone up in a wedding that happens to take place at a PALADIN STRONGHOLD, ooookay?'