@Belgarathmth - The ToB part of the Haer'Dalis mod just needs to be coded, I think, and we will finally have a romancible Haer'Dalis!
I think Jaheira's maturity, and restraint, for a lot of situations is why I consider her a mother figure for a lot of my charnames, the ones that meet her anyway. I mean, I'm proud of her for not doing what my male elf would do.
@Shandyr, LOL. Thanks for being so thoughtful. But really, I'm not as serious about the whole thing as I probably come across as.
Let's see, the first thing Ano has going for him is that he's the only choice of a romanceable male without adding mods.
The next thing, and probably the main thing, is that his portrait is one of my "types" physically. I like guys with strong jawlines, full, pouty lips, a little bit of scruffiness/sideburns/goatee, and intense eyes. His strength stat implies that he has the muscular body I like.
I could wish that he wasn't quite such a jerk.
Most of my posts about Anomen are made with a smile and a feeling of playfulness. Sometimes, I'm honestly just trying to yank certain people's chains by being all "out and proud" about being a gay gamer. Lord knows, I have to stay closeted in real life, so games and anonymous game forums are my only chance to be out.
On the more serious, or self-revelatory elements of my finding him attractive, I am very attracted to guys with an "attitude". I like cocky, self-assured guys, and Ano kind of fits the bill. In real life, guys like that usually don't like me, because I'm too much of a geek and a nerd, and they are almost always work-out jocks. I spend all my free time reading, playing games and writing on forums; they work out at the gym three hours a day, go to martial arts class, and play a sport.
If a guy like Ano was interested in me as a boyfriend in real life, I would most definitely have some fun with him, and I'd probably get emotionally attached. When he began to emotionally abuse me, I would start thinking that I needed to get out of the relationship. How soon I would cut things off would depend on how bad the abuse, and how much I felt like his past justified it, and how much I thought he would change. Chances are, he would cut things off with me long before then, because he wouldn't like my tendency to be jealous and possessive, or my intellectualism, more than likely.
With Ano, I'm just playing out a fantasy. People probably don't realize it, because it's not always clear, but I often post as my character. In some of my posts, I'm actually still kind of half-in the game, roleplaying.
I started this topic because I was shocked by Ano's comment, but in a fun sort of way, and I just felt like having a discussion with friends about the character.
I can be pretty impulsive with what I post.
I apologize if my intention of having a fun, interesting little discussion of this fictional character came across as more serious than I meant it.
His dad isn't very nice and bad upbringing usually does that to a person. In my experience, children often turn out to be similar or exactly like their parents.
I know more about such stuff than I can say.
But I don't like Anomen anyway. To me he's a man-child.
Bad upbringing might lead to bad behavior, but it does not excuse it. Anomen is a grown (ahem) man, so he is accountable for what filth passes his lips. I'm with @LadyRhian on this one - he needs a Shar-Teel kick to the nether regions.
Just to warn, this thread is going again about how bad and jerk anomen is. That's a reason to like the character, not to dislike him. Many characters please in Baldur's Gate, but a character that is able to piss off a lot of people like Anomen? That's a challenge.
He's not even that bad. Compared to characters like Eldoth and Shar-Teel, Anomen is certainly a lot more three-dimensional and agreeable (not to mention that he can change, which they can't). I think the main source of frustration is that he's the only vanilla option for female characters.
@Shin That's it. Men get three choices, and women only get one. And that one is Anomen. He might be a bit more palatable if he was just one choice out of multiple ones, but as a single choice, he's dismal.
Women were supposed to get Haer'Dalis and Valygar as love interests as well, but alas, they didn't have time to finish it. At least that is what I've heard anyway. However, thanks to Aeryn, we may have Haer'Dalis real soon.
As for my Amara-Lee playthrough, Adrian really doesn't like Anomen.
obs: Anomen romance is long in SoA, so is easy to lose some of the banters while the party goes to Throne of Bhaal, try to stay a little longer in SoA to get all the banters.
I personally would have been most interested in a Valygar romance, especially if your character is a mage, which would be a very interesting question of character development. Since Valygar's fairly mysterious (being so very dark and brooding and stuff) it would be interesting to get under the surface and find what makes him tick.
Haer'Dalis, well.... less so. "OoOOo, decay, entropy! Bird analogies! I'm a bard without a bard song and primary melee combatant that wears cloth and only gets one attack per round! Plus I like to interfere with male Charnames Aerie romances and can never receive any repercussions for my actions!"
About every romanceable NPC in the game can only be full understood after a romance game with them, Anomen is no exeption. You can get the main events of Anomen even without a romance as happens with all romances (he's the less restrictive romance to events), but some talks only come with romance.
Then, I just tonight got this little gem of a dialogue upon showing mercy to a poor little low-level rogue caught in the crossfire between Renal Bloodscalp and Mae'Var:
Huh. This made me think, Damn, Ano, girl, how evil can you be? This fellow has a seriously bad, abusive darkside, that is making me rethink how I have defended him and "loved" him. How can he speak to Jaheira like that? Or to any woman, for that matter? Hotness will only give you a pass so many times.
[snippage]
But still, the harshness of this exchange has got me to rethinking my support for the guy.
Thoughts? Comments?
Good grief! That's seriously harsh, I've never had that dialogue before.
I will admit his attitude - and sometimes cringey dialogue - is why I struggled with the romance to start with because, as good looking as he is, it does stink. He can be arrogant, pompous and boorish and, as demonstrated there hugely disrespectful. But, as you say there is this opportunity in game to redeem him, show him the error of his ways and essentially, make him a better person. What you also have to bear in mind is what a thoroughly unpleasant upbringing he had, to me a line like that sounds like pure Cor. I sound like I'm making excuses for him now, I'm not, it's one of the things which frustrates me about the interactions with Anomen in that when he says stuff like that you (or the other NPCs) don't really get a chance call him on it. Perhaps if BGII:EE comes along a set of expanded dialogues for him might be forthcoming?
I'll shurrup now because TBH, Ano & his many, many issues is one of my favourite subjects, ultimately though as unpalatable as it is a line like that only serves to make him more human somehow and not a cardboard cutout knight in shining armour. He reminds me rather of the sort of knights George R R Martin writes.
@Jalily, does that mean that there is no chance whatsoever for Viconia to ever leave a good party? (As long as you don't take Keldorn.)
If that's true, I may reconsider bringing her along on my next run. She's certainly a deep, fascinating character, if I could trust her not to abandon my maxed-out reputation.
I am not sure if this is answered anywhere, but you can't protected against her leaving the party unless you mod the game. She lowers your reputation by 2 when she joins (and only when she joins) but doesn't cap it at 18 or prevent it from hitting 19 or 20. If you kick her out of the party when your reputation has hit 19 or 20, you can invite her back in the party and it will lower it back to 18 but that will break the romance.
You can do some non-violent things to lower reputation (open a locked chest in a house with someone watching and tell the guards to shove it and run but don't attack them) but you will need to find a way to balance it and keep it 18 or below. So to keep her, you still need to manage the mechanic and avoid maxing your reputation.
@AHF, ah, thanks for the clarification. I will not be able to use Viconia comfortably, unless some strange whim strikes me to play an evil game. I can't really see myself doing that right now, because "goody-two-shoes-ness" is so ingrained into my personality, I don't have the stomach for cruelty and crime, even in a game.
I'm pretty sure @belgarathmth doesn't want to do anything that would purposefully lower his reputation. Luckily, in BGEE, there is no Viconia romance to break.
Another way to lower rep to keep Viconia around would be to change into the slayer, if you've gotten to that point yet.
Also, I was reading some banters between Anomen and Keldorn, as well as, Anomen and Adrian. And well, the former I was okay with, but the latter got me laughing at a certain part. I was like "Oh my god Adrian, I can't believe you just said that to Anomen!" with some giggles coming out after it. Heh.
@SapphireIce101, thanks for the tip. I hadn't thought of that. Although, I would fear that I would hit 20 rep a long time before getting that far, so I still don't feel comfortable bringing Viconia.
I've played as an evil person a couple of times. The lowest rep that I've had was a rep of two. Said CHARNAME was going to corrupt Anomen to get him to fail his knighthood test, but I just couldn't playthrough it anymore.
Anomen has more issues than National Geographic. He's full of self-loathing which makes him a complete dbag at times--especially to anyone he perceives as weaker than him. Do I understand it? Yes. Do I excuse it? No. Anomen does eventually change into a mostly decent human being, but putting up with him long enough to make that happen is a challenge. Do his flaws make him more human? Maybe, but in real life, I wouldn't put up with someone who was that arrogant or condescending unless I absolutely had to. In BG2, if my charname wanted love, I had to put up with him. A Haer'Dalis romance would be hilarious and awesome. Yes, he goes a little heavy on the bird metaphors, but he's fun. He makes me laugh. Valgyar might be too broody, and I suspect he'd be another "Your love can change him" story. I'm with @LadyRhian --romanceable Minsc would make my female charnames very happy. He's such a sweetie, and he doesn't have to be anything other than exactly what he is.
I'm pretty sure that romance active characters (in stage 2) does not leave the party in reason of reputation issues, but i can test it on the future just to make sure this info.
Wasn't trying to besmirch your answer, but it seemed vague to me when you said rep is 'permanently' lowered by 2. @belgarthmth then asked if it was impossible for Viconia to leave the group and no one seemed to respond to that.
For someone like him who takes all the rep increasing routes, Viconia's -2 to rep is a mere speedbump in the road to her quitting the team. Over a full game, Viconia's rep mechanic isn't useful for keeping evil characters happy unless you boot her off the squad and invite her back repeatedly since it is a one-time impact. Given how he plays, he'll end up with 40 rep increasing points and be at 20 rep the entire game anyway unless he manages his rep which is pretty much the same for Viconia as for Edwin.
@AHF, thank you for making all that so clear. I tried a party once with Viconia, Edwin, and Korgan, and I abandoned that run before Spellhold, because it just wasn't working out for me.
Comments
I think Jaheira's maturity, and restraint, for a lot of situations is why I consider her a mother figure for a lot of my charnames, the ones that meet her anyway. I mean, I'm proud of her for not doing what my male elf would do.
Let's see, the first thing Ano has going for him is that he's the only choice of a romanceable male without adding mods.
The next thing, and probably the main thing, is that his portrait is one of my "types" physically. I like guys with strong jawlines, full, pouty lips, a little bit of scruffiness/sideburns/goatee, and intense eyes. His strength stat implies that he has the muscular body I like.
I could wish that he wasn't quite such a jerk.
Most of my posts about Anomen are made with a smile and a feeling of playfulness. Sometimes, I'm honestly just trying to yank certain people's chains by being all "out and proud" about being a gay gamer. Lord knows, I have to stay closeted in real life, so games and anonymous game forums are my only chance to be out.
On the more serious, or self-revelatory elements of my finding him attractive, I am very attracted to guys with an "attitude". I like cocky, self-assured guys, and Ano kind of fits the bill. In real life, guys like that usually don't like me, because I'm too much of a geek and a nerd, and they are almost always work-out jocks. I spend all my free time reading, playing games and writing on forums; they work out at the gym three hours a day, go to martial arts class, and play a sport.
If a guy like Ano was interested in me as a boyfriend in real life, I would most definitely have some fun with him, and I'd probably get emotionally attached. When he began to emotionally abuse me, I would start thinking that I needed to get out of the relationship. How soon I would cut things off would depend on how bad the abuse, and how much I felt like his past justified it, and how much I thought he would change. Chances are, he would cut things off with me long before then, because he wouldn't like my tendency to be jealous and possessive, or my intellectualism, more than likely.
With Ano, I'm just playing out a fantasy. People probably don't realize it, because it's not always clear, but I often post as my character. In some of my posts, I'm actually still kind of half-in the game, roleplaying.
I started this topic because I was shocked by Ano's comment, but in a fun sort of way, and I just felt like having a discussion with friends about the character.
I can be pretty impulsive with what I post.
I apologize if my intention of having a fun, interesting little discussion of this fictional character came across as more serious than I meant it.
His dad isn't very nice and bad upbringing usually does that to a person. In my experience, children often turn out to be similar or exactly like their parents.
I know more about such stuff than I can say.
But I don't like Anomen anyway. To me he's a man-child.
As for my Amara-Lee playthrough, Adrian really doesn't like Anomen.
Haer'Dalis, well.... less so. "OoOOo, decay, entropy! Bird analogies! I'm a bard without a bard song and primary melee combatant that wears cloth and only gets one attack per round! Plus I like to interfere with male Charnames Aerie romances and can never receive any repercussions for my actions!"
Yeah, the tiefling kind of annoyed me.
I will admit his attitude - and sometimes cringey dialogue - is why I struggled with the romance to start with because, as good looking as he is, it does stink. He can be arrogant, pompous and boorish and, as demonstrated there hugely disrespectful. But, as you say there is this opportunity in game to redeem him, show him the error of his ways and essentially, make him a better person. What you also have to bear in mind is what a thoroughly unpleasant upbringing he had, to me a line like that sounds like pure Cor. I sound like I'm making excuses for him now, I'm not, it's one of the things which frustrates me about the interactions with Anomen in that when he says stuff like that you (or the other NPCs) don't really get a chance call him on it. Perhaps if BGII:EE comes along a set of expanded dialogues for him might be forthcoming?
I'll shurrup now because TBH, Ano & his many, many issues is one of my favourite subjects, ultimately though as unpalatable as it is a line like that only serves to make him more human somehow and not a cardboard cutout knight in shining armour. He reminds me rather of the sort of knights George R R Martin writes.
You can do some non-violent things to lower reputation (open a locked chest in a house with someone watching and tell the guards to shove it and run but don't attack them) but you will need to find a way to balance it and keep it 18 or below. So to keep her, you still need to manage the mechanic and avoid maxing your reputation.
I'm pretty sure @belgarathmth doesn't want to do anything that would purposefully lower his reputation. Luckily, in BGEE, there is no Viconia romance to break.
Also, I was reading some banters between Anomen and Keldorn, as well as, Anomen and Adrian. And well, the former I was okay with, but the latter got me laughing at a certain part. I was like "Oh my god Adrian, I can't believe you just said that to Anomen!" with some giggles coming out after it. Heh.
I'm not one to play evil - it just isn't something I enjoy.
For someone like him who takes all the rep increasing routes, Viconia's -2 to rep is a mere speedbump in the road to her quitting the team. Over a full game, Viconia's rep mechanic isn't useful for keeping evil characters happy unless you boot her off the squad and invite her back repeatedly since it is a one-time impact. Given how he plays, he'll end up with 40 rep increasing points and be at 20 rep the entire game anyway unless he manages his rep which is pretty much the same for Viconia as for Edwin.
Id rather allow Minsc to shove boo up my *TMI?* than even look at that waste of air.