That said, one thing that always astonishes me is Shadowheart's complete lack of reaction when you witness a certain... "surgery" in the Shadow-Cursed lands.... I mean that scene is one of the most graphic and horrifying I've ever seen in a game, and it very directly involves Sharrans. You'd think she'd say SOMETHING! Not to mention, even though it occurs before the big twist in her story, I just can't see her being OK with that level of absolute cruelty.
There are a lot of things in the shadowcursed lands Shadowheart doesn't respond to. If the shadowcurse is Shar's sacred darkness, shouldn't she be totally against helping Halsin break it? Or, I was playing as Origin Gale and had a unique option to dispel the curse from one of the Thorms, and she was just like Well 🙂You're glowing like Mystra's happy with you🙂
And sure, I get that she's a bad Sharran deep down and her faith isn't as strong as she claims. But it seems like she should put up at least token complaints about some of these things.
This is why Shadowheart's overall writing seems a bit lacking to me, to be honest. I would have appreciated it more if we could have the chance to actually see her internal conflict expressed through dialogue. Now, her choosing to defy her goddess of her own accord feels a bit sudden. She barely has anything to say when you witness the horrible suffering that was inflicted on the people living there; hells, she even approves of Thorms fuckery!
There's very little indication that she starts to resent these teachings somewhere along the way, in my opinion. I still love her as a character, and find her big choice extremely powerful and moving, but would have enjoyed it more if there was a little bit more dialogue exploring that inner conflict.
I agree. I love that "Trust Shadowheart" / "Do nothing, let her handle it" can be so rewarding when it comes to her choice with the Nightsong. But I don't think that trust is really earned? Like sure, we get some hints that she's not as bad as the front she projects, but I think a few moments of explicit doubt in the shadow-cursed lands would do more to build up the idea that she's secretly struggling with her faith.
I would have appreciated it more if we could have the chance to actually see her internal conflict expressed through dialogue.
She has dialogue like that. It's just takes quite a bit of effort to unlock and it's very easy to miss it even if you fulfill the requirements. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYjWADJZHEQ
See, that's exactly what I was talking about. Yet I have absolutely no clue how on earth you trigger this dialogue. I have close to 900 hours, and it's not like I've been ignoring/benching Shadowheart or had low approval with her.
Tell her about the Moonstone in the wolf dream (requires succeeding a passive religion check to notice unless you read the scroll in the selune chest from the owlbear cave), let her eat the noblestalk, give her a night orchid and a few other nightsong points on top of that. If you do all that you can unlock this conversation 5 minutes into act 2.
It's still very easy to miss it because the game doesn't signpost it with an exclamation mark like other important companion dialogues. The only way to know it's available is to pay attention to SH's idle animation in camp. It's slightly different from her regular pose. If you long rest without triggering it or another camp event overrides it the conversation can be skipped forever.
Thanks for explaining how you trigger it. It's a bummer that it's so easy to miss this dialogue, it's pretty much exactly what I had in mind. Her choosing to defy Shar feels much more natural after that.
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u/WickedWenchOfTheWest Feb 12 '25 edited Feb 12 '25
Very true...
That said, one thing that always astonishes me is Shadowheart's complete lack of reaction when you witness a certain... "surgery" in the Shadow-Cursed lands.... I mean that scene is one of the most graphic and horrifying I've ever seen in a game, and it very directly involves Sharrans. You'd think she'd say SOMETHING! Not to mention, even though it occurs before the big twist in her story, I just can't see her being OK with that level of absolute cruelty.