Yria

I admit I'm guilty of having a couple of "I am the PC here!" moments myself. The number of Tekehu's ex girlfriends we run into tends to become overwhelming lol.

This discussion reminded me of BG again.

Nah, I like Xoti too, even though I have no idea why. Maybe her neediness makes my big sister instincts kick in. But she has lots of character flaws, and I find it puzzling that so many companions love her to bits. Hell, even Nemnok likes her.

But they actually start arguing with low enough disposition, and you have to settle the matters between them. That Xoti vs Pallegina scene that used to trigger too early (btw have they fixed it?) is one of a few. Pallegina can have a fight with Tekehu, Tekehu picks a fight with Maia (they do kinda make up later in both cases), and those are the only ones I personally know about. There might be more. It's the banter that doesn't fit the rest of their interaction.

Xoti is so well liked in the party it makes me wonder if I'm the crazy one. I think the only one she doesn't have a +2 with is Pallegina. Aloth likes her because "Mah duty!", Tekehu likes her because she is religious, Maia likes her because provincial, Serafen likes her because impassionated, and I'm not even sure what the heck is the deal with Eder since he keeps bitching at her during their banter but even he has her at +2. It's like a reversal from how the player community views her (so far she seems to be the most hated companion). And the best part is, she only likes Maia and Eder back. For others she is either -1 or 0.

Maybe he is just that much of a nice person and feels really bad about having to destroy your keep and steal your soul? He sounded so invested in my wellbeing during that conversation in Ashen Maw that all I could say in the end was "Err thank you, much appreciated", none of the other replies seemed to fit the situation

Okay, after finishing Ashen Maw myself (as opposed to just reading spoilers) I have to say that my biggest gripe with the game isn't even about the terribly short main story or unfocused narrative. It's about making my character way more important for the game's world than I like them to be, silly as this might sound. I enjoyed it in PoE 1 that while we were somewhat rare as a watcher, we were still by no means unique. Our ties to the plot came from having known Thaos in a previous life, not from being the Chosen One. Running into Adaryc and having him read our soul was really cool because it drove home this exact message: the Watcher is no special snowflake, there are dozens of others like them out there in the world. I loved that. But now we have to be this Herald of Berath, Chaser of Eothas, super special THE Watcher of Caed Nua character to whom even the gods actually listen. What the actual f... If I wanted to feel that special, I'd just go play ME again. Eothas, why couldn't you awaken under somebody else's keep, why did you have to do this to me?

My character was honest and benevolent too. Guess what? Aloth was the only companion she ever hit -1 with. I had to use that Dunnage exploit to get to +1. Meanwhile Serafen who is a bloody pirate was an instant +2. Just because you are not experiencing this problem doesn't mean it's not there.

And it's not just him approving in conversations because she triggers his "dutiful" disposition. I've been listening to the party banter on youtube, and he actually admits that he admires Xoti because she is so dedicated to her faith despite a lot of her superiors being agaisnt it. Like wut??? Aloth, buddy, last time we talked in Sun in Shadow you absolutely hated the gods and the people who would spread lies about them. I can understand having a measure of respect for someone who is firm in their beliefs even when you don't agree with the beliefs themselves. But Xoti isn't just strong in her faith, she is bordering on fanatical and trying to shove it down other people's throat on some occasions, and yet Aloth is downright praising her. I don't know, maybe it's pro-Leaden Key Aloth banter, but since he always has "dutiful" tag regardless of his situation with the Leaden Key, I'm not sure what to think.

While I do think we should wait for a patch (or a few) and see how Aloth behaves after the relationship system is fixed, the whole "Aloth rolls his eyes" thing is already becoming a meme for a reason. A lot of people are experiencing this problem specifically with Aloth, and I doubt they all play one single type of character. He simply dislikes so many things that it is difficult to please him. Some of it is obviously due to the bugs, but even when those are fixed, Aloth giving you the "You're becoming like Thaos!" lecture for endorsing harmless local traditions a few times will still be there. Aloth giving Xoti his approval for being super religious (because dutiful=religious in her case) despite having a huge rant about the gods and their lies in the first game, will still be there... Xoti approving of Maia shooting that ranga in the head will probably still be there, too. The problem isn't even with Aloth, really, it's that they scripted these reactions poorly, and in many situations it makes absolutely no sense. It simply more glaring in Aloth's case than it is with the rest of the companions, making him come off as a boring hypocritical git as a result.

I think it's simply bugged (again). I recall having the same problem with companions barks in the first game: they didn't react to my poking until some patch that came very, very late, somewhere around the release of White March.

These poke lines don't trigger for me in game though. Very rarely they would say one single annoyed line that is always the same, while in the linked video they all have plenty of responces. My absolute favorite from the two games is still Durance's idle "If this is a contest of wills, Watcher... I submit".

It seems Maia-Xoti relationship miraculously triggered without any bugs in my game. They had a couple of cute banters where Maia called her "firefly", than Maia hit +2 with Xoti, and next time I talked to Xoti she started asking advice on how she should approach Maia. Then Xoti also reached +2 with Maia, and Maia came to me to talk about their relationship. Now I'm eating popcorn and waiting to see how it all plays out. By the way, they also have some romance-specific lines in combat and such. If you hit Xoti Maia yells something like "Don't you dare to hurt my Firefly!". Or when you give Xoti a yellow item (I think), she asks if we could also get something nice for Maia.

Bekarna's folly is my favorite. Concelhaut, the Circle, nice little piece of lore that plays well into the end game revelations, and a sudden wink from Wael of all people (he even called me pal!). Blow the Man Down probably would have left a better impression if I hadn't just talked Benweth down, that was one of the most awkward conversations I had in the entire game. "Heya, me and my pirate buddies are gonna kill you! - But have you never heard that you should keep friends close and enemies even closer? Let's be friends! - Hmm yeah sure why not". Meh. Should have just rigged the piano.

And if you don't finish WMII that slide will be replaced with the one where the Eyeless bring Caed Nua down on your head (obviously while you were there and not in Sun in Shadow). Also, iirc that "long journey" slide features the Watcher standing on a road outside Twin Elms, with or without Vela in their arms. And, again, there is a separate slide about the Watcher getting some sleep and finding the way out along with the companions that comes in the very beginning of the sequence: Exhausted, your consciousness slipping away, your last sight was of the machine, dark and dormant. Then your eyes closed, and sleep welcomed you at long last. After coming to and searching for some time, you discovered the route Thaos used to enter Sun in Shadow, and embarked on a long and arduous ascent back to the surface. You emerged in Teir Evron after days of tunneling through the rubble Thaos had left behind, and when you stepped into the daylight, you were faced with a different Dyrwood than the one you had left.

But these words come after all other slides. If you are correct it would kind of read like "So after all of it was over, Eder joined a cult, Durance immolated himself, Kana sailed back to Rauatai, Sagani became an elder, Devil is rusting at the bottom of the ocean, and you have to find your way back to the bloody surface". In other words, really weird. Not to mention that there is in fact a separate slide about you and your companions digging yourselves out exactly the way Thaos came.

My biggest problem with Aloth being in Deadfire is how we happen to run into him on dome random island where we accidentally crash. What were the chances?

Never even liked the place Although if POE I slides are any indication (Narrator: "...a long journey looms ahead". Watcher: proceeds to lock themselves up in Caed Nua for 5 years), they will probably write it off anyway.

Well, they all do promise to meet again someday. Right now my only gripe is with the Watcher who suddenly decides to ditch them and "go home" (where exactly?). I liked it here in the Deadfire, I don't want to go anywhere until the next game, thank you very much.

Serafen didn't even comment on that. Furrante was super chill, he just said something like "So you scared that bugger to death, good for you" and proceded to give me the next quest. I expected him to be annoyed, but if he was he didn't show it one bit. Talking Benweth down felt a bit silly though, that conversation wasn't very convincing, I wouldn't really say he was scared of me.

I had that when I took him and Tekehu to the Wild Mare for the first time. There is a humorous conversation between the godlike and the innkeeper, in which I participated, with Aloth rolling his eyes the whole time. I assumed it was at Tekehu's party animal antics, but apparently, me joking about it was just as bad. Went from 0 to -1,5 after that one encounter, triggering the "get your s... together, you're not treating this whole Eothas business seriously" lecture. Huh. I joked in that conversation too, but Aloth only disapproved of Tekehu, not me. My own rep with him remained at 0. Go figure. It also seems that when Aloth reacts to something it doesn't always get listed in the conversation window. Your score with him goes up/down, but you are not informed about it. Might be the same with other companions as well. This is something I actually like about this whole relationship system. It reflects the companions' personalities rather well. Both Serafen and Tekehu (especially Tekehu) are friendly and easy-going, and they aren't going to have a problem with you unless you really cross the line. I bet Tekehu isn't even aware that he is such a headache to half of the party lol.

I totally get it, he was one of my favorites in the first game as well. But now that he is giving people pained looks and massaging his temples i find it difficult to like him. And if you think this is bad wait until his opinion of you drops to -1 and he starts lecturing you about "becoming like Thaos" because traditions. As for what you could do to raise his approval, there are a couple of methods to cheat your way around it. There is a mod on Nexus that allows you to use the console without disabling the achievements, and then there is also that dancer girl on Dunnage (in the quest where you need to assemble a theatre group, Aloth approves each time you approach the innkeeper with a propostion to buy the girl's freedom and immediately leave the conversation, so you can just keep engaging in the same dialogue over and over again until you gain enough approval).

I'm not sure. Being flirty and/or needy does look in character, but in my case she went from happily commenting about Eder being naked in the bathhouse, to blowing me a kiss to finally settling for Maia within a couple of hours. Feels a bit much.

While I agree with your opinion on Aloth's personality in the second game, I think there is something weird going on with some of companion approval tags. For example, when I decided to give that tablet from Arkemyr's house to the huana questgiver, Aloth suddenly disapproved of me with a "pride" tag before I even said a word? It kinda went like - Huana: Oh hi Watcher! Aloth: [Pride] Aloth gives you a pained look ALOTH WTF Then there is also Xoti and Serafen approving Maia's story about killing that spoiler guy and telling you all the gruesome details with "wordliness" tag. I guess I could kinda... sorta... understand Serafen liking the story (although not really) but Xoti? And how the hell was it wordly? Tl; dr: the approval system seems terribly broken, not only in terms of numbers and speed at which you gain reputation, but also the tags themselves.

I know a player whose ending slides suggested that she took Xoti's virtue and dumped her, with Xoti somehow ending up with Maia AND becoming a sickle-swinging psycho at the same time. So there are definetely some bugs at work here.