Slotharingia

Only because they didn't want to ruin good ol' boy Eder for us by throwing it in our faces. Anti-racism is a tag for Serafen and Pallegina and they react to it when Eder speaks sometimes. Although Pallegina is racist towards her own self too. Godlikes aren't really a race or species or whatever in the usual sense, but still.

Mmh... that is an interesting point. Maybe it's more a certain thoughtlessness rather than complete lack of empathy? As Yria mentioned, he wasn't just terrible to Aloth but also pretty terrible to Hiravias, too, never truly realising how he offended them when he did with his careless actions or words. It is a large part of who Edér is, but seriously, whenever such a thing happens in Deadfire I sigh heavily because I wish he had seen *some* development in that department. Edit: One example for the Hiravias scenes is that Edér said something terribly racist in one of their dialogues. The next time, he walks up to Hiravias to say sorry, that he didn't mean it... and immediately after that asks Hiravias if he can pet him, like he was a dog. o.o It was a classic Edér, but very much highlights how thoughtless he could be, and insensitive. The buying-Iselmyr-a-drink is also another great example of what I mean. Ugh. I cringed reading about Hirvais and the buying Iselmyr a drink scene always makes me cringe. YES, why DO we like him so much that the well-meaning teddy bear is the image he generally has with people (including myself). ö

I don't know, he was also pretty rude to Hiravias and Pallegina on occasions too, without even realising that what he was saying was somehow wrong. Also, that painted chicken story from his childhood: even now as an adult he still doesn't really see that the thing they did to that farmer wasn't exactly nice. I think Eder is an interesting example of a good-natured person who at the same time seriously lacks empathy. I don't remember any of those scenes. Mind you, I usually only cart Aloth and Eder around all the time in P1, so that would be why.

I heard that Galawain buffs some of the bosses to make their fights tougher for you. I believe everyone else is covered in the opening post? Not sure if promises to Wael and Skaen/Woedica even count since Wael, at least, doesn't give you any stat bonus.Wael's boon gives you a +1 Intellect bonus in PoE1, it's just that you don't get it til the very VERY end of the game. And I think it was added in a later patch. Haven't carried that playthrough over to Deadfire yet though so not sure if there are any effects carried over, but I doubt it Edit: did I dream this? Lol I'm not able to find anything about it on the wiki I did one POE playthrough trying to get said boon, but nothing happened. You didn't dream it, I think it might just not have worked.

As I said in another post, the other day there were 2 items on the first page of Steam top sellers that were developer tools @ over 400 EUR each. I can't believe many people buy that, so it seems more or less meaninglesss. Also no 2 top seller last time I looked was some multiplayer with much worse reviews that Deadfire.

More laid back and confident, that I see. At least in Serafen and Tekehu, considering how it seems that Edér still hasn't found what he was looking for by the beginning of Deadfire. Empathy is also not a given for all. I can see it in Tekehu very clearly, but Edér is probably the least empathic person ever (*that* Iselmyr dialogue, anyone?). A shame he didn't learn anything in that regard, as he was already that careless in the original Pillars. I'm also not sure he learned a lesson this time around, so he could certainly use a bit of character development there! I think the companions as a whole are good characters, and interesting to interact with. But it is indeed a bit of a shame that we didn't get a shady/flamboyant female companion to balance it all out better. Xoti is way off the goofy charts, though. I think of all the companions in all the games, I like her the least. Eder falls into the category of laid back superficially. His behaviour to Aloth is terrible, but he does have the animal thing going, plus it was usually him in POE1 who was worried about the Watcher, he gives you talks about helping people when you gain rep, obsesses over helping the kid of some woman he hasn't seen in years, etc, so he definitely has empathy, just - not for Aloth. I'm not sure I can even speculate as to why. Possibly he genuinely prefers Iselmyr to such an extent it makes him want Aloth to go away, or he can't handle the strangeness of two people in one and deals with it in that unpleasant way. Or something else.

Not dutiful perhaps, but definitely more serious than most male companions. I don't see these two goofing around much either. I dunno if I'd call Ydwin "dutiful" or "overly serious" myself . She's more of an rogue "wild card" animancer hell-bent on survival, given her backstory. She's "dutiful" only beacuse she doesn't wish to hurt anyone with her research. Hurting herself is a different matter. And she can definately take a joke and dish one out too. Her sense of humour is rather subdued, but she's definately not a humorless stick-in-the-mud like for instance Pallegina. Literally first thing she does when she meets you is to gush about Old Vailian fashion and her tailoring hobby like an overexcited schoolgirl. She also likes to sing aloud for no reason when no-one is looking, although she has no singing voice - at least according to Mordwyr. I really wish she was a full companion - she would have been a excellent foil to Aloth. As for no "goofy female companions" - where does Xoti fit into that? She is at times one step removed from a Looney Tunes cartoon with her childish behaviour. And she clearly doesn't realize the consequences of her soul harvesting due to her blind zealotry - so there goes the "dutiful" aspect. But I get what you're saying. There is a running trend of "strong female characters" in various media that usually translates into "humorless, stuck-up woman with no strong personality traits or actual flaws - beacuse by God we cannot portray a woman as flawed", while men can be portrayed as flawed and incompetent without a bigger problem. It's a certain double standard that I wish went away and never came back - beacuse good, complex characters should be just that - good characters, no matter the gender. ...I am going to get yell at for this post, aren't I? I agree with you. Xoti isn't exactly ungoofy, but her zealotry ends up stuffing her in the Duty Over All Category. However, the sidekicks don't fit into the category, or have the potential not to, so it's a pity they weren't proper companions.

Can someone explain to me how enemy ships can keep fighting when it says they have 0 crew?

They also didn't need that long ass intro and the repetetive bell ringing scenes. I like companions and npc's being voiced, the rest I can do without. Agree it would work better with a new character, but I get why they did it. People *still* whine that they want their Warden back from DAO.

If you pay attention to his dialogue, I think it's pretty clear he is NOT really a missionary. He was a slacker/rebellious kid who had a bit of a pyro streak and ended up burning down an entire district. As punishment he was stuck on a boat with a bunch of missionaries headed to the middle of nowhere and told to help their mission. You're right! I admit I just thought it was "weird" and was too lazy to invest the effort to think :D

There does seem to be a general concept of males being more laid back/self confident (at least superficially)/accepting/able to question authority/possibly more capable of empathy? while the females seem to pattern into duty/something akin to zealotry (depending how you see it).

I heard that Galawain buffs some of the bosses to make their fights tougher for you. I believe everyone else is covered in the opening post? Not sure if promises to Wael and Skaen/Woedica even count since Wael, at least, doesn't give you any stat bonus. Yeah pledging to them means either not having pledged to another god beforehand, or breaking that pledge.

I'm glad you left out the broodmother boobies xD

Fassina has potential. She's a bit of a rebel.

Haha. I love Rekke too, though I worry about him being a "missionary". That could end up getting weird. I'd describe them as more questioning of authority. Xoti can be viewed as an exception as she goes against what others of her religion think, but she's so dedicated to that it kind of cancels it out.

I can't say anything definitive about sidekicks, as they don't have enough dialogue to judge, and they're not included in the relationship system. But if I were to guess I'd say Ydwin is close in character to Aloth, being a serious academic focused on her research. Fassina is an academic too, but unfocused for the moment and spiteful at everybody, cuz she just left her most hated master. Mirke is a comic relief, unfortunately the only one in the game, and not a companion. So even with those, the level of goofiness of male companions is still higher. Fassina comes out with some pretty hilarious comments on Arkemyr, and leaving him kind of suggests she's not that dutiful (as well as some other snippets you pick up about her). Ydwin - dedicated to her studies yes, but pretty into the whole experimental stuff. She seems more independent than "dutiful" to me.

She's dutiful to her country, just like Maia to hers and Xoti to her god. They may be dutiful to a fault, but still, generally that is viewed as a good trait, especially for soldiers. I'm not sure we are supposed to see it as an exclusively good trait in Eora I was thinking about the real world considerations of good traits, not Eora. I don't think Eorans even know what a feminist is, lol, they just live with it - women in command everywhere for gods know how long. I thought we were just talking about being dutiful, not women specifically here :D Or did I lose the plot? I wonder if the lopsided character are related to them having wanted to integrate some of the sidekicks but running out of time/resources/the desire. I find Fassina hilarious even if I can't stand her for kicking the imp, then there's the party animal drunkard and the weird soul drinker - none of them dutiful :D

For what it's worth, I play a wisecracking but kind-hearted Watcher (which gets approval from Eder VERY quickly) and in his approval dialogue triggered at +1, he mentions that the Watcher seeing/talking to dead people is creepy and it takes a special person to look past that. Not really what a woman who is attracted to him wants to hear, but there you go. I think just being a Watcher invalidates us as a potential partner in his eyes. Yet he has a crush on Iselmyr xD

She's dutiful to her country, just like Maia to hers and Xoti to her god. They may be dutiful to a fault, but still, generally that is viewed as a good trait, especially for soldiers. I'm not sure we are supposed to see it as an exclusively good trait in Eora (I never do but that's besides the point, haha). We have the whole theme of gods that think kith should do as told versus Eothas thinking kith should find their own way, and I see it as a micro version of it, same as the choice to support the RDC or VTC in Deadfire as opposed to letting the Huana find their own way, and in Aloth's case it does also contradict not only some stuff he says (like that he doesn't trust the RDC), but also some of his principles as both anti tradition/pro autonomy do suggest a level of questioning authority. Nor Pallegina's. She doesn't even have an issue with the whole slavery thing. She says "no way VTC would do that kind of thing". Does she? I must have missed that. But she didn't say anything when it becomes evident they were involved, or did I miss that too? Certainly it has no consequences for her devotion to her cause.

Yea, I'd rather companions had predetermined/fixed opinions about other companions and dialogues. Like it was in BG2, for example. Never liked approval systems, they encourage playing as a psychotic "yes-man" with no backbone if you want to have good relationships with everybody. Hell yeah. Either you end up messing up your character's personality, doing a ton of metagaming, or you just have to live with certain characters hating you, even when it doesn't make sense because you can never defend/explain yourself. I guess there's a reason DAO ended up making it self defeating with the feast day gifts.

Nor Pallegina's. She doesn't even have an issue with the whole slavery thing.

That woman is really unhealthy for the guy, I'm glad I helped him get rid of her. Her stay was long overdue. Now he can be a true master of himself and his decisions, and nobody can mess with him anymore. I dislike Iselmyr, but I feel like Aloth needed her at the time she surfaced, because he was basically paralysed. I always got him to get rid of her in POE1 as I felt he's moved beyond needing her and she just causes him trouble rather than helps him at that point. As for romance/Leaden Key. I'm not sure really. It seemed to me he felt overwhelmed by his task and felt it was pointless. He seemed happier to me in the romance ending to me. I haven't done a pro leaden key playthrough yet, but I'm biased to anti leaden key, so I can't see myself pushing him in the other direction.

I think it could have been done better. However, now that I've managed to get positive rep with Aloth really fast with a new character, it seems it might have been intended to match his uptight personality (still not convinced by the idea of him going from needing Watcher approval in 1, to only approving Watcher who acts in a very specific way makes sense though). In general, the approval system is too simplistic. It's based too much on comments people make, many of which are completely trivial, and too little on things of actual importance. There are also overlapping dispositions that different companions have that could have just been given the same name and resulted in a less perplexing player experience. i really didn't like Pallegina's quest (my char was godlike), not sure I'd call it stupid though xD

This particular trait of his is actually explained in his short story. Keeping things neat and well-organized helps him repress Iselmyr, so it's a habbit he developed in his attempts to maintain control. Yeah I agree it's terrible Serafen pokes in his head, but I think he actually means well, lol. BTW what short story? What do you mean by pro feminist agenda? I mean personally, I don't think they are "better" people, just more prone to adhere to authority (real or imagined), which could equally be interpreted as anti-feminist.

Probably because the approval system isn't based on banter, and Eder is rude in banter (I think?). He is the most deserving of it though.