Highlights
- The new Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 6 features exciting new content and fixes, stirring up excitement among fans.
- While the new kissing and camp animations are a hit, comforting Shadowheart after her tragic backstory is the standout feature.
- The ability to hug Shadowheart post-event showcases the importance of human connection in the game, adding depth to her character.
Baldur’s Gate 3 recently released Patch 6, which a lot of players were extremely excited about. Considering it’s packed full of new content and necessary fixes, it comes as no surprise that it’s such a hot topic among fans.
A lot of players seemed to get lost in the idea of the new kissing animations (which look absolutely amazing), new camp animations, and the streamlined process of switching out your camp members. However, amid all that fresh goodness, it seems a lot of people missed out on the one feature that I feel is actually the best part of the entire patch — being able to comfort Shadowheart after the events at The House of Grief.
Shadowheart’s questline hit me harder than any other quest in a game before. She is such a well-written character, and Jennifer English (her voice actor) could not have done a better job. While the entire questline packed an emotional punch, the ending hit me the hardest. So, when I saw in the patch notes that “you can now give Shadowheart a hug when she’s crying after losing or saving her parents,” I was elated.
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A Tragically Beautiful Character
I have always been drawn to tragic characters, so it comes as no shock that Shadowheart quickly became my favorite the moment that I saw her on the Nautiloid. The more I learned about Shadowheart and her backstory, the more pain I felt for her as a character. This pain only intensified when I played as all the Origin Characters and learned the truth behind her mysterious wound.
A hug from Tav certainly doesn’t fix all the heartbreak that Shadowheart experiences, but the truth is that people need people.
I went into the game completely blind, and thankfully, I didn’t have a hard time building a great relationship with Shadowheart. Every time that she had an important decision to make, I stood back and told her to do what she knew was right. After all, I think everyone should have agency in their own lives.
But when it came to the moment in the House of Grief, I had no clue what to tell her. My parents have played a pivotal role in me being who I am. I cannot imagine a world where I grew up apart from my parents like she did, and then to be reunited with them only to lose them again is a pain I cannot fathom. The truth is, either option for her sucked — a lot. So, I told her she didn’t need me to decide for her, which led to her parents begging her to save herself and sacrifice them. And she did.
A Friend In Need, Still In Need
After returning to camp, Shadowheart told me she needed to think about what she had done, and who could blame her? Later that night, I found her standing by an old Selune statue, wondering whether people lost faith or just left the statue behind. Before long, she was sobbing and wondering why her story had to end the way it did. Why couldn’t Shar just leave her alone? Why couldn’t she be the perfect daughter that saved both herself and her parents? Watching her break down in those moments, I felt like I was watching my best friend go through the hardest moment of her life, and instead of helping, I stood there watching like it was some kind of show.
Being the empath that I am, I was absolutely devastated by what was unfolding before me. Larian Studios did such an amazing job at bringing these characters to life, and I truly felt like I was just… there, doing absolutely nothing. After Shadowheart finished sobbing into her hands, my Tav awkwardly said bye and completely dipped, leaving their best friend to stand there during a traumatic time, all alone. I just left her hanging.
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Now, with Patch 6, I can finally do what I wanted to do back in August when I first saw this scene. You now have the option to hug Shadowheart after she starts to cry. Whether she saved her parents or killed them, the scene plays out the same. If she saves them, she will lament that she doesn’t deserve to be anyone’s daughter, and if she kills them, she will lament about never getting to know them. Once she starts crying, you have the option to embrace her.
A hug from Tav certainly doesn’t fix all the heartbreak that Shadowheart experiences, but the truth is that people need people. There are times when a hug is all you can give, and even if it doesn’t seem like it, it can do so much for someone. It might be just a small gesture from Tav, but it could mean everything to Shadowheart to just feel less alone in the world. It seems that she has spent her entire life hidden away from others, and it’s time she finally got the comfort of having a true friend.
While Patch 6 brings some amazing things to the table in terms of romantic love between you and your partner, that isn’t the only type of love that it brings. The pure love in this scene makes this one of the best moments in the game, whether your Tav is in love with Shadowheart or just loves Shadowheart. I adore the new animations and fixes to bugs that this patch brought, but I would easily give all that away just to see this scene. Shadowheart is such a beautifully tragic character, and she deserves to experience the love of true friendship.
