thoughtfulI'm kind of limited in my options here, because I've only played three romances to their conclusion -- Alistair, Anders, and Fenris -- and loved them all. I do have a Zevran romance that's almost finished (in my m!Surana game, which I should really get back to sometime soon), and I've enjoyed that quite a lot. I haven't romanced Sebastian, Merrill, or Morrigan, and I've only done a little bit of Isabela, but what I have seen was fun, and I'm looking forward to the rest.
That leaves us with Leliana, who I romanced as m!Surana, and also a little bit as f!Aeducan, and maybe she is the right answer to this question.
The problem I have with the Leliana romance is that it's too easy to trigger by accident. I said that I romanced her as f!Aeducan, but that's not exactly correct. My Aeducan was flirtatious, to be sure, but Leliana didn't seem to be responding at first, so she moved on.
And then, out of the blue, well after the romance with Alistair had progressed to the next level, Leliana professed her love and asked to spend the night.
To say that this was a surprise -- to Sereda and me both -- would be an understatement. Nothing in Leliana's dialogue up to that point had lead me to believe that she considered herself to be in a romance with the Warden. In contrast, when Zevran made his move, it was entirely predictable based on the interactions that had come before. I've heard people refer to Leliana's romance as a "stealthmance", and I totally agree with this. And it's troublesome, that a female character is shown as being so passive in matters of romance. Even worse is the break-up conversation, which I triggered in my m!Surana game -- even though she had professed her undying love and devotion to him several times, the minute Alim said "we have to talk", she beat him to the punch and walked away. Do any of the other characters give up their beloved Warden without a fight? (Or without a compelling external reason, like Alistair after he is made king.) It bothers me. Maybe it shouldn't, but it does.
Would I feel differently if I had played a Leliana romance through to the end? Perhaps, but what it comes down to is that I don't feel compelled to complete a Leliana romance. She's a great character, I enjoy her as a friend, but as of now, I'm happy to leave it at that.
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