Not really fond of any of the available romance targets. (Except Giva)

[ChompyRiley]

Amira is *way* too aggressive. Westley feels just a bit one-dimensional. A little too much 'i'm a werewolf woe is me'. Kim feels... kinda bland? Not a bad character, but she just never stood out to me as a romanceable target. Cameron is probably my favorite of the male 'targets'. I like wholesome guys, and he's about as wholesome as it gets, cultish vibes not withstanding, and you can even get him to question his belief in 'Malcontents' if you're married when he finds out you're a witch. The culty angle is a little too intense though. Damon is... Well he's Damon. He feels kinda scummy to me. He's trying too hard. Kai is a great guy, but he gives 'best friend' vibes rather than 'husband material'. Giva is my favorite. She's smart, a little awkward, and kinda shy. And she's the only one of the town's 'normies' who is like 'yo what the ♥♥♥♥ is going on with the weather and seasons here?!'.

Characters I wish you could romance? Zephyr, for similar reasons to why I live Giva. Violet, though I understand she's straight *AND* is just best pals with Tara. Still like her though. Thomas is probably the character I want to romance the most, though hooking him up with Sophia (another 'target' for me) is the next best thing. Natalia too, because Russian lady blacksmith yes please. plus she's chipper and cheerful and a redhead. Marty has potential. If Cameron can be redeemed. If Westley can be working for the BBEG and still be a romance target, why not Marty after a while? I think he and Tara could really connect over their shared experience of getting back to nature.

Have you noticed what all the characters I want to romance have in common (except Giva)? Interacting. I regularly hit up Zephyr to make gems for my robots. Natalia I visit the most besides Sophia. because blacksmith yo. Marty's for animals and feed. Thomas is in a fairly prominent spot, on the way to the beach and Marty's. Most of the characters you have to go out of your way to encounter regularly.

[Onion Budgie]

Giva's my favourite too, for all of the reasons that you mention. I was delighted when she came along after I'd fixed the mountain bridge. Made her my wifey pretty sharpish.

I liked Thomas, I wished he could have been romanceable. The grump/sunshine combination would have been cute.

What do you think of the new character, Eury?

[ChompyRiley]

Originally posted by Onion Budgie:

Giva's my favourite too, for all of the reasons that you mention. I was delighted when she came along after I'd fixed the mountain bridge. Made her my wifey pretty sharpish.

I liked Thomas, I wished he could have been romanceable. The grump/sunshine combination would have been cute.

What do you think of the new character, Eury?

Plus he's got that 'older and wiser' farmer vibe. He knows the land, he could help Tara learn more about the earth.

I haven't gotten to her yet. I haven't played in a while. i just felt like flipping through some of my previous screenshots.

Also I wish Vanessa had a bigger role before and after her reveal. She deserves better.

[Teirae]

I picked Amira, and she was a pretty easy choice. I like the bold confidence. and she has cute nicknames for Tara now married (I guess others would too, but I am enjoying the diversity). Giva's run/walk annoys me....like power walking idk why it bothers me. Obviously not a reason not to spouse her though. None of the males really do it for me, unfortunately.

[BlackCatSelene]

Honestly, the cult vibes plus the fact that Cameron's favourite foods are all ones with trendy fad phases bought Cameron a one-way ticked to the uncanny valley for me. Like, if I met someone like him IRL I would be asking myself if they're an alien trying to pass as human.

This is a personal theory, but I feel one thing that makes Amira and Westley popular is that they and Damon are the ones who know about magic the whole time. You spend many hours being told how important the secrecy of the coven is, to the point that unless they have the spark, you can't tell your partner or your children about magic being real. I think this can be a bit of a squick to a number of people and by the time it is lifted you've got a lot of work to do if you want to change.

Now I found the story compelling as hell, but I can see this being an unfortunate side effect.

I see Thomas as more of a second father to Tara, there seemed to be this respectful, almost mother/son relationship between him and Hazel that pushes him to open up to Tara a little.

[Errapel]

Originally posted by BlackCatSelene:

Honestly, the cult vibes plus the fact that Cameron's favourite foods are all ones with trendy fad phases bought Cameron a one-way ticked to the uncanny valley for me. Like, if I met someone like him IRL I would be asking myself if they're an alien trying to pass as human.

This is a personal theory, but I feel one thing that makes Amira and Westley popular is that they and Damon are the ones who know about magic the whole time. You spend many hours being told how important the secrecy of the coven is, to the point that unless they have the spark, you can't tell your partner or your children about magic being real. I think this can be a bit of a squick to a number of people and by the time it is lifted you've got a lot of work to do if you want to change.

Now I found the story compelling as hell, but I can see this being an unfortunate side effect.

I see Thomas as more of a second father to Tara, there seemed to be this respectful, almost mother/son relationship between him and Hazel that pushes him to open up to Tara a little.

I agree here. While I genuinely liked Westley, a big part of why I picked him was because I didn't have to lie to him. I felt deeply uncomfortable when I was married to Giva because I had to keep this big secret from her and I hated it. I refused to do the quest to sabotage her drone because I'm not doing that to my love. (You can't refuse the quest if they give it to you, and boy do I wish you could, so I just didn't talk to Lina about it).

Of course part of the entire story of the game is the coven coming to terms with how harmful the secrecy is to everyone. To the people of the island, to the coven itself. And having Tara potentially be a part of that makes sense. But it was really painful talking to Giva afterwards and her pointing out "Hey I have a lot I'm still figuring out, but I talked to you about it." It would have helped if Tara had said "Yeah, sworn to secrecy, I'm sorry." but she wasn't. She just... went along with it. Because Lina said so.

I personally never warmed much to Thomas, didn't really enjoy his character and certainly never wanted to romance him. He felt a bit too patronising towards Tara, though by late game I'm fine with him, just didn't want to date him. His thing for Lina was uncomfortable for all concerned and I was so relieved when he and Sophia got together. That storyline was beautiful and I loved it.

And honestly the base game's men really were kinda meh for me. Daemon I found kinda childish, Kai was just too surfer-dude for me, Cameron NOPE (even without the culty stuff, he's too trendy for me). I liked Westley, but yeah, he really needed more fleshing out too. I loved Amirah and rather liked Kim, but it was so clear that they were meant to be together and if you don't marry either of them by Spring 1 they get together. Or if you do marry one, then divorce them after Winter 1, BAM they're together immediately and Sophia's saying they've been eyeing each other for a while making it sound like they were cheating on Tara. So that whole thing rather put me off dating either of them . That said I honestly did enjoy Amirah's confidence. Though Kim seemed nice enough, I didn't really feel a connection there.

I haven't dated/married Eury yet as I'd need to either divorce my current spouse or start a whole new game, and I just don't have the energy for that right now. She isn't really my cup of tea either to be fair. Again she seems nice, but just didn't really interest me.

[ChompyRiley]

And slightly off-topic, but I think the part of what *really* hurt the coven that wasn't addressed was their insular and slightly culty behavior that led to you-know-who, as a *child*, being told 'no you can't learn magic with us and be part of our group, because you're not part of an established bloodline of witches' and then just being ignored for however many decades. They did my gal *real* dirty there. She even married a politician that's how low she fell.

[Errapel]

Originally posted by ChompyRiley:

And slightly off-topic, but I think the part of what *really* hurt the coven that wasn't addressed was their insular and slightly culty behavior that led to you-know-who, as a *child*, being told 'no you can't learn magic with us and be part of our group, because you're not part of an established bloodline of witches' and then just being ignored for however many decades. They did my gal *real* dirty there. She even married a politician that's how low she fell.

Thoroughly agree. There's a post somewhere in this forum were a lot of us discuss this, and yeah, I felt so sorry for her. Even Amirah notes that she herself didn't come from an established bloodline and wouldn't have got in if her girlfriend of the time hadn't brought her into the magical world. SO clearly it's possible. And You-know-who was a child. There was no 'This isn't for children, if you still feel called when you're 18, come back and we'll talk." Marcus apparently told her she would NEVER be a member of the coven. Did he say that when she was a kid? Did he see a kid, who was driven and drawn to magic and decide "Nah she's a baddie, she can't join us ever!"

I spent a lot of time befriending her. And her efforts to support Tara while Hazel was ill, and afterwards, they rang true. When you chat to her at one point its revealed she has no friends. I'm not saying any of this justifies her later actions, but boy does it explain it. Wraiths target people with grudges and old wounds, and hers went deep.

[ChompyRiley]

Originally posted by Errapel:

Originally posted by ChompyRiley:

And slightly off-topic, but I think the part of what *really* hurt the coven that wasn't addressed was their insular and slightly culty behavior that led to you-know-who, as a *child*, being told 'no you can't learn magic with us and be part of our group, because you're not part of an established bloodline of witches' and then just being ignored for however many decades. They did my gal *real* dirty there. She even married a politician that's how low she fell.

Thoroughly agree. There's a post somewhere in this forum were a lot of us discuss this, and yeah, I felt so sorry for her. Even Amirah notes that she herself didn't come from an established bloodline and wouldn't have got in if her girlfriend of the time hadn't brought her into the magical world. SO clearly it's possible. And You-know-who was a child. There was no 'This isn't for children, if you still feel called when you're 18, come back and we'll talk." Marcus apparently told her she would NEVER be a member of the coven. Did he say that when she was a kid? Did he see a kid, who was driven and drawn to magic and decide "Nah she's a baddie, she can't join us ever!"

I spent a lot of time befriending her. And her efforts to support Tara while Hazel was ill, and afterwards, they rang true. When you chat to her at one point its revealed she has no friends. I'm not saying any of this justifies her later actions, but boy does it explain it. Wraiths target people with grudges and old wounds, and hers went deep.

I mean what exactly did she do directly that was *that* bad? At least, that was any worse than what we see others do?

[galacticcorgi]

Originally posted by ChompyRiley:

And slightly off-topic, but I think the part of what *really* hurt the coven that wasn't addressed was their insular and slightly culty behavior that led to you-know-who, as a *child*, being told 'no you can't learn magic with us and be part of our group, because you're not part of an established bloodline of witches' and then just being ignored for however many decades. They did my gal *real* dirty there. She even married a politician that's how low she fell.

But it wasn't about bloodlines. Amira isn't an established bloodline. Shelby wasn't, either, because he wandered to here ages ago. Like, it was NEVER about established bloodlines. Vanessa just wanted an excuse to blame.

Vanessa may not have been evil, but she WAS attracted to VERY dangerous magic even as a child given she walked right up to the gates into the other realm. It's quite likely she was seen as someone dangerous to herself and others because of it. And if she was young enough, she wouldn't understand what was so dangerous.

[CookiesAreAKatherineFood]

The one I REALLY wish you could marry is Peri.