The new Companions are both Male, but...

The_Titan_Tim

I honestly could have seen a Shadowscale companion that’s a Necromancer for our Argonian, they could have made them wicked dark and thrown on the chalk skull face paint and really made them a likeable companion… not a Warden, seems an odd choice when there are races that would be more inclined to it, like a Bosmer.

A Shadowscale Argonian companion would have made much more sense diving deep into a Dunmer homeland, his introduction quest could have been a Dark Brotherhood contract, where you’re hunting a Slaver, and the companion uses corpses to strike fear into the heart of his victim as dictated by the performer of the Black Sacrament.

BretonMage

amapola76 wrote: »

Mind you, I think part of the issue with Bastian is his voice. Not to say that the voice acting is bad, per se; but the voice is ... not necessarily the most attractive to everyone? And voices are important. For example, for years, I could never understand all the love for Verandis. But then they changed the voice actor, and now I totally get it.

Yeah, voice is extremely important, and for me, more important in video games than looks. I personally thought Bastian sounded a little young. I've seen a number of people say they like his voice though, so I don't think it's universally disliked. The main issue with Bastian is bad writing imo. I find a lot of the dialogue with the original companions sound a bit forced and unnatural. And Bastian bore the brunt of it because players found him disapproving of criminal activities that are considered normal in ESO.

SilverBride

BretonMage wrote: »

wilykcat wrote: »

The original discussion is about the new lizard companions being added and not about the romantic relationships nonsense.

We need a mod to remove a few of these post. Lots of the post in this discussion are derailing, off topic, and a few are inappropriate.

Actually the subtext of the OP was about romance. SilverBride has long said they wanted a handsome male companion to potentially romance.

This is correct. The reason I was unhappy with the new choices, which I have mentioned several times in this thread, is that I don't see them as romantic options. So discussing this is on topic.

Kesstryl

Jammy420 wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

chessalavakia_ESO wrote: »

TX12001rwb17_ESO wrote: »

And? Last year they were both females.

SilverBride wanted someone like Jakarn for a companion if I recall correctly.

Yes, or someone like Count Verandis Ravenwatch.

We have enough sparkle vampires in the game. If we get a vampire companion, I would prefer it to be something less....ravenwatch.

Oh no, I want the sparkle vampires, bring me the Ravenwatch!

peacenote

TiaFrye wrote: »

When we said we want companion guys we ment that we potentially want some steamy action with them in our heads. Ah, things we lost in translation...

Speak for yourself.

I don't care what the companions look like and I definitely am not making up steamy stories about them in my head. They are just pixels. And I personally hope the romance stuff never comes; it's creepy in an MMO, imo.

I wanted guys because their voices are lower and more calming to me. I wanted a male besides Bastian because:

1-- The newer companions were better designed, more powerful and capable, so if they aren't going to go back and update the old companions I wanted a new guy with a calming voice who performed as well as the new females.

2-- I really wanted a companion who didn't care that I stole, murdered, took a firefly, killed a rat on the ground. I also wanted someone with a calming male voice. The newer companions who were more permissive didn't fit the bill on the second one and again, since Bastian's likes and dislikes probably weren't going to change, I was hoping for a new guy.

3-- The deeper the voice, the better. I had hopes of a James Earle Jones type voice for the next male companion.

But I don't care about their looks and I don't want them to be flirty. This is only my personal opinion; just pointing out that not everyone wanted male companions for the same reason. I like Bastian a lot; he just gets upset when I accidentally kill ground critters and isn't designed as well as Ember and Isobel.

spartaxoxo

Wolf_Eye wrote: »

I guess it would depend on what ZOS considers "fatherly". Verandis could easily be considered a fatherly type figure with the way he interacts with the rest of House Ravenwatch. The game even goes so far as to refer to Gwendis and Fennorian as his children at times.

amapola76 wrote: »

I also have a theory about why the developers may have assumed that people would find him appealing. He looks a bit like Prefect Calo, and do we not all remember the flood of "Prefect Calo is my boyfriend" posts during the year Elsweyr was released?

This makes me wonder if Azander is supposed to be a Count Verandis type character. Verandis and Azander are both older. They are both father figures. And they are both scholars......perhaps he's Wonka-esque and a Redguard just to distinguish him from Verandis.

SilverBride

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Wolf_Eye wrote: »

I guess it would depend on what ZOS considers "fatherly". Verandis could easily be considered a fatherly type figure with the way he interacts with the rest of House Ravenwatch. The game even goes so far as to refer to Gwendis and Fennorian as his children at times.

amapola76 wrote: »

I also have a theory about why the developers may have assumed that people would find him appealing. He looks a bit like Prefect Calo, and do we not all remember the flood of "Prefect Calo is my boyfriend" posts during the year Elsweyr was released?

This makes me wonder if Azander is supposed to be a Count Verandis type character. Verandis and Azander are both older. They are both father figures. And they are both scholars......

I never considered Verandis a father figure.

Kirawolfe

That Argonian has seen some things...

I want to find out what things!

spartaxoxo

SilverBride wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Wolf_Eye wrote: »

I guess it would depend on what ZOS considers "fatherly". Verandis could easily be considered a fatherly type figure with the way he interacts with the rest of House Ravenwatch. The game even goes so far as to refer to Gwendis and Fennorian as his children at times.

amapola76 wrote: »

I also have a theory about why the developers may have assumed that people would find him appealing. He looks a bit like Prefect Calo, and do we not all remember the flood of "Prefect Calo is my boyfriend" posts during the year Elsweyr was released?

This makes me wonder if Azander is supposed to be a Count Verandis type character. Verandis and Azander are both older. They are both father figures. And they are both scholars......

I never considered Verandis a father figure.

He's not a father figure to the player, but he's the father figure to Fennorian and Gwendis. Fennorian straight up calls him father.

For example, Fenn has this dialogue when he and Verandis are about to meet up.

Were you two close?
"Count Verandis is a father to me, more so than my own birth kin. Losing him pained me deeply.
I—I'm looking forward to this second chance we've been given

eta

This makes me hopeful that Azander will play father figure to some other npc and not the player.

Cireous

Was reminded of this thread while reading this article

Araneae6537

SilverBride wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Wolf_Eye wrote: »

I guess it would depend on what ZOS considers "fatherly". Verandis could easily be considered a fatherly type figure with the way he interacts with the rest of House Ravenwatch. The game even goes so far as to refer to Gwendis and Fennorian as his children at times.

amapola76 wrote: »

I also have a theory about why the developers may have assumed that people would find him appealing. He looks a bit like Prefect Calo, and do we not all remember the flood of "Prefect Calo is my boyfriend" posts during the year Elsweyr was released?

This makes me wonder if Azander is supposed to be a Count Verandis type character. Verandis and Azander are both older. They are both father figures. And they are both scholars......

I never considered Verandis a father figure.

For me Verandis is more the tortured hero archetype, which I confess to liking.
And he’s elven, which is much to my preference over human (not talking about romance, just what I like, most of my characters are Dunmer and Altmer, both male and female).
And voice can’t be overstated, not that I dislike any of the companion voices I’ve heard, but Count Verandis, yes, and any character voiced by Gideon Emery.

Yes, I’m picky!

ArchangelIsraphel

Cireous wrote: »

Was reminded of this thread while reading this article

Khajiit perhaps is old fashioned, or out of touch, but this one cannot help but think that if a thread was posted about how unattractive/unworthy of romance 2 female companions were, this one is reasonably certain folks would completely lose their biscuits.

Just an observation.

Except this thread isn't about any of those things. No one said that any of the companions were unworthy of love. We acknowledge the fact that others enjoy them and find them attractive. Saying that you are not personally attracted to someone is not the same thing as saying that they are unworthy of love.

Yeah, voice is extremely important, and for me, more important in video games than looks. I personally thought Bastian sounded a little young. I've seen a number of people say they like his voice though, so I don't think it's universally disliked. The main issue with Bastian is bad writing imo. I find a lot of the dialogue with the original companions sound a bit forced and unnatural. And Bastian bore the brunt of it because players found him disapproving of criminal activities that are considered normal in ESO.

I felt the same way about his voice. It isn't that it's bad, its just that...something about it strikes me the wrong way. Many people seem to find it attractive or soothing. It is the opposite for me, I don't find him relaxing to listen to at all. His quest dialogue is much better than his random comments though.

SilverBride

spartaxoxo wrote: »

This makes me hopeful that Azander will play father figure to some other npc and not the player.

That would be awesome.

Syldras

Cireous wrote: »

Was reminded of this thread while reading this article

Ah, yeah. The "women long for a protector" thing, as if they were unable to protect themselves...

wilykcat wrote: »

The original discussion is about the new lizard companions being added and not about the romantic relationships nonsense.

Actually OP's post was just about that: Getting 2 new male companions but not finding them attractive.

Wolf_Eye wrote: »

I've seen some people call for NPCs to become companions after you've finished all their world quests, but I really dislike this idea. As this would mean that they only have a finite amount of quests, and once you've done them all it means we will never ever get new stories with them until ESO closes.

I think one quest to unlock them would be enough (the first one or any of several available). It should not block out the possibility of having more quests with them in the future. I can understand it may be a bit weird then if you already have someone as an companion (or even "romanced" them) and the tone in later quest dialogues doesn't reflect that. But i could accept that, personally. It's nothing new to me to reshape dialogues in my mind while playing, considering how awfully stupid some dialogue options are...

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

Honestly, a lot of the comments here which are very focused on companions' appearance and for seemingly only to be romance options, like they are nothing but eye-candy, is bizarre to me.
Sure I like attractive characters too (and I'm capable of finding a lot of people attractive, so that's rarely an issue), and wouldn't mind romance for them as long as it's optional and not similar to how ZOS' has written flirting lately, if so then no thanks to that. Yuck. But what matters the most to me is their charactersation and writing. I mostly want an interesting and well done character, not a love interest.

Imagine spending some quiet, relaxing evening with a handsome companion who's supposed to be intelligent, maybe even a world-wise traveller or a scholar, asking them a meaningful question and all you get back is some herp-derp

FlopsyPrince

Meh.

I would never want to romance digital bits.

Sure, I might sometimes looking at a waifu (what is the male counterpart of that?) but I still wouldn't want to romance them.

May not matter for me, but this seems to show that no companion selection will please many here. Bastian is plenty enough for me, but I use them for functionality, not other things.

Khenarthi

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and ZOS cannot please everyone every time.

For one, I'm looking forward to the Argonian companion, so that Ember can take a holiday sometime. And maybe next year there will be an Orc companion too (I play beast races only but Orcs are my next favourites).

Syldras

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

I would never want to romance digital bits.

I wouldn't want that too. But some of my characters might want. It's called roleplay, you know?

ZOS_Icy

Greetings all,

After removing a few off topic posts, we would like to ask everyone to keep posts on the subject at hand, as well as keeping things civil and constructive. If there may be any questions in regards to the Community Rules, please feel free to review them here​​.​

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MageCatF4F

Basti can be a little creepy. Only reason I like him (a little).

Ember grows on you, like that ugly cat available at the shelter for 5 dollars. One of my characters likes Ember, but he is that other ugly cat with the 5 dollar tag. Romance!

Kallykat

spartaxoxo wrote: »

The other reason is that they first told us that if they didn't add romance options it would be a "huge miss" and that is an upcoming feature of companions back during Blackwood's launch. Now High Isle has come and gone and there is still no romance option. I know it would be too late for Necrom, but perhaps it's something that could be added in the Q3 or Q4 for 2023. If not, at least I would hope it's something they'd look into for 2024. That's a pretty long wait for a teased feature.

Is it though?
*cough*spellcrafting*cough*

Kallykat

SilverBride wrote: »

I don't remember seeing anyone ask for a lizard or an eccentric old fatherly type.

Out of 6 companions there is not one male choice that hits the marks for a lot of players, even though many examples were given.

There was some discussion of an older character, from what I recall.

Here is one example from Syldras:
I'm sure there are enough players would would find characters interesting who don't meet the current beauty standards, if they are well-written, have interesting story quests and dialogues. I don't see why there shouldn't be some old grandfatherly mage or a piratess with a scarred face. Rigurt isn't exactly meeting the expectations of "young and handsome" either, but many people like him.

(I'm not sure how to quote from an old thread onto a new one. Taken from this thread: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/7630923#Comment_7630923)

I know some people were interested in a potential male mate of a different bent than Bastian, but that was a long thread with a huge variety of opinions. You can't expect ZOS to be able to satisfy everyone with only two new companions released. That doesn't mean they didn't hear you or that you won't get something you prefer later.

I'm looking forward to getting to know these two, and I'll look forward to the next two as well.

Syldras

Kallykat wrote: »

There was some discussion of an older character, from what I recall.
Here is one example from Syldras:
I'm sure there are enough players would would find characters interesting who don't meet the current beauty standards, if they are well-written, have interesting story quests and dialogues. I don't see why there shouldn't be some old grandfatherly mage or a piratess with a scarred face. Rigurt isn't exactly meeting the expectations of "young and handsome" either, but many people like him.

Ah yes. The context was people saying that most people in real life were "average looking" or "ugly" and that no one would want something like this in a fantasy game, but only young, goodlooking, basically "ideal" companions. Basically eye-candy to follow you around (it wasn't specifically about romance, btw). And I still haven't changed my opinion: There are people who don't care for current beauty standards, others who mainly focus on an interesting character and background story and less on looks, and there are also a lot who aren't interested in romance aspects at all.

I never said I'd like a Willy Wonka, though But a friendly older mage is probably not "special" enough...

SilverBride

To clarify, my thoughts about having a romance with a companion is having a life partner for my characters to adventure with, or just to greet me when I come home and share a household with. I don't imagine myself playing out scenarios with them, but an occasional loving comment would be nice.

Lugaldu

I find it absolutely fascinating how such a long thread can develop around the appearances of our male companions. Some prefer a "handsome" companion who in some way corresponds to their (!) idea of beauty and who is potentially suitable for romance, the others prefer an interesting character with a well-developed story. If I were to play an Argonian, I would certainly find the Sharp-As-Night super attractive. Likewise, there are certainly men and women who find Bastian attractive, so it's not to say that there aren't potential candidates for romance, if someone is interested in this kind of headcanon... it's all a matter of personal preference.

Syldras

Lugaldu wrote: »

I find it absolutely fascinating how such a long thread can develop around the appearances of our male companions. Some prefer a "handsome" companion who in some way corresponds to their (!) idea of beauty

...and it won't stop at looks, I'm afraid, but when "companion romance" is introduced, the discussions will probably go on about which interactions/activities and what kind of dialogue is seen as proper or not. Some will critice their companion doesn't compliment them enough while others will find the compliments too exaggerated. Some will want their companion to call them by certain nicknames, while others will find them too cheesy. Then, we can argue about "dating activities", which might be total cliché (as ZOS obviously loves their clichés, if we think about what kind of characters they tend to write now), and then, as you know me, too boring for me (and as a consequence the characters I normally play) anyway...

Elendir2am

Expecting any bosmer related content was probably too much.

The_Titan_Tim

We won’t get two new companions next year, our “new” chapter feature will be companion romance. 😂

TaSheen

Kallykat wrote: »

(I'm not sure how to quote from an old thread onto a new one. Taken from this thread: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/7630923#Comment_7630923)

In order to do that, open the older thread in a new browser tab, click the quote button under the relevant post, then page down to the end - the quote will be in the reply field. Copy the contents and paste into the reply field on the current thread.

BlueRaven

Elendir2am wrote: »

Expecting any bosmer related content was probably too much.

The best bosmer content we have had since the base game is a recurring npc that got to be in a cinematic. 😔

Cireous

Here you go devs, here's some totally unfair romance standards for you to live up to: Him, yes.

And that's mostly just showcasing his personality. He gets real adorable and vulnerable once the romance part begins.

Your welcome!