My gosh, Blackwood is written so badly.

spartaxoxo · April 27

I wouldn't call High Isle goofy. High Isle is more cringe flirty. It can feel like a poorly written trashy "romance," novel at times. I would give a little grace to High Isle and Blackwood for coming out during the pandemic though. A lot of people new to video games during that time period.

Necrom, Gold Road, and Solstice all take themselves more seriously than those two. I'm not saying they don't have goofy quests (there's a Nord Cultural Exchange quest in Solstice even) but there's an obvious attempt to go back to the writing taken itself more seriously with those two storylines even it is not done as well as the earlier dlc.

whitecrow · April 27

The flirty things with Raz in Solstice are pretty terrible. "I have some games I'd like to play with you, Raz

" in the middle of a crucial mission. Good grief.

spartaxoxo · April 27

whitecrow wrote: »

The flirty things with Raz in Solstice are pretty terrible. "I have some games I'd like to play with you, Raz " in the middle of a crucial mission. Good grief.

When has Raz ever let a crucial mission stop him from flirting though? lol

AScarlato · April 27

I'm going to be honest. I'm rather shameless about enjoying video game flirts and romances and will pick the Heart Icons no matter who is in front of me. It's how I can end up alone in Witcher 3 (lol).

The Raz flirting was uncomfortable. He first states he's surprised you are flirting with him. If you keep pressing the flirts, he kinda flirts back but keeps pushing it off. He then states you can talk about your relationship more "when it's all over" but this never happens, making you feel like you kept coming onto a character that clearly is not interested at all and is just being nice.

If anything he seems far more interested in Soltice's regent, and then despite using all flirt options seems to hint he's going to look for other girls on the island rather than talk to my character.

I did also use all the flirts on Darien at the same time, professing my love even. My Vestige is truly a terrible person, or...based on most writing of the vestige, probably just forgot who he had ever flirted with after a few minutes have passed. He will soon put Darien's promise ring in the bank to flirt with the Vampire lady and Werewolf Trainer in Update 50.

spartaxoxo · April 27

AScarlato wrote: »

The Raz flirting was uncomfortable. He first states he's surprised you are flirting with him. If you keep pressing the flirts, he kinda flirts back but keeps pushing it off. He then states you can talk about your relationship more "when it's all over" but this never happens, making you feel like you kept coming onto a character that clearly is not interested at all and is just being nice.

This was interesting to me as I didn't get that impression at all. He seemed into it.

So, I looked on the uesp wiki and noticed something interesting. I first did the quest on a high elf. So this is what I got. It reads as enthusiastic to me. Like he thinks the timing is inconvenient but he really likes the idea, which is what I think they were going for.

So the Eye has an eye for High Elves? I happen to have an eye for fine-looking Khajiit myself.
"You do, do you? Raz will bear that in mind. In fact, he may have trouble thinking of anything else for a bit. But right now, we really should return to Sunport and warn them."

And this is what anyone who's not a High Elf gets

I'm a little jealous. Maybe we could find some time alone, too. If you're interested.
"Raz is not not interested, you might say. But this one's usual playful banter must wait … for now. We really should return to Sunport and warn them."

They use double negative, which often makes things seem less enthusiastic. And then he reminds you he's just engaging in playful banter. I can see easily see how this reads as an indirect polite rejection, full stop, and not just a let's revisit this later.

Ps you may want to mark certain parts as spoiler since OP only got to Blackwood.

AScarlato · April 27

spartaxoxo wrote: »

AScarlato wrote: »

The Raz flirting was uncomfortable. He first states he's surprised you are flirting with him. If you keep pressing the flirts, he kinda flirts back but keeps pushing it off. He then states you can talk about your relationship more "when it's all over" but this never happens, making you feel like you kept coming onto a character that clearly is not interested at all and is just being nice.

This was interesting to me as I didn't get that impression at all. He seemed into it.
So, I looked on the uesp wiki and noticed something interesting. I first did the quest on a high elf. So this is what I got. It reads as enthusiastic to me. Like he thinks the timing is inconvenient but he really likes the idea, which is what I think they were going for.

So the Eye has an eye for High Elves? I happen to have an eye for fine-looking Khajiit myself.
"You do, do you? Raz will bear that in mind. In fact, he may have trouble thinking of anything else for a bit. But right now, we really should return to Sunport and warn them."

And this is what anyone who's not a High Elf gets

I'm a little jealous. Maybe we could find some time alone, too. If you're interested.
"Raz is not not interested, you might say. But this one's usual playful banter must wait … for now. We really should return to Sunport and warn them."

They use double negative, which often makes things seem less enthusiastic. And then he reminds you he's just engaging in playful banter. I can see easily see how this reads as an indirect polite rejection, full stop, and not just a let's revisit this later.

He does something of that nature nearly every flirt though.

I understand the quest must go on, but the most telling to me is the promise to discuss your relationship in more detail and then it simply never coming up again. The last thing he says to you is looking for other "pleasures of the Isle" or something to that effect. I'd have to check to see exactly what it was, but it certainly wasn't your character or furthering that conversation at all.

AScarlato · April 27

Edit: Nevermind - saw what Spart did in a quote for spoilers.

spartaxoxo · April 27

AScarlato wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

AScarlato wrote: »

The Raz flirting was uncomfortable. He first states he's surprised you are flirting with him. If you keep pressing the flirts, he kinda flirts back but keeps pushing it off. He then states you can talk about your relationship more "when it's all over" but this never happens, making you feel like you kept coming onto a character that clearly is not interested at all and is just being nice.

This was interesting to me as I didn't get that impression at all. He seemed into it.
So, I looked on the uesp wiki and noticed something interesting. I first did the quest on a high elf. So this is what I got. It reads as enthusiastic to me. Like he thinks the timing is inconvenient but he really likes the idea, which is what I think they were going for.

So the Eye has an eye for High Elves? I happen to have an eye for fine-looking Khajiit myself.
"You do, do you? Raz will bear that in mind. In fact, he may have trouble thinking of anything else for a bit. But right now, we really should return to Sunport and warn them."

And this is what anyone who's not a High Elf gets

I'm a little jealous. Maybe we could find some time alone, too. If you're interested.
"Raz is not not interested, you might say. But this one's usual playful banter must wait … for now. We really should return to Sunport and warn them."

They use double negative, which often makes things seem less enthusiastic. And then he reminds you he's just engaging in playful banter. I can see easily see how this reads as an indirect polite rejection, full stop, and not just a let's revisit this later.

He does something of that nature nearly every flirt though.
I understand the quest must go on, but the most telling to me is the promise to discuss your relationship in more detail and then it simply never coming up again. The last thing he says to you is looking for other "pleasures of the Isle" or something to that effect. I'd have to check to see exactly what it was, but it certainly wasn't your character or furthering that conversation at all.

That's true. He keeps saying to talk about it later but never does so there's no payoff to it. I think that was moreso because they were focused on Darien though. He calls you his "dear one," if you flirt with him at the end.

Varana · April 29

That kind of open-ended flirting is more or less inevitable, of course, as long as it's banter within one questline and not a fully written relationship arc. With like a handful of exceptions, all NPCs forget everything you ever told them as soon as the next quest starts, or you meet them elsewhere. That's not so much a result of the writing as of the general game design.
Whether they can and want to resolve these things in their head canon, will be different from player to player.

SerafinaWaterstar · April 29

Just being doing Wrothgar on a different character, and by the gods, the difference in the writing quality from the last few dlcs is astounding.

I have replayed Necrom/West Weald, as I liked the story. Was not just Daedric is big bad.

Soltice was meh. Too much of an attempt at nostalgia that wasted what could have been an interesting take with Darien & Meridia.

HofD/Western Skyrim was only bearable because of Verandis & his relationship with his adversary. The thing with the King and his annoying daughter was awful.

But Blackwood. Oh. My. God. So <so> bad. Eveli was rather irritating in the otherwise fab Wrothgar but here….?! She made me want to hurl something through the screen, and it is rare for me to get like that. Awful awful awful. And the accent!!

E_Lucan · April 29

Esha76 wrote: »

I've been with this game since early beta. Absolutely love the base game content. Still play is over and over with different characters and combinations to this day. However, there is a distinct difference in the quality (in my opinion), and type of writing in many of the chapters. By that I mean..... base game is a little, dare I say "darker"? A little more mature? New chapters seem to be a little more light hearted and even a bit "bubbly".

Oh yeah I feel this! I recently re-played the earlier DLCs, and when I did some of the Summerset quests, I was like "Wow man they really went all out with some of these situations", it was such whiplash considering the more tame newer quests.

whitecrow · April 29

spartaxoxo wrote: »

whitecrow wrote: »

The flirty things with Raz in Solstice are pretty terrible. "I have some games I'd like to play with you, Raz " in the middle of a crucial mission. Good grief.

When has Raz ever let a crucial mission stop him from flirting though? lol

I can't remember. Maybe he is too subtle for me. This line was clunky as fetch.