I cannot take it when ppl describe shadowzel as enemies to lovers. They literally aren’t??? Shadowheart is consistently racist to Lae’zel in a way that stems from a very specific trauma, Lae’zel responds with justified indignation and frustration to nonstop one-sided antagonism, and then eventually by the end of the game they’ve kind of cooled off to grudging tolerance. I see so much content that frames their early-game conflict as UST rather than what it is, which is Shadowheart repeatedly antagonizing Lae’zel from this place of watching githyanki kill her cult coworkers while Lae’zel responds to this provocation with the irritation of someone who’s got a mosquito buzzing round their house.
Also the fact that people say they would bond over their evil goddess cults just totally erases both of their arcs? Shadowheart’s trauma stems from being Shar’s personal favorite little toy and dedicating herself to a mission she does not believe in; the natural continuation of her arc is her figuring out who and what she wants to become. Lae’zel is start to finish deeply committed to her community and upon being betrayed by Vlaakith is like “I need to return to my collective and make it a better place.” Those are genuinely polar opposite sentiments. Shadowheart disavows her entire belief system; Lae’zel commits herself even HARDER to the githyanki.
I think this ship would work under certain circumstances and it is actually really compelling and sweet to imagine them learning to understand each other, but what I see most often is people just happily erasing the complexities of two of my favorite BG3 women to create this milquetoast UST-thru-violence snark-to-lovers dynamic and it just makes me so so mad. They are so much more complicated than that!!!!
