Baldur's Gate 3's senior narrative designer, Baudelaire Welch, has reflected on the game's infamous bear scene, calling it a "watershed moment" and revealing that Halsin almost wasn't a romance option at all.
As I'm sure all of you know by now, Baldur's Gate 3 is one of the most beloved and influential games to have released over the past few console generations. Although a lot of players were already into it after its early access release, one of the main things that drew a lot of people in was the infamous romance scene between the player and Halsin.
Originally shown off before the game's release during a livestream, the optional romance between Halsin and the player was so weird and wild that it's unironically what caused a lot of players to become interested in Baldur's Gate 3. Of course, they ended up sticking around for much more than that in the end, but it's a very important moment in the game's history.
Baldur's Gate 3's Senior Narrative Designer Says Halsin Almost Wasn't A Romance Option
As reported by GamesRadar+, that's exactly what Baldur's Gate 3's senior narrative designer Baudelaire Welch reflected on during Develop: Brighton 2024. While speaking at the panel, Welch discussed Larian's approach to romance options and said that it's one of the "longest-tail parts of a fandom you can create", which certainly is true of Baldur's Gate 3.
This specifically caused Welch to bring up the iconic bear scene in the game, wondering aloud why it made such an impact on players. Welch said that the optional romance feels like a "watershed moment in game history" due to how it made the fanfiction community as involved with the game as the main audience is.
"Take the bear scene in Baldur's Gate 3. Why did it make such an impact on people? This is what it meant to me when I was involved in Baldur's Gate 3. This scene feels like a watershed moment in game history, where the fanfiction community feels like they're not a subculture, but are the majority audience being catered to in a scene and in the game as a whole."
Welch also revealed that they were aware of players saying what they wanted to do "Druid daddy Halsin" in early access, and that Halsin wasn't actually a romance option at the time of development. Larian being the legends that they are, decided to make it a reality after seeing how much interest the community had in everyone's favourite Druid.
Finally, Welch noted that Larian specifically reached out to the gay community by taking the phrase 'gay bear' and making it as literal as possible, which is, of course, a nod to the live stream where Astarion romances Halsin's bear form. Welch wasn't sure if anyone had made that connection before, but it now seems very on the nose in the best way possible.
