I watched the time segment that you recommended. I've been in the (possibly unpopular) camp that I personally don't respect the "It's what the character would do" when it comes to NPCs, especially when it leads to inequitable romance outcomes. It's why I'm also not a fan of "Canon Sexualities" - it only ends limiting Real Life People in favor of honoring fake fictional people.
I would be fine with "It's What Lucanis Would Do" if there was an alternative of "What Neve Would Do" also leads to a locked-off romance - that's at least a little more equitable. If every romance option had something that locked them off, that'd be even more interesting. In the medium of video-games (especially RPGs), I'm always going to favor Player Experience over the preferences over fictional people who Did Not Have To Be Written That Way.
Ultimately I think we generally agree that for one reason or another, this writing choice isn't 100% based in logic.
Agreed. Lock him out if you want, but lock Neve out as well for making the exact same choice. Consistency is what really has folks riled up here, not just that a hardened Lucanis is locked. I feel like if they hadn't thrown in the insult of Neve being a Minrathous Shadow Dragon he apparently can get over his personal stuff to date, folks would have just accepted it and quietly chosen to save Treviso next time around.
Of course, that's also setting aside it being questionable at all that you HAVE to make a choice which city you will PERSONALLY deploy to, sometimes an arbitrary one if you have an origin that isn't tied to the Dragons or the Crows and no real allegiance to either city, and you're punished for it in some way. But that's just one annoyance in a game that really has left me sour on the entirety of the brand in general.
