Well it's obvious that no fertile female would be able to resist his manly feline charms.. so really it's quite realistic from a roleplay kind of view - whether you appreciate him or not him as a male player is a different and completely irrelevant story ^-^

Nah, aric is a p****. /rimshot

My female trooper wants a man who doesn't lick his own groin and leave dead birds on the doorstop...

Thanks...I just spit out my coffee. Lol!

Not one person has actually responded with any kind of concrete answer. They're all assumptions or jokes. One L42 said that clearly this person did something wrong in an earlier conversation that implied a romantic attitude. That's not how the game works, and you cant even get married until after Chapter 3. There are plenty of opportunities to flirt that don't lead to marriage, but most of us shy away from even low affection level flirting for fear of BW pigeonholing us into matrimony.

I personally believe that any conversation involving going into a bedroom and/or having sex is a direct reflection of a romance in progress. Not just flirting. Don't forget that you can flirt and sometimes even have sex with normal NPCs. There is a pivotal conversation that happens for every romanceable (currently heterosexual) companion. And it should be very apparent to you when you see it.

There are several problems that will shed some light on this...

1. Because every choice is permanent, you can't ever really know what would have happened if you'd taken another route and let it play out. That uncertainty plays to the benefit of the company providing the customer service (BW). We're always concessioning that we may have made a mistake. Because who can know, right?
   
2. No one really knows where the Point of No Return is for any companion. And the spectrum of flirts and romps at varying levels of affection create an ambiguity that leads to fear and assumption. Only BW can truely answer this question for any particular companion, and they aren't talking, not even when a ticket is submitted.
   
3. The only evidence that you have in fact married a companion is the 3 purple L1 companion gifts you receive in the mail (along with the sexting body of the mail). There's no ceremony. No after marriage activities. No followup emails. No line of text anywhere in the user interface that confirms you are married. And so this too creates ignorance in the playerbase as to the how and why and what-have-you.
   
4. The majority of the playerbase does not care enough to get up in arms over accidental marriages (because they have so little current impact to a non-RPer), if you can even prove that that's what happened. You oftentimes get jokes and chides for even being upset about it. And consequently, those who do care, back off and simply accept it, which of course contributes to overall lack of knowledge and useful feedback.
   
5. There is no credible information anywhere that says that you have an opt-out choice. In fact, I believe we are all forced to marry a companion (test details below). But again, the lack of matrimonial evidence leads a player to believe that they didn't even get married, and so they blow it off, making an assumption.
   
6. BW is either unwilling or incapable of answering questions on this point. My female sorcerer was somehow forced to marry Andronikus Revel, a slimy wannabe pirate. This is my main character, and I have reserved her, from Day1 for Ashara, knowing that some day, same sex marriage will be put into the game. Consequently, my Ashara is perpetually at 6500 affection (in terms of the conversations that I've engaged with her. She's actually at 10K and "wanting to talk"). It is my hope that BW will give her alternate conversational choices when the feature is input, but I really have no way to know what they'll do, or if they'll do it all. I was quite sure that I did not make any wrong choices with Revel, but he was quite insistent upon pretending like we had a thing going. I turned him down over and over, losing massive amounts of affection in the doing. And I never gave him a Courting gift. And yet he persisted and ultimately sent me the 3 signature purple companion gifts. When I contacted BW about this in massive protest, they could not even confirm if I was married, much less do anything about it. The service rep was completely helpless and ignorant, giving me the same old spiel about forwarding it on to a developer. That was months ago, and as expected, I haven't heard word one.
   

I have come back around to the Inquisitor class and am rolling up an assassin. And the first thing that occured to me was that filthy forced marriage to Revel. Yep, primary concern before I even locked eyes with Harkun. I love the inquisitor storyline, so I'm FRAPSing every main and class quest along the way. And since I'm doing that, I'm also FRAPSing every single Revel conversation, to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that I sent his butt packing every time he even suggests something romantic with me.

I am now L49 and eagerly working to complete Chapter 3, in part so that I can confirm what I suspected all along... That Revel will force himself into marriage with me no matter what I did. And no one is going be able to tell me that I made a mistake, because I can prove I didn't. Currently, he's at 10K and awaiting the Chapter 3 completion before forcing me down the aisle.

I'm already convinced he's going to do this because the last conversation I had with him, he was talking about our having babies, like we had ever flirted even once. There was no choice where I could tell him to go blow when he blurted this out of the clear black sky. The best I could do was say that I didnt realize he was such a softy (though I did listen to all 3 choices, and the other two were suggestive).

As you can imagine, I feel strongly about this. And I intend to shove this down the Service Forum's throat once I have it organized for internet viewing (which will be a cakewalk for someone as technical as me). Now, once SGRA releases (noted below), if they do some sort of optional overall romance reset that will allow me to fix this myself, that will be just fine with me. What won't be fine is a total lack of intelligent response or no response. Because hey, I can type all day.

A side note...

SGRA (Same Gender Romance Arcs) - This is the official term for it. It will make it easier to search on than "same sex romance".

Because every choice is permanent, you can't ever really know what would have happened if you'd taken another route and let it play out. That uncertainty plays to the benefit of the company providing the customer service (BW). We're always concessioning that we may have made a mistake. Because who can know, right?

I'm a fairly low key role-player, but I've had it pointed out to me time and again that you never role-play your character's story line, because it would result in every Trooper being in the same elite squad, every Bounty Hunter the big life-changing contest, and every Jedi offing the big bad guy that saves the day for everyone.Given that Troopers who so much as mention Havoc Squad in their stories, artwork, and in-game interactions are treated as outcasts during most role-playing events (at least on the two remaining RP-flagged severs, and in the RP forums) I am completely baffled why you feel that "every choice is permanent" in your interactions with your companions, seeing as every other aspect of the hard-coded story is verboten. Why would a role-player (as specified in your following points) even care what goes down in those conversations, when they have to throw out or heavily modify everything that was said during them to avoid the "My Trooper is married to Jorgen, and everyone elses' Trooper is married to Jorgen, who is clearly in 105,503 places at the same time!" scenario? If you're content to role-play that Jorgen is actually another Cathar - with another story of his own, to avoid the Havoc references - why not role-play that you two never talked about marriage?

I'm a fairly low key role-player, but I've had it pointed out to me time and again that you never role-play your character's story line, because it would result in every Trooper being in the same elite squad, every Bounty Hunter the big life-changing contest, and every Jedi offing the big bad guy that saves the day for everyone.Given that Troopers who so much as mention Havoc Squad in their stories, artwork, and in-game interactions are treated as outcasts during most role-playing events (at least on the two remaining RP-flagged severs, and in the RP forums) I am completely baffled why you feel that "every choice is permanent" in your interactions with your companions, seeing as every other aspect of the hard-coded story is verboten. Why would a role-player (as specified in your following points) even care what goes down in those conversations, when they have to throw out or heavily modify everything that was said during them to avoid the "My Trooper is married to Jorgen, and everyone elses' Trooper is married to Jorgen, who is clearly in 105,503 places at the same time!" scenario? If you're content to role-play that Jorgen is actually another Cathar - with another story of his own, to avoid the Havoc references - why not role-play that you two never talked about marriage?

A very eloquently written question, evidencing one of my mentioned points.

Translation: Irrespective of what you do with your companions, there is no evidence anywhere that any of your choices or interactions are reflective upon another player's perception of you or said companion, and there never will be. Consequently, why would anyone, including yourself, actually care?

The only answer I can give you to you is that you aren't a roleplayer. Although in truth, I feel I'm only a light roleplayer. But character development in any story provides an empathy that begets an emotion. With how much depth BW provides us for interacting with our companions, their stories and relation to me matter a great deal. Irrespective of what anyone else thinks, which I have no interest in. Obviously, there are 50 <insert companion name> roaming fleet at any particular moment. This is of no relevance to me. What I care about is what I've built with my <insert companion name>.

Well lets put this observation to the test...

Dorne is a kind, compassionate, forthright and beautiful individual as opposed to a groin licking pugilist. You can't help but go along with it. But let's say you could. You turned her down and carried on. Have you finished Chapter III? Did you get 3 purple L1 gifts with suggestive text in the emails?

While Jaxo is a fun distraction, there's no possibility of a walk down aisle with her, so she's not really part of the equation. More a port of call as it were. Not trying to be crude, just stating what was offered by BW.

Jorgan has not flirted with my trooper once, and I am level 44 right now.

Of course, I made fun of him at every oppertunity =)

Close your eyes and think of the Republic.

OMG!! LMAO!!! Thanks for that!

My female trooper wants a man who doesn't lick his own groin and leave dead birds on the doorstop...

And let's face it, what trooper wants to be known as the crazy cat lady?

Not one person has actually responded with any kind of concrete answer.

Has anyone considered hitting ESC and never clicking on that companion for conversation again?

I think it's totally sexist, that female characters get 1 choice of romance and male get 2 (in some cases) and in cases they don't, the one there is is rarely disappointing (mako, Dorne, Kira, Nadia)

are Sith warrior, IA and Smuggler the only classes that get 2 for male and 1 for female??

Sith warrior: Vette and Jaesa (if you are darkside, otherwise Vette is your only choice), IA: Temple & Kaliyo Smuggler: Spar & Risha. one is dark, the other is light.

So smuggler and IA are the only 2 classes that have no restrictions when playing male characters (the warrior must be dark to have 2 options, as said earlier).

Has anyone considered hitting ESC and never clicking on that companion for conversation again?

I've done that with Corso Riggs. Nowadays players are numerically penalized for it because you never get the legacy unlocks, but it's an option.

The Trooper is the only class I've played so far that has ftb scenes, for both genders, that you cannot say no to. Consent is assumed to have been given by previous conversations. I have heard, but haven't played femTrooper, that Jorgan triggers when he offers a gift somewhere in Act 2 or 3, even if you don't take a [Flirt] response in accepting it? You may have to reject the gift entirely or else SURPRISE romance arc. But yeah, once you're on those rails, the Trooper is not permitted to finish their LI's conversation line without at least one ftb.

for those of you who think he has a sexy voice and would make a good romance... just keep in mind one of his last lines...

"we can adpot a litter"

note the word adopt.. leads me to think that other methods of conceiving a child are not compatiable between cathar's and other species... so think about before you climb into bed with him... you might be better off with SGR Jaxo

I tie it to the affection level. If I had a coworker who came to me and expressed interest in pursuing a relationship, and I said No, but then proceeded to give them gifts every time I saw them, showering them with my affection in what I claimed was an act of plutonic friendship, until I they liked me the absolute most they were capable of liking another human being, then I think it's fair for me to say this would probably fall into the realm of me "stringing them on".

Or in game terms, if you consider yourself an RPer to the point where this matters in the story, and your character does not like the romanceable companion and has no interest in pursuing a relationship, and that companion keeps on pushing the issue, then it's time for you to stop being nice to them. It's not called "Trust" or "Friendship" or "Professionalism"; it is called Affection. When you are increasing their affection toward you, then they will become more affectionate.

If you wish to metagame and play the numbers, maxing your companion out for the buff or the presense boost or the crafting perks, that's fine. But when your Metagame goes against the RP, don't then complain that your RP doesn't fit with your character. If your character reached 10,000 Affection with a companion, you have no business saying that your character doesn't like them.

How you feel as a player does not necessarily have to coincide with how your character feels. If your character has spent 40+ levels being nice to this person, giving them gifts, and agreeing with them in nearly every conversation they have, then the character DOES in fact like them, based upon their behavior, even if you as a player do not. And if the character does like someone who then pursues a relationship with them, and the character continues to encourage and build the affection further, then they are not detering or avoiding the relationship, but encouraging it.

It's not just about making one single decision, but rather an entire storyline of choices which will result in a certain level of Affection being reached between the two characters. If you claim your character doesn't like this guy, and you actually play it like that, you will be lucky to see your affection go above 1500.

Can you imagine Aric voiced by Antonio Banderas and he wearing a feathered hat?

 

Jordan : "All that I need, are the boots!"

I want that so bad now............

Does he still bring up a romance if you refuse to marry him? I've seen videos where others have had troopers question whether they're the marrying kind, but they still end up choosing yes in the end anyway.

I know my trooper teased the hell out of him (the look on his face is always priceless) and it actually gained his approval over time. He laughed and called her crazy during one of the last conversations.