Helvana Kindness Dialogue

[Bede]

I don’t normally like begging for the answers to these things but I am currently on my fifth run through of Bard’s Collece Expanded and I’ve hit a bit of a slump…
The way to romance Helvana, be still my rampaging lesbian heart, is to choose all the kindness dialogue with her and speak to her at the end of the questline wearing an amulet of Mara, I’ve gathered that.
However, after several reruns of the questline from several avenues (first, an already established Dragonborn on my first playthrough, next an already established bard, and all subsequent times I am fresh out of Helgen and dragging the poor lass to get Olaf’s verse with me) I am yet to get any dialogue from her during the final quest save for the same one every time of “I consider you my best friend” and afterward, post-quest line, she only says about how she’ll miss Master Sledrig but is excited for him to return so they can be a real family.
Any tips or guidance for a simping fan? I’m at my wits end and admittedly, I’m running out of gas replaying the start of the game so much!

Many thanks!
Side note: This has been the best creation and also DLC-sized mod I’ve ever played ever. The new systems are immaculate, my dream of playing a bard is realized with its support centric battle-bard style. Resonant shouts and chants are my bread and butter in my repertoire when once I never even used the tried and true Unrelenting Force. Now I’m summoning phantoms, beseeching the dragon bard himself for assistance, and earthbending so hard it makes Toph from Avatar jealous. The characters are lovable, the humor gave me the best belly laughs, the voice acting is knocked out of the park and recognizing vanilla Skyrim voice actors in the roster had me kicking my feet like a giddy schoolgirl. Thanks for reawakening my love for Skyrim with the one thing I was missing the whole game! Bardic Inspiration!

 

[twolargepepperoni]

Hey there! Glad to hear you are enjoying it! I passed your kind words on to the rest of the team. Here are some tips to win over Helvana!

Spoiler: Helvana Marriage Requirement spoilers

1. Speak to her as much as possible - any time you can ask about her feelings, I recommend doing so to boost your disposition with her.
2. Do her personal quest (and choose her option for the penultimate quest - you don't have to do this to qualify for her interest, but it definitely gives a nice boost to disposition).
3. Might sound obvious, but is easily overlooked - make sure you've done the prerequisite vanilla Skyrim conversation at the Temple of Mara with Maramel, as is necessary for all marriages in Skyrim. Additionally, make sure you are wearing an Amulet of Mara.
4. This option only unlocks after the final quest (Requiem) and after you are made Archbard by Peras.

Hope this helps! I see you've tried some of these options and if all of these are still not giving you results, please share your load order and we'll take a look and see if there is a conflict.

 

[Bede]

I am happy to report that six playthroughs in I have finally gotten Helvana to marry my character!
I am not sure what precisely did it but I did all of what you suggested as well as...

• Cleaning my load order of any Temple of Mara and Bard’s College changes (City overhauls that don’t affect the interior seemed to be okay.
• Completing the Mara’s Blessing quest line, as well as purchasing a SECOND amulet of Mara from Maramal (700+ gold… Worth it though.)
• Waiting for the weekly Burning of King Olaf to cease.

On a lightweight, vanilla modlist those prerequisites I assume were more than enough. But those subtle additions seemed to convince my 400+ modlist that all was as it should be.
It was a trip, but thanks to y’all I have finally saved my very last goal in this bardic adventure. Having a bardic spouse for the bardic Dragonborn to spend her bardic days with. Have I said bardic too many times yet?
I can’t help it! This DLC, as I shall call it as it certainly earned the name, has put me through more character development than Dawnguard which was my all time favorite DLC before a creation would topple it!

Many thanks for the advice! And again. Thanks to the entire staff for an utterly sublime storyline complete with satisfying ending and a much needed addition to an amazing game.