Do portraits influence who your characters marry?

[unmerged(100125)]

So I was playing earlier and my heir had finally come of age, there werent any high ranking brides so I decided to marry him to a young high stewardship genius, eventually I found a 17 year old genius with 29 stewardship... however I noticed from her portrait that she was a portly greek woman... the next best candidate was a 16 year old genius with 24 stewardship, who was german and had a "pretty" portrait.

I married my heir to the german. It wasnt till afterwards it hit me that I married the inferior wife (IN A VIDEO GAME) simply because she had a better looking portrait.

has anyone else caught themselves doing ridiculous things like this?

 

[Tuerai]

I do it all the time. I married a cute greek blind girl, instead of someone with decent stats once.

 

[rickinator9]

I usually do the same. I generally avoid the fat-looking characters for the worse better-looking characters. It's more difficult to get rid of those nasty portraits in the future than taking an alternative wife.

 

[justin6477]

Seeing as genetics apparently matter, I always marry to the pretty girls.

Except my later sons who get ugly wives, or the first sons if its elective and their skills suck. I always matri-marry first-born daughters to decent looking guys too. 2nd and later daughters are for diplomacy.

 

[Sopot]

I always marry the best looking portrait I can.

 

[Hvymtlboy]

No Vexille you are not alone. Now try marrying a "pretty" girl, with good stats, and of your same culture, too much Meditarranean blood in my Scandinavian / Brittanian kingdoms means I'll end up with only brown eyes and black hair after a few generations. My Irish kings are rather troublesome trying to maintain their red hair. < chuckles >

 

[Mauer]

I usually go for stats, particularly stewardship, or if I'm in peril for alliances, but I do find myself avoiding fat people, both male or female.

 

[Jeltz]

Yes, I care about looks, especially as a tie breaker when two wives have equal stats/lands. E.g. if my current ruler is fat I generally try to find a fat wife for him, and I as default try to get cute wives for my heirs, and ugly wives for younger sons I do not like.

 

[unmerged(509501)]

Depends when I'm marrying off non-heir capable children like nothing more than having a bunch of obese balding rulers with the attractive trait, or alternatively creating a Mongolian looking branch of the family

 

[unmerged(100125)]

I'm just glad that I'm not alone in being horribly shallow even in a video game

 

[Pinstar]

I find myself starting to RP my dynasty's preferences. After my Dax game had one of the ruler snap up a Golden Horde Mongol woman based on stats...she happened to have a really good portrait too. I decided that my French Dynasty really really had the hots for Mongol women. While I still sort by stats and don't super-focus on portraits, I look for it by culture.

 

[Fishy101]

I didn't at first until I had fat rulers giving birth to fat prince and princesses for generations. Then I started to check portraits unless I really want that alliance or to inherit that land.

 

[BrunoDerKaiser]

Eugenics Kings II: Medieval Master Race

 

[Cuthuthulu]

I marry women for stats and land. Pretty women is why we have bastards.

 

[tuareg109]

Since I RP, I look at rank and skills first, then looks.
If I'm a king, I'll only marry the daughter of a king or emperor, or a landed duchess or countess; my first two sons marry likewise. The other sons marry daughters of any landed nobility. Daughters marry princes or dukes; only an heir-apparent will marry matrilineally, and then only to one with at least a distant relation to royalty.
The only exception I'll give is if both people making the match have the "arbitrary" trait, or the "kind" trait (rare enough), and it seems likely that the two to be matched will at least like each other (similar traits, both good looking, etc.).
Upon that exception, yes, I'll look for looks first, then traits.

And hey, what's up with there being only 2 blonde females available for marriage on vanilla start? One princess of Saxony, another Norman (I think).

 

[Hvymtlboy]

And hey, what's up with there being only 2 blonde females available for marriage on vanilla start? One princess of Saxony, another Norman (I think).

I dunno, that may actually be accurate as most women that you see walking around blonde are NOT really blonde. Now if they trip and gum shoots out of their mouth, then they are blonde for real.

 

[Veetor]

Yes I do that too. I don't get too attached to my characters if they look monstrous. Also it is good to play for the characters instead of map painting.

 

[Fede248]

I marry EVERYTHING, and i mean EVERYTHING as long as the monster has good stats...

 

[Slym]

I almost always use betrothals to grab attractive geniuses or their ilk at 15 or so, but when I marry an adult I do base it at least somewhat on the portrait.

 

[tuareg109]

I dunno, that may actually be accurate as most women that you see walking around blonde are NOT really blonde. Now if they trip and gum shoots out of their mouth, then they are blonde for real.

I'm at least 100% certain that the King of Sweden should have more than 2 blonde women to choose from. At least 100%.
Most women you see walking around in Wisconsin (and Florida, in my case) aren't real blondes, but then again how many women in the U.S. are blonde? 5%? In Sweden it's something like 50%.