I don't know if this opinion is controversial or not, but Roathe should not have been romanceable if the writers were going to canonize the Drifter wiping the protoframes' memories. And I don't mind that they did decide to do that, other than how it is being handled.
Roathe: You are just as foul as Albrecht, meddling with the minds of those around you - thinking they are your toys to play with! So tell me. Why ask if you already have the answers, hm?
Drifter: I'm trying to help guide you all through this process, and I screwed it up royally the last time. I'm trying again. "From the top" so to speak.
Roathe: Now this, I find fascinating… did you "screw it up" with me, or did you "screw it up" with Lyon or Marie?
Drifter: With you…
Roathe: HA! This is glorious! You truly have my attention, now… in what way? Hm? Do tell… don't be shy. Perhaps we can make an… arrangement.
Drifter: [Confess feelings.] This is… this is really embarrassing, but I…
Roathe: Oh this is truly magical! You took away all our memories in an attempt to have another try at winning my affections?!
Roathe: How very Orokin of you.
Well, that and the actual in-universe justification. Allowing the player to wipe the memories of the protoframes is a gaming mechanic that was given in-universe ramifications. Warframe is an MMO and players can't just start the game over when they want to pursue a different route in KIM, so according to [DE]Rebb in a recent interview, the decision was made to let players "reset" their KIM progress. But then we get to how the mechanic was explained in text:
Roathe: Pardon? And how precisely is it that I have come to forget you rummaging through my mind like the Malium Bowl at a Naberus party!
Drifter: Long story short, there's... the Infestation that seems to extend to the Protoframe serums...
Drifter: And I thought that it worked on the Protoframes in 1999 because of the year itself looping, but that's not the case.
Drifter: I think it's... more to do with the Infestation itself? There's a talking guitar that kind of hinted at some of it. And you traveled here in a Helminth, didn't you?
Roathe: You seem alarmingly uncertain about this entire conversation, Drifter. Especially when it comes to the contents of my skull.
Roathe: And yes. I did come here via a Helminth. That I engineered and grew myself, thank you. Now. You mean to tell me that you have... erased my memories?! Of what, our conversations together?!
To be put it bluntly, this is incorrect. The Drifter's powers don't come from the Helminth or the Infestation; they've never had any special powers where the Infested are concerned. Their powers come from the Void. The Duviri Paradox makes it clear that the Drifter has always had the power to loop time in Duviri, because they were responsible for its creation:
Teshin: ...you're thinking... is this real? Or some fevered dream?
Teshin: You did it. You took control.
Drifter: I always had it. Thrax didn't make this place—
Teshin: —you did. But... you reset it. You gave it all back to him. Why?
Drifter: I guess it... felt like a good trade.
Thrax is just one of the Drifter's toys, and his power is explicitly stated to come from the Undercroft—
Bombastine: Thrax's 'power' is rooted in the Undercroft. Pfeh. Without it, he's not that big of a deal.
—which is the region of Duviri closest to the Void:
Sythel: Everyone's afraid of the Undercroft. Even Thrax. It's too close to the Void.
There's more to it than that, but that's not relevant to today's discussion. Thrax and the Drifter get their powers from the Void, and that makes sense because the Void is really fucking weird about spacetime.
Euleria Entrati: The Void offers humanity the truer telling of Eternalism. That now is merely a facet of a great block.
Euleria Entrati: It is relative… and we can change the frame.
Euleria Entrati: The tyranny of the Present Absolute is overthrown. Tomorrow is now its equal.
The Infested have nothing to do with the Drifter's ability to loop time or erase memories. Lizzie recognizes the Drifter has looped time because she is the Helminth, because she is part of a greater whole that exists outside of Höllvania's loop.
Lizzie: We breathe for You. Bleed for You. Feed for You. Is this demon pleased?
Drifter: You're the Helminth?!
Lizzie: We Are All And We Are One
Helminth has multiple... idk, "anchor" points. There is the Helminth on the orbiter, there is Lizzie in 1999 Höllvania, and sometimes Lizzie is on the orbiter with the Helminth. She is not contained by the Höllvanian loop, so she would always be aware of it.
Lizzie: You must Seek to Understand, Demon… See past what You think you know of what We are
Lizzie: We are One Whole. But we are Also Flare. But We Are Also Everywhere. And Them. And Us. And Every "Warframe" and Every EveryThing and EveryWhen We shall Ever Be
Lizzie isn't just any old Infested, either. The Helminth strain is a genetically modified strain of the technocyte virus cultivated by Ballas specifically for use with the Warframes—
Ballas: We cultured the Infestation, conceiving of a hybrid. Transformed, but only just. The 'Helminth' was created, born to yield these new warriors, worthy of battle against you. The great and terrible Hunhow.
—which themselves are powered by the Heart of Deimos:
Mother: It's what makes you special. You know that, right? All thanks to my father. It pumps the arteries of "the Here" and the Void.
So while the rest of the Infested are aggressive towards the Void—
Mother: The Infestation got in. Got to me and my family. Stole our names, our ideas. I can hear its hive-voice scratching in my mind: 'let the Heart stop beating, let the door close forever'.
—the Helminth has been domesticated enough that it tolerates it:
Helminth: (We fear nothing but the Void demon.)
Again, there's a lot more to it than that, but the tl;dr is that the Drifter's ability to loop time comes from the Void. The Drifter has no reason to believe their ability to wipe memories comes from the Infested.
The original implication was that the Drifter's ability to wipe memories also came from the time loop, because it was constrained to the people trapped in the loop and the decision to wipe memories only came at the start/end of the loop. Divorcing the memory wipe from the time loop is just an in-game acknowledgment that DE divorced the KIM reset from the new year. Now the player can click on the grimoire at any time and reset the memories of the Hex, the Round Table, or the Devil's Triad. Lizzie is unaffected not because she's Infested but because she's Everywhere and Everywhen. She's as much of a paradox as the Drifter is.
It's not bad writing that the Drifter struggles to explain their powers to Roathe; it's bad writing that it directly contradicts all of the lore that has been built up to this point since they were introduced. But that's just one of my problems with Roathe being romanceable in this context.
Another major issue I take with this explanation is that it once again canonizes the Drifter as a sex pest. This isn't the first time that the Drifter can claim to loop time specifically because they were rejected, as they can make a similar claim to Arthur in a chat introduced in Techrot Encore:
Drifter: It's nothing personal. It's mostly because I keep screwing up trying to date your sister. :P
Arthur: Har har. Well, it's a good thing you have a magical super power that allows you to remove your foot from where you've lodged it so spectacularly down your trachea, isn't it?
Arthur: The rest of us just have to learn how to communicate. Question, though.
Arthur: Does she lower her standards with every reset?
For some reason, the Drifter has been given multiple opportunities to sexually harass the protoframes over KIM chat:
Kaya: I just realized who you remind me of.
Kaya: A student I got paired with in first year of uni.
Drifter: An incredibly attractive and brilliant student?
Kaya: Ew. Hate to break it to you but I don't flirt. Ever.
Kaya: ESPECIALLY not on the internet.
Drifter: And what if I want to?
Kaya: It'll never be with me.
I struggle to understand the writers' intentions for including sexual harassment as an option. The Drifter is an established character with an established personality and background, not a simple player stand-in. This is the same character that went to great lengths to save Teshin after Thrax has him executed, to save and heal the Lotus after she's shattered, to loop time itself to save the Hex even though they'd just met. Time and time again the Drifter is shown to care deeply and genuinely about the people in their little found family.
My third and final issue with the way this has all been handled is how it undermines Roathe's character arc specifically. His best and most interesting conversations are the ones about what his memories mean to him as an Orokin.
Roathe: Memories are sacred to the Orokin, Drifter. They are all we are, in the end. Our bodies are temporary. Our faces, our voices, our blood, all mutable. All can be changed like fashion.
For the Orokin who have achieved immortality through Continuity, their memories are all they really are. These memories are even more precious when you consider that the Orokin do eventually forget things over the course of their long lives, so they take steps to preserve those memories:
Struck to commemorate the Entrati family's power and prestige, as well as safeguarding their memories of one another. Many things changed in the years that followed, and that which had once shone brightly grew dark and dim. But even a single Ayatan Star may make all the difference.
—Ayatan Kitha Sculpture item description
Roathe himself eventually reveals that he has forgotten huge chunks of his childhood just because so much time has passed:
Drifter: What was your childhood like, Roathe?
Roathe: Hm? An interesting question. What was it "like?" I honestly do not recall much of it. And the stars and sculptures that contained those memories have likely long since turned to dust or rendered to Endo by now, I assume.
Roathe: I fear I can only recall the briefest images of it, as it was so very long ago. Much of it I wonder if I did not imagine it as if in a dream, or as though I am assigning imagery to the events I have read in a history book.
It is so fascinating that even the depraved, hedonistic Orokin actually did have lines they didn't cross:
Roathe: My point was thus - I am accustomed, quite accustomed in fact - to the machinations and the schemes we Orokin play on each other to amuse ourselves. It is simply how we pass the time.
Roathe: But there are lines that we do not cross. Actions that we do not take. I could go on in detail but I will not. I will summarize simply by stating that Albrecht broke them all.
Naturally, Roathe blames Entrati for his amnesia and fucking hates his guts. He makes no bones about it, he wants him dead:
Roathe: Despite it all. Despite the desolation of Tau. Despite the destruction of the Orokin Empire I knew was now inevitable. Despite the perversion of my body into… this mess. Despite being thrown into the past and abandoned to my own devices.
Roathe: I knew I would find a way back here. To this time. To this place. To where Albrecht had left all his most precious things.
Roathe: Because I am not done living my life. But by the Void, I am going to ensure he is done living his.
The one last bitter twist in all of this is that Roathe's actual romantic history is... not great:
Roathe: You must understand how deeply complex and... harmful my relationship with that woman truly was. It is hard to describe precisely how much I adored her. And how much I despised her.
Roathe: More importantly, how much she made me despise every part of myself down to the very essence of myself. Yet without her, I would not exist. I would not be the man I am.
Roathe tells the Drifter that his relationship with Nitokh, the Executor in charge of the Orokin Empire's military, was "complicated." He says he despised her, that she made him hate himself. He tries to talk up the hate sex he would have with her:
Roathe: I absolutely, positively despised her, and I would have adored nothing more than to slowly, carefully, gently peel her blue skin off her body with my bare hand.
Drifter: And yet you were sleeping with her?
Roathe: The fact that you believe those two things are mutually exclusive is positively adorable. I hope you have the opportunity to experience an evening with such an "acquaintance" someday, it is fairly magical.
Roathe: I simply recommend that you do not make such relationships a permanent affair. It becomes wildly unhealthy for both parties. It usually ends in murder for one or both of you.
But Roathe is the first to admit that for all of his affairs and dalliances, he's never had his love reciprocated:
Drifter: You've never been in love?
Roathe: How sad is that? I know. No, I have not been. Never mutually.
Roathe: Has it ever been a one-sided affair? Oh, most certainly. But that is not a romance, is it? That is a tragedy.
Take one amnesiac Orokin (with no history of healthy relationships),
Then take them away a second time,
Tell him you did it because he rejected you the first time,
Roathe: But that is a conversation for another day. For I have a proposal for you. One I believe you will be far more interested in.
Roathe: I will pretend to be none the wiser in front of the zealots for you…
Roathe: And, more importantly - I will ensure that you will succeed in your goal of uniting us, when the time is right… and I do look forward to it…
Roathe: But mark my words, Drifter.
Roathe: You. Will. Owe. Me.
Roathe: Not today. Not tomorrow.
Roathe: But you will owe the Devil a debt.
Roathe: Are we agreed?
Drifter: I… won't fail? We'll be together? No matter what?
Roathe: And you will have everything that must go along with it, whatever that is… yes. You will succeed. I will see to it personally.
You get a situation ripe for abuse.
Roathe: Transcript: I understood from the start - both on the battlefield and in the bedchamber - the path to victory through seeming submission.
Roathe is anguished over the fact that the Drifter has erased his memories. Even if the Drifter tries to persuade him that he only forgot their KIM chats, he won't have it:
Drifter: And why would you trust me? All you know about me is that I… tampered with your memory.
Roathe: "Tampered with my memory." Like I am some Ayatan Sculpture being toyed with as a prank. You did more than just tamper with my memory. You struck it clean.
Drifter: But not of everything - only of our conversations here. You still have everything else, even the ones we recovered in The Descendia.
Roathe: Do not dare to speak to me of what is valuable in my mind and what is not, Drifter. It is not yours over which to claim ownership.
If the writers were going to acknowledge the Drifter's ability to erase memories in-universe, then it follows that Roathe would be furious. He should hold the same anger and animosity towards the Drifter as he does for Entrati, particularly because the circumstances are so much worse where the Drifter is concerned.
Roathe's amnesia is an accidental side effect of his voluntarily taking the protoframe serum. Sure, Entrati dumped him like an angry wet cat in the ancient past and abandoned him with a couple of priests who seem to think the therapy he needs is a lot of proselytizing. Entrati could have handled that better (although he never does).
But the reality is that there is absolutely no justification for the Drifter deliberately erasing Roathe's memories. It really is just a game mechanic for the player to try again to get their desired ending—a possibility that includes a relationship with Roathe himself.
And Roathe has no reason to want to be in a relationship with the Drifter anymore than he'd want to be in a relationship with Albrecht Entrati. But the writers have already decided the Devil's Triad are all romanceable. So now the writers have to justify that in-text, and they do so by just... having Roathe kind of bitterly go along with it.
Roathe: I. This is absurd. I know we have been through all this before. And we've spoken of this already. Which is a matter I still find deeply troubling.
Roathe: Would you prefer I simply played along? Or... is there some particular goal you are working toward by doing this? I am all rather baffled as to what you expect to gain by playing this cruel game.
Roathe's submission to the Drifter is no different than his submission to Nitokh. He knows he cannot beat the Drifter, so he just succumbs. Except this time he has no schemes to fall back on except to elicit a "debt" from the Drifter in exchange for his compliance.
If you've ever played Baldur's Gate 3 and went through Astarion's romance, you may be reminded of the first potential sex scene that happens in Act I. During this scene, the narrator describes that while Astarion is with you physically, he's basically a thousand miles away behind the eyes. If your approval with him isn't high enough or you haven't uncovered his vampirism yet, your character doesn't know he was kept as a slave and forced to perform sexually for decades. He doesn't trust you enough to tell you, and he doesn't trust you enough not to seize control through the only means he knows how. The truth comes out later. It's a fantastic piece of characterization and a terrible gut punch to the player.
Roathe is already enraged to be the point of murderous fury that another Orokin violated one of the few sacred tenets they actually hold dear—taking away his memories—only to later discover that his amnesia was not intended and Entrati is just a dick. And then, potentially, one day he wakes up and realizes that he is once again missing an entire chunk of his memories.
Because of you, the player.
In Baldur's Gate 3, the PC has just met Astarion and knows nothing about him. The player has no idea this is what's going on behind the scenes unless they've played the game before; and if you've romanced Astarion more than once, this revelation probably impacted future playthroughs.
There are no replays in Warframe. It's an MMO with a high time investment. So you have the reset mechanic—but that's acknowledged in-game, and Roathe is utterly betrayed when he discovers his loss. He even calls it a "betrayal" in that first conversation, but he doesn't know why he feels so betrayed by you because he can't remember.
Roathe: Second, I am struck by the immediate fury and anger at knowing that my mind has been trifled with not once but twice in recent history. But there is another emotion that comes to defeat the anger. One I do not quite yet understand.
Roathe: Betrayal.
Roathe: Why?
Honestly, I feel badly for players. Since Roathe recognizes the betrayal that has been committed against him by you, a ton of his chats have additional dialogue expressing his anger and fury and loss and grudging acceptance. But this means that players who want to give his romance a shot can really only do so the first time and Roathemancers who want to experience his romance again can't without violating his trust.
And if you reset him because of a bug, you're just shit out of luck unless you can convince Warframe Support to reset him for you.
You want to fall in love with him again? Or experience his romance after going through the Triad once before? Or you got locked into a bad ending and you wanna try again to help him find peace?
Your Drifter is no different than Nitokh, worse than Albrecht Entrati.
If that's how it's going to be, Roathe shouldn't be romanceable at all. He shouldn't want to be in a relationship with someone who has put him in such a vulnerable position, and the Drifter shouldn't be the sort of character who would wipe someone's memories just because they rejected them. That's villain behavior, like come on.
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