Dragon Age: Origins meta dump
Jul. 7th, 2012 08:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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personalapocalypseI think I posted some of these thoughts on Plurk at the time, but I might as well repost them, because I don't have them there anymore. (Includes commentary on the City Elf storyline, which includes references to sexual assault.)
Thoughts so far on Dragon Age: Origins, having played through part of two different origins:
- One of the first things I heard about the game was that the female City Elf storyline was quite problematic, and possibly troubling for players who were traumatized by sexual assault. I played through the male City Elf instead, mostly because everyone I knew had played through that origin as a female and I wanted to see what the difference was.
Really, I'd say it's slightly less traumatic, but not better. As a woman you're basically captured by armed men and you have to fight your way out of the situation, and your would-be husband is murdered right in front of you, and you're nearly imprisoned and most likely executed, except that Duncan is there to conscript you and take you away to another sort of danger. As a man, though, your bride-to-be is kidnapped, and you get weapons from Duncan and go fight your way through the manor with a friend, and the ladies just sort of wait for you to show up (except for the one that the guards murder.) Also, your fiancee survives, but... more on that later.
So yeah, that origin? If you're sensitive to plotlines about sexual assault, it's just problematic all around.
- The game made me really angry in my latest playthrough, regarding its treatment of M!Tabris's fiancee.
In the first attempt at a game I played with a male City Elf archer-rogue (it was on a friend's 360, which I no longer have access to,) I was apparently relatively nice to her. I don't remember exactly what I said to her, but she and my character had a conversation in which she regretted never knowing what might have been in the end. (It was honestly just as well, in my opinion. I was playing - am playing - Darrien as being exclusively attracted to other males, so she might have been disappointed by their relationship in the end.)
In this current attempt, though? I don't remember exactly what I did - I know I was short with her before the wedding, which got a few laughs and a "They warned me about you!" comment. Then the kidnapping happened, he went off to save her, and she made the stereotypical damsel-in-distress remark: "Oh, I knew that you would come to save me!"
To which my choice of response was, "I didn't come just for you, I came for everyone!"
And she immediately looked horribly disappointed and sad, and when we had the conversation come up later between the two of them... well, there was no conversation. She basically said, "We have nothing to say. Shianni is in the other room, and she's waiting for you. Come on, let's let him have a conversation with a woman he actually cares about."
So, yes. The game was seriously portraying her as angry that my character, one, didn't really want to be married to a woman he'd only just met, and two, didn't instantly care about her more than he cared about a beloved family member. Honestly, what? I disliked her after that, and I know I got a few unflattering comments about this when I made a confession about it on tumblr, but I really dislike that the game's writers couldn't think of another way to portray that she was really hoping for a fairy-tale romance out of this arrangement than to make her so completely out of touch with reality and to make my character's cousin into her rival. Don't we have enough of that?
- So. Kudos to the DA:O team for at least providing options for same-gender romances and not making them into a weird thing for the PC and his companions. But really, from my experiences with the game, Darrien Tabris really feels like the only homosexual man in the world at this point. In neither of my playthroughs have I encountered a textually homosexual male - there's at least one bisexual man and one (two?) bisexual woman, one explicitly-stated female couple that I know of, one implied male couple which had to be confirmed by the writers, and that's really about it. (As much as I love Marjoraine's relationship with Leliana, it's ambiguous.)
I mean. I guess that it's good that the option is there? And that it isn't treated as weird or silly by everyone around you? And it's not like I expect them to dance around holding hands everywhere, but it'd be at least nice to have them do something subtle that would actually confirm them as lovers, and not make them able to be rationalized away as "just friends." Or something. I'm not sure what the answer is here.
- I have to say, something rubs me the wrong way about how the game did the Leliana romance? I'm not entirely sure why. At first I felt as if she was very much being the "girl" in the relationship, even though I was romancing her with my female Amell - another playthrough on the 360 that I'll never finish, sadly. But is that really a bad thing? I don't think so.
I will say, though, that I will probably harden Leliana every time I play through the game, because I prefer her hardened personality. It doesn't make her evil; it's a way of making her come to terms with her past and not just keep running away from it. I do wish that there was an option for that that didn't harden her, but unfortunately there isn't.
- In my Amell playthrough, I went with Prince Bhelen in the dispute in Orgrimmar. Why? Because he actually talks like he wants to change the oppression that an entire caste of society goes through on a daily basis, and that's something that's important to her, being a part of an oppressed caste as well - maybe not in the same way, but at least along the same principle, being hated and restrained in various ways because of something that they were born into. The fact that he's apparently in love and has a newborn baby has nothing to do with it. That's her story and she's sticking to it. (Amell was very much a sucker for love and lovers. She agreed to help Jowan and his girlfriend and did not betray them because she wanted the two of them to have a chance to be together, and to be happy.)
I'm not sure about Tabris yet - he'll either have the same sort of reaction that Amell had, or just as likely he'll realize that Bhelen is lying to him and basically say, "Okay, screw you, buddy" and betray him. Anyway, I'm currently still working on the Dale, so I've got a while to think.
(I actually had a roommate - the guy who took the 360 with him when he moved - play through the game as a male Dwarf Commoner warrior. He chose Harrowmont, because he (as the player) thought it would be the better choice. I don't think he was thinking in terms of "what would this character do?" like I tend to do, which is cool. I just found it a bit odd, considering Brosca's backstory. Also, poor Rica.)
Thoughts so far on Dragon Age: Origins, having played through part of two different origins:
- One of the first things I heard about the game was that the female City Elf storyline was quite problematic, and possibly troubling for players who were traumatized by sexual assault. I played through the male City Elf instead, mostly because everyone I knew had played through that origin as a female and I wanted to see what the difference was.
Really, I'd say it's slightly less traumatic, but not better. As a woman you're basically captured by armed men and you have to fight your way out of the situation, and your would-be husband is murdered right in front of you, and you're nearly imprisoned and most likely executed, except that Duncan is there to conscript you and take you away to another sort of danger. As a man, though, your bride-to-be is kidnapped, and you get weapons from Duncan and go fight your way through the manor with a friend, and the ladies just sort of wait for you to show up (except for the one that the guards murder.) Also, your fiancee survives, but... more on that later.
So yeah, that origin? If you're sensitive to plotlines about sexual assault, it's just problematic all around.
- The game made me really angry in my latest playthrough, regarding its treatment of M!Tabris's fiancee.
In the first attempt at a game I played with a male City Elf archer-rogue (it was on a friend's 360, which I no longer have access to,) I was apparently relatively nice to her. I don't remember exactly what I said to her, but she and my character had a conversation in which she regretted never knowing what might have been in the end. (It was honestly just as well, in my opinion. I was playing - am playing - Darrien as being exclusively attracted to other males, so she might have been disappointed by their relationship in the end.)
In this current attempt, though? I don't remember exactly what I did - I know I was short with her before the wedding, which got a few laughs and a "They warned me about you!" comment. Then the kidnapping happened, he went off to save her, and she made the stereotypical damsel-in-distress remark: "Oh, I knew that you would come to save me!"
To which my choice of response was, "I didn't come just for you, I came for everyone!"
And she immediately looked horribly disappointed and sad, and when we had the conversation come up later between the two of them... well, there was no conversation. She basically said, "We have nothing to say. Shianni is in the other room, and she's waiting for you. Come on, let's let him have a conversation with a woman he actually cares about."
So, yes. The game was seriously portraying her as angry that my character, one, didn't really want to be married to a woman he'd only just met, and two, didn't instantly care about her more than he cared about a beloved family member. Honestly, what? I disliked her after that, and I know I got a few unflattering comments about this when I made a confession about it on tumblr, but I really dislike that the game's writers couldn't think of another way to portray that she was really hoping for a fairy-tale romance out of this arrangement than to make her so completely out of touch with reality and to make my character's cousin into her rival. Don't we have enough of that?
- So. Kudos to the DA:O team for at least providing options for same-gender romances and not making them into a weird thing for the PC and his companions. But really, from my experiences with the game, Darrien Tabris really feels like the only homosexual man in the world at this point. In neither of my playthroughs have I encountered a textually homosexual male - there's at least one bisexual man and one (two?) bisexual woman, one explicitly-stated female couple that I know of, one implied male couple which had to be confirmed by the writers, and that's really about it. (As much as I love Marjoraine's relationship with Leliana, it's ambiguous.)
I mean. I guess that it's good that the option is there? And that it isn't treated as weird or silly by everyone around you? And it's not like I expect them to dance around holding hands everywhere, but it'd be at least nice to have them do something subtle that would actually confirm them as lovers, and not make them able to be rationalized away as "just friends." Or something. I'm not sure what the answer is here.
- I have to say, something rubs me the wrong way about how the game did the Leliana romance? I'm not entirely sure why. At first I felt as if she was very much being the "girl" in the relationship, even though I was romancing her with my female Amell - another playthrough on the 360 that I'll never finish, sadly. But is that really a bad thing? I don't think so.
I will say, though, that I will probably harden Leliana every time I play through the game, because I prefer her hardened personality. It doesn't make her evil; it's a way of making her come to terms with her past and not just keep running away from it. I do wish that there was an option for that that didn't harden her, but unfortunately there isn't.
- In my Amell playthrough, I went with Prince Bhelen in the dispute in Orgrimmar. Why? Because he actually talks like he wants to change the oppression that an entire caste of society goes through on a daily basis, and that's something that's important to her, being a part of an oppressed caste as well - maybe not in the same way, but at least along the same principle, being hated and restrained in various ways because of something that they were born into. The fact that he's apparently in love and has a newborn baby has nothing to do with it. That's her story and she's sticking to it. (Amell was very much a sucker for love and lovers. She agreed to help Jowan and his girlfriend and did not betray them because she wanted the two of them to have a chance to be together, and to be happy.)
I'm not sure about Tabris yet - he'll either have the same sort of reaction that Amell had, or just as likely he'll realize that Bhelen is lying to him and basically say, "Okay, screw you, buddy" and betray him. Anyway, I'm currently still working on the Dale, so I've got a while to think.
(I actually had a roommate - the guy who took the 360 with him when he moved - play through the game as a male Dwarf Commoner warrior. He chose Harrowmont, because he (as the player) thought it would be the better choice. I don't think he was thinking in terms of "what would this character do?" like I tend to do, which is cool. I just found it a bit odd, considering Brosca's backstory. Also, poor Rica.)
no subject
Date: 2012-07-09 12:34 am (UTC)"Oh no, your future husband got killed!"
"Eh. Didn't want to marry him anyway."
"WHAT"
I also saw the "woman he actually cares about" dialogue, but that was after telling my bride-to-be to sod off at every opportunity, so it seemed rather fitting.