Low Key I'm Kinda Bored Of And Annoyed By The Preponderance Of Works That Have Boring If Not Outright

Why Fenris could Never Cameo in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

In the run up to Dragon age: The Veilguard, I was almost certain that Fenris would be our main legacy character from previous games. Not only has he been central in the comics released between DAI and DATV, he is an escaped Tevinter slave who's plot revolved around magisters, magic and the structural prejudices surrounding elves in Thedas. Not only that, but he's canonically in Tevinter killing slavers currently so he's geographically in the right place for us to meet him.

About halfway through the game though, it was clear to me: Fenris could never cameo in The Veilguard. Because he'd break it.

How the Veilguard treats Thedas is...odd to me, to say the least. I will be writing another post about how much I adored the expanded big lore in this game (the titans, ancient elves were spirits, where the blight came from etc.) and yet while these large lore expansions worked for me, the actual culture of modern Thedas is entirely softened, its sharp edges filed down until it's a sanitised fantasy world devoid of what made the franchise so vibrant and compelling in the first place.

So let's start with Fenris and slavery. In all three games, the reality of slavery is pushing at the corners of the world. In DAO Loghain allows Tevinter Magisters to enslave elves in order to raise money for his war effort. In DA2 Fenris is fighting to be free from slavers who will not leave him be, let alone the reminders that the city was built by slaves which are everywhere. In DAI one of the two possible mini-bosses is Calpurnia who was a slave, and characters such as Gatt and Dorian both show us how much slavery is tied into Tevinters culture and success.

But DATV the first game actually set in Tevinter where we get to see the famed Minrathous...it's like the game purposefully wants to avoid the issue. I can feel it tilting the camera away to not allow me to see. Slavery is mentioned, but never talked about in depth or as a specifically ELVEN problem in Tevinter. This might have been done to be less problematic, it feels ignored.

We are in DOCK TOWN. We are at the DOCKS. You would think that slaves from all over Thedas who are being smuggled and bought by various groups would be everywhere. You would think that the injustice in dock town would be partly built on the back of ships we've seen in the comics crammed with elves in chains. This is the world Dragon age set up for us. And yet...nothing. zilch. A tiny easily skippable side quest where we free a couple of venatori slaves, but only one of whom is an elf.

None of our Tevinter characters seem to have been influenced by their culture even a little bit when it comes to how they view elves; there is no moment when Neve fucks up and says something prejudiced, no moment when Bellara or Davrin are distrustful of her for being a Tevinter mage.

The same goes for Zevran; a character who epitomised the issues with the crows. The crows have consistently been characterised as very morally dubious assassins who kill for the highest bidder and who buy children on the slave market and torture them as they grow in order to assure that they reach maturity able to withstand torture without giving away a client's name. Zevran is very explicit about the fact that if you fail a contract your life is forefit.

Nobody responds particularly to you if you're an elf. Nobody trusts rook less for it in Tevinter. Nobody treats Rook any differently. Even DAI had better mechanics for this; with nobles in Orlais less likely to trust you as an elf.

Considering one of the main plot points of this game and what makes Solas sympathetic is the fact that he was fighting against the slavery of ancient elves...you'd think the game might want to mirror that in modern Thedas. It might want to show us how characters fighting to end slavery in Tevinter are similar to Solas and how the society Solas fought against was similar to the one that characters we love such as Fenris have fought against in modern Thedas. Maybe we'd want to explore how in a world of slavery like this, how could the answer NOT be to tear it all down? Maybe we should have that option at the end of the game so it really can chose whether we agree with Solas and his plans or not.

Adding Fenris to this game would entirely break the game because Fenris refuses to allow you to look away from this horror. He is a sympathetic character who had to learn to trust mages again because of course he didn't trust them. Of course he didn't. Fenris wouldn't allow the camera to shift focus because he's literally covered in the lyrium scars that show how slaves are used as experiments in Tevinter. Fenris WOULD question Neve on how she feels about elves and slaves. Fenris WOULD have things to say about Lucanis and the crows (let alone the fact Lucanis is an abomonation). So he could never be in this game; he'd drop a bomb on it's carefully constructed blinders to the very society its supposed to be set in.

And yet, in DATV, the crows are presented as...a found family of misfits and orphans? The politician who opposes the crows having absolute power in Antiva is framed as a comically evil idiot who doesn't understand that the crows are ontologically good. Yet...they're NOT. Crows in this game act more like a secret rebel group than an assassin organisation. We see no crow taking contracts with the VERY RICH venatori magisters despite being hired killers. We see crows just refuse to kill people despite having a contract because 'its crueler to leave them alive'. The crows don't feel like the crows here, they feel like a softened version of a cool assassin group who are cool because they wear black and purple.

Our pirate group are also sanitised; the Lords of Fortune are good pirates who only steal treasure that's not culturally significant. Theyve clearly read the modern critiques of the British Museum and have decided to explicitly stop anyone levelling similar critiques at them. There is no faction of the Lords of Fortune who aren't like this, no internal arguments about it. Everyone just. Agrees. And is able to accurately tell what a cultural artifact is vs. what treasure that you can have yourself is. Rather than showing us why a pirate stealing cultural artifacts might be bad (like in da2 where such a situation literally causes a coup and a war) it just tells us it's bad. But also pirates are cool so we still want them in our world.

This issue seaps into Thedas and drains it of any of the interesting complexity and ability to SAY anything that this franchise had before this game. It becomes a game about telling and not showing rather than the other way around. The games have ALWAYS asked questions about oppressive structural systems and their interplay with society, religion and culture and how these things can affect even the most well meaning character. Dragon age at its best IS a game about society and how society functions both for and against it's characters and what happens to societies built on cruelty and indifference. The best bad guys dragon age has given us are those who are bad because they embody these systems or have been shaped by them. Our main characters have had to wrestle with questions surrounding how to exist in these systems, fight against them, learn and grow.

Yet every group you come across in DATV is sanitised and cleaned up to the point of being as non problematic as humanly possible. None of our cast of characters have to wrestle with where they came from or the world that shaped them. None of them have to confront their own biases. They start the game perfectly non-problematic and end it that way too.

And this just...isn't what Dragon Age has been in the past. It isn't why I love the franchise. The whole game just felt, in a way, hollow. And this was a CHOICE and it is why the legacy characters are few and far between. Too many dragon age characters are just too...angry and complex for this game. You can feel them pulling their punches on this one. I have to imagine they did this because they didn't want to be criticised or have too much controversy? But I think it honestly goes far too much in the other direction and just makes it bland.

I can't imagine what I say here will be unique, but it is the basis for a LOT of my other thoughts on this game so I wanted to get it out of the way first. The softened Thedas and characters make this game by far the weakest in the franchise.

Listen I’m not fully caught up on the manga or anime, but the Endeavor redemption leaves a really bad taste in my mouth so far. Especially because it’s barely brought up while focusing on his relationship with his kids that he BOUGHT HIS WIFE.

Also I feel like the people who I’ve seen talk about online end up excusing his behavior because of in world reasons (ex: he’s the number one hero so he can’t be held accountable) when they don’t recognize that it’s being written by a person, and the person wrote it that way for a reason.

Like when you’re writing a story about abuse and you focus more on how the abusers feel about their actions than how the victims do…that seems odd.

pros and cons of the dragon age games provided by me, your local dragon age gay

DA:O

pros: 

the introduction to the series!

DOG

you can select from multiple origins that provide not only an in-depth backstory but also a closer and more personal look at the different cultures that reside in thedas/ferelden

gives you a lot of lore and context that is vital to understanding the rest of the games

there are so many goddamn possible endings it’s actually incredible even minor choices you don’t think will impact the game can heavily affect character personalities (i’m looking at You, alistair and leliana)

the dialogue wheel Does Not Exist thank u lord

ZEVRAN!!!! Z E V R A N!!!!!!!!!!!!!

cons: 

it’s the oldest in the series so it sure looks and feels like it

some people don’t like the combat mechanics; i don’t think they’re too bad but i like playing games like pillars of eternity so :L

“the grey wardens don’t involve themselves in politics” say local grey wardens as they singlehandedly decide the future of ferelden’s monarchies

the FUCKING deep roads oh my GOD

skip the fade is the best mod in existence

morrigan isn’t a lesbian??? exCUSE ME????

Morrigan Disapproves :’(

DA2

pros: 

just like dragon age: origins this game introduces certain story beats that are CRUCIAL to the next game

DOG

imo it has the best combat/level up mechanic in both games

down to earth story that focuses less on world-shattering events and more on the ugly, complicated, diverse relationships between people

provides more information on the qunari culture than the first game did with the introduction of the arishok + fenris

really delves deep into the conflict between mages and templars, and all the conflicts therein

unafraid to tackle the concept of horrible loss, sacrifice, the right to freedom, and the consequences of vengeance

in this house we are ALL bi for hawke

VARRIC <33

cons:

Local Champion Despairs Of Friends, Threatens To Turn This City Around If They Can’t Get Along

the introduction of… the dialogue wheel :(

“mages aren’t people like you and me” says cullen rutherford directly to the apostate future champion of kirkwall with absolutely no shame

i’m so goddamn tired of mages and templars and blood mages oh my GOD

me about halfway through the game: “can’t we just uproot the chantry and start afresh this is so stupid”

me later: “NO NOT LIKE THAT”

WE CAN’T KISS VARRIC :(

DA:I

pros:

you can play as any of the races of thedas!!! (qunari PC… bless up)

FROSTBITE ENGINE EVERYONE IS SO BEAUTIFUL

a deeper look into chantry hierarchies and the politics of thedas

semi-open world full of mysteries and things to explore!!

the approval system is much more streamlined with your companions tossing in their two cents whether they’re present or not

there’s so much elf lore in this game it’s spilling out the sides

companions come from all corners of thedas, providing us a more comprehensive look at the different countries

HIGH DRAGONS BITCHES WHOOOOOOOOOOOOO [IRON BULL VOICE] ANAAN

varric is back!!!

cons:

you get the “chosen one” storyline that’s been done 400 times before

THE FUCKGIN SHARDS…….

no dog :(

since the game concerns nearly every single country in the known world + their leaders it feels a little impersonal compared to the other two

Where In The World Is Zevran Arainai

if you play an elf inquisitor i’m so sorry

you can’t kiss cassandra as a woman even though she’s a romantic soft butch knight in shining armor i’ll never forgive u bioware

epilogue dlc that literally sets up and provides the premise for the next game WHY is this a dlc and not in the base game i just???

WE STILL CAN’T KISS VARRIC???

short comic with babby Alanna uwu

Welcome to Preservation! we have nice people and even nicer murderbots.

A hero in more ways than one

Kirkwall

That was part of commish for one DA fan. I was inspired by image of this mighty city from DA:2, towering on a great mountain, at the foot of which splaches Waking sea...

I've never seen one of the birds ones fit better tbh

the walking dead + guide to troubled birds

The Mandalorian chapter posters. Finally completed! <3

Prints | Smartphone Wallpapers

legends and lattes ☕