#gee i wonder why the Black man from a marginalized in-game group is written to choose his words wisely

[invinciblerodent]

In Dragon Age: Inquisition, Vivienne has complex views of herself and her magic. She speaks cautiously, and in accordance with the majority of the opinions of the Southern masses, offering an interesting, quite realistic perspective of a loyalist mage to whom the system worked out at the expense of sacrifices she was willing to make, showing the flaws in her thinking and clashing (at the end of the day, quite mildly) with others in the process- and people called her every misogynistic slur under the sun, and wanted to kick her out of the entire organization for it.

In Mass Effect: Andromeda, Liam Costa, the guy repeatedly and deliberately characterized by being compassionate, always the first person to extend a helping hand in friendship, and eager to build connections even if he has to put his foot in his mouth for it, who left his loving family behind in pursuit of the cause he believes in, said one time that Vetra bringing her little sister (her only family who trusts her implicitly and was terrified of losing her) to a new galaxy with no hope of ever returning, essentially making the unilateral decision to upend their lives for the both of them, was selfish, and a not insignificant chunk of the fandom branded him a judgemental asshole, going as far as to call him abusive and accuse him of having anger issues for expressing frustration in one scene.

And it might be a different studio, but more recently, in Baldur's Gate 3, Wyll Ravengard was already fully rewritten and recast once because people thought him too harsh before release, and in the shipping game he made one, honestly mild joke about fandom designated blorbo Astarion (the guy who, btw, can say and do some straight-up heinous shit without seemingly anyone batting an eye) feeding off rats. There was what I'd barely even hesitate before describing as a months-long hate campaign against him.

And there are people still (apparently, with the benefit of all doubt) genuinely asking why Davrin, the only Black character in the core cast, who can die at the end and is unfathomably second to last in popularity as-is, wasn't written to be cattier towards fandom darling Lucanis...?

........ Let's take a second to think about why that particular creative decision might have been made, shall we?