#i don't actually mind it because lets be real most fantasy is anachronistic in this regard

[greensaplinggrace]

highly specific pet peeve of mine when it comes to sab is that none of the characters act with any kind of wariness when they should. like the grisha would not be celebrating in the king’s court with genuine displays of emotion (and obvious shows of rivalry that can be exploited) for all of the otkazat’sya nobles to see. aleksander shouldn’t be showing so much genuine emotion in front of the king or any otkazat’sya (noble or not, they’re all threats to him after all). everyone should be tenser when they’re in court or around authority figures, and the ways they disregard authority are bizarre. that would have you flogged in any monarchy during that time period.

it feels like the writers don’t really grasp the setting or what it means to the characters. these people are soldiers, and even worse, they’re soldiers that are apart of a persecuted class. they should not be so comfortable in areas or around people where they would be thinking about their every little move and how it could be taken advantage of if it was shown. vulnerability should not be tossed around so carelessly by people who should be startlingly aware of life’s atrocities.

honestly, genya is the only character that even acts remotely like she should, in that she is always tense and wary and holding herself like someone who knows they can be hurt at any moment. and even then she’s loose in the king’s court (the king) when she would be at the height of her wariness and paranoia.

[blankd]

(I was going to attach this text to a reblog but I lost the original post, I'm appending more text to make it stand on it's own since it's a topic worth discussing IMO)

The Problem with Taash, an opinion from a ~*Mixed Race Queer Person and a Writer*~

spoilers for Veilguard and Taash's quest- while I haven't seen the ending of the game yet these are egregious writing issues that a 3rd act revelation isn't going to fix

Taash is technically not a "bad character" in a vacuum, they are bad because they are in a Dragon Age game with preexisting lore and this game has writing that is inconsistent with the tone and setting of the previous entries.

Their language is as anachronistic as the rest of Veilguard's main cast dialogue, with disbelief finally shattering at the idea that this Dark Medieval Fantasy suddenly manifests a damn about the gender binary, much less echo the same contemporary terms of 2024 Americans. If they took the time to come up with their own term (or god forbid, something UNIQUE to the setting), I PERSONALLY wouldn't quibble about it. The use of nonbinary is just a symptom of a bigger problem, bad/weak writing, and it is the most emblematic of the lack of care or priority in keeping DA's tone consistent.

Some may argue that using "modern terms" is good, but like anything that isn't a capsule of a specific time period, this kind of writing will age POORLY at best.

More subjectively, but still related to the bad writing problem: I initially didn't mind Taash being blunt and immature, but when no other companion pushed back on them (and Rook is mostly an enabler), it rapidly wore out its welcome. As the focus shifted (with the grace of an anvil) that their plot would be about Gender, I felt the interesting avenues for the character perish in real time. I KNEW more unique in-game hooks were being sacrificed to focus on this, and later scenes would show I wasn't wrong. I PERSONALLY would have preferred if Taash was NB out the gate so that their personal quest could be about literally anything more unique to Dragon Age.

The real crime is that the game literally sits you down to have a 101 chat, despite it being an M-rated game, it's insulting to everyone involved. That this is an inexorable part of Taash is not a "win" unless your litmus for quality is built entirely on reactionary "owns". If you are part of this group, I ask you to consider how practical it is to punish an audience for the words of people who are NOT in that audience. The people who were already reacting with disgust about the option to be NB in the character creator are NOT going to make it to Taash's personal quest.

Some may argue it's "good" it's mandatory, but to that I beg the question of what is LOST by having Taash being NB right out the gate. I know what the game would gain- it would have to actually put something else into Taash's character and maybe we'd be spared the hamfisted sensitivity conversation about pronouns. Like for fuck's sake the end of the world is happening, but sure let's pause the Dark Fantasy Apocalypse to attend an HR meeting in a pirate queen's office- yeah that's the MOST interesting thing that could happen there.

But really this all acts as setup for how despite taking great pains to make sure the player understands that Taash is NB (and that's heckin' valid), they then "have to decide" which SINGULAR culture they will embrace/identify with.

I genuinely don't know why this beat is here at all, but it's baffling to bludgeon that gender is not limited to a binary while presenting CULTURE as mutually exclusive. That ROOK has any input at all is just as staggering display of either a disrespect for the fiction or the player, or both. If you're going to have a sacrificial Very Special Episode character, you can't have it end as having shifted the same 'problem' over to a different topic.

I don't hold ill will to anyone who likes Taash as a character, but as a writer, queer rep is WELL beyond a character looking at the camera and saying they're Nonbinary. "But people will argue against it, they HAD to!" That is a bullshit excuse, GOOD writing doesn't cater to bad faith losers. The painter does not paint for the arsonist.

Misc Points I disagreed with more directly but had no real segue points (and some futureproofing against people who might use these to disregard what I've said): "Taash is only getting crit b/c they're BIPOC coded and queer [therefore this crit is founded in racism]" -Neve and Davrin ARE BIPOC, so unless they are bundled with the "unfair crit", this is not a substantiated assumption. As a tangent, if we're going to dig this deep whatever happened to the outrage at "making 'nonhuman species' NB". Diversity WIN the most inhuman party member is NB! (I personally don't have any strong feelings about that point, but I'm familiar with this being a common complaint from those who seek NB rep.)

"Taash gets crit but these NPCs don't [that's suspicious]" the NPCs don't have cutscenes dedicated to them coming out. The NPCs keep the game moving, but Taash's ~journey~ requires the player be invested and give input which creates the strange dissonance that Taash is trading out their mother's approval for Rook's (which is weird since NEVE is the one that introduces Taash to ~queer identities~ but is relatively ABSENT for the rest of it). Party members ought to have a sliver more autonomy- they can hook up without Rook, yet they can't be true to themselves unless Rook is there, what are the writers implying or achieving with this? The writers also tip their hand about what they want, defeating the point of having options at all in any of these scenes. The removal of player agency is not going to endear ANYONE to this character!

"Taash is also autistic [and is being unfairly criticized]" Taash can still be unpleasant and the lack of pushback from others is what makes it irritating since it comes across as the writers holding back for the sake of optics rather than committing to writing sensible to the fiction.