#it's about the irresponsibility of saying 'oh yeah we drew inspiration from jewish/rroma and indigenous peoples and give elves a narrative

[cumbiazevran]

one of the things i often think about in terms of how Elf narratives are written in the game is how little BioWare devs understand colonisation and it’s related struggles.

it’s from the constant framing of the Dalish as not really knowing what they lost, to Solas’ plans. don’t get me wrong, i love the bastard egg as a narrative device, and i’m not immune to posing him as a foil in my Lavellan’s inquisitors own narrative. however, the only people i’ve ever come in contact with that are desperate to reclaim imperial pasts are white people, not people of colour.

because no matter how much they whitewash elves in the game, the truth is theirs is a “narrative of colour”, so to speak. it’s a narrative of marginalisation and peoples who have seen outside of Whiteness through one device or the other. it’s about the layers and layers of colonisation poc have to deal with every day.

if you’re going to put that into an entire franchise, you should do it responsibly, though, granted, this is BioWare we’re talking about.

but i digress: my point here is i never stop being baffled about how through ignorance or willingness (it makes little difference in the outcome) the continue to write Elvish narrative in the games as if they didn’t know what they lost, and their only way through is Restoring An Empire. this isn’t about unreliable narrators or plot devices, it’s about the awareness that does exist that events like colonialism cannot be undone. they are wounds that take different forms depending on where you stand, but they never close, not really. they change history and that’s that: there’s no going back. ever.

and people know this. the idea of restoring empires is so tied to whiteness to me, and so drastically different to anti-colonialism. it’s so telling in the approach of the devs.