#taash critical

[dearest-and-nearest]

Alistair > Taash

Anyway, quick post on why Alistair as an infantile character works so much better than Taash.

Spoiler: because we can react to his infantility and fix it, rather than just supporting and liking the character.

It's worth starting with the fact that both Alistair and Taash both like to start swearing if the other is behaving “wrong” from their point of view. But while in Alistair's case “wrong” is like a fucking psychopath slashing elves, mages, beggars and just passersby, to get a shout-out from Taash, it's enough to simply ask why they're wearing a qunari harness if they don't follow qun themselves.

That said, the difference is stark the rest of the time. The Veilguard squad doesn't really care about Rook, they are friends with each other, while you are somewhere on the sidelines, waiting for your time to comfort and embrace another companion. Taash is no exception in this regard, they only need us when they are in a bad mood and need a session from a therapist represented by us. At the same time, Alistair tries to support us as much as he can, sympathizing with Cousland/Mahariel/Edukan/Tabris' grief. He is also grieving, but he realizes that the world does not revolve around him, unlike Taash.

Well, and the world's reaction to the characters' infantility. Taash is loved by everyone. Supported. They bitch about Emmerich like he did something to them, when in fact… he dares to think dragons are boring? And yet you can't tell them to shut up and leave him alone, only explain in the gentlest possible tone of voice the obvious things that not everyone thinks like you. Everyone cares about their problems, everyone wants to help them.

At the same time, Alistair is constantly being told that he's too soft, that he's weak, that he needs to grow up. Morrigan is the first to do this, of course, but the rest of the squad loves it too. His infantilization is not something natural, it's a flaw, just like Leliana's fanaticism, Ogrhen's alcoholism or Morrigan's whole personality.

And especially the difference in their personal quests and dialogs with them is noticeable in this. With Taash you can't say who cares about your problems, we have an apocalypse on our doorstep, do you really care about identity issues right now? You can't express your displeasure with their phrases, you can't make fun of those very issues or support their mother, only be a nice good friend. At the same time, the character himself continues to behave like at best a teenager (although this is a long-adult person, they are in their 20s, such behavior is unacceptable at such an age), who resents that their mother does not cook their favorite dish, and demands to do it themselves.

Alistair, on the other hand, can be hardened in the course of his quest. You can mock him along with Goldanna and ask him what he expected in the first place? Why did he come? And you can tell him to grow up, to stop being so soft. And Alistair in this case grows up, stops whining if you make him king, and on the contrary, starts wanting the title. He stops running from responsibility and accepts it.

Well, bonus: if you don't interact with Alistair, you only learn a plot-important thing in the form of him being the king's bastard. Other than that, you won't hear about Duncan, you won't hear about the guards, you might not talk at all once after Ostagar. What's more - you can replace him with Loghain. At the same time, if you don't interact with the Taash, they will announce in ultimatum form at the next meeting that they have found their pronouns (because what else to think about during the apocalypse), and your character will support and accept them without options.

Basically all the problems with Taash are sharply related to the lack of roleplay. If you can react to a character and their lines, it's much harder to get annoyed with them, while at the same time if the game is somehow convinced that you're obligated to like a character, you start to hate them pretty quickly. Simply because what has the character done to deserve my good treatment? Taash hasn't done anything. Alistair at least tried to be a good person (though his post-Redcliffe behavior is peak infantilism).

The short conclusion is simple: dao's best companion is Sten. And with infantile characters you need either the opportunity to correct them and make them grow up, or at least not to interact with them in principle, not just to support an adult who behaves as if they are 15.

[antiqua-lugar]

well, I got THAT scene with Taash and Emmrich and right now it has honestly killed any interest I had in romancing Taash. or like hanging with them much. skullfucker, really?

[butchvamp]

i finished Harding's quest... whew... i don't like Harding. or i should say i don't like how nice the game treats her. she gets all of the emotional beats around the lore revelations while the elves are left to go kick rocks.

i pointed this out previously in another post, but the dwarves (and Harding specifically, and thus by extension Andrastians, too) get so much more sympathy from the game than any of the elves. you can clearly see it just in these two screenshots-- compare dialogue choices when comforting Harding after the reveal about the Golden City (and also important to note that the game assumes my elf is Dalish multiple times before this choice, but for some reason i can suddenly make her Andrastian):

versus the first real discussion you get to have with Bellara about the truth of the elven gods:

Bellara implies that everyone is right not to trust the elves, actually, because the elven gods (the same ones that enslaved her people btw) are bad and we should all feel bad about it.

and Davrin is unfortunately distanced from the Dalish, remarking that they're too traditional and stuck in the past (a racist trope that Dragon Age really loves for the elves), and only seems to care about how the elven gods make elves "look bad." we do get to see Davrin reconnect with one of the members of his clan later, which is a sweet moment that shows us a new side of him, but it exists more so to push along the griffon storyline than anything to do with Davrin (a problem i find quite annoying when it comes to Davrin's writing... they care more about Assan and "turlum" than him or his feelings. but that's a different post)

when we finally get to Heart of Stone, Harding has her big, emotional confrontation with a titan, and gets granted the memory of the titan's loss and all of their pain. she says some Choice lines, here.

who is thriving? the elves that were enslaved en masse by the Evanuris? the elves that are still enslaved and live in alienages? that are wholly, systemically oppressed throughout Thedas? then to follow it up with both of these lines, spoken to an elven Rook:

and i understand that this is the titan speaking through Harding, and we can be generous and say that they are addressing the Evanuris, and not elf Rook personally. but. uh. why doesn't my elf get to Say Anything. it's repeatedly insinuated that everything is the elves' fault, that the elves should feel guilty and that they should be held responsible for what happened to the dwarves (and by extension, the blight and everything bad that's ever happened including what's happening right now), and that they deserve to suffer because of what "they" did to the titans.... and there's no option to challenge this line of thinking at all.

and it's really frustrating that none of the elven companions are allowed this kind of emotional catharsis with the Evanuris. up until that one (bad) dialogue with Bellara, all of Bellara's comments/her reactions to the gods are treated as comic relief. none of them get to grieve their gods like Harding is allowed to grieve the titans-- they're not even allowed to be as angry with Solas as Harding is in some scenes. even Andrastians, in that one single dialogue choice, were afforded more sympathy and grief than the elves in this game.

it's a baffling choice, considering the plot, that elves are given so little grace or consideration. and i do think part of it has to do with the way this game has tried to distance itself from previously established lore as well as scrub itself clean of anything morally dubious-- it's all black and white and the game needs someone to blame, so the elves are bad because the Evanuris are bad, nevermind all that other stuff, because see, the elves actually deserved it all along! i don’t even think it’s unreasonable that Harding may have these feelings (even if they’re racist lol) but the fact you just have to accept Blame and the narrative never challenges her or Bellara’s guilt or Davrin’s apathy and instead just agrees with all of them and forces Rook to agree as well is shitty and takes it from “this character feels this way” to “the game is implying that everyone feels this way, and also that they’re right.”

it's really unfortunate because i do think this reveal about the titans and why the dwarves can't dream or use magic is exciting, it could cause some compelling conflict between the companions (but that's not allowed in this game at all unfortunately and you especially Cannot be even slightly rude to Harding, ever). and i do like the idea of her quest and what they're trying to convey here-- confronting this old, repressed trauma, and finding a way to reconcile with it and move forward.... but not at the expense of the elves, who also suffered massively at the hands of the Evanuris (and continue to suffer. right now)

bioware has been criticized repeatedly about their depiction of the Dalish, their indigenous coding, and even the mages, too, and i really do not understand what they were thinking with this, because it's just racist (and exactly what people have repeatedly criticized them for). this is why a lot of "fantasy racism" fails. you can't write a marginalized group as being responsible and deserving of their own oppression, that's not how it works!

[asharaks]

not to sound like a redditor but this game having incredibly laboured and poorly integrated gender politics while perpetuating the series' unbelievable racism is. woof

[dalishious]

Would you care to elaborate on how Taash's gender was handled? I don't have a way of playing the game myself, and also don't really understand your settler comment. (This is genuine, I want to understand it, but do not think I could if I just looked up the game content myself.)

I mean Weekes very clearly wrote Taash through their lens as a settler (a white person living on stolen land), and did so with ZERO consideration for the cultural aspects of Taash's story.

Like, Rook literally is forced to choose "Encourage Taash to pursue their Rivaini culture" or "Encourage Taash to pursue their Qunari heritage" in one scene for example. And the dialogue is this: "Did your mother want you to be a Qunari who happened to live in Rivain, or a Rivaini person who happened to be Qunari?" And that is such a western colonial mindset! Taash doesn't have to choose shit, Taash can have both!

But yay, Taash is non-binary, so we're supposed to pretend their gender means more than their culture, because of course the two are always separate, right? //sarcasm

[swoleas]

Since Veilguard was released, there is this genre of Dragon Age fans popping up who are explaining Dragon Age lore, who have been talking a lot about Qunari lore. Disappointingly, they've just been taking Bioware's qunari lore at face value for every single game, no matter how much the Qunari lore for each game retcons the lore from game before it.

And I feel like, it needs to be understood that, Qunari were designed to be "Militant Islamic Borg" -- the intent behind them is to be this oriental technologically advanced people who are violent and expansionist savages and made specifically to contrast the rest of Thedas, meant to be White and European. They are routinely called barbarians and savages, real world slurs used against people from the SWANA region, by characters the players are meant to see as sympathetic and intelligent, like Solas. The lore starts and ends with this. And even with Gaider not working on the game, each bit of new Qunari lore introduced is built on 2 things: Racism and Vibes.

Trying to explain Qunari lore without even examining the deeply racist framework within which Qunari lore exists is inadvertently reinforcing the racism and the orientalism and xenophobia in the writing. You cannot separate them.

I have been seeing people calling Qunari society "inherently violent" or "teaching violence" and that this is why they are written as having had the Antaam branch away and go to the South and join the ancient Gods. And No. That is not correct in any sense. But if you rewrite the lore of the Qunari in every single game, of course that would be your takeaway. The real reason they are written this way is so you can have a faceless orcish brute enemy archetype that you can kill in Dragon Age: The Veilguard without any guilt. It's literally not deeper than that.

Why is it that Bioware is so resistant to having us go to Seheron or go to Par Vollen and walk amongst Qunari society and view them in a context where they are just living their lives? Is it possibly because it will draw attention to how alien and inhuman they are intended to be? Is it so they are not humanized in a way that makes every previous inclusion of Qunari seem jarring and uncomfortable to see?

In Origins, we meet Sten, and though he exists to expound on this group of people who exist in Thedas, the Qunari, and introduce us to this bit of world building which isn't directly relevant to the main story, but fleshes out the world beyond Ferelden. The writing was still racist (after all "militant Islamic Borg" refers to their Origins iteration), but you got so little information that you could infer that there may be some nuance there, especially given the way Sten is written in a way that humanizes the Qunari. Later lore shows him as being someone who cares deeply about the world around him and, as Arishok, about diplomacy. And all this not conflicting with his belief in the tenets of the Qun.

And in Dragon Age 2, the game pivots into making them one of the major causes of conflict in the story. This is the first introduction of Qunari as faceless brute enemy archetypes which you can kill without guilt, without explanation of why you can kill them without guilt--at least not immediately. You do not walk into DA2 knowing who Tal-Vashoth are and why they are attacking you--only that they're violent and they yell things in a foreign language at you.

The Arishok in Dragon Age 2 is stubborn, dogmatic, and violent when opposed or crossed. He shows up, sets up a military compound, and stays there for years. Your only representation here is a military leader and his subordinates, contrasted with equally violent mercenaries who the game promises are of a completely different ideology. All shirtless muscular men, who speak in a growling menacing dialect.

Then Bioware turns around and goes. Just kidding! Those weren't the real Qunari; they're a violent offshoot! We promise they are nuanced, you just haven't met those ones yet. They give us Tallis in Mark of the Assassin, but she's an elf, and one who had to pick between slavery and the Qun, and picks the lesser of two evils. Sure, she's sympathetic, but you get the impression that Hawke feels betrayed to find out that she's Qunari, and interrogates her on this--which, is partly, I guess, you, the player, clicking the dialogue options to learn more, but Tallis is on the defensive, trying to convince you Qunari are people, just like you and me.

Inquisition introduces another Ben-Hassrath, like Tallis, in the Iron Bull. And on the surface, his inclusion is quite a lot like Sten in Origins. They both showed up because there was an unknown threat in the South that they were ordered to investigate. Unlike Sten, though, you are given the option to convert him away from the Qun. Not only that, but the game drills into you how there is no free will under the Qun. But then contradicts itself with Bull telling you that under the Qun you DO have the choice to change your role under the Qun and that there is even a word for it, Aqun Athlok, which means transgender, but, in a society where gender is directly related to the role you perform in society, that implies less rigidity and more open-mindedness than every other character wants you to believe.

However, beyond dialogue with Krem and the Iron Bull about gender (and later Taash in the Veilguard), Bioware is not interested in exploring the implications of the existence and acceptance of Aqun Athlok in Qunari culture.

And in the end, if Bull becomes Tal-Vashoth, that's framed as the outcome that is overall most positive--the outcome where he can keep his romantic relationships (whether that's with the Inquisitor or with Dorian), his friendships with the Inquisition and the Chargers, and his individuality. It's reinforced in banter with his companions and dialogue with the Inquisitor. And it all sounds a little too close to how white savior types talk about Muslims who leave SWANA and leave Islam to come to the more enlightened and liberating West.

By the Veilguard, the Qunari lore is already so wishy washy that sure I guess now we have to believe that the Antaam (literally just the Qunari military) broke away from the other Qunari because the other Qunari weren't expansionist and violent enough. I guess that's what we are going with. And that's the reason why, as a gameplay mechanic, we see the return of the Qunari as a faceless brute enemy archetype. And this time, instead of them clearly speaking in normal pitch but in a foreign language (like in DA2), they communicate in inhumanly deep, animal-like grunts and growls. Even when they're not being hostile to you, and you pass them by in Treviso just hanging out? They are still hollering and growling in monstrous deep voices, without a trace of a thought out and well-enunciated language. And how racist do you have to be for you to be more racist than the DA2 Qunari?

I don't even want to get into whatever scraps you get through Taash and their personal quest because it's so irrelevant and detached from everything it feels like putting a bandaid over a stab wound. Nevermind Taash introducing us to a brand new and innovative genre of Qunari who can sniff things out like hunting dogs. Thanks for that one Bioware -- "but nooooo, Nairuz, they're part dragon it makes sense in the lore" -- the ancient Elves can also turn into wolves and dragons and even monsters, but you don't see them growling and sniffing and prowling like animals.

All this to say. Stop trying to make sense of Qunari lore in a way that validates and justify the decisions Bioware made, when they made those decisions out of Islamophobia and racism and orientalism. I am tired of seeing this lore be uncritically parroted by Dragon Age lore accounts.

[angrykittybarbarian]

Things that bother me about Dragon Age: The Veilguard part 3 (final thoughts)

I have finally finished the playthrough. I endured because I wanted to give this game a fair chance. I wanted to see it from start to finish in the hopes it would deliver something, anything capable of redeeming it. But it just didn't. Or more precisely, not in a way sufficient to make its flaws easy to overlook. These are my closing impressions on the game. I have already done two posts about this in which I documented my observations and comments as I progressed. I will link the posts here: Part 1, Part 2.

Let's finish this ride for now.

!Spoilers below the cut!

The music

I don't know what the direction of the music was meant to take. When it was announced Hans Zimmer would compose the OST I had high hopes. Hans Zimmer is a houshold name in Hollywood and skilled at what he does. I listened to a number of movie OSTs of his making and they were all excellent. So what happened here?

The music sounds generic most of the time without a clear theme or a unique piece that got me searching for it on youtube.

The main theme has sort of a recognizable composition but isn't anything outstanding. Emmrich's theme sounds like a halloween piece written for Wednesdsy Adams and the rest of the OST seems to mimic Trevor Morris' work for DA:I, namely the Lost Temple and In Hushed Whispers themes, but without the emotional impact the original pieces created.

It's as someone has already pointed out and I agree: Bioware has bought the name Hans Zimmer but not his quality. It sounds like he didn't even seriously create something but half heartedly whipped something out of his sleeve and called it a day.

The facial animations

The main problem with these is they often don't fit the emotions the VAs are communicating.

The VAs actually did a fantastic job. The scene that touched me the most was the one Rook confronts Solas in after they escape the regret prison in the fade. That was the first time Rook felt involved, raw and real.

But what broke the atmosphere in an otherwise flawless scene was how unmoving their facial expression was. There was the VA shouting their lung out and the animation couldn't even give half a fuck about it.

I don't even see an excuse for this lack of facial animation. It was possible to do since DA:O, hell, even since the first Mass Effect back in '07. Why is it not possible in the year of our Lord 2024, when technology is presumably better?

The handholding of the player

The plot is tightly paced. This is not necessarily a bad thing as I didn't really like the Open World approach of DA:I since it stretched the main plot too thinly and the maps created weren't filled with interesting side content but boring and pointless fetch quests.

But Veilguard went into the opposide extreme as it leaves only little room for the player when and how to do things. The quests are activated and must be completed in a specific order. They have also only one outcome without room to make different decisions.

Rook can never be truly ruthless. They can never disagree and butt heads with their companions.

And I hate how on the side of the screen the game exactly tells you what you have done and how it affects your companions' behaviour. It doesn't bake it into the interaction organically. Instead it has yet again, explained to me what I did and why it has this very specific effect without any of the characters discussing it. But the beauty of consequential decisions lies in the very unpredictability of its outcome. That's what creates the emotional impact. It doesn't work if I am being warned and explained to like a small child.

It's this lack of trust the game puts into the intelligence of its players that is so experience breaking, insulting even. It doesn't trust its players to figure stuff out themselves. It assumes we are too stupid to get any of the things it tries to tell us.

The ting is though, dear Bioware writers, if you think you have to overexplain your story because you think your audience won't get it then that's a telltale sign of the story being actually badly written.

Another area where this becomes appearant are the "puzzles". I used the quotation marks because there isn't really anything to solve. The solutions are obvious and at times your companions go out of their way to tell you.

The romances

Romances have always been a nice bonus on top of the otherweise amazing game content. They added some enjoyable extra fluff purely for enjoyment and some cases even deepened the main storyline.

In Veilguard they don't do that. In almost all of them the flirting is so meaningless that your cutscene with them just proceeds as if nothing happened.

There is no shift or change to their tone towards Rook. You don't build up the relationship with them. There is no last goodbye kiss before the last mission or passionate affirmations of love and trust. It just leaves you cold.

The only romance that seems to have that old depth is Emmrich's. The rest however, they don't add anything significant. There virtually is no difference to the game without the romances.

Companion relationships

Let's begin here with the simple fact that all deeper interactions Rook has with the companions are strictly scripted which ties back into the handholding part of this criticism. Rook cannot initiate a conversation and ask them some general questions about their histories and opinions on certain matters.

Rook only gets to interact with them when they happen to want something from them. Otherwise they cannot be bothered to acknowledge Rook with more than a one sided oneliner.

And then there are the relationships between the companions themselves. They either get along swimmingly or the game feels the need to stage some immature conflict between them without any deeper purpose.

Like Harding not understanding why Emmrich brings so many books on the road despite it literally not being any of her damn business bevause it doesn't personally affect her in any way.

Or Taash not understanding his profession as a Mournwatcher as they call him names so Rook has to point out Taash in turn likes dragons which is an interest he doesn't share only to culminate the discussion with a "We need to respect our differences" sort of statement.

These are not conflicts, these are squabbles of children and like children Roik talks to them which is brought ad absurdum with Emmrich because he is literally old enough to be Rook's father.

Why bother at all with writing conflict if it is only to be something as inconsequential as this?

Varric's death

This one is a .... choice.

I won't go into why the decision to let him die or not is good or bad because I feel like this is highly subjective.

However the impact of the reveal of this fact is only partly executed well.

Why?

Because it only hits hard when the player has known and cared about Varric at least since DA:I if not DA 2. The execution of this plotpoint thus relies too heavily on nostalgia instead of building the tension up within its own setting.

When thinking about Bioware also wanting to be newcomer friendly with this game I am left to wonder then why they didn't introduce Varric properly and didn't give the players time to build up the relationship? Why would a new player care about Varric? They don't know him.

Bioware cannot in good conscience claim they designed the game to be new player friendly while simultaniously heavily relying on knowledge from previous games, dlcs, comics, novels and other spin-off media. They cannot claim this and have anything but DATV do the heavy lifting when it comes to executing their plot.

The final mission

For my final point I also want to lose some positive feedback about this game.

The ending was actually well written.

In relation to Solas it comes full circle. You can actually feel what's at stake and the decisions Rook makes actually matter.

The final questline roughly follows a Mass Effect 2 approach where it is classified as nothing short of a suicide mission.

Companion quests essentially function as loyalty missions and Rook gets to assign various posts in battle. Just like in Mass Effect 2 assigning a companion a post completely outside of their expertise may get them killed.

The dialogue is actually written well at this point in the game. There isn't really much to complain about.

But even this part is not entirely without faults.

For one I don't like the non negotiable sacrifice that has either to be made by Harding or Davrin. Rook doesn't even get a chance to save any of them. But again these non negotiable companion deaths where you only make the choice who's it's going to be isn't anything new (i.e. Hawke and whatever Warden you happen to get, Kaidan/Ashley in ME 1). So maybe a bit if a bummer but nothing experience breaking.

A stronger point however is that Rook will always keep the Veil intact in the end.

I suppose this outcome already is part of the game title itself but was it necessary to take it so literally?

With everything the elves have lost and the discrimination they faced it should absolutely have been an option to agree with Solas and tear the Veil down.

But since we don't talk about racism and slavery I guess Rook doesn't reflect on these points either. So I guess keeping the Veil intact is in line with the game's general sanitization of the world.

So in conclusion?

The game is far from great, not gonna lie. It feels like the devs actually wanted a new IP but were too afraid of the risks that come with such an endeavor and thought gutting an existing franchise that already did the heavy lifting of building a fanbase and using it as a package would save their ideas from flopping. Surely no one will notice it is actually something else if we market it as Dragon Age, right?

But we are not that stupid. This behaviour is insulting to put it plain and simple and I am heartbroken, angry and said that this was done to Dragon Age. I wanted to love this game. I was optimistic before the release. Everything looked fine, nothing in particular to worry about.

But I cannot continue to defend this without breaking my basic brain function.

The most frustrating part is that with the ending the devs showed they can write a story and meaningful dialogues. It left me wondering why it couldn't be done like this for the rest of the game and living with the reality that I will never get what this game could have been.

All in all this is not a good Dragon Age game. It is a massive disappointment and does not live up to the promises made by the devs.

I am sorry for everyone who preordered.

I am sorry for everyone who paid the full release price.

Nominating it for Game of the Year is not justified no mattee how you look at it.

If you are genuinely enjoying the game, I hope you continue to do so and all power to you.

For the rest: let's stop excusing Bioware's disrespect towards the fans and enabling them by paying them too much money for it.

Don't buy at release. Don't buy spin off media. Wait for sales. These people only understand the problem when you give them a good run for their money.

[lelianaslefthand]

inquisition still holds the title for best dragon age soundtrack. trevor morris you will always be famous

[transmasc-tabris]

People saying that Davrin and Lucianis are really mean to each other or that Neve is an angry bitch if you help Treviso or that Taash is mean for finding Emmrich weird... Wouldnt last an hour in the asylum where they raised me or whatever:

[ghostwise]

I'm not really sharing much of my criticism about datv, because it's a tired, tired topic. Why didn't they ___? Because they didn't want to. Why did they write ___? Because they felt like it.

Tired of dissecting the choices of white writers. They are not ignorant, they are aware of what they wrote. They didn't see the value in the questions we're asking so they didn't care to address them. That's all.

[littlebitofeverythingsblog]

So in short: bioware really gave us a shit product (the writing team SPECIFICALLY) with dragon age veilguard and gaslit us that it was come to form game. I genuinely hate what we got and I hate it even more knowing what could've been. I can't believe how a company had such guts to absolutely destroy their game this hard with little to no regard of fans. Like these same people gotta make ME4 IM GONNA KILL MYSELF

But to be so honest I'm kind of happy they fumbled because of this. They lied about everything. Game being dark,the illusion of "choice" in the game,romances,having the most dialog in the game even tho we can't even go up to companions and talk to them...and thank God they weren't awarded for this shit. I hope they sink because of their hubris and arrogance.

All they wanted was to get rid of this game so they can move on to ME4 so they did little what they could do. Push their political agenda (sorry gotta pull a Bharv now🤭) and reuse what seemed more like a ME version of DA. It never felt like a DA game. ME is an amazing game but very different to DA. They took completely different approach in every way possible when handing the Veilguard and its BAD it's just hot pile of crap.

(the potential this game had after seeing the art book is crazy) I'm so disappointed,angry and sad. After 10 years...yes they had ups and downs but c'mon...THEY HAD THE ARTWORK RIGHT THERE!!! how could it be possible that they removed ALL THE ACTUAL INTERSTING THINGS?! They're incompetent but hey at least we got "educated" and "preaced to" on what really matters in the world (and the world of Thedas) ! Thanks Bioware. What a shit show.

[abyssal-ilk]

getting all of the banter dialogue for dorian and bull so they can be a couple in dai is so... ugh. there is some genuinely wonderful stuff to explore in their dynamic, with iron bull abandoning the qun and dorian leaving tevinter and what it means to have done that and finding themselves as people, but. christ. the fetishization and oversexualization of the qunari in da is fucking hair tearingly painful, and it is at its most obvious with iron bull and dorian. really hoping that something changes for the taash romance, but i am,, kind of doubtful.

[wizardsix]

dragon age fans really have the vocabulary and brainpower of a teenage boy. any criticism is just met with "fuck you you just don't understand shit about my ego stroking fanfiction simulator all that matters is that I Relate to it not everything is about you" and that doesn't mean shit to me sorry. it only proves that u guys are ok with flat and relatable-only media. media that Serves You and can't stand without trying to be quirky and relatable in every breath. no one's upset we can't relate to it. I do not give a shit that there isn't a carbon copy of me in the game bc that would be boring as fuck. get your heads out of ur asses and realize that we aren't criticising the game bc we're massive haters who feel no joy. we know we deserve better and for those who loved dragon age, they mourn the shitshow it's devolved to, and you don't get to have a say in how people should feel just as we don't tell you that you can't enjoy it. I'm real sorry you people can accept the bare minimum but we are trying to be better than that.

[butchvamp]

okay i've played a bit more and i have a lot of thoughts about Taash and the way gender is being handled overall in this game...

first i will say the positives which is that i do really appreciate the attempt at incorporating trans characters both in the world as companions and allowing us to make those options in the cc. and as someone who also writes dark fantasy stories with trans characters i do understand how difficult it can be to incorporate these identities into a world that doesn't necessarily have the same language as we do; but overall the way they've approached this feels very... i've seen some people call it unpolished but i actually feel the opposite. it's almost clinical (therapy-speak in general has been a main criticism of this game) and it's way too polished, in my opinion, which is what makes it so jarring to see.

there has been a trans character established in game previously, there is already a precedent for these identities to exist in this world, and they have never used this language before. the way Iron Bull talked about Krem felt far more realistic and integrated into the world of Thedas comparatively. was it perfect? no, of course not, but i chafe at the idea that it needs to be perfect, anyways. this is another problem the game has; past characters have had their flaws completely ironed out (Isabela is now a paragon of friendship and returns cultural artifacts instead of looting them, Dorian has multiple codex entries wallowing about how he used to defend slavery, the Crows have suddenly become a big found family-- on and on and on) and while i have my criticisms of some of these flaws (Dorian's pro-slavery rant in inqusition still makes my eyes roll) i dislike the way they're handling these changes and just expecting us to ignore all of the lore and worldbuilding from previous games. and all of this "political correctness" only for the game to still be so racist.

which brings me back to Taash.... Taash is very strange character, lacking agency around both their gender and their culture. they are simply a mouthpiece for the writer. while yes, it should always be made undeniable that your character is trans or gay or xyz, Taash really does only exist to be nonbinary. and to be clear, a nonbinary character like them could be very interesting, if their writing wasnt so... white. we know that the Qun has different ideas about gender than Rivain (and elsewhere) and this could have been a very interesting exploration of that; however, it is obvious that the Qun (and Taash's mother) are meant to be depicted negatively, and ultimately it ends with the player (not Taash) choosing between their two cultures. their gender is clearly far more important to the writer and the only facet of their identity they seemed willing to explore, which makes me question why even make this character qunari to begin with...

Neve and Rook are also the two that spur Taash into exploring their gender. this, on the surface, is not a problem for me. i'm playing as a trans Rook and while the dialogue was again very overpolished and clunky i found it kind of endearing. but the way Neve is used as this "foil" for Taash really rubbed me the wrong way. this assumption that Neve has no complicated feelings about her gender or being a woman (which i highly doubt considering the world she lives in & how misogynistic it is) and the implication from Taash that she only dresses the way she does for her mother/other people (which Neve doesn't even get to challenge) is extremely narrow-minded. Taash is the Only character that acknowledges gender; so far, even when flirting with other characters, it's only been Taash that i've been allowed to specify with that my rook is trans, despite Taash already knowing that from our previous conversation (i hope that this changes once i lock in with a specific character so feel free to correct me if it does).

but no one else really seems to have an opinion except that Neve drags Taash around to meet Maevaris, and we get the very goofy note that's just a list of modern gender identities and their definitions. i do partly sympathize with the writers here; again i've had to find a way to incorporate lgbt identities in my own writing and it can be difficult depending on your audience. i understand wanting to be very clear and concise. but this is... just goofy. and this desperation to be so correct around gender while simultaneously writing such an offensively racist narrative is really frustrating.

there's also an inconsistency that comes from this with Taash's character-- they are portrayed as this rough but awkward character that is bossed around by their mother, they are bashful with flirting early on and are almost child-like in comparison to the other characters. and then suddenly you get a scene with them where they very directly ask if you want to have sex and suddenly pin you against the wall. this scene was so jarring to me i referred to it as a jumpscare because WHERE has this character been this entire time? i want to see more of this, more of this character who takes what they want and knows exactly who they are (which they even say multiple times when you first meet them... but then need Neve and Rook to hold their hand about it?)

i do really like Taash, i like the idea of them, of this very self-assured and almost cocky character who is also a little silly, this person who is so sure of who they are but has to deal with their mother undermining them while also navigating a culture they feel disconnected from, and i also like that the player can help them through it... but the execution is awful, shallow, and racist. the idea that someone can only choose One culture is so offensive and also a laughable conclusion when compared to their coming out as nonbinary. the writer clearly understands that people don't exist within these little boxes when it comes to gender, but can't wrap their head around it when it comes to someone's culture-- which is also a very important part of a person's identity and often contributes directly to their gender and how they feel about it. all of these different characters have different experiences, come from different places, Davrin and Bellara are Dalish and even have differing opinions on what that means for themselves, but the game doesn't touch on any of it. all we get is a lecture from the writer that is completely removed from the world it's presented in.

i wish i could understand what it was this character was meant to convey. i stand by saying that it doesn't need to be perfect; i know there are people that had problems with Krem in inquisition, but at least Krem was his own person. Taash doesn't even get that here... i harp a lot about character agency when i give writing advice on my other blog but it really is so so so important for marginalized characters-- both gay, trans, and especially characters of color-- to have their own agency around their identities that is completely separate from the player & player choice, that allows them to exist as their own person within the world you've created, and i think Taash's character and story is an unfortunate example of exactly what not to do.

[dekarios]

in the very scene taash comes out as nonbinary and switches pronouns, you have to tell taash if they should embrace qunari or rivaini culture, even if you previously told them to embrace being multicultural. if you choose to romance them, you can avoid the choice entirely.

their mother is painted as abusive and unkind and hurtful for things that are part of qunari culture, turning one of the only qunari characters in the game who follows the qun still into an abusive mother trope.

AND they retconned parts of qunari culture with gender in order to fit the narrative they wanted. taash's story constantly doesn't make sense if you already knew about qunari lore on gender, since we know the qunari are comfortable with transgender individuals (even if their understanding of gender roles is a little..... rough).

i feel like i'm just watching other white trans/nonbinary people completely miss the racist shit because immediately after taash comes out, and that's what they care about. they only see the coming out, because they're choosing to be blind as they have the privilege to.

i get it that the rep is important and it can feel good to finally see yourself, but there's plenty of nonwhite people getting hurt by this, and by datv in general. it isn't just about you, you shouldn't accept racist bullshit because you feel seen, finally.

it isn't "well i got the rep i wanted, i'm happy, i hope you get it one day too." it's "i don't want this rep if you're treated poorly still". we should demand better for everyone. we shouldn't let the trans and nonbinary rep placate us.

[thevulturesquadron]

Dragon Age Veilguard thoughts: on companions ‘romancing each other’

The whole thing unfortunately fell flat, at least to me mostly because the mechanic was all in all poorly implemented in Veilguard.

Even Taash and Harding, a relationship I could see happening, was disappointing, and I ended up rolling my eyes or making disgruntled noise during 96% of their 'after' banter.

My main issue is that the writing for these ‘romance scenes’ and their banter tends to be bland and shallow. It feels like there's no effort put into making them make sense. Not to be crass, but they read as though they went through the fandom habit of stripping down characters and ships of their complex layers and leaving them devoid of anything interesting. I just ended up not caring much. The dynamic barely exists, and the way these characters ‘hook up’ reads as ‘you know what would be cute? Taash and Harding’ or ‘you know what would be a classic trauma bond? Neve and Lucanis'. Even Emmerich and Strife - they have so much potential, but both the way in which they are introduced and the way in which the characters get to react to it (Rook included) are superficial and mostly... jokey. I think, in their case, same as with Taash and Harding, it becomes even more frustrating because it could have worked if handled properly.

The game absolutely fails at building these relationships on something meaningful. At best, it shoves them in a trope. At worst, (Neve and Lucanis) it disregards their personalities and journey. And it feels like it's all done in the spirit of 'it's cute to have ships'. For fandom, yeah, that's cute. In an actual story, you need to make it make sense.

Anyway, I have so many thoughts, but I’ll stop the rant here.

I can’t believe I am saying this, but I miss how Dorian and Bull were handled. Even if you don’t vibe with it, their relationship was explored organically through banter: it went from the trills of the flirt, to actual fighting and eventually to overcoming their differences. And not only that but if it wasn’t your jam, it was really easy to avoid, down to the very epilogue.