#thus why I'm rating it M already on the other sites

[seyaryminamoto]

Scenes of a Peaceful World: Sokkla Saturdays 2024

Day One - Travel

Rated: G

On FF.net//On AO3

A flock of dragons crossing the sky had yet to become something common, or normal, across their world. But it even more uncommon to glimpse a group of magnificent creatures carrying the members of a human family on their backs, as they traveled through the sky…

The populace of cities and towns below them gazed in amazed wonderment. The occasional cheers and cries of admiration reached their ears: Sokka snickered as he leaned back over Xin Long’s saddle, watching the townsfolk scurrying about, children rushing to give chase to the shadows that their dragons projected across their world.

“We always do make an impression,” he smiled, hands reaching over to clasp his wife’s waist: as it ever was, he would ride Xin Long behind Azula, who smiled at him over her shoulder.

“And we shouldn’t make that much of one. No groping when we’re in plain sight of the masses,” she said: Xin Long, below her, huffed in agreement. Sokka laughed, shaking his head dismissively at her words.

“Do tell, love: what’s the point of being as admirable, powerful and independent as we are if it’s not to make the most of all those things… by being as inappropriate as we please?”

He squeezed her flanks, and Azula squirmed.

The consequences for his teasing made themselves known when Xin Long spun on himself, startling his riders by making the world upside down for them briefly before spinning to fly upright again.

“X-Xin! No need for that…!” Sokka squeaked. “I was just teasing!”

“Well… maybe tease me when we’re on land next time,” Azula suggested, with an awkward smile: Sokka pouted as he leaned forward, dropping his chin on her shoulder. Meanwhile, Xin Long chuckled wickedly. “And you… you have an example to set, Xin! No crazy flying maneuvers, understood? If your siblings dare do anything like this, I…!”

Oh, she refused to finish that thought: she’d probably jump off Xin Long’s saddle without a second thought to snatch Yuuna, Shun or Hotaru in midair, should any of them fall off their saddles.

But it seemed unlikely to happen, at least, so far: where Xin Long often joined in the banter and bickering of his riders, the kids got along wonderfully with their dragons… even Yuuna, who, in virtue of being a waterbender, couldn’t fully bond with hers through the ancient ritual where firebenders offered their flames to a dragon, linking them for life if said offer was accepted.

Yuuna’s dragon, Yachi, was pale blue, matching the girl’s preferred colors neatly. Their communication proved surprisingly effective even if they lacked the bond that her brother and sister did develop with their respective creatures: Shun’s dragon, Zhan, had auburn scales instead, whereas Hotaru rode the biggest of all the younger dragons: a yellow creature she had named Taiyang.

Technically, the three dragons’ names also ended in ‘Long’, much like Xin Long’s did, by Azula’s demand and design. Sokka had poked fun at her for it, but she had been as unyielding about the naming this time as when they had first found her own draconic companion. The kids had no problem following her rule, though they usually called their dragons by their first names, regardless.

This was their first long flight with the creatures – they wouldn’t travel too far today, aiming towards visiting a memorable location of Sokka and Azula’s past – and they had behaved surprisingly well thus far. The dragons, while smaller than Xin Long, carried the weight of all kids without much struggle, with Shun even daring do some light pirouettes in the air with his own partner. The laughter of the three children reached their parents, who flew last to keep tabs on all kids.

“I love this,” Sokka smiled, his head still resting on Azula’s shoulder. His hands slid over her abdomen, but Xin Long didn’t tease them about their closeness this time. “We promised this one we’d find more dragons… and we did. Didn’t expect so many would want to bond with our kids, though…”

“And why wouldn’t they?” Azula smiled. “We’re part of this dragon family as well. Their leader thus decreed it, long ago.”

“Heh. How’s the old boss doing, Xin?” Sokka asked, patting Xin’s side. Even nowadays, Azula had to translate some of Xin Long’s thoughts to Sokka, and she did so quickly.

“Seems he’s been on a rather reckless run of late… trying to see how fast he can cross the Earth Kingdom,” Azula smiled. “So far his record is… three days? Well, damn…”

“You’ll beat him at it someday,” Sokka smirked. Xin Long huffed proudly and nodded.

“But for now… he babysits his siblings,” Azula smiled, gazing upon the three smaller dragons fondly.

“And… he gets ready to eat tons and tons of spicy ramen. That, too.”

Azula laughed and nodded. Xin Long shivered in unrestrained joy, eager to take part in a unique challenge no dragon before him had ever confronted… the legendary Spicy Ramen Challenge that his own rider had failed to overcome once. Both Azula and Sokka intended to hold their rematch against Jiare’s spicy cooking, as well as with each other, on this trip.

“I won’t falter at it, myself,” Azula warned her husband. He smirked. “Didn’t eat breakfast in preparation, as you know…”

“I wonder if that’s going to be enough… whereas I? I’ve been building up my spice resistance like never before!” Sokka said, eyes aglow with excitement.

“Now, the only problem will be convincing our kids that they can’t join too,” Azula laughed. “But I suppose this can become a family tradition for us. A rite of passage. Once you’re old enough… you take up the Spicy Ramen Challenge.”

“Honestly? The best Fire Nation tradition I’ve ever heard of,” Sokka smirked. Azula laughed, turning her head to kiss him softly.

Four dragons, ridden by a human family, flew across the sky on that day, a rare sight that, in time, would become far more common throughout their world.

[notyourparadigm]

I understand the nuances of Dorian's life in Dragon Age, my big fear is that Bioware will piggy back off of something pre-established as a "OH see! Lore building!" as a way to hand wave away queer romances that just are. I've been playing the mass effect remaster and there's big backlash on not bringing back cut queer content. The excuse is always something about not wanting to hurt sales and upset parents and it sucks. I'm worried that they'll use pre-established stories that are real and genuine, and use it as an excuse to avoid substantial queer content.

I really, really don't see them doing that, honestly. Dragon Age (and Mass Effect) are both rated M. I've never seen BioWare once claim they have avoided content out of fear of "upsetting parents", because it's not a game they're marketing to children in the first place. In fact— every single entry of Dragon Age, they've been adding to the significance of queer characters, and giving them more agency in the narrative at large.

In DAO, they had (to my knowledge; I've not been in the fandom since ye olde days) some of the first queer representation in gaming I could even think of— and genuine romance, too, not just a gag or off-screen reference of queer people. Now, could you marry Alistair and become King of Ferelden as a m!Cousland? No. Was the subject of sexuality / same sex couples in Thedas really addressed aside from "sometimes they fuck"? No. It was still very bare-bones. But still way more than most games I know at the time.

In DA2, they said "fuck it, everyone's bi", in a way that both took steps forward (no default heterosexuality for characters) as well as steps back in that by just having everyone being bi, there was less of actual queer stories being told as much vs sort of a blanket "playersexual" narrative you'll see people sometimes site (as well as with some massive nasty bi erasure in removing Anders' lines regarding Karl for fHawke, which I won't defend lmao). But it was so nice to go into a game knowing that the character I ended up liking the most I could romance without fear of them being straight-locked.

In DAI, I think they recognized that this was not the ideal form of representation, as we had the first instances of characters being homosexual-locked, as well as dialogues and narratives specifically addressing the characters as such, as well as the first game I've ever played with a canonical transgender character not played for laughs. Now, was everything done perfect? No, not really. I've never played Sera's romance all the way through but seeing videos of her personal quests really... make me think I probably never will. RIP. And the fact that Krem was voiced by a cis woman still makes me :\ pretty hard.

But you know what I see the most with BioWare? They're trying with their representation. Dorian's narrative hit home with me in ways I've never felt in a video game before. Seeing Krem being defended by the Chargers if the Inquisitor makes ignorant remarks about his identity made me smile and feel seen for the first time in gaming. Having the boldness to gay/lesbian-lock characters in a world where heteronormativity is rampant in most of their target market shows signs to me that they're trying to take strides to do more, and better each time— regardless of what's profitable or marketable.

So to be honest, anon— I am not worried about DA4 shying away from queer content, if the trends from the games thus far are anything to go by. BioWare has been attempting to push the envelope and tell more genuine and full-dimensional stories with each entry, and while they might fail and blunder along the way (and be decried online endlessly for it) what matters most to me is that they're trying.

No piece of media is free of flaws, and no doubt we will continue to tell the writers where their writing and representation is problematic. And hopefully, they will continue to listen and try to rectify those issues. But the fact that they're still doing their damned hardest to try even after being chewed out by fandom places (for not getting the representation right) and conservative gamers (for daring to put the "queer agenda" in their game) gives me hope that they are going to continue to try.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I haven’t played any Mass Effect games so I can’t put proper input in on that aspect of things lol. But when it comes to most remasters, I can’t say I’m surprised that they don’t put back in cut content, not because it’s controversial— but because it’s extra time, effort, and thus money. New voice lines, play testing new / variants on quests, etc etc. I doubt the choice to not put in cut queer content was anything other than based on money. If it was free/cheap to do, I don’t see why they wouldn’t slap it on there and market “ALL NEW!! Previously Unseen Content!” for EZ marketing. If BioWare was truly afraid of pissing off people for promoting LGBT content— I think that ship has already sailed with their library of other games with visible queer content.