thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you ish you are and forever will be my most favoritethe issue isn’t that traynor’s romance on its face is somehow crazy male gaze-y (ha), because fuck you it’s a really gorgeous romance, the writing is like divine
the issue is that the gay male equivalent (steve cortez), which is portrayed through incidental dialogue as a similarly very sexual relationship, receives no equivalent on-screen payoff or even any on-screen sexuality at all. even the kisses are implied. it’s by far the tamest visual romance in me3, and with the exception of thane the tamest in the whole series.
when we contrast these romances and thus put them in context, we see a problem, but y’all quit it with the sam stuff saying that shit don’t even happen
if you’re gonna make an argument, at least be intelligent about it
the only problem I had with Traynor’s romance was the underwear in teh shower shit (which made me cringelaugh). I haven’t seen anything past that, but I totally didn’t get the male gazey vibe off it at all, unlike every other case of f/f. Not at all surprised to hear Cortez doesn’t exactly get equal time, considering how long we had to fight to get any m/m content at all. :\
straight people seriously need to STFU though (as usual).
oh dgmw cortez got plenty of kawaii talk times, like his word budget is not lacking compared to anyone else’s. the problem is that the other emotions-first romances, kaidan and to a lesser extent liara, still managed to work in significant naked times. cortez gets approximately dick.
npi
i don’t have to tell you this, but that’s irritating as fuck because it just reinforces gay male sexuality is ick nast while lesbian sexuality is totally hot and thus aiight. for me, personally, it’s baller to see myself represented in a videogame on equal footing with straight stuff and without obvious male gaze, but the dirty implications lurking under the surface both for my gay male bros and myself is
gross
(via commanderbishoujo)
Liara’s relationship in Lair of the Shadow Broker can be with players of either gender, so I was familiar with writing dialog that needed to work for a same-sex romance. Nevertheless, I’m a straight white male – pretty much the living embodiment of the Patriarchy – and I really wanted to avoid writing something that people saw and went, “That’s a straight guy writing lesbians for other straight guys to look at.”
For those that missed it, the Traynor romance basically went like this:
Traynor: “Hey, Shepard, let’s play a friendly game of chess after duty tonight.”
*that night*
Traynor: “Wow, this is an amazing shower. Mind if we skip chess and I have a shower with the door open, telling you that there’s someone I wish would notice my advances?”
Shepard: “Shh. Only making out in our matching lacy underwear under the shower while we listen to this porno sax crescendo now.”
Reblobbing for Ish
Okay. Guess what. Some lesbians are like that. You know why? Because we’re people! We are sometimes sexual people who enjoy sex and looking at sexy women doing sexy things.
This is why I love Traynor’s romance (and I have told Patrick Weekes this): it does not come off as “lesbians written by a straight guy for other straight guys.” It comes off as a relationship between people for people. That they’re both women isn’t fetishized. It just is.
Samantha is an incredibly natural, believable, wonderful, lovable character. I have commented before that if I had the power I would make Samantha (along with Tali and Garrus and Ashley) romanceable by either gender Shepard, and that is and always will be true, but I don’t have that power, I don’t have to make that decision, so I will sit here and feel just a little bit guilty but mostly overwhelmingly appreciative that I have a lesbian character in a video game who is presented as a human being.
Here’s a message for all you straight people out there: stop commenting that things aren’t doing gay right. You aren’t gay! You don’t get to criticize a character because she doesn’t match up to whatever notions of queer you have that tell you we can’t enjoy sexy ladies too. And for all you straight people who don’t need it (like Patrick Weekes), keep on keeping on, keep on treating us like people.
Now I’m going to go watch some lesbian porn.
thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you ish you are and forever will be my most favorite
the issue isn’t that traynor’s romance on its face is somehow crazy male gaze-y (ha), because fuck you it’s a really gorgeous romance, the writing is like divine
the issue is that the gay male equivalent (steve cortez), which is portrayed through incidental dialogue as a similarly very sexual relationship, receives no equivalent on-screen payoff or even any on-screen sexuality at all. even the kisses are implied. it’s by far the tamest visual romance in me3, and with the exception of thane the tamest in the whole series.
when we contrast these romances and thus put them in context, we see a problem, but y’all quit it with the sam stuff saying that shit don’t even happen
if you’re gonna make an argument, at least be intelligent about it
“You’re not your warden”
NO YOU’RE WRONG!!!!!! D,:i’m never wrong about anything ever
We went back and changed it right before we saw this.
You have some kind of filthy witch powers.
i’m a dirty witch and i need to be punished
lol no i mean i get that some people really dig the more personal aspect, and i can see that, but what made da2 so amazing to me was a multitude of things like its rich characterization of companions and their interactions with each other, the the more structured narrative, the family ties, the tragic anders romance, the subtlety of the political circumstances in how they relate to hawke, hawke’s overall lack of agency…
…none of which could have been accomplished if hawke was more of a blank slate
dao left me cold as far as the warden was concerned because they could be so personal. because companions had to react in a larger variety of ways and the warden’s greater agency could to force them away at any time meant they had less content for each other and everything was dedicated to the warden. they were richly-built, to be sure, but they felt like they only existed with the warden and in backstory. and because there was so much choice in the warden’s origin and in how players could handle that origin, there was no real emotional tie to it outside the player’s own head. in a triple-a cinematic videogame, having to rely on my own imagination for one aspect of the game but not at all for any others was inconsistent at best and jarring at worst.
it’s like playing a bethesda game. sure, you can do almost anything, but at the cost of real narrative cohesion and thus, to me, emotion. the only thing fallout 3 protags share is their backstory, and that’s one of the most memorable moments for most players.
the rising action in literature and cinema is characterized at its peak by struggles, by an inadequacy to accomplish goals. in dao, you couldn’t have an all that remains moment, or a sibling in the deep roads moment, because with all that danged choice there was no room for the emotional devastation of failure. sacrificing choice for emotion and cohesion isn’t something everyone wants in a game, i know, but to me, it’s absolutely vital.
tl;dr y’all have origins i have da2 dont take my shit okay but i luv u mommy B|
Dragon Age: Origins will always be better than it’s sequel to me. The Warden was my character, the Warden was me. I am not Hawke, and BioWare can’t force me to be.
Agreed.
This is also true for myself.
The main thing that kills immersion into Hawke as a literal projection of the player into the game world (for me at least) is the inability to make some decisions that the Warden would have been able to make in Origins. Want to kill Petrice after Shepherding Wolves? Nope, we need her for plot-related reasons later. Want to kill Sebastian before he has a chance to raise an army against Kirkwall? Nope, sorry, but thanks for preordering the Signature Edition! My Warden would have slaughtered both of them before you could say “MAKER NO!”
That, and also the way Hawke just has a “character” already. There might be differences in how the lines are said, but all three choices portray the same sort of person: s/he is bold, s/he is agressive, s/he is immediately a leader. What if I don’t want to be so frigging in everyone’s face all of the time? /rant
There are many reasons I’ve stated in the past, but I honestly hope that DA3 is at least a hybrid of the first two. Otherwise I’m prolly outta here.
All of the above.
Do you know, I love my first PT, a female human mage warden so much that I feel weird playing that role again? Even though she kept the default first name, I still love her to pieces. She’s my warden. I don’t feel anything similar for any of my Hawkes.
That said, DAII didn’t get everything entirely wrong. As mentioned above, a hybrid of the two would probably be best. Bioware claims to be learning from the criticisms of both hardcore fans and reviewers alike. Let’s hope it’s all for a really bad ass DA3.
You kids <3
i suppose i can understand this mentality re: personal preference in the types of games you prefer playing, because you’re certainly allowed to prefer games that allow you to create a character to significant degree (tho don’t make the mistake of thinking dao’s possibilities were even close to infinite or even particularly diverse) vs games with a set protagonist, but if you’ve ever played and enjoyed a game with a predefined protagonist at all, how is da2 particularly inferior?
i swear i’m not picking a fight or declaring the above opinions invalid or anything, nor does the following really apply to any of you considering how polite you’ve been about it… but after spending months on bsn i just have to wonder why there’s such an outcry against the semi-subjective protagonist system of da2. is it because fanboys and girls felt shortchanged? they were never promised another origins-like game; they knew what they were getting as soon as voiced protag and single backstory was announced early on.
why is it so damn important to have a character be yours? you didn’t create the game, you didn’t write the rubric of dialogue possibilities or the setting to give the character context. you’re writing fanfiction, because everything was always bioware’s. you’re not your warden, and the warden isn’t yours. you just picked choices and interpreted them into a narrative.
