kirkwallguy

[kirkwallguy]

making matilda and alistair toxic is like the best decision i ever made i feel like their relationship is finally interesting

[kirkwallguy]

origins and inquisition's haunted house quests are both so weird for randomly introducing new mechanics / effects that aren't seen anywhere else in the game. like it's cute but also why

[kirkwallguy]

help i had no idea ser otto could die and fail the haunted house quest??

[kirkwallguy]

oh fuck nvm the alistair thing worked out surprisingly well, i boosted his approval right back up and then ordered him to marry anora so i lost it all again even though he agreed 😁

[kirkwallguy]

okay people who know alistair better than me i need help... i'm trying to get him to marry anora and i HAVE hardened him (i think?) but every time i try to talk to him about it he gets mad and shuts me down. i have master coercion and he's hardened, do i need higher friendship with him or something?? and does he actually need to agree to the marriage before the landsmeet (i fed him mouldy onions because i wanted his low approval voice lines for matilda lol)

[kirkwallguy]

why does howe have so many torturers in his basement. surely you don't need that many

[kirkwallguy]

building bull strong can be tricky but if you're careful when personalising his tactics he can end up basically unkillable. my issue is most of the time i literally can't be bothered when it's extremely easy to make cass my permanent tank.

[kirkwallguy]

Best qunari companion based on combat only?

[kirkwallguy]

i understand why some people hate them but i do love video game achievements because im a sick bastard who likes it when the developers call me a good boy

[kirkwallguy]

had a normal one this afternoon

[kirkwallguy]

solas would actually probably not have done any of that if he'd had twitter

[kirkwallguy]

[kirkwallguy]

i think i might play me2 in between dao and da2...

[kirkwallguy]

like the concept of existing outside of gender binaries is as old as gender binaries themselves, but nonbinary as a term is very recent, some of the terms used in the codex entry where taash lists various gender labels are literally younger than my tumblr account. and this doesn't make these labels any less "real" obviously, but it does show that the experiences aren't actually tied to the language we use for them. even words like gay and lesbian are so incredibly new in the grand scheme of things, and i don't think anyone finds it difficult to understand that gay and lesbian people have existed since forever.

and to me it feels a little eyeroll-worthy that the game just doesn't want to think deeply about queer experiences in thedas but still wants to use language associated with recent/current trans activism. how did standardised language for different gendered experiences happen in a world that seemingly has no trans community (beyond just saying "well the shadow dragons are progressive i guess that's their narrative role")?

[kirkwallguy]

also idk again i get where people are coming from but for me it feels. not great. to be told that the reason a character that was supposedly meant to be representative of the Gender experience was written in a less than stellar way is because their writers weren't actually writing for people like me to begin with and were instead focusing their energy on the bad faith and willfully obtuse crowd of bigots' reception instead

[kirkwallguy]

i do think a lot of dav's writing issues do come from the writers really REALLY not wanting to be misunderstood ever, which is probably the natural result of being on dragon age twitter for 10 years. but part of writing is having confidence in the story you're telling and making peace with the fact that there will always be different interpretations (including ones you disagree with!) of your work.

[kirkwallguy]

I'm not gonna respond directly to a post I saw in the tag but I have seen this opinion shared before so this is a more general statement of mine.

I am going to gently take you by the hand when I say this: it does not matter whatever x ID or label a character is, there will be people out there who simply do not care. It does not matter if the character states it, the writer states it, the lore states it, the fandom states it, there will be people who go "nah" and do whatever they want.

You cannot, and should not, write or create content for this audience that will purposely dismiss your intentions by trying to make it more clear or more obvious because again, they will not care and you've wasted your time, and possibly have created an inferior story as a result.

This can apply to any fandom/media but for Dragon Age specifically: I have seen different fans call Leliana a lesbian and straight, Taash called a lesbian and uses she/her or he/him for them, the white washing mods for every poc character under the sun, those who deny the poc-coding for characters and groups in spite of word of god, the "bisexual" mods for Sera and Dorian, even the writers themselves had Anders "be straight" so female players could "pretend" he's not bisexual to romance him.

It's a race you can't win because your opponents aren't even there at the starting line, so it's best to not even try at all because you gain nothing from it no matter "how well you do". You waste your time and energy best used elsewhere.