ok wait. first of all obsessed with everyones ocs. second of all May I Add... can u all tell me about the saw traps you guys are designing as romance routes for your ocs. the madness people have to accept and play through to romance them. the aspect of this romance that u think makes fans fully justified in sending death threats
ok wait. first of all obsessed with everyones ocs. second of all May I Add... can u all tell me about the saw traps you guys are designing as romance routes for your ocs. the madness people have to accept and play through to romance them. the aspect of this romance that u think makes fans fully justified in sending death threats
i keep seeing takes like this and it's always SO baffling when someone smugly tries to frame people who dislike dav as losers who just wanted a power fantasy and were mad that rook was too much of a team player, because one of the most common criticisms of the game is that the veilguard companions have no autonomy and are annoyingly sycophantic towards the player lol? previous games had characters who would challenge your opinions, who would fight you or disagree with you. doing a companion's quest didn't guarantee they'd love you forever and losing their trust due to making a choice they disliked later on was very possible. the veilguard system of do quest -> earn trust -> companion/faction survives feels way less 'real' and way more of a power fantasy than having to actually engage with a fictional setting's politics and acknowledge that sometimes there's no way to be friends with everyone when doing the 'right thing'.
Okay this was talked about to an extent I did not predict when I made this post but I’m still going to share MY sebastian evangelism opinions #myopinions
Anyway like a number of people have pointed out already, while it’s not fair to say Sebastian is spending the whole time trying to convert the gang, it’s also not really fair to say he’s not at all invested in proselytizing to party members. As an ex-Christian, the way Sebastian talks about Andrastrianism to non-Andrastrian or less faithful party members is very familiar, and also complicated.
When I was in college, I got involved in an on-campus Christian group. It was very chill - most of the meetings were mostly hanging out, with maybe a vague talk about being a nice person and putting good into the world at the end of it. Long term members were really friendly — I was getting invited to a lot of social gatherings straight away and they were all pretty areligious, we were mostly just hanging out with each other.
Eventually some of the leadership found out that I was already a Christian and asked me and a couple other members to lunch to talk about “Christian leadership.”
They explained that as Christians, we had a responsibility to reach out to people who weren’t. Not to convince them to be Christian, but to be kind and nonjudgemental, and also model what being a good Christian looked like at them. The goal was to get people interested in why their new friend was so wonderful and nice and really had their shit together so they would maybe start getting into this Christianity thing and maybe hit up youth group
At the time, I was really upset by having this laid out to me — largely because I was having a very lonely year so the idea that these sudden new connections I had made had come from Christian obligation rather than genuine interest really put me off.
In hindsight, this approach is all throughout Christian practice — most youth programming I had been in had been light on the religion and actively encouraged kids to bring their non-Christian friends — I had just never thought of it that way
I think it’s also a little more complicated than I felt at the time, when my feelings were still pretty wrapped up in a sense of interpersonal pride and rejection. I think the people who succeed at this evangelical approach are already generally socialable people who enjoy new friends and getting to know people. Religion is part of it — and it’s hard for it not to be in a religion where the stakes of your new friends’ beliefs is literally heaven and hell — but not the whole story
Sebastian’s more religious banters always make me think about that experience. I think it’s more subtle with him — I certainly don’t think he joined Hawke’s crew with the goal of converting people, but I also think his ultimate goal of “helping people” is intertwined with his key value of “being Andrastrian”
He more or less says this is what he’s doing here. He’s not generally pushy and he’s never aggressive, but he also generally believes people would be better off if they were Andrastrian. It’s what he believes saved him, and he’s a faithful member of a religion that emphasizes the importance of spreading it
The Fenris banters are kind of worse than I remembered LMAO — they’re not terrible and I think Sebastian is undoubtedly trying to come from a good place here, and I don’t think Fenris seems overly bothered by the way he engages with them, but again, the conversation here is familiar!
(Not every fenseb religion banter but a good number of them. There’s a lot)
Sebastian is asking for an understanding of Fenris’ feelings on religion with the intent to persuade him to accepting his. I think he engages more directly with Fenris on this than anyone else, not wholly because Fenris is especially vulnerable and traumatized, but because Fenris is reluctantly willing to have the conversation.
There are a couple other very early companion banters that I won’t include bc I think I’m kind of reaching lol where I think you could read Seb as trying to initiate the start of a conversation like this, but the topic is otherwise deflected and he doesn’t push it further.
That’s what makes it complicated — Fenris is at least begrudgingly willing to have the conversation, and he quite possibly could benefit from the religious community and comfort Sebastian is trying to encourage. On the other hand, Sebastian trying to convince Fenris to recontextualize his trauma through Sebastian’s religious perspective is pushy and insensitive at best
Again, Sebastian means well, but the thing about evangelical religions is that even a progressive outlook can be coercive
Take this banter with Merrill. I’d imagine that Sebastian’s perspective here is a bit subversive — he’s validating elven religion that the Chantry has spent centuries suppressing. But like many progressive Christians who espouse “we all worship the same god,” this perspective is a double-edged sword. Seb does think there’s a “right” way to interpret this story, and getting Merrill on board with this interpretation would be a step closer to getting her to accept a version of Andrastrianism
(Though okay in hindsight is pretty funny that Sebastian is probably right here but elven version would have been the original/closer to the truth. Would pay to hear what his perspective is on all this by the time Veilguard has rolled around)
Or these banters about the Qun. Again, Sebastian is being comparatively progressive here! He doesn’t dismiss other religions as heretics, he’s empathetic as to why people would be interested in the Qun in a way I don’t think we see from an Andrastrian (or nearly any non-Qunari) again in the series. But the perspective here isn’t “to each their own,” it’s “we need to do better or they’re going to out convert us.” Granted, I think Sebastian cares about the Chantry “doing better” as more than just a marketing technique, but it’s a concern that he of course has as a practitioner of a religion focused on spreading the word of the Maker.
TL;DR: Sebastian and evangelizing is complicated. He means well, but also subscribes to a belief system that upholds religious faith as the end goal for personal and societal fulfillment. He has a vested interest in promoting Andrastrianism and behaves like it, even if he’s also compassionate and generally respectful of people’s boundaries.
DA2 has a lot of characters deeply shaped by their sociopolitical context, and Sebastian isn’t an exception. I think if we can get with the nuances of Anders being a radically progressive character while also still holding deeply reductive views stemming from his society’s racial bigotry and religious hegemony, or Fenris advocating for oppressive systems as a response to his past trauma, we can maybe also understand Sebastian as an equally complicated character who sometimes crosses the line and behaves inappropriately while generally trying to be understanding. I love my DA2 freaks <3
remembering the work miranda raison put in to create the unique nevarran accent for cassandra and then in veilguard everyone in the mourn watch is just british
isn't is so crazy that veilguard claims to be lgbt friendly and yet it doesn't have a single lesbian character. and its only wlw content not instigated by the player is a note in a codex entry.
the only gay man never mentions he's attracted to men unless you romanced him in the previous game (where his entire arc is about his sexuality) and even then he just calls the inquisitor a close friend despite them presumably being in a relationship for a decade. half the major factions force you to witness an f/m relationships play out and see them flirting while there are literally no major f/f or m/m npc canon romances that you're Forxednto witness. the only m/m companion relationship gets the least exposure and the f/m relationship clearly has the most time and effort put into it. just saying.
learning that cole's banters with solas were a bunch of stupid references to movies and tv shows pissed me off in ways i cannot put into words bc i spent So Long trying to understand what in the world these two were talking about, thinking it had to do with other characters or whatever only to be freaking. supernatural and a shitty brad pitt movie no one remembers.
especially considering cole is the only spirit companion we've had since justice, he could have given us so much insights with solas and then they did this
Census Survey Results, Pt. 1 - Intro & General Demographics
We're finally here! Because of how lengthy these posts will be, I'm going to have to split them over multiple posts. The plan is to have this intro, posts focused on each game and its main responses, and then a further few posts dedicated to each game's responses on the optional opinion section along with a selection of the free-response text box answers. They'll all be tagged with '#census survey', and once they're all out, I'll link them all in the pinned post so they're easy to find :)
Here is a list of pretty interesting patterns and findings I got from the results before we dive into the answers themselves!
When it comes to the free-response section, Veilguard inspired far more writing than any other game, with the highest comment count, response rate, average word count, and total word count
Solas inspired the largest number of people to say something, with the highest raw comment count and highest response rate. Cullen, Loghain, Anders, and Oghren also all broke 200+ optional text responses.
Sigrun had the least text responses (though she was rated positively by 85.2% of respondents and negatively by virtually nobody), with all the Awakening companions getting between 80-100. The non-DLC character with the fewest responses was Inquisition Leliana
Josephine inspired relatively few and relatively short responses, but 94.7% of respondents rated her positively
Taash generated the most intense free-response engagement, with the most total words and average words per response
Anders was the character who inspired the least indifference - only 1% of respondents selected "I'm indifferent" for him
Cullen was the most polarising, with his ratings fairly evenly distributed. He also had the highest negative percentage, narrowly ahead of Oghren
Oghren had the highest percentage of "mixed/conflicted feelings"
Tallis inspired the most indifference, with 43.5% of respondents selecting "I'm indifferent" for her. The next highest result was Sebastian at 25.4%
The top five characters with the most "I love them" responses were Dorian (75.4%), Zevran, Morrigan, Merrill, and DA2 Varric. Dorian was the most overwhelmingly positively rated, with 94.2% positive answers, 0.8% negative, and 1.4% indifferent
Vivienne, Sera, Taash, Harding, and Lucanis all had very positive ratings as characters, but their free-response text boxes were generally criticism-heavy, with people citing issues with their writing and storylines
Opinions on Oghren don't differ by gender - men were slightly more likely to be mixed rather than negative, but otherwise percentages were broadly the same across the board
Opinions on Taash differ pretty clearly between cis and trans/nonbinary respondents. Trans and nonbinary results are almost identical, but cis people were broadly less positive on Taash. 6.4% of trans and 5.6% nonbinary respondents rated Taash negatively ("dislike" or "hate") compared to 16.8% of cis respondents. 38.5% of trans and 38.6% of nonbinary people specifically selected "I love them" for Taash, compared to only 22.8% of cis respondents.
Men were substantially more likely to love Anders - 41.2% of women loved him vs. 61.5% of men.
Women were substantially more likely to love Cullen - 28.9% of women vs. 13.1% of men - and men were substantially more likely to hate Cullen (10.1% of women vs. 25.3% of men).
Sera was loved by 52.6% of men vs. only 35.3% of women
Some other interesting patterns: Neve was more positively rated by nonbinary people and men than she was by women, and Iron Bull was much more positively rated by nonbinary people than by either men or women
People who like Solas are almost twice as likely than others to also like Blackwall
Anders and Fenris fans aren't generally opposing camps, though Fenris fans are more likely to dislike Anders than Anders fans are likely to dislike Fenris. Among people positive about Anders, 97.2% were also positive about Fenris.
Ace-spec respondents lean slightly more positively toward Lucanis, but the difference isn't statistically significant
Older respondents (for this purpose 36+) like Cullen more than younger respondents do, while they like Loghain significantly less. Older respondents are also notably more likely to like Lucanis, Emmrich, and Aveline. Velanna, for some reason, peaks significantly for 23-27 year olds
Bellara was rated positively by every single person who said Veilguard was their favourite game
People who romanced Alistair in Origins tended to romance Fenris in DA2 and Cullen in Inquisition. People who romanced Leliana in Origins heavily favoured Josephine in Inquisition. Merrill romancers strongly gravitate toward Josephine and Bellara. Isabela romancers overwhelmingly favour Neve in Veilguard. Zevran romancers favour Dorian and Lucanis. Blackwall romancers divide strongly between Emmrich and Davrin.
The most common favourite romance pipelines were Zevran > Fenris > Dorian > Lucanis and Zevran > Fenris > Dorian > Emmrich
The fandom is very consistently pro mage, with 97.8% siding with the mages in Origins, 95.6% in DA2, and 89.7% in Inquisition. Only 1 respondent out of the 760 who answered the question for all three games chose the Templar option in every game.
To back up the common complaint in the free-response boxes about Veilguard forcing a harmonious team with no ability to disagree with companions, Rook was dramatically more likely to get along with everyone. The percentage of people who said their protagonist genuinely got along with every companion was 28.9% for the Warden, 22.1% for Hawke, 28.3% for the Inquisitor, and 72.2% for Rook. The most common sources of friction: For the Warden, Oghren, then Wynne; for Hawke, Sebastian, then Aveline and Carver; for the Inquisitor, Vivienne and Cullen, then Sera and Solas; and for Rook, Lucanis and Taash, but at much lower rates than any previous game's conflicts.
Certain pairings of characters were very often loved by the same people; some examples were Aveline and Cassandra, Morrigan and Isabela, Velanna and Merrill, Isabela and Neve, Isabela and Sera, Zevran and Fenris, and Nathaniel and Carver.
Cullen fans were more likely than other players to dislike Velanna, Merrill, Sera, Vivienne, and Isabela.
Inquisition players who chose the mages usually allied with them, but players who chose the Templars usually conscripted them.
How old are you?: 28-35 (48.3%), 23-27 (24.6%), 36-45 (18.4%), 18-22 (6.3%), 46-55 (1.9%), 13-17 (0.3%), 56+ (0.1%)
What's your gender identity?: Cis woman (48.2%), nonbinary (31.5%), trans man (10%), cis man (2.3%), trans woman (1.9%)
Write-in responses were mostly more specific nonbinary labels, people who didn't know their identity, and those who weren't comfortable disclosing gender identity but chose not to skip the question.
Where do you live?: North America (61%), Europe (31.5%), Australia/New Zealand (4.5%), Asia (1.3%), South America (1.3%), Africa (0.5%)
Which Dragon Age games have you played?: Inquisition (98.5%), Origins (96.9%), DA2 (95.8%), Veilguard (84.2%)
Which is your favourite Dragon Age game?: DA2 (40.6%), Origins (29%), Inquisition (24.1%), Veilguard (6.3%)
Which was your first Dragon Age game?: Origins (62.9%), Inquisition (26.5%), DA2 (8.8%), Veilguard (1.8%)
Which difficulty do you generally play on?: Normal (49.7%), Casual (37.4%), Hard (9.4%), Nightmare (3.5%)
Which platform do you generally play on?: PC (69.4%), PlayStation (17.1%), XBOX (13.5%)
Which of the spin-off games have you played, if any?: None of the above (66.1%), Dragon Age: The Last Court (25.8%), Heroes of Dragon Age (15%), Dragon Age Legends (6%), Dragon Age Journeys (3.8%)
Which of the animated/live action screen media pieces have you watched, if any?: Absolution (53.6%), none of the above (37.9%), Dawn of the Seeker (31.7%), Redemption (16.5%), Warden's Fall (8.3%)
Which of the tie-in books have you read, if any?: Tevinter Nights (43.4%), The Stolen Throne (40.6%), The World of Thedas Vol. 1 (40.5%), The World of Thedas Vol. 2 (39.7%), Asundder (37.8%), The Masked Empire (36.3%), The Calling (34.7%), none of the above (28.5%), Last Flight (26.7%), Hard in Hightown (17.6%)
Which of the tie-in comics have you read, if any?: None of the above (52%), The Silent Grove (32.7%), Those Who Speak (30.4%), Magekiller (30%), Blue Wraith (28.3%), Until We Sleep (28.3%), Knight Errant (25.9%), The Missing (22.9%), Deception (20%), Dark Fortress (18.8%)
Which additional spin-off media have you engaged in, if any?: None of the above (56.6%), the Vows & Vengeance podcast (32.4%), the Dragon Age tabletop RPG (21.7%)
do you know why i actually want a dragon age trilogy remaster. so that they can fucking nuke the ea app from being used ever again bc i guess im gonna have to keep using my 🏴☠️ versions bc trying to boot up dai and the ea app wants me to verify my age.
i will scream at age verification bullshit every time i see it bc it is fucking bullshit. to not have access to a game i PAID for bc i dont want to give EA my fucking personal information IS BULLSHIT especially when insofar no fucking age verification method has proven to be actually that trustworthy.
