sparrow

dragon age, fable + tes | 22 | any pronouns | scottish

[bladeoffrontiers]

[memi-toh]

FenHawke doodle, I was in the mood for cuddles x3

[asharaks]

lets address my favourite topic: dev bias in writing. "i don't like sera because she's annoying" the guy who wrote sera also wrote jacob taylor. can we take the marginalised romances away from this guy. he hates black people and he hates lesbians. there's a certain impulse in some of these devs to take...i guess schadenfreude?? in writing romances that "punish" the player - from gaider's "alistair is a manchild and terrible partner" to whatever weekes says about solas - there is something in particular in these devs' loathing for women (or people playing women) that makes them willing to weaponise unimaginable bigotry in punishment.

kristjanson writes a lesbian, and gives you absolutely no opportunity to extend her kindness or empathy: sera is marginalised across several dimensions, both in- and out of-of-universe, as an elf, as neurodivergent, as a lesbian, and her romance is marked by scenes you are intended to read as hysterical, irrational, unreasonable. your reward for being interested in a neurodivergent lesbian is getting shouted at, having a bow pointed at you, don't you regret this? and again, in mass effect - you romanced Black man and he leaves you without a word, he takes up with another woman and starts a family behind your back, what did you expect?

kristjanson's writing is so full of racist, homophobic, bigoted tropes that are levelled against the player and the romance in a way that feels like punishment, like he wants to make sure no-one (no woman) can have a joyful, fulfilling relationship with a marginalised person, like you don't deserve to be successful in these relationships without conditions. and i love a difficult, unconventional, even tragic romance in games, but in contrast to the treatment the other romances get it is notable to me that kristjanson singles out the lesbian and the Black man for treatment that not only punishes the characters involved but leans heavily on stereotypes particular to those groups.

if you are a woman, or playing a woman, devs feel all too comfortable belittling and insulting you for pursuing the romances they choose to make available in their games, to the point of self-sabotage, and that is a significant factor that needs to be taken into account in any analysis of how these storylines play out.

[dykieran]

trying to get across that dragon age has a problem with lesbophobia sucks so much because you'll say "it kinda makes me uncomfortable that the two canon relationships between queer women in dao are explicitly abusive and predatory. also the game was absolutely made with men in mind and despite leliana being bisexual, she has a lot more romantic interactions/reactivity with a male character, and overall it just makes a kind of uncomfortable effect where it feels like the intention was Saving this poor abused women from her evil bitch ex with the power of your manly heroic ways" and people will just respond with "yay toxic yuri i loveeeee toxic yuri!!! also leliana is bisexual just romance her as a woman lmao" and completely ignore that you were talking about. like. the intention of the writers. and then you'll say "It sucks that sera is so mistreated by the game and ends up getting paired off with a side character she has no interactions with if you don't romance her" and they'll respond "that's just because she's unlikeable" and completely ignore that part of the reason she's so "unlikeable" is because a lot of people just genuinely do not like lesbians

[housederiva]

I'm confused, you're a Sollavellan romancer? I thought you were queer and nonbinary????

I am all three?

[housederiva]

Happy Pride

[dalishious]

Among these "cishet" Dragon Age women, who would you make queer?

Morrigan

Anora

Aveline

Meredith

Cassandra

Someone else (leave in tags)

Voting ended onJun 6

[thebaldursmouthgazette]

I couldn’t find the post I was looking for but it was about how sera gets called racist and bigoted and annoying for criticising the dalish (due to being a 20 year old dealing with internalised racism and struggling to find her identity in a world where she’s only acknowledged as an elf as a target of racism or when compared to the dalish as though she’s not being an elf properly) but when Solas criticises the dalish he’s called wise and knowledgeable and people think that yeah maybe the dalish are worth criticising (and he’s criticising them because he’s a genocidal maniac who doesn’t consider them people and is planning to kill them)

Think that’s a good example of the whole “you hate this character because she’s a woman, you would like the same traits in a male character” thing

[boarred]

Happy pride demon!

[hergreywarden]

Rest a while

[rooks-dagger]

Lucanis Dellamorte // The Fallen Angel (Alexandre Cabanel, 1847)

[sevibun]

[unknown-mel]

"...Is there singing in the Void? Dancing...? Surely the Dread Lord will at least allow poor Cicero to caper..."

my favorite skyrim character is, unusurprisingly, a mad evil jester who kills people.

OKAY SO i finally decided to actually start posting my art here on tumblr instead of hoarding it in my folder for months so...over the next few weeks there is gonna be a LOT of it

this one is like...from about a year ago </3 gawdawn

[pillow-boi]

Just some grey wardens grey wardening

[deorlingas]

girl help i can't stop doodling the vigils keep grey wardens.

[queam]

Sigrun

Velanna

[fourth-wall-inc]

Awakening girlies because they don't get enough appreciation. They really did all the awakening companions dirty by not giving them more dialogue, they had so much potential

[dragonagepolls]

Are you using mods for Dragon Age: Origins?

Yes, A LOT of them!

Yes, not that many but a couple

No, I'm playing vanilla

Voting ended onMay 24