thinking about my marcusanders postcanon thing where they go and hang out with rebel mages from kinloch for a few months... i'm so tempted to plan a fic for it even though i'd never finish it
the whole thing with them hanging out with the rebel mages and 'helping' is that they're basically a massive detriment to everyone around them and are only tolerated for as long as they are for political reasons/out of obligation. like it takes three months straight of them having more than their fair share of drink and yelling at each other in the middle of camp while everyone is supposed to be asleep before they're very politely asked to move on
thinking about my marcusanders postcanon thing where they go and hang out with rebel mages from kinloch for a few months... i'm so tempted to plan a fic for it even though i'd never finish it
idk, i think game endings being tied to your play style can be cool (dishonoured) but what i really dislike about veilguard's ending/the me2 suicide mission format is that it's more about how much of the game you play rather than how you play, meaning you don't actually have to make any moral or narrative choices to get a good ending, you just have to have patience and sit through however many cutscenes the game throws at you. it doesn't feel rewarding to get the good ending with 0 deaths because i bothered to show up and slog through a bunch of quests, and it doesn't feel worth replaying the game to try and see a different/bad ending because i know i'll have to purposefully skip quests and halfass the game, which is stupid.
What is your favourite Rook background?: Grey Wardens (26.9%), Mourn Watch (26.8%), Antivan Crows (18%), Shadow Dragons (16.7%), Veil Jumpers (6.2%), Lords of Fortune (5.5%)
Who was your first romance?: Lucanis (32%), Emmrich (16.8%), Davrin (15.8%), Neve (10.7%), Taash (9.1%), Harding (7%), Bellara (6.6%), I've never romanced anyone (1.9%)
Who is your favourite romance?: Emmrich (25.6%), Davrin (22.5%), Lucanis (21.1%0, Neve (16.4%), Harding (5.3%), Bellara (3.7%), Taash (3.3%), I've never romanced anyone (2%)
Who is your favourite companion?: Davrin (21.9%), Neve (20.3%0, Emmrich (19.8%), Lucanis (13.6%), Bellara (10.5%), Taash (7.6%), Harding (6.3%)
What was Rook's gender?: Female (48.3%), nonbinary (26.7%), male (25%)
What race was your Rook?: Elf (57.9%), human (21.5%), Vashoth (12.2%), dwarf (8.4%)
What class was your Rook?: Mage (52.4%), rogue (31.7%), warrior (15.9%)
What specialisation was your Rook?: Spellblade (29.8%), Duelist (17.4%), Death Caller (14.8%), Evoker (8.2%), Champion (7.5%), Veil Ranger (7.3%), Saboteur (6.9%), Reaper (5.2%), Slayer (3%)
Which dialogue style did you use most often for Rook?: Humorous (54.7%), diplomatic (25.8%), stoic (19.4%)
Who did your Rook romance?: Lucanis (28.3%), Emmrich (19.5%), Davrin (17.6%), Neve (13.7%), Bellara (5.7%), Taash (5.5%), Harding (5.5%), none of the above (4.2%)
Aside from their romance, who would you say were your Rook's best friends?: Davrin (57.8%), Bellara (54.6%), Neve (43.5%), Harding (41.5%), Emmich (35.4%), Taash (31.3%), Lucanis (27.3%), none of the above (2.6%)
Who did your Rook NOT get along with?: They genuinely get along with everyone (72.2%), Lucanis (10.3%), Taash (10.1%), Neve (7.2%), Harding (6.4%), Emmrich (5.9%), Bellara (3.5%), Davrin (1.4%)
Which city did Rook choose to save during the dragon attack?: Treviso (64.7%), Minrathous (35.3%)
What did Bellara decide to do with the Archive?: Keep the Archive (63.1%), release the Archive (36.9%)
What role did Neve choose for herself in Dock Town?: Protector (68.5%), inspiration (31.5%)
What happened to Illario at the end of Lucanis' questline?: Imprisoned (65.8%), freed (34.2%)
What path did Taash choose in their companion questline?: Embraced their Rivaini culture (81.7%), embraced their Qunari heritage (18.3%)
What did Emmrich choose at the end of his companion questline?: Revived Manfred (79.1%), became a lich (20.9%)
At the end of Harding's companion questline, what path did she choose?: Compassion (83.9%), anger (16.1%)
What was decided about the rescued griffons?: Stayed in Arlathan Forest (69.9%), returned to the Grey Wardens (30.1%)
How did Rook deal with the First Warden at Weisshaupt?: Punched him (60.6%), reasoned with him (39.4%)
Which companion was abducted and blighted during the endgame?: Bellara (61.5%), Neve (38.5%)
Which companion sacrificed themselves during the endgame?: Harding (71.8%), Davrin (28.2%)
Aside from the mandatory Davrin/Harding sacrifice, which companions died during the final push in Minrathous?: None (95.3%), Emmrich (2.1%), Neve (2.1%), Lucanis (1.9%), Taash (1.8%), Bellara (1.1%), Davrin (1%), Harding (1%)
How did Rook resolve the final confrontation with Solas?: Redeemed/persuaded him with Lavellan (41%), redeemed/persuaded him alone (25.5%), tricked him (23.9%), fought/trapped him (8.7%), Rook was trapped in the Fade with him (1%)
Who became Archon of Minrathous?: Dorian (75.4%), Maevaris (24.6%)
The next posts will focus on the optional opinion section and free text-box responses!
prev is just what you say in the tags when you find the tags of the person you're reblogging the post from interesting/funny/agree with them in some way that's all there is to it lol
oh no, i meant the meme format in the prev post 😭 like the 'potential x' format
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%)
Can we also talk about how it maybe explains some things that Iron Bull was apparently written with mostly Marvel movie sountracks used as background sound [X]
i actually didn't realise solas speaking to the tune of hallelujah wasn't common knowledge... the only thing that was news to me was that weekes themself has seemingly never actually claimed to have written in iambic pentameter (which hallelujah isn't)
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