I spent 10 years in the dragon age hole was very involved in the lore and theory crafting community and let me tell you the vindication of being proven right in veilguard. I was right about all my hypotheses. (the hive mind, kal sharok, stone magic vs sky magic, lyrium and red lyrium. evanuris hypothesis, the nature of their imprisonment. Enchantment!) And now i am free. Veilguard tied up all the dangling plot threads and resolved questions posed in origins. It's a good endpoint for the series (also bioware is dead (was killed by ea)). Talking dragon age is the name of a youtuber/series i rather liked. They had some of the better hypotheses back in the day
Veilguard isnt bad is a hill I'll die on. This exact thing happened to dragon age 2. People hated it on release and now people love it. It's been a decade plus so the nostalgia filter has set in and people only remember the best parts of their favorite dragon age games instead of the reality that dragon age was always about this quality. People forget da2's copy pasted dungeons. Or how boring and nonsensical corpheus was. Or they forget all the devs barely disguised lust demon fetish in dao. They forget being tormented by the dao deep roads. They remember origin's story and dai's party banter and da2's feeling of friendship and that's what they are comparing dav to. I enjoyed veilguard's story i was invested until the end. I liked the characters and wanted to know their stories. That's successful storytelling
Mass effect 2 (which veilguard was structured after) was 15 years ago and people only remember what they liked. I watched it last week and it's a mess. The pacing is atrocious, most of it is boring, and it is extremely disjointed. Veilguard's plot actually makes more sense. Veilguard is deeply flawed. It chooses to focus on a more black white narratives instead of the more interesting conflicts in the series. I dislike how everything ends up being about the evanuris. I like the characters (more than da2 or origins actually) but not quite as much as dai's cast. The story writing was mildly disjointed and could have flowed better. As always my complaints are endless. But given how EA screwed over development it's a miracle veilguard is actually a decent game. Bioware truly overcame the worst odds possible. I mean they had to restart development what 3 times because EA kept changing it's mind and making impossible demands. And EA isnt going to change, better to end things here.
Alistair is not a ‘himbo’: discussion of the continuous mischaracterization of Alistair with disregard to his trauma.
Throughout the fandom, Alistair is seen as a ‘cheese-loving himbo,’ and his personality is narrowed down to these two factors. People often see him as stupid, to put it simply, and others see him as ‘annoying’ and ‘whiny’. However, Alistair is quite possibly one of the most in-depth and fleshed out character that BioWare has developed. He is not actually stupid, and he should not be labeled as ‘whiny’ or ‘annoying’ either. Under the cut is an in-depth perspective of Alistair, his trauma, and his personality.
Disclaimer: this is not going to be a ‘callout’ post to the fandom in any way. It is simply a character analysis on Alistair and his coping mechanisms for his trauma and how it is often misperceived. Warning for length.
Firstly, what is a ‘himbo?’
A ‘himbo’ is described as “an attractive but stupid young man,” most commonly used in reference to Alistair in the Dragon Age fandom. While the jokes are funny, sometimes it is taken a little too far. I have seen many people truly believe that Alistair is dumb and incompetent, and honestly, at first I also believed so. Throughout Dragon Age Origins, numerous characters comment on Alistair’s intellect including himself. This is often misinterpreted that Alistair is indeed unintelligent since he says so himself, right? Not quite.
Trauma:
Anyone who has played Dragon Age Origins knows that Alistair is the secret bastard son of King Maric to a ‘serving-girl in Redcliffe’. Instead of being raised by King Maric, Alistair was hidden away with his half-brother’s uncle, Arl Eamon, in Redcliffe. Eventually, rumors floated around that Alistair was Arl Eamon’s son, a rumor that Arl Eamon’s wife believed. Consequently, Alistair was sent to a Chantry monastery to begin training as a Templar around the age of ten; ten years later being ‘saved’ by Warden Commander Duncan and conscripted into the Grey Wardens. This is the biggest subplot in DAO, and other than the Blight looming over Fereldan/Thedas, is a main point in DAO’s storyline.
This alone sounds absolutely awful for a child to have to go through. But it gets much, much worse for Alistair. Traveling though Fereldan with Alistair and talking with him gets him to open up a little about what his childhood was like. Most of it is shrouded in humor; however, he lets some truth shine through.
From this we can confer that Alistair did not have an ideal childhood living with the Arl in Redcliffe. Especially since when the Arl would visit Denerim, Alistair would sleep with the hounds. Not only is it hinted that Alistair suffered child neglect, it is also hinted that he may have suffered verbal abuse. As Arl Eamon was one of the only people to know that Alistair was Maric’s bastard, the verbal abuse and belittlement most likely came from him.
Throughout Alistair’s life he felt uncared for, and was so ignored and neglected as a child that even grown up he feels invisible and unheard.
So uncared for, that even the simple act of giving him a gift he acts as if he never had anyone ever give him anything (which is possible except for maybe a few times).
Or, even just remembering that he mentioned something.
Or, even a simple compliment makes him feel unworthy.
No one would listen to him or what he wanted, and that is another main sub plot of DAO. Going to visit Goldanna, the player can choose whether or not to harden Alistair and basically tell him, “People only look out for themselves. It’s time you did, too.”
Alistair felt he was unloved, unwanted, and a general burden to his family (and especially felt this way after meeting Goldanna). The only person he felt may have loved him was his mother who he believed to be a serving-girl; a main reason he holds on to his mother’s amulet. She represents the only person in his life, up until Duncan, who he thought would have loved and be proud of him.
Coping Mechanisms:
Now that Alistair’s trauma is laid-out, we can move on to how he copes with said trauma. Alistair uses humor as a defense mechanism to cope with his childhood traumas, and it is very common, especially self-deprecating and dark humor. According to G. Swaminath, “Freud postulated that humor [sic] works by means of two principal mechanisms, ‘condensation’ and ‘displacement’. Condensation entails an economy in thought and expression and conserves psychic energy, and displacement transfers this psychic energy arising from conflict or incongruity to a humorous anecdote, which brings relief. Freud believed that cultivating a sense of humor [sic] could help lift repressions (i.e. unconscious conflictual material) but could also be harmful, particularly in certain forms of sarcasm and irony, directed at the self.”
(source)
Most, if not all of Alistair’s humor, is directed at himself in a very self-deprecating manner. Whether to make the player feel better, to make himself seem unimportant, or because his self-esteem is truly that low.
For Alistair, appearing as an idiot was the easiest way to be under the radar. He never wanted to be King. He didn’t want people to treat him differently, either, for knowing that King Maric was his father. The best way to seem insignificant was to belittle himself and appear that he was an ‘idiotic nobody’.
On top of all this, the player can even callout Alistair for using humor as a defense mechanism and deflecting questions that he doesn’t really want to answer.
It’s not that Alistair is truly unintelligent or ‘whiny/annoying,’ he is using humor to cope and defend in the best way he knows how.
So, is Alistair actually intelligent?
Firstly, intelligence is hard to measure. One person’s definition of intelligence could vary wildly from another person’s. There’s also the perspective that intelligence can be categorized. For example, a person may be book-smart but not street-smart and vice-versa. Who is to say, however, that both are not equally as intelligent, but just in different categories? There is no basis for ‘intelligence.’ Everyone can be intelligent in their own way, and for Alistair, he is intelligent on history (specifically chantry), battle tactics, and knowing deception/people’s motives.
(Alistair not being told what the dark ritual is for)
As @mahariel-theirin said: “Right from the start you can just tell Alistair is smart, and not just because of his wit. When the Warden asks him about the origin of darkspawn he says, “You want the Chantry version, or the truth?” When asked about the fight with the mage, he calls out the revered mother’s power play by using him as a messenger. Look at that insight. That awareness. And that’s just from the first 5 minutes of meeting him.”
End Notes:
Take out of this what you will. But Alistair is more of a ‘hunk’ than a ‘himbo,’ and shouldn’t be discredited. He was abused and neglected his whole life. I personally believe Alistair should be given more credit than he has been receiving, and BioWare for creating a character that is so in-depth and fleshed out they have deceived people in believing that Alistair is truly dumb. Which, ironically, is what Alistair wanted in-game. I am not in any way saying to quit joking about Alistair being a ‘himbo’ either! A lot of the jokes are quite funny. This was purely made out of the informational interest of some people not quite understanding Alistair’s character and truly believing he might be one of the most stupid people in Thedas (and potentially misunderstanding his humor/defense/coping mechanism as stupidity). If anything, Alistair is ‘himbo-passing’ at best.
Also, with special thanks to @planesofduality for their Dragon Age Compendium. It was tremendously useful, and I thank you for all the time and devotion you put in to it to make it possible. Many thanks! Also thanks to @sundogsandrainbows, @not-plaidweave, and @irhinoceri for discussing this with me and encouraging me to make this meta.
Taash's story is fine it's gamers that are the problem
Taash's mom is one of the best things in the game. Shathann is very immigrant parent in how hardworking no-nonsense she is because she knows she has to hold things together even at personal sacrifice which ironically also makes her a mildly dysfunctional parent unable to connect with Taash's struggles who by comparison seems to have it easy from her perspective. Extremely hardworking tough love tries to take care of her kid but also doesn't quite get it. I am reminded of chef Priya Krishna's reflections on her on her own childhood and immigrant parents. Her picking up preorders from an under the table bakery operating out of someone's average suburban house, to her wanting to go to summer camp like all the other kids but her parents didn't quite get it and sent her to debate camp. They are all trying very hard and it's very real.
My only real complaint with Taash's story is that they had to choose between Qunari and Rivani culture in a story that is otherwise about defying boundaries and binaries. I get that it's a formula and all the companions get a 2 fork choice but it's just thematically inconsistent for taash. (Griffons to forest or wardens, harding normal or titan, emmrich lich or manfred, neve kingpin or detective agency). Immigrant culture is totally a thing, we wouldn't have cioppino without Italian immigrants in San Francisco. We could have had bomb Qunari-Rivani fusion food is Bioware weren't cowards.
You'll have to go digging in old forums but compare the fan reactions of Morrigan, Sera, and Taash who all arguably fall into the category of "baby of the party" at about 20 years old. All 3 are offensive, immature, blunt, and rude. Which is why I personally dislike all 3 (they are well written characters but we would not get along). Morrigan is 18-20 in origins despite sounding and looking 35 but she sure does act like a surly teenager. And huh who else acts like a surly teenager? Taash. And it's very telling that one is a fan favorite, and one is reviled by the fandom for doing the same thing minus the personal attraction. (Morrigan was always insufferable, blunt, rude, condescending and immature. But she was attractive to a lot of players so suddenly all those things were excusable.) The hate for Taash really does sound like paper thin excuses, the few who talk about legitimate reasons get drowned out by the most pustulous outrage I have ever seen.
So much outrage at Taash being nonbinary, wow we do live in the transphobia age. Tassh's story is a very direct and straightforward queer narrative so I can understand why people might find it too in your face. However I was rewatching all of Dragon Age, and Dragon Age was always like this. People didn't nearly have this many problems with Krem and his transness is just as direct as Taash's. There's several dialogue options the Inquisitor has with him and Bull asking what Krem's deal is and each time the game reaffirms Krem is a real man. So Dragon Age hasn't changed it's that gamers have somehow gotten even more transphobic and vile. Dorian's story was in large part about the stigma of being openly gay and the pain of his father trying to change him with blood magic conversion therapy. You don't get more overtly in your face stories about being queer than that.
If you want incidental background transness, Marveris is right there or even Rook and neither of their story arcs are about being transgender. Dragon Age is filled with characters that are incidenally queer. Zevran's story isn't about how he's had sex with men and women alike, it's about trust and love and betrayal, and he's also had sex with men and women alike. Leiliana, Josephine, The Iron Bull and like every other queer character in Dragon Age has stories that do not center around their queerness, Dorian and Taash are the exceptions. Dragon Age is a story with multiple trans characters presenting different aspects of the trans experience from questioning and defining identity to just living it, and I love to see it. People need to get over themselves, your life experiences are not universal, people different from you exist and their stories are just as worthy of being told.
it's really just that anti-woke anti-dei culture has infected (long infected) gamers. That the subject has become so sensitive and politicized that even touching it is setting off a powder keg. it's like their activation code to be as angry and hateful as possible. All this used to be a non issue or less a rage/hate button. And on the left everyone is so touchy about it that everyone has a perfect version in their heads that caters to their preferences and so everyone else's version is false and wrong and a personal attack somehow. This is a known and common problem for any (usually small indie projects) that have minority characters. And everything queer is demonized for being imperfect (yeah yeah this is coming from the person constantly complaining). I don't even like Taash as a person but they aren't the problem here. (I dont like most characters in general in any series, Taash aint special. I don't like Sera or Vivianne or *shudders* Oghren or Cullen or Blackwell or Morrigan or most of the DA2 cast I dont even like fan favorite Alistair im like a neutral on him)
Edit: the Isabela push up scene was awkward, Taash's storyline is far from perfect. My point isn't that their story is good (it's not), it's that the companion quests are mediocre but disproportionately hated (people really treat it like the worst thing ever made and it isn't) because of transphobia. The purpose of the push-up scene is to show that people mess up and that's ok as long as you tried. Changes are difficult and sometimes you mess up. But putting in a tiny bit of effort for the things that are important to other people (not just you) is worth it. You make a mistake, you try to do right by the person and try again next time. It's real simple and yet people still don't get it even when the message is spoon fed to them. The writers made this the simplest easiest to follow message in the series and people are doing olympic gymnastic routines to avoid the message. Let me be clear that this isn't innocent naivete, it's malice. Today I watched a youtube video (sadly pretty good otherwise) that was mad of woke gender nonsense getting in the way of him gooning over a big qunari woman. Maliciously and deliberately ignoring that one of the points to Taash's character is that they aren't a women. Weak ass mfs can't accept that being attracted to Taash means they aren't straight. When people use the wrong pronouns for Taash after their story arc or erasure their nonbinary identity, it's deliberate malice and blatant transphobia. Refusing to acknowledge when people aren't women (transmen, nb) because they "look woman enough" (wild for very masc folk). But a transwoman is not a woman no matter how feminine she looks. It's just transphobia, the excuses change to whatever is needed to continue being transphobic.
Solas is one of the best written characters in da and i love his role in inquisition. On a personal level he's an infuriating ass and i cant even complain much since i mostly agree with him about things. (when the most annoying person you've ever met is right). Solas always has a point uggg. There were so many egghead shippers on tumblr i couldn't interact with the tumblr da fandom without tripping over one which is why i was mostly on other sites or just by myself haven't really da posted until not and this is archiving stuff from discord and reddit. Got kinda annoying since while the characters are very good i was mostly here for elf lore in the old days. Now im a dwarf lore convert tho. Solas is straight because it was 2014 and he's a redditor, he's got that annoying straight boy energy.
Dorian, my ray of sunlight, a gleaming star. Dorian is precious. He cares so deeply for everything. He has so much love and compassion. Up until dorian every tevinter is cackling evil wizard slaver blood sacrifices. So dorian's character plays off those expectations built up through 2 games. In a cast hiding a lot or deliberately cultivating personas, it's notable that what Dorian is hiding (protecting) is his heart, the fact that he's actually a great guy that cares deeply.
I actually disliked the iron bull when i first played inquisition and you need to know Dorian is my fav character for this to make sense. Dorian is sexually repressed and iron bull lazer focuses in on insecurities and just cant help himself at picking at them (the natural troll he is). So if you put both of them unromanced in a party long enough they hook up and iron bull starts picking on dorian and i was ready to tear bull's throat out. Like leave dorian alone! Let him in his own time and pace gets over himself and embrace his attraction to big qunari men. Stop pushing him! The overt bullying just rubbed me the wrong way how Dorian while still unsure got pushed around so much. It took me like 8 years to come around on the iron bull.
Can I also say Bull's rizz is off the charts he somehow (social butterfly and ben-hassrath training) manages to get everyone to like him. He get wildly disparate people from vivienne to sera to like him. The only one resistant to his charms is solas because solas. And solas is half doing it out of principle.
Vivienne's internalized the treatment of mages as just and it's the basis of how she views herself as somehow exceptional and not like the other mages. It's this mix of the model minority myth, the myth of the self made man, pull the ladder up behind them mentality, and "But the leopards won't eat my face", which makes her an interesting character even if I personally hate her. Vivienne is in favor on any system that puts down the people around her and raises her up. So the more mages killed, imprisoned, tortured, etc., the less compeition there is. The more scared they are the more they rely on and boster her power. Rules that make her win or whatever the Cole quote is. This is in the context of mage circles where rules are for mages and not for templars, where rules are a tool to maintain power over mages. The cage they know vs the outside world they've been taught to fear. Her being a possible Divine has a lot of interesting implications mostly on how leverage based Orlesean politics are compared to say Ferelden's. And like many minority politicians appealing to the right she overcompensates by being more conservative (sunak, thomas, etc.)
If Cullen is the fan favorite (he is so unqualified to be leading an international army) then morrigan is the dev favorite. She's such a special girl. She's alao the one designed to be sexy in origins, love that for her when she's middle aged but in origins just like the lust demons, it's barely disguised dev gooning. I keep telling people who play the series backwards (don't do this), just wait until you see cullen raving about demons and mages. again.
Dragon Age characters are notoriously inconsistent between games. Either the writers change or the dev vision for a character changes between games. Merill and Isabella are basically different people between games that just happen to share a name, and to a degree harding and cullen. Recurring characters are a mixed bag in dragon age. Morrigan and solas get the best of it because they're dev favorites. They actually stay in character and morrigan's cross game character arc actually makes sense. Can't quite say the same for cullen's
Because of dao's extremely open plot, to continue telling stories in thedas the devs had to trim the story trees so beyond dao the "canon" isnt so much canon one possibility out of hundreds. dai morrigan and leiliana are very specific story paths, specifically Leliana and Alistair are hardened and Morrigan becomes the equivalent of softened. And so much of dao is about how every choice and it's conclusion is equal and how all these story branches are real that it leaves a real sour taste when the devs give preferential treatment to certain branches. While at the same time I do understand that the alternative would just be for characters to not have major roles at all. 90% of the origins cast is optional and like all of them can die (which caused hell of a lot of continuity problens because origins was designed as a stand alone). Like Alistair and Morrigan are the only mandatory. I'm not mad that the writers made a choice I'm mad that they made a choice matter and then retconned it into meaning less.
So much of Morrigan's charcter arc in Inquisition and Veilguard is about how motherhood has changed her for the better. She's gained a better understanding of life and the world through nurturing and learning to be a mother. This comes to a thematic head as she story enterwines with Mythal's, drinking from the Well of Sorrow potentially, and embracing the aspect of Mythal to embody her power in Veilguard. Morrigan from an antisocial lover comes to embody motherhood. And if you don't want her to get pregnant in Origins? Too bad you miss a major development in her character arc. Which is why I have such complicated feeling about this writing choice. Because Kieran being from the Dark Ritual is so much more poignant than the other options like the devs are very much playing narrative favorites. Non-Old God old Kieran is barely an afterthought in Inquisition his lines aren't nearly as interesting and it's clear which option the devs prefer. But on the other hand the writing is good...
Alistair would basically be the main character of Origins in the Warden wasn't there except that he is allergic to making decisions I mean he is the senior warden (barely) but just defers to everything the player says. He can end up doing what he cares about (being a warden), being turned into a political pawn and actually doing an ok job, or falling through the cracks and ending up a useless drunk. But the novels choose the King path and it seems to be the default for Inquisition. And I'm also pretty mad because the Wardens and Duncan meant so much to Alistair it was the only connection he felt wouldn't be ripped away from him and the writers did it anyways regardless of my choice in Origins.
I have less of a problem with Leliana's pigeonholing. Her story branching is far less drastic in Origins. Given how by Inquisition she's gotten right back into the heart of the Orlesian cloak and dagger it's not suprising she's hardened now no matter if she was or wasn't Origins.
The more I think about the option death revivals/spirit/whatever excuse Bioware gave this time, the more of a stretch it seems so I try to just not not. It's understandable why they did it, Origins was never meant to have a sequel and this is the best way to both respect player choice and keep the project to a feasible scale.
Cullen is very likable in Inquisition. His arc is amazing, it's well written and emotionally compelling. But he was unqualified to be Commander in the first place. And the development of his character arc between games wasn't handled well. Overall it means that DAI Cullen comes off as almost an entirely different person in demeanor and arc. You can tell the writers just wanted to write a new character but were told to bring back an existing character. His Inquisition arc is an offense to his characer before. The thing is because his past beliefs and actions aren't addressed, this means that writing wise he hasn't actually changed that much as a person or in beliefs. If you look past the soft spoken lines, newly acquired charm, and conventionally attractive new face to what he actually does and says, he's as bigoted and mage hating as always He still believes mages should be caged he's just less shout-y about it. It's the same templar bullshit is a more palatable package. So I've got mixed feeling about his character. if DAI Cullen existed in a vacuum I'd love him.
If we're talking about redemption arcs there's Dorian and Blackwall. Bro went from sheltered never exposed to the dark sides of slavery because well his family always treated them right, right? And then he gets radicalized and actually becomes the radical option compared to mae in veilguard. Even if i actually agree with maeveris' stability status quo vision in DAV, damn Dorian. The real remption arc of Inquisition is Blackwall but no one remembers him since in a cast of very colorful characters, his subdued characterization ends up boring by comparison even though the premise for his character is extremely interesting. Blackwall is a proper redemption arc because he takes action to directy correct what he has done wrong. By comparison Cullen's actions only help himself feel better. So this is one type of redemption the one focused externally.
Biggest potential actual redemption is Oghren who is one of the most repulsive people you can meet in Origins, but I almost like him when I can mostly forget him. Like a lot of people find Cullen's addiction sturggles compelling and fair he is sturggling beatifully. But speaking of addiction you really have to recruit Oghren and subject yourself to the torture of listening to him talk. Oghren would call you a slur to your face while chugging everclear and scratching his ass. Cullen would keep his mouth shut but still think the slur in his head. I think it will be a good evaluation whether you are just more sympathetic to cullen because he's hot or you actually care about addiction stuggles. Are you moved by compassion or your gentials.
Maybe I'm just resistant to generic straight white boy.
Also Cullen only romancing human and elf women is vaguely uncomfortable. He's the only race locked romance where it's not just same race (Solas) but also elves. Given dwarves arent known mages, qunari/vashoth are rare in Ferelden and the only ones he met are the male only Antaam in Kirkwall, elf and human woman are those he's most exposed to. There's this insidiousness to it though, since Origins establishes that elves are a common human fetish for those that want someone delicate looking who can't fight back (socially, economically). Not impossible but a barrierr to navigate same as dwarven or vashoth women and yet only one was an option.
