in light of one of my tranquil posts getting notes, i want to elaborate on WHY i find their portrayal so distressing and why i dislike how they're often handled in fandom
i know bioware dumbed down some of the nuance of tranquility, but in origins you can have a full conversation with owain. he experiences the world differently but still argues his autonomy. maddox similarly acts on his own desires of repaying samson. helisma will tell you she's invested in animal research becuz of her prior memories of liking animals. in redcliffe, clemence approaches you becuz he wishes to still be of use instead of just sit around waiting for alexius to get rid of him
so many fan creations are about a character looking at their tranquil'ed friend as an empty shell and its like, no! they are not actually dead, there's still a person you can interact with in there, even if it's different than before. you are 1) falling for bioware's propaganda and 2) revealing your own ableist preconceptions of real life ppl who are mentally disabled and/or of diminished capacity
and that's the heart of what really gets to me, is the real life analogues. no a tranquil person isn't necessarily equal to someone with, say, dementia or brain damage, but the REACTIONS are similar. the TREATMENT is similar
ppl act like you're a ghost of your old self, they dismiss you, disregard your experiences, know you struggle with asserting autonomy and use that to abuse you. you're still in there, you still want connection, but no one sees you as a full person anymore; ppl see you as a burden at best and at worst think your death would be a mercy
in this light, the mass murder of the tranquil and complete downplaying of it feels very eugenics-y to me. "yes, we killed off our most vulnerable, abused minority but death is preferable to the lives they were living anyway, so we don't need to think too hard about it." and then fandom just goes along with treating tranquil characters as a tragedy for OTHER characters. the tranquil character's personhood has been erased in their mind
tranquility is a fate worse than death, to the point that ppl act like they are actually dead and not still a living breathing person who can think and make connections and needs care and support. and even by the people who care for them (minaeve), they are infantilized and not seen as equal persons
it's tragic not just becuz of in-world reasons and the fucked up handling of it by the writers, but how it mirrors our own world and the way we see and treat people who we might view as "tranquil"
