been thinking up potential taash rewrites and i think i have something i like
i saw this comment on steam by amayzo da mujishun
and it got me thinking. (taash story spoilers ahead)
tldr: taash's arc would be about purpose. finding purpose after losing what you thought would be the rest of your life. finding relief and rest after so many years of endless fighting. getting to be vulnerable and letting someone in. being yourself. loving someone else. knowing and being known.
so take what amayzo had said, about taash being a part of the qun and giving up being a woman to be a soldier.
they often butt heads with qun ideals and rules, so maybe they did something that their leaders didnt like. the rules are so strict, it isnt hard to break them.
they get tossed out. never raised to be a woman, and not addressed as a man anymore. a secret third thing. picked up by the lords of fortune and then meets rook and team.
after being rejected from the qun, instead of searching for a label for their gender, i feel like taash would just move on. theyre very task oriented and straight forward. their entire arc being their gender doesnt make sense with this backstory and a majority of their character. it only makes sense in the context of their mother.
if someone asked taash if they were a man or a woman, they would say theyre a fighter. theyre taash. easy as that. they know there are bigger fish to fry and gods to kill.
which, ties into the idea for their arc.
i imagine something similar to lae'zel. a warrior brought up in a very organized society with strict rules and a role to fill. no options outside of that. theyve given up their entire life to this cause.
taash doesnt spend much time learning about other people or cultures. they come off as brash and ignorant at times (ie. emmerich "skullfucker" volkarin, etc.). they also, being raised in the qun, likely feel a sense of uselessness unless they are the best at what they do. this can express itself in a plethora of ways, and for them, they ignore everything outside of their main goal. intense tunnel vision and seeing other things as pointless and unnecessary. they would always look for things to do and ways to fill the empty role they were tossed out of.
taash's arc should be learning to stop and smell the flowers. take a break, rest, talk to people, learn, and expand their horizons. it should be about a soldiers vulnerability and finding new purpose in life. finding something new to fight for. someone.
there could be a scene where rook takes them to their home (whichever faction youre apart of) and shows them their favorite places. telling them your story. later, taash mirrors this by introducing their mother. (if youre a lord of fortune, it would be somewhere in rivain or overall thedas taash hasnt been, not sure yet).
we can keep the conflict with their mother. but make it about taash's warrior outlook/personality vs their mothers scholarly/proper personality. their mother doesnt care about their gender, even in the game. she cares about taash respecting and learning their cultures and where they come from.
also! they can still be really horny and forward and flirty! maybe just rewrite it to make it a bit more mature. not "quick think about us having sex *growl*" and more like sly quips and flirty options. something a bit smoother. or, keep it clunky because taash is young. but, being a pirate and surrounded by vulgar and sexual language, i imagine them being smoother.
i have not romanced taash or played a lof rook, so i dont have as much input on what a romance would look like. but once again, something lae'zel-esque. loosening up, lowering their guard, and focusing on something more than the fight. finally caring about someone because they arent restricted anymore. letting themself get hurt because it helps them feel real and not just a weapon for destruction (ties into what their mom says all the time!! shokra toh ebra!! learning some mutual understanding there)
i heard their mother dies, and im not sure how to translate that over to this rewrite yet. give me ideas. i need to do a full taash playthrough really bad.
ANYWHO ARC TIME
so in the final battle, if you have done taash's quests and everything. they live? idk i havent figured out a happy ending, the others just live if they did their arcs. ive only finished 1 playthrough so far. (they died cause i didnt want to watch the "im nonbinary" scene. it hurts my brain. especially when tarquin and maevaris are RIGHT THERE and are SO SUBTLE AND IN UNIVERSE with the way they speak about being trans -sincerely, a nonbinary person. i love taash. but the writers did them so fucking dirty)
BUT IF THEYRE NOT ARCED OUT
they die because they hadnt looked outside of the fight. they had mainly been trained to fight anntam and dragons, they werent prepared for so many venatori and darkspawn. they hadnt been resting, they trained nonstop for the battle and were completely burnt out. maybe they collapse from exhaustion and get bombarded. maybe the venatori or darkspawn catch them off guard. something like that. they didnt get over their rigid ways and paid the price.
taash's arc would be about purpose. finding purpose after losing what you thought would be the rest of your life. finding relief and rest after so many years of endless fighting. getting to be vulnerable and letting someone in. being yourself. loving someone else. knowing and being known.
AND IT COULD BE GREAT!!!!!!! GAH WRITERS LET ME IN THE ROOM /j
thank you for reading 😭😭 ive been brainstorming for a few days and just needed to noodle around
im also not a taash or qunari or lof expert (or dragon age expert tbh, im a poser, veilguard is the only game ive played fully). i could be missing like the entire point. but please just let my cool neurodivergent nonbinary adult character not be written by/for 13 year olds. i want a mature queer story please :(
