My thoughts on Taash
I couldn't sleep last night so I ended up on tiktok on the veilguard tag hoping to just see some cool edits or funny clips but I was surprised and a little frustrated at the amount of videos that were just aimed at Taash and shitting all over their character. As someone who romanced Taash in their first playthrough and also recently realised they are non-binary I have some things to say and please keep in mind these are my personal thoughts, if you disagree with them that is absolutely fine I just wanted to throw my two cents in. Apologies in advance this turned into a bit of a rambling essay and I'm probably giving into a lot of rage baiters but fuck it. One of the repeating things I saw was people complaining that them being non-binary was their whole personality and that annoyed them and made them not like their character. I think if that's your take away from their character you clearly already wrote them off before even getting to know them and probably didn't have them in your party much to know that simply isn't true but I will touch on that part anyway.
So firstly yes, Taash IS coming to terms with their gender identity and does talk about it A LOT. But as someone who also came out as non-binary in the last few years I can tell you all I did for the first few months of learning that about myself was ask questions and seek out information because whilst it was scary, I also was excited to know more and understand that part of myself better. So for Taash to be talking/asking about it a lot that makes perfect sense to me - along with the fact they've never had people around them they felt comfortable enough to open up to and ask these questions with before Rook and the others showed them that they can trust them. This is because their mother dictated a lot of their life, because she was already afraid of her child not being accepted for being a fire-breather so she sheltered them. Which for the record I don't think Shathaan was a bad character overall - she was just a scared single mum who wanted to protect her child to their detriment which is something I can also understand to some degree from personal experience. She was always lecturing Taash on keeping themselves hidden so when they finally got some distance from her and were free to be open about themselves OF COURSE they're going to want to talk about it with Rook and the others because they made them feel safe!
Secondly and honestly, do I think Taash is a perfect character and that their writing is amazing? Of course not, there's always room for improvement but them being non-binary as the primary focus for a lot of peoples dislike of them tells me a lot about how those people have zero understanding of it and how they also need to understand that Taash's character wasn't made for them and that that is okay. For me I found a lot of comfort from them because I could relate to them. Heck, I genuinely cried a little during the first conversation between them and Neve about dresses as I felt EXACTLY how Taash felt about stuff like that, always trying to please my mum by wearing things she thought looked pretty no matter how much I personally hated how I felt and looked in them. I felt seen in a character in a way that I haven't before, and because of that I really like Taash even though they were by no means perfectly written but my thoughts on that are still developing and maybe I'll write something about how they couldve been improved at a later date but for now I don't have the time or energy. So to end this my thoughts are you can dislike Taash's character but please try to appreciate and understand that they wanted to bring a character in that provided comfort to people who can relate to them, and that trans and non-binary characters have existed before Veilguard they were just never in the spotlight like Taash is which to me just shows improvement on the devs part. Taash's focus on their discovery of their gender doesn't mean they're a bad character just because you don't understand or can't relate to their struggles.