might i get some spare vivienne thoughts,, outfit wise but also maybe in general, i love getting your thoughts on her
so let’s say the obvious to begin with: i think vivienne’s outfits are some of the best-looking that dragon age has ever put out. it takes a lot to make someone genuinely look fashionable and at the top of their game, and personally—in my deeply, deeply uneducated opinion—i think they achieved it. and a great fashionable look of course fits vivienne and her storytelling in a way i don’t quite feel it does for, for example, neve. so let’s take a look
these variants of her robes are just really good shapes. i like them. on the left, the enormous imposing collar like the petals of a flower, the big fashion shoulders, the protective plate over her chest adding some sense of practicality and even the impression of armour for our knight-enchanter. the winged elements on her boots bring in a little detail of the traditional fur and feather elements of past dragon age mage outfits, but now in all smooth steel rather than “wild” and subject to natural flaws. then there’s the prominent lacing across the front because, hey, it’s almost as if this character is tightly self-controlled! the design uses lots of vertical stripes and everything is symmetrical, which is all very typical language for communicating a more rigid character who is in command of her appearance and is aligned with Order and living within “the rules”.
on the right is a little bit more of a toned down practical gear vibe but once again there’s a lot of emphasis on the collar and neck area which gives her this imposing leader’s silhouette even when in drab tints. she has this sort of fan shape behind her head that is similarly very regal and also gives me kind of the vibe of... a lizard’s frill... or the hood of a cobra...? i get ‘venomous’ from it which ties into the snake imagery in her tarot, the wyvern quest with its poison/medicine dichotomy, and typical ‘venom/poison = political manipulator/smooth talker’ symbolism. her skin being covered head to toe but in a very form-fitting way says “sexy but untouchable”, and the understated embellishments say “damn this is how good i look when i’m not even really going for it :/ my best looks would probably kill you”. as before, everything is immaculate, everything is symmetrical, visible flaws and irregularities are Not Allowed.
i feel personally less convinced by the versions of her design which show cleavage. like, as a homosexual, i can’t say i don’t see the benefits, but as a thinking person talking about storytelling, i think the closed-off look where she is definitely still hot but very clearly Off Limits feels more true to the character and simply more unique & interesting. and there’s something i dislike about the darkest skinned female companion having to have like an overtly sexy design for us to eye up while still not being someone you can romance. more of a vague thought than a full condemnation. on the other hand, vivienne is a character who plays into the roles she is given by others, for example that of the lady of iron and the horned villainess, because she believes that if you openly accept such a reputation and wear it like armour, it can’t be so easily whispered behind your back and turned against you. it gives her a sense of control, however real or not real, over how she’s perceived. so you can certainly make the case that a more sexualised style of dress is a continuation of that theme and characterisation, showing her publicly embracing the seductive archetype of the mistress who gained access to power through a sexual relationship, rather than trying to deny and evade such a reputation and thereby letting others know it can hurt her. so i think there is a line of thought where there’s merit to this. mixed feelings.
on the subject of the horned villainess: the hennins! i personally am quite excited by the hennins, simply because medieval headdresses are cool and interesting and so underused by modern media. however, i could wish for a little intentionality around vivienne’s shaved head and what it means for her not to grow out her hair. vivienne experienced racism in orlesian society and maybe it would thus make sense if either she didn’t have access in those social circles to people who knew what to do with her natural hair—exploring an aspect of what it means for the circle to separate mages from not just their families but their cultures—or her natural hair was simply not considered acceptable and fashionable by the predominantly white orlesian nobility. instead of mimicking orlesian styles with wigs, she opted for the hennins that became her iconic silhouette. but it’s an ugly meta narrative that of course there was little actual intention behind this choice when bioware itself had as little space for natural hair as this theoretical orlais, and simply didn’t put the effort into making any textured hairstyles for this game aside from closely shaven heads.
otherwise, i think maybe it would have been a fun idea if she wore her hennin all the time including in skyhold, representing a distance she maintains and a role and costume she is still wearing, and you only saw her without it during high approval cutscenes like her last moment with bastien. it at least seems unlikely to me that the eternally composed socialite would ever have a bare head (or in general anything less than her Full Look) while out adventuring or in courtyard cutscenes. given the necessity of the hide helmet toggle being active, i wish they’d worked something out to keep hers as a default look. uhhhh also i think it could be cool to have a short story or high approval scene or something where they reveal the horn design is based on, like, the demon she faced in her harrowing. again, “take what could hurt you and wear it like armour” is the whole concept here
my more general note is that i would have liked to see vivienne’s looks a little more reflected in overall orlesian fashion. you don’t want to see her look standard, but imo she stands out too much where she should clearly belong. even if you want to say she’s a leader rather than a follower, people should then be trying to pull off what she has going on. that or go all out and deliberately present her as a fallen power who is now out of favour and out of step with trends, but that’s a completely other concept that would require reworking the whole design and parts of the character
annaxmalina
andulkaphoto
turnnoffyourmind
