zillah975 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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peopleofthedas2010-12-09 08:11 am
zillah975) wrote in peopleofthedas2010-12-09 08:11 am
Random DA things
I love this game like burning. After I'd been playing on the PS3 for several months, I bought a shiny new laptop for the sole purpose of having it for the PC and I'm now playing it on BOTH the PC and PS3, because it's JUST THAT AWESOME. *draws hearts* I have four working laptops now, because of the three I had before, none would run DA.
The following rantishness is from looking at the game from the POV of a character within it, not from the POV of a player who understands why things have to go a certain way in order to position the player character to proceed down a certain path and become the big hero.
There. Now.
Okay, have you noticed that Duncan is a manipulative, evil bastard? I was crushing on him so hard at first, but my human wardens and my newest City Elf warden just want to punch him in the face. Alistair may be all starry-eyed over him, but oh my god.
My human wardens. First, while her father lies dying at their feet, Duncan promises to get her and her mother to safety only if her father agrees that she'll become a Grey Warden. She doesn't get a say in this, and her DYING FATHER is being blackmailed into it on the lives of his wife and child!
That's a pretty big strike against poor old Duncan.
Second, it turns out that this thing that Duncan blackmailed her dying father into agreeing to will get her killed, either immediately upon joining, or within just a few decades -- when she will descend into the deep roads and fight monsters in the dark miles below ground until they kill her. RAWR.
Third, POOR SER JORY. OMFG. He's got a pregnant wife at home! but does Duncan even try to talk sense into him?! No! He's all, "oh, he pulled his sword, I HAD to kill him," but you notice that Jory looks about as threatening as a kitten up a tree until Duncan draws his sword and advances on him? Because I sure noticed that. Doesn't even once try to reason with him, or explain things to him further. No, he just tricks him into leaving his wife and child, then stabs him to death when Jory expresses some dismay at Daveth's gruesome and untimely death!
Also, creepiest group ever, the way Duncan, Alistair, Jory, and your Warden just back slowly away while Daveth chokes to death. Jeez, guys, maybe it wasn't even the blood, maybe he just swallowed wrong! Somebody could at least TRY to help him!
The human origin is definitely the worst (for Duncan's character, I mean) of the ways I've played through so far. But the City Elf is also kind of grim, as I realized when I played through the opening on the "I am a selfish asshole" setting and discovered that if things go a certain way, your pal gets carted off to prison to be executed and Duncan's all, "hey, I only need one warden. Too bad for him."
I feel sort of guilty for still crushing on Duncan, even knowing what a bastard he is.
Are there any "Duncan is a manipulative evil bastard" fics out there for a girl who both crushes on him and wants to punch him in the face?
The following rantishness is from looking at the game from the POV of a character within it, not from the POV of a player who understands why things have to go a certain way in order to position the player character to proceed down a certain path and become the big hero.
There. Now.
Okay, have you noticed that Duncan is a manipulative, evil bastard? I was crushing on him so hard at first, but my human wardens and my newest City Elf warden just want to punch him in the face. Alistair may be all starry-eyed over him, but oh my god.
My human wardens. First, while her father lies dying at their feet, Duncan promises to get her and her mother to safety only if her father agrees that she'll become a Grey Warden. She doesn't get a say in this, and her DYING FATHER is being blackmailed into it on the lives of his wife and child!
That's a pretty big strike against poor old Duncan.
Second, it turns out that this thing that Duncan blackmailed her dying father into agreeing to will get her killed, either immediately upon joining, or within just a few decades -- when she will descend into the deep roads and fight monsters in the dark miles below ground until they kill her. RAWR.
Third, POOR SER JORY. OMFG. He's got a pregnant wife at home! but does Duncan even try to talk sense into him?! No! He's all, "oh, he pulled his sword, I HAD to kill him," but you notice that Jory looks about as threatening as a kitten up a tree until Duncan draws his sword and advances on him? Because I sure noticed that. Doesn't even once try to reason with him, or explain things to him further. No, he just tricks him into leaving his wife and child, then stabs him to death when Jory expresses some dismay at Daveth's gruesome and untimely death!
Also, creepiest group ever, the way Duncan, Alistair, Jory, and your Warden just back slowly away while Daveth chokes to death. Jeez, guys, maybe it wasn't even the blood, maybe he just swallowed wrong! Somebody could at least TRY to help him!
The human origin is definitely the worst (for Duncan's character, I mean) of the ways I've played through so far. But the City Elf is also kind of grim, as I realized when I played through the opening on the "I am a selfish asshole" setting and discovered that if things go a certain way, your pal gets carted off to prison to be executed and Duncan's all, "hey, I only need one warden. Too bad for him."
I feel sort of guilty for still crushing on Duncan, even knowing what a bastard he is.
Are there any "Duncan is a manipulative evil bastard" fics out there for a girl who both crushes on him and wants to punch him in the face?
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I'm a pragmatist myself, but a person has to draw the line. What's the good of saving our countrymen from the Blight if we have to kill them to do so? What's the good of stopping the Blight if we become monsters ourselves in the process? Shouldn't we first try to find another way? And since other ways also work and we still defeat the Blight, even without the golems, with Harrowmont on the throne, with Anora imprisoned and the Elves freed and the werewolves cured and the Dalish Elves safe, well, the justification for that degree of ruthlessness kind of crumbles, in my opinion.
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I also feel that the games are really unrealistic in their outcomes. I mean, in a game, doing the noble thing always works, so there's never any reason to do the "bad" thing. I mean, even in DA:O which is supposed to be "dark", you don't have the mages turning into abominations when you refuse to "cleanse" them, you don't have more zombie attacks just because you spent a month getting the mages to Redcliffe, you don't fail to solve the blight without the golems, etc. The only cases where I really felt that there was any consequence to picking the "good" action, again, was with Harrowmont, Alistair, and the golems. Which I really like, as, let's be honest, Harrowmont is a better guy, but makes it clear that he's not going to change things, Alistair is such an unnatural leader that when there are only two Grey Wardens, he makes you do the work (while Anora is described as brilliant), and the golems are sort of a devil's bargain (where, yeah, they protect the dwarves, but only at the cost of destroying them). To me, these make for interesting choices, rather than "yeah, yeah, kill the dragon, save the princess".
I really did prefer ME in that it felt like all the choices had good and bad outcomes that a rational person would disagree with, rather than in DA:O, where you're never bit for doing somewhat stupid stuff, and have a lot of issues, like the Dalish, where there really is only one right answer, but three options.
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