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?
no subject
Duncan was a street thief who became a Warden at around 18 after he killed a guy during a robbery who turned out to be not only a Warden, but the fiance of Warden Commander Genevieve. She conscripted him off the gallows because she thought death wasn't a sufficient punishment. He was freaked out by the fact that the man he killed looked pretty happy to die.
So then he goes on this big quest and becomes BFF's with Maric and Fiona, and watches nearly everyone in their party die horribly. He also discovers the real truth about the calling, which is that Grey Wardens don't die from the taint--they turn into darkspawn. Oh, and by the way, there's a Blight coming, probably centered in Ferelden, and you get to try to rebuild the Warden presence there. And while you're at it, could you keep an eye on Maric and Fiona's kid?
Then 20 years pass, and Duncan starts feeling the Calling. He's pretty sure he's going to die; if he's lucky it'll be ending the Blight. The king is really helpful, but he's also a glory hound and an idiot. The one person who might understand how to approach this strategically sees Duncan as an Orlesian first, and a member of the order that almost got Maric killed second, and possibly as "the obnoxious kid Maric liked better than me" and won't listen to anything Duncan has to say. Oh, and he conscripted Alistair to keep him from becoming a templar; I'm sure Fiona had Things To Say about that.
By the time the game starts, he's pretty monomaniacal: stopping the Blight is the only thing that matters, and with the possible exception of conscripting Alistair, everything he does is geared toward that end. Based on The Calling, I kind of wonder if living for so long with the taint affects a Warden's mind as well as body, and by the time they're ready to head to the Deep Roads for the last time, they're more than a little batshit.
I don't actually blame him for killing Jory as much as I do for recruiting Jory in the first place, because Jory wasn't Grey Warden material. He was scared and skittish, and at the same time, he was a glory hound. Mira has nothing but contempt for his whining; "Dude, you're complaining to me about life being unfair? Bitch, please." That said, it does kind of bug me that Duncan supposedly kills Jory to make sure the Sekrit Ritual stays sekrit, but by Awakening, everyone in Ferelden apparently knows what the Joining involves.
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All of my wardens just went ballistic.
Anyway, as far as Jory goes, I still think that he just didn't have sufficient time to process. After all, it's not like he's no good fighting the darkspawn in the wilds, or tries to run away or anything, and he's not all "she's going to cook us and eat us!" when they meet Morrigan, or "omg CHASIND", like sooooome people, and he does have a wife and forthcoming child he's responsible for. It's one thing to die for a purpose, but the Joining reasonably seems like dying to no purpose at all.
I would feel differently about it if either Jory actually attacked Duncan prior to Duncan advancing on him to kill him, or if anyone had tried to talk to him about the situation. But no, it was all, "okay, now drink this poison. ... HESITATION IS DEATH. YOU DIE NOW!"
I'm pretty sure this all ties in somehow with what an ass Alistair is to that dying soldier in the wilds, with his, "Oh, he's not half as dead as he looks!" quip, but I can't put my finger on it yet....
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Yeah, I could totally see this. Although, you know, when someone spends twenty or so years running around killing things, making really tough choices, preparing for a blight, watching your buddies die and doing ritual after ritual where people routinely bite the dust - I think that's going to affect that person anyway regardless of taint. It sort of makes sense for someone like Duncan to be a hard ass about stuff, totally pragmatic and jaded about things like this just because he's seen and dealt out so much death.