Lady Business

Found this through metanews.

You've hit on the things that bothered me. I really enjoy the game but the side quests grab me more than the main plot. I have a social disability and I played a Lavellan because I like playing characters outside of the average social context. I wasn't expecting how little my Inquisitor was allowed to stand up for that context. It isn't just glitches like Morrigan explaining who Mythal was while standing in the Temple of Mythal to my Inquisitor with his Mythal vallaslin, it's that there's no option to tell Vivienne the way she phrases her pro-Circle stance means advocating the destruction of the way the Dalish live. I don't mind that Mother Giselle attempts to reframe my Inquisitor's faith within her own but I do mind that I have no option to tell her to back off even as strongly as Merrill told Sebastian. Similarly, my Lavellan could argue with Sera but in the end she calls him an idiot and a demon worshiper and then I could either kick her out or let that stand. I think that's why the document in the Emerald Graves that talks about the real history of the Red Crossing bothers me so much more than Morrigan. The writers wave their hands and shout, "Moral ambiguity!" then give an answer that clearly puts the Dalish in the wrong.

I think a lot of the glossed over aspects of Dorian's characterization come from the waving and shouting. They want to have the character who's pro-slavery for ambiguity but don't have a graceful way to back away from that position. I think the dialogue between Solas and Dorian and Dorian's reaction to learning about the real history of the fall of Elvhenan are supposed to be him growing and learning beyond the bubble he lived in before the game but I don't think it's the best way of showing it. It sounded to me like that banter with Solas was supposed to come before Dorian's revelation that he might be able to change things by following the Inquisitor's example but as one of the above commenters noted, they're so spread out it's easy to miss things, so I might be overly optimistic on that. I'm not a fan of tying a character's sexuality to their entire characterization and my sexuality wasn't much of an issue with my family beyond some "it's unsafe to be out so you should really be sure before you tell anyone and you can't be sure until you've had sex and even then you should give it another think because people will want to hurt you for it" stuff when I was a teen. On the other hand, Dorian's father's response to his sexuality was strikingly similar to my mom's response to my disability right down to the use of the word acceptable. So a lot of that quest resonated with me. I don't think it's entirely disconnected from the rest of Tevinter's ongoing social problems. When Dorian says he's not sure he can free all the slaves, I think he's being literal. He has several banters and a lot of dialogue that reference how all previous attempts at reform ended in Tranquility and assassination no matter how highly placed the reformer was while the corrupt are allowed to murder people at parties in full view. Even his father and Alexius whom he saw as men of integrity turned to blood magic when it came down to it. My point being that I think the material for a good arc was there but it needed to be louder and clearer and to acknowledge that "Is slavery wrong?" is not an edgy question. (I'm not ignoring the issue of a PoC advocating slavery. I feel unqualified to comment due to whiteness. I can definitely see why this is an issue.)

In addition to wishing I could give a better response to Krem, I wish we'd had his pronouns sooner. Changing the journal entry to, "Krem wants you to meet his boss on the Storm Coast," or a background line in Haven or Skyhold where an NPC says, "There's a man looking for someone in charge to talk to by the (insert location)." Making it a reveal instead of part of how he's introduced makes me uncomfortable.

I liked Iron Bull until I played his romance. The line, "All this time and you've never said Katoh. If I'd known you'd last this long, I'd have let you pick your own watchword." killed any interest I had in seeing him romance anyone ever. I could headcanon away him picking a watchword for my Cadash because coding wise, they need to make things like that feel personalized while remaining as simple as possible like with Sera and Buckles. But praising for not safewording is a big no for me. Safewords are not airbags. And if the game mechanics don't allow me to pick the watchword, I'd rather the game not draw attention to it. Explicitly bringing it up while treating being able to choose your own safeword as something that needs to be earned strikes me somewhere between irresponsible and manipulative. And that some form of "Do you want to push me to safeword?" or "what we've been doing is great but can we dial it down a little sometimes" aren't options bothers me in a more minor way. It just came so close to being something I really want and then faceplanted on the dismount in a way I can't make the emotional leap to unseeing. It's worlds better than FSoG and I'm not judging people for focusing on the parts that work for them.