Harle Cerulean wrote...
Agreed with Aldien and Faerunner on the problematic treatment of elves in the Cousland origin. I also was extremely skeeved out by the fact that Cousland can sleep with the elven lady-in-waiting for Lady Cousland's visitor, because . . .
Well, it's an abuse of power, plain and simple. Iona is an elf, and a servant; her husband is dead and she has a daughter back in Denerim who depends entirely on her. She needs her job; she can't do anything to put it at risk. If she refused Cousland and he/she made a stink about it - claimed she had insulted them or some such - she almost certainly would lose it.
Oh yes. I often see avid Couslands supporters use Iona as "proof" that Cousland isn't really racist because s/he can sleep with an elf. Individual headcanon aside, I'm sure we all know that people don't always sleep with people they like or respect as an individual. Cousland could be faking the sweet-talk just to get into her skirt.
One thing I find telling is that all the character who praise the Couslands to high heaven are either humans under their employment (people whose very livelihood depends on them), humans who are close family friends (and therefore hold them in high esteem anyway), or other human nobles who only know the Couslands from reputation. You don't see or hear of many elves singing the Couslands' praises or happily commenting on how much better they're treated there than anywhere else. Iona compliments how well she's been treated since arriving, but there are a few problems with that statement:
1) Iona doesn't live in Highever. The humans might be cordial to guests, but she doesn't know how elves are treated behind closed doors. 2) Iona's been by her Lady's side the whole time, so the humans might just be nice to her by proxy. If she was on her own, would they be as cordial? 3) Like you said, abuse of power. She desperately needs her job, her Lady is best friends with this family and can't sing their praises high enough. If she said anything negative to young Cousland about their family/castle and it got back to her mistress, she could get fired. If there is questionable treatment going on in Highever (and we know there is, based on Nan's treatment of the kitchen staff, and some elves' comments in the City Elf Origin that the humans in Highever are
worse than the ones in Denerim), she's not going to say anything.
Hm, can I tie this in to Fenris somehow to make it on topic . . . well, I can say that I definitely don't worry about Fenris not being able to say no to Hawke! 
But also, I find the difference between games kind of odd. I saw a lot less instances of racism against elves in DA2 than DA:O.
I know, right? It's so strange! I could
almost live with losing the option to play an elf in DA2, except that the devs seemed to add insult to injury by removing most depictions of the elven plight, and prevented the human protagonist you're allowed to be from standing up for elves.
I also find it a little insulting that Fenris gets upset only at mages and not at humans for what's happened to him, and no one (not even Merrill) calls him out on it. Last I checked, the Tevinter magisters were all (or mostly) humans who enslaved the entire elven race, and both Danarius and Hadriana are humans. Fenris makes an offhand comment to Anders
once about how "considering what magic has done to my homeland and my race, I weep for your predicament," but that's as far as his acknowledgement of race in the debate goes.
Did the devs think Fenris would be unattractive as an LI if he even just acknowledged that there's an unequal distribution of power and privilege between most humans and elves? Are they using him as a mouth-piece for their own hatred of elves (which I suspect is the case, as David Gaider's Short Story about Fenris depicts him as holding free elves in contempt)? Whatever it is, it's annoying.
And none of your companions seem to show much racism, except arguably Anders, with his choosing to insult Fenris by calling him a "beast" and a "wild dog," which are loaded terms to direct at someone of a race that your race typically considers lesser! Some people don't think he's being racist there, others do.
I don't know, Aveline's offhand comment to Merrill about how there are no alienages in small towns like Lothering and, when questioned further, how she shrugs that they probably sleep in tool sheds or abandoned barns like it's no big deal kind of makes me suspect subconcious racism on her part. She doesn't see anything wrong with other people or entire families toiling away in fields for humans' benefit and then sleeping like animals in abanonded buildings because humans won't let them live beside them as equals. To her, it's just the natural order of things, and she doesn't stop to think about it even when questioned by someone like Merrill.
Meanwhile, in Origins, Leliana has that conversation with an elven Warden that always put the brakes on any thoughts mine might have about romancing her . . . XD Which is a lot more definite than Anders' problematic word choices. You can actively call her on the racism, unlike Anders! There's also other points in DA:O where an elven Warden can call people out for being racist, and I don't really see that with DA2, at all. (And some of this is possibly because Hawke's not an elf, of course, but there's still plenty of places where it could have been more)
I definitely think Anders' comment is suspect too. If there was an option to be an elf like in Origins, you just know the protagonist would counter his accusations with something like "Oh, so being an elf makes him an animal/less of a man?" Elves are often compared to animals by humans many times throughout both games, either intentionally or unintentionally (like in the case of Leliana; "a prize-winning animal?" indeed), so the very human Anders choosing those words to describe the elven Fenris is no accident.
In the case of Hawke: once agian, the game forces you to be an insensitive racist jerk even if you don't want to be one. *sigh* (I personally think Hawke's initial flirting with Fenris stinks of racist undertones as well. [Paraphrasing] "Danarius wants to strip the flesh from my bones." "It seems like a waste of a perfectly handsome elf." Yes, because elves exist to be playthings to humans, not individuals with their own lives who want to go on existing for their own reasons. And yes, he is an "elf" and not a "person," you racist hussy.)
Just because they wanted to do a storyline on the oppression of mages, it doesn't mean that the oppression of elves should have been sidelined.
I agree. If anything, I think the oppression of elves would have just enhanced the oppression of mages storyline because elves are mages too, and they have to deal with double oppression that humans don't have. Plus, Elves have a greater effinity for magic while all Templars are humans. That in of itself has very racially motivated undertones that should be explored.
Also, despite how much of a jerk Seneschal Bran is, I can never dislike him after Mark of the Assassin, because the dude had the guts to bring a transgender elven prostitute to THE social event of the year, as his date. **** yeah Bran. XD
That's actually pretty awesome. I wish I could see that!
Modifié par Faerunner, 16 août 2012 - 04:45 .
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I'm way behind already.
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