Guest_iOnlySignIn_*
However, I have found that the antagonists in Dragon Age II to be less realistic or believable than the excellent plot. I find it to be a step down from DA:O in general. In DA:O I really like Loghain as a villain because he was so real and believable, and his actions are reasonable from his perspective. I love to hate him as a sinister backstabber, but I also understand his position and respect him as the hero he is. Arl Howe is also very realistic - there are people like him and Loghain in our history and in our present day world.
In DA 2, by contrast, I am often dumb-founded by how unreasonably insane/stupid the antagonists are. I can find very little real world analogies of them. Well, except the Arishok, which is an excellent antagonist: complex, completely alien, and yet completely self-consistent in his motives. In Act 3 however, both Meredith and Orsino are so completely messed up it's really hard to suspend disbelief.
Meredith takes a particularly bad turn - she's so respectable and reasonable (from her perspective) all along, that even my Mage Hawke supported her despite her harsh stances and Hawke's deep misgivings. Then in the end she suddenly turns insane because of a piece of lyrium? WTF? It's like a perfectly good character is suddenly ruined because the writers demands that she be evil with this obstrusive plot artifact.
Orsino is not much better either. He seems a rational, reasonable voice, a good protector and voice of the Circle. His reaction to Anders's terrorist act was exactly what I feel: "Why would you do such a thing?" "You've doomed us all!". But then it turns out he's actually just as insane as Anders and Meredith, and he's actually a friend of the fiend who murdered your mother and a Harvester. I mean WTF? Why can't anyone be a good villain, but not an insane one? And why do I get the feeling that BioWare is turning both Orsino AND Meredith insane so that we can have two boss fights by the end of Act 3?
Anders for me is at least believable, in that his insanity and terrorism are well-developed and progresses gradually, and that there are a lot of real-world terrorists who are just as idealist as he is. I was so relieved when he said it's not Justice who prompted him to do it, that he and Justice are one and the same person. I was completely exhausted by the horde of insane antagonists in DA2 by then.
I need not even mention the lesser villains/antagonists. The worst I can think of immediately are Quentin, Huon, and Grace. It's like I'm watching Scary Movie or some cheap horror flick where no one has any true motive beyond insanity. They even all have the stereotypical death-grey face/demonic eyes to go along with it. If you're too lazy to write a villain who has an understandable motive beyond insanity, would you please at least make them look normal so that I can take them seriously?
Seriously, is it too much to ask for a villain who has complex thoughts, motives, and reasons beyond insanity? I'm not descriminated against insane people, but even insane people have their own reason and logic. Meredith and Orsino just feel like completely believable and sympathizable characters until their minds are suddenly twisted by evil writers.
Thank you, BioWare, for the excellent plot and companions, but you really came short in the villains department this time. Well, except the Arishok. I think I'll end my game play by the end of Act 2 from now on.
Modifié par iOnlySignIn, 14 mars 2011 - 06:28 .
Retour en haut
