Xilizhra wrote...
I disagree. My Warden really didn't feel like much of a person, just a sort of blank avatar, and the story didn't feel like I owned it. It was just things happening, that I could theoretically decide, but I didn't feel integrated into the world.
Hawke, on the other hand, feels much more like a real person.
She does feel like a person, I guess. However, this person is not a character I want to play, and I can't change this fact.
Here's the epic story of Hawke. She is railroaded by fate into a place that she cannot leave. Once there, she makes a few tiny choices that don't really affect the outcome of her life. She does what she is told that she has to do until she is thrown in a conflict that she cannot escape. Rinse and repeat until the end, which she cannot change, no matter her choices.
She is passive. In my case, she was snarky, which meant that she could NOT be persuasive. (try to wrap your head around that one. If you don't believe me, there are points where you have to be overall diplomatic/good to be persuasive at all. Say what now?) She is NOT my hero. Sure, she talks. She has a voice. (One that I would never have picked for my own character) If you need that to make a character seem like a character, I'm sorry.
Hawke's friends did their own things. Had their own lives. That was alright, though it didn't feel like Hawke was a part of these lives. You could blame the year jumps on that. Her romances were short and abrupt. Everything was mostly chosen by a black and white flick of a switch.
My warden? She was my hero. First and foremost, she was an intelligent, witty young woman. She was good, yet snarky and persuasive. (A skill I always take whenever at all possible in games) When fate took away her family and put her in an impossible situation, she could have just walked off. She could have gone elsewhere to warn the wardens there. Had a better chance of working, even if it would probably take too long to really save Ferelden. She could have even been selfish like Hawke and completely left the country to deal with its own problems. (Hawke gets a pass on the selfish angle because of having her family to worry about, I suppose.) They were both fugutives. My warden decided that this was not good enough. She was going to fix this damned problem. She had a ghost of a chance and decided to go for it. She would not give up until she succeeded.
My warden chose kings, helped end centuries-long curses, toppled rulers, brought justice to her family... and yet was kind and understanding. She did not really agree with Morrigan or Sten's ways, sometimes Zevran's and Shale's. But she did her best to try to understand them and respect them. She gave people second chances, swayed opinions with her words. Yet she was also a bit devious. She stole the king's own crown in general protest. She saw that Anora was a backstabber and agreed to put her on the throne, only to vouch for Alistair at the Landsmeet. She never left a man behind, when at all possible. Everyone survived Redcliffe.
She was a multifaceted character with an iron will. She looked at Fate and said "No. I won't accept that." And she succeeded by her own will, her sheer force of personality gaining her iron-clad friends and allies (And a lover) who would all die if necessary for her and her lofty goals.
That is the character I wanted to play, and that is the character that DA:O let me create.
I felt attached to the deeply human characters in that game, flaws and all. Tears sprung to my eyes when my nephew died, and I sobbed when my parents died as well. I was enraged at Howe. I was crushed when Duncan and Cailan were lost at Ostagar. I got a nice little game-crush on Alistair. My heart caught in my chest when I learned the secret of the Grey Wardens ending the Blight. I walked away from my computer to think when I made the Dark Ritual decision. I agonized over keeping everyone alive at Redcliffe. I asked for friends' opinions when picking a ruler for Orzammar. My chest swelled when I gave my little speech to Howe, the one that angered him and reminded me so sharply of my father. And I felt triumph when I had succeeded over it all. And I'm even missing things. (Glee at stealing Loghain's crown.)
DA2 never brought that out in me. I guess your mom's death was a little sad, but I guessed what was going to happen long before my character had any clue anything was wrong. Made Hawke feel a bit dumb, let me tell you. The slow zoom on her opened-mouth face during the reveal made me actually laugh out loud. Fenris's love scene is pretty hot, with the wall-push, I'll give them that, but I felt really unresolved, what with Hawke being a mage and all.
I WAS my Warden. I was watching Hawke from a distance.
And that was longer than I intended, but there you go.
ETA: I will say that DA2 brings up interesting plot bunny ideas that can spawn wild mass guessing about the nature of things. The idol, Primeval Thaig... God, that spark was there, I just couldn't GET to it with my character. It was all OOC spark.
Modifié par Midnight Voyager, 07 mai 2011 - 07:49 .
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