R2s Muse wrote...
berelinde wrote...
R2s Muse wrote...
LolaLei wrote...
Vieralynn: I hadn't thought of it like that. Still sucks to think of him as violent. Wilmod's line seemed like it could have meant that Cullen gave him a beating regularly or that the scene between him and Cullen had been going on for quite a while prior to Hawke showing up (so when he refers to being struck for the last time by him, it was in reference to Cullen slapping him about whilst trying to extract information of his dealings with the mages.)
You know, I've always thought it was the latter... that he had just been whaling on him for a while during that confrontation. I suppose I could see Cullen cuffing a recruit during training who was acting out, given a certain macho physicality that I could see coming with that kind of a job. But, I would like to think that he wouldn't be cruel and physically punish an underperformer, even with his PTSD. :shrug:
I don't know. He seems more the type to fall inward when confronted by stress rather than lashing out. His DA:O epilogue notwithstanding, his basic nature seems to be introspective and not particularly violent. He doesn't want to kill the Warden, male or female.
I don't know if you can call Cullen out on his violence if you play other kinds of Hawkes, but diplo Hawke definitely can. He says that Wilmod had to believe that the danger was real, that by remaining silent, he really would be attacked. And Wilmod did believe it, and Cullen found out a lot more than he thought he would.
That said, Cullen's "So help me, Wilmod" bit, where he threatens him at swordpoint, seems kinda... obvious to me. I mean, yes, it is violence, but it seems forced. Cullen seems to have gone to the same acting school as Anders.
Edit: @ladyshaman: To me, that expression says "Nice! I've been wanting to do that for the last three years!"
That's a good point, berelinde. Again, underscoring that he's not by nature that violent. So, by saying "you've hit me for the last time," demon!Wilmod is basically saying, "WTF, I'm done with this. Come get some, human."
Well, I'm going to continue being the unpopular voice of fandom dissent if you don't mind.
While I agree that Cullen's basic nature is introspective, that he tends to avoid violence, and he rationally thinks of violence as a last resort (which are all admirable traits), if we believe that he suffers from PTSD during any point in his timeline, he is going to have irrational actions to things that he fears and these irrational reactions will continue until the trigger-sensitive nature of his PTSD diminishes. I think there is ample evidence in DA that warrant Cullen suffering from PTSD, some people have
already written extensive essays about that evidence, and the first thing that crossed my mind when I saw Cullen's repeatedly erratic behavior throughout Act 1 of DA2 was "wow. those writers nailed PTSD pretty well here."
There is a big world of difference between people who regularly use violence to achieve their goals and people who wish to avoid violence but suffer from untreated PTSD. The most important thing to remember from a psychological perspective is that people who have active, poorly managed PTSD experience off-the-charts irrational responses to things that they fear. At that point, their fight-or-flight mechanism becomes hyper-responsive and they behave in extreme ways that are uncharacteristic of their normal behavior.
This extreme, uncharacteristic behavior is caused by an over-reactive adrenaline response to "triggers" that remind them of their traumatic event. It is a biochemical problem and not a failure of character. Furthermore, people's brains/neuroendocrinology can eventually return to a more normal state either through therapy or mere time. There are a few instances in the two games that show Cullen as a very strong willed person so I find it quite believable that time alone would allow him and his biochemistry to return to a more normal state where his trigger (blood mages and abominations) no longer fires up a hyper-reactive adrenaline response which allows him to face the thought of blood magic and abominations with his rational, introspective mind. And that's who we see at the end of DA2.
So, I'm willing to firmly plant my stake in this unpopular territory but, to me, anything else would be waving a magic wand over Act 1 Cullen to make him into a "perfect" knight and I don't think that would properly honor the struggles that someone like him would have. To me, Cullen's deep-seated psychological struggles with his prior traumatic experiences are what makes him an interesting character. I don't want to take that away from him.
ymmv.
Modifié par vieralynn, 06 juillet 2012 - 10:28 .
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But the female PC MUST have a dress, and not an ugly pantsuit (coughMotAcough). Just because she's saving the world from an Eldricht Abomination, it doesn't mean she can't look pretty and/or sexy once in a while. 
