- Non-White primary female love interest - Isabela is dark-skinned, which may not seem like a big deal but it is (just look at the "Make Isabela white!" mod). I call her the primary female love interest just because she was the one featured in the trailers kissing Garrett Hawke. Non-White female love interests are rare in all forms of Western media, unless the man involved is also non-White. Hell, I call it variety when the love interest isn't blonde (and I say this as a blonde white girl).
- Female guard captain/tank character - Aveline is also amazing just because she's a woman. As a female gamer, I am acutely aware of how sadly unoften women are in positions of military authority AND tank characters, while additionally being NOT sexualized. I'm not against sexy female characters in general, but it is so nice to have a mature and both physically and psychologically strong person in an authority position who just happens to be a woman. Even during her awkward romance quest in Act 2, she's bumbling and non-sexualized and maintains her traditionally masculine characteristics in "courting" one of her crew.
- Sexually independent and strong Isabela - Isabela is also a captain, it's worth mentioning. And yeah, even if I did think her lack of pants was a bit overkill, Isabela is still a strong person who happens to enjoy sex, no strings attached. Criticism of her character is often essentially ****-shaming, but the truth is Isabela's free and independent attitude toward sex is a characteristic associated with masculinity (and men are rarely if ever shamed for enjoying sex). It's not the fact that Isabela likes having sex that is really telling to me, it's that Isabela is completely content with having sex for fun and has no desire to settle down with a singificant other. I'm not saying this attitude is good or bad, but it's nice to see female characters with that approach, when it goes against the female stereotype.
- And with Isabela and Aveline having characteristics that are usually given to male characters, the male characters aren't particularly "macho man" either in appearance or personality. Anders is a mage and a healer (a traditionally female role in video games), Fenris - though a warrior and has no hesitation to rip out hearts, is an elf with a rather sleek and "pretty boy" appearance. Varric perhaps might look the most "manly" but is the writer and storyteller, and frankly the most classy and collected of the characters. And Sebastian? Celibate.
- The -isms exploration - We certainly saw a lot of in-game racism in DAO, but it came back in DA2 with vigor in the case of the qunari. Racism, of course, is in reference to "fantasy races" and not skin color. It's interesting how the DA world has a whole established system of humans subjugating elves, complete with offensive slang ("knife-ears") and prejudice. In DA2, though, it takes an interesting approach in the landing of the qunari/kossith in Kirkwall. It's easy to compare Kirkwall to the West, and the qunari to unwanted immigrants who are seen as dangerous and unrelatable to the Kirkwall lifestyle. Additionally, we get to see the frustrations of the "immigrants" and how they in turn view Kirkwall as morally corrupt. On the note of immigration, it's interesting how when Hawke and the Fereldans try to come to Kirkwall, there's literally a wall stopping them, saying Kirkwall is "full"... immigrant paranoia? Hm, that sounds familiar!
- Related to the above racism issue, the role of religion plays a role that can also be seen in a modern day equivalent. I personally loved the dynamics of the Chantry vs. the Qun, with the heat not actually being about religious philosophy as much as clergy nuking it out "just because they're wrong." For example, Mother Petrice's religious paranoia and trying to stir up crowds against the qunari is classic. And though the Dalish culture is played up less than I would have liked, Merill has some interesting comments in banter about her own religion as opposed to the Andrastian faith.
- Mages vs. Templars is also a social conflict as opposed to a "good vs evil" or "defeat the darkness!" usual fantasy plot. Though I also think the implementation could have been stronger, it's all extremely political and you don't see that often in fantasy games. Again, relatable to modern Western society if you don't take the conflict too literally - almost Liberal vs Conservative party mayhem without any real compromise between the two. And interestingly, when the people in power - the lame duck Viscount and Grand Cleric Elthina - try not to take sides, they end up being useless and not solving anything. The issue, of course, made personal with Hawke's siblings each favoring a side. And though neither side is inherently good or bad, we see both their justifications and the atrocities they both cause.
- This isn't exactly applicable social commentary, but I also find it interesting that the warrior!dwarf and rogue!elf dichotomy that existed probably since before Tolkien was switched around in the case of Fenris and Varric. It's not that this has never been done before, but I guess the portrayal is kind of interesting because both Varric and Fenris arguably have a disconnect from their race's original cultures - Orzammar and the Dalish.
- A female antagonist - Meredith. Similar to Aveline, she's also in a position of military authority and non-sexualized. Generally female antagonists tend to be tight leather and huge boobs, assuming they're the lead antagonist at all and not just the sidekick to a man or beast.
- Finally - the addition of every LI being romanceable by either gender. As a gaymer myself, I appreciated this element more than anything in DA2. Of course, DAO was cool for Leliana and Zevran's bisexuality - and they were great characters! But I was still left with the feeling that Morrigan and Alistair were the more "canon" love interests, and players who wanted to play gay Wardens were denied that, for whatever reason. The implementation is hardly difficult - take away gender barriers and tweak a few lines to be more appropriate for the other gender, and the appreciation I have for it is extraordinary. No matter what your head!canon is - all the characters are bi, or they're only bi/gay if you approach those romances, or they're just Hawke!sexual, it gives more possibilities to those to like gaming gay. And on a social level, I can tell you how rarely LGBT characters are recognized in video games, and it's not often at all. Thank you Bioware for braving the occasional obnoxious "OMG Anders hit on me and it made me uncomfortable, curse you DA2!11" gamers and hopefully setting a precedent for future romance options in video games.
Modifié par Masako52, 29 août 2011 - 08:49 .
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