I was kidding there, but the idea has been nagging at me since. As a thought experiment, and perhaps as a writing challenge, what would it take to make a darkspawn Love Interest work?5. Darkspawn Love Interest (Ok maybe not that, but something experimental). Bioware should not be afraid to take a risk or two plot-wise. Risks and experiments are important in that they probe the boundaries of quality, seeking ways to expand it. Many, (perhaps most) experiments turn out to be duds, but the company has a history of interaction with their userbase for feedback to make better expansions after the fact.
If you could get it to work plot-wise, would there be at least some people who appreciate it?
What kind of plot modifications or special circumstances would one need to have a darkspawn party member, let alone Love Interest?
How would you craft the character’s physical appearance to both be kinda-sorta attractive but still capture the essence of darkspawnishness, or should it outright eschew physical attraction and be based solely on personality? Ugly people find love and get married all the time after all.
I’ll go first.
Initial thoughts: That sapient ‘awakened’ darkspawn herald you encounter in DA:Awakening at the end of the battle of Ameranthine. If you let him live, the end game comments say he goes on to be something of a wandering dark knight, kind of like Batman, but that occasional reports of Blight plague keep popping up. That could be a terrific setup for a tragic hero character.
On the feminine side, this would require some minor ret-coning, but imagine an awakened female juvenile darkspawn on the brink of adulthood. She is old enough to desire emotional and physical intimacy but not yet a full broodmother, and knows that consummating that desire will lead to her final metamorphosis. This would not be an issue if she were non-sapient, but she is self-aware and wants more. What does she do? Does she abstain? Does she seek a way to block the transformation? Does she embrace her maternal nature? Again, a tragic character, but with a coming of age story and parallels to modern women’s issues (career vs family etc.) thrown in.
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In the intrest of furthering discussion, I'll highlight some of the comments I find particularly well spoken or that make good points.
EEEEEEEEWWWWWW!
There are a lot of comments along the lines of "I dont see how it could work, and I find the idea gross."
R2s Muse wrote...
Ewww. OK. Just had to get that off my chest first. Just... eeew.
More seriously, after reading the Calling, I got the impression that the darkspawn just don't have those sorts of drives and emotions. The Architect, ostensibly the most "awakened," didn't seem to "get" that side of humanity at all. Their only drive seemed to be to find the Archdemon.
And, that's not even getting into the female mechanics side with broodmothers which just skeeves me out so much, I won't go there. :shudder:
Special thanks to CrustyBot for bringing up this relevant DA:O mod. (Warning: It'l make you laught, gag, or both at the same time) If nothing else, it is a visceral reminder of the potential pitfals the idea has.
TO ROT OR NOT TO ROT, THAT IS THE QUESTION:
There has been a question of Lore over whether the darkspawn are more like Goerge Romero zombies, or more like Tolkienian Orks. In other words, are they more like walking corpses or tainted, twisted elves/dwarves/humans/kosith etc.
Bacteriophage wrote...
I was under the impression that the games made a distinction between necromancy-raised gouls and darkspawn. It's all magic though, so maybe it doesn't really matter. You're right, though, about the taint infection. This would probably only be doable with a Warden for a main character.FINE HERE wrote...
The darkspawn are ROTTING CORPSES. This is pretty much necrophilia. And you'd get infected just by kissing them. Why do people want to romance them?
Even if the darkspawn are more like Orks, though, that doesn't nessisarily matter...
Ice-Whiz wrote...
As I wrote in my post on the first page, the personality would become the main appeal, instead of the appearance. But I think for many it is not as much about the fact that darkspawn aren't good-looking, it's about what their looks represent: the decay of the body, and the corruption of the mind, it's something that is hard to get past.
Although most people forget one very important aspect: a relationship does NOT have to be physical, and in this case there is a very clear opportunity to write a very intrigueing romance on a purely emotional/intellectual level.
You could consider it something like the case of Morinth in ME2. Pursuing a physical relationship would ultimately lead to death; with a darkspawn, the taint, a slower and much more painful death, would be the risk in having a physical relationship.
THE TAINT AND THE NEED FOR 'NAKED GUN classIC' FULL BODY CONDOMS:
It has been pointed out that spreading the taint would be an issue for a darkspawn both as a simple party member and especially as a potential LI.
PLEASE DON'T HUMANIZE MY FAVORITE VILLIAN:
There has been some concern that makeing a darkspawn a party member or possible LI would humanize them to much and erode their value as villians/monsters.
thats1evildude wrote...
I really dislike the idea of "de-villainifying" bad guys. (I know that's not a real word, but I can't think of a better one.) Dungeons and Dragons did that with the drow and for a while you couldn't throw a d20 without running into a Drizzt
ripoff.
OTHER GOOD IDEAS:
I liked Sejborg's take that similer ideas could be explored without an actual darkspawn LI:
Sejborg wrote...
I'm not so sure about this exact suggestion with the darkspawn. But I like the overall idea and sentiment behind the suggestion if I understand you correct. The idea of delving into something tragic, weird and wrong.
It would be interesting to have something corrupting the character I play. It could be because of a companion you have and like, that sort of drives you towards something corrupting. A companion that uses drugs or something. Or it could be based on the choices you make. Kind of hard to explain. I don't know. We have all watched "Leaving Las Vegas".
But it don't have to be a romance. It could be something that gives you power but also destroys you. I think Heavenly Sword has a nice take on that. And of course we have the darkspawn corruption in our character in Origins. But that was something that was forced upon the player. Knowing what you are doing and still - by free will might I add - deciding to self destruct for pleasure, power, need, love, escapism and so on is something I find quite interesting. It would be interesting to see Bioware - or any game - explore this in depth.
Thank you to brushyourteeth, who came up with a another different idea on how it could work:
Bacteriophage wrote...
I like this. It works as a subversion of the standard Bioware romance story. And it might fit into the plot of Inquisition depending on how they do it. At the beginning of the game you and your Grey Warden lover/spouse tearfully part ways. They go on their Calling, but they're good, really good. They keep killing and not dying untill their mind succums to the taint and they truly transform. THEN you have to face them later on in the game... when you might be in the middle of a new relationship... do you have the strength to put them down?brushyourteeth wrote...
No
no no - I mean, ugh. Okay, if you've read the "The Calling" novel, you know that when the Wardens go into the Deep Roads, it's because they've already started to transform INTO darkspawn. Slowly. They hear the voice of the Archdemon and the taint starts to take over their body. Their skin decays, they start to avoid the light, their bodies slowly rot, and their hair falls out. It isn't pretty. That's why they head into the Deep Roads - to take down as many darkspawn as they can while they're still themselves, and probably die in battle, in a place where no one can see what's happening to them. It's like Larius in the "Legacy" expansion. He was probably handsome once.
If you had a Grey Warden LI who began the whole "Calling" process and you had to deal with that as his/her lover... that could be interesting. And not like romancing a darkspawn, but still with some of those issues and taboos. Because it's still gross, and it's still contagious. But it'd be someone you can legitimately love without it being... a creature of pure evil and barftasticness.
I'm a little surprised, though, that noone has brought up 'Beautey and the Beast'. It seems to me that a big part of any possible Awakened darkspawn romance would lay heavily in the territory of finding the inner beauty of a person beneath their outward monstrosity.
Modifié par Bacteriophage, 02 octobre 2012 - 06:12 .
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