It's incidental to you, but it isn't to me. That's the point. Why does
my non-white character need to be whitewashed in the telling of the
Champion of Kirkwall? Whether it's Varric or the world at large, why
does Hawke need to be depicted as white when he is supposed to be out
character? You're basically telling me that everyone thinks my non-white
Hawke was white, and that only adds to my frustration with this.
I find it disappointing.
On some level, it's still important to recognize that Unfortunate Implications are, in fact, unintended.
While it's unfortunate that you find it disappointing, and you're well within your right to feel that way (and to share it), when I see comments supposing just how little thought we give these sort of things, it genuinely disappoints me.
Yes, we'll screw things up from time to time and not do things as well done as we
maybe definitely should have. What you've effectively told me (and I'm sure this wasn't your intention, however), was that you would have been
more satisfied with DAO's experience, if the Warden was just prescribed to be a white character, because it wouldn't have been as jarring to you.
To say we "didn't give it much thought" makes me innately defensive, akin to calling us lazy. I'd
much rather have a situation where our scene with Hawke pre-prologue shows a white Hawke, while allowing full customization after the fact, than to have just prescribed Hawke to be a white character.
Yes, it's something that could have been done differently. We could have not had the pre-chargen scene at all, we could have covered up Hawke, we could have done a lot of different things.
But while you mention that you find it surprising that you even need to explain your perspective, in doing so you actually demonstrate that you're not understanding In Exile's perspective, either.
It ends up leading me to take on Devil's Advocate simply because it gets to a point where one is being overly difficult (and in the case, you both are coming across as obstinate).
Why do you think I would be accepting of the idea of Varric's tale making a non-white Champion of Kirkwall into a white Hawke?
Is Varric talking to you, or is he talking to Cassandra? Are you unable to accept that Varric may be passing disdainful judgment on Cassandra, the Seekers, and the Chantry in general?
Why is it that you're assuming that Varric is telling the tale as it is, for
your benefit?
A constant theme I have seen with your interpretations the past page, is that they are taken to the extreme. That Varric is telling the story to Cassandra (who is affiliated with an institution that you have made your opinion of quite clear), does
not mean that he tells the story the same way to other people. This is an assumption that you have created, with
you filling in the gaps the same way that you find disdain with your assumption that "everyone" is filling in the gaps by assuming Hawke was white.
This reminds me of David Foster Wallace's "This is Water" talk, to where he goes into detail about how we're in control of how we choose to perceive events, particularly where we're lacking in the context to actually know what factors affected the decision.
So, in this sense, and this is unfortunate (and I'm not saying that this is
your fault), you have defaulted into not only recognizing the Hawke prologue scene be an example of Unfortunate Implications, but you have also let your mind accept the reasoning in a way that makes you take
even more offense to the Unfortunate Implications, and you share your disdain by reciprocating disdain towards myself and my colleagues. It
sucks that reality has put you into a spot where that is your default assumption (and no, that's not your fault), and yes we can continue to try to do better (and we even tried, such as attempting to make Hawke's family more reflective of your chargen, with mixed results). I'm of the opinion that becoming adversarial about it, however, doesn't actually do much to help the situation - it has a great way of putting people on the defensive.
No, I can never truly understand what it means to be non-white (since I am white). So maybe I'm just a giant ass talking out of my bum who can't understand your perspective, and it's up to you to read into my motivations for posting this and determine whether or not this post should be respected by you or not.
I'm sorry that the whole scene comes across so inappropriate for you. But, please don't think that
we're not trying because the steadfastness of your position
coupled with some remarks you've made does as much to make me feel "I doubt anything we do will really make him happy... at which point is it worth our time trying to do so?" as it does "He has some interesting feedback that I hadn't considered."
Before I read your posts (or maybe someone else's since your position isn't unique to you), you're right it was a conclusion I hadn't really considered. In my mind, the whole pre chargen scene was always "pure make believe" so I definitely wouldn't have gone over it with nearly the discerning eye - but I view the whole scene (and whole game) differently because to me it started out as a bunch of stick figures on a napkin. It doesn't exactly make me feel super awesome to learn about the mistake we made. But what comes across as an attempt to
shame me shifts my focus from "whoops..." to something else entirely, when really it's in your best interests to keep me on "whoops..."
So yeah, I'm sorry the chargen sequence makes you feel uncomfortable. It's a very astute point, and not one that I had even considered during the entirety of development. It's certainly something that I can take from this and learn going forward. By the same token, would you say there are any ways to interpret Varric's pre-chargen depiction in a different way that is less alienating for you? And if not, can the reasons
only be purely external without any internal considerations at all?
Anyways, I'm about to be late for Volleyball now.... so I need to kind of cut this off here.
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