420 réponses à ce sujet

[ElementalFury106]

I am going to get sooo much hate for this, I can just see it. But I'm still curious to see all of your actual thoughts and opinions.

Honestly, why do so many love Cullen so much? There have been numerous threads about this, I know. Some people say he's just likeable in terms of his personality. Some people say he's "cute as button" and all that jazz. I've even seen a comment somewhere saying he's basically "the justin bieber of the dragon age world."

To me, I never thought much of Cullen. I only joined the forums a few months ago, but I played DA:O years ago. When I played I thought he was an "ok" character. Definitely not significant, but I did like his argument on executing the circle. Imagine my surprise when I finally join the forums and it seems there's this huge fan base for him.

I mean of all NPCs; Duncan, Loghain, Anora, Cailan, Irving, Soris, Ser Gilmore, Teagan, Dagna, etc. Cullen was the one who (symbolically speaking) got the NPC award for most well recieved/loved/adored. Now I know I seem like I'm speaking for everyone, which I'm trying my best not to. I was just so surprised, of all characters, Cullen was the one+.

I respect people's opinions though, if they found Cullen to be downright likeable then so be it.

Then came DA:2 and I absolutely hate how they included Cullen there. It's just so unlikely how he was transfered to Kirkwall of all places after the events of DA:O. I understand there is a large Templar presence in Kirkwall and Meredith probably picked Cullen personally out of his experience and competence, but come on. It just felt like Bioware forced yet another character from a previous game in to please fans or continue their practices of including unlikely cameos. He was still very well-recieved so it seems, and he even got his own little heroic moment in the end of the game.

We all know he's back in DA:I. There's lots of debate on whether he's a companion or an NPC, maybe an authority figure for the Templars. Honestly again, I'm not too thrilled with the idea that Cullen appears for yet another game, as if they're just forcing all loved characters into each game as "fan service." Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I'll take an organically structured story and characterization over "fan service" anyday.

It does make some sense that he'll appear in Inquisition, given his role in the start of the Mage-Templar conflict at the end of DA:2. Still, I can't help but get the feel all of this Cullen inclusion is nothing more than fan service. I hope I'm wrong, and the story with its inclusion of Cullen blows me away. We'll just have to see how things go.

All and all, I was always shocked on how popular an insignificant character like Cullen became, and definitely wary of his inclusions in later games. What do you guys think of Cullen and his fan base? Do you think his inclusion on multiple titles is fan service? Do you like him? Do you want to see him as a possible companion?

Share your thoughts and discuss. Remember to respect each other's opinions, regardless of whether they are in line with yours.


EDIT: I guess Soris and Ser Gilmore aren't NPC's, since they are temporary companions. My bad guys.

Modifié par ElementalFury106, 17 février 2014 - 04:03 .

[Veruin]

The general consensus is looks, the "He's been through so much" sympathy, and wanting to see how his character develops.

There's also his nervous stammering to the warden in magi origin.  Quite a few of the fangirls eat that up.  The fanboys don't really care for that.

Modifié par Veruin, 17 février 2014 - 04:11 .

[Grieving Natashina]

I started a thread with much the same topic awhile back. Many posters chimed in on the subject, and even David Gaider had dropped by for it.

Why is Cullen considered fan service?

[Hellion Rex]

Again with this? I am a Cullen fanboy, and even I'm getting tired of these.

[Veruin]

I don't remember David actually adding any input on Cullen, instead he was busy berating the "haters".

[mikeymoonshine]

Yay, another Cullen thread!

Isn't this obvious though? It's coz of the thing about him being in love with the female mage warden.

It's the whole forbidden romance thing, he's all shy which is apparently cute and I guess he was one of the better looking npc's in that game. So he has some fangirls/boys.

Who cares though?... and the answer is Apparently everyone.

I don't see why it's so unrealistic for him to be in DA2 or Inquisition though? He has more of a reason to be in them than Bodahn and Sandal do yet nobody complains about them.

As for fan service well that's just become an irritating thing that people say on here. Why can't you all just get over this?

[ElementalFury106]

mikeymoonshine wrote...

Yay, another Cullen thread!

Isn't this obvious though? It's coz of the thing about him being in love with the female mage warden.

It's the whole forbidden romance thing, he's all shy which is apparently cute and I guess he was one of the better looking npc's in that game. So he has some fangirls/boys.

Who cares though?... and the answer is Apparently everyone.

I don't see why it's so unrealistic for him to be in DA2 or Inquisition though? He has more of a reason to be in them than Bodahn and Sandal do yet nobody complains about them.

As for fan service well that's just become an irritating thing that people say on here. Why can't you all just get over this?

Well I didn't mention it in my post but I also didn't like how Bodahn and Sandal were implemented in DA:2

Modifié par ElementalFury106, 17 février 2014 - 04:25 .

[Grieving Natashina]

Veruin wrote...

I don't remember David actually adding any input on Cullen, instead he was busy berating the "haters".

Here's the comments that David left in the thread.  Make of them what you will.  I didn't see any berating.

David Gaider wrote...

Starsyn wrote...
"Cullen is just fan service," is the cry I keep hearing.  Why?  What's the reasoning behind calling Cullen a fan service character?

In my experience, the things we might put into a game solely to make fans (or a select group of fans, anyhow) happy tend to be pretty small in scope. Anything larger than that is going to require justification. At least someone on the team will need to believe that thing's inclusion has merit to the story or the game at large.

Fans like it when something they've been rooting for gets included in a title. When it's something they haven't been rooting for, but which others have, then it becomes "fan service" and a bad thing. In the case of Cullen, that gets laced with some extra venom because the fans who would be most excited about his inclusion (if, indeed, he's included in the way that some appear to assume) are both female and likely interested in romancing him.

And, for the love of God, why would we try to make them happy? To what new low has BioWare sank?

Try to maintain a bit of class, people. If something does get included that a group of fans would be excited for. no matter what the reason is, instead of being jealous try to be happy for them.

David Gaider wrote...

eluvianix wrote...
I'm not female...

I'm referring to the perception of "people who want Cullen to appear."

It's like the threads that keep popping up about him. Just about every one starts with "oh god why are there all these threads where crazy fangirls are demanding he be in the next game?"

I don't know what they're referring to. There have been way more threads complaining about fans asking for Cullen than there have ever been threads asking for Cullen...and the threads asking for Cullen are generally the same sort of wistful "wouldn't it be nice if...?" discussions that come up about every other sort of thing that people talk about here in absence of real game info.

Quite frankly, if there ever was a group of fans who I (or anyone else on the DA team) would include something justto make them happy, I think we'd lean more towards the "polite but enthusiastic" than not. Just saying.

David Gaider wrote...

TristanHawke wrote...
Even if he didn't have a dedicated fan-base, I still think there are justifiable reasons for him to appear again (as a companion or not).

Not if you don't like him. If you don't like him then, even if you don't know what the story is, there's no justifiable reason for him to return. If he did, you can already tell he would be boring no matter how he's written.

This is why I stop paying attention to character discussions fairly early on. 

David Gaider wrote...

eluvianix wrote...
And yet here you are..

This isn't a character discussion, unless that's been going on in the last however many pages. I responded to the initial post, based on my observations of the forum to date.

Good luck OP. 

Modifié par Starsyn, 17 février 2014 - 04:29 .

[Battlebloodmage]

Veruin wrote...

I don't remember David actually adding any input on Cullen, instead he was busy berating the "haters".

Here is a quote he stated on the subject of Cullen and his fan polarity, take it however you want:

"Look at it this way: I'd rather use a character that was both hated and loved than one which nobody cared about either way."

The fact that he's so controversal may actually be beneficial to include him in DAI. It's a lot better than a bland character. 

Modifié par Battlebloodmage, 17 février 2014 - 04:34 .

[mikeymoonshine]

Tbh I hope that Cullen is a compulsory LI for every character and half the game is spent on making him dinner, cleaning his house, polishing his armour and listening to him bang on about the dangers of magic. 

Modifié par mikeymoonshine, 17 février 2014 - 04:42 .

[SgtSteel91]

Modifié par SgtSteel91, 17 février 2014 - 04:44 .

[ElementalFury106]

@Starsyn thank you for your addition to this thread

[Veruin]

I stand corrected.

mikeymoonshine wrote...

Tbh I hope that Cullen is a compulsory LI for every character and half the game is spent on making him dinner, cleaning his house, polishing his armour and listening to him bang on about the dangers of magic. 

Only if I get to slip poison into the food.

[mikeymoonshine]

ElementalFury106 wrote...

Well I didn't mention it in my post but I also didn't like how Bodahn and Sandal were implemented in DA:2

They did seem a bit chucked in there but then it looks like Sandals character might actually have a real storyline instead of just being a joke character, he predicted the veil tear. 

I think it is important for old characters to make an appearance though, especially if there are going to be drastic changes with every new game. It helps to bridge the gap, I think including Varric in Inquisition was a brilliant idea for example. 

[Rolling Flame]

ElementalFury106 wrote...

Well I didn't mention it in my post but I also didn't like how Bodahn and Sandal were implemented in DA:2

Whatever happened to Bodahn's wife, anyway?

[Avaflame]

I know you mean well OP, but I can not wait until we get some new information and can have a day without discussing Cullen, potential Warden/Hawke cameos and how Bioware retconned my Leliana getting decapitated.

Frustration aside, I'm right there with you OP. I'll admit that when I first rolled a female mage and saw Cullen bein' all bashful-like, I thought he was cute. For an NPC. I was ambivalent about his presence in DA2 and any positive reaction I had would have more for the link to Origins than him specifically. I'm not gong to nerd rage at the prospect of him making an appearance in Inquisition (which I'm expecting), but I would be very disappointed to learn he were to be a companion purely because we have a limited amount and not only would I prefer all new companions over already-introduced ones, but I have no interest in Cullen in particular.

For those that do though, I just can't begrudge them that. There's nothing offensive about forming an irrational emotional attachment to a character. If we were to all of the sudden have a KotOR 3 in the works and I found out it involved Atton Rand, I would probably wet myself. I couldn't bring myself to let Kaidan die on Virmire even though you couldn't romance him as a male and when he flirted with my Shep in ME3 I was absurdly happy and immediately stopped playing to look up if he was romanceable (yes, I'm guilty of metagaming) and promptly dropped Liara as soon as I got the opportunity. Sometimes people are just weird. Don't question it, just embrace it.

Modifié par Avaflame, 17 février 2014 - 05:17 .

[katerinafm]

David Gaider himself said it best. There are more new threads asking why Cullen is liked than there are threads by Cullen fans. Posting in one of the many already made threads about him has to be better than making new ones about the same thing over and over again.

[superdeathdealer14]

I don't know why the fangirls/boys like Cullen, and I don't want to know why, but maybe people just want another Alistair, Cullen may or may not be like Alistair but I have a feeling they may be similar.

[Dabrikishaw]

Veruin wrote...

The general consensus is looks, the "He's been through so much" sympathy, and wanting to see how his character develops.

There's also his nervous stammering to the warden in magi origin.  Quite a few of the fangirls eat that up.  The fanboys don't really care for that.

[The Elder King]

superdeathdealer14 wrote...

I don't know why the fangirls/boys like Cullen, and I don't want to know why, but maybe people just want another Alistair, Cullen may or may not be like Alistair but I have a feeling they may be similar.

Cullen might've been similar in Alistair in DAO (meaning a young and inexperienced character). He's not now.

[ElementalFury106]

Avaflame wrote...

I know you mean well OP, but I can not wait until we get some new information and can have a day without discussing Cullen, potential Warden/Hawke cameos and how Bioware retconned my Leliana getting decapitated.

Frustration aside, I'm right there with you OP. I'll admit that when I first rolled a female mage and saw Cullen bein' all bashful-like, I thought he was cute. For an NPC. I was ambivalent about his presence in DA2 and any positive reaction I had would have more for the link to Origins than him specifically. I'm not gong to nerd rage at the prospect of him making an appearance in Inquisition (which I'm expecting), but I would be very disappointed to learn he were to be a companion purely because we have a limited amount and not only would I prefer all new companions over already-introduced ones, but I have no interest in Cullen in particular.

For those that do though, I just can't begrudge them that. There's nothing offensive about forming an irrational emotional attachment to a character. If we were to all of the sudden have a KotOR 3 in the works and I found out it involved Atton Rand, I would probably wet myself. I couldn't bring myself to let Kaidan die on Virmire even though you couldn't romance him as a male and when he flirted with my Shep in ME3 I was absurdly happy and immediately stopped playing to look up if he was romanceable (yes, I'm guilty of metagaming) and promptly dropped Liara as soon as I got the opportunity. Sometimes people are just weird. Don't question it, just embrace it.

Agree with you 100%. Those seem to be the biggest issues people are debating, I hope we get some concrete explanations soon. Even if their answer disappoints the masses, we should at least be given some sort of closure.

PS; I also decapitated Leliana in one of my Origin playthroughs lol, 'twas interesting seeing her back with her head intact at the end of DA:2

[Rotward]

Cullen made a lot more sense than Alistair, or Zev, in DAII. He had a real reason to be there. That aside, I don't much care for him, myself.

[darkchief10]

Man we need some rain soon, this drought is getting ridiculous.
also i'm cool with the idea of cullen getting some much needed character development

Modifié par darkchief10, 17 février 2014 - 05:43 .

[jncicesp]

He weirded me out in the first game and he was ok in the 2nd and maybe the only 'good' templar So hes kind of interesting just cause of that contrast with all the other jerk ones you run into, even the ones that armt possessed.
The only reason I know that anyone even likes him at all is cause people ask why others like him.

[ElementalFury106]

Rotward wrote...

Cullen made a lot more sense than Alistair, or Zev, in DAII. He had a real reason to be there. That aside, I don't much care for him, myself.

What do you mean by Alistair? If he appears as the King in his cameo, it's explained why.

But I do agree with you if he remains a Warden or becomes a wandering drunk. Like...why Kirkwall? Never explained.

And yeah Zevran was just thrown in there as well basically. Sheesh.

Modifié par ElementalFury106, 17 février 2014 - 05:48 .