74 réponses à ce sujet

[Allan Schumacher]

I think it's a matter of context. In the context of the larger story being told, her being an elf is a significant factor. Racial tensions with the elves has resonance with the main plot, but issues regarding sexuality don't. Given that, I don't find it too worrying that race is focused on and sexuality treated as a much lesser issue. You focus on the charcateristics that are important to the wider story. If the plot involved - taking a clumsy modern example - same sex marriage, then I'd see it being more important to address.

 

It's important to remember it's a reservation on her part.  Within the context of experiencing the game world at release, it might work well for her.  It might not work well.  I think it's important to note that Maria did still say she appreciated the effort.  She's just concerned that it might not come across as well as it could be in part because of experience.

 

The thread started to derail a bit when posts came across as people telling her that it's not a big deal and that there's no difference between a gay person and a straight person.

 

But I'll say I consider Maria a friend.  I have no problems acknowledging that Maria is a lesbian, and as a lesbian she's not the same as some of my other friends.  I like to think I don't treat her differently as a result of that (and that if I did she'd call me out on it), but just that that trait has a non-trivial influence on her life compared to how much my sexuality affects mine and many of my other friends, and that that perspective is unique from mine.

[Allan Schumacher]

There are good authors and there are bad authors.  Breaking it down into 'You aren't a lesbian so I don't trust you to write lesbian women' is just looking for something to find fault with.  Either you trust the writing team to be up to the tasks they take on, or you don't, in which case you shouldn't trust ANY of the writing in the game.

 

Authors can have strengths and weaknesses.  I can trust George R. R. Martin to write a dark fantasy setting because he's done that.  While I may trust him to write a children's book better than mine because he's a better technical writer than me, based on my experience with his previous work I'm not sure if he'd be the best candidate for a book like that.

 

Patrick Weekes' first attempt at writing Samantha Traynor was not particularly flattering at all.  It came from good intentions, but read like an after school special.  Fortunately he had other people to collaborate with to point it out.  We consider it a good thing that we have as many women on our writing team as we do, because it helps by bringing in different perspectives and experiences which can challenge some things.  Like that story that came out some time ago where a writer wrote something, and upon review someone pointed out that it came across a lot differently, which the writer did not want to depict.  Once it was called out, no one could "unsee" that anymore, so the scene was altered.

 

So no, I don't agree that an author is either good or bad.  I feel they can have strengths and weaknesses in what they write about.

[Lukas Kristjanson]

Are you willing to agree that being a gay woman is meaningful? That it's something that matters and makes a difference?

That being an elf is important is fine. That being an elf is important while being gay is irreverent is not fine.

I don't think you and I are at cross-purposes. You took a number of leaps with my statement in order to make a point. A valid one that I do not dispute. But I didn't say that I didn't bother, that she's "just a person," that it isn't meaningful, a tiny trait, or irrelevant.

 

I said that I didn't intend to use her story to state "this is what a lesbian character is or isn't," explicitly that I would not presume to tell you what a lesbian is or isn't. I also said (through mentioning how I approached Aveline) that it is part of her, but not what solely defines her. That is not the same as "it doesn't matter." Rather, that it isn't the source of conflict in her story.

 

So yes, straight up, her nature as an elf will be mentioned more often, as that is the context of the culture in which she lives and by which she is primarily judged. But she is always who she is. Both will hopefully inform how you see her story. I don't know if it's the character you would have wanted, but I still hope you like her.

[Allan Schumacher]

OH, I just assumed the middle one was DA2 because Matt Rhodes art blog said it something about Hawke, who was originally in the picture. I knew the one on the right was DA:I after Lukas commented, though. Ty

 

Well, that's the fluid nature of game development, especially in preproduction!  Concept art started for that.  A large part of it is simply the redesign of the elf.  But DA2 didn't feature a character that really looked like that (especially not a party member), so while the art itself ended up being appropriated for DA2 (since it was done before DA2 as well lol), I am making the assumption that it's a bit of an evolution of the style until we ended up with Sera

[Allan Schumacher]

I've been pondering yesterday's discussion and a number of people inquired as to what I would like to see in a lesbian that would make me consider them a good lesbian character. It's a fair question: people are shaped strongly by their culture and life experiences, and lesbians are individuals.

Many people, I believe, would also like to avoid discussing the not-fun aspects of being a gay woman*.

I came up with an attribute!

Lesbians like women.

Not just f***ing them (though that's nice) but liking them. The vast majority of lesbians share that attribute and the exceptions tend to be dealing with serious emotional baggage. I think this is a noteworthy attribute because many straight men and women, and gay men, don't like women. Our larger culture reflects this trend.

I suspect this is why I've often seen Leliana as leaning heavily toward the gay side of bisexuality. Her interactions with women suggests she likes and enjoy them. The biggest exception would be her dialogue with Morrigan when she fights over the (male) Warden's romantic interest.

It also occurred to me that the Bechtel Test is exactly the sort of thing a queer woman would come up with. A straight feminist would have focused on a singular woman and asked ‘is she a main character?’ ‘does she have a strong character arc?’ or ‘does she kick ass?’ The idea that what’s good is not a prominent WOMAN but conversation between WOMEN (but not about a dude) is a very lesbian viewpoint.

*I'm not one of them.

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this Maria!

[Allan Schumacher]

Isn't there some other thread specifically dedicated to sexual orientation discussion? Yeah, pretty sure there is. Ergo, I request that you please take your concerns on the matter over to a separate thread, because you seem to derail the topic off Sera into "LESBIANISM AND HOW LESBIANISM IS IMPORTANT TO ME PERSONALLY AND THIS IS HOW I VIEW LESBIANISM AND SERA IS LESBIAN" as if that's the only thing to her character.

 

Interjecting right now.  In this thread I know that I, specifically, asked her for an elaboration (and it sounds like some others did too).  It seems appropriate for her to write her thoughts on the subject in the thread that spawned the inquiry made towards her.

[Allan Schumacher]

 

Seen this scene a lot since E3, but does anyone have any clue as to where it is? 

 

I have a decent idea
 

[Lukas Kristjanson]

i think it was aaron beck who said (and i am paraphrasing) that when we wish to belittle a culture,person,people by referring to them as less than human; we are trying to justify our own inner hatred. by making something/one else less, the individual can "justify" hatred.  but there has to be stimuli there already.  so she must have had some traumatic experience or religious views.

Did aaron beck say anything about sharks and what to do if there's a shark in your house and it's wearing a mask and saying "hi" but all you can think about is the teeth--so many teeth--because sharks are real, and everyone knows they only do one thing, mean it or not, and maybe it's not a shark but it's sure seems like it has fins and is that a mask or not what if it takes it off and then just teeth I can't stop thinking about teeth IT DOESN'T MOVE RIGHT!

"War, demons, a torn sky: these are more than troubling—they're terrifying."

[Lukas Kristjanson]

They looked blue here.

No change in her eyes afaik. In the neutral light of the model viewer her iris is orangey-brownish near the pupil, changing to more yellow, and I think a hint of blue around the edge. A bit like the "green and hazel" example at this link.

 

They drift brown or blue in our shots depending on shadow and surrounding light. Eyes in Frostbite are crazy.

 

Yeah looks to be toned down from her first shot.  Dorian was getting jealous.

As above, pretty sure the makeup is the same. Most likely shadows in the tavern shot adding to it.

[Lukas Kristjanson]

My mind kept going back to one of my all time favorite artists, Joan Jett. However, when I went over her catalogue, there wasn't actually a lot of songs that fit the character.

Really? I mean, I'm not one to make the subtext text, but Sera is.

Spoiler

[Lukas Kristjanson]

I'd be surprised if Gaider said that.  

So would Dave, I imagine. But someone on a forum said it, five people quoted them, now they have six sources so it must be true.

[Lukas Kristjanson]

I like that one. Are there any other songs you feel are Sera-ish?

I imagine Sera dancing hard to this, but she she'd do that selective singalong thing where she only knows the lala parts and "busting their noses!":

Spoiler

[Lukas Kristjanson]

I think her voice is kind of cute. It's higer pitched and squeaky than I would've imagined.

Not so much, really. In banter it's a little elevated, and in the moment, she was unimpressed with the idea of being thrown around. Because wedging.

[Lukas Kristjanson]

Sera likes fighting dragons. It's a surprise to her too.

[Lukas Kristjanson]

Caroline Livingstone ‏@CabLivingstone 3m
@kathrynb42 over to you @RobynEthel the voice of Sera.

And props to cogsandcurls for essentially calling it. Couldn't be happier with Robyn's work.

[Lukas Kristjanson]

Reaver isn't the Warrior spec that Sera has concerns about.

[Lukas Kristjanson]

You see that, Lukas? I`m engaging you directly Please tell us about Sera`s likes and dislikes? Pretty please?

Oh fine. I suppose her Q&A was a little threadbare because she was the first out of the gate. They didn't have the format down yet.

 

Likes: cities, busy taverns, moving fast. Dislikes: Nature smells awful and is full of weird.

[Allan Schumacher]

As for Sera, Allan has said that Luke wanted to make her a lesbian, and nothing Luke has said regarding her sexuality makes me think it's for 'story reasons.'

 

I think it might have been Luke himself who said that.

 

Although I know philosophically, the idea of providing representation WAS something we wanted to do (I know it doesn't necessarily matter to you, specifically).

[Allan Schumacher]

How does that work?

Sylvia said when she joined there was just the word 'Diplomat?' on the whiteboard and that became Josephine. Now I'm picturing someone writing LESBIAN and sticking lots of little question marks around it.

Luke and Patrick end up playing rock-paper-scissors* for it.

"Heads, I pansexual quanri. Tails, you lesbian elf."

*Luke chooses scissors

 

I'm not sure how it works. 

 

You were attributing me saying something that Luke decided, when I think it might have come up when you and Luke were talking.  I just don't recall saying what you said I said.  Maybe I just forgot.

[Allan Schumacher]

I hate the implication that only one type of person (based on sexual orientation) can adequately write a similar character.

 

No one actually said that only one type of person can though.

 

Patrick, for instance, thought he wrote a compelling lesbian character with Traynor's first pass, until he sought some feedback and learned "that's pretty much an after school special."  So perspective can help because it can be easy for me to imagine how some person deals with systemic issues but also not impossible for those imaginations to be inaccurate.

[Allan Schumacher]

A name like that always applys Sexually.

 

No it doesn't.

[Allan Schumacher]

I expect that you cannot skip her. I doubt she's the one companion you have to take to the end.

 

Was it stated that there was only one specific companion remaining?  Or just that you'll always end up with one companion? (I don't actually know the answer)

[Allan Schumacher]

I remember in a separate thread someone had an interesting theory, they said how they thought the last 2 are the race restricted ones because the last 2 were added on AFTER Bioware decided to add playable races and that the confirmed ones are the original LI's when the Inquisitor was going to be human only. I thought it was a bit of a stretch but you never know.  

 

I think that this is a misunderstanding then.  We may have added 2 romances with the time extension, but the two unannounced romances were not added because of it.

[Allan Schumacher]

How does Sera not look like an elf?

[Allan Schumacher]

The defense of a fictional character when someone find it oddly off is not silly aswell then? More argue in here over this stupid character than there is about other things, like day one DLC or something.

 

You seemed to skip my inquiry, however....

 

And in doing so continued to be argumentative in doing so.  Care to answer my question?