Not really a discussion or news, but i just started a new human female noble and something hit me.
When you are saying goodbye to Fergus, his son asks you about swordplay. Fergus replies "You will get to see a sword up close real soon." Later that day he dies, possibly to a sword. That really made me sad, think this is just a coincidence or foreshadowing?.
Guest_StreetMagic_*
Not really a discussion or news, but i just started a new human female noble and something hit it.
When you are saying good to Fergus and his son asks you about swordplay Fergus replies "You will get to see a sword up close real soon." Later that day he dies, possibly to a sword. That really made me sad, think this is just a coincidence or foreshadowing?.
One of the writer's twisted jokes. He's full of them. 
And I'll bet it wasn't even a sword of truthiness.
But no, really, that was awful.
Your comment made me chuckle and then i just remembered he actually dies =/ so sad.
One of the writer's twisted jokes. He's full of them.
(Weird... I can't get it to display right without clicking the (invisible) link to Gaider's main Tumblr page in the top left corner, then using Back button to view the page again. Hopefully it's an OS/browser thing and it'll be fine for y'all.)
(I can't find a forum post, but yeah. On a replay, it counts as dramatic irony and was certainly intentional.)
Fergus was in cahoots with Howe.
Boldly stated, i know its April fools, but i have thought about this myself sometimes. People say you are more likely to inherit The Teyrn rather than your older brother. So there is something to be gained from taking out the entire family while your alibi is strong, but then again why would he have his wife and son killed?. hmmm
Gaider has said it was done deliberately as 'foreshadowing' to near future events.
In hindsight, considering the age of the one it concerns, not one of his better writing moments, but then it sharply illustrates that for many in Thedas, life is pretty damn cheap and not even children are safe. It also illustrates just how much of a ruthless bastard Howe is.
Actually i think it is good writing for the reasons you mention. When i picked up this game years ago i didn't imagine it beeing so dark as it is at some points. I started with the city elf origin and that was really brutal in so many ways.
With one of my pups I followed that line of conversation, because the 'sword of truthiness' thing reminded me of the Legend of the Seeker. It wasn't my first Cousland and I already knew what was going to happen later, and so I tried to remember whether there was a particular reason to suppose that Oren would die from a sword. There wasn't, and so I wrote it off to coincidence and poor quality control. I also made it a point to watch later what weapons the attackers in the living quarters were using: sword, bow/dagger, dagger/shield, mace. One in four or five, depending on how you count.
However, somehow it does not surprise me at all that this was not only intended but also botched in the process. It's a fair indicator of Gaider's stuff as a whole.
I wouldn't call it good writing at all. For one thing, it is a rather sick joke and in extremely poor taste. For another, it is a total immersion breaker.
Guest_StreetMagic_*
Oren's a funny little kid. I like picking the Rogue line: "I'm not much for swords myself."
"Well, can you teach me how to use poison?" 
One of the writer's twisted jokes. He's full of them.
That, and as I have mentioned before, i've always appreciated a bit of morbid, eerie foreshadowing. I mentioned in another thread that it reminds me of the scene between Emilia and Desdemona in Othello. Just constant vague comments about death, or death forecoming. Like they knew, somewhere inside of them.
Gaider giggles at that line, apparently. Evil, evil man. We love him despite of it all, huh?
That, and as I have mentioned before, i've always appreciated a bit of morbid, eerie foreshadowing. I mentioned in another thread that it reminds me of the scene between Emilia and Desdemona in Othello. Just constant vague comments about death, or death forecoming. Like they knew, somewhere inside of them.
Gaider giggles at that line, apparently. Evil, evil man. We love him despite of it all, huh?
Despite?
Guest_starlitegirlx_*
Gaider has said it was done deliberately as 'foreshadowing' to near future events.
In hindsight, considering the age of the one it concerns, not one of his better writing moments, but then it sharply illustrates that for many in Thedas, life is pretty damn cheap and not even children are safe. It also illustrates just how much of a ruthless bastard Howe is.
Gaider's forseshadowing is like a blunt force object hitting one in the head. He's never very subtle. In fact, when it comes to dialogue, subtlety is certainly not his specialty.
It was certainly in your face ... Although I admit it was on a consecutive play through that I caught it. Subtle or not, I think it accomplished what he wanted it to....
Guest_starlitegirlx_*
That, and as I have mentioned before, i've always appreciated a bit of morbid, eerie foreshadowing. I mentioned in another thread that it reminds me of the scene between Emilia and Desdemona in Othello. Just constant vague comments about death, or death forecoming. Like they knew, somewhere inside of them.
Gaider giggles at that line, apparently. Evil, evil man. We love him despite of it all, huh?
Overall Gaider has some great ideas and in general his writing is to be appreciated. Where he fails is when he aims to steer you in a direction using character dialogue, like for example, aiming to steer you toward having empathy for Alistair over Duncan. It comes up way too many times and instead of garnering sympathy it provokes annoyance. It doesn't even fit the character because Alistair tends to hide his emotions or use humor to deflect. So the ease as which Duncan comes up is actually rather abnormal. Would be more realistic for him to just have an expression, subtle but clear, that is a bit angry or sad, then move off the topic in these conversations where Duncan comes up after the second time. He says he's done talking about it, but nope. Not by a long shot. And as for all the landsmeet issues, few of them are done well. Some of them have no logic or are just overflowing with stupid. So setting up situations with multiple variables that can take place while trying to still force the player toward certain outcomes is definitely not his strong suit at all though for many writers it would be tough. That he did not see places that lack logic or common sense or just smack of stupid toward the overall story does not speak well for his writing ability. The story overall is great. The details is where it falls apart, mainly at the landsmeet. The rest is well done and works fine. Even all the speculation around Loghain makes it interesting though certain things are clearly red herrings and that smacks of manipulation of the player or to confuse the player.
Overall Gaider has some great ideas and in general his writing is to be appreciated. Where he fails is when he aims to steer you in a direction using character dialogue, like for example, aiming to steer you toward having empathy for Alistair over Duncan. It comes up way too many times and instead of garnering sympathy it provokes annoyance. It doesn't even fit the character because Alistair tends to hide his emotions or use humor to deflect. So the ease as which Duncan comes up is actually rather abnormal. Would be more realistic for him to just have an expression, subtle but clear, that is a bit angry or sad, then move off the topic in these conversations where Duncan comes up after the second time. He says he's done talking about it, but nope. Not by a long shot. And as for all the landsmeet issues, few of them are done well. Some of them have no logic or are just overflowing with stupid. So setting up situations with multiple variables that can take place while trying to still force the player toward certain outcomes is definitely not his strong suit at all though for many writers it would be tough. That he did not see places that lack logic or common sense or just smack of stupid toward the overall story does not speak well for his writing ability. The story overall is great. The details is where it falls apart, mainly at the landsmeet. The rest is well done and works fine. Even all the speculation around Loghain makes it interesting though certain things are clearly red herrings and that smacks of manipulation of the player or to confuse the player.
Hmm, DA2's "story" and poor sequence of insane mini villains made me lose most of my respect for Gaider as a writer. He's great at creating companion characters (Zevran, Alistair, Fenris), but beyond that I am now doubting he is as good as he seems to think he is. 
On topic: I am doing my second Cousland run but that bit of foreshadowing went right over my head. 
The adorableness of "sword of truthiness" must have distracted me.
Hmm, DA2's "story" and poor sequence of insane mini villains made me lose most of my respect for Gaider as a writer. He's great at creating companion characters (Zevran, Alistair, Fenris), but beyond that I am now doubting he is as good as he seems to think he is.
On topic: I am doing my second Cousland run but that bit of foreshadowing went right over my head.
It isn't just Gaider who writes everything. He has a whole team of awesomness who work beside him tirelessly during production.
Also, I reckon that the insane amount of pressure and time constraints were to blame for the random, "SURPRISE IM EVIL" stuff in DA2 and the time jumps that didn't have any realism to them (oh, it's been 3 years and nothing looks different? Cool.) Usually their villains have way more backstory or empathy to them (Loghain was totes on purpose, as was Bhelen) unlike a cruddy fighter game come soap opera (sorry, Tekken, but your story got crap when you made Nina become a mother.)
Modifié par Lucy_Glitter, 08 avril 2014 - 02:49 .
It isn't just Gaider who writes everything. He has a whole team of awesomness who work beside him tirelessly during production.
Also, I reckon that the insane amount of pressure and time constraints were to blame for the random, "SURPRISE IM EVIL" stuff in DA2 and the time jumps that didn't have any realism to them (oh, it's been 3 years and nothing looks different? Cool.) Usually their villains have way more backstory or empathy to them (Loghain was totes on purpose, as was Bhelen) unlike a cruddy fighter game come soap opera (sorry, Tekken, but your story got crap when you made Nina become a mother.)
I know Gaider is not the only writer, but he is lead writer and I assume that means he plays a large part in writing the main story and that he approves what others have come up with.
I honestly don't give a damn about their time constraints. That's still on Bioware's end, not mine. I am not going to feel sorry for them or cut them some slack because the company felt the need to rush the game for as much money and as little time and work as possible. And even if time was very limited, the fact that all they could come up with was "because crazy" does not suggest a lot of creativity. I would think that writers who are being paid for their work can come up with a little more diversity. They were on the right track for a while. Both Meredith and Orsino seemed to have point. But then one became insane because red lyrium and the other one because blood magic. What a surprise. Even the Arishok, who received the most development as an antagonist, needed a fit of crazy I-am-so-homesick to break his Qun character and have him wreak havoc.
In addition, I have never seen anyone at Bioware, least of all Mr. Gaider, admit that DA2's story was... less than flawless. Whenever someone of the company comes out and plays their little act that they acknowledge DA2's problems, they always, ALWAYS mention the same: recycled environments and enemy waves in combat. They add in an "etc" or a "yadda yadda" to suggest that's not all, but nonetheless these two are the only things they will explicitly mention. Annoying as those were, they were not what ruined DA2. If the story had been good, I would have suffered through the same endless cave with enemies dropping on my head over and over again. The story was not good. It was bad even. And not because it was "different than expected after DAO", "too much change" or because it would not let me "play the hero and save the day everytime", or - my favorite - because I am "too stupid to understand it".
Instead of acknowledging that things could have been handled, Gaider chooses to actually defend it. No, DA2's cliffhanger did offer closure. It might not have been enough for SOME people, but that did not mean that they did not offer closure. Well, sorry Mr. Gaider, but having Hawke mysteriously disappear AND dragging the Warden from the previous game, who had received proper closure beforehand, along with him is the very opposite of closure. It's a cheap trick to get people to buy the next game even after DA2's drop in quality.
Tallis (yes, I was foolish enough to even buy the DLC for this game. What can I say, my love for DA2's companions blinded me for a long time) was the first companion in the DA series I could not stand because she was poorly written and felt like fifteen year-old self-insert (oh, I am funny, I am bad-ass so I murder a bunch of assassins and wink at one of them before slitting their throat, but wait! I most be deep as well, so let me be sad over this guard I just killed), but will that be acknowledged? Nooo, I am a female and because both I, Tallis and my female Hawke have breasts, I must feel threatened by Tallis and her successes when my PC is not allowed to succeed. Yep, I am totally jealous of Tallis. That's why I hated her character. Thanks, Gaider.
Then, to complete it all, the one thing I loved about DA2, the wonderful companions, are getting tainted by revelations in comics years after the game's release. I do not even read the extra material, as I consider it milking of the franchise and refuse to support it after DA2, but because I frequent these forums I stumble into threads about it, and what I learned there about Isabela's past is pretty impossible to forget or ignore. She was one of my favorite characters in the game, but The Silent Grove turned her into a giant lying hypocrite and her friendship or romance with Hawke in a lie. And of course this is again just on me, that I thought I knew the most important things about the character after playing DA2.
So... sorry about the rant , but I can't say I'm very impressed with Gaider post-DA2, both due to his work and his tendency to resort to snarky replies.
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