I just thought I would share that I have a a bunch of game art up on my Deviantart. While I have been on an Alistair kick again, I do have a ton of Cullen stuff up too. A lot of my art is very NSFW, so please take that in mind when viewing. I * try * to keep it updated, but........
o.O Dalish are not Andrastian.
Also I disagree with this... "any serious relationship for him would be with someone who shares the same religious beliefs." I guess I'm just a romantic and feel love doesn't always work that way. You love who you love. Also as far as Cullen is concerned, I would think respecting his partner (and being respected) would be more important. So long as they can understand and respect one another's beliefs, I think they could live in love and harmony.
EDIT: p.s. You can confess to Andrastianism as a dwarf or qunari.
Agree. Of course, someone could headcanon that a lack of common faith is a problem for him, but it falls far short as a canonical reason for the racegating.
I remain curious, however, why Mike Laidlaw insisted that Cullen's racegating, for example, was for story reasons when all evidence points to the contrary. Maybe there used to be story attached to the decision that was later... cut. Or only existed in the writers' room discussions, like his insistence that most Cullen fans are fans because of the Cullen/Amell/Surana storyline.
Yeah... They said Solas was race-gated for "super story reasons" too. The reveal that he's an ancient elven god who secretly likes elves (you'd never know based on how he talks about them in-game) and feels it's "natural to desire a fellow elf" turned out to make perfect sense. Cullen...? They never revealed what it was, so it comes across as a shallow excuse. If it was because of time/budget constraints (since he was added almost last-minute), I wish they'd just be honest about it.
The only "story reason" I can think of is that Cullen was raised in a human village and Chantry, and worked in Circles filled with humans and elves, so it's in his comfort zone. Lavellan can even ask him if it bothers him that she's Dalish, and he'll say he hadn't thought about it because elves weren't treated differently from humans in the Circles he worked in (that he's seen 
), so he essentially doesn't see you any differently.
But then Cullen is shy and insecure in love, and constantly worries about the "right thing" to say and do. (I just went over his romance scenes again, and I'd forgotten how much he admonishes himself. "What do I say in this situation?" and "I'm not very good at this, am I?", and constantly needs to be reassured by his lady-love that he's doing fine.) I think the combination of his natural shyness and awkwardness in love, coupled with being outside his comfort zone with a dwarf or Qunari (two types of people he hasn't interacted with much) could lead to him needing more adjustment time.
If he'd been one of the romance options to begin with (like he should have 
), the devs could have written special lines for the dwarf and Qunari where Cullen explains how out-of-his-depth he feels, but how he still likes you and wants to be with you. (Kind of like how they added extra lines for Sera, where she expresses her extra attraction to a Qunari but extra contempt for a Dalish). But, time and budget constraints (for both writing and animating) being what they were, they just had him turn you down flat to avoid dealing with it altogether.
Of course, hindsight is 20/20, and it seems NOW like a no brainer that the Cullen and Solas romances would be popular. But recall the negative fan response to Solas's looks when his in-game model was first revealed (something along the lines of 'WTF?', independent of our ignorance that he's the bad guy). Or the universal fandom hatred of Cullen before DA:I came out (yes it's hard to imagine now that we were the ridiculed few). Neither would seem like a sure thing a priori.
True... problem is, it seems we're having this "hindsight is 20/20" conversation about ALL DAI romances.
I mean, while many women are floored that if BioWare hadn't added Cullen and Solas then "straight women romances" would have been stuck with Blackwall and Iron Bull, but dudes weren't so lucky since BioWare didn't add any romance options for them. Lots of guys are also floored that they only get Cassandra and Josephine while Harding and Leliana and Sera are standing right there. Not to mention Varric was insanely popular before the game came out but they didn't make him romanceable (I get it now with the "Bianca" thing, but still), and Cassandra had a huge lesbian following but they made her the straight one while Sera (also the only non-human female romance) was the lesbian one, etc.
I know, I know, "character integrity," "story reasons," "writers can write whatever they want," etc. It's just... Cullen and Solas aren't the only hindsight mistakes, which makes me wonder what was going on behind the scenes that they mistook what the people wanted time and time again.
o.O Dalish are not Andrastian.
Also I disagree with this... "any serious relationship for him would be with someone who shares the same religious beliefs." I guess I'm just a romantic and feel love doesn't always work that way. You love who you love. Also as far as Cullen is concerned, I would think respecting his partner (and being respected) would be more important. So long as they can understand and respect one another's beliefs, I think they could live in love and harmony.
EDIT: p.s. You can confess to Andrastianism as a dwarf or qunari.
Agreed.
I personally think that if it's really a story thing at all, it's a comfort zone thing. Cullen's been around mostly humans and elves all his life. He's already shy and awkward in love, so it's hard enough with another human or elf. The shyness, awkwardness, and insecurity of being in love plus the lack of confidence that he's saying and doing the "right thing" with a dwarf or Tal-Vashoth, two people from two different cultures and lifestyles he's not familiar with, would probably make him that much more flustered.
But personally, I think it all boils down time and resources. They couldn't animate the height differences associated with a human/dwarf and human/qunari (and they already spent that with Iron Bull) and they couldn't write the extra dialogue tags acknowledging your dwarfiness or grey giantness, so they just didn't make him an option to begin with.
Problem is, Solas did something he believed was right for a noble reason; (...) Good intentions with bad consequences can be more forgivable than cruel intentions with bad consequences.
Cool motive; still murder though.
Blackwall's story is one of a man who made terrible mistakes for terrible reasons, and spends every waking moment of the rest of his life trying to fix or make up for them. Solas' story is one of a man who made terrible mistakes for pretty reasons, intends to make many many more for reasons that are not so pretty anymore, knows what he's doing is wrong, and still intends to do it anyway.
It is absolute hypocrisy to reduce Blackwall to his crimes and ignore that his entire storyline is about redeeming himself (not the Inquisitor redeeming him through the power of love, mind you, him redeeming himself through his own actions), while forgiving and coddling Solas for supposedly having noble reasons (that do not excuse his past, current or future actions). And it is absolutely not fair how fans will so easily dismiss Blackwall with a handwave of "I don't like redemption stories" while at the same time falling all over themselves to redeem Solas at all costs.
If the difference in treatment between these characters was truly about good or bad intentions, one would figure that the guy who intends to redeem himself of his mistakes by doing as much good as he can would be given more slack than the guy who intends to essentially genocide all current life forms because his nostalgia goggles don't like where the world went without him, no? So yeah, there is a big difference in how fandom treats both characters, but it's not at all about whose intentions are nobler. It's more in who (and particularly, why) people choose to allow to get away with his academic rethoric of murder for a good reason, and who they choose to condemn for never being good enough to make up for his faults.
(sup thread, just passing through)
Not Cullen but I'm kinda proud of this precious baby shark so well... Please indulge me
Just a very small precious baby shark who happens to be ancient elf of Arlathan from this fic. One of Andruil's best hunter, antagonizing young Solas all the way XD
And yes I know there are errors on how they hold the arrow.
Ceru, this is lovely! I love the shadowing you're doing in the folds of her tunic! And her hands!
omg that part is so true, and... and... I have to hang my head and admit I was one of them
man I was really disappointed they decided to not go with the mohawke ponytail look. And c'mon he did look very Nosferatu-ish on that one Skyhold concept art piece lol
I think it wasn't until a month away that I was hoping Solas wouldn't be the bi option (I was convinced he would be). Then after only a few reveals were left, I started getting excited for Solas. Then Solas didn't happen so I crossed my fingers for Blackwall.
okay I need to go sit in a corner and rock into a fetal position, THANKS R2 FOR BRINGING ALL THESE FEELINGS BACK
I thought the Solas content was great. I had no problems with it! And I had played Bull romance before that, which has a lot of content. But quality over quantity. Of course, a lot of quality writing did go into Bull's romance, no doubt, I just mean for me personally. I was happy with Solas's romance and didn't notice that scanty number of cut scenes just because I enjoyed the relationship so much.
Quality over Quantity, unless you started with Cullen's High Quality & High Quantity content T___T
ALthough each of Solas' made me cry thousand times more than Cullen's. The feels.
And yet... he was so smokin in the war table concept art. :shrug: Looking at WoT and the art book, it seems that his look went through many, many iterations. And, I guess all those iterations happened in parallel with the writing. So I could see the devs being cagey about a Solas romance, given that it could have gone any which way. That remains the biggest surprise.
I can understand why they want to avoid the dreadlock & POC Solas. It'll be problematic enough to have a main villain painted as POC. Representation. I don't think BW wants to go that way either.
I think you made a really good point.
BioWare has gotten some flak for reusing character archetypes, especially for DA romances. For example, how human male love interests had been golden-haired charmers (Alistair and Anders), and elven male love interests had been commitment-phobic former slaves who became loyal for life after they overcame their issues (Zevran and Fenris).
They probably wanted to try something different this time, but... with Cullen's and Solas' unprecidented popularity (despite being the most gender and race-gated), it seems like some of these formulas are tried and true for a reason.
I think you make a really good point. I can see where these would look good on paper or early storyboards, but I think some of these ideas or intentions got lost in production.
For Iron Bull, I feel like one of the problems is he was marketed and introduced as a fun, joking, boisterous, good-natured, likable, charismatic ladies' (and gentlemen's) man. Unfortunately, little of this shows up in the actual romance. At least not initially. He treats the beginning of your relationship with all the bored indifference of a business transaction (not romantic, fun, or sexy for many), and of course sets strict sexual guidelines that force you to accept BDSM terms (with him always in the dominant/master position and you always in the bottom/submissive position) or get the boot, and there's very little love/fondness/tenderness until much later in the relationship. Kind of like Sera's personality flaws, a lot of people were turned off long before they could reach that point.
Blackwall... I see that so much effort and passion was put into his story, character arc, and romance. And it's a good story... problem is I've heard a lot of people describe Blackwall as boring and underwhelming. I've seen a lot of people say, "This would be such a passionate, evocative role-play experience if I cared about the character." I think his story would be more popular if he was a more popular character; but somewhere between the character's inception and the final stage of development, whatever it was that was supposed to grab a large audience was lost. My best guess is they focused so much on his character arc that they forgot to make him the kind of character we like spending time with. A journey is only fun if you enjoy the company of the person you're traveling with; if you find the person annoying, boring, or forgettable, the journey can seem like a long slog or a forgettable experience.
It's hard to know what characters will appeal to people and which ones will get passed over (otherwise all stories and characters would be equally excellent), but that's my best guess.
Nah, I think I see where you're going with this.
Solas turned out to be the more compelling character, his romance turned out to be more appealing (again, I love how there's more passionate kisses and tender caresses and "lingering glances," and there's just more romance, not just passionate speeches and anguish), and I think it did a better job of balancing the "we shouldn't get together" warnings with the "but I love you so much I can't walk away" moments. (Solas hesitates a few times but then gets over it and throws himself into the relationship; Blackwall constantly warns you away every step of the romance, to the point that it's like, "Dude, take a sh!t or get off the pot.")
As for the "liar revealed" thing... Before Trespasser (I'm not touching that can of worms) many called hypocrisy for forgiving Solas where we didn't forgive (or just didn't care about
) Blackwall. Problem is, Solas did something he believed was right for a noble reason; Cole hinted that he had tried to help others in the past, and Solas revealed in the end credits "the People... they need me." Whatever he's doing, it's for noble reasons. Not to mention Mythal revealed that he gave the Orb to Corypheus, but Solas makes it clear that he never intended Corypheus to use it to hurt people the way he did, and he immediately joined the Inquisition to help clean up his own mess and protect people from his mistakes. He screwed up, but he immediately rolled up his sleeves and went to fix it.
Blackwall, by contrast, did something he knew was terrible for what he knew were terrible reasons. Betrayed his country and comrades for money, tricked his men into killing an innocent man (for money), then allowed them to slaughter an entire family, even the children, to hide his treachery. Then he allowed his men to take the fall while he hid like a coward for years. I know the DAI end credits and Trespasser reveals show that Blackwall's mistakes have less far-reaching consequences than Solas, but still... never doubt the power of intention. Good intentions with bad consequences can be more forgivable than cruel intentions with bad consequences.
That's my best estimate. I'm probably way off.
Lol Glad you like the movie, and that you got the reference.
Yeah, I know Cullen is more straight-laced and rule-abiding, but then again he does have a bit of a chaotic streak. He kept the good-luck charm his brother gave him for years (even though Templars aren't supposed to carry such trinkets), stood up to Meredith when he realized she went too far in Kirkwall, and left the Templar Order for the Inquisition when he realized they lost their way. He might not have have his head in the clouds like Brendan, but he has it in him to break away from tradition when he feels another way can do more. (Much like how Brendan defied his uncle and helped Aidan with the book when he realized the book could do more to bring people hope than the wall.)
Anyway, the Lavellan I have to romance Cullen is Adahlen (the elven word for "forest"), a pale, white-haired, emerald-eyed, green Mythal-vallaslined Dalish mage who most often chooses the "funny" dialogue options. I headcanon that she met and befriended a Chantry boy when she was a kid (hence the reason she would be open to romancing a human ex-Templar as an adult), and they spent nearly a whole summer seeing each other and playing in the forest, until his villagers learned her people were there and drove them out. Throughout her adolescence her clan visited and traded with many villages, and she saw that sometimes the Dalish and human got along well enough, until someone who stirred up old fears, prejudices, and grudges ruined the harmony and forced her people to move on. While she believes in tradition and cultural preservation as much as any Dalish, she also wants a world where humans and elves can live in peace rather than attacking and fleeing from each other in mistrust. Her relationship with Cullen reflects that idealistic philosophy. (I had Cullen save her Clan and had them wind up in Wycombe. Then they had a Chantry wedding with her Dalish vows. It was great!)
Revassan is the newest Lavellan I made, who also romanced Solas. (Kind of like the Dalish mottos Vir Assan, "way of the arrow," Vir Bor'assan, "way of the bow," and Vir Adahlen, "way of the forest," her name means "way to freedom," and that's what she wants for her people above all else.)
o.O Dalish are not Andrastian.
Also I disagree with this... "any serious relationship for him would be with someone who shares the same religious beliefs." I guess I'm just a romantic and feel love doesn't always work that way. You love who you love. Also as far as Cullen is concerned, I would think respecting his partner (and being respected) would be more important. So long as they can understand and respect one another's beliefs, I think they could live in love and harmony.
EDIT: p.s. You can confess to Andrastianism as a dwarf or qunari.
Depends on the relationship although I feels that Cullen is actually open enough to respect his partner's religious beliefs with the whole Dalish marriage vow 
Cool motive; still murder though.
Blackwall's story is one of a man who made terrible mistakes for terrible reasons, and spends every waking moment of the rest of his life trying to fix or make up for them. Solas' story is one of a man who made terrible mistakes for pretty reasons, intends to make many many more for reasons that are not so pretty anymore, knows what he's doing is wrong, and still intends to do it anyway.
It is absolute hypocrisy to reduce Blackwall to his crimes and ignore that his entire storyline is about redeeming himself (not the Inquisitor redeeming him through the power of love, mind you, him redeeming himself through his own actions), while forgiving and coddling Solas for supposedly having noble reasons (that do not excuse his past, current or future actions). And it is absolutely not fair how fans will so easily dismiss Blackwall with a handwave of "I don't like redemption stories" while at the same time falling all over themselves to redeem Solas at all costs.
If the difference in treatment between these characters was truly about good or bad intentions, one would figure that the guy who intends to redeem himself of his mistakes by doing as much good as he can would be given more slack than the guy who intends to essentially genocide all current life forms because his nostalgia goggles don't like where the world went without him, no? So yeah, there is a big difference in how fandom treats both characters, but it's not at all about whose intentions are nobler. It's more in who (and particularly, why) people choose to allow to get away with his academic rethoric of murder for a good reason, and who they choose to condemn for never being good enough to make up for his faults.
(sup thread, just passing through)
Both did murder. Solas did know the consequence of his actions will be terrible, including murder of the innocents, although I'm not sure he did understand the full extent of it.
It will be a very big lie to say that in the end I do not feel lots of sympathy to Solas. And it will be a big lie to say that I have harsher time with Blackwall due to the intention of doing what he did. Noble or not, what Solas did was not for his own gain while BW did it for money. Both screwed. Both tried redemption and BW succeed thousand times better than Solas' stupid choices. So for me, Solas' intention and the "why he did it" I sympathize a lot, and not BW's reason of doing what he did. But BW succeded at his redemption much better.
In the end I cannot not sympathyze with Solas while I kinda just want to ship BW to GW to truly just redeem himself for f*ck's sake. I'll be a bigger hypocryte to say otherwise. Although it's probably because I love the way Solas is written. Although I can't see other ending for my Lavellan other than her killing him, or him killing her. Or they kill each other.
That's my two cents, I still condemn BW a lot for his initial motivation. And Solas for his fatalism. And I still like Solas' story better than BW's although it's probably because Solas simply won the coin flip of the better writer. And that BW's story ended up as him being redeemed when Solas is... basically you just start to see his descent into darkness.
At the end of the day, I'll just go and draw more Solas-related fanarts from fics. And probably more Cullen. Kinda miss drawing Cullen.
Ceru, this is lovely! I love the shadowing you're doing in the folds of her tunic! And her hands!
That's not a gal but well...
Just a reminder (I've been out of town) that we try to be very careful to be respectful on here about NPCs we don't like because other people do.
Yeah, I think that's an important perspective to keep in mind. Altho the romances are hugely important to some of us (like me), the story comes first and frankly... many of the devs seem honestly annoyed by the inclusion of romances anyway. I remain curious, however, why Mike Laidlaw insisted that Cullen's racegating, for example, was for story reasons when all evidence points to the contrary. Maybe there used to be story attached to the decision that was later... cut. Or only existed in the writers' room discussions, like his insistence that most Cullen fans are fans because of the Cullen/Amell/Surana storyline.
Not long after that, they corrected that impression. Apparently his remark was only supposed to be about the Solas' romance. They've said quite clearly that Cullen's racegating was due to time considerations, not story reasons. Sigh, I feel like I have to point this back out every third day, lol.
Idk really, AListair was written by Master Gaider himself. Like he is his project all along with Marric & Fiona, Theirin Family Project. And they already did Alistair, so well... Idk. Although they were ready to not make Bull a LI before Epler worked overnights for the animation right?
IB was always a romance option, but they apparently originally planned for the only male LI for female dwarves to be Blackwall, sigh. Someone put in heroic efforts at the last minute to make it available dwarves, for inexplicable reasons. It also makes it even more baffling to me that the animations for the Blackwall romance with a dwarf are so...amateurish, to be honest.
Hi, Riverbanks!
I don't necessarily disagree with your evaluation of Blackwall's character, and once I got over my initial anger with the betrayal (and someone pointed me to the hidden parts of his arc, which half the time still don't fire for me, sigh) I saw how much potential his character had. Problem is, as a romance, it was mostly unrealized potential. My issue has been, and continues to be, that I think the romance was badly done, especially the animations for a dwarf. His flirtations early on are elegant, polished, and courtly, but there's NONE of that once the relationship starts (it's as if he's a completely different person from the first kiss on, and not in a way that makes sense for either Ranier or Blackwall.) Chunks of his story are hidden if you don't know to go talk to some obscure person at just the right moment in the game. The timing never feels right, and I still think it needed real content after the judgment.
What still chaps me is he was originally the only male LI for female dwarves. If you're going to gate one group out of everything else, then it isn't too much to ask for it to show particular effort, not the opposite (levitating boobs ahoy!)
Just a reminder (I've been out of town) that we try to be very careful to be respectful on here about NPCs we don't like because other people do.
I haven't been helping on that front 
Well I'll just go and draw more elves and Solas and more Solas.
I haven't been helping on that front
Well I'll just go and draw more elves and Solas and more Solas.
lol! Wasn't aiming it at anyone in particular, and I don't think I read anything that criticized people for liking a character in game, etc. I was just concerned it might be heading that way. I also think all of us interpret characters a bit differently, which can make things more interesting.
At the end of the day, I'll just go and draw more Solas-related fanarts from fics. And probably more Cullen. Kinda miss drawing Cullen.
*pushes scene of Alin and Solas lying together in a beautiful field of grass towards you*
Not long after that, they corrected that impression. Apparently his remark was only supposed to be about the Solas' romance. They've said quite clearly that Cullen's racegating was due to time considerations, not story reasons. Sigh, I feel like I have to point this back out every third day, lol.
I've been meaning to ask you about this, Tish. Are you sure? Do you remember who said this and when? What I remember is an ex-dev saying that about Cullen's being a romance option for male Inquisitors, not about the race gating.
I think I'd actually pay to have Cullen ungated. I like playing lower class characters, especially if I can give them a knight in shining armor. At least he's an absolute prince to my horribly scarred Lavellan.
haha "think"? I don't want to admit the mounds of cash I'd be willing to part with to have un-gated Solas and Cullen
I've been meaning to ask you about this, Tish. Are you sure? Do you remember who said this and when? What I remember is an ex-dev saying that about Cullen's being a romance option for male Inquisitors, not about the race gating.
Ugh, yes, but it was at least 9 or 10 months ago. I have absolutely no idea if I still have a link to the interview where it was stated (I'm still not actually at my home computer, lol,) and going that far back in this forum and searching through 500 - 1000 pages of posts to find that link simply isn't something I have time for right now (we were going through a lot of pages every day then.) But someone asked about the statement from Laidlaw before the game launched about the racegating having story reasons that would be clear from the game because while Solas's is relatively clear, there's absolutely nothing in Cullen's story arc that even vaguely addresses gating for qunari and dwarves. The person being interviewed was quite surprised, if I recall, and said that no, in Cullen's case, they simply ran out of time to make him available to everyone. I remember that interview particularly clearly because I'd been very pissed when there was no story reason ever given in game, and I'd discovered the extremely limited appeal of IB and Blackwall's romances and that they'd written Sera to be for human and qunari women, not elves or dwarves (unless they have serious self-esteem issues and believe they deserve to be insulted...) I can't even recall now if the gender gating was brought up in the one I heard; probably, but I do know that it specifically discussed the race-gating (or I'd be a LOT more steamed still about the treatment of female dwarves in this game, considering we pay the same price as everyone else.)
It isn't as if there's apparently any particular indication in any of the other games for a more general cultural reason - someone pointed out recently that in DA2, there's banter between two male prostitutes at the Rose about a male dwarf mostly getting Templar customers. A dwarf-human relationship in DAO isn't even blinked at, in contrast to an elven-human one which is clearly a problem. There's even a Ferelden story about a short human marrying a dwarven princess...and the Fereldens aren't exactly disapproving of him. Doesn't sound like any particular distaste between the races to me. The religion argument simply doesn't hold water - there's far less logical grounds to assume a Dalish elf raised in a completely different culture and religion would accept an alien religion (nor is it requirement, I should point out since Cullen is fine with Dalish wedding vows that name a Dalish god) than a dwarf raised on the surface among humans would be Andrastrian - Varric is, after all, and he's actually from an influential surface family with ties to Orzammar.
I think I'd actually pay to have Cullen ungated. I like playing lower class characters, especially if I can give them a knight in shining armor. At least he's an absolute prince to my horribly scarred Lavellan.
Yes! Though frankly, it's a bit of a slap in the face to have to pay extra, sigh...
R2, trying to retrace it in the time I have, lol. Here are posts where other people mention it:
http://forum.bioware...8#entry18925556
http://forum.bioware...2#entry18143348
I went back to December 19, 2014, and Lolalei had posted a video that is no longer available:
http://forum.bioware...2#entry18143389
Which seemed to have been something about a dev who's no longer with BW who discussed the time reason for the gender gating, but the one I saw was a man who was still with BW and in fact it was sometime past mid-January because I've found posts by me through then when I didn't yet know about the interview I remember.
Yes! Though frankly, it's a bit of a slap in the face to have to pay extra, sigh...
Well... the fact is, everyone originally got two. They honestly thought they were giving us some great options. Just think, originally, all female characters, regardless of race, had only Bull or Blackwall as a male romance option. Same with my situation... male characters had Bull and Dorian as a male romance option. When they had an extra year, it's not surprising that they chose to focus on straight female and human/elf for the new additions. When asked why Solas was straight instead of gay (if time and money forced it to be an either/or situation) one of the devs (I believe it was actually Laidlaw) said it would have been crazy to have two gay love interests. So, there you have it. My guys never even had a chance lol
But it's all subjective. There are people who adore Bull, Dorian, and/or Blackwall. It just sucks for Cullenites like you and me; we just didn't get what we really wanted, while all our friends did. It don't think it would have been so bad if nobody had gotten Cullen, but it makes one quite salty to have to watch from the sidelines while everyone else gets their templar kick
That's why I always say... if you like what you got, you're in favor of race- and gender-gating. If you didn't, you aren't. Because humans are selfish creatures lol
(sup thread, just passing through)
Fine, I retract my statement.
(I said "Before Trespaser" as in "based on the information we had before Trespasser," and I said "based on my best estimate" specifically because I don't want to fight about this with anyone. If you just want to take post-Trespasser reveals to jump down my throat, you needn't bother. I take back what I said, so now you can just pass through.)
Both did murder.
Fine, whatever. I retract my statement.
When asked why Solas was straight instead of gay (if time and money forced it to be an either/or situation) one of the devs (I believe it was actually Laidlaw) said it would have been crazy to have two gay love interests. So, there you have it. My guys never even had a chance lol
That's funny, I've seen many comments on Solas from Patrick Weekes (the author) and I never saw that. Weekes mentioned that he pretty much wrote Solas' romance on his own one weekend, then he approached Laidlaw and pretty much said, "What would you think on a romance for Solas?" and when Laidlaw hesitated he said, "What if I already wrote it?" Then Laidlaw pretty much said, "Well, okay, but we can only budget it for a female elf," and Weekes said, "That's okay, because that's what I wrote it for." (For the life of me, I can't find that interview.)
Then again, on Twitter someone asked Weekes why Solas wasn't available to men, and Weekes replied they knew some people would see Solas as depraved (because of the Trespasser reveals that Riverbanks just bit my head off about), and they specifically wanted to avoid the "Depraved Bisexual" trope. I created a Twitter account just to thank him.
Hmm I wonder...
Religion is very important to Cullen. I would think that any serious relationship for him would be with someone who shares the same religious beliefs. This could explain the race gating no? Wanting to be with someone of the same religion doesn't make you racist... does it? The above notwithstanding, perhaps the other two races are too far of a stretch religiously?
I think its disrespectful for Lavellans to expect Cullen to drop all of his beliefs. A relationship is a two way street. If he respects her she should respect his beliefs as well.
R2, trying to retrace it in the time I have, lol. Here are posts where other people mention it:
http://forum.bioware...8#entry18925556
http://forum.bioware...2#entry18143348
I went back to December 19, 2014, and Lolalei had posted a video that is no longer available:
http://forum.bioware...2#entry18143389
Which seemed to have been something about a dev who's no longer with BW who discussed the time reason for the gender gating, but the one I saw was a man who was still with BW and in fact it was sometime past mid-January because I've found posts by me through then when I didn't yet know about the interview I remember.
Alot of people had no issues with the race gating.
This confession got almost 400 replies and no negative responses.
http://dragonageconf...ion-taught-me-i
This confession got 132 replies
http://dragonageconf...e-first-but-hot
I know it sucks for alot of people but they are likely never going to go back to the way DA2 was.
And besides the writers have the right to their vision while people can mod to their hearts content.
Personally, I have too much respect to the developers and writers to demand things from them.
Well... the fact is, everyone originally got two. They honestly thought they were giving us some great options. Just think, originally, all female characters, regardless of race, had only Bull or Blackwall as a male romance option. Same with my situation... male characters had Bull and Dorian as a male romance option. When they had an extra year, it's not surprising that they chose to focus on straight female and human/elf for the new additions. When asked why Solas was straight instead of gay (if time and money forced it to be an either/or situation) one of the devs (I believe it was actually Laidlaw) said it would have been crazy to have two gay love interests. So, there you have it. My guys never even had a chance lol
But it's all subjective. There are people who adore Bull, Dorian, and/or Blackwall. It just sucks for Cullenites like you and me; we just didn't get what we really wanted, while all our friends did. It don't think it would have been so bad if nobody had gotten Cullen, but it makes one quite salty to have to watch from the sidelines while everyone else gets their templar kick
That's why I always say... if you like what you got, you're in favor of race- and gender-gating. If you didn't, you aren't. Because humans are selfish creatures lol
Actually, no. Apparently, they hadn't even planned on IB for the female dwarves and squeezed that in at the last minute. Why, I dunno. I'm being polite and not speculating on old debates on someone disliking female dwarves and sabotaging the chances of people playing them (nor will I speculate on the fact that the newest race already had a same-race LI and is also Sera's favored race instead of one of those she insults...) But I agree, the people who are happy with gating are the ones who got advantaged and know that they will continue to be. Once a game starts doing that, the majority of the resources will ALWAYS go to the most popular races, etc. If you're cheering it on, you know that you will continue to get the lion's share of the effort.
I'm actually really surprised that people are suddenly contesting that his race-gating was for time and resource reasons, not story reasons now, almost a year after we were told differently and people accepting it and even quoting it constantly. Time and resource reasons should shut down all potentially negative discussions about Cullen as racist. Errr, do people suddenly want the drama of those sorts of vitriolic discussions again?
Alot of people had no issues with the race gating.
This confession got almost 400 replies and no negative responses.
http://dragonageconf...ion-taught-me-i
This confession got 132 replies
http://dragonageconf...e-first-but-hot
I know it sucks for alot of people but they are likely never going to go back to the way DA2 was.
And besides the writers have the right to their vision while people can mod to their hearts content.
Personally, I have too much respect to the developers and writers to demand things from them.
Melca, I never go to those, and many other people don't, and even if I did, I wouldn't start a discussion like that there (and many of those threads started huge negative discussions elsewhere.) There were LOTS of negative reactions on BSN about it. Racegating in particular is a major problem, but I don't want to see this turn acrimonious. But keep in mind that with DAO and DA2, it was possible to do an enormous amount with modding, even entirely new scenes if they weren't voiced. The new engine has limited them FAR more. Yes, I'm going to play with a mod that ungates Cullen to my dwarf. But it does not adjust for height or anything else; it basically just unblocks the check points that prevents a romance from going forward with a dwarf which means I'm going to have to ignore a lot to play it. And it's unlikely to ever be anything else since they are releasing so little about it. My daughter and her wife were showing me Skyrim mods last night that made me want to cry because the engine they're using for DA now pretty much rules out anything except a bit of cosmetic modding.
I'm not demanding things from them. I'm pointing out how unevenly done what they gave us was, and if no one speaks up with criticisms, they're going to assume everyone's fine with what happened and continue giving players of certain races, etc. extremely well-done fleshed out content and treating others as afterthoughts with shoddy animations then pompously say, well, no one likes to play them. Duh. Maybe if they'd taken the time to give female dwarves at least ONE male LI that was well-done and generally appealing, I'd be less ticked off. Or even if they'd kept the game in an engine that wasn't so difficult to mod. But they didn't.
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