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[Tayah]

What do you mean by women have narrower standards of beauty Allan? Do you think all beautiful women in games look the same (to which I partially agree; I think 'attrative' women in games all have roughly the same body type but I think they vary sufficiently in the face) or do you mean female gamers have narrower standards?

In this instance it may come back to a perception that male gamers have a narrower standard of beauty for female characters in games actually. 

Im not sure I quite see the difference. Id say Iron Bull is exceptional given that he is Qunari but if not i'll grant you that. Vivienne as a physical character is hardly different from Solas (and you can probably remove her hat). Even if you couldnt I would say that is more in favour of her variety than against it (it is a very unusual hat). I dont think I need to touch the beard and moustache thing since it would be very weird if the female characters possessed these facial features. As for age well I dont recall too many older male companions prior to Blackwall (maybe Sten) but I do recall Wynne from DA:O. The guys in the Dragon Age series tend to be more on the conventional attractive side than not imo (Zevran, Alistair, Fenris). This is not to say that the women arent supposed to be conventionally attractive (and as I said in my previous post they all tend to have the same athletic body type) but when it comes to facial features I dont see any INEXPLICABLE differences between the sexes (I would again stress that moustaches and beards are quite explicable differences)

The standards of beauty between female characters verses male characters is about the whole package of each character not just face variations between one gender verses face differences between the other gender. The differences include that for men you get different body types while for women as you said they all get the same body type including Wynne who was supposed to be an older lady and a mage not a warrior. It's not just about faces though again you have more variety among the male companions than the female companions especially if you consider previous bioware games as well: in mass effect the really alien looking aliens were male - Garrus, Thane, Wrex, Grunt, Mordin and Legion while female aliens were blue women having a bad hair day - Liara, Samara (or Morinth) or Tali who still looks feminine and if you saw the reveal has a mauve human face and human hair (can't remember the colour)!

 

In Jade Empire all the male companions looked different, Black Whirlwind was big as in tall and wide with shaggy beard and a love of drinking and fighting... reminds me a little of the blurb about Bull but without the sleeping around part. (2 characters don't make a trope and it's not a romantic one but the idea that you have to be big to indulge to excess could be problematic if it gets done more) In contrast Henpecked Hou was skinny and short and balding while Zu was tall and muscular but older and scarred while Sky was similar but no scars and Kang was skinny, older and with bizarre hat and glasses meanwhile Dawn Star and Silk Fox were fairly similar even taking into account they were cousins. 

 

In Dragon Age the majority of the female companions have been human and elf with fairly limited body differences and in terms of faces certainly in the first two were definitely in the "conventionally attractive" category. Male companions however have been all four races and haven't been as limited in appearances though I think the LI's tend to be more "conventionally attractive" in faces at least in Dragon age though. Oh and while not a companion Duncan was supposed to be an older mentor type. This is just the examples I can think if from the last 3 single player rpg IPs bioware released. 

 

In terms of a feature that differs between gender for no apparent reason there's scars. Cass will be the first female character and LI I can remember with a scar and it's still fairly minor while Iron Bull has serious scars that definitely stand out on his face, as did Garrus and Sagaicious Zu (though not an LI). 

[Oldkoboldqueen]

Similar to the "healed by love" trope is the "made monogamous by love/assumed monogamy" trope. I know for a lot of players that "one and only true love" type schtick is what they were looking for (and I love it too), but it felt really disingenuous for several characters. For example:

 

Zevran: Gets upset at you for refusing to be in a monogamous relationship with him (- influence if you "break up" with him), despite his previous cavalier attitude toward sex and relationships in general; if you do romance him, he will refuse to sleep with Isabella and/or Hawke in DA2 despite the fact that he isn't married to the Warden and you never have a discussion about it in DAO

 

Isabella: If you move beyond the "one night stand" phase, does have the opportunity for 3-ways but only if you approve, only gets to sleep with Zevran with your permission, this "permission" thing presumably extends to all of her relationships as she doesn't hook up with Fenris in Act 3, again this all happens without any sort of conversation ever occurring

 

Anders: This is pretty minor, but given the fact that he casually discusses his past hookups with prostitutes (and Isabella) while wandering through the city, it seemed really strange that his response to Hawke hiring a prostitute was "You're not THAT desperate, are you?" But, in general, I felt that Anders was really controlling and inconsistent so I'm willing to write that one off as an attempt at characterization gone wrong

 

Kaiden: We slept together in ME1. Then I romanced Thane in ME2. Then I sat down at a table in ME3 to discuss "us" and that words that came out of his mouth were: "I understand why you cheated on me." ...Why I what? Even if we had been monogamously dating in the first place, I'm pretty sure 2 years of being incommunicado plus the epic breakup speech on Horizon should have nullified that. However, sex does not a monogamous relationship make and even "I love you" is not the same as "and I want to only have sexual and romantic interactions with you for the rest of my life". So, since that conversation never happened, his entire assertion that I'd "cheated" on him just hit me as being creepy and codependent. So I ditched him.

And even for characters where it "made sense" that they wanted to be with you and only you (ie characters whose sexuality seemed very strongly connected to their romantic interest in you, like Merrill), it was frustrating that it was then expected that the both of you would be monogamous (in both thought AND deed, no less. I once triggered the "you must choose" dialogue with Alistair because Leliana said she loved me even though we'd never had a physical interaction AT ALL) also without any conversation.

 

I'm not saying that you should be able to build a harem of all of the LIs or whatever, just that it would be nice if all the romance plots didn't assume you were going to live monogamously-ever-after just 'cause you made kissy face. Someone earlier suggested that their should be the potential for marriage/srs formal commitment and I think that would also be great. I'd like to see more diversity not just in sexuality but in the types of romantic and sexual relationships that you can have. (I'm sorry, I know you said this isn't a "what I'd like to see" post.)

[daveliam]

Oh and while not a companion Duncan was supposed to be an older mentor type.

 

This also makes me think (although not necessarily romance-specific) that it would be great to get a female older mentor type for once.  Kreia (KOTOR 2 - not a Bioware game) and Theresa (Fable 2) are the only games that I can think of that have older women play the mentor role.  Kreia, in particular, was an absolutely amazing character.  I would love to see a character like her in the DA series (although, I guess, Flemeth is a bit like Kreia in some respects).

[Rowe]

Sebastian is probably the closest fit, and he's straight too.

 

Very true! Another good example. I tend to overlook Sebastian since his romance seems to be on the light side anyway. He definitely falls into the devout and straight category.    

[Allan Schumacher]

CLosing this thread down as I am too busy to continue monitoring it, nor am I interested in seeing people come in and picking apart the list as though I randomly pulled it out of no where and clearly ignoring the OP that it's a product of the thread's discussion.

 

I got what I was looking for and I thank people for taking the time to respond.