789 réponses à ce sujet

[Ynqve]

Well originally the romances were evenly split as 2/2/2. 

 

Then they got the extra year of development time, so they decided to add two extra romances. The remaining characters were Varric, Vivienne, Solas, and Cullen. 

 

Varric had Bianca.

 

Vivienne they obviously fell cannot/should not be  a romance option (I am baffled at this one).

 

And that left Solas and Cullen. It wasn't about catering to women; it was about what was left. 

 

And because they're afraid of making more gay or bi romances, they made them both straight.

 

It is what it is.

 

I take it you chose to ignore her long relationship with duke Bastien? And never did her personal quest?

[(Disgusted noise.)]

I take it you chose to ignore her long relationship with duke Bastien? And never did her personal quest?

Also, the fact she

Spoiler

black widowed him. I don't understand why anyone still wants to romance her after that.

[CuriousArtemis]

I take it you chose to ignore her long relationship with duke Bastien? And never did her personal quest?

 

I heard she had a lover; sounded more like a political type thing to me? Very 18th century French nobility. And no she will not give me her personal quest because she haaaates me

[Ryzaki]

Also, the fact she

Spoiler

black widowed him. I don't understand why anyone still wants to romance her after that.

 

Wait

 

Spoiler

That was intentional? I thought it was an accident.

[Ascendra]

I heard she had a lover; sounded more like a political type thing to me? Very 18th century French nobility. And no she will not give me her personal quest because she haaaates me

She is a mistress to Bastien, she talks about it if you ask. Then she kind of... Ends the relationship.
Also she outright tells you there is no benefit for her in hooking up with you.

I think if you were an heir to the throne or something she would jump to you in a blink, but alas, you are just a humble Inquisitor trying to save the world.

[(Disgusted noise.)]

Wait

 

Spoiler

That was intentional? I thought it was an accident.

Spoiler

That's not how I interpreted it, although I suppose I could be wrong. The fact that she managed to get more influence and power through his death made it seem purposeful to me. I think she did genuinely care about him, but since he was on his last legs anyway, decided to let him go at the most opportune moment for herself. Also, the quest title "Bring Me the Heart of Snow White" sort of alludes to it as well.

[Ynqve]

I heard she had a lover; sounded more like a political type thing to me? Very 18th century French nobility. And no she will not give me her personal quest because she haaaates me

 

Strange, she hated my characters too but I still got her quest. You need to finish the ball before you get the quest. But if you're interested here's some spoilers for her personal quests:

Spoiler

It's about helping her obtain an ingredient for a potion to save Bastien from dying of old age. He dies, and she's obviously upset. It's actually sad to see. She later turns the whole thing to her advantage, but that's to be expected from someone as politically shrewd and power hungry as she is. I guess you can interpret the thing differently, but I saw it as her trying to save him only to fail.

[MelissaGT]

Spoilers.
The biggest disappointment of the straight male romance options to me was the lack of development in Josephine. I either had to be a straight laced goody two shoes and romance a scarred up tomboy (ok, Cassandra is cool... but she isn't my general cup of tea) or romance a complete stranger who would never be anything more than that (My wife says Cullen is no better so this may be a problem for straight females too

Yeah no...you get tons of development with Cullen, way more than even with Alistair, IMO. Alistair was always my fav, followed closely with Garrus, and Cullen beat both of them hands down.

 

And "Cullen is no better" than a complete stranger who would never be anything more than that? He

Spoiler

throws your quizzy onto a friggen desk!

To my knowledge Josie doesn't have a sex scene at all, so she and Cullen have nothing in common short of being advisers. 

[MelissaGT]

I think companions have 3? romance-related, and then fourth in the end. I need to count them all to check.

I actually wanted to do an experiment to see what the men were complaining about and asked my bf what he felt of the ladies. He said Cass was ugly i nearly punched him in the gut. So much for "personality matters".

I thought Cass was pretty in a bamf sort of way...and I loove her eyebrows!

[daveliam]

I think that this is a great example of 'no good deed goes unpunished'.  They originally had planned 2 options each for straight men, straight women, gay men, and lesbians.  While it wouldn't have changed whether people were actually satisfied with their options, no one would have been able to claim that other groups were 'getting more' or 'being pandered to' or blah, blah, blah because everyone would have been in the same boat.

 

Then, when they had extended development time, they decided that since fans enjoy romances and there were still stories they could tell about them, they would offer more romances.  After all, these were 'extra' romances, so no one could get upset by them offering 'extra', right?  The problem is that the characters that they chose (which Artemis very articulately discussed why they made these decisions) were both for the same demographic and that demographic was not the demographic that was used to getting more options.  Add to that the fact that one of those was an already divisive character that people considered 'fan-wanking' and it created the perfect storm for yet another issue around romances.

 

Had they just stuck with their original 6 romance options, I don't think you'd see the pearl-clutching outrage that people are showing over their options.  It would be clear that it's just a case of them not liking their options, versus some nefarious agenda.  Instead, there will always be this shadow over the romances in this game now because of the choosing to offer us more content of people have been asking for (well, not everyone, but a lot of us).

[TheTurtle]

Spoiler

That's not how I interpreted it, although I suppose I could be wrong. The fact that she managed to get more influence and power through his death made it seem purposeful to me. I think she did genuinely care about him, but since he was on his last legs anyway, decided to let him go at the most opportune moment for herself. Also, the quest title "Bring Me the Heart of Snow White" sort of alludes to it as well.

Spoiler

It wasn't intentional. The heart of the wyvern was part of a potion that had the ability to make one younger (there's a book near her explaining it). She tested it on herself and it worked so she set out to make it for him, but unlike her he was already on his deathbed.

[quebra]

AGREED.  Most of the characters are fairly uninteresting in say comparison to DAO.  Josephine?  I barely know her, and dont really want to.

 

I guess more options in DLC?

[myahele]

When talking about "lack of romance" why do I get the feeling guys are just sour they don't get to have sex?

What was the reason they got rid of a brothel?

[daveliam]

When talking about "lack of romance" why do I get the feeling guys are just sour they don't get to have sex?

What was the reason they got rid of a brothel?

 

I'm genuinely surprised that there wasn't a high-class Orlesian brothel in Val Royeaux.  I would have lost my entire life savings on that bet.  

[Allan Schumacher]

It seems like it is both inflammatory and irrelevant to the subject. And, barring a source, it seems very dubious. I can't help but feel that there are any number of on-point reasons why BioWare does not have to provide romance story-lines that satisfy the individual romantic desires of their customers, but a perceived bias in an unrelated field of education doesn't strike me as one of them.

 

When someone states that they feel there's more options for gay characters, when there aren't, I post that to provide perspective.  It's not a motivator for why we do things, but rather the idea that "it may seem overstated because we're familiar with it being understated."  The fact is, there are not more gay romances than straight ones, so any perception that that is the case is simply incorrect.

 

You can find a quick overview of it here towards the end (as part of a larger article): http://www.pbs.org/s...rejudice/women/(Search for "Perceptions and Implications")

It's examined in Dale Spender's writings.  Learning to Lose: Sexism and Education

 

That said, the point of my statement was to have people self-reflect on why they feel something is inequitable when in fact it isn't.  Detailing a critical review of Dr. Spender's works is beyond the scope of this thread (and forum). If you wish to discuss it further then send me a PM.

[Br3admax]

AGREED.  Most of the characters are fairly uninteresting in say comparison to DAO.  Josephine?  I barely know her, and dont really want to.

Definitely BioWare's fault you put not investment in getting to know a character. 

[CuriousArtemis]

I don't think you'd see the pearl-clutching outrage

 

Ahahaha I just love this imagery!!!

[Ryzaki]

Spoiler

That's not how I interpreted it, although I suppose I could be wrong. The fact that she managed to get more influence and power through his death made it seem purposeful to me. I think she did genuinely care about him, but since he was on his last legs anyway, decided to let him go at the most opportune moment for herself. Also, the quest title "Bring Me the Heart of Snow White" sort of alludes to it as well.

 

Spoiler

Huh I guess I can see how it'd happen that way.

 

I saw it more as her trying a last ditch effort to have him be the man she fell in love with again but it failed.

 

If she actually poisoned him though D:

[Ascendra]

And "Cullen is no better" than a complete stranger who would never be anything more than that? He

Spoiler

throws your quizzy onto a friggen desk!

To my knowledge Josie doesn't have a sex scene at all, so she and Cullen have nothing in common short of being advisers.

I wouldn't call it "character development" but it was pretty hot.

[(Disgusted noise.)]

Spoiler

It wasn't intentional. The heart of the wyvern was part of a potion that had the ability to make one younger (there's a book near her explaining it). She tested it on herself and it worked so she set out to make it for him, but unlike her he was already on his deathbed.

Spoiler

Where did it/she say that she had been testing it on herself? I found the book, but it was so obviously laid out there waiting for you, I assumed she planted it there for you to find so that you'd definitely give the heart to her.

[Ascendra]

I thought Cass was pretty in a bamf sort of way...and I loove her eyebrows!

I find her more beautiful the more i look at her. But that may be because i really like her as a character.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Well, my femHawke seemed to have a bit of fun in DA2: the elf at the brothel; then Isabela; then Anders - then killed Anders. I'll tell you that messed up Varric's post game epilogue.

 

".... everyone left... except Anders. Anders stayed with Hawke...." WTF? Varric? It's supposed to be Isabela. I hired with Isabela. Anders is dead, you idiot. Or is it like this.

 

Hawke: "Anders, your arm fell off again. Would you mind picking reattaching it, dear?"

Anders: "aauuuuuuh."

Hawke: "And please do something about that rotting smell, would you? No one seems to visit anymore. Dog! Quit chewing on his leg! I just fed you!"

 

So there apparently was necrophilia in DA2.

 

You'd think there would be a brothel somewhere in Orlais. And where are the shoe stores that Leiliana told us about in DAO?

 

But enough of that. Cassandra in DA2 was great. In DAI, she's fantastic. She's the battle-scarred warrior, and I absolutely love her character. I love the look they gave her. I think she is beautiful.

[Killdren88]

A simple solution to this in my eyes. Get rid of romance. Will people be upset by this? Yes. Will people leave over it? If romance is all they care about in these games then I suppose. But nowhere near the numbers that would actually damaage sales. I say this because the drama and the finger pointing at various groups who feel cheated by the lack of romance for their particular preference. It is a complaint that never seems to go away from these games and to be frank, its getting dreadfully old. People demand one thing for their specific group at the expense of other groups. It creates drama that can be avoided. I say just drop romance all together. People get dramatic and demanding and seem never satisfied with what they are given. It comes off as ungrateful to Bioware who takes the time to even tackle this topic. If people only demand more more and more I see little point in continuing on with romance in general.

[TheTurtle]

Spoiler

Where did it/she say that she had been testing it on herself? I found the book, but it was so obviously laid out there waiting for you, I assumed she planted it there for you to find so that you'd definitely give the heart to her.

Spoiler

Let me rephrase it's highly suggested. If you take her with you to Adamant the nightmare demon notes that she's is not as young as she makes herself out to be and she's pretty defensive about it.

[(Disgusted noise.)]

Spoiler

Let me rephrase it's highly suggested. If you take her with you to Adamant the nightmare demon notes that she's is not as young as she makes herself out to be and she's pretty defensive about it.

Spoiler

Hmmm. I heard that and just assumed it was a low blow at her vanity. Interesting theory, though.