55 réponses à ce sujet

[DementedSheep]

 

 

 

 

 

I have no idea where you're getting your view of Dorian from. You don't even find out he's gay until his personal quest. Outside of that one quest, snark, arrogance, and sole-Tevinter-who-isn't-evil-and-wants to-reform-his-country are far more prominent aspects of his character than being gay. 

 

Even during his personal quest the issue with his dad was less the disapproval about being gay and more the fact that he turned to blood magic (which he was supposedly against) and was willing to risk his son ending up a vegetable to avoid a scandal. . 

[Phoe77]

I always had an issue with Alistair and Duncan.  Duncan is a complete arrogant know-it-all who comes to your home, "helps you", and then makes you leave your entire life behind to drink darkspawn blood that will eventually kill you (and doesn't even tell you that it will eventually kill you).  Alistair is a complete moron for agreeing with the man for absolutely everything.  It just doesn't make any sense.  Almost anybody would be more logical that that.  (And yes, I do realize that becoming a Grey Warden is a 'logical thing' because it lets the person sacrifice to protect everybody else, but being forced into that sucks, and even somebody as immature as Alistair should see that.)

 

Isn't that kind of what Duncan was meant to be like though?  I think he's probably a good guy in the end, but he does unseemly things in service to the greater goal of the Grey Wardens.  It's actually worth noting that his actions are the only actual indicators that Grey Wardens are darker than your typical knight-in-shining-armor.  The shitty things he does don't make him come of as a bad guy to me, so that's something.  

 

Alistair's naivety and idolization of Duncan and the wardens in general seems well placed to me. Given his recent induction into the order and the life he led before that point, his belief in the idealized version of the wardens makes sense to me.  It's just as fitting to me as Blackwall's steadfast belief that the wardens can do no wrong in Inquisition.  It's what they need to believe and they haven't been exposed to the harsh realities of the wardens yet.

[Orian Tabris]

Isn't that kind of what Duncan was meant to be like though?  I think he's probably a good guy in the end, but he does unseemly things in service to the greater goal of the Grey Wardens.  It's actually worth noting that his actions are the only actual indicators that Grey Wardens are darker than your typical knight-in-shining-armor.  The shitty things he does don't make him come of as a bad guy to me, so that's something.  

 

Alistair's naivety and idolization of Duncan and the wardens in general seems well placed to me. Given his recent induction into the order and the life he led before that point, his belief in the idealized version of the wardens makes sense to me.  It's just as fitting to me as Blackwall's steadfast belief that the wardens can do no wrong in Inquisition.  It's what they need to believe and they haven't been exposed to the harsh realities of the wardens yet.

[Marshal Moriarty]

One point I'd like to make about Tallis - she is a character who has a DLC based around her. Its actually quite rare for characters to be as intimately involved in the story and featured in dynamic action sequences, because usually the game is allowing you to choose who accompanies you etc.

 

I think one of the things which rankles with players a little is that the characters who get this kind of VIP treatment tend not to be your party members (Liara in Lair of the Shadow Broker, Aria in Omega, Tallis in MotA etc etc). These characters get to have the kind of red carpet star feature attention that your regular characters never really do. Sure, they feature in more of the game, but its mostly just 'Big conversations during downtime, casual comments during actual missions, no real cutscenes or shots of them actually *doing* anything etc etc. Take Garrus Vakarian for example - hugely popular characters, but outside of his intro in ME1 at the clinic and his loyaty mission in ME2, what does he actually *do*? Not much is the answer.

 

So it is a little frustrating when these characters get such chunky, intimate roles at the expense of your actual team mates. Particularly when Bioware do their old trick of playing the interactions in a set way, regardless of circumstance (so Liara and Tallis for example, are very much written in the snarky, Bond Girl love interest vein, even if you don't intend for that to be the case).

 

Its a Catch 22 really. Either they create scenarios that heavily feature the characters in question and everyone accuses them of favouritism and start throwing around Creator's Pet and Mary Sue/Marty Stu accusations. Or they lay off and the characters all kind of languish in ;They wasted a perfectly good character' limbo, because they never actually do anything (except say things like 'Let's go, he's getting away!' or 'Great idea Hawke!' .

[Regan_Cousland]

A smart person could make a strong case for almost any companion we've had being the best written.

Characterization has always been BioWare's finest quality. 

[ESTAQ99]

Duncan is more experienced with the world than the player character = Duncan is arrogant.

Alistair is inexperienced with the world, thus looks up to Duncan who is = Alistair is a moron for agreeing with the man.

 

Good job!

Wow!!! The post, above is so ridiculous. I mean, really? Double facepalm. 

[PlasmaCheese]

I didn't like him in Inquisition either. After his introduction in Legacy, they should have kept it unanswered if he was truely dead or possessing a Grey Warden. I'd prefer some mysteries to remain unanswered.

My issue is that Corypheus spends the whole game failing, and never shows up again until the end. He shows up, monologues, vanishes for (in my case) 80hrs, then shows up at the end to fail over and over again until his eventual death.

He has some interesting things to say at the beginning, then he disappears the entire game. I have a hard time believing he wouldn't try to get to the Inquisitor in another way? Haunt his/her dreams? Have his dragon do a fly-by? There were venatori spies in Skyhold, but as far as I got, they were only in the War Table missions. No assassination attempts? Even the Archdemon sent Shrieks to attack the warden's camp. Corypheus has to be smarter than that thing.

I feel like he's wasted because DA2 built him up to be this all-powerful original Magister (dat boss fight), bringer of the Blight, and then.......it just falls flat in DAI. I was hoping Corypheus would be this deep character full of lost lore that he'd cryptically taunt us with, but idk. He wasn't. :'c

[Dolfanar]

Most of the main characters have been pretty well written and acted, imo. It's really a strength of the series. Tons of props across the board.

 

As a villain, Coryfish was super weak, imo. Mostly due to his virtually non-involvement in the plot of the story. None of his bravado in the finale felt justified. He was basically just a cypher who randomly showed up for two cut scenes and one fight...

[ElementalFury106]

The following is my opinion of course BUT also note that just because I feel a character is well written doesn't necessarily mean I personally like them

 

Best

Morrigan

Alistair

Loghain

Solas

Cassandra

Dorian

 

Well-written

Leliana

Fenris

Cullen

Zevran

Iron Bull

 

Eh

Varric

Carver

Isabela

Josephine

 

Worst

Sera

Aveline

Tallis

Velanna

Anders (DA:2)

 

 

Of course I missed the vast majority of characters, but these are the prime examples of characters I thought were great, okay, not good, and terrible. And yes, I am one of the few who think Aveline's writing is awful. 

[Vicious]

what's with the david gaider witch hunt? I find it really quite ridiculous that people call him out, insult him, head hunt him, etc. It's pretty creepy.

[Giantdeathrobot]

The funny thing about Corypheus is, his actual actions make him fairly formidable IMO.

 

He obtains an artifact of immense power right from under the nose of the elven god of trickery.

 

He blows up the Conclave, shattering any hope of peace between Mages and Tempars as well as decapitating Chantry leadership for years.

 

He makes plans to subdue said Mages and Templars afterwards, and both plans can easily end up succeding.

 

He ensure that the two remaining factions that can oppose him in the South, the Grey Wardens and Orlais, are either eating from his hand or are about to be thrown into disarray

 

When he spots a force actually opposing him, he immediately throws his entire might at them to stop the problem before it grows.

 

Honestly, as far as villains go, he's a pretty damn active one. The problem is, he fails everytime he appears on screen, so it feels like he's a joke. The Inquisitor escapes him at Haven, foils his plans at the Conclave, outraces him to the Well, then kills him. It seems that Coryfish stops being competent when the Inquisitor enters the picture. The only things that ended up being is undoing is that 1) he forgot to post guards at the door of his sacrifice of the Divine, and 2) didn't foresee Fen'Harel would come and help the Inquisition in person. 

 

So yeah, I agree he could easily have been written to be much more formidable. His actual actions make him the most competent villain in Dragon Age history one IMO, or at least the most proactive one by far.

[TheJediSaint]

Honestly, I don't think there were any characters that were poorly written.

[Cainhurst Crow]

Best:

 

Aveline

Varric

Shale

Dorian

Cassandra

Blackwall when not talking about himself

Cole

Sten

Nathaniel

Loghain from Inquisition

 

 

Worst:

Marethari and Orsino, for both making 0 sense and having irrelevant personalities and presences before act 3.

Anders, too whiney

Fenris, too angsty

Morrigan in DAO, nothing but a ****** through and through unless romanced.

Flemeth, became a literal Deus Ex Machina

Solas, Spirits deserve Equal Rights

Sera, just Sera.

Blackwall whenever he talks about himself.

Fiona, mary sue and turns a blind eye to atrocities in books, incompetent fool and turns a blind eye to atrocities in games.

 

Best of the Best:

DAI Morrigan after romance and child. The entire character arc, with her and the warden, and beyond, made her quite the endearing character to me. Her actions make sense in a way, and the character evolution going through this route not only felt natural, but also superior to others, say Leiliana.

 

Worst of the Worst:

Meredith. You had a character with a lot of potential, one who showed to be a multifaceted character. Harsh and hard but also honorable and good intentioned, and it was more her attempt to make her good intentions achieved that caused problems. So what do you do? Why, strip away her complexity bit by bit until there's nothing left but a delusional dictator with a magic sword. Oh, and you do it through a timeskip and never let the player actually see meredith or interact with her outside of once in Act 2 before getting the bulk of impression from her when she's already half-crazed with paranoia.

 

Wasted potential is worse than bad potential, so Meredith is worst of the worst.

[Bayonet Hipshot]

Worst character :- Tallis and Sera. 

 

Best character :- Morrigan and Solas. 

[PearsAndCherries]

Best:

1. Solas

2. Cullen

3. Morrigan (I can relate to her)

 

Worst:

1. Corypheus

2. Sera

3. Vivienne

[Ash Wind]

This is a pretty cool thread, I must say. It’s pretty awesome that everyone here played the same games and still, with their own ideas, thoughts, and opinions have preferences that can run 180 degrees opposite of others.

 

I like it!

 

IMHO the worst character begins and ends with Cory the Clown. He’s about as close to being a God as Shemp from the Three Stooges is. Through absolutely no skill, no knowledge, no effort, and no foresight, he wins the loser Lotto and just so happens to get the one unique item he needs to cause a bit of havoc… given to him by the second (a very close, close, close second) worst character in the DA universe, the douche a.k.a. Solas, the angry, detestable Vulcan-wanna-be. #fail

 

Cory’s high point is the attack on Haven. What does he do there? Instead of exacting a total victory, he poses like the loser he is… instead of killing the 1 person in the land that can eventually defeat him, he tosses him/her around and does another uninteresting pose-down, which, because of the clown he is, unsurprisingly ends in a fashion that the 1 person who can defeat him…. escapes. After that, it’s just one insanely ridiculous loss after loss after another. You would think that a being with an IQ over 10 would say, hmmmm, I keep losing like an ass-clown… that doesn’t seem very god-like. Yet he keeps on posing, if not to convince others, then in order to convince himself. His crashing into the Eluvian at the Well of Sorrows is the hilarious epitome of what a clown he is. #clowned

 

DA2 Anders/Justice/Vengance gets an honorable mention in the worst category. As does Velanna.

 

Best Characters – In no particular order:
Bann Teagan
Loghain
Morrigan

Flemeth

Nathaniel Howe
Barkspawn

Dorian
Zevran
Alistair
Anora

Varric
Idle Dwarf (the Nug hunter)

Iron Bull

[Fredward]

I have serious trouble picking out a truly badly written character. I don't remember much of Awakening, maybe there.

 

Best:

 

Aveline.

Morrigan.

Solas.

 

Good (close-to-but-not-quite-best):

 

Dorian.

DA2 Anders.

Isabela.

Viv.

Cass.

Leliana in DAI though it wouldn't mean as much without DAO.

Loghain.

Flemeth.

Cole.

Anora.

 

Bland:

 

Bethany.

Varric gets an honourable mention here because I don't find him bland exactly but I do find him anodyne, his goal was to be everyone's friend and that succeeded but it also made him kinda... flat.

Corypheus. One word: MUAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA.

 

Inconsistent:

 

Fiona.

[Imperius898]

what's with the david gaider witch hunt? I find it really quite ridiculous that people call him out, insult him, head hunt him, etc. It's pretty creepy.

Well written gay character (top) vs Gaider's Gary Stu (bottom):

https://data.archive...05557659983.jpg

 

As unlikable as Sera is, her lesbianism is less in-your-face than Dorian, and her personality and motivations are more varied than "MUH SEXUALITY!"

[Uhh.. Jonah]

So much hate for Sera, idgi. What makes her so badly written? Cause she pisses you off? She's hypocritical? Naive? Ignorant? Childish? "NO CHARACTER DVELOPMENT!!!"? Well, I liked her. I don't think a character has to see the light and/or have their views wholly make sense for them to be considered good. Of course I'm just basing this off of what I have seen around the board and numerous "why the hate for sera!!" Threads that pop up every couple weeks.

Her, Cass, Solas, Dorian, and Cole were my favorites. Everyone else I just liked. But shout out to Isabela in DA2.

[Chiramu]

I don't know about using "worst" but there are a lot of characters with wasted potential. I will only talk about the games though.

 

Characters who needed more work:

DA2 Merrill. She needed way more work on her and as she is in the game is not nearly good enough for her character. She came from the same writer who did Sten and Varric so I know Merrill could've been better that what we got, therefore she is the character with the most wasted potential.

Sera could use so much more work as well, at present she is just plain offensive. If she were worked on more she might not be as offensive to majority of the audience. You can have a character who is crude like her, but at least make her a well rounded character that is likeable instead of offensive.

 

Best characters imo:

Sten, I like no nonsense characters ^^.

Zevran, I feel his romance achievement is insulting though. Yes, you sleep with him easily but it takes a long time before he opens up to you. Zevrans' romance achievement should be after he gives you his earring , it is a very beautiful character arc. 

[BraveVesperia]

I think pretty much all the main cast are well written. I do think Cole's dialogue was the best written though, so poetic and unusual. Plus, writing through the perspective of a character that has a distinctly un-human outlook has to be more of a challenge. Cassandra and Isabela also get a thumbs up, because I went from being sceptical to adoring them, just based on the strength of their writing/personality/story.

 

As for worst, I'd say Oghren in Awakening. I wasn't a fan of him in DAO, but he was multi-faceted then, if you took the time to get to know him. And in his final conversations with the Wardens, says he wants to shape up and do something with himself. According to Awakening, that means becoming a deadbeat dad.  Other than that, his role in Awakening just seems to be "constantly drunk dwarf". Sometimes funny, but completely pointless.

[Tex]

I'd have to go with Morrigan from dragon age origins as the best in my opinion I didn't like how she was in inqusition exspeasialy if she has the chid that was just wierd and why was it only able to be male "sigh" oh well the worst one for me atleast was AlistIair followed closely by Vivian did not like her personality one bit. Well that's my opinion out. (I just hope I don't anoy two many people).

[Dieb]

I, too, dislike certain characters.

[ThreeF]

Sera doesn't need to be likable to be well-rounded, I get the impression that people can't separate one from another.

 

To me best written character would be Flemeth and Arishok, followed by Solas (so far, depends how things will progress with him).  The worst would be Meredith, Orsino, Petrice, Corypheus. Missed opportunities were Anders and Vivienne, Anders because his drama was forced, Vivienne because she is an optional character.

 

The way I judge the characters is by what my impression of them is in a single pt, where I potentially will miss things due to not romancing the characters (or not taking the rivalry path in DA2) these paths are optional and imo should not be the only thing that develop the characters. And because of this most of the companions are stuck in the middle. I generally find this problematic, because I feel that a character, especially the companion, should be well-rounded regardless of what route the player might take.

 

Speaking of routes.... Cullen could have been in the best category, even if you take him out of the context of three games (although this creates another problem with this character), but the way his dialogues are constructed in DAI the impression for this character can go from flat with contrived dialogues to well-written.  These variations are not created  by different routes/events that can affect the character and sway him but by a chance of picking a dialogue line that is not as developed as some others. These things are difficult to plan, so I can understand why it is happening. This is also why all PC are not in the best category and can end up in the worst category.

[MoonDrummer]

Oghren for both