Cole, actually. And I'm probably going to lose a lot of points for admitting this.
There are characters whose politics and philosophies fire me up more (Anders, Morrigan), there are characters I feel are disgraces to be actively avoided (Ohgren), there are characters I can more or less condemn and live the rest of the game on without a second thought, but Cole is by far my least favorite because Cole is a giant walking violation of consent and privacy and even personal responsibility, and this is somehow treated as a Good Thing by the game since the only people to protest are those cast in the least sympathetic ways possible.
Cole does a lot of things I find disgusting on ethical and moral grounds. Non-consensual mind-reading is bad enough, but actively spreading those results is compounding the violation- I consider the privacy of one's own mind pretty damn important, because too often it's the only sort people can ever hope for. But Cole's not just there to get inside your head- Cole is there to fix you, because clearly if there's something a (repentant) murderer and social inept driven by his obsessions can be trusted in, it's know what's best for you... whether you want it or not. Upto and including brainwashing the 'bad' memories away.
And he gets played sympathetically- Every. Single. Time. The only times it isn't played as morally outstanding is when it's played for laughs, and not at his own expense either. Cole the Spirit of Compassion is more or less treated as the bestest counselor ever- he heals your trauma! He makes it all better! He wants to help you so much that he might turn into a demon if he can't! If he can't counsel you, he'll wipe your memories so that it's all better? What could possibly be wrong with someone who makes the hurt go away?
Well, if you believe we grow from experiences both good and bad, that people should have the right to be responsible for their own life choices, to confront the world and their pasts in the ways that they want to and are willing to... quite a bit. And if you believe people should be able to trust their own minds, to not have their feelings and even memories altered to meet someone's jollies? Even more.
Life sucks- it's hard, it's humiliating at times, we have memories and failures we don't like and we have scars from the things that hurt us. And that's a good thing- scars are how we learn and grow and get tougher to stand up and live life. Heartbreak leads to maturity, guilt leads to repentance, anger leads to drive to make a change. Sometimes these hurts push us in bad ways- and sometimes they are what pushes us in good ones. 'Healing' isn't merely a matter of not hurting anymore and reverting those scars to an unblemished state: pain is what pushes us to do things different and better and to evolve as people into better people who can withstand it. People who never face adversity and failure and weakness aren't healthier- they're more vulnerable to when those things do come around. But you can't learn from your pains if someone removes them from you.Yes, some people need help to work through that- some people are forced to get help- but it's on the person to accept it, and to even feel a need to be 'fixed.'
It's not the place, the right, or the privilege of some random person to decide who is broke and who is not. It's not their discretion on what memories to keep and what to erase. Wanting to help is not permission to violate the most intimate privacy in public. Needing to act, the compulsion known as obsession even if it is tied with love and compassion, is not justification to change someone's personality and views to make them into your ideal 'better' person.
Even if Bioware's writers want to emphasize that it makes people 'happier' to have Cole digging around in their heads without their permission. Even if the only companions and characters to not think that this is a good or harmless thing are depicted as an unreasonable racist and an iron-hearted ******. Even if Cole really, really wants to help, and big scarry things would happen if he defies his nature and doesn't have his way with the targets of his compassion. (Because it is his way, and let us not forget this, because about the only two people who can refuse Cole's 'help' are Solas and the player character.)
There's a word for people who violate consent and force intercourse of the most intimate sort for their own jollies and obsession, who force their desires onto others willing or not, and that word is 'rapist.' For Cole the main reason it can't apply is because his pants stay on, but 'mind rape' is a suitably appropriate description for what he does.
(Even if it's not the connotation and impact that Bioware really clearly doesn't want us to take away, because showing people feel better after any sort of admitted mind rape would have unfortunate carry-over implications for the impacts of actual rape. Therefore, mental violation and enforcement of will without consent- not rapey at all.)
Now, don't get me wrong. I can deal with a mind-rapist character. Heck, I could probably even deal with a rapist character- some of the Bioware PCs can get pretty unhealthy, dysfunctional, and even exploitative with their romances. And lord knows that Bioware has produced enough murderers, genocidal war criminals, racists, and even sociopaths and made them highly successful (and popular) characters. I'm hardly demanding moral purity.
But I would like Cole's implications to be recognized and addressed as something potentially very wrong, rather than amazingly sympathetic and treated as one of the most morally benevolent things in the game.
Retour en haut
