I'm back to complain some more.
There seem to be some mixed messages on Qunari. They spend time making the models and they have some interesting ideas for the horns, even if the hair is about as bad as everyone else's. They spend at least some time on that. They include a few lines here and there referring to the fact that you're qunari....
But all references to you being qunari is "you're very large!"
Yes, thank you, I'm aware. The camera regularly cuts off my head 'cause no one checked the camera angles, that's how I could tell. Or the other way to tell you're a qunari is when everyone and their grandmother calls you "savage" and "oxman".
And that's it. They didn't add racial armor, they didn't add craftable vitaar even, and that's something that's already there! They didn't add even a nonessential location where you could see something of their culture or history. The one other member of the qunari race you encounter has a storyline that's loaded with some non-lore-friendly dichotomies that once again paint the Qunari in a negative light.
And the only chance you have to discuss being Qunari with him is only long enough for him to tell you you don't count as one. And that's it. You don't even get to argue the point. Just like how you can't tell Solas to go eat his own bald egg head when he calls you savage in his Approval dialogue route (really, that was such an insensitive, terrible conversation for every race, I think, but it's just an extra slap in the face here).
So let's recap: You're Qunari only in that you're tall and savage, but when you try to claim any other part of the identity, you don't count. You're only Qunari enough to be insulted and mocked. But this isn't even on purpose -- it's just that any other positive content just wasn't included. Negative by absence of positive or even neutral.
It's sometimes feels as though Adaar was just tacked on for flavor, and any storytelling that should be associated with them isn't really present -- the way the whole game is for Trevelyans; the Tomb of Fairel stuff is for dwarves; and the Exalted Plains, Temple of Dirthamen, and, you know, whole second half of the game was relevant for Lavellans. And of course the Jaws of Hakkon DLC can be very meaningful for a Lavellan, as well.
It's a little frustrating that I have to pay extra money in order to feel like the character I've chosen is relevant in this setting, and relevant in a positive way, and that her identity is more than just being large and in charge.
Because when we finally get to a DLC for Adaar players -- it doesn't work for the race it's intended for. That's kind of a big slip-up! And we have to pay for it. You pay to be included. And everyone else in the party can wear it and it looks good, just not you (or Solas, or Cole, but that's okay, I'd rather they didn't look good in that, it's a little creepy). Its stats are broken, too, so that's pretty big.
When something doesn't work right, it ensures people won't use it and won't buy it, which fulfills the prophecy of "Well, no one wants content for Qunari". That's not true! We want it! We just want it functional. And if word of mouth says it's not, obviously it's not going to sell as well.
And to be honest, the decorations are kind of insensitive and a little, er, gross. The decorations depict large, naked members of the race hauling the bed like, well, plow animals. So it seems sexualized, and like they're overtly depicted as animals. This is the one race in the game displayed consistently and entirely as non-white, with skin tones ranging from ashy to bronze. I don't know if it was done on purpose, but it certainly doesn't seem thought out.
There's a lot of dragon-related content that they could have gone with, as well as maybe depictions of parables from the Tome of Koslun. Or the domes that appear in some of the comics in the architecture. Or maybe something that resembles calligraphic art. I think it would have been more tasteful and less... mocking.
I'm pretending it turns out this is just some chintzy Olresian designer's idea of Qunari culture, like 'ralshokra'. It just doesn't match any of the utilitarian we-live-in-a-hot-place, we-have-advanced-science lore we've been given.
After Sten, it's felt liek they're being built up as indisputable villains. And rumor has it the next big story DLC will feature a Qunari invasion. Which is a little unfair, then, to include Adaar, because it's kind of demonizing the whole race. Why do I have the option to play as a qunari character? Why is she there if she's not going to be taken seriously? I think her role in the world would have benefited if we'd been given a chance to learn about Vashoth culture some more. It would be setting up an interesting tension.
Also I'd just like to wear pretty armor that has working stats and skin tones and tints. Thanks.
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