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[Super Drone]

 

 

We don't know that they're never going back to having 4 bisexual characters or 2 straight and 2 bisexual or 2 straight and 2 gay. I don't know why you assume straight women would get extra love interests. That's happened exactly one time. Usually it's equal or straight men get the extra.

 

Straight Women have had extra romances in both DA2 and DAI. Straight men have never gotten more LIs in a Dragon Age game. Dragon Age is not Mass Effect. 

 

Which is not to say I care, really. If the Devs think straight women need more LIs for some reason, then more power to them. 

 

 

I don't know what Patrick Weekes personal opinion on all-Bi LIs, but the dev team as a whole has never expressed a desire in having that setup return. See as how he is publicly very out-spoken on being proud of Dragon Age's representation and diversity, I doubt that he is super interested in going back to nebulous sexual orientations for the major NPCs. 

[Smudjygirl]

Straight Women have had extra romances in both DA2 and DAI. Straight men have never gotten more LIs in a Dragon Age game. Dragon Age is not Mass Effect. 

 

Which is not to say I care, really. If the Devs think straight women need more LIs for some reason, then more power to them. 

 

 

I don't know what Patrick Weekes personal opinion on all-Bi LIs, but the dev team as a whole has never expressed a desire in having that setup return. See as how he is publicly very out-spoken on being proud of Dragon Age's representation and diversity, I doubt that he is super interested in going back to nebulous sexual orientations for the major NPCs. 

 

And recently the characters sexuality has been a big part of who they are. Dorian's trouble with his family stemmed from the fact he is gay and that his father tried to "change" him. They seem to be interested in fleshing character out more, rather than satisfying player desire to bed everyone in one go.

[AlanC9]

Though really, that plot would have worked just fine if Dorian was straight but still refused to marry a woman he loathed.

[IllustriousT]

I prefer new protagonist in this franchise. It prevents the feeling that the safety of Thedas' entirety is on one person's shoulders. Thedas is large with a lot of good and bad people with differing backgrounds, spread out all over the place. New protagonists give a chance for new stories, new people, and more lore. As long as the "how" my prior protagonists changed/saved the world is prevalent...I'm happy. 

[Donquijote and 59 others]

I prefer new protagonist in this franchise. It prevents the feeling that the safety of Thedas' entirety is on one person's shoulders. Thedas is large with a lot of good and bad people with differing backgrounds, spread out all over the place. New protagonists give a chance for new stories, new people, and more lore. As long as the "how" my prior protagonists changed/saved the world is prevalent...I'm happy. 

New people? But we always had the same four cats....

[IllustriousT]

New people? But we always had the same four cats....

 

 I am not referring to classes, but characters. 

[Realmzmaster]

I want a new character for DA4. I would find it inane if the Inquisitor has to start at level 1 when in DAI the Inquisitor reached the level cap. The other problem would be trying to design the new game to handle both a new level one character and a high level Inquisitor  if the developers go the dual protagonists route.

 

Also I really like deciding on the progression of the protagonist from level one up.

[Smudjygirl]

Though really, that plot would have worked just fine if Dorian was straight but still refused to marry a woman he loathed.

 

Not exactly. His father tried to change a part of him, and make him "live a lie" which is against Dorian's rather honest character. I think that Dorian would have married a woman he hated just for his father's approval if he had been straight. The core part of Dorian's story is the fact he felt deeply and bitterly betrayed by his father. He respected and loved his father enough to believe he would accept him no matter what, but instead resorts to something he himself considered "the resort of the weak mind" to change him. Dorian's story is the betrayal of him by his father.

[BansheeOwnage]

After DA2:s ending I thought that bioware was going to innovate the dragon age series of choosing which PC you were going to play as.

New game =>choose character=> play as warden, play as Hawke, new character

Regardless of if it's feasible, that would be awesome.

[BansheeOwnage]

I want a new character for DA4. I would find it inane if the Inquisitor has to start at level 1 when in DAI the Inquisitor reached the level cap. The other problem would be trying to design the new game to handle both a new level one character and a high level Inquisitor  if the developers go the dual protagonists route.

Having to relearn how to fight because of the missing hand would be a good enough excuse to start at level 1 for me. Or they could do the ME route, where you start at whatever level you were and the level cap is raised.

[Heimdall]

Not exactly. His father tried to change a part of him, and make him "live a lie" which is against Dorian's rather honest character. I think that Dorian would have married a woman he hated just for his father's approval if he had been straight.

I think not, Dorian cites the way his parents loath one another as part of the reason he won't go through the motions. Or was this a typo?

[Smudjygirl]

I think not, Dorian cites the way his parents loath one another as part of the reason he won't go through the motions. Or was this a typo?

 

Yeah, i meant to say i think he "wouldn't" which is pretty bad grammar in and of itself. After all, marrying someone he hates would be a part of "living a lie"

 

But even so, his father's betrayal is still a big part of who he is and one of the reasons he resents his homeland. So i don't think his personal story would have worked as well if he were straight (as someone had said before)

[Heimdall]

Yeah, i meant to say i think he "wouldn't" which is pretty bad grammar in and of itself. After all, marrying someone he hates would be a part of "living a lie"

But even so, his father's betrayal is still a big part of who he is and one of the reasons he resents his homeland. So i don't think his personal story would have worked as well if he were straight (as someone had said before)

Well, his father's impetus for trying to change him was his refusal to marry. He may have decided to change him regardless. It might not have had the same resonance with real world homophobia, but it would have worked.

[Smudjygirl]

Well, his father's impetus for trying to change him was his refusal to marry. He may have decided to change him regardless. It might not have had the same resonance with real world homophobia, but it would have worked.

 

Hmmm I don't know. Arranged marriages are a thing all over Thedas, so i just think he may have come across as whining. I mean, it  obviously could have worked, because most people can sympathise with not wanting to marry someone they don't love. But i think it was stronger because of Dorian being gay. It added a depth of sorrow to his character. His homeland doesn't accept people like him, and the expectation for him to suppress who he is for "the good of the family" caused his father to betray him in a very cruel way.

 

I guess this is just the way i interpreted Dorian's character. To me most of his suffering was caused by the expectation for him to deny who he is and do as is expected, instead of one or the other. But, especially when you pursue him as the Inquisitor, he seems to value love in his sexual relationships. Even though he could have had relations with other men in the Imperium, he would not be allowed to expect a relationship. If he had just not wanted to marry a girl, his story would be weaker in my eyes.  But i always thought that he wanted to spare her the torture of living a lie too, as opposed to just being resentful of having to marry someone he isn't fond of.

[Heimdall]

Hmmm I don't know. Arranged marriages are a thing all over Thedas, so i just think he may have come across as whining. I mean, it obviously could have worked, because most people can sympathise with not wanting to marry someone they don't love. But i think it was stronger because of Dorian being gay. It added a depth of sorrow to his character. His homeland doesn't accept people like him, and the expectation for him to suppress who he is for "the good of the family" caused his father to betray him in a very cruel way.

I guess this is just the way i interpreted Dorian's character. To me most of his suffering was caused by the expectation for him to deny who he is and do as is expected, instead of one or the other. But, especially when you pursue him as the Inquisitor, he seems to value love in his sexual relationships. Even though he could have had relations with other men in the Imperium, he would not be allowed to expect a relationship. If he had just not wanted to marry a girl, his story would be weaker in my eyes. But i always thought that he wanted to spare her the torture of living a lie too, as opposed to just being resentful of having to marry someone he isn't fond of.

Weaker, maybe, but given how strongly he linked his refusal to his parents' disfunctional relationship I still think it would have worked. I don't think he saw that as any less living a lie because they were heterosexual.

[Smudjygirl]

Weaker, maybe, but given how strongly he linked his refusal to his parents' disfunctional relationship I still think it would have worked. I don't think he saw that as any less living a lie because they were heterosexual.

 

I said before that marrying someone he hated was a part of living a lie. Clearly he saw that in his parents too.

 

I concede, though. It could have worked. But i think his character benefited from his homosexuality and how he was obviously affected by his parents relationship. Both clearly had an impact on how Dorian saw the world around him, and made him somewhat cynical about his homeland.

[Dorrieb]

I think that having a different protagonist for every game has a distancing effect that seems to contradict the concept of role-playing. You role-play as a character that affects and is affected by the setting and the story, and that character becomes your identity within that setting. Your investment in the story is defined by the ways in which that identity relates to events, npc's, places, groups, etc. She is 'you' in that world.

 

DA:O did this brilliantly, but the overall story continues in DA2 and we must abandon that identity, along with everything that connected us to the tale, and forge a new one, with new connections to events, etc. We have to learn to care all over again. The same in DA:I. This leaves me with a feeling of disconnection from the story and some disconcerting situations: For example, in DA:I I meet Morrigan for the first time -- that is, the same Morrigan with whom I though I had a deeply personal friendship, except that I'm not 'me' any more, I'm someone else. In the next game my character may meet Sera and not know her, even though I do. That kind of thing disconnects you from identifying with your character.

 

I'm not saying that a story can't be told through the viewpoints of different characters, but there's a difference between being told a story and role-playing through it. You could argue that my actions and decisions still determine the outcome of the story, but when those decisions are made by Tabris one minute, then by Hawke, and then by Lavellan, in my opinion it breaks the illusion that they are actually being made by any of those characters, because they are really being made by you, the player, and you don't live in Thedas, you're sitting in front of a computer pushing a mouse around.

 

I'm not a big fan of the decision to do this, but it's what they've done.

[BansheeOwnage]

I think that having a different protagonist for every game has a distancing effect that seems to contradict the concept of role-playing. You role-play as a character that affects and is affected by the setting and the story, and that character becomes your identity within that setting. Your investment in the story is defined by the ways in which that identity relates to events, npc's, places, groups, etc. She is 'you' in that world.

 

DA:O did this brilliantly, but the overall story continues in DA2 and we must abandon that identity, along with everything that connected us to the tale, and forge a new one, with new connections to events, etc. We have to learn to care all over again. The same in DA:I. This leaves me with a feeling of disconnection from the story and some disconcerting situations: For example, in DA:I I meet Morrigan for the first time -- that is, the same Morrigan with whom I though I had a deeply personal friendship, except that I'm not 'me' any more, I'm someone else. In the next game my character may meet Sera and not know her, even though I do. That kind of thing disconnects you from identifying with your character.

 

I'm not saying that a story can't be told through the viewpoints of different characters, but there's a difference between being told a story and role-playing through it. You could argue that my actions and decisions still determine the outcome of the story, but when those decisions are made by Tabris one minute, then by Hawke, and then by Lavellan, in my opinion it breaks the illusion that they are actually being made by any of those characters, because they are really being made by you, the player, and you don't live in Thedas, you're sitting in front of a computer pushing a mouse around.

 

I'm not a big fan of the decision to do this, but it's what they've done.

That is a really good point on its own, but when I combine it with my other reasons, I'm more sure than ever that I want them to scrap their "new game = new protagonist" route. There is basically no benefit for me; I gain nothing of value and yet I have to keep dealing with this character-whiplash and Rise to Power fatigue.

[ME3EndingH8er]

I'm half and half on this. 
It really depends on DA's overall long term plan. If they intend to wrap things up in DA4 then there's no question in my mind that we need to play as the Inquisitor. But if DA4 deals with events up north and has Solas as the puppet master in the background - saving him for the next game - then i'd have no problem with a new protagonist.

 
I'm guessing the series will go on for 5 or 6 games, and that the next one would deal with the Qunari threat, the warden civil war and Tevinter social politics. I can happily foresee a DA4 where we play a new character who gets roped in to helping the Inquisition somehow, and progress from there. The Inquisitor has no real connection to the major events going on up north (again assuming they keep Solas in the background), so it wouldn't be too jarring to play as a new character, (maybe in this game we can somehow find a cure for their missing hand so they'd be playable in the next game) who then perhaps reports to the Inquisitor or could chose to break away from them etc.

I do think the Inquisitor needs to be present in the next game, but if it doesn't resolve Solas' fate, then they don't need to be playable, just an active NPC like Hawke was in DA:I. If anything they shouldn't be, simply because i can't see Bioware making them playable for 3 games in a row which would have to be the case if this game doesn't wrap up Solas.

Personally i'd be interested to see a duel protagonist system. I've no idea how it could work, but it would seem to be the only way to not ****** off half the fanbase. (Plus that way, in the final game we could maybe get to play as The Warden and The Inquisitor, and  even Hawke - if 3 protagonists wouldn't derail the narrative that is. That would be my dream game      )

[Lazarillo]

Weaker, maybe, but given how strongly he linked his refusal to his parents' disfunctional relationship I still think it would have worked. I don't think he saw that as any less living a lie because they were heterosexual.

I don't think it's just about the marriage, though.  IIRC, in Tevinter homosexuality is seen as a lot more disgraceful than it is in other parts of Thedas.  If it was just about marrying or not marrying the right girl, that would be one thing.  But the impression I got was that Dorian's father felt pushed to ends he did not because Dorian rebelled against the decision, but because he rebelled for such a "deviant" reason.  Or put another way, refusing to produce an heir with a certain person is something that can probably talked through, or circumvented.  Refusing to produce an heir at all in celebration of one's own "unacceptable" lifestyle is a different thing altogether.

 

Neither reason is a legitimate excuse to effectively lobotomize someone, but the former, IMO, makes Halward into the sort of "evil Magister" stereotype that is simply out to punish the defiant, which Dorian generally doesn't seem to see him as.  The latter portrays him as a weak and desperate man who feels forced into the situation for the sake of hypocritical "righteousness".

 

Even though the same story could be done either way, the tone would be drastically different, I think.

[Dean_the_Young]

I said before that marrying someone he hated was a part of living a lie. Clearly he saw that in his parents too.

 

I concede, though. It could have worked. But i think his character benefited from his homosexuality and how he was obviously affected by his parents relationship. Both clearly had an impact on how Dorian saw the world around him, and made him somewhat cynical about his homeland.

 

I think it's less his character and more how his character is perceived by the audience of western liberals in the mid-201Xs, where gay marriage is just recently a thing and gay conversion 'therapy' is the not-even-distant past. Give a different cultural context and prism- one where the audience doesn't view gay marriage any differently from heterosexual marriage- and the the audience precept would only be built on the arranged marriage in the first place.

 

Given that Gaider mentioned that writing Dorian allowed him to exorcise personal ghosts, I do agree that being gay was integral to Dorian's character plot- but more because of the meta-context than the actual necessity.

 

(Though I do doubt a heterosexual man running away from an arranged marriage he was being forced to would resonate with anywhere near as many people.)

[Dean_the_Young]

I don't think it's just about the marriage, though.  IIRC, in Tevinter homosexuality is seen as a lot more disgraceful than it is in other parts of Thedas.  If it was just about marrying or not marrying the right girl, that would be one thing.  But the impression I got was that Dorian's father felt pushed to ends he did not because Dorian rebelled against the decision, but because he rebelled for such a "deviant" reason.  Or put another way, refusing to produce an heir with a certain person is something that can probably talked through, or circumvented.  Refusing to produce an heir at all in celebration of one's own "unacceptable" lifestyle is a different thing altogether.

 

Neither reason is a legitimate excuse to effectively lobotomize someone, but the former, IMO, makes Halward into the sort of "evil Magister" stereotype that is simply out to punish the defiant, which Dorian generally doesn't seem to see him as.  The latter portrays him as a weak and desperate man who feels forced into the situation for the sake of hypocritical "righteousness".

 

Even though the same story could be done either way, the tone would be drastically different, I think.

 

According to codex, open homosexuality is only a taboo amongst the nobility, and more for eugenics reasons of breeding the better mage than anything else.

 

It's not that homosexuality by the nobility is forbidden- it's just expected to be hidden behind the facade. The face is what Dorian claims to hate.

[AlanC9]

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(Though I do doubt a heterosexual man running away from an arranged marriage he was being forced to would resonate with anywhere near as many people.)

A heterosexual woman of course, would resonate.

[Smudjygirl]

---

 

But since we have been given the hint from Weekes that Solas' story will conclude in the next DA (assuming there is one, as he said)

 

But you raise interesting ideas.

 

The Qunari have been an "imminent threat" since Origins, though. But i would vastly prefer to be a Tevinter PC to deal with that mess.

 

But just to touch upon the involvement with the Inquisition aspect you think of. Most people hated being an agent of the Inquisition in Inquisition, so i wonder why there are people who want to use that in the next game. How would  you see such a thing working?

[Dean_the_Young]

A heterosexual woman of course, would resonate.

 

 

I suppose heterosexual guys would get some  combination of 'first world problems' or 'check your privilege.'