I've done the same thing when I've been in the throes of depression, and I'm not even an aristocrat. It doesn't necessarily define one's entire character.
Can you imagine seeing your children walk out the door every morning not knowing if they'll return alive or free, risking themselves for your survival and their own, and allowing them to return to a filthy house in the evening beaten and exhausted and potentially wounded because you couldn't be bothered to clean up?
The way I see it, the entire point of Leandra's existence as a mother during that year was to make every effort that her children had a safe and comfortable place to come home to after dangerous missions. She didn't lift a finger in that endeavor, and instead wailed and complained and pushed them to throw themselves into even more danger. That, vocally blaming her children for their siblings' deaths, and protesting the idea of two of them going into the Deep Roads at the same time is the extent of her parental virtues as we see them during the game.
Ignoring the whole "let's drag my mage child to the least mage-friendly city on the continent and stay there even after it turns out our prospects are minimal compared to what we hoped for".
Aside from inventing things I didn't say, Gamlen was in many ways a useless idiot, and unlike Leandra, we actually have proof of Gamlen's actions.
You're right, I didn't mean to imply that that's exactly what you said about parenting, I just find the whole 'being a mother = incredibly hard job the exempts you from all other responsibilities' notion rather offensive.
And gaining you access into the city under much better circumstances than the average refugee and allowing you and your family to stay at his spacious home at his own expense for a year is not useless, as anyone who has ever been homeless or otherwise forced to start over from rock bottom will attest to, including myself. That's something you can't really expect even from your closest family today. Imagine all the Syrians who'd have loved to have a Gamlen Amell in Europe right now.
The only reason he appears "useless" is that you're lead to believe that he'll have a mansion, riches and a title ready for you free of charge when you arrive before finding out that he's merely offering a quick way into the city and free housing for the indefinite future until you get on your feet. So he's a flawed man in private and took the inheritance your mother left behind thirty years ago. Whoopty doo.
Well, firstly, it isn't "rightfully" his, so the sense of entitlement can hopefully be omitted. Secondly, well, he is in fact stealing things that belong to her.
"Rightfully" was supposed to be from his perspective, not mine. And yes, he stole things that legally belonged to her but which she couldn't realistically claim and was never likely to be able to. It was a victimless crime and would have remained so if not for the Blight and Leandra's own suicidally foolish notions thirty years later. Having been marginalized and humiliated by my own parents and put under an absent older sister's financial authority with what should have been my birthright just sitting there indefinitely, I'm pretty sure I'd have done the same thing and not ended up much better off than he is in the game.
I know no such thing. Hawke's only sanitary complaints when wandering around the hovel were in Gamlen's room.
You're going to have to come up with a quote for that, I don't remember those comments being particlurar to Gamlen's room at all. Or even that Gamlen has a room of his own. The conspiciously unused bar of soap lying around in the living room suggests that no cleaning is going on anywhere.
Gamlen is one of the characters affected by Bioware oversimplification. We're not meant to see him as sympathetic because he's the one who sold us into indentured servitude for a year. He raises legitimate issues about Leandra and family but the audience is allowed to easily dismiss them because he's rude, gross, and a gambler.
A lot of antagonistic characters in Bio games can have valid points but as soon as those points are raised, they then do something dastardly which exonerates the PC and the player from worrying that they might be doing anything wrong.
A sizable chunk of all conflicts everywhere can most likely be attributed to that insane fear of seeing the people you argue with as anything other than an evil to be vanquished or something contemptible you can feel superior over. It's especially unfortunate that we now have the perfect tools for reversing that kind of thinking with compelling and complex storytelling accessible to everyone, but use them to produce empowerment fantasies and encourage extreme idealization instead.
I'd say that the problem is much bigger than Bioware, and that Bioware is still further along than a lot of franchises in a lot of genres in this regard.
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