9 replies to this topic

[Vit246]

That is all.

[thats1evildude]

Nothing wrong with mind control, since that's what blood magic is all about.

 

Thankfully, I think the time travel issue is dead now.

[Vit246]

Nothing wrong with mind control, since that's what blood magic is all about.

 

Thankfully, I think the time travel issue is dead now.

No no no. Mind control for Bioware has become a cop-out. A crutch. A lazy plot device. Because they can't figure out how to write complex believable characters who do the things they do while still being sympathetic or compelling or otherwise. And when they can't use mind control, then they just contrive things to make the characters become stupid. Like cutscenes. Or time travel. Warping the fabric of reality of itself because the real Fiona would never have done it.

 

Frak, you don't even need blood magic to influence people. All you need is a charismatic courtier/courtesan with a silver tongue.

[thats1evildude]

No no no. Mind control for Bioware has become a cop-out. A crutch. A lazy plot device.

If that's the case, then surely you can provide examples of people being under mind control where it was detrimental to the plot.

[Asdrubael Vect]

Nothing wrong with mind control, since that's what blood magic is all about.

 

Nope if this is Cole forget stupid thing what even work on Inquisitor(who have strong veil connection and control) and Seeker Cassandara what simply should not work by the lore

 

this was one of the worst thing what they can do

[Ghost Gal]

Next game takes place in Tevinter, where blood magic is rampent, and one of the uses of blood magic is mind control.

 

A wretched hive and deadly decadent court filled with corrupt magisters and altuses being willing to use amoral magic to gain power and prestiege through any means necessary - I'd be surprised if we DIDN'T see mind control.

 

Time travel is something I'd be happy to never see again, especially since BioWare just did what everyone does. "Oh, the future is so terrible that we have to go back and prevent it from ever happening, and everyone in the bad future knows their timeline is so terrible that they're willing to help the protagonists go back and essentially blink out their existence." I HATE that; as well as the "bad guy changes one moment in the past and makes an unbearable bad future" thing. That's such a bullsh*t cop-out that limits the possibilities and erases the moral implications of changing people and lives beyond recognition in the past so they never existed in the future, and limits the exploration of what defines a "bad future" according to different standards by different people.

 

I'd be okay with time travel if they played with it, showed us something we haven't seen a billion times, like... someone showing up from the past, saying this world you've always known is a horrible one and they need your help changing it to right what went wrong--oh wait, BioWare did that, and he's portrayed as a bad guy. Never mind.

[straykat]

The point why blood magic was made first was mind control. Gaider was trying to put an evil spin on D&D's charm spells. Because it was kinda weird that it wasn't seen as that bad in that setting.

 

Time travel, I'll agree... That **** was stupid. As if it wasn't already stupid in most sci-fi too.

[Gervaise]

Agreed with regard to time travel.    Let it never happen again.    It has no place in the setting.   

 

With regard to mind control, I'll be very disappointed if we don't see an instance of it when we go to Tevinter, provided it is done well.   The whole controversy over blood magic use, apart from the blood sacrifice aspect, stems from the fact that it can be used to control another person's mind.    Even Tevinter officially denounce its use because of this factor, although practically everyone knows blood magic and quite a few have probably used it to control minds but behind closed doors.   It doesn't even have to be directly used on your enemy.   In Masked Empire the deal originally offered by Imshael to Michel was to get people to alter records, yet not remember doing so and people would swear blind they remembered growing up with him, so his dirty little secret about being elf bloodied would never be known again.    The price was meant to be the blood of a victim on the rune stone, allowing them to be possessed.  To spend time in Tevinter and not even have your enemies use blood magic mind control in the game seems inconceivable.

 

Effectively blood magic it is like having vampire energy drain and mind control in the game.    Back in Baldurs Gate 2 we had an instance where the vampire took control of your love interest's mind, so they attacked you and you were forced to kill them.    Luckily there was a way to revive them afterwards.    That wasn't terribly well done because they contrived the plot so no matter what time of day you travelled to a location, you always arrived at night, and no matter what protections you placed on your LI, they always got taken.   Still the emotional impact of having them stolen away like that was effective.     If they could do something similar in Tevinter, without the contrived plot, possibly taking hold of them while asleep (which is the way it is usually done in Thedas) then it could work very well.  

 

Unlike time magic, blood magic mind control is an established part of magical lore in Thedas, so if done well could be a very effective plot device. 

[Xilizhra]

Noteworthy: DA2 says that mages can break mind control much more easily than mundanes can, so it probably won't be used a lot between mages.

[Gervaise]

Thinking back to DA2 wasn't it blood magic mind control they used on your sibling/LI/friend when they kidnapped them in order to knock them out?  I seem to recall that they could only be revived with a blood magic reversal spell.