10369 réponses à ce sujet

[LupusYondergirl]

No, I still check my email first... for review notifications. I like those better than stats.

[JHByrne]

Okay, enough instigation on the 'psycho warden' thread. However, I would like to briefly address some points that others raised, before flying off to my next point-of-instigation.



Lupus:



Duncan/outdated order of warriors: remember, Duncan had already been a GW for at least 20-25 years by time of meeting your character, and 5th Blight starting. Which means he had been recruiting for an obsolete order that hadn't seen a 'True Blight' in 375 years.

Duncan DID mislead characters. Riorden alludes to this, in his final speech to Warden and Al.

Jory: pulled a blade, but in a defensive posture. He was backed against a wall, etc. Glory hunter? Sure. He's a noble 'Ser'. Goes with the job description. Duncan recruited him after a tournament, recall.

Daveth killed off: yea, bummer. I rather liked Daveth. Engaging rogue, and all that.



SurlyForth: you mentioned that David Gaider indicated that the Alistair character is motivated by Duncan's death. It fairly informs his entire personality, as per the GWs. This indicates to me that Gaider himself recognizes the value of having a revenge/hate motivator to keep up morale, or at least distract you long enough to get the job done.



Anyway: on to the next point of instigation!



Darkspawn... mindless beasts, or warm fuzzies who are merely misunderstood?



Well, okay... maybe not warm fuzzies, but the Architect raises some interesting points. They're sleepwalking. They're misled by a 'call'. (Mousestalker might even be able to lawyerize a defense, that they are the 'victims' of circumstance, or even present a credible 'insanity' plea for them: that they are under such a delusion they do not, or cannot comprehend the nature of their acts... therefore cannot be held liable for acts without a conscious will).



However, if you just go from what you witness in DA:O, DarkSpawn are NOT mindless. They may not 'speak' in any known language... but they do have enough smarts to 1) work as a team, 2) follow a leader and subleaders, 3) put on arms/armor, 4) follow rough tactics and strategy... at least enough to be able to spring ambushes, etc.



So: your character, the Warden, is either committing a legal crime against 'insane' delusionals, or a warcrime against enemy soldiers (s/he never takes prisoners, after all, and is willing to use non-Geneva Convention type weapons against them -- like the forbidden blood magic, poison, lethal traps, serrated weapons, fire-based spells, etc!).



Wrap your minds and ethical dilmma issues around that!



(Okay, okay, it's really a tongue-in-cheek point, but there is some FF value to it: that DarkSpawn, even non-speaking DS, are not as mindless as they are believed by most to be).

[JHByrne]

And.... if DS are not so mindless... where is the FF writer who dares write the causes of the Blights from the common DS point of view? What do they 'feel'? Why do they do what they do? And, dare I ask... who/what are their love interests? And, is that a cute lil' Genlock squinting its adorable, beady little eyes at me?

[Sialater]

There is no ethical dilemma. Whatever their motivation, whatever their drive... they are hell-bent on killing or kidnapping every human/dwarf/elf/qunari on the surface, sometimes for procreation, sometimes for food. The darkspawn DO NOT take prisoners. Every woman they take is raped and mutilated to become a broodmother. There is no negotiating with them.



Their survival means yours and every person you protect's destruction.



They die. However necessary. There is no gray in this.

[Sarah1281]

Jory: pulled a blade, but in a defensive posture. He was backed against a wall, etc. Glory hunter? Sure. He's a noble 'Ser'. Goes with the job description. Duncan recruited him after a tournament, recall.

Oh, so Jory's off the hook for his 'self-defense' but the Warden is supposed to stay awake all night guilt-ridden over the darkspawn? Seriously, the ability to survive the taint has nothing to do with if you're a good person or not. I think the easiest case of someone being inarguably a good person would actually be the Dalish elf. They don't have anyone to really seek vengenace on or anyone betray them. They followed a friend into a cave and said friend touched mirror and is probably dead. They can be grieving but is that an indicator of a horrible person? Dalish don't HAVE to hate human. Many do and it's a common enough trait but if you hold your parents beliefs that humans aren't so bad then you survive the Joining just as well as a raging xenophobe.



Working in teams and following a leader are hardly evidence of sentience. I mean, just look at wolf packs. Putting on armor doesn't have to mean anything depending on how complicated it is and ditto with the 'basic' tactics.



The darkspawn aren't a race so much as a disease. They are incapable of breeding on their own and require ghouls with accelerated taints - broodmothers - to spawn them after being tortured a great deal. They are attuned to the 'song' of the old gods and as such their intelligence is minimized. We don't know whether just being cut off from the 'song' is enough to give them more advanced intelligence and be able to speak or if it's just a correlation of the darkspawn Joining. Despite whatever kind of intelligence they have, they need to horribly torture women in order to perpetuate their race, they taint whatever they touch, and they haven't been shown to be capable of coexisting with the other races. Even the qunari merchant from Awakening who claims to not be in danger of being tainted doesn't specify so for all we know it's another thing the Architect has done with his experiments and not the fact they've been Awakening as even the darkspawn Robin Hood messenger accidentally taints people.



Under these circumstances, no, I don't see why anyone should feel guilty for defending themselves and everything they have ever or could ever care about from the taint and the darkspawn that carry it.

[Maria13]

Ummm, who cares???

[DreGregoire]

Maria13 wrote...

Ummm, who cares???

Agreed, and instigators bore me.  I avoid other forums and come here to steer clear of instigators.

[LupusYondergirl]

Agreed. And I apologize for feeding into it. I should know better.



And... my missing chapters are back! Huzzah!

[DreGregoire]

LupusYondergirl wrote...

And... my missing chapters are back! Huzzah!

With reviews too I hope

[LupusYondergirl]

Yep! It seems like whenever I email ff.net I never hear back, but things fix themselves. I sometimes wonder if they don't correct the problem and not bother telling people.

[Sarah1281]

LupusYondergirl wrote...

Yep! It seems like whenever I email ff.net I never hear back, but things fix themselves. I sometimes wonder if they don't correct the problem and not bother telling people.

On the other hand, they are very prompt when you ask them to, say, double the character listing and point out that Oriana C. and Orianna C. were the same person.

Modifié par Sarah1281, 21 août 2010 - 08:21 .

[LupusYondergirl]

Very true. I think it took a couple hours for them to add the Awakenings characters after I emailed.

[Addai]

LupusYondergirl wrote...

Anyone else having ff.net issues? I just had to delete and repost my most recent chapter. It took a while to show up, did briefly before disappearing, apparently came back online at some point since I got reviews overnight, but was gone again when I woke up.

My update from last night is gone today, too.  Got a review so at some point it did exist.  Not sure what to do now and hoping it fixes itself. 

[Miri1984]

JHByrne wrote...

And.... if DS are not so mindless... where is the FF writer who dares write the causes of the Blights from the common DS point of view? What do they 'feel'? Why do they do what they do? And, dare I ask... who/what are their love interests? And, is that a cute lil' Genlock squinting its adorable, beady little eyes at me?

WRITE IT YOURSELF.

[Sarah1281]

Miri1984 wrote...

JHByrne wrote...

And.... if DS are not so mindless... where is the FF writer who dares write the causes of the Blights from the common DS point of view? What do they 'feel'? Why do they do what they do? And, dare I ask... who/what are their love interests? And, is that a cute lil' Genlock squinting its adorable, beady little eyes at me?

WRITE IT YOURSELF.

Cause of Blight? Old God song compelling them to do it. There's not much mystery there. Darkspawn LI? Please. They can't actually reproduce as a species beyond force-acceleration of a ghoul's taint so there's no biological reason for them to have any attraction to another darkspawn. That suggestion really makes it sound like you know nothing about darkspawn.

[Sandtigress]

Sarah1281 wrote...

Miri1984 wrote...

JHByrne wrote...

And.... if DS are not so mindless... where is the FF writer who dares write the causes of the Blights from the common DS point of view? What do they 'feel'? Why do they do what they do? And, dare I ask... who/what are their love interests? And, is that a cute lil' Genlock squinting its adorable, beady little eyes at me?

WRITE IT YOURSELF.

Cause of Blight? Old God song compelling them to do it. There's not much mystery there. Darkspawn LI? Please. They can't actually reproduce as a species beyond force-acceleration of a ghoul's taint so there's no biological reason for them to have any attraction to another darkspawn. That suggestion really makes it sound like you know nothing about darkspawn.

Broodmothers need love too? 


:bandit:


*washes brain out with soap and ingests copious amounts of brain bleach*

Oh wait...

Modifié par Sandtigress, 21 août 2010 - 11:12 .

[JHByrne]

Sandtigress wrote...

Sarah1281 wrote...

Miri1984 wrote...

JHByrne wrote...

And.... if DS are not so mindless... where is the FF writer who dares write the causes of the Blights from the common DS point of view? What do they 'feel'? Why do they do what they do? And, dare I ask... who/what are their love interests? And, is that a cute lil' Genlock squinting its adorable, beady little eyes at me?

WRITE IT YOURSELF.

Cause of Blight? Old God song compelling them to do it. There's not much mystery there. Darkspawn LI? Please. They can't actually reproduce as a species beyond force-acceleration of a ghoul's taint so there's no biological reason for them to have any attraction to another darkspawn. That suggestion really makes it sound like you know nothing about darkspawn.

Broodmothers need love too? 


:bandit:


*washes brain out with soap and ingests copious amounts of brain bleach*

Oh wait...

I hear they're fond of cookies and milk.  LOTS of cookies.  And a 50 gallon barrel of milk.
And if you listen real close on a dark winter's night, you can even hear them all singing together at the ol' campfire.  C'mon... give 'em a little love, man!

[Shadow of Light Dragon]

JHB, I'm sorry, but...you don't read fan fiction, you don't write fan fiction, you're no longer talking about fan fiction. I'm all for raising debates on Wardens and darkspawn and whatnot, but this isn't the forum or thread to do it in. There's a big General Discussions with spoilers allowed thread for this kind of stuff. We won't have to worry about getting closed for going off-topic, and you can get a heated discussion on whatever subject you like.



So getting back to fan fiction...



Guys, out of all the DA:O and A characters you've tried to channel and write, who has been the hardest and why? Likewise, who has been your favourite or the one that came most easily?

[Sarah1281]

Guys, out of all the DA:O and A characters you've tried to channel and write, who has been the hardest and why? Likewise, who has been your favourite or the one that came most easily?

I have, strangely, found it easiest to write Alistair and Bhelen and hardest to write characters that not much is known about. For example, I just finished writing something about Lady Dace and we know so little about her as to not even know her name so that was challenging. I'm not even going to TRY to write Loghain's perspective until I read the books.

Edit: What I generally try to do is make everyone think that they're being perfectly sympathetic and reasonable regardless of how they're actually behaving. I've yet to try to write Wynne but I'm sure I'd have difficulties with her.

Modifié par Sarah1281, 22 août 2010 - 01:26 .

[SurelyForth]

I struggled with the little bit of Loghain I've written- and it's been almost all dialogue. I can hear him saying the lines, which is usually an indication that I've done something right, but it's Loghain in a very specific relationship with the Warden so it still feels off.



I haven't even attempted Wynne and have done minimal Leliana. If I have my way, I'll never write Wynne and Leliana will always be an infrequent voice in my fics. I feel like both are too easy to take into caricature.



The easiest character for me to write is Alistair. I feel like I'm comfortable with his personality and we have pretty much identical speech patterns. However I have the most fun writing Anders, especially Anders circa Awakening. It's a slight challenge to keep him from sounding too Alistairs-ish but very much worth it when it clicks.

[Miri1984]

Shadow of Light Dragon wrote...

JHB, I'm sorry, but...you don't read fan fiction, you don't write fan fiction, you're no longer talking about fan fiction. I'm all for raising debates on Wardens and darkspawn and whatnot, but this isn't the forum or thread to do it in. There's a big General Discussions with spoilers allowed thread for this kind of stuff. We won't have to worry about getting closed for going off-topic, and you can get a heated discussion on whatever subject you like.

So getting back to fan fiction...

Guys, out of all the DA:O and A characters you've tried to channel and write, who has been the hardest and why? Likewise, who has been your favourite or the one that came most easily?

I REALLY struggle with Zevran and Oghren. I love them both to bits, but I always feel like I haven't done them justice. I find it really difficult to find their voice - because for all their levity they're both very tragic figures and I don't want to trivialise them by making them just an outlet for funny lines. 

I think it's pretty obvious that my favourite is Anders, although on the few occasions I've gone back to writing Alistair (not very often lately, I know) I find him pretty easy as well. Alistair is probably easier than Anders actually, because there's that vulnerability there that I don't think Anders entirely has. I also love writing Morrigan even though she's a bit more of a challenge - such a complex character again, like Zev and Oghren, but simpler because I can more easily put myself into her position. 

Great question by the way Shadow! Made me think!

[FutileSine]

I'm *quite* the newbie to FF...but if I may, Alistair is by far the easiest because I am so obsessed with the man. Romanced him several times? Check. Read and giggled over his dialogue at the wiki site? Check. Obsessed over youtube videos of him? Check. Morrigan isn't that bad either - I just have to channel my inner biatch and form my sentences around words like "Tis" and "Twould"



I am most intimidated to write Sten (Though I guess just focusing on eliminating unnecessary words would do the trick for him) and most of all Zevran! Shadow - you did him soooooo well in "The Hunt" that I'm sure I'll be rereading it again for references when the time comes for him to *gulp* enter my story...That and memorizing his dialogue lines off the wiki should help me...I hope.... He's just so opposite of my own personality that I foresee a challenge in channeling him.

[jenncgf]

I have real issues with getting inside Leliana's head. I don't want to go the "totally girly-girl" route and I don't want to go the "Chantry saved my life" route. Admittedly, I haven't really tried to write her much, but I realized when I was thinking about writing a letter to the warden for that contest a couple weeks ago that I had no clue how she would write a note and decided I couldn't make it sound authentic.

[Shadow of Light Dragon]

Ooh, some good answers/thoughts here.



@Futile - Of course you may! Newbie or Hopeless Addict, you're one of us now...*insert evil chuckle* And thank you. That's certainly high praise.



I have to agree with you about Sten, by the way! The most I've written of him is a really short letter, but I'd be intimidated to write a full conversation even though he's not the most talkative of people. It's probably all the qunari culture we don't fully know, though a lot of details have been revealed by devs recently in the DA2 boards.



I have to applaud those of you who can handle a full cast of established characters. I think focussing fully on Zevran and, to a much lesser extent, Alistair enabled me to get a decent grip on their personalities etc. Juggling more and doing them all justice would have been challenging.

[TanithAeyrs]

I'll throw my 2 cents in. I'm really struggling with Shayle right now, she'll be in the next chapter and I haven't tried to write her before. The right balance of sarcasm is easier to do when she is talking to Zevran, but I have a hard time when she addresses anyone else.



At this point in my story I feel pretty good about Zevran, and I'm getting more comfortable with Anders. I'm with Miri on the difficulty writing Oghren, I hope I've given him a least a little depth with his stand on the DR.