Dragon Age 30 Day Challenge: 2 & 3
LJ has been going down every chance I've gotten to post, so have two at once while I catch up.
2. Favourite Character
I did originally think of Zevran, until I realised that Zevran is only one of my favourites because of the hilarity that ensues because of him, then I thought about Fenris, but I may be seen as too much of a fangirl if he was both my favourite character and LI.
So...
Anders!
I love Anders. I wasn't much of a fan of him in Awakenings. While he was my favourite companion in the expansion, he was too similar to Alastair for me, with the charm and witty lines, but minus the social nervousness and with Zevran's penchant for flirting. Fast forward to Dragon Age 2 and we have the Anders/Justice dynamic: a far less carefree Anders with a twisted spirit of Vengeance inside of him. When I first heard about him being in DA2, I was like "...meh", but I was sucked in and more interested than him as a character than any other in both DA games when I actually played it.
He's a complex character, the most important in the game besides Hawke, and the attention poured onto his story arc reminded me of Anomen's in BG2, with his struggles with Justice splitting into "I can control it, it's fine, casual terrorism was my idea!" or "I can't control it, it's not fine, it's actually completely fucked, and Justice made me do it" depending on whether your friends or rivals with him. (Of course, Anomen was an annoying piece of shit, BUT it would have been a very good arc if it'd happened to anyone else!)
The latter is appealingly tragic because he was just an idealist hoping that Justice could help him overturn the Chantry that had oppressed him -- but has become conflicted, dangerous and homocidal through no fault of his own, and is doomed to either being killed or fleeing from the templars all of his life as a result. Even the woot Justice is win path is very interesting in its own right. I find him admirable for standing up for what he believed in and he was right in what he was saying: destroying the Chantry and murdering Elthina and the other clerics was wrong, but compromise wasn't working (yeah, I'm talking to you, Elthina). Not to mention that he's adorable as all hell
3. Least Favourite Character
This is so easy.
Yes, Duncan. Duncan with his beard-y beard and Grey Wardens and character that almost everyone in the fandom seems to like.
DISLIKE.
Duncan is a piece of shit. I can sort of look past the forcing the Warden and others into conscription and I can sort of look past not revealing anything about how shitty being a Grey Warden is because they're needed for the Archdemon killing, although it took Riordan's reveal for me to do so.
I can't look past the impartiality bullshit. Hey, Duncan, me, my cousin and the other women of the alienage are about to be r***d. My cousin IS r***d. And you're telling me you can't do a fucking thing because of neutrality? Bull. Shit.
And you know what I really, really can't look past? Murdering Jory. He could have entirely avoided killing Jory. Don't "he was about to attack me" me, Duncan, he pulled his sword out on you when you started to advance on him. He was SCARED. He'd just seen Daveth die and he has a wife and child. You could have calmed him down, you could have gotten a mage to blast him out of his mind so he'd drink the damned blood. *I* could have done that, if I was a mage Warden.
Most of my hatred comes from disliking the way the Grey Wardens run things, but whatever, he's the main rep in the game. And you know what? I honestly didn't give a shit when he died.
2. Favourite Character
I did originally think of Zevran, until I realised that Zevran is only one of my favourites because of the hilarity that ensues because of him, then I thought about Fenris, but I may be seen as too much of a fangirl if he was both my favourite character and LI.
So...
Anders!
I love Anders. I wasn't much of a fan of him in Awakenings. While he was my favourite companion in the expansion, he was too similar to Alastair for me, with the charm and witty lines, but minus the social nervousness and with Zevran's penchant for flirting. Fast forward to Dragon Age 2 and we have the Anders/Justice dynamic: a far less carefree Anders with a twisted spirit of Vengeance inside of him. When I first heard about him being in DA2, I was like "...meh", but I was sucked in and more interested than him as a character than any other in both DA games when I actually played it.
He's a complex character, the most important in the game besides Hawke, and the attention poured onto his story arc reminded me of Anomen's in BG2, with his struggles with Justice splitting into "I can control it, it's fine, casual terrorism was my idea!" or "I can't control it, it's not fine, it's actually completely fucked, and Justice made me do it" depending on whether your friends or rivals with him. (Of course, Anomen was an annoying piece of shit, BUT it would have been a very good arc if it'd happened to anyone else!)
The latter is appealingly tragic because he was just an idealist hoping that Justice could help him overturn the Chantry that had oppressed him -- but has become conflicted, dangerous and homocidal through no fault of his own, and is doomed to either being killed or fleeing from the templars all of his life as a result. Even the woot Justice is win path is very interesting in its own right. I find him admirable for standing up for what he believed in and he was right in what he was saying: destroying the Chantry and murdering Elthina and the other clerics was wrong, but compromise wasn't working (yeah, I'm talking to you, Elthina). Not to mention that he's adorable as all hell
3. Least Favourite Character
This is so easy.
Yes, Duncan. Duncan with his beard-y beard and Grey Wardens and character that almost everyone in the fandom seems to like.
DISLIKE.
Duncan is a piece of shit. I can sort of look past the forcing the Warden and others into conscription and I can sort of look past not revealing anything about how shitty being a Grey Warden is because they're needed for the Archdemon killing, although it took Riordan's reveal for me to do so.
I can't look past the impartiality bullshit. Hey, Duncan, me, my cousin and the other women of the alienage are about to be r***d. My cousin IS r***d. And you're telling me you can't do a fucking thing because of neutrality? Bull. Shit.
And you know what I really, really can't look past? Murdering Jory. He could have entirely avoided killing Jory. Don't "he was about to attack me" me, Duncan, he pulled his sword out on you when you started to advance on him. He was SCARED. He'd just seen Daveth die and he has a wife and child. You could have calmed him down, you could have gotten a mage to blast him out of his mind so he'd drink the damned blood. *I* could have done that, if I was a mage Warden.
Most of my hatred comes from disliking the way the Grey Wardens run things, but whatever, he's the main rep in the game. And you know what? I honestly didn't give a shit when he died.