Ruminations on RPG Romance

[lady_vaguely]

As soon as I found the most douchetastical haricut in the Dragon Age character creator, I knew the male romance option would have it.

I'd be willing to bet it'll be another series of therapy sessions, too. That's my professional life-- no need to recreate it in a magical world of fantasy, thanks.

Worst thing is, I'll still play through it. And I'll

Comments

[prisoner__24601]

It seems to me that whenever game developers come up with a romance plot for a character, I always want the other guy in the damn game.

BG2 - Oh God, Anomen. I have to say that was my first experience playing a game with a romance written into the plot, and it wasn't a good one. I think I should have let him fall. Eventually I hated him so much I tossed him out of the party. Between the whiny voice, the passive aggressive neediness and the overly flowery language, I just couldn't take it anymore. Loved Valygar though, and was bitterly disappointed that there wasn't an option to steal him away from his cheating wife.

KotOR - In the beginning, I really dug the Revan/Carth romance, so much so that that's the reason I started writing fanfic in the first place. But damn, there's just so much of it and 99% of the fanfiction about this couple are exactly the same, so I'm totally burned out with them (which is why I don't write them together anymore). Plus, I'm one of the five people in the fandom that thinks that fem!Revan and Carth would eventually crash and burn (which is fun to read and was fun for me to write, but most people don't go there). Same thought actually with a male!Revan and Bastila.

I love the character of Carth with anyone other than fem!Revan. Bonus points if it's Bastila. Even more bonus points if it's a pre-game fic featuring a non bitchy version of his wife. And fem!Revan, well she seems to make much more sense with Canderous or Malak, while Male!Revan makes more sense to me with someone like Yuthura Ban.

KotOR2 - I like Atton and Disciple as characters, but am not so hot on them as typical romance interests. Most of the Atton/fem!Exile fics seem to be written by people who must have played a different game than I did (one where rainbows and unicorns and puppy dogs frolic with a super sparkly Exile). I like my Atton dysfunctional, so fics where he's redeemed by the love of a good fem!Exile, aren't really my cup of tea which is why in the stuff I've written (mostly co-written roleplay stuff), my douchebag male!Exile and Atton screw each other because they're bored, even though they hate each other's guts and might kill each other at any time.

My favorite guy from that game was Bao-Dur, and I really hate it when he gets paired with a fem!Exile because in most of those fics he acts like a golden retriever. I always wanted to read a fic where he hooks up with Mira, but have never found a good one. I've tried and failed writing this pairing, because I cannot for the life of me write a convincing version of Bao-Dur.

As far as Mass Effect goes, I really couldn't dig a the romances because they were basically just rehashes of the KoTOR ones. There really wasn't anyone else that I liked as a romance interest. I'm kind of baffled by all the Garrus love actually. Not that he's not a cool character, but I don't get where all the fangirling romance stuff is coming from.

And in Jade Empire I liked Sagacious Zu, but I'm not sure if that's because he was actually cool or because he wasn't Sky (who must be the all time lamest romanceable character EVER).

Loved all three of the Fallout games, but didn't get much of a romance vibe from them, although I did like the guy who turns out to be an android. He was pretty cute, seemed cool enough and I was bummed that I couldn't take him with me as an NPC.

Your fics sound interesting though. You should polish them up and post them.

[lady_vaguely]

I remember being psyched when I heard there was in-game romance in BG2. I didn't read the specifics of who it was, and promptly kicked Anomen out of my part after about his second conversation. Played the whole game wondering where the romance was and couldn't believe it when I found out.

I'm with you on the KotOR stuff, too. I think part of my distaste for the canon-mance options was that I arrived somewhat late in the fandom, and it had already been choked with identi-fics like kudzu vine.

There's Garrus love? Really? Wow, he doesn't seem like your typical squee fodder. Tell me there's Wrex fangirling out there too.

I did a touch of polishing on an old BG2 short with Sarevok and posted it on ff.net--still kinda sucks, like it's half an idea, but what they hey. :)

Thanks for the thoughtful post! I love reading your opinions.