Gender, Fantasy, and the Women of Dragon Age.

[prozacpark]

At some point, I was avoiding LJ/fandom because of the fail, and then I got busy and forgot to post. A lot. But I have been randomly consuming various media, and having thoughts, but mostly too distracted to post. One of the things I kept telling myself I would definitely post about was "Game of Thrones." Which I have been both watching and reading

Comments

[lyssie]

THAT QUOTE. I love that quote so hard, and have since I first read it. IF ONLY OTHER MEDIUMS WOULD ADOPT IT. omg.

[prozacpark]

I KNOW. I couldn't believe it actually existed, even after playing the games and being entirely too satisfied with the way they portrayed women. Because I always assume that we end up with awesome women by accident and not because someone is actively trying to appeal to us as a potential target audience.

[prozacpark]

I have mixed feelings on the way the show is handling Cersei. They're making her more sympathetic, but the way they are doing this says...unfortunate things about women and power. (I also think these same issues played into how Laura Roslin's arc played out, where fiction is just REALLY uncomfortable saying, "Hey, this woman wants power, and you're supposed to like her!" As if to make her sympathetic, they have to drill it in that she doesn't want power for power's sake. WHICH REALLY BOTHERS ME

[pyrrhiccomedy]

Hey! I got linked here by a friend. This is such a fabulous write-up of one of the major reasons I love the Dragon Age games and why I'm constantly trying to get my friends to play them. Yeah, the story is good, the world is surprisingly imaginative for an elves/dwarves/wizards fantasy setting, but the ladies you guys the ladies, don't you understand, you can have MEANINGFUL FRIENDSHIPS WITH OTHER WOMEN. And the male (recruitable) characters aren't misogynistic towards them, either! Some of the inter-party conversations about Isabela's pursuit of all the sex, everywhere make me want to break out into song. Good-natured teasing, where her appetites are seen as part of who she is and nothing to condemn? Be still my heart.

For me (as for you, I imagine), the Warden and the Champion are women. I've played a male Warden, and a male Champion, but I couldn't finish the game with them, because for me, it's just not as cool when a guy does this kind of crazy shit. And being able to make an entire party of ladies and feel like all of us are

[prozacpark]

I admit to playing het romances both times, too, actually. Um, and admit to playing Warden as male, because, hey, my entire motivation for giving the games a try was to experience the angsty Morrigan romance, which was used as a selling point (I may have a thing for het romances involving morally ambiguous flighty women with emotional issues). I probably can't ever play the second one with a male protagonist because Hawke has more of a presence what with actual voice and interaction (and I admit that I found the Warden kind of creepy and kept thinking he was, like, telepathic or something.) But while playing the het romance in the second one, I ended up shipping Isabela/Hawke madly and wishing that I had just played that. Because yes, the relationship between Isabela and Hawke is wonderful, and I admit to having a thing for female friendships where the two women different in terms of personality and moral views. And I imagine that the Warden/Morrigan friendship is similar. And really, even besides that, you get a good sense of

[sisterjune]

HEEEELS. You're blogging again! yay! I love this post, honestly I read up one Song of Ice and fire but all I found was that it was the misogynist book ever and I will be happier not touching it with a ten foot poll. plus there is in depth summaries on wikipedia if you just want to know what happens which I did since I was planning to watch the show and while the show is okay minus the grossness at the beginning pretty much all the developments in the book *censored* killing that prostitute and *censored* going blind and *censored* going crazy after finally getting what zie worked for. and *censored* and *censored* and *censored* all dying. I was pretty much fuck this book and fuck this show. The only thing good about it is Dany and we all know its only a matter of time before GRRM strikes her down too. and You're right the misogyny is over the top and so unnecessary. you can make a dark scary fantasy world without making it sexist as hell. I dont really care if he was trying to mimic medieval times. its still gross and i want no part

[prozacpark]

Yes, all of that on "Game of Thrones." I get that it's based on the dark ages and there was misogyny then, but there's really no excuse for why we're supposed to find misogynistic assholes and rapists interesting, but the only woman in their entire universe who actually wants power is being portrayed as consistently evil. Just, um, no

[ellestra]

My cousin told me about the game and he loved it too and Morrigan is his favourite character (which just shows that straight, white adolescents are as capable of liking female characters as anyone). I'm not much of a gamer so I never actually played it but it does look nice. And your squee (and Claudis Black) makes me want to try it.

[prozacpark]

Trrrrrry it. :) I had never played this type of game before either, but the story and the characters sucked me in right away, and I was able to find cheats to skip the more tedious parts of the gameplay and skip right to the story. And Claudia Black is awesome as Morrigan, who is possibly the most complex character in the game.