Celebrating Pride Month: Discussing Romances in Dragon Age 4 and Player Sexual Options vs. Character Sexual Options II

[Winter]

So, according to Corinne Busche one of the directors for Dragon Age: The Veilguard the companions in DAV are all pansexual and NOT player sexual. In fact Busche stated that the characters will bring up past relationships they were in during conversations and that certain parts of the conversation will NOT be locked off depending on your gender (which includes being able to play as non-binary which is awesome though I am bugged that all voice actors for Rook are all apparently cisgender with no non-binary actors).

This does address many of the things I talked about in the last post on Player Sexual vs. a Character's sexuality since one issue I had with player sexual characters is that their sexuality is defined by the player instead of being something that is a part of THEIR CHARACTERS. While I do find it a little silly that everyone is bi/pan (where are the asexuals in this world?) as mentioned before as a trans woman and a lesbian I play as a woman and I'm just not interested in romancing men (no offense Garrus, I love you just not like that even if I do think you are Tali are tied for best romance in the series) and as such my options for full romances across all BioWare games (that I have fully played) have only given me 7 options. And of those 7 I've only ever really been invested in 3 those being Leliana, Isabela and Merrill.

For clarification I do like and have romanced Sera, Josephine, Liara and Traynor but I'm not as invested in them as the other 3 and the characters I've wanted to romance most have always been off the table those being Cassandra, Jack, Miranda and Tali. So, while it's a little silly that everyone in my party are all someone I can romance at the same time I can't help but feel a little happy because there is someone for me to love. And the fact that these characters are pansexual and that is part of their characters is great. I like the fact that these characters aren't going to conform to me but are interested because that's just how they role.

[Thebestoftherest]

I mean I could be wrong, but is possible if anyone is Asexual in this world, would they even have the context to know.

[Winter]

I mean I could be wrong, but is possible if anyone is Asexual in this world, would they even have the context to know.

The world of Dragon age has an overall understanding of homosexuality, transgender identity and bisexuality so it stands to reason that they would know what asexuality is. I think it's more a case that no one writing the series has ever thought to include it.

[hammerofglass]

Also ace rep is really hard to do. You have to contrive a reason to spell it out or you just end up with someone not discussing their sex life, which most characters don't.

[Winter]

Also ace rep is really hard to do. You have to contrive a reason to spell it out or you just end up with someone not discussing their sex life, which most characters don't.

Honestly, it's not that hard. I haven't written many asexuals in my own work but when I did it was honestly easy to convey, in dialogue, that they were ace. Case in point in my Tomb Raider Project, Scars of the Survivors, I created a character called Coriolanus and the subject of his past comes up and during it he mentions that he's ace in a way that is rather casual and sounds natural. Now I do have an advantage here as I live with an Ace and had her read over the line and she said that I nailed how this information was revealed.

I took some inspiration from ME3 with Cortez and Traynor where we learn of or get a hint of their sexuality while talking with them, Cortez mentioning that he had a husband and Traynor by apologizing to EDI for saying how attractive she found her voice.

But yeah, the trick is doing it in a way that fits with the conversation at hand that delves into the characters history and mentioning, in passing, this person's sexuality and sexual identity. To use an example that is simultaneously both well done and poorly done Krem being revealed to be a transman.

The part that is poorly handled is when the Inquisitor asks Krem about being trans and it's really just awkwardly done. But the part where it's kinda revealed is handled pretty well though not perfectly and something that is often overlooked you can just choose to move on with the conversation like learning this is no big deal and talk with Krem about him being trans later which is much better handled there.

Speaking as a trans woman I honestly love the bit where Krem goes into his history in Tevinter and how being trans affected his life there. His line of hating looking at himself while being forced to wear a dress was very well done and felt real and made it clear that the writers did their homework.

But for me, I don't see someone being revealed to be ace as a hard one so long as it's done in a way that is natural. As always it depends mostly on the competence of the person writing the character.

[Thebestoftherest]

Maybe have them say something like...I am just not into anyone.

[hammerofglass]

Actually thinking about it I have a friend in real life who just wears an ace flag pin on his hat for this exact reason, which saved us both some embarrassment when we met as I recall.

Funny personal aside on the topic of Krem: I was very confused why Krem went through so much hardship just for a downgrade first time I played the game. No problem accepting he was a man, I just couldn't understand why anyone would be a man if they weren't forced to be. That penny wouldn't drop for a few years.