I guess I don’t really have a lot to offer that isn’t already in the post. Perhaps, simply, that the act Anders chose was symbolic, since it is the Chantry as an institution that is oppressing mages, and not any one templar specifically. I think an assassination on KC Meredith wouldn’t have had quite the same impact. That was really what he was going for; impact. Does that make sense?

Note: This IS a really old post. I don’t really maintain the blog anymore, for various reasons. If I don’t reply to future comments, it isn’t personal.

The problem I have is that the people Anders chooses to lash out at are not precisely the right ones. If he wanted to assassinate Knight-Commander Meredith, I would have been all for it!! But given that the first chantry-member we met back in the first game was Alistair, abandoned there as a child, I was always under the impression that members of the chantry are not necessarily there of their own free will, or complicit in the repression of mages.

Just to clarify though, I adore Anders as a character and I think his arc makes complete sense. I’ve always thought of him as suffering from mental illness, something very close to my heart, and your domestic violence angle is a new and equally evocative perspective for me. I have a huge amount of sympathy for him. I think it makes sense that he would lash out at the chantry indiscriminately after all he has been through. My issue is more with people who defend his actions as having been the right thing to do, as I see terrorism (and I don’t think it can be described as anything else) as a totally indefensible. I realize the morality of his action wasn’t the focus of this post, but perhaps you have more insight to offer on this?

P.S. I just realized how old this post is!! It was randomly linked on twitter today…. oops! Well, I will post anyway!

People look at me like an explosion has gone off when I tell them i’m Hispanic. People fail to understand that we’re an ethnicity. We can be of any race. There are black hispanics and asian hispanics and etc etc.

In fact, I used to be friends with this girl whose mother liked to brag about how smart she was (when she got all her information from NPR and etc). When the girl found out I’m Hispanic she suddenly said “but you CAN’T be because you don’t have the stereotypical look.” I felt so embarrassed for both of us.

So believe me. I know how you feel when it comes to this whole stereotyping thing.

My RP OC, Kahrin, has chronic depression, survivor’s guilt, has battled with (and overcome) suicidal tendencies, and sometimes copes through drinking and self-harm.

She is not, however, suffering. She is living. Sometimes it is hard and it hurts, and it hurts people around her, but she is surviving and living, even if no one else around her understands.

I think the key is to do as much research and consultation as you can. Like I said in the post about Anders, I think that what was intended was a fair idea. It was the delivery that fell flat for me from a disability right’s activist standpoint. I think seeing positive portrayals of disability in video games is something we need to see more of.

66% DEATH RATE OK! I mean…the guy needs some lovin’.

/joins you under the rock

I mean, I love all the DA and DA2 characters, really, honestly, but Carver is the one that has this je-ne-sais-quoi that is a mix of troubled, confused, uneasy, clumsy, loyal, passionate, boiling, simplicity, and directness, and this whole unbalanced mixture of emotions and attitudes torments him a little and it comes out in random moments that always surprised me and made me want to hug him.

Hug a fictional character. Me.
/crawls back under a rock