Character fans you don't "get"

I never understood Cullen's pre-Inquisition fanbase. Post-Inquisition, sure, but before that he's a raving bigot who possibly goes off the deep end.

Yeah, I like him too now that's he's gone through character development and become a better person. It's the people who liked him before that character development who confuse me.

This for me too. I've even seen people posting on forums throwing around "shem" and such like they actually ARE elves. It's silly.

Maybe part of the appeal is that we can't see her face so we can project whatever we want to see as her appearance.

What? Samson? I like his character and backstory, but not really my type.  (I spoke about Cullen rival romance.)

Wait, that's a thing?

I think we already might have.

Well, it's not like I've ever made a secret of it, but I really can't stand Dorian. His personality is the kind that I can really only take in small doses in the first place, but then there's how the game seems to expect that I find it charming that his ego enters the room a good half hour before he does. Then the fact that his personal story is lifted almost wholesale from a mid-nineties after school special and given the barest trappings of the Dragon Age universe... Like that already made me displeased about him as a character, but then you throw in Trespasser, how he drops the LDR bomb on the Inquisitor without any allowance for discussion on the subject, and the epilogue making it come across basically that it's only ever the Inquisitor who would drop everything and go to him, rather than the other way around...

Like at this point, if they want to set up any kind of 'siding with a faction' thing in DA4 where Dorian leads one, I'm probably going to be inclined to side with the other on principle, that I don't want to deal any more with Dorian than I have to.

What frustrates me about his fans, though, is that I COMPLETELY understand why they do latch on to him. He IS such a rarity. We so starved for representation that this half-assed story that expects us to do the emotional heavy lifting rather than giving us a proper connection with him gets praised to the heavens, when it brought absolutely nothing new to the representational table - different seasoning doesn't change the fact that this is the same meal we've gotten in almost literally every media that involves gay people.

On a different note, I really can't stand Oghren. He's basically the 'drunken dwarf' stereotype played horribly straight - even other characters who are on the surface a traditional character stereotype get to show the layers underneath, but Oghren? Anything that goes beyond the surface level with him is like a couple of lines tops. I ditch him almost immediately in both Origins and Awakening. I don't feel I lose anything in the process - as a character, he really is superfluous.

And my biggest problem with Blackwall is really just... After the truth comes out, I feel he has no place in the Inquisition. He's spent the better part of a year lying to them all, not about what he's done but about who he is, making them believe he's this other person, and had them banking on this idea that he's a Warden and gives them the authority to draw on Warden treaties and such. I find there just wouldn't be a place in the Inquisition for him - the idea that they all ultimately end up forgiving him strains credibility to me.

Yeah, the fact that the game seems to actively encourage the female Inquisitor to view him as the Sassy Gay Best Friend™ is another thing that bugs the crap out of me. The fact that he is effectively there as a) an object lesson in homophobia (which, surprise, surprise, gay players don't actually need) and b) be the female Inquisitor's GBF just exemplifies to me that Dorian was NOT written for gay players, and that his character was given the least amount of thought required.

And yet, because of novelty and a strong vocal performance from his VA, he gets praised to high heaven, when really, he's done nothing to deserve any of it. Hell, even in terms of characterization, he's still pretty damn static - his biggest 'advancement' as a character comes from his father being assassinated and him ascending to the Magisterium, something that only happens in the final DLC.

If I'd been writing Dorian, his story would have been about the practical realities of what it would mean to change Tevinter - the game's main enemy is a Tevinter magister of the past, working with a Tevinter cult of the present, all of which casts doubt on the idea of Tevinter's redemption in the future. Actually ask the question of is Tevinter WORTH redeeming (and, you know, not have the hilarious - in the sense that I can't believe he's serious - response of 'Tevinter cares,' when his very story is a reason to say that Tevinter DOESN'T). Put him in a position where he has to question if this cause is one with any real, tangible value. At most, his father showing up would be the romance quest, because now it's clearly about how Dorian has taken up with a man, is attempting to undermine Dorian's attempt at happiness (plus, you know, not have even the option of making an abuse victim offer reconciliation to his abuser...). It wouldn't necessarily be my first choice, but it'd still be better than having that be the major focus that the game gives him.

At least that way, Dorian can undergo actual character growth and not have his spotlight in the game focus on his sexuality. Like, I'd have him be upfront with a female Inquisitor that nothing could happen between them. So even if his romance quest revolves around it, anyone not romancing him gets the meat of 'is Tevinter worth redeeming?' rather than the meat of Dorian's story being 'after school special, homophobia is bad, m'kay?'