dragon 4ge

Ignoring just their dialogue - which definitely has the air of someone on the younger side that, if you read it aloud, sounds as contemporary as Rook in many scenarios - but all of the origins point toward the Warden being someone likely to their early-to-mid twenties, perhaps even younger in some cases.

The oldest "canonical" protagonist that we do have is Hawke, who ends DAII around 30-31 years old. While it is true that no other protagonist has a set year like Hawke, the DA protagonists all lean toward being on the much younger side.

To me at least, a lot of Veilguard's criticism (and I'm not saying that there isn't any), just doesn't hold the same water when placed against the other Dragon Age games, especially when it comes to dialogue. Sure, I'll grant that Veilguard does sound a bit more "modern", but I'll argue Rook talks almost exactly like Alistair in many ways, who is viewed by a subtantial part of the fandom as "endearing".

I do completely understand the frustration about Rook not having a "harder" edge to them, where you can be rude for the sake of being rude. I do think, in my view, Rook was one of the biggest gripes for when it came to Veilguard, but I lay the blame partly at BioWare's desire to appease both the people who wanted more of a blank character that could be found in the Warden and the Inquisitor, and those who wanted a more fully engaged and "dynamic" character like Hawke or Shepard, especially as one of largest critiques surrorunding Inquisition was the fact that the Inquisitor felt "flat".

I think we can lay a large portion of the blame also on the fact that because of Dragon Age II, and the introduction of Mass Effect's dialogue wheel into the Dragon Age game, we're always going to have that problem to begin with. Just having three dialogue options can work on a character like Hawke or Shepard, because - as I written in another post - these are narrative protagonists, first and foremost. There are character-based, established to suit the purpose of the narrative and cannot be deviated against it otherwise because it is not just your Hawke or Shepard, but an situated protagonist. Dragon Age II's story can only work if Hawke was a human scion of a Free Marcher noble house, with its concentrated themes of the tragedy that is the Hawke family.

But for someone like the Warden or the Inquisitor, introducing a wheel dialogue, and only having three instead of saying six dialogue paths really can limit you. Add onto the fact that it seems many people have a vague remembrance to how the dialogue system of DAO seemed to work. Very rarely were you given more than three answers, expect to ask questions. More often than was the case, you had three or four dialogue responses, which often sounded childish and immature, as I posted a few days ago your brief encounter with the blood mage in the Broken Circle.

Again, I do get the critique, and can understand it a bit, about Rook not being as much as an asshole as you could've been in the previous games. But ignoring that element, playing DA:O, both during my work during slow periods and my own time, that dialogue is "cringy". Today I had that conversation with Leliana regarding elves in Orlais, and had this game came out today, people would be so mad that Leliana just folded at your criticisms about how she discussed about elves, ignoring that this is a good character moment for Leliana, even if it was sudden and the change occurred almost immediately in the same conversation.

"Did you always live in an alienage? Was it very terrible?"

Sometimes

I had my family. There was joy too.

What do you think?

I have no memory of my life before the Circle. (Mage only)

I did not know that

I'd rather live free in squalor than a slave

And I bet some are treated cruelly, like dogs

It´s the same thing.

It is still a life I would never choose.

I see.

Enough. I have no wish to continue this conversation. (ends conversation)

Like a prize-winning animal?  (+1)

So I should offer myself to some Orlesian noble?  (+1)

Apology accepted

I am elven, but more than that - I am a person

You may not be cruel, but you still see us differently

Again, I do think there is valid criticism surrounding Rook - that they can be a bit "too" good without the variables of crudeness that the Warden, particularly, can exhibit. But I'll always argue that it is a weird critique to say Rook sounds "young or childish", compared to how the Warden talks like in the game. They are absolutely childish, especially when you're being an asshole.

In "The Sound and the Fury: What we listened to while writing Dragon Age: Inquisition" posted on the BioWare blog on December 12, 2014, Weekes says the following:

When Solas talks about things that he saw in the Fade, things that speak to a distant past, I needed him to sound ever so slightly otherworldly and wistful – someone remembering a dream with a sense of both sadness and inevitability. So I took k.d. lang’s cover of “Hallelujah”, and I wrote key scenes to that single song on loop. If you follow that link and look at some of Solas’s lines, you may notice a familiar rhythm come out. It would have been forcing it to give lines the same rhyme scheme, but giving the words the meter captured some of that wistfulness and made Solas sound ever so slightly otherworldly. ... (In the rare cases the player got into the same rhythm, there was always an approval bump from Solas. For that brief period, it was like the player was thinking like he did.) I used this a few times over the game, and I love what it did to his voice. Also, Cori (who edited Solas) is exceedingly kind for putting up with my request that changes to those lines keep this surreptitious rhythm.

I hope this is the last time I need to post, desperately, for help. But my situation has gone from bad to worse. While I do have a ticket to NS available for me on the 31st, thanks to my mom, I need to scramble about and get the travel papers I need so I can actually board said train.

I also need to clean out this apartment, and I need to hire a team for this because I am too weak and sickly to do it by myself and I am severely overwhelmed. They already sent me a quote for the work and it's beyond what I can do - I barely have any money for groceries - the 90 dollars in my account is for the documents I need to expedite so I can leave and not be homeless.

But this is causing me so much stress - I NEED this help, this needs to be done. I'm desperate now. More than I ever have been. You've all helped me before, and once I make this goal I shouldn't need help again. I should be with my mom, I should be getting a job and finally getting back on my feet. Mom already scouted out three places and put my name in for consideration, and my indeed profile. So. I will have work and a roof over my head.

It's just the GETTING there that I need help with.

So please. Spread this life wildfire, donate if you can. Once I am safe I can work on commissions again and start fulfilling obligations and thanking people properly.

But for now, I'm stuck with begging.

We're finally here! Because of how lengthy these posts will be, I'm going to have to split them over multiple posts. The plan is to have this intro, posts focused on each game and its main responses, and then a further few posts dedicated to each game's responses on the optional opinion section along with a selection of the free-response text box answers. They'll all be tagged with '#census survey', and once they're all out, I'll link them all in the pinned post so they're easy to find :)

Here is a list of pretty interesting patterns and findings I got from the results before we dive into the answers themselves!

When it comes to the free-response section, Veilguard inspired far more writing than any other game, with the highest comment count, response rate, average word count, and total word count

Solas inspired the largest number of people to say something, with the highest raw comment count and highest response rate. Cullen, Loghain, Anders, and Oghren also all broke 200+ optional text responses.

Sigrun had the least text responses (though she was rated positively by 85.2% of respondents and negatively by virtually nobody), with all the Awakening companions getting between 80-100. The non-DLC character with the fewest responses was Inquisition Leliana

Josephine inspired relatively few and relatively short responses, but 94.7% of respondents rated her positively

Taash generated the most intense free-response engagement, with the most total words and average words per response

Anders was the character who inspired the least indifference - only 1% of respondents selected "I'm indifferent" for him

Cullen was the most polarising, with his ratings fairly evenly distributed. He also had the highest negative percentage, narrowly ahead of Oghren

Oghren had the highest percentage of "mixed/conflicted feelings"

Tallis inspired the most indifference, with 43.5% of respondents selecting "I'm indifferent" for her. The next highest result was Sebastian at 25.4%

The top five characters with the most "I love them" responses were Dorian (75.4%), Zevran, Morrigan, Merrill, and DA2 Varric. Dorian was the most overwhelmingly positively rated, with 94.2% positive answers, 0.8% negative, and 1.4% indifferent

Vivienne, Sera, Taash, Harding, and Lucanis all had very positive ratings as characters, but their free-response text boxes were generally criticism-heavy, with people citing issues with their writing and storylines

Opinions on Oghren don't differ by gender - men were slightly more likely to be mixed rather than negative, but otherwise percentages were broadly the same across the board

Opinions on Taash differ pretty clearly between cis and trans/nonbinary respondents. Trans and nonbinary results are almost identical, but cis people were broadly less positive on Taash. 6.4% of trans and 5.6% nonbinary respondents rated Taash negatively ("dislike" or "hate") compared to 16.8% of cis respondents. 38.5% of trans and 38.6% of nonbinary people specifically selected "I love them" for Taash, compared to only 22.8% of cis respondents.

Men were substantially more likely to love Anders - 41.2% of women loved him vs. 61.5% of men.

Women were substantially more likely to love Cullen - 28.9% of women vs. 13.1% of men - and men were substantially more likely to hate Cullen (10.1% of women vs. 25.3% of men).

Sera was loved by 52.6% of men vs. only 35.3% of women

Some other interesting patterns: Neve was more positively rated by nonbinary people and men than she was by women, and Iron Bull was much more positively rated by nonbinary people than by either men or women

People who like Solas are almost twice as likely than others to also like Blackwall

Anders and Fenris fans aren't generally opposing camps, though Fenris fans are more likely to dislike Anders than Anders fans are likely to dislike Fenris. Among people positive about Anders, 97.2% were also positive about Fenris.

Ace-spec respondents lean slightly more positively toward Lucanis, but the difference isn't statistically significant

Older respondents (for this purpose 36+) like Cullen more than younger respondents do, while they like Loghain significantly less. Older respondents are also notably more likely to like Lucanis, Emmrich, and Aveline. Velanna, for some reason, peaks significantly for 23-27 year olds

Bellara was rated positively by every single person who said Veilguard was their favourite game

People who romanced Alistair in Origins tended to romance Fenris in DA2 and Cullen in Inquisition. People who romanced Leliana in Origins heavily favoured Josephine in Inquisition. Merrill romancers strongly gravitate toward Josephine and Bellara. Isabela romancers overwhelmingly favour Neve in Veilguard. Zevran romancers favour Dorian and Lucanis. Blackwall romancers divide strongly between Emmrich and Davrin.

The most common favourite romance pipelines were Zevran > Fenris > Dorian > Lucanis and Zevran > Fenris > Dorian > Emmrich

The fandom is very consistently pro mage, with 97.8% siding with the mages in Origins, 95.6% in DA2, and 89.7% in Inquisition. Only 1 respondent out of the 760 who answered the question for all three games chose the Templar option in every game.

To back up the common complaint in the free-response boxes about Veilguard forcing a harmonious team with no ability to disagree with companions, Rook was dramatically more likely to get along with everyone. The percentage of people who said their protagonist genuinely got along with every companion was 28.9% for the Warden, 22.1% for Hawke, 28.3% for the Inquisitor, and 72.2% for Rook. The most common sources of friction: For the Warden, Oghren, then Wynne; for Hawke, Sebastian, then Aveline and Carver; for the Inquisitor, Vivienne and Cullen, then Sera and Solas; and for Rook, Lucanis and Taash, but at much lower rates than any previous game's conflicts.

Certain pairings of characters were very often loved by the same people; some examples were Aveline and Cassandra, Morrigan and Isabela, Velanna and Merrill, Isabela and Neve, Isabela and Sera, Zevran and Fenris, and Nathaniel and Carver.

Cullen fans were more likely than other players to dislike Velanna, Merrill, Sera, Vivienne, and Isabela.

Inquisition players who chose the mages usually allied with them, but players who chose the Templars usually conscripted them.

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How old are you?: 28-35 (48.3%), 23-27 (24.6%), 36-45 (18.4%), 18-22 (6.3%), 46-55 (1.9%), 13-17 (0.3%), 56+ (0.1%)

And if you're already pissy at Veilguard because it didn't do something you wanted or you don't like the aesthetic -- or, at this point, you've made hating Veilguard part of your personality because you apparently have nothing better to do -- then you're going to be so negatively biased that you just start making shit up lol

It was not a good time in fandom to be a fan of Solas/Solas-shipping in particular when Veilguard came out if you enjoyed it. I unfollowed and blocked so many people who acted like the devs had dropped an anvil on their house because Solas was... the villain.

Which we knew he would be. For ten years.

And they were still "hurt" and "betrayed" and scarred and whatever because Solas acted like canon Solas instead of the many variations of fanon Solas (who is generally softer, sadder, and less of a jackass). You can't argue with someone who's emotionally attached to hating something as a social activity; even if they do soften or come around or just start getting over it to do something else, they're not going to stop Being Like That about Veilguard, even if they have to make up new things to get mad at. It's all kinds of silly goose behavior that has nothing to do with whether the game is good or not.

The absolutely pervasive mentality that unwanted criticism or critique shouldn't be given and should be ignored is why fans of color don't stay in fan spaces.

And I am not going to mince words here:

A lot of you are racist. A lot of your fan works are racist.

That might have been difficult to hear. And if it was, you should probably reflect on why that was.

"Fandom etiquette" has created a space where fans of color either bite our tongues and eventually leave or say something, get dogged on, and then eventually leave.