As a victim, he would have used the bolt cutters ethically.

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.

Tag list: @songofamazon, @soldiermom1973, @jellyeliart, @jadesabre301. @limastockholm, @nico--reinhold, @huntrixdyke, @championofdogs, @kirkwallsbane, @kolimachris, @aw-reginum, @illcarxd, @i-crave-boi-juice, @mint-chip-superiority, @softforalistair, @oxygenforthewicked, @mylosingdogs, @captainlavellan, @howdy-do-da-day, @tarasmom, @dreadknightcassandra, @kingmalowe, @whimsyswastry, @firstwardenevka, @dragon-age-sideblog, @thatrandomfeministgamer, @loquaciousquark, @danzadair. @azeroths-andrastian-simp, @cooncannibal, @nightswatchyaoi

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%)

Ship Tournament, Round 2 — Match 1 / 15

Gale/Lae'zel

"Two people raised by gods who taught them love is obedience. like. Gale with Mystra, Lae’zel with Vlaakith. Both of them are incredibly competent and incredibly proud and also so deeply shaped by someone powerful deciding what they were worth. I think they would recognise that in each other before they had the words for it, and because neither of them is good at being normal about vulnerability it would come out as arguing about tactics and magic theory for three hours."

"lae’zel would bully gale into having better self esteem and i mean this lovingly. like gale starts monologuing about how he is a danger to everyone and maybe the best use of him is as a bomb and lae’zel is like. pathetic. you are a wizard of waterdeep. stand up. sharpen your mind. eat this protein. and somehow that is the most romantic thing anyone has said to him in ten years"

"I just think there is something VERY funny and sweet about Gale being the most verbose man alive and Lae’zel having negative patience for unnecessary words, but still clearly respecting skill and intelligence. He would infodump about the Weave and she would interrupt him every five seconds, except she is actually listening because she wants to know where the weak points are. He thinks she’s being rude. She thinks this is a perfectly normal conversation.And then Gale would ask about gith culture with genuine curiosity rather than fear or fetishizing it, which I think would get under her skin in a good way. He’d want to know the structure, the history, the logic of it. Lae’zel values competence and seriousness so much, and Gale has both when he gets past the flirting and theatrics."

vs. Elminster/Withers

"imagine Gale finding out. IMAGINE. his mentor/legendary wizard situationship and the camp skeleton death accountant. he would never recover."

Ship Tournament, Round 2 — Match 5 / 15

Astarion/Wyll

"Much has been said about how Wyll's romance better fits what Astarion seems to truly want in a relationship, that Wyll is happy with a more chaste relationship, etc etc. But what's often missed is that Astarion is actually a fantastic match for Wyll! Wyll is self-sacrificing to an unhealthy degree, and often minimizes the abuse and trauma he's been through. Astarion, meanwhile, is much more open-eyed to what he's experienced. He's happy to choose himself when needed and pushes those he cares about to do the same. And if you play as Astarion, you're given unique dialogue options to compare Mizora and Cazador and urge Wyll away from being passive in response of how she abuses him. Astarion needs someone to teach him how to empathize with others, and Wyll needs someone to teach him to fight for himself as much as he does for others. They complete each other!"

vs. Ansur/Emperor

"THE doomed exes ship. ansur loved balduran enough to search for him, shelter him, try to save him, and then couldn’t accept what he’d become. the emperor loved him enough that killing him is still framed as this huge buried wound centuries later, even through all the mind flayer emotional repression and manipulation. it’s horrible because neither of them is uncomplicatedly “wrong” in the emotional sense? ansur sees the person he loves transformed into something he believes is a monster. the emperor sees the person he trusts most deciding that mercy means killing him. they loved each other and it still ended under the city with a dragon’s corpse and a sword in the dark. what the fuck man."

"sometimes romance is a dragon looking at the illithid wearing your lover’s memories and going “i can’t live with this” and the illithid going “i am alive, why is that not enough”"

"Is the Emperor still Balduran? Is Ansur loving him, mourning him, or rejecting him? Is the Emperor’s anger betrayal trauma or the cold self-preservation of a mind flayer? It’s messy and awful and romantic in the gothic “this ends with both of us ruined” way. Exactly what I want from a dragon and his fucked up squid ex."