i think a really interesting thing about deacon is his va’s choice to make it sound like he’s legitimately losing his cool when he gets hit in battle.
at first i thought this was bad characterization-- a spy who works like deacon does should not have a low pain tolerance-- but when you think about it, the institute doesn't really torture the people they capture. if deacon was ever taken alive, the institute would probably scan his brain and there would be nothing deacon could do about it.
deacon obviously changes his face and outfit constantly to blend in and work better as a covert ops infiltrator. but it has the added bonus of making him hard to replace with a synth. i mean if you’re a synth you dont want someone constantly performing surrey on you? and god, it’d be such a pain in the ass to pretend to be someone who is constantly pretending to be someone. better yet deacon goes off alone a lot and does his own missions, minimizing the amount of intel he has about other people.
essentially i think an added bonus of deacon's bullshit is making himself someone very difficult to replace if he's ever compromised. covert organizations split into separate cells to make sure that if someone is compromised, the amount of information they can leak is minimal. deacon is taking it upon himself to be his own cell within a cell.
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everything he does is actually surprisingly organized and methodical because he is frequently on uppers (his books are hella in order, he knows exactly where his things are, etc)
he occasionally fucking forgets to eat because he is frequently on uppers (sometimes gets grouchy because he hasn’t eaten in ages, eats, instantly feels better)
he occasionally has to drink a substantial amount to sleep because he is frequently on uppers (sometimes he doesn’t sleep and crashes at 4am, but he usually manages not to do this bc hes been taking this shit for a while + ghoul physiognomy helps)
occasionally gets ~inspired~ to go on long rants about justice that don’t entirely make sense, but sound really really good if you don’t stop to think about them
has unreasonable amounts of energy almost all the fucking time, though when he doesn’t he has absolutely none, there are no in betweens
what is it about fandom that makes ppl look at a character canonically obsessed with respecting people’s boundaries and consent, who have romantic plotlines all about being wowed by their partner and moved by their individualism, and go ‘this character is totally dominant and into dubcon’
right now? solas gets less flack than anders for the following reason
anders willfully commits an act of terrorism on screen. solas does not.
anders is very negative toward a very popular male love interest in his own game. solas is not.
anders does not attempt to minimize his death toll. solas does.
anders is from a game several years old. solas is not.
this is not a value judgement, fyi. i think these reasons are p flimsy, but they are, as far as i can see it, why anders is recieving more flack than solas is at the moment. give it a few months, and i am betting there will be a major turnaround.
anyway, for complete transparency, i am not a big fan of anders and am a huge fan of solas, but it’s pretty easy to compare the two.
both are incredible fucking hypocrites when it comes to the nature of choice and slavery (solas, mr ‘the dalish telling people how to be elves is dumb ALSO SERA IS A FUCKUP‘ and anders aka ‘the templars lock up mages like they’re slaves also i approve +5 if you literally sell someone into slavery‘)
both of them are trying to selflessly to better the lives of who they consider ‘their people’ at the expense of their own quality of life, even if their methods are mondo fucked up
despite having populist ideals, neither are able to form anything resembling a popular rebellion, and have to rely on singular violent action to achieve their goals
now, that last point has a question implicit in it. what do i mean by ‘populist ideals’ and ‘singular violent action’?
well, see, both anders and solas believe in a better life for the underdog, mages and elves respectively. but instead of trying to rally their people around them, get grassroots support and push for some kind of uprising, they both keep their plans secret and try to make one divisive action change everything over night.
this is not how change happens. if it’s real change, for the real good of everyone, it has to be everyone’s choice. that is the difference between a hero and a antihero / villain-with-good-intentions (pick your poison; i think the difference between those terms is splitting hairs).
because the hero might change something over night and everyone applauds come morning, but it’s not that simple for real revolutions. you can’t change the world in less than 24 hours.
this is a continuous theme in dragon age. it happens in each game. every game, someone tries to change the world over night.
and in the first game, the person who does it is the warden.
see, in origins, it works. the warden (almost) single-handedly defeats the blight, saves the day, and everyone thanks them. this is the writers setting the stage, saying look at this fantasy world where you can do the impossible?
it’s also about the twisting of collective revolt. awakening really underscores this by forcing you to face what the darkspawn are: people with their wills stripped from them, living life as a horrifying hive mind. they are slaves, and their bondage is contagious. you’ve been slaughtering them left and right.
it turns out the architect has learned from the warden’s example, and wants to save the world like you did. he knows what he has to do, and only he can do it, all by himself. (sound like anyone?)
between origins and awakening we see this major theme split in half; can you save the world over night? can one person’s decision-making really change the lives of thousands for the better? should it?
dragon age 2 picks up where da:o and da:a left off and answers those questions with a resounding no, thanks to anders’ search for more deposits. anders means well, but he’s not thinking big. he’s not thinking of people. he’s (understandably!) stuck in his own head, trapped in with his own pain and suffering. and anders knew the warden, too. they saved the world over night, made everyone’s lives better in one fell swoop, so why can’t anders?
and the answer is that anders can’t, because that’s not how the world works. the warden lived in a world of introductions, in a world of clearer success (though it becomes tarnished; as the blight eats them from the inside out), and unlucky anders does not.
in dragon age: inquisition, the question comes up again, and it’s much more optimistic. can one person change the lives of thousands for the better? maybe, maybe they can like the inquisitor did. but maybe, maybe they can also make it worse, like solas did and may again. (interestingly, to contrast with anders, who is thinking too small, solas is thinking too big and not factoring in the cost or importance of living people caught in the middle of his attempt to ‘fix’ things.)
dragon age is a series about free will, social change, and revolution. it’s a game where you make choices for the world, for your friends, and for yourself. think about how the theme of slavery and ownership of other people keeps coming up. think about how hive-minds and collectivist societies keep appearing. think about how incredibly likely it is that not only dwarves and elves, but possibly also qunari have a massive rebellion in their backstory.
dragon age is a series about choice, and it takes that choice to the extreme. the comparison between solas and anders is purposeful, because they’re both characters who exist to wrestle with the question of how revolutions work (and don’t). to that end, so does the warden, and hawke, and the inquisitor.
“Fictional Character displays racist attitudes and says things that i acnowledge are as damaging and hurtful as actual racism but i wouldn’t specifically call them a racist because they live in a fictional world even though they do things based on race that are hurtful and cruel and short-sighted and deeply tied into their ideas about race and what people of [x] race should be“
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One Song: i only recently discovered paris 1919 by john cale because the world is empty and cruel.
Two Movies: i finally watched edge of tomorrow and it was terrible, how sad. i still really want to see love & mercy before it leaves theatres.
Three Shows: my shows are all off the air rn..... but the only television i actually keep up with anymore is orphan black, the good wife and have i got news for you.
Four People: people? uh... im not really into any celebs or tumblrs right now... god i’m so boring i’m sorry. can we do historic people? go read about galen, arthur munby, claire clairmont and chevalier de saint-georges
Five Foods: i had a vivid dream about ramen the other night. the night before then i dreamt about cupcakes. lately though i’ve mostly been eating soup, burgers and eggs. idk im not really a food person.
Six People to tag. tearitar falseisthistale oeste clasm basileus metaligatr
thank u tearitar i appreciate every distraction from the slough of despond that is my desk job
1. song - i actually use this website to track what im obsessed with at the moment but its currently set to a song im ashamed to admit liking (nazis ruin everything). luckily, this morning i discovered father john misty covering ‘the suburbs’ by arcade fire and ive been listening to it on repeat since then
2. movies - i have not seen it but i really want to see ‘edge of tomorrow’; i would have watched it yesterday if someone wasn’t fucking nocturnal. in the interim, the last film i saw was the third man, which i am still thinking about (pretentiously). i remain obsessed with star wars in a general, low-key fashion (the level of low-key-ness varies).
3. tv shows - i only consistently watch like two to four series at a time and none of them are currently airing. when i’m home and need some background noise ive been streaming the daily show on comedy central’s month of zen. i am also perpetually watching back episodes of have i got news for you because i am, again, pretentious.
4. video games - ive been idly replaying dragon age: inquisition because it’s been long enough that it doesn’t give me flashbacks from the height of its fandom pulsation.
5. books - um. well. i recently finished the raven cycle as some may have noticed.
6. people to tag - bidonica onionjulius ourlightsinvain clasm metaligatr falseisthistale jewbat oeste and whoever else wants to play, ive probably forgotten tons of you fuckers
