Which ones?!

kurt busiek retweeted one of my comics and cocktails videos a couple months ago

this is the last ask for those of you just tuning in

anders is a difficult subject to talk about because his story is so polarizing. im pretty sure i lose a follower every time i so much as mention his name

do i like him personally? i want to. he has a charming sense of humor, and he likes cats, and his flair for the dramatic would make him an interesting friend. but theres something else going on with anders, and im not talking about justice

part of why i feel that anders needed to be the center of his own game is that there’s very little material in the game that gives us an in-depth view into the way he thinks. that kind of personal touch would make it much easier to compartmentalize his behavior based on what his motives are for a particular scene

all i know is, i started to get uneasy around him as early as act 1 — in the follow-up dialogue to his recruitment mission, anders makes a pass at the player character. if you turn him down (which i did, already having my eyes on another companion in particular), he responds in a very passive aggressive way. its a small thing, but it adds up over time. anders makes consistent attempts to manipulate the player character into adopting his views, his methods, and to accept his romantic advances. and frankly its a little too close to home for me to enjoy objectively. there are days when even remembering it makes my skin crawl, because of how often ive had to endure behavior like this from real people

this is a very vague question, and it is very tempting to answer it in a simple way, because if anders was a person i would know exactly what to say about it -- but he's not. anders is not a person and there is no objective experience of his character because of how limited our viewpoint is in the game

which is kind of a problem, honestly

dragon age 2 is a game of choices to made by a character of our creation, but the story is not ours. it is anders' story, but for some reason it is not taken from his point of view. dragon age 2 compels us to create a hero, a viewpoint character -- and to watch that character be slowly dismantled as the narrative goes on, to reveal their ultimate powerlessness to stop change

regardless of whether you side with anders, what he does is what he does. what happens, happens

if you were playing the game for any other reason than to help anders start a mage rebellion, this can be rather upsetting. building relationships, cultivating a certain morality, trying to make a home in a hostile environment... those are the sort of things that can get a player emotionally invested in the story. finding out that they dont matter much in the grand scheme is depressing

i liked the core concept of DA2. i loved the cast of characters and narration style of the game. but i feel like anders' story would have been better served as the subject of its own game, and not the ending of this one. its not fair to the story of the hawke family, and its not fair to the conflict represented by the mage rebellion or to anders story personally

Wait nooooooo. All Star Batman and Robin is the one by Frank Miller right? If so it is so bad that a friend and I made a drinking game to get thru it. Good art tho iirc.

asks are ok if my askbox is open

the fact is, when i turn off my askbox, it means i dont want to be contacted. fanmails cant be turned off so i need to specify not to do that or people will contact me anyway

moving on,

thank you! i know that when i first joined tumblr i didnt know half the crap i know now and i have benefited greatly from the kind and informative people i have followed over the years. i hope ive managed to return that kindness to the community -- its easy to lose oneself in a clique-mentality and snub people for not knowing better, especially when the topic is something very close to our hearts

It’s been seven hours and fifteen days*Hey what’s the big deal?I keep kicking at the curb with my worn out shoesI’m going to take my timeLove of mine, some day you will die