[ SECRET POST #2967 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2967 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 034 secrets from Secret Submission Post #424.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets (also too big anyway) ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

03. http://i.imgur.com/D06bkST.png

[(Anonymous)]

(I'm not familiar with the game fyi)
Vaguely stereotypical stuff like this usually doesn't both me as long as it's treated like the cracky stuff it is, but when it becomes fanon it starts to annoy me.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, I agree. I wasn't expecting how much pervasive this fanon ended up being. He might be the most commonly OOC DAI character.

[kallanda_lee]

Now I'm really looking forward to meeting him!

And, on a sort of side note, it's not impossible to take relationship advice from people with little or no relationship experience, because you still value their advice and they might have an outside perspective. (I've had friend with a whole lot more experience come o me,n for example).

[chrys]

He's my favorite DAI character. I like that he avoids being a stereotype without going extreme in the other direction, you know? When they try too hard to avoid any association with the stereotypes.

[lb_lee]

I'm not gonna lie, never played DAI, probably never will, but I really like how they designed his face. That mustache!

--Rogan

[(Anonymous)]

I don't bother with the fandom, but I actually was a little annoyed at how stereotypically camp gay he was written and voiced, to a certain extent. It's not that extreme, but it was still there. And his main personal quest was (SPOILER) basically "daddy doesn't accept I'm gay", which in the way it was written was pretty terrible for him but it still did't help with the "he's all about the 'gay'" impression.

[(Anonymous)]

No, it wasn't. It was "to be gay in Tevinter you have to live a lie and pretend while having secret sex, preferably with slaves" and Dorian didn't accept living like that.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah alright so it was "daddy and the society I come from didn't accept me being gay" which still has the more or less same effect. I'm not saying that this was all the character was about but I can see where people may have gotten that impression from.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, the point is more that it's a society based on appearances. If Dorian had been straight or bi and refused to marry and procreate, or wanted to marry someone that wasn't approved, he would have been a pariah as well. His parents' marriage was a convenience business deal that Dorian clearly didn't want to re-enact.

[(Anonymous)]

it's interesting to say that because before the personal quest it's never mentioned he's gay, he freely flirts with the female inquisitor too.

so y'know, not all about the gay

[(Anonymous)]

I love his mustache.

But I've never understood the sassy gay friend character stereotype. I've several male gay friends and I'd never come to them for relationship advice. The concept is just so weird to me. If anything, my gay friends were more in the dark about that sort of thing than my straight male friends (who were pretty clueless) because gay guys have a smaller dating pool. Also that shopping buddy stereotype. My gay male friends go to entirely different clothes shops than me. You know, since I'm female and they're not.

[(Anonymous)]

I tend to think that this is actually a result of how he's written, to be honest. He is "sassy" and he is positioned to be the Inquisitor's friend, moreso than just about any other companion (like Varric is clearly meant to be Hawke's buddy- Dorian just seems to care more about what the Inquisitor goes through).

This isn't to say that this criticism isn't valid- he does get shoved into the "prop for f!Inquisitor/m!LI romance" role quite a bit, but I've seen people criticized for mentioning his friendship with the female Inquisitor at all, which is patently ridiculous. Plus, people get shitty whenever he's depicted as openly admiring another male character claiming that he would never, when he does in game.

Ultimately, I tend to think that he gets mischaracterized from several directions both by people who simplify his character and those who want to obsessively protect him from "str8 fangirls".

[elaminator]

+1

I don't even know what to add except I love Dorian and am glad so many other people seem to love him too. Sometimes fandom gets him wrong, sometimes they get him right... But that's pretty par for the course with fandom.

And he IS easy to be friends with; I feel like it would be harder to not be friends with him. Unless you're a total dick to him, you'll probably end up being close.

[(Anonymous)]

Huh, I didn't know people had the opposite extreme reaction, but I should have suspected.

The thing is, it's just disheartening that so many people equal his being sassy and a friend to the Inquisitor to his getting a personality transplant and becoming a stereotype from Sex in the City.

[meishuu]

I agree. He does comes across as the stereotype sometimes. On the other hand, the fandom seem to take it to the extremes.

[(Anonymous)]

op, very late to this post.

oh, yeah, i absolutely agree that the "you can't mention his friendship with the female inquisitor" thing is beyond ridiculous (hell, all my inquisitors to date have been friends with dorian, and most of them have been female), but the thing is, to me, there's a difference between a meaningful friendship and mutual caring, and reducing it to the "we're going to go shopping and gossip, and giggle about boys" stereotype, and it's only the second thing i was criticizing in my secret.

[caerbannog]

I'm not so keen on his face, not a fan of mustaches but I wish I could get the game to work so I can properly experience all these DA:I dramas.

(Also I'm aware drama surrounds Cole but I'm not sure WHAT kind of drama?????)

[(Anonymous)]

So, so much drama.

He appears to be asexual in game, so there's a lot of bleating about asexual erasure if people have him having sex, or feeling sexual attraction, in fiction.

He also acts like someone who is autistic (although he's not, since he's a spirit rather than a human) and has some child-like qualities. The wank on this one has two directions. Sexualising him/wanting a romance with him is wrong because he's too innocent for such things. But also saying or implying he's cute/has any child-like traits/referring to him as 'my baby' or 'a puppy' is wrong because it's infantilising neuroatypical people.

*shrugs* Fandom. It's a hell of a place.

[(Anonymous)]

Then there's the fact that a lot of the same people who go "hdu, he's a child!!!!" at the idea of romancing Cole, at the same time see nothing wrong with making this "child" kill people for them by the dozens.

Nevermind the fact that Cole gives people sex advice, and talks about his lack of understanding of violence and murder, in the game.

Transcript

[(Anonymous)]

Image: Dorian from Dragon Age

Text: The extent to which the Dragon Age fandom takes the “sassy gay friend” trope is disgusting, especially since there is so much more to this character and I think Bioware did a great job of fleshing him out as a person especially as a stereotype. So to see him used this was is just really, really sad.

And no, your fem!Inquisitor wouldn’t be coming to him for relationship advice, simply because, coming form an oppressive culture, he has never been in a real relationship and has no experience in that regard.

[(Anonymous)]

Still bitter my f!inquisitor couldn't romance him, he was a catty moustachioed masterpiece.

[(Anonymous)]

"catty" tho?

[(Anonymous)]

I dislike Dorian and find him to be a self-insert for Gaider. But him being the sassy gay BFF in fandom is annoying. I may not like him but give the dude some credit.

[(Anonymous)]

LOL

That's terrible and offensive, I agree. And I don't even play the game.