[ SECRET POST #2974 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2974 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 044 secrets from Secret Submission Post #425.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

05. http://i.imgur.com/jMpAOFe.png

[(Anonymous)]

That art is sweet.

[brandiweed.livejournal.com]

Harry Clarke is awesome and did the best Poe illustrations EVER.

http://50watts.com/Harry-Clarke-Illustrations-for-E-A-Poe

You can just *smell* that M. Valdemar one. D:

[Frankly, I was gonna come here and just rave about Harry Clarke anyway; the only Brevers I know about is that asshole mass shooter and I don't want to give him any attention.]

[brandiweed.livejournal.com]

Ignore the "Brevers" stuff-- I somehow mentally assumed "Anders" was referring to Anders Breivik (and I got the name wrong-- see, I don't want to give him any attention!)

[kallanda_lee]

Wait, Dragon Age Anders? He didn't strike me as mentally ill. He has a backstory that sort of makes things understandable, but he's a fanatic and a terrorist.

OP

[(Anonymous)]

This is what Hepler said:

"As the writer of Anders, and many other aspects of DAII, I found this an interesting and thoughtful examination of what we tried to do with the game. I do find it odd, though, that Anders is not discussed in regards to the treatment of the mentally ill. For me, that is primarily what his relationship is about — the difficulties of loving and trying to help someone who struggles with a part of himself that he cannot control and may never be able to control. It is certainly the experience I drew from when writing him, and I think it uses the fantasy setting in the way I most prefer to see — providing a magical metaphor for exploring real-world problems. To me, this is the central feature of his character — not whether he is gay or straight, but the inner demons (personified as Justice/Vengeance), which both he and you, as his lover, must struggle against every day."

http://borderhouseblog.com/?p=4823

[(Anonymous)]

I kinda want to argue about how he's only a fanatic and terrorist from a certain pov (you know freedom fighters to so are rebel scum to others), and argue a bit about how he's possessed by a demon but uuuuh not worth it. He's a video game character.

[(Anonymous)]

Did you expect better from Jennifer "Branka is an insane lesbian for no reason" Hepler

[(Anonymous)]

I'm sure Kristjanson helped. Bioware in general doesn't do very well with mental illness or with lesbians.

[(Anonymous)]

Are you referring to a comment Jennifer made in particular? Or Branka herself?

We have no reason to believe that Branka was anything other than bisexual. Oghren alludes to them being happy together at one point (and very sexually active), and as to why Branka went nuts... well, that's kind of part of the story.

[(Anonymous)]

She may have been insane and a lesbian, but it was for a reason. And only a fool wouldn't save the Anvil.

[(Anonymous)]

Citation needed, please

[(Anonymous)]

Um, yes, mental illness CAN lead people to do terrible things, murder and more. I'm all for this "let's not equate mental illness with murder" movement, but pretending that mental illness is always independent of people's actions is absurd. People can (and do) hurt others because of mental illness.

It is annoying when people lump "mental illness" as one thing. Having mild depression or anxiety is not the same as a personality disorder for example, and not all people experience mental illness (for example borderline personality disorder) the same or to the same severity. It sounds obvious (and it should be), so then why does there seem to be this social justice movement trying to insist mental illness only works a certain way?

[iceyred]

For real. There are many different types of mental illnesses and some of them do make the people suffering from them dangerous. Dealing with people who are mentally sick is not rainbows and butterflies.

[(Anonymous)]

Because said social justice movement is trying to make people's lot in life WORSE, not better; for all their Internet-based howling, they are the very thing they claim to hate. Although they are starting to leak out into RL with their mass lynchings/getting people fired for being idiots on their own time social media campaigns.

[dethtoll]

So long as you don't send her death threats or anything. She's had enough of those to last a lifetime.

[(Anonymous)]

I tend to think a lot of the more problematic aspects of Anders' writing could have been easily mitigated if BW had done three simple things.

1. Made Anders' change from Awakening to DA2 more gradual- the groundwork for DA2 Anders was always there, but they skipped over all of the character development that would have smoothed the transition.
2. Treated Anders' "mental illness" with respect rather than making him and his cause a punchline.
3. Made Kirkwall's bloody past part of the story rather than burying it in the codex. Instead of Anders just being crazy and fanatical ~because~ (and Meredith being crazy and fanatical because ~red lyrium~), the fact of the thin Veil would present a lore-friendly reason for why things are so much more terrible in Kirkwall, and how that extra terribleness forced two borderline individuals past their limits.

[(Anonymous)]

I agree completely!

They could have set up the transition so nicely. Act 1 has Anders a little more snarky. Maybe he could have talked more about his adventures with the Wardens, or his life in the Circle, like in DAA. Act 2 he's the Anders we got in DA2, fully invested in the cause. Act 3 he's clearly going off the rails, seeing conspiracies everywhere and losing time to Justice.

And he really is a punchline in DA2. Varric is always nice to him, but even Varric is constantly blowing him off whenever Anders tries to talk about his work. Fenris is the only companion to actually engage with Anders on his cause, to everyone else it's just a joke. It's implied he's smuggling mages out of the gallows, and that tons of harrowed mages are being made tranquil and some are being raped, but that's all in background NPC dialogue and shit that's never made explicit in the main story.

The Kirkwall blood engine really should have made it into more than a difficult-to-complete set of codex entries, too.

[(Anonymous)]

I am pretty sure Anders doesn't literally have a mental illness, because he is literally possessed by a vengeful spirit/demon. If one is really desperate to be symbolic about things, have at it. But he went off the deep end because of corrupted Justice living inside of his head (and occasionally taking over). And that's why Anders did something awesome at the end of the game.

[(Anonymous)]

I swear I'm not a troll but I still think Anders was right. Not to blow up the chantry and kill innocent people, mind you, but that something had to be done to shake up the status quo - personally I would rather have killed Meredith but I've always hated templars so...

Tbh, I do believe that Anders' sanity - or lack thereof - may have played a role in his actions. By act 3, it was clear that he was kinda unhinged.

And before you call me an Anders fan, I did not romance him. I chose Fenris instead because I wanted to prove he was wrong about mages - and because of Gideon Emery's voice. And that's why Anders' actions pissed me off so much at first. I felt betrayed, but in hindsight I get why he did it. I still don't approve his killing innocent civilians, but I don't believe he was wrong to wish for a civil war. Then again, I haven't played Inquisition yet...

[(Anonymous)]

I think he had a point too. I just disliked him because he was poorly written and acted like a whiny asshole a lot of the time

[(Anonymous)]

I was also 100% supportive of Anders blowing up the Chantry. The Chantry sucked. That Revered Mother, whatever her name was, was the WORST - she was the only one who was able to resolve the conflict peacefully but she refused to do jack shit, and let the Templars oppress the mages to such an insane degree. Furthermore, I could never forgive her for harboring that bitch evil Chantry Sister who basically sent that qunari mage to die and tried to kill us too, then murdered Seamus... and only when Hawke confronts the Mother face to face does she finally do something about said Evil Bitch Sister.

I shed no tears at her explosion, nor the what, three or four other nuns in the building at that time. I would've volunteered to help Anders blow the damn thing up if he had asked me.

[saku]

i think many people with mental illness identify with anders in that way but that there is no inherent allusion to anders and mental illness

[mimi-sardinia.livejournal.com]

I once saw someone say they thought Anders seemed like a good example of someone with depression... but Justice was a separate problem from his depression.

But I do understand that the writer intended the possession situation to be a direct analogy to mental illness.

Transcript

[(Anonymous)]

Image: Harry Clarke’s illustration of The Tell-Tale Heart

Text: I’m sure Jennifer Hepler is a lovely person, but I kind of want to throw something at her for comparing Anders to a person with mental illness. If there’s one thing I want to understand about mental illness, it’s that it doesn’t make you a murderous maniac.

SB: People who’ve dealt with borderline personality disorder generally seem to like the character. I’m not gonna rain on their parade.