fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3180 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3180 ⌋

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

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09. [WARNING for rape]

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11. [WARNING for domestic violence/abuse]

[The Musketeers]

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12. [WARNING for rape]

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13. [WARNING for rape]

[Babylon 5]

Notes:

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Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Obviously it can't actually erase the characters' sexualities, but for queer fans it brings up nasty associations with real world violence that we still face, real world violence that the game itself actually references. I really don't understand how you can look at a gay character, whose storyline heavily involves him fleeing his country because his father tried to brainwash him into being attracted to women, and decide that you want to mod him so that he'll get with your female inquisitor.

i think it's more that some people simply don't want to play the entire game all over again as a gender they don't like playing as just for a romance, so the mod's an easy way to romance their favourite character anyway. i really don't think most of them think much farther than that!

Then maybe they should listen when people explain why they're upset by the mods, instead of trying to reframe it as an issue of queer people being mean and unreasonable.

But I also find it hard to imagine that someone could consider Dorian their favorite character while failing to pick up on the potential implications of modding him into liking their female inquisitor, when he explains in-game that his father tried to mage away the gay.

It's a little hard to listen when the fandom actively harrasses the modders and sends death threats and the like and runs them from the fandom (just found out about the bi!cassandra mod earlier).

Sry, bi!Dorian can still fit that bill cause he'd still be interested in men, just that he can also like women.

I just find the outcry over those particular mods to be over the top. Because, honestly, we have more representation of homosexual relationships in media (how quality they are tends to be a rollercoaster) than we do of bisexual relationships. I mean, I see the criticisms all the time about bi erasure, on both sides of the fence.

Death threats are meaningless as evidence for which side is right in an Internet conflict. Death threats on the Internet are like mushrooms. They spring up everywhere, inevitably, on all sides.

like, seriously, what was the last real wankstorm you saw that DIDN'T feature at least one side, and probably both, reporting that they'd received death threats?

ayrt

Why would his dad need to brainwash him into be attracted to women if he was bi? It's an important plot point that he's gay.

It's ridiculous and disingenuous to claim that you're giving gay characters opposite gender attraction in the name of bi representation. Bi people and gay people are both underrepresented in the media. Trying to get more representation by stealing from each other is counterproductive and oftentimes offensive.

Besides, claiming that you're only changing gay characters to bolster bi representation is doubly ridiculous in this specific scenario, considering that Dorian and Sera are the only gay love interests available across all three games. All of the other non-straight love interests (of which there are 8) are bi/pan. The simple existence of two gay characters is not bi erasure.

Because if he saw his son trying to woo a dude, he'd probably have a hernia. And Dorian trying to tell him he also likes women may not fly because, omg, he also dudes and that is not acceptable.

Nooooot that hard a thing to think of.

The problem wasn't just that he was attracted to men, but that he refused to pretend to be attracted to women. His father wouldn't have cared enough to brainwash him if Dorian had agreed to marry a woman and produce an heir, while still "wooing dudes" on the side.

It's wildly inappropriate to claim that the conflict works just as well if Dorian is bi. He isn't and it doesn't. So much of his storyline makes no sense at all if it's reduced to a simple case of him wanting to escape an arranged marriage, and it seems insensitive besides, because the person who wrote him is a gay man whose experiences heavily influenced Dorian's. And it's especially inappropriate considering that you've never actually played the game.

ayrt

Yeah, I can understand both sides of the argument. It's easy for me to view romance mods more on the same level as self-insert fanfics than anything. At the end of the day they can't change canon and they're only meant for someone's personal pleasure rather than to make a statement, so I think people have the right to use them.

Saying that, I actually do agree that changing Dorian's sexuality comes across as skeevier than the other mods considering his past! But like I said, I don't think most of them do it to intentionally to erase gay characters, just to make playing easier for themselves.

See, this is what I think.

Take SWTOR as an example. I like the smuggler story and if I decide to make a male!Smugg to romance Risha, and really like that romance, if I could and not get in throuble for it? I'd totally make a mod so my fem!Smugg could romance her. And if our companions were able to he exclusively gay, I'd probably do the same thing to see what it'd be like with a het pair for them.

It has nothing to do with erasure. It's just me wanting to experiment and see how they play out. More times than not, in the end, the natural romance (i.e. what was programed from the get go) feels the best (though in the case of Corso, no romance is worth it with him imo), but I see nothing wrong with different headcanons and the like for a new playthrough.

I imagine Dragon Age would be the same, in the end.

The ONLY people I would side eye, but still defend in playing their game, are the ones who buy the game and immediately look for those mods without giving the in game romances a try first.

-otakugal15

(one of these days i will finally change my password so i can log back in from my phone)

I hope that you'd feel differently if you actually played Dragon Age.

Most likely not.

-otakugal15

Not even if said character's storyline hinges on being gay rather than bi?

Yeah. My favourite game when it comes to romance is the second one, solely because they're all bi so I don't have to worry about gender restrictions. Probably makes me sound selfish and lazy, but.

[ SECRET POST #3180 ]

Re: Mods in Dragon Age fandom

Re: Mods in Dragon Age fandom

Re: Mods in Dragon Age fandom

Re: Mods in Dragon Age fandom

Re: Mods in Dragon Age fandom

Re: Mods in Dragon Age fandom

Re: Mods in Dragon Age fandom

Re: Mods in Dragon Age fandom

Re: Mods in Dragon Age fandom

Re: Mods in Dragon Age fandom

Re: Mods in Dragon Age fandom

Re: Mods in Dragon Age fandom

Re: Mods in Dragon Age fandom

Re: Mods in Dragon Age fandom

Re: Mods in Dragon Age fandom