[ SECRET POST #2351 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2350 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 05 pages, 113 secrets from Secret Submission Post #336.
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

[(Anonymous)]

Since when is this a thing? D: I think Dragon Age's romance subplots are amazing. Clearly you've never gay rivalmanced Fenris.

[(Anonymous)]

I've het rivalmanced Fenris and much prefer the friendship path. I may rivalmance Anders but no I can't stand him to stick with it...nah I'll gay rivalmance Merril instead.

[(Anonymous)]

Why would you rival Merril at all. ._. Whenever I try to rival her to get her to change her views on blood magic, I start crying. Leave daisy alone! D:

[(Anonymous)]

I don't want to be mean but girl is a little daft at times when it comes to both blood magic and demons. And she's kinda hot when she's angry at Hawke.

[forgottenjester]

Eeeeehhhh. While I haven't done that personally I have seen the different dialogue if you do it. So I do know what I'm talking about.

Overall I feel like most of their romance subplots are tacked on. Don't get me wrong, sometimes it can be tacked on well, it's just the tacked on aspect that's still a problem. Also, while some romance dialogue may shine, others do not. If you compare, say in Mass Effect 2, the romance of Garrus versus Miranda you start to see that not all romance subplots are equal and some just come off as not romantic in the slightest. Don't get me wrong. I still romanced the shit out of Garrus, but it was in spite of that first scene, not because of it.

It doesn't even have to be only dialogue. Let's take Fenris, for example. Because of the rushed nature of DA2 they couldn't even give him underclothes in his running away scene. While you're in your skivvies he runs out in full armor. Holy crap he is a ninja dresser. He needs to teach me these skills.

I dunno, maybe I have high standards but every romance I've done out of Bioware has had super awkward parts that I just have had to willfully ignore. For me, fandom is what normally makes those romances great, not always the game itself.

[(Anonymous)]

To be fair, the lack of underclothes in the case of Fenris has to do with not enough time - David Gaider actually said he WANTED that, but his programmers would have had to create a whole new model because of Fenris's tattoos. Not that it shouldn't have been done, but I think most of Dragon Age II's flaws can be chalked down to not having nearly as much time to make it as they did DAO (I think DAO was made in like six years, I thought I heard, whereas they were forced to finish DA2 in closer to a year).

But for all the flaws of DA2, I do not believe the writing is one of them. David Gaider, imo, is an amazing writer and I don't find the romances "tacked on" at all. In DA2, the romance affected dialogue with other characters, and DA2 is a lot more of a character drama than a typical action/adventure story. I grant that in DAO, the romances were largely more "separate" from other interactions - in the case of Leliana and Zevran, because Alistair and Morrigan's romances could very much affect the plot, but Leliana is personally my favorite romance of them all and I find nothing cheap and tacked on about it.

In DA2, I think they have brilliant depth, emotion, and problems that make them feel more real, if fantastical. I know to each one's own, but I honestly don't think "cheap tacked on romances" is a fair criticism. Even with DA2's rushed creation, the characters and character interactions to me are really genuine. The only thing it lacked were proper sex scenes like the original DA. :D

[forgottenjester]

I know? That's why I said, "due to the rushed nature of DA2". And I also think a lot of its flaws can be traced to the fact that it was rushed. I just don't think that means the flaws aren't flaws though.

I never said they were cheap and I do agree DA2 has a far more integrated romance system. I just feel there's still an awkward level of separation in some scenes that irks me. Hence why I said 'tacked on'.

You seem to be under the impression that I think overall the game is bad or that I think all the romances are bad. This isn't the case. I like DA2, I just think it has a lot of problems and I have no qualms picking out what I feel are those problem. I don't expect people to always agree with me on them, especially with how hotly contested things like DA2's script quality is. There are just some elements, and yes, sometimes the writing, that didn't really work for me. That doesn't mean I think the whole thing is bad or that there aren't other parts that I believe to be completely and utterly stellar. Because really, if I didn't have scenes or parts of the game I absolutely loved, why would I even bother with playing it? I'm just one of those people who has no problem critiquing something she loves.

And as for those sex scenes I preferred DA2's fade to black. It worked for me. I find imagining or at least having an understanding of what is going on to be better than actually showing us something that we may not completely agree with. Also, the sex scenes in Origins I found to be laughably awful so I'm glad those weren't returning.