What were your thoughts on the romances?

And that's the kind of bullshit that I hate. I get that everyone being bi will immediately solve that issue, but fundamentally the real issue is that Bioware is pandering to straight gamers and refusing to make LGBT characters more relevant to the plot. Now for me personally I really don't care that my LI isn't all that central to the plot. Sera was my favorite DAI after all, but the fact remains that Bioware needs to reaffirm their SJW tag and actually make LGBT characters not an afterthought that gets shafted to non-squadmate status. I'd much prefer for that to happen that let them get away with a convenient quick fix with bi for all.

They can add "set sexualities" for non-romanceable characters, so I don't see a problem with the all bi route. You see more gay men and lesbians in ME:A outside romances than in, already. Plus, honestly, the bi stories tend to be better. They write gay men primarily about being gay. They have a dead husband, or daddy conversion therapy issues, or contrived gay parenting plots. I get what you're saying, but I don't want to wait another decade for them to maybe make things equal. It was equal when they went all bi in DA2. That worked. Set sexualities isn't working, imo. It sounds good in theory to say they should just try harder, but I'm tired of getting screwed over by that. It would be easier to feel differently if it wasn't specifically my demographic that gets consistently the worst result from it, I guess. 

I personally prefer the romance-whoever-you-like model, if for no other reason than it means everyone has the greatest chance of finding an LI that works for their character (forget about Garrus' "ruthless calculus of war," romance is the real numbers game).  

That being said, Bioware has tended to make LI's straight romantic entanglements more visible.  It may be easy mistake, say, Reyes, as being straight if playing a female Ryder, what with the appearance of an ex-girlfriend.  However, gay Scotts (Great Scott! Gay Scotts! . . . sorry) can't exactly see their sexuality represented in the LIs except for Gil--not because he shoots down Sara (after all, not everyone plays as both genders), but because it's made obvious by his other potential romances (aka the "invigorating" dock worker).  I wonder if people would be more on-board with so called "player-sexual" models if Bioware simply became better at actually making all characters come from varied romantic backgrounds?  Keep Reyes' ex-girlfriend but have him also flirt with the male bartender, have Liam mention an ex-boyfriend, let Cora discuss her awkwardness avoiding Asari entanglements, have Vetra coo over Suvi's voice.  Make them all available to either Ryder.  I admit this may have problematic overtones for the real world (cue: "A who like B won't suddenly like C just because C is a player character!!!").  But this isn't the real world.  It's a galaxy far, far away.

Yes, I'm aware of the whole "bisexuality isn't a game mechanic" argument.  But it kinda sorta is (in this setting).  It's in a video game.  Where you romance pixels.  LI preferences are lines of code.  Granted, this would mean that certain plotlines (exhibit A: Dorian's quest from DAI) wouldn't be possible.  


In regards to overall romance quality, I sometimes feel that the more the writers try to pigeon-hole certain characters as romance options, the more I tend to avoid them.  Jaal even made me realize that I am, in fact, a horrible human being.  He was all . . . sensitive.  And emotional.  And weepy.  And I found myself making rude noises at my computer screen whenever he started getting even the slightest bit lovey-dovey with my Ryder (disclaimer: the banter bug means I didn't feel like I got to "know" the companions that well).  Reyes is perfect in my eyes: well-written, morally ambiguous, and with a voice designed for auditory orgasms.  

You just have to create 6 squadmates to cover ever sexuality and give them options. It's the 2/2/2 option that has been said before. And there were only 2 bisexual romances in Inquisition: Iron Bull and Josephine. There were more straight female options with Solas, Cullen, and Blackwall.


I'd need to see that scene before I can say anything concrete about it, but it seems to me that he was talking about the Qunari invading the Winter Palace at the time.


No, thanks, I'd rather have gay and lesbian squadmates than always making them support characters, while the bisexuals are the only ones who get the banter and get to travel with the crew. And yes, the gay character stories haven't been particularly good, especially in Cortez's case, but I'd much rather prefer them over a character who, once again, is straight in all aspects than hooking up with a same sex PC. Not to mention that Dorian's romance only had gay issues at one point while Gil's, poorly paced as it may be, was a very interesting story that only could've been told in a story like Andromeda's, which I appreciate. In both cases, set sexualities or playersexual, gays tend to be screwed one way or another so it's more about fixing the core issue with gay romances than just making a quick-fix option of having all romances available to everyone.

Cullen and Solas are racial specific option, not truly straight female options. Try playing a Qunari, and you only have Blackwall and bisexual options. Gotta be a loli to be able to chose anything else. It's not particularly fun to be told how straight women stole all the romances and lucked out in Inquisition when you personally did not get any fun as a female and rerolled a male to get one romance you liked.

I am glad you are pleased with how Andromeda and Inquisition turned out, but I did not. I think there is no finding common ground, so better leave the thread for actual chit-chat on Andromeda's romances.

As you said, the romances are entirely subjective. I personally enjoyed Gil's story more than the rest of the m/m romances, though I will admit Reyes is my most favorite despite all the problems stemming from his "bisexuality" with his romance. At the end of the day, I want my characters to be fully fleshed out in every single way, including their sexuality. The playersexual/all bi approach has always felt flimsy to me and I've always felt a bit odd playing them in some way or another. The only time I really enjoyed one of these characters was Kaiden, and only during the Citadel DLC. He was still a pretty boring romance, though, IMO.

Personally, I think after all the backlash the m/m romances are getting in Andromeda and with Weekes heading DA4, Bioware will step up their game and actually improve their writing in the next game.

It's 2 straight, 2 gay, and 2 bisexual romances. The most an individual player would be able to romance in a playthrough would be 4.

Again, everyone has their own preferences on the romances so you can't say Anders and Fenris are better than Blackwall or Iron Bull. It's all subjective. I didn't like Bull's romance, but I'd take it over the whininess of both Anders' and Fenris'. And like I said much earlier, I prefer the way Inquisition did it because I prefer the 2/2/2+Extra. With this setup, everyone gets an option, everyone is represented, and there are extra romances (whether full romances with strict gates or flings) so it feels a bit more realistic than an even split.

Offensive? Lmao at those salty tears.

Bioware is the one that decided to give LGB romanceable characters as well as multiple choices for those characters. Whether realistic or not, it's something they clearly want to do. Likewise, as I pointed out in one of my posts above, they also like the idea of set characters and want them to feel as realistic as possible. Just because the numbers aren't necessarily realistic, doesn't mean the characters don't have to be. Is it hypocritical? Yes. But as you can see in the link and from all their games, save DAII, it's something Bioware wants to do. I've also mentioned that as long as everyone gets at least 2 options, I don't mind however many romances other orientations get and that it was my most preferred setup for romances.

Also, like I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I didn't like Dorian or Iron Bull either, and I would've preferred a character like Cullen. It sucks that I didn't get that, but I also like the fact that Bioware didn't change a previously straight character to a bisexual one just to appease the fans. They wanted to write these characters with these specific traits for whatever reason and that's more than fine with me. Sexuality is an important trait in a character, just as much as their race, species, gender, etc., and I prefer if they take all of them into account when designing characters instead of just giving us characters, at least romanceable ones, that want to get with any PC. Lastly, for me, it's also a representation issue. A bisexual squadmate you have as a romance would not ring as strongly to me as a gay romanceable squadmate, especially since all bisexual/playersexual males we've had so far (females have been much better, not surprisingly) all tend to lean towards heterosexuality.

That or maybe it's just because Cathleen Rosaert always kicks ass when it comes to writing a bond between two characters. Say what you want to about Kaidan but in ME3 when she wrote him his romance scenes with FemShep were excellent.

Of course you'd say that, a straight guy I assume? And I'll feel however I want to feel.