The Vaea Thread

Being a murder hobo is a staple of western RPG's. I understand it, but it does leave something to be desired. Sure killing your enemies is often the easiest solution to a problem, but I always felt a little underwhelmed when given no alternatives. Don't get me wrong, certain individuals can't and shouldn't be talked down, it undermines their character and motives. That's one reason I respect Solas as a villain, you can debate with him extensively, and no matter your relationship with him, a rival, a friend, or even your lover, he remains adamant in his mission.
As mentioned above Planescape Torment is a brilliant example where discussing and debating motives, ethics and causes of various antagonists really puts it in perspective your own morality and actions. The setting of Dragon Age is grimdark, where everyone thinks they are the hero, but no one is. Inquisition fixed this with the Trespasser dlc to an extent, showing how easily our good intentions resulted in a corrupt organisation with too much power and little accountability. A non lethal playstlye is possible in RPG's recent games like Vampyr and Dishonored show it can be done. But Dragon Age has made its setting very clear by establishing the tone in Origins, this is a dark world, but not so dark as to be without hope. Idealism is possible, but must be tempered with pragmatism if one hopes to achieve anything.
If Vaea does become a companion in the future, her dealing with her problems in a more violent fashion will have to be addressed and handled carefully. I've seen it too many times where the person who was horrified they killed someone one moment, will simply shrug it off the next and be killing countless mooks the next without so much as a second thought.

An aside from the specific character of Vaea but connected with a rogue's abilities, I'd like the next game to make the quest associated with acquiring your specialism to actually be linked to the attributes needed for such a role. In DAI it was boring and rather frustrating (if you couldn't find the ingredients) that every specialism quest simply required you to construct something. I'd like it if a warrior had to fight a specific foe or something else appropriate to their class to gain the specialism, the rogue had to sneak into somewhere, may be disarm a few traps and retrieve a particular item to gain theirs, and a mage had to use a set of spells or direct their staff's energy in a series of ways to achieve something relevant to their specialism. That would be appropriate and more interesting than running around looking for yet more ingredients simply to make a symbolic item.

thats1evildude said

[/quote]Uh ... you murder quite a few people in Vampyr, even if you don't drink the blood of any named NPCs.
[/quote]

Oh yeah... Damn. Hmmm. Well you've got me there friend. It does make it the whole blood drinking seem rather inconsequential in comparison. You are already killing people, will your conscience really suffer if you drink their blood?
Oh Deus Ex (except the boss fights) and the sequel Human Revolution have non-lethal playthroughs.

I tried giving Veae the benefit of doubt, going back and reading her stories. But at the end of the day, they only reinforced my initial reaction: That she was basically a watered down, nicer and safer version of Sera. Maybe a pinch of Merril as well, with their similar design, perky adorkableness, and genuine desire to help other elves. There's nothing inherently wrong with her, but she does strike me as someone who wandered from a completely different franchise, and not a proper Dragon Age character.

Now, I can tell what some of you are probably thinking, "Here we go again, Walter insisting DA must always be dark and gritty" . I'll admit to being somewhat predictable in the past, but not this time . Take Bethany for example; as loving and supportive as Sunshine is, to me she always seemed a reluctant adventurer who would've been happier and more fulfilled as a simple teacher/farmer/housewife with a family out in the country. Although they could more subtle than the rest of Hawke's crew, Jennifer Hepler did not whitewash Bethany's faults: she could be indecisive, hypocritical, lazily foster responsibility on others, and passive aggressive with her bitter jealousies and resentments instead of honestly coming out with it. I like all this about Bethany, as it shows her closer to being a more well rounded, three dimensional character. I have seen little of Vaea however, to indicate such layers. It's like her writers are so desperate for Vaea to be liked that hey downplay, rationalize, or try to justify any flaws that might make her a real person.

Another problem I have with Vaea potentially being a Companion is the dissonance it could bring to both her and the rest of the game. Given that Finger's personality has been more or less consistent, and that she has no obvious connections to the projected major story hooks of DA4, the writers' have three routes, each with their own issues:

1) Like any good Companion, the player could support, change, become enemies with, or completely ignore Vaea. If Vaea could be changed, what divergent outcomes are different from her current personality, but still believably her? If she could become much darker, would fans rail at her being "soiled", even if they never took those options in their games?

2) In order to keep Vaea "pure", the writers would give her Mary Sue plot armor so her "fun and perky" self would never change. Along making Vaea a flat and static character, this option would reinforce the fear that the Bioware writers no longer care about respecting player choices, or complex character development.

3) Aside from hand waving Vaea's presence in DA to simply, "she's here because we like her", the writers could retcon her backstory to have a connection to one of the major players. "SUPRISE! Vaea was really a Mythal/Evanaris/Qunari/Solas/Dalish/Executor deep cover agent all along!" I doubt fans of the character would appreciate learning everything they knew of her was wrong, and other players would probably see it as unnecessarily contrived.

I admit my resistance to Vaea as a Companion has less to do with the character herself, and more a desire to see new types in Thedas. Aside from being a perky, Robin Hood-esque rogue, the other thing Vaea has in common with all of our previous female elven Companions? Velanna, Ariane, Merrill and Sera were all YOUNG. We have never had a mature, or even mid-thirties elven woman, and that's something I'd like a DA4 Companion to explore. She could be wise, mysterious, worldly, funny, sensual, crotchety, driven, vengeful or anything in between, just as long as she's not another pixie.

Velanna never struck me as being that young either.

Walter Black
Regarding her having no layers or faults, I have to disagree with you about that. For example she can definitely be arrogant or overconfident in her skills which can get her and those around her into trouble. If you want more faults, I'm sure phoray can help you since we've had multiple discussions about how much our opinion of Vaea differs.

As for things connecting her to the events of the game, we'll have to wait until the end of Deception before we can discuss that further since it seems this comic may do exactly that. As for her personal journey and story during the game, it depends on what they do. There are many things that Bioware can do that would respect both the character and the player's choices. 

Yeah between her words to him and the events after I definitely think she blames herself for his death.

If you want detail, here is the last thing they say to each other. 
Vaea: "Uncle Coran...why don't you just take it(referring to the vhenadhal sapling) back?"
Coran: "Not at this time, da'len. We do not seek war. We show our strength to force his hand."
Vaea: "The only way to force his hand is to take what you want from him. It is all he respects. He certainly won't respect you. You and your clan are a joke. You just stay here. I'll steal back our sapling." 
After stealing the sapling and coming back she sees his corpse among others while one of the guards exclaims, "Those Dalish tried to storm our Keep! Killed our men!" So yeah it seemed her uncle was moved by her words, only causing people to die on both sides as a result. 

i like where this is going.

Gamedam Meister @gamedammeister
Christina Weir @ndefilippis I had a question about your Dragon Age comics(love them btw and looking forward to more 🙂). I saw that Aaron and Olivia had a romantic history and that made me wonder: Are any of the characters in them Asexual or Demisexual or could be interpreted that way?

Nunzio DeFilippis @ndefilippis
We hadn't really created anyone as asexual or demisexual. However, we have written Vaea with a general lack of sexual attraction to anyone. We're still deciding how that will play out.