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Elvis Has Left The Building
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pessimistpanda
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Apr 18, 2017 15:57:34 GMT
April 2017
pessimistpanda
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect Andromeda
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Post by pessimistpanda on Mar 16, 2021 14:34:47 GMT
A sense of mystery makes stories and their settings feel richer, for some, and especially so in Fantasy. Middle Earth has lots of mysteries, the Lovecraft mythos is entirely built on a sense of mystery (and racism). It's really common for fantasy works to hint at things in lore and the setting that will never be answered. Making the reader ask questions isn't a promise from the writer that those will ever be answered at any point, and a lot of authors deliberately insert questions they have no intention of ever answering. In my personal experience, the mystery is the fun part and answers are usually disappointing, but when it comes to Andraste, I simply never cared to begin with, and there's way, WAY bigger revelations about the nature of Thedas and its history to contend with now. I would be less than impressed if time that *could* be spent on learning about the pre-veil world or the rock giants the world is literally made of was instead spent on addressing some woman's mental health. And I'm not particularly interested in revisiting the old gods, if the origins and solution of the Taint can be handled without them. Also, as a general personal rule, resurrection is lazy tool for hacks, and I'm not a fan of immortality either. Meh, to me that whole "the mystery is the fun part" just feels like excusing the poor planning on the writers part now that they've had 3 games (and all the associated spinoffs) to reveal a much clearer lore. And yet the player still isn't any closer to learning the truth about all these questions since Origins they still have. (The Old Gods/The Titans/The Evanuris/etc) I was offering a personal opinion, I wasn't "defending" anyone. I don't think the plots of DA games are particularly high quality. I don't know of any writer or group of writers who sits down and writes out the entire, objectively true history of their fantasy setting, let alone one who has ever revealed it all. Tolkien gave it a go, I suppose one could say, and it took his entire life and he died without finishing it anyway and surprise, surprise, most people don't bother to engage with it now that his family has decided to make money off it, when he likely intended the bulk of it to stay private. I don't dispute that DA's plots are poorly planned, I think that they are, but if your metric for "poorly planned" is "it didn't answer all of my questions", then you're going to find that most fantasy or sci-fi fiction is poorly planned, because most writers aren't thinking about it half as much as their fan are, especially not background lore that they never intend to explore in-depth.
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jrpN7
N3
Pro vobis omne periculum.
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age Inquisition
Posts: 731 Likes: 1,859
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jrpN7
Pro vobis omne periculum.
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jrpn7
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age Inquisition
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Post by jrpN7 on Mar 16, 2021 14:45:48 GMT
I always saw her as a normal middle-class woman who happened to be at the right place at the right time when something divine or extraordinary happened. People idolized her and any happenstance that occured after her death was considered to have had her hand involved past the grave until she was over time given goddess status.
So if she were brought back as a squaddie, she'd be useless. Although her tagging along in an urn to criticize everything we do does sound humorous and I'd be all for that.
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Black Magic Ritual
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Games: Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition
Posts: 242 Likes: 219
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Mar 28, 2024 16:06:15 GMT
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Black Magic Ritual
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blackmagicritual
Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition
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Post by Black Magic Ritual on Mar 16, 2021 15:20:58 GMT
Meh, to me that whole "the mystery is the fun part" just feels like excusing the poor planning on the writers part now that they've had 3 games (and all the associated spinoffs) to reveal a much clearer lore. And yet the player still isn't any closer to learning the truth about all these questions since Origins they still have. (The Old Gods/The Titans/The Evanuris/etc) I was offering a personal opinion, I wasn't "defending" anyone. I don't think the plots of DA games are particularly high quality. I don't know of any writer or group of writers who sits down and writes out the entire, objectively true history of their fantasy setting, let alone one who has ever revealed it all. Tolkien gave it a go, I suppose one could say, and it took his entire life and he died without finishing it anyway and surprise, surprise, most people don't bother to engage with it now that his family has decided to make money off it, when he likely intended the bulk of it to stay private. I don't dispute that DA's plots are poorly planned, I think that they are, but if your metric for "poorly planned" is "it didn't answer all of my questions", then you're going to find that most fantasy or sci-fi fiction is poorly planned, because most writers aren't thinking about it half as much as their fan are, especially not background lore that they never intend to explore in-depth. But that's problem there - the aforementioned stuff with the Old Gods/Black City/Andraste/Titans isn't some minor background lore, it's stuff that's drives the whole narrative, why Thedas the way it is and why the characters & organisations have any goals at all. (For the grey wardens killing the Archdemon/ for The Chantry the Maker etc) We know with Solas being the main baddie in DA4 we'll likely learn more about the Evanuris & Arlathan , so I don't know why you think any of that stuff is something that they "never intended to explore in-depth." And that's just a silly comparison comparing minor details Tolkien never got around to answering to a company like Bioware not clearing up large patches of the story in DA's own universe. I don't expect (or want) to know every little detail but by 3 games I would've expected much more progress then where the series is by now.
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