Not sure how particulary I think about it.
I kinda agree though because, honestly, I genuinely like prodding at RL-issues in my video games, but if the best the writers can do is some MCU-level shit that I would expect in Forspoken or Fortnite, then I really wish they’d not. It just feels like making fun of transgender people with how terrible the scene’s dialogue is (there’s a video in the article).
Plus, as the update says, they couldn’t even be arsed to search through the previous games for whether this was already talked about.
Sigh.
Still, the game is far better than I expected it to be, so this isn’t just a rant, but I wish the dialogue in particular had decent writing behind it, it breaks immersion near-constantly even if the general scene and story were done well.
I watched some videos for the game and I’m genuinely baffled by how bad the writing in this game is. The rest of the game looks fine but most of the dialogue really is Forespoken territory. I think SkillUp put it best when he said “It’s written like the HR is in the room”
“Aqun-athlok” means one who was born one gender and is now living as another. So yeah that means trans. But there’s also a conversation in the trans community about if Non-Binary is technically trans. I would argue it is but some disagree and others say that while Non-binary is trans it is not a “normal” type of trans. That Non-Binary is not either gender. Sometimes Non-Binary is literally no gender. Non-Binary is it’s own umbrella term. So it’s not necessarily living as “another” gender, it can be living in between genders, without gender, or as both genders.
So i would say that “Aqun-athlok” is probably more applicable as binary trans as it was used to refer to krem who was a trans man. Now they could have just thought up a new word for Non-binary trans but Non-Binary is just kinda the perfect word for it. I’m Non-Binary and I actually think saying this is immersion breaking is just kinda bs. Plenty of words in our world also exist in Dragon Age. Not everything has to have a different word. For instance, Dwarves are a thing in our world. Sure they’re not the same, it’s a medical term, but they still exist. But the Dwarves in Dragon Age are still called Dwarves. Why are they not a different name? It’s a fantasy world, shouldn’t they have made up a new word instead of using a word from our world to describe these people? No, because Dwarves is just the word that fits best. Non-Binary here is the same.
Now whether or not it is written well is a better approach to this discussion but also, every trans person has experienced the exact thing that this writer describes, except it’s not always pushups. I’ve had people feel incredibly guilty over misgendering me and done some stupid stuff. When I hear this being described I don’t think it’s awkwardly written, I think it’s an accurate representation of what it can be like being trans and how some people will just be like that when they misgender you.
I also think calling it “preachy” is 100% playing into the narrative it’s Woke because people don’t call CoD preachy even though it’s filled with pro military propaganda. Why is this preachy just because it accurately shows an experience that trans people have all experienced in our own lives?
I haven’t gotten to this place yet in the game and I might end up finding it awkward, but I more likely expect to actually relate to Taash more because of it.
Anyway, just my thoughts from a trans dragon age fan.
This article stinks of ignorance and bellendness. Complaining about “modern” or “new” terms is always a huge red flag to me, so now I have to wonder, for example, whether the The Bright Sword character referenced does in fact use she/her. Oh noes, the setting wouldn’t have this one word! It does, of course, have the entirety of any English dictionary other than that word, though. Just the one is icky, like all of those pronouns the woke crowd keep _shoving down our throats! But the woke crowd don’t exist in that world! The whole damn world is drastically different but this one conveniently common language is almost identical! Couldn’t have been that they say “are with” instead of “have,” noooo, it’s one coincidentally “political” word that’s gotta go. That’s the one critical difference in “a fantasy setting divorced entirely from the real world” where they’d suddenly not say things the same way we would!
Does this person give a damn at all and have a crappy take, or just feel like spewing another “omfg woke newspeak agenda” wall of whinge onto… er, Forbes. Not the place I’d look first for sensible discussion of social matters. I guess a click is a click.
Okay, fine, let’s see what their argument is.
In my piece, I noted that—so far at least—I hadn’t encountered anything overtly preachy or that one might describe as garishly political or “overly woke”.
Aaand done with the article! Good, that didn’t take too long.
What’s wrong with acknowledging a term a lot of people use? It’s also implying it as it’s only acknowledging the word and not endorsing it, the “…” for that I think.
And the article is well written, explains what’s lacking, gives an alternative way of doing it better.
Skibidi toilet is also a term a lot of people use. It’s also stupid and has no meaningful definition in discussion.
If you want to use the term “woke”, and believe its presence in media is an issue, please define it first.
It’s a term lot of kids use and it’s a real IP now whether you like it or not. The author did not use it unironially, it’s very clearly ironic. I would also remind you that you are doing what those “anti-woke” people do, making a firm assumption over a term/word without looking at the material/substance.
This article perfectly sums up the issues with this way of writing. Unfortunately people often don’t acknowledge the nuance there, and will jump down this reviewer’s throat for the take I imagine.
It’s icing on the cake that apparently there was even an in-lore term for something like a trans character of this species that they didn’t use. That makes it seem like they didn’t even study their own lore well enough. Never what you want to be thinking about a writing team. 🫤
