Austin Manning said:
Tragedy:
1. an event causing great suffering, destruction, and distress, such as a serious accident, crime, or natural catastrophe.
2. a play dealing with tragic events and having an unhappy ending, especially one concerning the downfall of the main character.
Tragic:
1. causing or characterized by extreme distress or sorrow.
My uses were, and remain, entirely accurate,
particularly given 'The tragedy of Hawke' is a casual term I use to describe and dial in on the overall dramatic and thematic intent/character of the game (to help distinguish it from most of BioWare's other - invariably less ambitious/distinct - narratives). I never intend on, nor do I have any interest in, comparing it to rote conventions of [Greek] tragedy as a hard and fast genre.
Put simply: A tragedy examines the fallibility of humanity, while a fatalistic story would be "rocks fall, everyone dies and nothing you ever thought, attempted or achieved mattered." One is about humanity, while the other is about wallowing in pointlessness.
Given an RPG is a work that typically tells
many stories - some of which the player can simply choose to not trigger, or miss them through various reasons (well hidden sidequests, branching arcs locking off others, etc), I'd say DAII certainly examines that theme.
Firstly, its characters (it's been a few years since I last played it, so I can't go into the detail I should/could've): Varric, through his mercantile hubris and the fate of his brother, Bartrand, Fenris and his absolutist vengeance being muddied by the fate of his sister and the 'choices' certain slaves make, the rug eventually being very much pulled from under Isabela's bolshy selfishness, Aveline's faith in the system being challenged (as well as her own notion of where she may belong in the world), Anders'--- well, he's an obvious one, and then Merrill with her own story of cultural/social adaptation, [well-intentioned] arrogance and less well-intentioned personal insecurity and egoism.
All those characters make their own choices for good and ill in the game (and have made various key ones before the game's timeline, which the story then often deals with), and the player can affect their rationale (it not, in most cases, an outcome). Every single character demonstrates varying degrees of fallibility. Hell, it could be that their entire arcs are dedicated to mulling over their frequently fallible natures.
As for the 'fallibility of Hawke'? Arguably her role primarily delineates the impotence and limitations of certain forms of power (relative to circumstance and history), i.e. she's an increasingly key figure in the citystate, yet in a way she is just as powerlessness given as her stature rises, the problems she has to try to resolve 'level up' with her... Be it the agendas and sway of the rogue Chantry elements, the Circle, the Templars, and eventually the Qunari in the enclave. What I loved/love about DAII's main story is that across the nine years in Kirkwall, Hawke is merely another player with an agenda, trying to assert her influence yet she's no special-snowflake-chosen. No matter how noble her goals or motives, and no matter how badass she and her companions become, it's not enough; DAII was a story of a citystate and a society, not just Hawke et al. Hawke was ultimately up against generations worth of history, religious dogma, status quo, grievances (many valid), and so on. Thedas' house of cards was about to fall, and Kirkwall was the epicenter in the series. Hawke was our window in that--- well, tragedy...
Another element I like about DAII is that the game's frame-narrative has a frequently lying, embellishing storyteller relate the tale; yet it's a story with no happy ending, and no resolution. The citystate's gone to hell, the conflict is spreading, and our protagonist/'assumed hero-Champion' is nowhere to be seen.
So whenever they attempt to write tragedy (like in Dragon Age II or Mass Effect 3) they instead write a plot that may as well have booted the player to the end credits after their first death. Instead of leaving the player feeling sad and reflective as they consider the events that lead up to the game's final moments, they leave the player going "What was the point of any of that?"
As above; firstly it very much depends on how you use the T word.
Secondly, that's a subjective reaction, so not some kind of demonstrable fault with BioWare's writing. ME3's vanilla ending was poorly presented - I doubt anyone could coherently say otherwise. But 'What was the point of any of that?' certainly wasn't, and has never been, something I felt. I was impressed they managed to surprise me with the whole Reapers-as-imperfect-solution-to-an-existential-question angle, particularly given in ME2's Arrival they seemed to have turned the Reapers into sneering, smarmy Bond/arch comicbook villains.
Sure, having the Citadel blink out of existence and reappear as a sentient coffee cup would've surprised me, too... But I feel ME3's ending very much felt a part of what had come before it. Instead of feeling anything had been a waste, I feel ME3's end made what came before all the more interesting (though the remnants of the dark energy arcs do seem incongruous). Each choice represented a compromise, and was relative to an individuals set of morals and philosophy; none of the solutions are right or wrong.
That, for me, was a perfect note to end that series on (i.e. a series that ostensibly pretended to be about 'tough moral choices', yet was increasingly about Sane/Rational choices versus being a Genocidal Asshat... ).
Back to ME:A: the first impressions of other people have convinced me my own first impressions will be arriving in a few weeks or months time, though exclusively because of bugs - I'm sick of having 'triple-A' SP games ruin a first playthrough through technical snafus that should've been dealt with before release.
ME:A might well turn out to be the most ho-hum Mass Effect yet, but I won't know till I play the damn thing myself. Eventually.
votemarvel said:
Back onto Andromeda. I've finally gotten a decent looking Ryder for my game thanks to the https://www.reddit.com/r/ShareYourRyders/ sub-reddit. I am using this one https://www.reddit.com/r/ShareYourRyders/comments/60pbq9/preset_1_fox_ryder_my_custom_ryder/
Gotta say, that's a pretty good/realistic look. How does it look in action, though, re speech and expressions?
I actually still want to stick to the default female Ryder whenever I start playing it, as if they're going to continue that overall design across other games (if there are other 'Andromedas'), then I'd prefer a canon/default PC just as with the redheaded FemShep.
