It continues to be wildly insulting that this series is praised for "lgbtqia+ rep" while not actually including any canonically ace people. You know...the people there at the end of the acronym? The 'A'? It's very clear who these award show people think counts as queer and who, in their eyes, deserves inclusion....and it's everyone but acespec people, apparently. GLAAD gave this game an award, too, and said it was for "outstanding trans and nonbinary" rep...ignoring the fact that ace nonbinary and trans people exist and maybe don't want to be told to be grateful for only being included for part of their identity. These people genuinely only care about you if you're allosexual.
Are we even certain EA is going to do anything in the future with Dragon Age? Despite past successes, EA doesn't seem to actually want Dragon Age as a series to succeed, and I think what happened with Veilguard is proof of that. Plus, they pretty unambiguously canceled the series: Minimal marketing for Veilguard, declaring no DLC before the game even released, and then purging the whole team that worked on it only months after release. That says to me that EA never intends to touch this series again, and that's a damn shame. Veilguard was such a weak note to end such a great series on.
So, no non-sexual romance options for Ace dragon age fans? Every romance culminates in an explicitly sexual scene that doesn't even leave room for non-sexual interpretation? So much for being "LGBTQIA+ inclusive". Guess the devs at bioware think the A stands for aardvark.
1. Kind of hate the "no matter how strong she seems, she must always have a soft and gentle side only a romantic partner can reveal" trope, but you seem to think this is a good thing and a reason to romance her?
2. Dragon age evangelists demanding people romance a certain character will always be annoying. Maybe I don't want to romance anyone at all?
I think it's weird that bioware is framing these settings as "accessibility features", as if this is being done for the benefit of disabled players. They've always had different difficulty levels in their games.
I wish dragon age was as inclusive as they claim it to be, but even David Gaider claimed it was too difficult to include asexuality, and the devs simply refuse to include our community in any meaningful sense. They want to be praised for an inclusivity they're not extending to the whole acronym, while claiming to be "LGBTQIA+ inclusive". How exactly have they included the "A"? There isn't as single ace character in any game, comic, or novel, and all we've gotten are excuses about how we're too difficult to include, or been told it isn't the right time to include us, or whatever other excuse they invent to continue to exclude us. I'm no longer supporting "inclusive media" that doesn't actually include my community.
Glad he's not a Zevran 2.0 but that won't stop the fandom from turning him into a racist Latin Lover stereotype. One thing fandom doesn't care about is nuance, and what they love to do is act like fetishism is progressive.
I used to have very fond memories of Dragon Age. Despite the often hypocritical, toxic fandom that touts itself as inclusive but is actually filled with aphobic bigots, I was able to make at least one long lasting, meaningful friend. However, it's become very obvious to us that this game will never represent or include ace people. We are not considered worthy or important enough to be represented, and never will be. I'm no longer supporting "inclusive media" that doesn't actually include my community, and I'm tired of being told to shut up and wait my turn by people who should honestly know better.
I assume Trick Weekes will continue with their particular brand of aphobia in their writing of Taash, writing from an amatonormative standpoint and assuming all nonbinary people are allosexual. Can't have any ace inclusive intersectionality in your "INCLUSIVE" media, right? And all nonbinary people are, of course, allosexual people because aces don't exist in dragon age. Or in the bioware dev's lives, apparently.
Stop calling this game "LGBTQIA+ inclusive": IT ISN'T. THEY HAVEN'T INCLUDED THE ACE COMMUNITY AT ALL. There are no canon ace characters, and the devs have made repeated aphobic comments both in the writing of the series and in interviews. They only care about certain letters in the acronym, and the "A" is the one they always choose to leave out. Stop giving them a free pass and call them out on their exclusionist behavior and beliefs. And Stop ignoring the ace community when we point out that we're not being represented.
