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30 Days of DA: Least favorite LI
Day Five: Least Favorite Love Interest
I'm kind of limited in my options here, because I've only played three romances to their conclusion -- Alistair, Anders, and Fenris -- and loved them all. I do have a Zevran romance that's almost finished (in my m!Surana game, which I should really get back to sometime soon), and I've enjoyed that quite a lot. I haven't romanced Sebastian, Merrill, or Morrigan, and I've only done a little bit of Isabela, but what I have seen was fun, and I'm looking forward to the rest.
That leaves us with Leliana, who I romanced as m!Surana, and also a little bit as f!Aeducan, and maybe she is the right answer to this question.
The problem I have with the Leliana romance is that it's too easy to trigger by accident. I said that I romanced her as f!Aeducan, but that's not exactly correct. My Aeducan was flirtatious, to be sure, but Leliana didn't seem to be responding at first, so she moved on.
And then, out of the blue, well after the romance with Alistair had progressed to the next level, Leliana professed her love and asked to spend the night.
To say that this was a surprise -- to Sereda and me both -- would be an understatement. Nothing in Leliana's dialogue up to that point had lead me to believe that she considered herself to be in a romance with the Warden. In contrast, when Zevran made his move, it was entirely predictable based on the interactions that had come before. I've heard people refer to Leliana's romance as a "stealthmance", and I totally agree with this. And it's troublesome, that a female character is shown as being so passive in matters of romance. Even worse is the break-up conversation, which I triggered in my m!Surana game -- even though she had professed her undying love and devotion to him several times, the minute Alim said "we have to talk", she beat him to the punch and walked away. Do any of the other characters give up their beloved Warden without a fight? (Or without a compelling external reason, like Alistair after he is made king.) It bothers me. Maybe it shouldn't, but it does.
Would I feel differently if I had played a Leliana romance through to the end? Perhaps, but what it comes down to is that I don't feel compelled to complete a Leliana romance. She's a great character, I enjoy her as a friend, but as of now, I'm happy to leave it at that.
Complete list of questions
I'm kind of limited in my options here, because I've only played three romances to their conclusion -- Alistair, Anders, and Fenris -- and loved them all. I do have a Zevran romance that's almost finished (in my m!Surana game, which I should really get back to sometime soon), and I've enjoyed that quite a lot. I haven't romanced Sebastian, Merrill, or Morrigan, and I've only done a little bit of Isabela, but what I have seen was fun, and I'm looking forward to the rest.
That leaves us with Leliana, who I romanced as m!Surana, and also a little bit as f!Aeducan, and maybe she is the right answer to this question.
The problem I have with the Leliana romance is that it's too easy to trigger by accident. I said that I romanced her as f!Aeducan, but that's not exactly correct. My Aeducan was flirtatious, to be sure, but Leliana didn't seem to be responding at first, so she moved on.
And then, out of the blue, well after the romance with Alistair had progressed to the next level, Leliana professed her love and asked to spend the night.
To say that this was a surprise -- to Sereda and me both -- would be an understatement. Nothing in Leliana's dialogue up to that point had lead me to believe that she considered herself to be in a romance with the Warden. In contrast, when Zevran made his move, it was entirely predictable based on the interactions that had come before. I've heard people refer to Leliana's romance as a "stealthmance", and I totally agree with this. And it's troublesome, that a female character is shown as being so passive in matters of romance. Even worse is the break-up conversation, which I triggered in my m!Surana game -- even though she had professed her undying love and devotion to him several times, the minute Alim said "we have to talk", she beat him to the punch and walked away. Do any of the other characters give up their beloved Warden without a fight? (Or without a compelling external reason, like Alistair after he is made king.) It bothers me. Maybe it shouldn't, but it does.
Would I feel differently if I had played a Leliana romance through to the end? Perhaps, but what it comes down to is that I don't feel compelled to complete a Leliana romance. She's a great character, I enjoy her as a friend, but as of now, I'm happy to leave it at that.
Complete list of questions
no subject
I've been romancing her with my current playthrough (f!Amell, doesn't have much respect for the Chantry or the laws of the land, but tries to do the right thing and help the people around her) and it's... I don't know. She really did strike me as being the least interesting of the possible love interests - I actually hardened her to see if it would make her character any more interesting to me. (It was sort of in character; Solona would have wanted her to be happy, and if that meant being more like her old self then that was what she would encourage her to do.) It's helped a little, but really it hasn't done much to change their actual conversations. (Granted, much of her romance was done before I had the chance to harden her. The fight was Marjolaine was one of the hardest things I'd tried to do in the game up to that point, and it took me a while to get it done.)
Her romance is... how do I put this? Regardless of the fact that I am playing a female Warden, I feel very much like the man in a stereotypical heterosexual romance with Leliana. I can't help but wonder how different this actually is from her romance with a male Warden. But... well, it's as you say. I like her character a lot, but she just hasn't really won me over as a love interest.
no subject
Interesting, and yes, I agree, troublesome.
I've never hardened Leliana because I've never been able to beat Marjolaine. Hopefully I figure that battle out sometime, because I am curious about how that changes her character, both in and out of the romance.
I can see that. I wonder how much it has to do with the writers wanting to keep everything as neutral as possible, so it can work with any Warden, but as so often happens "neutral" actually means "male Warden, stereotypical gender roles". I thought they did a little better job of that with Zevran's romance.
no subject
no subject
Oh boy yes this.
Have you read Asunder yet? I gather there is more information regarding said badassrey therein.
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no subject
Stealthmance indeed! I thought my warden and Leliana were well established BFFs and then out of the blue, I realized she was interested in something more. To be honest, while it was a surprise, it didn't feel out of character for Leliana.