During my first and second PTs of DA2 it never occurred to me that Hawke would be (commonly? semi-commonly?) characterized as the "incompetent, bumbling fool" or that Hawke didn't care about Kirkwall. A bluegreen Hawke clearly cares about Kirkwall and a red Hawke isn't a bumbling fool.
Although, during those early blissful months, I had not yet realized that (1) purple Hawke was, by far, the most popular play-through choice for the game or (2) that a significant portion of fandom missed the whole point of DA2's deconstruction of fantasy and looked at the "unheroic" structure of the story (or their own personal dissatisfaction with how Hawke cannot not save the world and live happily ever after), and then decided 1+2=incompetent bumbling uncaring fool.
When I looked at many of the reviews and complaints about the game, a lot of gamers were pissed off that they were forced to play a "lame story" where "hawke cannot do anything to fix things." After all, for a segment of gamers, video games are (in their mind) supposed to provide an escape from dull reality that lets them be heroes who effect change in the game world.
So, given all of this, I see where this idea comes from but it is a misread** of what the game's story is trying to say -- and some of what the game's story is trying say, well, you covered it here. In short, Hawke got results by playing the middleman or the problem solver between a variety of warring factions in the city. Cassandra had good reason for wanting Hawke's aid.
(** Although I say misread of the story, in all fairness it is a genre mismatch: that audience wanted heroic fantasy and didn't receive it.)
...one true fanon is impossible. ... Why play in such a mutable sandbox if you're just going to set everything in concrete?
Agreed.
I often think the DA games are deceptive because they appeal to and reference popular culture at a very basic level, but they also require a reasonably high level of genre literacy and introspection to understand what they writers are doing. Although just about anyone can enjoy 50% of the jokes, based on what I have seen at large, I suspect a lot of the story and themes goes over the heads of a notable portion of players (note: players is a much larger group than fandom). And DAI dumbed down the story a good deal in response to player ire...
Overall, so much agreement with this post. ;)
One point of note though, I certainly agree that purple Hawke is recipe for a potentially unpleasant playthrough, I (plus quite a few other people) actually find it cathartic to detatched-play unpleasant!tactless!arse!Hawke rivalmances (they are all terrible w/purple Hawke) for reasons that are complex and have everything to do with putting up with clueless, tactless people who don't know what it means to check their privilege. This probably doesn't apply to you(??) but given the diversity among players, there are reasons you probably haven't considered for snark-playing purple!Hawke. Although this becomes a highly intentional & transformative hawke-is-a-privileged-idiot framing of the story rather than the kind of PT you are talking about, or the first 2 PTs I did, or the reaction dissatisfaction that heroic fantasy gamers were having. So, this is a valid *transformative* appropriation of the media, although I put this in small print because for every 1 person who does this, I suspect there are 10 who are doing what you are complaining about.
bless this post
Although, during those early blissful months, I had not yet realized that (1) purple Hawke was, by far, the most popular play-through choice for the game or (2) that a significant portion of fandom missed the whole point of DA2's deconstruction of fantasy and looked at the "unheroic" structure of the story (or their own personal dissatisfaction with how Hawke cannot not save the world and live happily ever after), and then decided 1+2=incompetent bumbling uncaring fool.
When I looked at many of the reviews and complaints about the game, a lot of gamers were pissed off that they were forced to play a "lame story" where "hawke cannot do anything to fix things." After all, for a segment of gamers, video games are (in their mind) supposed to provide an escape from dull reality that lets them be heroes who effect change in the game world.
So, given all of this, I see where this idea comes from but it is a misread** of what the game's story is trying to say -- and some of what the game's story is trying say, well, you covered it here. In short, Hawke got results by playing the middleman or the problem solver between a variety of warring factions in the city. Cassandra had good reason for wanting Hawke's aid.
(** Although I say misread of the story, in all fairness it is a genre mismatch: that audience wanted heroic fantasy and didn't receive it.)
...one true fanon is impossible. ... Why play in such a mutable sandbox if you're just going to set everything in concrete?
Agreed.
I often think the DA games are deceptive because they appeal to and reference popular culture at a very basic level, but they also require a reasonably high level of genre literacy and introspection to understand what they writers are doing. Although just about anyone can enjoy 50% of the jokes, based on what I have seen at large, I suspect a lot of the story and themes goes over the heads of a notable portion of players (note: players is a much larger group than fandom). And DAI dumbed down the story a good deal in response to player ire...
Overall, so much agreement with this post. ;)
One point of note though, I certainly agree that purple Hawke is recipe for a potentially unpleasant playthrough, I (plus quite a few other people) actually find it cathartic to detatched-play unpleasant!tactless!arse!Hawke rivalmances (they are all terrible w/purple Hawke) for reasons that are complex and have everything to do with putting up with clueless, tactless people who don't know what it means to check their privilege. This probably doesn't apply to you(??) but given the diversity among players, there are reasons you probably haven't considered for snark-playing purple!Hawke. Although this becomes a highly intentional & transformative hawke-is-a-privileged-idiot framing of the story rather than the kind of PT you are talking about, or the first 2 PTs I did, or the reaction dissatisfaction that heroic fantasy gamers were having. So, this is a valid *transformative* appropriation of the media, although I put this in small print because for every 1 person who does this, I suspect there are 10 who are doing what you are complaining about.