Dragon Age: Veil Guard
Credit: BioWare
The best way to convince someone of your point of view is usually not to hit them over the head with a club, but that seems to be the preferred approach in modern political debate and, unfortunately, entertainment. This culture, as it stands, has lost all sense of sensitivity. Too many movies, TV shows, and video games display a heavy-handed, top-down approach to today’s problems. It’s a real shame that the developers at BioWare chose this route with Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
I’ve already posted my thoughts on this game, and so far I’ve been pleasantly surprised. Although I was nervous about attending, Veilguard turned out to be much more fun and engaging than I expected. Even though I was still annoyed by the over-saturated and cartoonish art style (in particular).
In my articles, at least so far, I have never come across anything that is overtly preachy, overtly political, or that could be described as “overly woke.” said. The game is diverse, giving you the option to play as a man, woman, or trans, but back when I was playing I felt this gave the player more choice and freedom. . I’m all for that, especially in RPGs because you have choice and freedom. is the main point. Other big games in recent years have done similar things.
But I still hadn’t gotten to that particular part of the game. This part is currently being circulated on social media and being openly, and understandably, ridiculed. Unfortunately, the scene in question directly feeds into the narrative that this game is “woke” and ends up feeding into a cycle of online discourse that gets tons of clicks without going anywhere. This will definitely turn off many gamers completely. It’s not necessarily because they’re unsympathetic to transgender rights, it’s because they’re tired of being lectured to.
In the scene in question (below), one character misgenders another character. To atone for this sin, she does a few push-ups and lectures the other characters on how to properly apologize. “Non-binary” was a term that most people had never even heard of when Dragon Age: Inquisition was released 10 years ago, let alone in a fantasy setting completely removed from the real world. Despite this, it is flying around.
This breaks immersion. To be honest, it’s so poorly written that it comes across as self-parody. Like all histrionic apologies, the character’s histrionic apology is shallow and empty. In my experience, a simple, heartfelt “I’m sorry” is better than a big apology and bragging about how good your apology is. This entire scene feels like it was just ripped from a conversation that took place in an undergraduate gender studies class in 2024—a conversation that undergraduates will one day look back on and cringe at. It is what is being said. The scene is as follows.
Again, my problem with this scene isn’t that Dragon Age includes transgender or non-binary characters, it’s that the way this issue is framed is ham-fisted.
I recently wrote a review of Lev Grossman’s excellent Arthurian fantasy Bright Sword, in which I noted the inclusion of a transgender character as one of the Knights of the Round Table. I did. The difference in approach here is worth noting. The term “trans” is never used in this book. Because such a word didn’t exist in King Arthur’s time (just as the word “non-binary” didn’t exist in Dragon Age). Instead, the character is born as one of two twins. At birth, she is a girl and her twin is a boy, but she hates girlish things and the restrictions and restrictions placed on her, and all she wants to do is train with a sword and become a knight.
She eventually meets a fairy and makes a magical deal. The fairy takes her to a lake and instructs her to swim below and meet another fairy there. This second fairy gives her a fey blade to train with, and she returns to the lake each night to train for hours with the curious swordsman. For years she trained like this and eventually became a master swordsman. One day, she is told that she will be forced to get married. Instead, she chose to disguise herself as a man, take on a new identity and escape. She always felt that she should be a boy and not a girl, but with a new name and a masculine disguise, now a man, she continues to live out her dreams by Arthur’s side in Camelot.
This is effective because it is never preachy. It does not awkwardly adopt the terminology of modern gender politics. Instead, Grossman tells a story that everyone can relate to (in beautifully written prose that never seems politically motivated, but rather part of a grand and timeless story). ). Many people are born feeling like they don’t belong for some reason. This character’s story (he calls himself Dinadin, and when the book’s protagonist meets him, it’s Lord Dinadin) is one that anyone can relate to, and it’s not the kind of conversation you hear in a campus coffee shop. , feels like part of an old fable. . In other words, it’s as inconspicuous as a sore thumb. There’s no histrionic apology after someone misgenders a knight, no creepy lecture inserted as some kind of message to the reader. This is handled with sensitivity and care, and in my opinion is a much more effective way of creating empathy for transgender people than Dragon Age’s clumsy approach.
Oh, this is definitely going to dominate the conversation surrounding Veilguard – and what exactly is it? Will those who play this game learn anything useful from this scene? Will those hostile to social justice politics be convinced otherwise? That’s the problem with preaching to the choir. People who aren’t normally inclined to sympathize with transgender people may actually walk away from reading Bright Swords with more mixed feelings. No one is going to play The Veilguard. In fact, they’d be understandably annoyed if this kind of 21st century dialogue (ham-fisted even in modern times) is forced upon them in the middle of a fantasy RPG.
There are better ways to deal with these issues, but they require a subtle touch and smart writing and character building, especially since this is a fantasy RPG set far removed from the modern world. The characters in question are the Qunari people, whose people have very strict gender roles in the lore of the game world. How hard would it have been to have them say something about their choice to abandon the restrictions imposed by the Kuns, and to dig into it a little bit and shed some light on the game’s lore instead of real life terms? world? There are so many ways to approach gender identity in this setting (this isn’t the first time the series has explored this!), and it’s such a shame that they chose this path instead.
The scene above shows just how misguided the game’s creators truly are. When you blatantly hog the spotlight and make it all about yourself, the character says, a normal apology “makes it all about you.” No one seems to notice the irony. I’d like to ask: Has anyone ever been able to successfully apologize while preaching to everyone at the same time? “Oh, I made a mistake. This is my apology. And even though you weren’t the one who made the mistake, my apology is so great and yours is so bad.” Here’s why: Look at me! Look how amazing I am!
That’s how I see BioWare in all of this. Rather than putting in the effort necessary to tell a story that might actually evoke true empathy and understanding in players, they do it all themselves so that they can be admired for their progressive honesty. I am making about. It takes more than a cudgel to harness that and create something that people can relate to. No one enjoys getting hit in the head. In the parlance of our time, “BioWare, do better.”
I still recommend the game. You can read why in our ongoing review. It’s not perfect, but it feels like a cross between Dragon Age and Mass Effect, and I’m really enjoying it so far. It was much more fun than I expected.
Update: Watch this clip from YouTuber MrMatty Plays for a nuanced discussion of how BioWare ruined the character Taash and how disrespectful their treatment of the character is.
We have also created a video discussion on this topic.
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