Ugh, I absolutely have a love/hate Dragon Age relationship. Dragon Age: Origins and the actual Tabletop RPG is definitely my favourite (fuck the fade though), DA2 was eh and I didn't even finish Dragon Age Inquisition, the amount of hamfisted characters all seemed to be there to appeal to an audience who want to appear sanctimonious and PROGRESSIVE. Methinks and the amount of comtemporary and modern ethics are getting into the gray morality of Dragon Age. Krem was a fucking horrible example of the attitude that is slowly taking Bioware down.
There's something in storytelling that's called "show but don't tell" and, once again, going back to Krem as the PERFECT EXAMPLE. I'd accept that in culture sometimes individuals take the opposite genders roles, it happens in a lot of societies and sometimes goes to further extremes, and I love a good Joan D'arc/Mulan subtype -- but Iron Bull literally pulling up aside you and saying "Oh treat him like any other man" and then going on about trans politics in Qunari culture should have been done better another way.
These sort of reviews should be done naturally, of course a transperson is going to attempt to hide the fact they are trans, especially in a medieval setting, where people are picked on simply by ear shape. If people around you just assumed Krem was male and perhaps in journals it was brought to topic I would of been okay with it. Krem should of had a non-hamfisted conversation where someone learns of it and mentions it quietly in a conversation you can pick up, react or not. Also I laugh at how out of character the Qun views Transgenders. It has me questioning things, this wasn't something the Qunari were fond of (they believe that everyone is born into a particular role) but they had to hand wave it out so that the most oppressive society which is ran like North Korea had to be less meany-poo and more of a foriegn misunderstood culture.
As for Bioware, they are appealing to one political side because of pressure by fans and separating their market by a huge margin. I love to dabble in both political sides but then I avoid anything extremist or borderlining it.
Anyway, bit of some random trivia, I was at a games night and I was playing DnD with two newcomers who were boyfriend and girlfriend, both had the insignia of the Hawke tattooed on their hands household so I was trying to start a conversation about the games. They were like obnoxiously fascinated with only Dragon Age 2 and kept calling themselves petnames relating to the games (Hawkie, Fen-fen, etc.) Yeah, I know exactly what kind of people are their major fanbase tbh.
Also as a suggestion, if you really want to play a non-PC Dragon Age, just play the Tabletop Game, chances are your GM will not force down SJWisms.
That would be hilarious.
