Thoughts on Fenris and Dragon Age 2

[sqbr]

I've often linked to stuff where people in fandoms I'm in have made me really annoyed by being thoughtlessly racist/sexist/ablist etc. Thus I feel it's only fair to acknowledge having the opposite experience: I've been reading a lot of meta about the character Fenris from Dragon Age 2 and other fans have been consistently better at noticing and articulating problematic stuff in the text etc than I have. (I mean, not all the other fans. But often at least one or two per conversation)

No spoilers in this post, and I've tried to explain the context.

In Dragon Age, elves are basically a colonised people (but are of course almost all relatively pale). Fenris is an ex slave elf from a country run by mages who has escaped to Kirkwall, where mages are oppressed (a la X men) Fenris is filled with a deep violent hatred of mages. He's also sort of friends with Sebastian, a human nobleman who is basically an evangelical Christian monk. Your character, Hawke, is a noble human who may or may not be a mage, and can get into a romantic or platonic relationship with Fenris. Relationships in Dragon Age are a continuum between "friendly": being nice and agreeing with them and "rivalry": being rude and disagreeing (both end up close friends, but in different ways). Here's a post I made with some more general thoughts(*).

So. The interactions between Sebastian and Fenris made me a bit uncomfortable, but I also read them as a slightly shippy friendship (Sebastian is the only character we see other than Hawke who seems to have any effect in helping Fenris come with a life plan beyond "kill the mages who oppressed me, and maybe some other mages in general") But reading comments like this I've realised there how strong the creepy colonialist vibe between them is and now I feel skeevy.

Overall, being fannish over an ex slave is such a minefield, I'm always worrying I've gone to a bad place (and I'm not sure why I like the character so much but I do). Though the other love interests are Merrill, an elf mage who still worships the old gods, Anders, a human mage freedom fighter, and Isabela, a woman from the "country of exotic people who aren't white" whose plot has cultural issues I can't go into without spoilers. So it's complicated whatever you do(**).

Imo two major issues with Fenris, especially in shippy fic etc, are 1) the possibility of him feeling like the loyal property of Hawke (or Sebastian for that matter), all "You saved me and told me what to do and now I am happy and will stay forever by your side", and 2) the fact that he can be such an unapologetic and aggressive jerk to women and others at the same or lower level in the power hierarchy (eg Merrill). This second issue comes up in any relationship with a woman, especially Isabela (who he canonically gets together with if they're both single at the end of the game) and a friendship romance with a sweet natured female mage Hawke, which can also transition from 2 to 1.
I do feel like fandom tends to gloss over these issues a lot. But I kind of gloss over them too!

All of which is to say I am looking at my Fenris/f!mage!Hawke rivalry fic with it's hints of Fenris/Sebastian and wondering if I want to try and fiddle with it.

Haha, while I was writing this I saw this (nsfw) Fenris/m!Hawke comic poking at the idea that Fenris is obviously the 'girl'. <3 Aimo :)

(*)I have other thoughts not covered by either eg the terrible treatment of disability.
(**)I do love the intersectionality in this game, even if it's not always handled perfectly. Fenris is a (sometimes justified, sometimes oppressive) jerk to mages, Anders only care about things as long as they benefit mages, everyone glosses over how horrible being a slave was for Fenris when it suits them, people are judgemental to Isabela for being zomg sexually active, Isabela is cheerfully thoughtless about everyone else's culture and oppression (and rolls her eyes at men who call her their "dusky peach"), Sebastian is cluelessly class privileged, Merrill is smug about her culture/religion and irritated by Sebastian's smugness about his, and Varric the dwarf and Aveline the city guard mainly sit back and try not to get caught up in all the drama.

Comments

[hl]

I'm only playing DA:O, so I'm not sure what of it holds later, but I've been pretty impressed by the intersectionality of the story and complexity of the world until now. My younger cousins played it first, so we're having a lot of interesting discussions. (Playing with an elf is pretty interesting, since you can have almost any reaction to the almost pervasive negative attitudes around you. It's very uncomfortable, since mostly we want to keep playing ahead and learning new stuff, often without antagonizing other characters*, but letting the issue go is very hateful. It reminded me of the two or three times I've had anti-Semitic reactions to my last name -- one in a job I was the new-young-person at, one in a reunion with classmates, one talking with a perhaps-future-friend classmate after a class. I wonder how people who get that type of thing all the time feel when playing an elf.)

Of course, the world has all the inherent problems of using real 'races' & differences in power/biology to parallel real world problems. That itself is a complicated discussion.

*we always play a 'helpful hero' character, and we're probably not very into characterizing our character -- we are just pragmatic, re:decisions, and make whatever will make our gameplay easier and/or more fun. :P

[sqbr]

Yes, I played a dwarf through Origins and an elf through Awkening and it is such a prejudiced, human centric world (Orzamarr dwarves don't worship the Maker, for example) and sometimes I just wanted to stop and yell at people about it but that would get in the way of getting things done (also sometimes there wasn't the option)

Of course, the world has all the inherent problems of using real 'races' & differences in power/biology to parallel real world problems. That itself is a complicated discussion.

*nods*

[lehni.livejournal.com]

I was also impressed by the Fenris/Seb comments on lj. Although on a personal level, Seb's character really irritates me in a way no other npc does.

I found the 100% rivalry with Fenris (no romance) ends up disturbingly with those overtones that he's just traded one master for another. As an apostate, I found him having a heart to heart with Hawke about what to do about his freedom and it was pretty distressing since (and my Hawke said this) we weren't friends, he had no real reason to trust in my judgement, and yet he was desperate enough to seek help from Hawke.

At endgame, his last comments about respecting Hawke despite their differences were very touching all the same. While I plan to maybe have a rivalmance on another mage!Hawke, I can't help but imagine it's going to be extremely uncomfortable and will feel like Hawke's using him (whereas with rival!mance Anders, I felt like rogue!hawke was being used for her mansion as a safehouse from templars, to some extent.)

I also felt pretty awkward in a friendly slash relationship with Merrill, especially after I got the bad outcome with the Dalish and Hawke is really all she has left in the world - puts her in a terribly vulnerable place since Hawke can dump her at any time without repercussion, or decide that she's sick of the neighbours gossiping about her elven lover etc. I suppose Merrill seems to have some strong friendships with the other NPCs (Varric, Isabela) by the end but she's so entirely clueless, I can see her snapping and doing something stupid relating to blood magic if she had her heart broken.

Tbh, I never really picked up on Fenris' disdain for women, even though he was often in my party. Any specific examples? It's entirely probably that I didn't notice it when it happened.

[sqbr]

Oooh, I can see how a platonic rivalry with Fenris could feel weird. With a romantic rivalry, they weren't friends but were MADLY IN LOVE so it made sense for him to ask her opinion :D

I actually felt weirder about the friendship romance with a male rogue, like...he made Hawke the centre of his existence without the residual "but we still argue sometimes" independence of the rivalry romance. This may have all been in my head and to do with my specific characters though.

Yeah, I have tried romancing Merril but she's so young and clueless and helpless I felt like SUCH A SKEEVE, and that was well before the "lets move in together" stage.

I don't think Fenris is all that sexist exactly, I just think he lacks the "don't hit/be mean to girls" reflex etc. I don't know, there was just a couple of times where things he said or did pinged me weirdly, like when he says "AVERT YOUR EYES, WITCH" to Merril, or this scene.

[velithya]

stop making me want to play games I don't have time for

[sqbr]

Hey, it's just payback for you making me want to play FFXIII when I don't even own a PS3 :)

[velithya]

♥