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Thoughts on Fenris and Dragon Age 2
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.
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.
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