Tag: anders

actualtriss:

the problem is bioware never wanted to write a story about revolution. anders wasn’t meant to be a universally loved, heroic revolutionist – fiona was already going to fill that role, as i understood it, only without blowing something up. but with anders? they wanted to write a story about the “wrong” kind of revolution, the bad ways of fighting back, the bad ways of stopping oppression, the mistake of not “taking the high road” or admitting there’s “two sides to every story” and so on

the thing is? they had no fucking idea what they were talking about. first, they had no knowledge of what revolution is or its history and methods. instead, they focused on a “violence is never the answer” message which is totally incompatible with the theme of revolution, which is almost always about overthrowing a violent, oppressive group who make peaceful negotiations impossible by immediately trying to kill the people revolting. by criticizing any kind of violent revolution, they did a giant shit on the whole concept of it and (unintentionally or not) said “if it can’t be done without violence, then it shouldn’t be done at all” aka OPPRESSION IS OKAY IF IT STOPS THE LITTLE PEOPLE FIGHTING BACK. second, they had no knowledge of how oppression even works. they couldn’t even grasp the basic concept of self-defence (attacking people who are literally trying to… commit genocide against you… is bad? and proof that genocide may be necessary?) and they do this while filling the game with over the top gore and basking in the gruesome entertainment it provides its players, resulting in the unfortunate implication that they don’t really give a shit about condemning violence… only about policing oppressed groups’ response to their oppression. the game only seriously stops to criticize violence when it’s to demonize or shame an oppressed person. finally, they tried to weave in a weird and inconsistent moral about vengeance being bad which did a shit job at even distinguishing vengeance from justice (like? fighting your oppressors is vengeance, while fighting oppressors in a “nice” way is… justice? since when has “justice” been incompatible with “overthrowing an oppressive group” anyway?) this also contributed to completely fucking up its message of “good” and “bad” revolution by presenting the act of violent revolt as being vengeful and therefore bad. as if seeking vengeance on the people oppressing you is bad? and justice can’t also be vengeful? like, what??????

bioware wanted to explore the ways revolution can be done badly and immorally. the problem with this? first, they didn’t educate themselves on what revolution even IS before dedicating a game to its themes. and second, they didn’t even stop to ask themselves if writing about the ways oppressed people can be bad BEFORE criticizing the act of oppression itself… was in any way appropriate or a good idea (it wasn’t.) the reason why there’s such a disconnect between the game’s message and anders’ supporters is because they wrote a story about revolution (which is GOOD) while also saying it’s BAD. they shit on the whole idea of revolution and overthrowing your oppressors while trying to prop an ideology that doesn’t historically make sense (“violence is never the answer”) and as a result? people who knew about power and privilege dynamics left supporting anders to at least SOME extent (even if you do disagree with some of his actions) and 100% resenting bioware for writing about something they clearly knew nothing about