Post by arianrhod on May 19, 2017 6:22:05 GMT
I'm not the first to notice, but BioWare likes to translate the same character archetype across their games - but sometimes, they make changes between the two, which elicits an interesting comparison. So, the begin, I'd like to compare the two ice queens - Miranda Lawson and Vivienne.
I'm an artist and I have a perseverating mind, so my first impressions of both these women were heavily colored by appearance. With Miranda... what can I say. I could not take her seriously because she was walking around with a giant wedgie all the time. That must be so uncomfortable.... But Vivienne... she was among the best designed, most beautiful video game characters I had ever seen. The color, the hat, the rendering in frostbite blew me away. I've taken elements of her garb and incorporated it into my own work, specifically, her alternate garb with the armor like, triangular neck piece. I was enchanted and intrigued... but a love of beauty can only go so far. My conceptions of these women soon changed.
Miranda was rude, she was cold at first, but she was ultimately humanized and sympathetic. She seemed ultimately to be a good person who had become hardened and ruthlessly pragmatic who ultimately redeemed herself in the end. I started to like her when I heard about her relationship with her father, a backstory a lot of people dismissed as "daddy issues". I didn't. She and I both had prick abusive fathers with a narcissistic glory project in mind we could never live up to. We both cut the relationship off for our own sanity. We were both pursued by the prick and harassed for years after - her father targeted her sister like my father targeted mine (though my father never went to far as to kidnap her, thank God). We were both hardened and jaded, or at least we thought we were. Cold. Cynical. Apathetic towards the world. But ultimately not; ultimately still human and alive. And we were both fiercely protective of the people we truly loved - though my loved ones are more numerous than Miranda's sole link to Oriana (and maybe Shepard).
Vivienne, on the other hand, repulsed me form early on. I do not believe she cares about mages. She is a politician, and like all politicians, a liar. I know this well. I believe she cloaks her selfish ambitions for personal power under the mantle of protecting mages from themselves. Furthermore, she justifies a system of oppression - a brutal one - as redeemable while operating from a position of incredible privilege within that system. She reminds me of one lawmaker - whose name eludes me - who recently claimed that no one died from lack of healthcare. They do. My mother is an occupational therapy assistant and watches them die every day - because they couldn't pay. It had never happened to him in his 1% bubble. I'm sure everyone he knew had wonderful healthcare and a vacation home and paid off mortgage and a trust fund of a million dollars for each of their children. He represented the common people, many of whom were poor and suffering - and I experienced intense financial struggle. Yet I am represented by idiots with silver spoons in their mouths, completely separated from reality, callous, only interested in serving themselves. That is what Vivienne is to me.
Her sidequest with the Duke did little to change my opinion. All it showed me is that she CAN care but CHOOSES not to. She is empty, soulless, and brutal. If this game were anywhere near the league of DA:O, it would have given me the opportunity to be a champion of the common people, to give Vivienne what she deserves. I should have been given the opportunity to destroy her, she who was the avatar of everything I hated about my country. The privileged nobles, the disregard for the oppressed, the lying, self-serving bs. It shouldn't have been easy. She is Madame de Fer, after all. But I am collective power points the whole game. I am the savior of the Grey Wardens and Orlais, and I might have a Divine who agrees with me, if the election goes my way. I wanted the chance to best her, not sit around like a moron while she moves my furniture around. I wanted to take her down, chop off her head, hold it up for the rebel mages to see. Or at the very least have her assassinated by one of Leliana's people. I know, I know. That sounds evil. But you know what. I WAS PLAYING A RADICAL MAGE REBEL INQUISITOR. I wanted to spit on nobles and fight for mage freedom. Ugh......
Plus, I might be jealous of her garb. I have to walk around in a trenchcoat for 70% of the game and stare at her beautiful design.
I'm an artist and I have a perseverating mind, so my first impressions of both these women were heavily colored by appearance. With Miranda... what can I say. I could not take her seriously because she was walking around with a giant wedgie all the time. That must be so uncomfortable.... But Vivienne... she was among the best designed, most beautiful video game characters I had ever seen. The color, the hat, the rendering in frostbite blew me away. I've taken elements of her garb and incorporated it into my own work, specifically, her alternate garb with the armor like, triangular neck piece. I was enchanted and intrigued... but a love of beauty can only go so far. My conceptions of these women soon changed.
Miranda was rude, she was cold at first, but she was ultimately humanized and sympathetic. She seemed ultimately to be a good person who had become hardened and ruthlessly pragmatic who ultimately redeemed herself in the end. I started to like her when I heard about her relationship with her father, a backstory a lot of people dismissed as "daddy issues". I didn't. She and I both had prick abusive fathers with a narcissistic glory project in mind we could never live up to. We both cut the relationship off for our own sanity. We were both pursued by the prick and harassed for years after - her father targeted her sister like my father targeted mine (though my father never went to far as to kidnap her, thank God). We were both hardened and jaded, or at least we thought we were. Cold. Cynical. Apathetic towards the world. But ultimately not; ultimately still human and alive. And we were both fiercely protective of the people we truly loved - though my loved ones are more numerous than Miranda's sole link to Oriana (and maybe Shepard).
Vivienne, on the other hand, repulsed me form early on. I do not believe she cares about mages. She is a politician, and like all politicians, a liar. I know this well. I believe she cloaks her selfish ambitions for personal power under the mantle of protecting mages from themselves. Furthermore, she justifies a system of oppression - a brutal one - as redeemable while operating from a position of incredible privilege within that system. She reminds me of one lawmaker - whose name eludes me - who recently claimed that no one died from lack of healthcare. They do. My mother is an occupational therapy assistant and watches them die every day - because they couldn't pay. It had never happened to him in his 1% bubble. I'm sure everyone he knew had wonderful healthcare and a vacation home and paid off mortgage and a trust fund of a million dollars for each of their children. He represented the common people, many of whom were poor and suffering - and I experienced intense financial struggle. Yet I am represented by idiots with silver spoons in their mouths, completely separated from reality, callous, only interested in serving themselves. That is what Vivienne is to me.
Her sidequest with the Duke did little to change my opinion. All it showed me is that she CAN care but CHOOSES not to. She is empty, soulless, and brutal. If this game were anywhere near the league of DA:O, it would have given me the opportunity to be a champion of the common people, to give Vivienne what she deserves. I should have been given the opportunity to destroy her, she who was the avatar of everything I hated about my country. The privileged nobles, the disregard for the oppressed, the lying, self-serving bs. It shouldn't have been easy. She is Madame de Fer, after all. But I am collective power points the whole game. I am the savior of the Grey Wardens and Orlais, and I might have a Divine who agrees with me, if the election goes my way. I wanted the chance to best her, not sit around like a moron while she moves my furniture around. I wanted to take her down, chop off her head, hold it up for the rebel mages to see. Or at the very least have her assassinated by one of Leliana's people. I know, I know. That sounds evil. But you know what. I WAS PLAYING A RADICAL MAGE REBEL INQUISITOR. I wanted to spit on nobles and fight for mage freedom. Ugh......
Plus, I might be jealous of her garb. I have to walk around in a trenchcoat for 70% of the game and stare at her beautiful design.