Let’s be honest: When it comes to contemporary media criticism, many audiences – on all sides of the political spectrum, sometimes for good reason and sometimes without – have found themselves primed to switfly and harshly react to any story, character, or idea that they dislike, often decrying them as anything from ‘cringe’ to outright ‘insulting’.
However, it should be made expressly clear that in the case of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the deluge of criticisms being leveled towards the game’s narrative are not the result of this hyperbolic culture, but rather a genuine response to the egregiously on-the-nose nature of BioWare’s writing.
And perhaps no other scene in The Veilguard (or at least among those that have been discovered prior to its official release) embodies the game’s hamfisted writing than a scene in which the player character, known in-game as the Inquisitor, finds themselves wrapped up in a lecture regarding the topic of ‘misgendering’.
As seen below, the scene in question finds the Inquisitor, alongside the elf Bellara and the non-binary Quinari Taash (it’s a whole thing – and surprise, the in-game exposition regarding this fact is just as equally eye-rolling), listening on as their ally, the Pirate Queen Isabela, regales them with a story about her and Tassh’s past adventures.
Drawing this particular tale to a close (at current, available clips of this scene start at this point and thus leave out the exact contents of Isabela’s story), the swashbuckler laughs, “And the best part is that while Tas is pounding that snake’s nose, she’s still holding the ruby in her other hand!”
“Makers panties,” she further exclaims. “I was so proud!”
Having taken notice of the Pirate Queen’s use of ‘she’ to refer to Taash instead of ‘they’, Bellara proceeds to try and make Isabella aware of her error, to which her guest replies, “Ah, s–t. They. They’re still holding it. Sorry.”
From there, Isabella proceeds to get up from her chair and begins doing push-ups, which draws a confused ask of “What are you doing?” from Taash.
“Pulling a Bharv,” she explains, completing her reps all the while. “Tradition in the Lords of Fortune from one of our old members, Bharv [as introduced in the Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights novel]. Good guy, but like most of us, his plans went sideways a lot. Bad blood among your crews, not good for morale, but there’s not always time for big drawn-out apologies. So, when one of us screws up and we know we’ve screwed up, we do a quick ten to put it right. Pulling a Bharv.”
In response, the player is presented with the game’s dialogue wheel, whereupon the player who recorded the relevant footage decides to choose to reply with the ‘That’s very open-minded’ option, which prompts the Inquisitor to assert, “I’m glad the Lords of Fortune have Tash’s back.”
“Oh, Tash isn’t the first non-binary member of the Lords,” Isabella dismisses before turning to address Taash directly. “It was a little before your time, but Hollix was one of ours. Bastard looked better than I did in a dress or pants. And out of them too.”
Admittedly, while the dialogue up to this point is definitely rough, it does not cross-over into full ‘abject preaching and lecturing’ territory.
However, that all changes after the Inquisitor proceeds to ask Isabella, after watching her complete her push-ups, if there was “Any reason you can’t just apologize?”
Nearly breaking the fourth-wall with her response, Isabella explains in turn , “Sometimes people say, oops, sorry, and hope that fixes it. But they just want to get the whole thing over with. Trust me, I know.
“But pulling a Bhav, you sweat a little,” she continues. “Makes you think about it a little more. Shows the other person you mean it.”
Met with the genuine ask from Bellara, “What if they mean it when they say they’re sorry, though?”, Isabella proceeds to basically turn and give her answer not to her Elf companion, but the player directly.
“And that’s the other reason,” the Pirate Queen argues. “Some people mess up and get all dramatic. They make it about for them. ‘Oh, you know I didn’t mean it right? I’d never do that on purpose.’ They feel so bad about it that it’s on everyone else to smooth it over and make them feel better.”
“Pulling a Bharv puts it on the person who screwed up,” she concludes. ” They made the mess, they fix it, done.”
Bravo, BioWare. Real masterclass in subtle writing and ‘natural diversity’ you’ve made here.
This is exactly what players have been clamoring for en masse, and certainly isn’t representative of what people mean when they say ‘No lecturing in entertainment’. A+.
For those interested (for some reason) in personally checking out the depths of the game’s script for themselves, Dragon Age: The Veilguard hits shelves tomorrow, October 31st.