I hate Vivienne’s main quest so fucking much cause it disrespects her on such a fundamental level just so she can act as the fucking redharring villain and then ‘gasp!! what do you know she’s not so bad at all’ twist at the end.
Cause, you know, that’s what the game does to her. It’s what the narrative, the fandom, the writers do to Vivienne from the second they conceived her (and conceived her as black). That she’s dressed like as the most recognizable and unquestionable evil Disney villain Maleficent, that she’s a strict pro-circle mage (even though if you actually give a shit about any of her dialogue, you can see she’s fucking pro-MAGE from the start and knows the circle is, uh, bad), that she’s a “snobby rich noble”, and yes, because she’s a black woman who doesn’t kiss your ass from the beginning, Vivienne’s storyline is meant to make you mistrust her.
Like it’s so goddamn clear we were supposed to look at Vivienne and think she was the next mage to “betray” us even though Vivienne is honest and clear from the beginning that she’s helping you out for the betterment of mages.
And her quest “Bring the Heart of Snow White” just hammers that in. It’s named and calls back to the Evil Queen in Snow White which is just fucked up considering we’re talking about a fairytale character that abuses and tries to murder a literal child because she’s jealous to a maddening point. The quest is goddamn dependent on you distrusting Vivienne, because otherwise, the “twist” doesn’t work.
Cause if you go into the quest loving Vivienne, listening to her dialogue, gaining her trust the entire game, then yeah it’s sweet and straight forward, but then all the useless “clues” of what she doing being “bad” comes into stark view. You find that note of her making a “youth potion” and your character gets suspicious, even though Vivienne is obviously trusting you with this task As FRIEND.
A CLOSE FRIEND.
And why am I supposed to think a youth potion is bad in this context when you’re getting it from a snow-white wyvern? It’s not exactly the same fucking level as ripping a child’s heart out and eating it like, uh, Evil Queen does. It’s a difficult task, sure, but not the hardest one in the game. A youth potion in the grand scheme of DRAGON AGE is pretty goddamn harmless yet the quest wants you to be suspicious on the basis of Vivienne asking for it–even if you like her.
And then the game gives you the option of fucking Vivienne over by giving her a regular wyvern heart and making the potion that’s supposed to help Bastion either a painful poison. And yeah, you could make the argument that the game punishes you for not trusting Vivienne in her most vulnerable moment except the game wants you to DISTRUST VIVIENNE UNTIL THE VERY END.
THAT’S THE PROBLEM HERE.
I mean this is only a quest you get if you have HIGH APPROVAL WITH VIVIENNE. This is not the circle tome quest, this is “Vivienne considers you one of her closest friends” quest and you still have the option of breaking that trust in one of the cruelest ways possible because she doesn’t want to open up to you juuuuusst yet at the start. But then she takes you along for one of the hardest, most painful moments of her life–trying to drag her true love from the edge of death–because you’re her friend and you get to see Vivienne so raw, so unguarded and it hurts man, it hurts–especially because we know just how kind and loving Vivienne is at this point and how much she loves Bastion–and then if you’re an asshole, you betray her and make her watch her love succumb to poison and die in agony.
What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck this is so fucking cruel and uncalled for, it makes me so mad. You can argue that it gives you a nuanced choice but this late in the game with her? It’s one of the meanest things you can do in the game and Vivienne doesn’t deserve any of it.
Cause I want to point out in the other high friendship quests, you can be mean but it’s not built into the game that it’s based on DISTRUST like Vivienne’s is.
I can think that Sera and Iron Bull’s mean options as coming close to Vivienne but Bull’s is chosen based on what is worth more: the lives of the Chargers or the betterment of the Inquisition. Sera’s is cruel to considering how she’s opening up to you about her abuse and internal racism and you can just smack her down–but the narrative also wants you to dislike Sera, too. Both Sera and Vivienne are unfairly treated in the game’s storyline, but Vivienne even more so.
And for what? So at the end of the game, it can turn around and be like ‘Oh, see, Vivienne’s not that bad, right? She’s actually nuanced and complex!! That is on you!!!’ No, fuck the game, fuck the devs, Vivienne deserve far better than this bullshit and I’m so frustrated by it.
But cool fucking oh so clever fairytale call back, I guess.
(Source: star--nympharchive, via shoutydwarf)