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sarasa_cat) wrote2012-11-04 06:49 pm
NaBlo #3. Which Ser Cullen is in your canon? (And how might that change your expectations for Cullen
NaBlo #3. Which Ser Cullen is in your canon? (And how might that change your expectations for Cullen in DA3?)
Am I looking forward to the possibility of Ser Cullen making an appearance in the DA3? Yes. Definitely yes. If Cullen ends up as a companion character, I’ll hunt the game for clues to figure out how to recruit him as early as possible. If a little Cullenmancing is available, I certain that my PC will lay out the welcome mat for that templar, no matter the roller coaster ride the romance provides. Flaws and all, Cullen’s characterization has interested me so far and I love how Greg Ellis brings this character alive.
But, despite all of that, I actually have doubts about Cullen playing a major role in DA3. Why? If Cullen is brought back as a companion character, the breadth of his prior history makes him a difficult and polarizing character to write.
Two days ago I wrote about how Ser Cullen is one of the best kept secrets in the Dragon Age series because many the scenes that show his character growth are optional and some require unpopular player choices. Yesterday I detailed out his most dramatic story arc by describing Cullen’s Personal Growth During His Quest For Trust.
Cullen 1 experiences dramatic personal growth
Cullen 2 can come off as a mage-hating sycophant
Cullen 3 comes off as sympathetic but does too little, too late
The overall gist is that depending on how people play DA:O and DA2, Cullen may have come off as a flat, one-note, sycophantic mage-hater who does too little, too late … or Cullen may have appeared as a dynamic character who starts off trusting mages enough to fall in love with one before his ability to trust is traumatically shattered. Then, after that, he struggles to navigate a dangerous world until he is finally able to trust himself to know right from wrong. Both of these Cullens have deep flaws. Both behave in infuriating manners from time to time. Yet the first Cullen is the one that a number of fans claim they wish to knife the moment he appears in DA3, whereas the second Cullen is loved by another segment of fandom.
While I’m at it, I might as well add in a third and fourth Cullen.
The third Cullen is the Cullen who appears sympathetic because the player knows his backstory from the mage origin but, in the end, he does too little, too late because the player has only played the mage ending of DA2. This third Cullen is arguably on the verge of transformation, but evidence of his profound personal growth isn’t shown on screen (and, without Hawke’s backing, arguably have never happened at all).
The fourth Cullen (who isn’t pictured in my set of character plot arc graph) just plain failed to leave a last impression on the player. The player might remember how the traumatic events in Ferelden shaped Cullen’s views, and they might feel that some of Cullen’s concerns about the danger of mages are partly warranted but, other than that, Cullen was merely someone who helped in the final battle and, for unknown reasons, decided to let the mage-supporting Hawke go.
Given this range of possible Cullens that players may know, the writers have a tricky job when tackling his character for a large part in DA3. After all, in DA:O and DA2 they have already given Cullen a very dramatic character arc that features profound changes but the majority of this arc is shown in optional dialogue and scenes that require less popular player choices. So, how do the writers create a trajectory for Cullen in DA3 that the majority of players find believable?
The easy way out has the writers having Cullen launch into exposition about how he’s seen the light after the upper echelons of Kirkwall templars went to hell in a hand-basket. Some of fandom will undoubtably complain about Cullen’s sudden personality change, some of fandom will shrug, and the rest of fandom will nod their heads as they silently think, “That’s alright, Cullen. We understand. Now, please pick up your sword and finish fighting this battle, okay?” If Cullen is a companion in DA3, I sort of expect at least one backstory exposition scene from him to create a baseline.
And then there are Cullen’s issues with anxiety (PTSD). Is this mostly behind him or something he’s still struggling with? If you play the templar ending of DA2, his reactions to accusations of blood magic are incredibly reasoned and controlled, and anxiety no longer appears to act as a trigger that causes him to overreact. Thus, it’s fair to say that the PTSD symptoms Cullen exhibits in 9:30 and 9:31 no longer have a hold over him. By 9:37, Cullen appears to have mostly recovered from PTSD, although a player will only come to this conclusion if they play the templar ending and back Cullen’s decision to save some of the Circle mages. If you don’t play that variant of the templar ending, you might not realize how much growth and healing Cullen has undergone.
I’ve read comments from a number of fans saying that if the writers drop the ball on Cullen’s PTSD, they will be upset because, in their eyes, that “change” would be a retcon. So, it seems like the writers are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. Do they regress Cullen for the sake of players who never saw him change? Do they take into account which ending a player played in DA2 and have moderate Cullen’s growth accordingly?
I also have another worry about Cullen’s believability in DA3. Earlier this year, David Gaider said that he saw a lot of angst in Cullen’s future. While angst makes sense for someone who has seen the worst aspects of the Circle system while being a true believer in Andrastrian religion, I think Cullen’s “angst” would be more believable if it reflects the maturity, growth, and experiences that he has been through. Again, this can create a challenge for his writers. A good story needs dramatic arcs that confront characters with difficult challenges. But, I would have a very hard time believing Cullen in DA3 if his angst is expressed as the (somewhat immature) broodiness we saw with Fenris or the desperate absolutism we saw with Anders. Both of those characters exhibited amble angst in their dramatic arcs but, at least in my eyes, Cullen has matured too much for that particular brand of angst.
I’d have a far better time believing Cullen as someone who grows into an Aveline-style character. Perhaps not at first. Perhaps he starts off wracked with dread because his external world has been turned upside down. The templars’ purpose is corrupt, the Chantry is in shambles, the mages have rebelled. But, internally, the Cullen I know from my canon should appear more stable. My Cullen announced to Hawke that he now knows what being a templar is all about, and that it isn’t about strictly following his commander’s orders, judging all mages as inherently dangerous, and assuming that mages are automatically guilty if their innocence cannot be proven without a shadow of a doubt.
The Cullen I know from my canon appears to have built his own moral compass after the Kirkwall Templar Order failed him. He believes that mages should be treated as innocent until proven guilty without a doubt. He has regained his ability to trust people, mages included. I’ve watched Cullen confide his fears and concerns to a mage Hawke and even help elevate a mage to the position of Viscount. For these reasons, if Cullen plays a major role in DA3, I think I would have trouble taking his story seriously unless his angst focuses primarily on external problems: the deteriorating state of his world and whether or not he is capable of solving these problems while standing at the Inquisitor’s side. I expect Cullen to have a strong moral compass that is mostly lawful and strongly favors selfless, “good” actions. I expect him to balk when underhanded approaches are suggested. I even expect him to act judgmental at times. But unless he is facing demons let loose from the Fade, I think I would have a hard time believing that internal angst and PTSD-driven anxiety shapes Cullen’s life in the way that these forces shaped him in 9:30 and 9:31.
But, just because this is what I would find believable, it doesn’t mean that all other players will agree with me. As I’ve written over the past two days, depending on how a player plays DA:O and DA2, they end up seeing different versions of Cullen’s story arc. No matter how the writers tackle Cullen in DA3, I bet he will remain a controversial character purely because players come to DA3 with a wide range of ideas about who he is. It will be impossible to please everyone and depending on which Cullen the writers decide to run with, even I might end up disappointed when faced with “weak” or unbelievable character development.
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Btw, there are a few ways to annul the tower in DA:O without killing Wynne, but I doubt that people normally select this path unless they are purposefully playing a "hell on wheels" warden or a warden who has deep anti-blood magic beliefs.
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My mage Hawke dealt with Cullen 2.5, I guess. He didn't know about Cullen's history, but he didn't think of him as a mage-hater, really. He thought of him as an idiot. This is largely the fault of the limitations of the game dialogue, which for the most part treats a mage Hawke exactly the same as a warrior or rogue Hawke. Cullen never acknowledges that Hawke is a mage, even after seeing him cast spells in front of him. The only conclusion Hawke could come to is that he was in on the con of bribing the templars to ignore him--which doesn't square with the guy who blushes talking about the Blooming Rose--or he honestly doesn't realize that the guy standing in front of him with the GINORMOUS SKULL-HEADED STAFF ON HIS BACK is a mage, so he thinks it's okay to say that "mages aren't people like you and me." That sentiment is appalling enough on its own, but when said to a mage it comes across as either Cullen being a huge dick and yanking mage Hawke's chain, or again, being completely oblivious to the fact that Obvious Mage Is Obvious.
The other spanner in the works for Cullen's arc for me and my Hawke is the "Dissent" quest. Again, we're asked to believe that either Cullen, the second-in-command, isn't paying enough attention to what's going on under his nose to see that there are tmplars who are abusing their authority...or he's deliberately turning a blind eye to assholes like Alrik. Neither possibility makes him look good. A culture that perpetuates abuse can't work without some level of complicity or enabling from the top. It's even worse for mage Hawke because the abuses are obvious enough that a new recruit like Carver notices them. After that quest, the only templar Hawke felt was trustworthy was Thrask (yes, including Carver, but that's a whole other discussion). There was no chance he was going to side with the templars, because he agreed with Anders that the system was fundamentally broken and had to be torn down; the difference was on how they wanted to go about doing that.
I occasionally wonder if the devs thought through the ramifications of the "Dissent" quest. It's more than just "both sides do it" moral equivalency. Yes, the Grand Cleric and Meredith reject the "Tranquil Solution", but they don't immediately strip Alrik of his rank and send him to go hunt mages in the Thedan equivalent of Siberia. They're apparently fine with him using the Rite of Tranquility to make mages into his personal sex dolls as long as it's not too many. It's possible to change the institutional culture that supports abuse--but only if you admit that it's happening. No one on the Chantry side other than the newest guy is willing to do that--not Elthina, not Meredith, and not Cullen.
Anyway, thanks for posting these. You just got me to think about DA for the first time in months; I'd almost forgotten how much I loved talking meta.
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Cullen in Act 1 with a mage Hawke: For the most part, I agree that Cullen's lines in Act 1 fail to make sense because Obvious Mage Hawke Is Clearly Obvious after the entire Wilmod's Camp fiasco. We seem to have with three possible explanations:
1. Whoops, giant plot hole! (Thus, the writers are at fault--something they've alluded to)
2. Cullen takes bribes, which feels very out of character (but perhaps you and I are wrong, Cullen isn't as squeaky clean as we think, and he took bribes from Varric?)
3. Cullen knows that he would have died when Wilmod turned into an abomination so he looks the other way for now because Hawke is helpful, even though Hawke is a mage.
To me, the third explanation makes the most sense, especially since Cullen gives mage!Hawke the same warning he gives to non-mage!Hawke about Bethany once Hawke has enough (or almost enough?) coin to go on the deep roads expedition: "I've been hearing disturbing rumors about you/your sister, Hawke. I hope they aren't true."
Personally, all of Hawke's interactions with Cullen during Act 1 reminded me so much of real life experiences I've had with racial passing. Lots of subtle shit (and I do mean *shit*) in which people look the other way and wave me through even when spouting loud, hurtful, shitful words about Those People.
So, when Cullen has his "mages aren't people like you and me" moment, I think there is a lot more going on than what fandom usually says about that line. On one hand, Cullen is right, despite his assholian way of saying what he says -- a fact that doesn't go overlooked by in-game characters such as Macha who calls him out on what he says. Mages really aren't like non-mages. They have additional powers. They are mages. Society has reasons for fearing mages, despite the moral implications involved in this. Mages require additional kinds of training that non-mages do not require in order to safely develop their powers. Cullen is a flaming neon asshole when he makes his "mages aren't people like you and me" statement to a mage hawke, but what he says has a basis in reality and if the writers knowingly did this, I give them a lot of credit for correctly representing *the ugly side* of reality. This kind of comment is something that happens far too often when people are wrestling with their fears and prejudices -- the "well, all XYZ people are lazy, dangerous thugs except for you because you have an education/job/moderate viewpoint and aren't like THEM" bullshit that occurs far too often.
I have a lot more to say about this but it is better off in an essay of its own. :)
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Dissent - Yes. I actually have a lot to say on this based on actual reports about sexual predators in the military and how they "successfully" (yuck) cover up their activities for years by exploiting the chain of command. We don't know what happened in the gallows but I find it far easier to understand the tranquility-sex-slave situation with Alrik when he is acting as a calculating sexual predator who is (literally) raping the rules of the hierarchical system that he's a part of. This is a topic for a much longer discussion at another time.
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As far as the "mages aren't people like you and me", I've always assumed that it was intentional, just like the "You didn't sound like an elf through the door" line a Tabris Warden can get in DAO. I haven't played the game in ages, so I don't remember the line reading, and I think in this case that makes a huge difference: whether he's acknowledging the reality that mages are different people...or if he's saying, essentially, that they're not human, which is the first step to justifying all kinds of atrocities.
I'd love to talk about "Dissent". Personally, that's one of the most disturbing moments in the game. In character, that's the first time that Julian genuinely loses his shit. Ironically, Anders/Justice turning on Ella was a good thing because Julian had to step back from "Killing all the templars sounds really good right now." I sort of feel that Alrik gets dismissed as "Eh, it was just one bad apple"; but I'm not sure if that's the devs or fandom.
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And uh, given the amount of Cullen/Inquisitor fic out there, I don't think he ended up being that controversial ^_^
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I have a lot of minor crits over the way Cullen's arc was shown in DAI because there wasn't enough of a bridge for ppl who only saw flat Mage hating Cullen suddenly transform. I didn't like how the lyrium was handled either.
But those two things aside, it was -- in my opinion -- the most respectful and supportive romance arc in the DA series so far for a female PC and a male LI.
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I really like how it all played out and just how many little details there were. And while it's not my favourite LI (I don't think anything is ever going to match Alistair, who was my first experience with BioWare romance), he's definitely pretty high up there.
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Thinking back to Cullen, I do think it would have been nice to have a few more throwbacks to decisions that affected him in the earlier games, which may have helped for the bridging. I was disappointed that Cullen never mentioned the fact that my worldstate had the Right of Annulment used on the Circle at Kinloch Hold.