Signal Boost: Meta on Final Fantasy X and Dragon Age

[auronlu]

I still have to play Dragon Age, so I found myself reading this great meta-essay with one eye shut to avoid spoilers.

However, this is one of those good fandom essays that deserves readers and maybe responses. So for anyone who's played these games, I recommend:

Religious Reformation in Dragon Age II and Final Fantasy X by Willow Wood, who does good fandom research/meta from what I've seen.

Comments

[sarasa_cat]

Hm... Interesting. I liked the meta on FFX far more than the meta on DA2, although to explain why I would have to spill a ruinous amount of spoilers. ;)

Also, the DA2 meta contains a handful of key factual errors.

That aside, it is an very interesting comparison to make although a little bit difficult since DA2's events are the prelude to religious reformation, which are continued in a novel (Asunder) and presumable concluded (?) in the unofficially announced DA3.

[owlmoose]

I caught those errors too, and left a comment letting the author know about them. Hopefully it went through, I don't see it on the site.

[sarasa_cat]

I didn't even realize it was possible to leave comments there! Hope they went through.

One of the problems with any analysis of DA2 is that some scenes are completely missable (Meredith's backstory, Cullen betraying Meredith twice rather than only once, everything in Anders rivalmance if he is only friended or friendmanced) and a deep understanding of what is actually going on requires a bit of fridge logic and careful examination of what is being said.

Far more than once I swear I played a completely different DA2 than many online members of fandom (although once I realized that I probably played the same DA2 that David Gaider talks about, it became clear to me how deeply subtle some of the story is and how my years of academic training make me far more of a close "reader" of story...).

As you say below, the comparison between FFX and DA2 is really interesting and definitely worth further thought although I sort of feel that Asunder also needs to be put on the table during the comparison along with the not-yet-announced DA3...

[auronlu]

Comments on Squidoo are moderated: they show only after the page author has a chance to review and approve them. (Anti-spam defense, since it's public and tends to get hit heavily by bots.)