Some spoilers for the game Dragon Age: Origins lay ahead.
Right, I just finished my first playthrough of DA:O for PS3 (it’s pretty multifaceted with lots and lots of different endings, as well as beginnings, or origins) and ended up with one of the best possible endings; my female human noble, Tuscany Cousland (they gave me the surname, I picked a fanciful first name to go with it) became a great rogue and fighter and announced at the Landsmeet that Alistair, her co-fighter, companion and boyfriend (and secret illegitimate heir to the throne and – I love this – ‘royal bastard’, literally), would be king and she would rule alongside him (cue ‘:O’ faces from everyone? No? It would’ve been an even better cutscene if they panned to everyone’s faces when Tuskers announced that). Aside from, and as a result of, the whole bummer dark ritual and everything, they both survived and got married and yay. I kind of fell in love with Alistair along the way (this is not uncommon…there are many fan clubs all over the internet for this game character, expertly voiced by the Scottish (but you wouldn’t know it) actor Steve Valentine), eventually realising that personality-wise he essentially IS my boyfriend (yay!), which was a pretty happy revelation for me.
ANYWAY. I digress, as usual. I then put my iPod on and Tay-Tay Swift is crooning ‘Long Live’ and oh the similarities between this song and the game if you take most of it literally instead of figuratively as its intended, and especially if you play as a female human noble who marries Alistair. I’m definitely reaching a little in places (I’m reaching so hard in this whole post that my shoulder is dislocating), and I doubt Ms Swift is a fan of RPGs (I’m only a fan of RPGs with great stories, to be honest, and usually only Western ones…I played Riviera: The Promised Land, and that’s the only JRPG I’ve ever kind of liked), as she’s never said so and it would help her ‘everygirl’ shtick (or, real personality? :p) to admit to loving a bit of gaming, so she wouldn’t hide it. That said, she would totally fall in love with Alistair as well. And then write a song about it. Or maybe she already has:
Continue reading
beautiful nerdery 