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lliiraI was going to post the following on Tumblr because more people would see it. Then I realized shit, I can't post it on Tumblr, more people will see it, and I don't want to find myself neck-deep in the poisonous swamp that is the Bioware "community" again. I posted just the first little bit because I felt the need to say something, but I wrote this whole long thing and I'm not letting it go:
Hey online people? The religions in fantasy media aren’t your religion.
I’ve seen this over and over and OVER again, where certain people side with whatever religion a game or novel has because for some reason they conflate it with their religion. But it’s come to a head in recent years and I’m not going to roll my eyes and ignore it (or rather subject only my husband to my thoughts on it) any longer.
Following: rant about Dragon Age 2. Dragon Age 2 is a mess, but if you start with the premise that The Chantry = any major contemporary Earth religion, you’re fundamentally wrong about why. Brought to you by randomly seeing yet another person conflate the Chantry, which profits from enslaving mages and has an army, with their nicest ideas about modern Christian churches. The Chantry’s closer to the Catholic Church of 1500ish, but they’re still not the same.
The Chantry has an army which they keep obedient by drugging the everloving crap out of them with something that’s phenomenally addictive, that wrecks the victims’ empathy, and that eventually destroys the victims’ ability to know what’s going on around them. They allow said drugged army to let off steam by abusing mages. (Yes templars are also victims, this is how oppression works, you distract the masses into fighting for the top place in the crab bucket.)
The Chantry also allows all emotions to be stripped from random mages on said army’s say so. Predictably, that is used as a tool of abuse, and of course powerful clerics know it. You think the people with their hands on templars’ reins don’t know exactly what templars are doing? The people who are drugging their army into hell don’t see what’s going on with that army?
Why, because the leaders of the Chantry look like sweet old ladies? I don’t know if it’s more sexist to think that little old ladies can’t make moral choices, or to think that little old ladies are too stupid to see what’s going on under their direct command.
Anders did not blow up “a church”.
Argue about the morality of what he did all you like, it’s definitely not simple, but if you start from that nonsensical premise, you’ll never get anywhere.
Hey online people? The religions in fantasy media aren’t your religion.
I’ve seen this over and over and OVER again, where certain people side with whatever religion a game or novel has because for some reason they conflate it with their religion. But it’s come to a head in recent years and I’m not going to roll my eyes and ignore it (or rather subject only my husband to my thoughts on it) any longer.
Following: rant about Dragon Age 2. Dragon Age 2 is a mess, but if you start with the premise that The Chantry = any major contemporary Earth religion, you’re fundamentally wrong about why. Brought to you by randomly seeing yet another person conflate the Chantry, which profits from enslaving mages and has an army, with their nicest ideas about modern Christian churches. The Chantry’s closer to the Catholic Church of 1500ish, but they’re still not the same.
The Chantry has an army which they keep obedient by drugging the everloving crap out of them with something that’s phenomenally addictive, that wrecks the victims’ empathy, and that eventually destroys the victims’ ability to know what’s going on around them. They allow said drugged army to let off steam by abusing mages. (Yes templars are also victims, this is how oppression works, you distract the masses into fighting for the top place in the crab bucket.)
The Chantry also allows all emotions to be stripped from random mages on said army’s say so. Predictably, that is used as a tool of abuse, and of course powerful clerics know it. You think the people with their hands on templars’ reins don’t know exactly what templars are doing? The people who are drugging their army into hell don’t see what’s going on with that army?
Why, because the leaders of the Chantry look like sweet old ladies? I don’t know if it’s more sexist to think that little old ladies can’t make moral choices, or to think that little old ladies are too stupid to see what’s going on under their direct command.
Anders did not blow up “a church”.
Argue about the morality of what he did all you like, it’s definitely not simple, but if you start from that nonsensical premise, you’ll never get anywhere.
