The Potentially Aspec-Coded Characters of Thedas (A Dragon Age Retrospective: Part 2)

Image description: The final group scene in Trespasser, the conclusion of Dragon Age: Inquisition. I chose this image to represent today's post because not only does it represent my favorite video game of all time and some of my favorite characters ever, but because I believe several of the characters in this image could be interpreted as being on the asexual spectrum. In today's post, I'm going to both celebrate and critique the characters throughout this franchise who could be considered aspec if you look, and why it matters. (Not my screenshot or character)

Nearly ten years ago, my good friend Laura changed my life when she introduced me to Dragon Age, the fantasy video game series set in the fictional world of Thedas. There was so much about the series that appealed to me – chiefly its incredible characters, its detailed worldbuilding, and its intriguing stories that perfectly wove familiar fantasy elements with fresh takes on the usual formulas. But if I’m being honest, one of the primary things that drew me to the franchise in the first place was its diversity and the way it deftly created a fantasy world that felt like it welcomed people of all kinds.

As far as legacies go, I think that’s a very good one for the series to have as we look back on its over fifteen-year history. However, throughout my own decade’s long relationship with the franchise, I’ve come to see how much this legacy – while often terrifically met in other metrics – has unfortunately fallen short in some instances, and there is perhaps no instance more glaring that in its inability and/or unwillingness to portray aspec characters. This oversight is something I’ve discussed on the blog time and again, but which I began highlighting even more fully in my previous post, the first part of a retrospective examining the entire series and its lack of aspec representation now that the series has seemingly come to a close.

In that post, I explored why aspec representation in Dragon Age would have mattered, examined how it could have been done, and theorized about why it didn’t happen, as well as how it might have been received by fans. Admittedly, a lot of that post was a little pessimistic as I discussed how both the fandom and the creators of the series seem to discourage (whether intentionally or unintentionally) aspecness in the world of Thedas. But despite Dragon Age’s troubled history when it comes to aspec representation, I believe there are actually several characters throughout the series that could be considered aspec-coded.

Naturally, these are not characters that are ever explicitly made aspec and can only be considered headcanons, something I discussed at length in the last post and will discuss again here briefly. But despite not being canonically aspec and despite the fact that different fans will doubtless have varying opinions on them, I believe these characters have traits and attributes that make them seem like they could be aspec if their writers had only allowed them to be.

So today, to wrap up this retrospective on Dragon Age and its lack of aspec representation, I’m exploring and celebrating these characters, looking at them through an entirely different lens and bringing up discussions for them that we were otherwise never allowed to have. Whether good or bad, I believe the stories of these characters deserve to be unpacked and analyzed through an aspec lens, especially now that we have nothing but time in which to do so, and the ability to make them our own.

Spoiler warning! 

Spoilers for all games in the series, including the endings of Dragon Age: Inquisition and Trespasser, as well as elements of various romances

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A Quick Recap

Although Dragon Age is a perennial subject on the blog, meaning that any regular reader is doubtless familiar with it and my analysis of it at least somewhat, this current post is a sequel to a larger retrospective. As such, I highly recommend reading my previous post before this one, as it introduces many of the topics and concepts I want to explore today. However, to quickly recap the points made there: Dragon Age is and always has been a diverse series and so it makes it even more unfortunate when the game and its fandom seems to ignore aspec fans, relegating us to “headcanons” only. The series thrives on roleplay and player choices, meaning that we each get to shape the world of Thedas both in the games themselves and in fan media like fanfiction or fan art, and yet it’s hard to feel like that’s enough for aspec fans for a variety of reasons and it is difficult for these headcanons to really flourish within those spaces.

The thing with headcanon aspec characters is that, technically speaking, almost any character can be made into an aspec headcanon character if you try hard enough. For instance, while thinking about this post, I was discussing some of our headcanon aspec characters with my aforementioned friend Laura. While discussing characters that could be demisexual and/or demiromantic, she not only mentioned some of the characters I’ll be discussing later in the post, but also some of our other favorites like Cassandra Pentaghast and Varric Tethras. While Cassandra is a romancable character in the third game and Varric has a previously confirmed romantic relationship, this doesn’t preclude either of them from being demisexual/demiromantic, and in fact I think you can make a good case for both.

But other than hints, clues, and certain story beats, it’s never said that either character is and thus it can probably be assumed that the creators of the series never intended them to be. But does that mean we shouldn’t headcanon them as such if the opportunity arises or the clues are there? Does that mean headcanoning them as aspec is wrong? The problem is that, depending on circumstances, not all headcanons are treated equally – sometimes for valid reasons and sometimes for ones that tend to skew towards aphobia.

When the piece of media in question (in this case, the Dragon Age series) doesn’t give us any ability to claim aspec characters canonically, it has the potential to turn the fandom into a battleground, wherein people of varying identities on the asexual and/or aromantic spectrums claim characters and allosexual people who disagree with them fight to take them back or otherwise disprove the headcanon. Since the media in question doesn’t say anything one way or another, it creates the awkward situation where technically both sides are right and both sides are wrong, but because allosexual people naturally tend to outnumber aspec people in fandom spaces, it’s often the allosexual voices that are heard while the aspec voices are silenced.

And this then tends to happen in every aspect of fandom life. Aspec-friendly content is largely drowned out, aspec headcanons are ignored, and aspec fans are treated as less than, leading to a very unpleasant experience if you still want to engage with things like fanfiction, fan art, or just general fandom discussions. In my analysis of Dragon Age over the years, I have constantly pointed this out as one of the most pernicious elements of the fandom, although it is certainly not just limited to this particular fandom. Rather, this is an issue with media more broadly, in that aspec identities are not only allowed to be disrespected, but that disrespect is actually in some cases encouraged – whether intentionally or unintentionally.

Image description: One of the lush vistas seen in Dragon Age: Inquisition's downloadable content continuation, Trespasser.

For instance, as I pointed out in part one of this post, while aspec headcanons are all we have, it’s difficult to feel like even those are respected when we see the attitudes of the writing team, such as how they view certain characters or how they treat certain plot points (some of which I’ll get into in this post as well). Furthermore, recent Dragon Age content has gone beyond just ignoring or invalidating headcanons and has actually started (allegedly) erasing canon aspec representation before it can ever even be portrayed in-game, as we recently saw with the curious case of Lucanis Dellamorte from Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Even just the fact that I have to explain my rationale for these headcanons with so many caveats and allowances for different facts is proof of how difficult headcanoning characters as aspec can be. While there would certainly be debates about certain facts even if these characters were confirmed as canonically aspec, the debates that rage on when all we’re left to go on is vague conjecture become even more difficult and heated, and our rationale as aspec people has to become even more airtight – something that is almost impossible to do for a franchise like Dragon Age due to the huge amounts of varying player interpretations about what their version of Thedas, shaped by their own choices looks like.

However, something that many of my favorite Dragon Age characters have taught me is that just because something is difficult or unpopular or goes against conventional wisdom doesn’t mean that it’s bad and especially doesn’t mean that it should be abandoned, which is why I choose to discuss these things even when it’s difficult to do so. Beyond that, because Dragon Age belongs to the fans now, we are all allowed our own version of the world of Thedas, and these headcanons make up an important part of how I choose to define that world for myself as an aspec fan and for the aspec characters I’ve created to reside there.

Does it make me sad that this version of Thedas is one that will only ever exist in my own mind? Yes. Does it frustrate me to know that I will always need to justify it to people who disagree with me or who don’t wish to see non-sexual and/or non-romantic characters portrayed. Absolutely. And do I find it unfortunate that these characters, many of whom would have been amazing representation, will never actually be that? Of course. But while these will only ever just be headcanons, I believe discussing these headcanons and celebrating these characters is my contribution to the fandom, since that ownership of Dragon Age also belongs to aspec fans, whether or not the world of Thedas reflects that.

Dragon Age: Origins & Dragon Age II

Despite the franchise’s troubled history with aspec representation, there are nevertheless several characters who could be seen as aspec throughout the series, although of course there is no real consensus on the characters that fit this description. As I mentioned in the last section, the trouble with headcanon-only or vague representation is that it’s always possible to try and refute it. For instance, even when there are characters who are typically headcanoned as aspec by many people in the fandom, there will always be those who push back against this interpretation. As such, it’s difficult to be able to bring much more than my own personal opinions to this, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

Another reason I highly recommend taking my opinions with a grain of salt is because I have only played through the third game in the series, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and have only played through it once. Most of my relationship with the franchise comes from watching videos to see every outcome, listening to party banter from all the games, and doing research on the Dragon Age wiki. While I haven’t experienced a lot of these things firsthand, I have definitely experienced them, and I have plenty of headcanons as a result.

In terms of personal interpretation, let’s start at the very beginning with a character in the first game, Dragon Age: Origins – Alistair Theirin. Alistair is a Grey Warden, just like the player character in DA:O, and is a romance option for a female character. Snarky, silly, and deeply earnest underneath all of that, Alistair is secretly extremely lonely; it’s revealed that he is the bastard son of the king of Ferelden, and spent much of his life feeling like he had been abandoned, struggling with the ramifications of what and who he was.

Many years ago, I saw someone online theorize that Alistair could be considered demisexual and/or demiromantic, something that I deeply agree with having seen his romance and something which I confirmed with Laura, who loves the character and who is herself demi. As Laura herself says, Alistair really just wants someone to love him, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to work to earn his trust – something which makes sense given his background – and which makes his romance all the sweeter.

Image description: Alistair Theirin, as he appears in Dragon Age: Origins

One of my favorite examples of this comes when your player character can invite Alistair to join you in your tent, and while he says most men would likely jump at the chance, he doesn’t think he’s ready for that. He describes being intimate with the player character as “a big step” and that he doesn’t “take this sort of thing lightly.” Being intimate with him doesn’t come until much later, despite the fact that it’s clear he’s very attracted to the player character. I think the fact that he wants to wait is not only incredibly endearing and played out in a very cute manner, but makes a great case for him being demi.

However, there are a few moments that I could easily see being used to try and “disprove” this headcanon, as is often the issue. For instance, there is actually the possibility that Alistair can be invited to join in and accept an offer for a threesome between himself, the player character, and the pirate Isabela, which also leads to a little bit of sexually-charged dialogue. Luckily, it seems this option is only available if very specific circumstances are met and doesn’t seem to otherwise diminish his potentially demisexual and/or demiromantic nature too much.

Even in other instances where Alistair flirts with the player or makes remarks that might otherwise seem a little sexual, it’s never taken very far and doesn’t negate the fact that he otherwise sees intimacy as a serious thing not to be engaged in lightly. When it comes to the idea of the threesome, I believe this is an example of how the games sometimes do a disservice to their own characters by trying to add sexual elements in where perhaps none needed to exist. The Alistair romance is otherwise very poignant and moving, and the fact that he has some demisexual/demiromantic tendencies only serve to make it better. Therefore, he is proof that these vibes not only exist, but that honoring them helps make a better story.

Another character I personally see as demisexual and/or demiromantic – and which Laura agreed with – is the character of Merrill from Dragon Age II. Merrill is a bit of an interesting case in that she is earnest and innocent in love, but is also surprisingly deep and complex in many ways. A Dalish elf and a mage, Merrill’s story is, in many ways, about identity, perhaps even more than many other characters, thanks to the fact that she really doesn’t belong anywhere. As an elf in a society that tends to mistreat and malign the elves, she doesn’t really belong with humans. As a member of the Dalish, the wandering nomadic elves who try to keep elven history and culture alive through their unique culture, she doesn’t really fit in among the non-Dalish elves she lives among when she eventually goes to the city of Kirkwall. Even her Dalish clan and her fellow mages don’t truly accept her, thanks to her controversial use of forbidden magic.

This is something made even more profound by the fact that Merrill wants to use this dangerous magic to try and help her clan, even though they fear and revile her for it. The pain Merrill goes through as she is repeatedly rebuffed and shunned make her an almost tragic character, which stands in sharp contrast with how otherwise cheerful and optimistic she is. While it can sometimes be problematic for “innocence” – especially innocence related to sexual matters – to automatically be a shorthand for aspecness, Merrill is an interesting case because she both completely plays into this trope and also somewhat subverts it. It’s true that Merrill is very innocent by her own admission and mentions that “dirty” things often go over her head, but I believe there is a lot of pathos in Merrill’s story too, both thanks to the actions and ignorance of others, and her own instances of making questionable choices that lead to bad outcomes.

Therefore, although she manages to have a sweet and wholesome personality, her story is incredibly fraught with tension and emotion in a way that makes her very complicated. While on some level it might be easy to treat Merrill as childish due to some of the things she says or does, Merrill – much like later characters I also headcanon as demi – is far from being a flat, uninteresting, or two-dimensional character due to her innocence. I believe her romance with the player character, Hawke, can likewise be described in this way.

Although certainly a physical relationship once it’s locked in (as is true of so many Dragon Age romances), the most important parts of the relationship are not the physical ones, but the emotional ones. This is something that I think makes Dragon Age romances truly special and allows even those with overtly physical elements to be somewhat aspec friendly too, hence why I think there can be so many demi characters if you look close enough.

Image description: Merrill Sabrae, as she appears in Dragon Age II

As with any piece of media, your mileage will vary on how successful this is, depending on what you’re looking for from both your aspec characters and your aspec relationships. For instance, if an “innocent” character like Merrill doesn’t speak to you or you’d prefer to see an aspec character with zero interest in sex whatsoever, that’s going to be a bit harder within the world of Thedas, and that might veer into deeply disappointing territory for some, as I admit it sometimes does for me. In my opinion, however, when it comes to the franchise missing the mark on portraying aspec identities, it’s more common to see disappointing instances of portrayals than it is to see overtly bad ones.

But there are a few instances where the series’ lack of representation goes beyond just “too vague” or “disappointing” and actually crosses into the territory of being what I would perceive as legitimately bad representation. Different aspec people doubtless have different ideas about what makes something “bad” representation; however, as I mentioned in a previous post about the subject, the most basic definition of representation in media focuses on the way that piece of media portrays certain aspects of society. With that definition in mind, therefore, I’d like to briefly discuss Sebastian Vael, also from Dragon Age II.

In a previous post about aspec headcanons, I discussed Sebastian at some length, so I’m not going to unpack his entire story here. To briefly summarize, however, it might seem a little strange that I see Sebastian as aspec when his background is confirmed to be very overtly sexual, but there are a few reasons for it. In my own headcanon, I’d like to believe these things were not a reflection of his actual wants and desires, but were just distractions he used to try and make himself feel important. In fact, Seb himself comes to describe this time in his life as feeling empty and meaningless, even when he was living through it. I believe the fact that he found joy in celibacy – although not something that should be conflated with aspecness – make it clear he wasn’t actually enjoying his hypersexual lifestyle, but instead was using it to fill an emotional void.

That being said, I think the idea of religious celibacy is definitely what the writers were going for, far more than having these things be a part of a romantic and/or sexual orientation for the character, which makes it difficult to analyze him as aspec or consider him good aspec representation. However, the real reason why I consider him both a headcanon aspec character and an instance of detrimental representation come thanks to the option in his romance path to enter into a chaste marriage with him. As discussed in my previous post on the subject, I think this could have been a very interesting opportunity for the game to do something that had never been done before, but of course it didn’t do that and instead the chaste marriage option is treated as something of a joke.

To be honest, I have to wonder why this option was even included in the game if it wasn’t going to be taken seriously and in fact was going to be derided. Again, because the developers clearly intended Seb to be seen as being religiously celibate rather than aspec, I of course don’t think it was their goal to mock aspec identities at all, nor is that what the chaste marriage option does. However, the fact that other characters in game are allowed to react negatively to the chaste marriage path seems to enforce the idea that it’s the “wrong” option. Even the player themselves can seem to mock it a little, all of which seems to put forth the notion that a non-sexual marriage – or a non-sexual romance in general – is being treated as absurd.

The fact that Sebastian’s romance is generally seen as boring by players likewise adds to this. While some of this was thanks to behind-the-scenes elements of the game and how it functioned, it’s frustrating that one of the only non-sexual romance paths in the games up until that point was seen as a boring footnote amid an otherwise very sexual game. For that reason, Sebastian as a character certainly isn’t the worst example of aspec-adjacent representation I’ve seen, but his storyline does encapsulate the idea that, for some reason, Dragon Age really struggles with the idea of letting non-sexual people exist within its universe.

Now, because Origins came out in 2009 and DA2 came out in 2011, it might be easy to think that representation doubtless improved for 2014’s Dragon Age: Inquisition and had made significant strides by the 2024 release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard. But, of course, if you’ve been reading the blog for a while, you know that is not the case. While both games give us plenty of headcanons to discuss, there are still issues that I think should be explored and unpacked as the final part of this ongoing retrospective.

Dragon Age: Inquisition & Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Of all four Dragon Age games, I have naturally explored Dragon Age: Inquisition the most, due to the simple fact that its stories and characters will always be my favorite. Naturally, being so invested in DA:I means I have a lot more aspec headcanons in this game than I do for the others. As I mentioned earlier, I think characters such as Cassandra and Varric could easily be seen as demi, and I think a case could be made for other companions like Vivienne or even Solas, but in particular I tend to focus on three when I discuss my own personal headcanons. Those would be one of the main companion characters Cole (who I see as an aromantic asexual character) and two of the Inquisitor’s advisors (and potential romance options), Josephine Montilyet and Cullen Rutherford, both of whom I see as demisexual and/or demiromantic.

Among these characters, let’s start with Cole, who is unique for a few reasons both in-universe and out. In-universe, Cole is a unique character thanks to the fact that he’s a spirit of compassion who is somewhat stuck between the human realm and the spirit realm; outside of the games themselves, Cole is unique to me because he’s probably the subject I’ve covered the most on the blog. Because of that, I’m not going to go into great detail about his aspec vibes or the way the game disrespects those things, since I already have mountains of analysis on the subject. However, I will touch on his example briefly, because I think Cole represents the franchise’s continued inability to even respect non-sexual and/or non-romantic characters, let alone actually portray them.

To me, Cole is proof that the game did not learn its lesson with characters like Sebastian and, even worse, his storyline reveals the attitude that at least some of the game’s writers seemed to think that being human involves romantic and sexual attraction. When choosing to make Cole more spirit or more human, the spirit path is often disincentivized for players, making it seem like the worse option, while the human path seems to be treated as somehow kinder and more merciful, despite the fact that it largely ignores who Cole is and what he wants. The “human path” then doubles down on this when it’s revealed that being human means Cole now experiences romantic and/or sexual attraction.

This trope is baked into a lot of preexisting media, especially in science fiction and fantasy genres, so it’s not entirely the developers’ faults that they fell prey to it. However, as I’ve stated before, there’s no need for the choice between “more human” or “more spirit” to even exist, or if it does, there’s no reason why it has to be treated as such a binary choice. There could have been the ability to have him embrace both or blend both together, and neither choice had to be framed as good or bad. Additionally, there is no reason why sex or romance ever had to be a part of these things.

For those of us who make Cole more spirit, our world of Thedas can still comfortably have those AroAce vibes intact, of course, and I believe the spirit path is a beautifully aspec metaphor the writers never intended, meaning we can still derive both meaning and further headcanons from it. However, it’s still sad to know that the franchise wasn’t ever ready to commit to having an AroAce character, despite setting this up almost perfectly. The fact that these tropes were used at all makes it clear that aspec-friendly storylines may not have been top of mind, despite other characters who could be seen as accidentally aspec in their own right.

For instance, when we look at both Cullen and Josephine, we see two characters who – although very different, of course – both have wholesome romances that actually are aspec friendly. In the case of Cullen’s romance, while there is a sex scene, it is a “fade to black” scene, meaning nothing is shown and it is otherwise very tastefully done. In Josie’s case, she’s actually routinely headcanoned in the fandom as a biromanic (or panromantic) asexual character primarily because her romance doesn’t have a definable sex scene at all.

I would argue both characters have prince and princess vibes respectively, which is part of what makes their romances so endearing, and both characters themselves would be good representation if allowed to be. As I’ve mentioned before on the blog, I appreciate that Josephine is a warm, expressive, kind-hearted character who can still be romantic – all things that aspec characters are oftentimes not allowed to be. Cullen, meanwhile, is a complex character with a traumatic background, but he’s able to be brave, loyal, and tenderhearted both because of and in spite of those things. His romance takes so much care to establish his feelings and have them unfold organically and the romance is predominantly about trust, healing, and mutual safety, rather than solely relying on attraction or even physicality.

Both characters would be great examples of aspec representation for so many reasons, but of course, as it always is with aspec headcanons, nothing is that simple. For instance, despite Josephine’s romance being played up as wholesome and sweet above all – and the fact that there are plenty of fans who see her as aspec – other people are adamant that her romance either does have a sex scene if you squint or that it should, both of which are extremely frustrating when you consider that her romance is otherwise so aspec-friendly. As I often say, aspec people can still have sex, but the people who advocate Josephine’s romance having a sex scene are doing so seemingly because they dislike the idea of not being “rewarded” in that way or because they think there ostensibly has to be a sex scene.

Meanwhile, in Cullen’s case, I think the reason why more people don’t see him as demisexual and/or demiromantic is because he is attractive, and thus most fans of his romance want to imagine it as being far more sexual than it is. This is why the franchise’s vague representation can become troublesome, as it allows fans to dismiss headcanons or even outright obvious aspec vibes simply because they don’t want to have to acknowledge that their favorite character might not be sexually available. While there is nothing wrong with fans liking a sexual storyline or having their own headcanons on that matter, it’s unfortunate to see how often headcanoning these characters as on the asexual spectrum is met with doubt, resistance, and outright hostility.

Image description: Cullen Rutherford, as he appears in Dragon Age: Inquisition

This is a shame, because I believe characters like Josie and Cullen show us that overt sexuality doesn’t have to be the core of these romances if a player chooses not to emphasize it, and I think that should be celebrated, not derided. It’s true that I as an aspec player can still enjoy the game and Cullen’s romance, and that I can even put my own aspec headcanons into it, which allow me to headcanon both Cullen and my Inquisitor as demi. However, when I am unable to take these feelings into fandom spaces without them being lambasted, I think that’s proof that Dragon Age and its fandom may not be living up to the goals of diversity it seems to have set itself all these years.

Of course, that exact conversation wouldn’t be complete without talking about the most recent game in the series, Dragon Age: The Veilguard. While Inquisition is the game I’ve discussed the most on the blog, The Veilguard has the unhappy distinction of being the one I’ve discussed most critically. This is in part due to the fact that it’s the most recent game, of course, and its controversial nature makes it somewhat easy to come to it with a critical eye; but in many cases, that critical eye is warranted, and part of why I’ve discussed it so critically is because I think it may be the game that managed to get aspec representation the most wrong, perhaps even more than DA2 did with Sebastian.

As I said, I do believe the portrayal of the chaste marriage option in DA2 is absolutely horrendous and constitutes the exact opposite of representation, but at least it takes several different choices to actually trigger the worst parts of it. Not only does a player have to have the DLC in which Sebastian was introduced and has to have romanced him, but they have to elect to make him a priest rather than a prince, agree to the marriage, and have certain party members present after that choice. While that doesn’t excuse the way the quest was written, nor the very real and concerning attitudes that underpinned that decision, at least it is buried and can be avoided.

But the aspec erasure that went on in DATV and the unwillingness to own it is, in my opinion, arguably more troubling because it seems to be the only time we actually had a chance at canon aspec representation. This entire post is aligned to discuss the “potentially” aspec characters of Thedas, but Lucanis Dellamorte seems to be the closest to canon we ever might have had, making it all the more upsetting that his alleged identity was erased – or, at the very least, suppressed. This is a somewhat complicated topic and one that I unpacked as thoroughly as I could in a previous post, so again, I’m not going to get into it much here, but I am going to explore at least some of it, as it’s an essential way to round out this discussion.

When DATV was in its marketing phase, it was revealed in a developer Q&A that none of the game’s companions were going to be aspec. This was then contradicted after the game’s launch thanks to a statement by Lucanis’s writer, Mary Kirby, which stated that she wrote him to be a demisexual and demiromantic character who had never been intimate with anyone in the past. Even setting aside the politicking and mystery of why the dev team would say there are no aspec characters if this is how Kirby intended Lucanis to be seen, I think it doesn’t even take Kirby’s confirmation to see that Lucanis is obviously supposed to be aspec.

In fact, although very different, Lucanis admittedly somewhat reminds me of Cullen in terms of how earnest he is, how deeply he loves, and how deeply he seems to want to be loved. Similarly, the two romance paths actually remind me somewhat of each other thanks to how romantic and tender both storylines are, and I think the only thing that differs between them is the fact that people were expecting Lucanis to be a sexy and/or more sexually aggressive character and thus found themselves disappointed. Therefore, many of them tend to reject not only Kirby’s explanation but the obvious clues that are right in front of them regarding the nature of Lucanis’s character.

Unfortunately, as I discuss in the Lucanis-centric post, I think the developers are mostly to blame for this, although some parts of the fandom have to share in some of this blame. Because of their disappointment in the romance path, some fans have a tendency to seek more romance content for Lucanis however they can, which often means not only maligning aspec headcanons, but completely dismissing the idea of Lucanis ever having been aspec in the first place. While some of their skepticism is valid, the fact that Lucanis being aspec will forever be pushed aside in favor of more explicit content thanks to the whims of the fandom will always remain as one of Dragon Age’s most tragic instances of lost potential for me.

In a game series with as long and diverse a history as the one Dragon Age has, they’re not going to get it right one hundred percent of the time and I acknowledge that. But when it comes to the idea of aspec representation, it’s tough to know they never got it right at all. Sometimes they came close with characters that would have been perfect representation but were never allowed to be. Other times, it’s fandom attitudes that limit our ability to have aspec representation even in headcanon form. And in the most disappointing instances, there’s what appears to be straight up erasure and unwillingness to write aspecness into the games. But whatever the case, the world of Thedas is a little less diverse than it should be thanks to the lack of aspec characters, and I think that will always be worth discussing.

Image description: [Screenshot not mine] The end of Trespasser, in which your chosen romance option comes and stands by your side as you reflect on your journey. In this case, the player's chosen romance was Cullen; I chose this image because he's my chosen romance as well and, in my world of Thedas, both he and my player are demi. (My character is not pictured here)

At the very end of the credits in Dragon Age: Inquisition’s downloadable content story, Trespasser – what had been the last Dragon Age related content for years until DATV’s release and which is likely still considered the last bit of content for many – there is a message from the development team to the fans. It reads as follows:

“To all of you who played Dragon Age: Inquisition: who laughed, cried, and reached out on social media, who made fan art and comics and cosplays and jokes – thank you. Dragon Age: Inquisition was a labor of love. Without you, it would never have been possible. Your support and your passion touched us deeply. We hope that, in some small way, this game touched you as well.”

The reason why I share this here at the end of this post is because I am one of those people who laughed and cried along with this franchise. I am one of those people who wrote fanfiction and fell in love with the characters and who talked about the series ad nauseum – from the good to the bad and everything in between. And, because of that, I can think of no better way to end this retrospective. Because, as I’ve said many times before, I sincerely love Dragon Age. I will always love the characters and stories of the world of Thedas, even if I’m not really involved in the fandom or if I feel the games and their developers didn’t intend to create a world that includes me.

Now that the story of Dragon Age is ostensibly concluded, I’m in no way, shape, or form going to stop writing stories, enjoying the games, or talking about it on my blog. And although doing this retrospective was kind of sad, it also reminded me that the future of Dragon Age – my version of Dragon Age – is actually kind of exciting. Whether it’s my own headcanons and interpretations or writing my own aspec characters, I now get the chance to leave my own mark on the world of Thedas, even if it’s just within my own quiet circles of the fandom, and that is something I find very valuable indeed.