I'm Sorry But The "da Fandom Is A Little Racist BUT Veilguard Holds Most Of The Blame For Making Davrin

I would love love LOVE it if Taash wasn’t constantly misgendered!!! It’s genuinely really fucking insane that MONTHS after Veilguard has been released and people STILL can’t get it right.

Deadass i literally don’t care whether or not anyone here even likes Taash, but the BARE MINIMUM is to use their correct pronouns.

Apologies for sounding so angry about it but like I’m beyond tired of seeing it, especially since Taash is one of my favorite Dragon Age characters.

Okay, let's talk about the coming out scene, because people are saying Taash was the one out of line.

Shathann is a sympathetic character. That does not make her a good person. She saved her child from a life of servitude by leaving the country she loved and tried to preserve that culture in her child. I respect that. I also wish there was a way to encourage Taash to embrace both sides of their culture.

BUT.

From the moment we meet her, Shathann criticizes literally everything her child does. Taash runs an errand for her, and Shathann criticizes their posture, pronunciation, gender presentation, AND sexuality, completely unprovoked, yes, in one fucking conversation. Shathann invites Taash over for dinner and then makes Taash cook that fucking dinner. And this has happened before, as stated in the dialogue. Taash is so affected by this behavior and probably worse they have endured their entire life that they say "you don't get to tell me who I am" at a simple question about their heritage, out of pure instinct.

Now to the actual scene.

Taash invites their mother to their new home and prepares a dinner for her, which Shathann immediately criticizes and has Taash make vegetables to go with. Can you imagine inviting someone into your home for dinner you prepare only for them to shit on it and ask you to cook more. And Taash does so, with a grunt. I'd be like bitch you're in my house, I cooked, eat. But they just do it.

Then they say it. "Im nonbinary." Shathann asks what that means, completely fair, and Taash explains that it means they're not a man or a woman.

Shathann asks if this is because she criticizes their gender presentation. Now listen. I have a parent who thinks nearly everything "wrong" with me is a reaction to their actions. It pisses me off. So Taash is getting reasonably frustrated, and insists that's not why. VALID. They were asked a question and they answered.

Let's talk about the Qun and gender identity. Yes they have a word for people who identify as a different gender than they were assigned. But this is implied to apply to trans men and women, not nonbinary people, so Shathann is asking Taash if they "just" identify as a man, because that's something Shathann can better understand, something more convenient for her to process. Sort of like when trans people come out to someone and are asked if they're "just gay."

No. And Taash says no. They have explained who they are. If Shathann was just having a hard time processing it that would be one thing, but she basically talked over Taash and tried to suggest that they were just a man, which they are not. Taash is being vulnerable. Taash doesn't even HAVE to tell Shathann this, but they want to, they think she deserves to know.

And what Taash says next is not purely to do with this one conversation, as explicit in the text. "why am I never enough for you." Never. Not now. We have seen Shathann critique Taash in every scene they share, and that's with a whole other person present who is not in the family. We don't know what happens in private. Shathann signed her child up for a fucking war without even talking to them about it. What Taash says is the build up of years of being talked over and criticized for everything they do, provoked by offering themselves to that person in a vulnerable position only to be talked over and criticized more.

"Why am I never enough for you."

And Shathann does not answer. She doesnt say "of course you are." Even if she disagreed with Taash's identity, which would be shitty, she could still affirm that they are enough for her. She doesn't.

She fucking leaves.

Maybe she thinks that's what Taash wants. Maybe not. But if someone asks you something like that, you affirm them. You say they are enough. Especially if they're your fucking child. But no, this conversation is too inconvenient for Shathann, she's not getting her way like she did when she signed Taash up for a war without their consent, so she just leaves. She could've said "I don't understand, but I love you." She couldve said anything. But she just left.

I'm sad she died. Im glad she accepted her child in the end. But no, Taash was not in any way out of line in this conversation.

Shathann was.

Half the queer fandom being frothingly mad at the idea that the game unapologetically uses the words "trans" and "nonbinary" for their characters... While the other half compares Mary Kirby to JK Rowling for confirming what some people already suspected about her demisexual character though it's not verbally stated onscreen...

Like... Like.

I'm laughing through my tears.

If you are any sort of queer writer? Writing from an authentically queer perspective? Don't forget! There's no actual right perfect acceptable way to do rep and that is obviously YOUR FAULT. Whatever you choose, everyone knows you did it with malicious intent and could've done better but chose not to. And that's on you, babe! Prepare to be demonized by your own community until you die

"why are the lords of fortune ethical treasure hunters wtfffff"

do

do we not remember

what happened

when isabela, admiral of the lords of fortune

stole an important cultural artifact

from the qunari

do we not remember the arishok fight

do we not remember why we had the arishok fight

isabela doesn't run the lords of fortune the way she does because she loves Ethical Piracy

isabela runs the lords the way she does because the last time she stole something important, kirkwall happened

having appraisers from a bunch of different cultures absolutely makes sense, and grabbing a finders fee for getting stuff back to its respective place is pretty reasonable (labour should be compensated)

like...it IS ethical piracy, but the root of it was never "oh maybe we should do better," it was always "hello my name is isabela and i would like to not get bodied by the entire qunari population a second time"

Ya'll have noticed that nobody seems to be upset about the non-binary mayor of Treviso or Maevaris, right? The medic at the Warden Camp? Why is Taash getting all the flack for something already in the game with other characters?

Taash is non-white coded (I will die on that hill.)

Taash pushes back against the 'don't ask, don't tell' idea that queer folks shouldn't be "shoving it in your face."

Racism, Ableism & Homophobia and the inability to figure out or conceptualize nuance.

That's it. That's the post.

Iskra's like, "Babe, I can't take it when you stare at me like that. It's making me moooiiissssT." 🥵

Y’all seen these videos

taash dragonage if you read this I am free on Thursday night and would like to hang out. Please respond to this and then hang out with me on Thursday night when I’m free.

IT IS STILL RACIST IF YOU TAKE A SOUTH EAST ASIAN CHARACTER AND MAKE HER BLACK. IT IS STILL RACIST.

I just realized I haven’t promoted the Taash Trash tumblr community for Taash Week! I’ve been so distracted by all the excellent Taash content!

If you wish to share posts about them all year long, come join the Taash Trash tumblr community!

Now look at this cute screenshot of my Rook & Taash: