In a couple of previous posts here, I have accused Obsidian Entertainment of (in addition to other political correctness) rampant feminism (a.k.a. misandry) in Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire.
Some might consider this an exaggeration. So, just to shut you gaggles,
I'm taking time during my second playthrough over the next couple of
weeks to tally up all the supporting cast, male and female, and see how
many are portrayed in a positive or negative light.
I'm
writing these up as I encounter them, so based on my game route I may
miss some. Deal with it. Some degree of subjectivity is inevitable, though I'll do my best to reference Deadfire's own dialogues
and descriptions.
Some basic rules:
Any
minor character counts, which is to say any character with a name
and/or some kind of personality or onscreen interaction, even if short
and shallow.
Nameless redshirts you mow down on the field don't
count here, though some random encounters and bosses with observable
characteristics might.
Vendors and tavern keepers generally don't
(taking your money doesn't tell you much about them) unless they, again,
play some bit part in a quest.
Party members are also addressed
only in isolated interactions for each location i.e. their recruitment
event or behavior during a quest.
Skipping interludes with gods and goddesses.
"Positive" blue characters are either good (justified in their actions (even wrong actions) in some implicit or explicit way or allowed to morally slam others) and/or dignified which
is to say good at their job, display courage under fire, respected in
their community, able to stand their ground in an argument, etc.
"Negative" red characters may be evil
(villains, lowlifes, scoundrels by the general definition of society at
large) without being allotted moral justifications for their evil
actions, and/or losers: weak, incompetent, sniveling, drunks, deadbeats, cowards, despised and denigrated by others with impunity, etc.
"Neutral"
black text names generally break even, blend the two. A character may
be portrayed as competent but selfish, pathetic but helpful,
condemned by others but actually in the right, and so on. Alternately,
being minor episodic roles, some are just too bland to characterize or
don't really interact with others during their appearance.
Note:
the explicit on-screen interactions weigh much more heavily than any
implied characteristics. The whole point is to assess how Obsidian wants
us to view characters of both sexes, how the writing team painted them,
not just how we view dwarf / elf culture or whatever. Whom are we being programmed to hate?
Obsidian's main trick throughout
the game is to juxtapose a positive female with a negative male, thereby
emphasizing the female's superiority, so wherever this fits I'll try to
list them as pairs.
So it begins:
Maje Island
Benweth
(m) - obviously intended as a completely unambiguous villain. Not only
did he directly attack you and insult your ship to boot, but he's a
sadistic, reckless, greedy, stupid, lazy, power-hungry, power-mad,
every-deadly-sinning pirate according to everyone you meet. A
"limp-cocked nut-twist" according to Serafen. Naturally a white male,
presumably straight.
Eld Engrim (m) - pathetic old drunk in your crew paired up with the adorable plucky young orlan orphan Vela (f) - amusingly, despite being an obvious clown, Eld Engrim's allowed a
halfway positive characterization as a lovable old curmudgeon in his
role as babysitter, rendering service to a female. Everybody loves Vela.
Beodul (m) - helpless, trapped in cave afraid to move past traps
vs.
Irrena (f) - sassy, bravely gritting her teeth through her broken leg,
openly ridicules Beodul after they're both saved - "was he crying"
Galian (m) - drunk deadbeat guest at inn
vs.
Thorel (m) - innkeeper, a whiny fatass with a dopey voice, but at least he's a nice whiny fatass with a dopey voice.
Rinco (m) - a lying, sniveling card player presumably dependent on his serious, professional wife
vs.
Mokeha (f) - native, beats Rinco to a pulp because he's a sore loser who insults her noble savagery
Let's
review: Mokeha responds to insults with grievous bodily harm and
robbery, something which (legality aside) would immediately get branded
as "toxic masculinity" by a modern audience if she'd been male and would be unthinkably
villainous if she'd been male and Rinco female, no matter what insults
the female throws at the male.
As a feminist ideal of a strong woman,
she's of course immune to judgment. Forget beating her in retribution -
if you even try to intimidate her into coming back to own her crime,
her entire village including Ikawha the overpowered spellcaster turn
hostile and, given you're level 3-ish with an incomplete party by that
point, instantly curb-stomp you in the first round of combat. Learned
your lesson? Never try to make a woman take responsibility for her own actions.
So,
in truth, your only options are to either side with the brutish thug
Mokeha or whine to her and insult Rinco, her victim, to butter her up to
at least get Rinco's money back.
Wow. Nice roleplaying "choices" there.
Bonus feminist points as Rinco's only
acceptable worth during this whole argument is instrumental, as provider
for his family, not as an individual with an intrinsic right not to be
so savagely beaten that he becomes bedridden for spouting a few angry
words over a card game.
Savia (f) - sympathetically overworked local sheriff
vs.
Rum-Dumb Riggere
(m) her drunken prisoner. Do I need to explain this one? Even ignoring
the word "dumb" right in the male character's name, their dialogue is
laid on very thick
also Savia vs. Ilari (m) whom she sends you to subdue, a thug and looter and even literally a whiner when you attack him.
Waenglith
(f) - Eothasian priestess. Meh, call her neutral, her main interaction
is with another female, Xoti, whose heroic calling she fails to
acknowledge, though she is also given a male redshirt to smear with hot
wax while he whines pitifully. Kinky.
Governor Clario
(m) & Captain Darmo (m) - largely neutral disinterested
professionals, though Clario being more interested in the animancers'
results than their lives is obviously intended to make us dislike him.
You're even allowed to rat his motivations out to Benessa (f) so she and
the other old female animancer at the digsite can loudly voice their
disdain for him... regardless of the fact that whatever his motivations,
he did wind up sending them a rescue party.
vs.: Ikawha and Benessa below
Storm Speaker Ikawha (f) - noble, dignified leader of the local tribe, a force of nature, savior of
the island, savior of your ship, very put-upon by the demands of
Clario, the (male) foreign colony leader... three sentences into her
dialogue and you're practically blinded by her halo; she's almost as bad
as the queen.
Benessa (f) - leader of the surviving animancers at the dig site after her (male) boss conveniently got himself killed "she looks to be only midway into her thirties, though the serious set of her mouth makes her seem older"
vs.
"Engferth" or rather your old buddy Aloth
(m) who screwed up a first-level spell and set fire to some tents
instead of chasing away the encroaching wildlife. Apparently despite his
spellcasting having been a match for several dragons and not one but
two archmagi in the original campaign, he still has to play his nebbish
role as the butt of jokes in this one.
If you reveal his identity,
Aloth gets browbeaten for working under an assumed name and is banished
from their company, barely able to meet Benessa's eyes for his shame.
You get no option to stick up for him or tell the retarded bitch off for
getting pissy about her lab assistant's secret identity as a famous
hero who's unravelled more mysterious ancient magitek than she's washed
beakers. He hurt her fee-fees by not telling her his life story. Never
mind his actions alongside you in Defiance Bay likely saved her entire
profession from defamation and outlaw status, against his better
judgment.
Old Druid (m) - a.k.a. map encounter guy with boar herd - somewhat hostile, but
also relatively dignified, competent in his chosen profession, a Noble Savage presumably defending his homeland from
yadda-yadda. Helped my fellow druid out in my first playthrough. So yeah, finally, there's a positive male character. All you have to
be is a primitive backwoods ignoramus smeared in pig shit and you're
golden.
Captain Furrante (m) vs. Serafen (m) -
interestingly, their first showing is fairly neutral. Later on, Serafen
the tribal native becomes a principled, heroic survivor with a tragic
past while Furrante's refined Old World mannerisms doom him as a villain
to be deposed, but for now Serafen's just a trash-talking underling and
Furrante offers you a chance at revenge against the pirate who stranded
you on Maje Island. The difference only becomes apparent once Aeldys
(f) comes into play. Furrante is against her, therefore bad.
Next stop: Neketaka!
_____________________________________________
Series concluded here.
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