Dragon Age: The Veilguard's Approach To Taash's Story Is Flawed, But Important

screenrant.com:

has been praised and condemned since its release for its portrayal of Taash, and while these complaints may have some merit, Taash and their story are essential to the progress of gaming as an industry. Representation is always a tough issue in games; everyone's journey with their identities are personal and unique, sotelling a story that's sensitive while also being realistic is a tall order.Unfortunately, misses the mark in a few ways, but thankfully knocks it out of the park in others.

When players first meet Taash, they use female pronouns, but through some self-reflection, they realize that they don't quite fit the label that was given to them at birth. This is a very real journey that people across the globe have gone through, but the way it was translated into leaves something to be desired. While the journey itself is unique to each person who experiences it, the way the story is written loses some of its potency due to some unfortunate details that are out of place.

One of the biggest pieces of Taash's story that sticks out as not-quite-right is the vocabulary that they use to describe their experiences. In the real world, questioning one's gender comes from a feeling of not fitting into the role and/or body, and this applies to Taash as well, butusing the term «nonbinary» to describe what they're feeling doesn't make sense for a few reasons.

Instead of taking into account the differences between real-world and Thedan society when coming up with a term for Taash to use to describe their gender experience and identity, the writers chose to use one from the modern world.

The primary reason this term is less likely to have developed in Thedas is that the gender binary is just not that strict, at least from what players can see. The distinction between man and woman in seems to be largely relegated to sex; with women in positions of power and well respected as leaders and individuals, the divide between genders is much closer than in the real world. This