generalripper: Some facts.
1: Not many civilizations ever tolerated open homosexuality, and even those that did (i.e. the greeks) saw it as something of a vice, never as a virtue or a 'lifestyle choice' equivalent to heterosexuality, and especially to heterosexual marriage. I offer no opinion here on whether they were right to consider it so; I merely note that they did in fact consider it so, whether anyone likes it or not.
2: Medieval European civilization definitely took a dim view of homosexuality. Again, whether they were right or not has nothing whatsoever to do with the historical fact. If it pleases you to think they were backwards and barbaric for not sharing our modern views, then by all means, think so. In fact, that even makes things better from an artistic standpoint, since...
3: Witcher 2 depicts a fictionalized society that's pretty obviously based on medieval Europe. Some similar fictionalizations - e.g. LOTR - start with a decidedly romanticized view of medieval Europe. Witcher 2 goes to the opposite extreme.
As such:
good openly gay characters are totally out of place in The Witcher's world. There aren't exactly many good people to begin with, quite including Geralt. If the common people of medieval Europe took a dim view of homosexuality, the grubby, mob-minded, pious-when-everyone-else-is-looking people of The Witcher's world are bound to be a great deal less tolerant of it (or anything else they consider out of the ordinary). And if a thing is broadly considered an especially disgusting deviancy, strongly discouraged by virtually everyone,
who is going to practice it more-or-less openly and keep their heads in spite of it except especially powerful and self-conscious deviants?
You people are ruining the stereotype of homosexuals as artistically sensitive, and strengthening the one of them as a sort of heresy-hunting Taliban of the counterculture. Yes, the one gay guy in Witcher 2 is a bad guy.
This is how the fictional world should be if it's to be thematically consistent. Quit demanding that good artists sacrifice the honesty of their art in order to promulgate messages you think people need to hear. The Witcher was never intended to be a pulpit for either side in the debate over homosexuality; quit demanding that it be made into one.
1. You don't get to tell me what to do.
2. I don't really care what stereotype you subscribe to concerning "we people" (as you call us), be it one where we are "artistically sensitive" or one where we are some sort of "heresy hunting Taliban". If you subscribe to any stereotype about gay people instead of judging homosexuals as human beings, on a person by person basis like any other human being you meet, then that is unfortunate, but its
your problem and
not ours. You won't succeed in trying to bully me into not expressing my own opinions.
3. The artists you speak of have NO problem putting lesbians in the game, like Margot, who wasn't entirely a villain herself and nowhere near the "monster/joltingly turned sissy wimp in chapter 3" that Dethmold was. Are depictions of lesbians "thematically consistent" with Medieval European civilization?
4. Who said anything about "openly gay" anyway? Why would the character have to be "openly gay" for Geralt to have found out about it?
5. Just because Medieval European civilization didn't tolerate gays didn't mean they were
all heterosexuals in those days.
6. I wish people would quit pointing out how there aren't many good people in the Witcher series to begin with. I really do. I am well aware of this, but as I have pointed out before and as many others have mentioned, some people had greater degrees of nobility than others.
7. CDProjektRED put the gay guy in there, I didn't. They didn't have to make that choice at all and everyone would have been fine carrying on with business as usual. They chose to put him in there, and now some of us would like to see some balance. Regardless of what your opinions about it may be. But don't panic. I doubt they ever will do that, so you can relax and be happy that your game world won't be tarnished by the presence of a gay guy who doesn't get his balls cut off and isn't completely wretched.
8. I recognize some of your "facts" as opinions rather than actual facts. Especially your line of logic that because medieval Europe was a certain way, the game HAS to be that way as well.
9. Not once have I made ANY "demands", so please do not accuse me of doing so. I am merely expressing the fact that I would certainly love for them to include some balance to this game.
10. We will keep expressing our opinions about decisions made by the dev team or "good artists", even if you do not grant us your permission to do so.
