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I don’t have top surgery scars, but my character in The Veilguard does. My Rook is an elf, a Death Caller, a wielder of necromantic magic, and a Shadow Dragon pledged to end slavery in Tevinter. They are a dozen interesting things that have nothing to do with the scars on their chest, and their scars aren’t even what makes them trans. A person is more than their body, a truth that BioWare‘s new fantasy RPG understands and embraces. My Rook doesn’t look like me, but they’re perhaps the best I’ve ever been represented in a game.
Representation and Bigotry in The Veilguard
Bigots only feel included when others are excluded. To them, safe access to public space (let alone games and the other arts) is reserved for a privileged few. It’s why they wring their hands and gnash their teeth over Ellie’s sexuality in The Last of Us 2 and Yasuke’s mere existence in Assassin’s Creed. They may not have Pepe Silvia conspiracy corkboards (red strings connecting pictures of Aloy, Dustborn, and Sweet Baby Inc.), but they’re never far from that level of ignorance. They will, flat-out, never embrace those who they’ve been indoctrinated to hate. Catering to them isn’t just wrong; it’s pointless.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is just the most recent step in the march toward meaningful representation. Ask a Sims player about that community’s fight for more melanated skin tones and textured hairstyles. Edward Cullen and Killmonger can’t be our only reference points for diversity. Veilguard is far from the first game to include pronoun and gender selection during character creation, but it’s one of the first AAA games to take trans representation seriously. Though its companions aren’t perfect, they at least feel more representative. I know what seeing Taash would’ve meant to me as a kid. I’m glad other trans and non-binary kids get to have that.
The Personal Politics of One Elven Body
The Veilguard offers trans representation through important subplots, yet customization options like top surgery scars bear the brunt of bigots’ outrage. You can toggle these scars on and off. Putting them on adds a couple of lines to your character’s chest, and that’s it. That’s the whole thing. Also, people get mastectomies, breast implants, and related procedures for lots of reasons that have nothing to do with being trans. Cancer is a thing, and even cis people need gender-affirming care. Veilguard‘s cosmetic options are important, but the game never reduces its characters to hormones and scars.
You can change your character’s larynx, adjust their bulge and chest proportions, tweak their jawline, redistribute body fat, change their vocal pitch, and perform dozens of other customizations. It all helps achieve your desired look before you barrel into combat. Not every Dragon Age character is a self-insert, but it’s about time that more players who want to play as cooler, more magical versions of themselves can. Most of The Veilguard‘s customization options aren’t even new in gaming, but the ability to choose one’s pronouns and gender (combined with the very scary, leftist top scars) has bigots frothing like a dumpster full of rabid raccoons.
Diversity and Dragon Hunters
What The Veilguard doesn’t do is reduce trans people to their bodies. These changes don’t lock you into one path. You aren’t forced to be trans or anything else, just like you aren’t forced to play a Veil Ranger or bring Lucanis to Minrathous. Top surgery scars and other customizations are just one possible launch point for your story. This combo of character and social options also combats the erasure that trans masc, FtM, and non-binary people experience every day. Dragon Age wants you to know it sees you.
Starting with the scars and bulges lets us confront, bluntly, the tendency to oversimplify, fetishize, and Other trans bodies and experiences. Dragon Age: The Veilguard isn’t a perfect representation of what it’s like to be a trans person in Thedas or any other world. Still, by expanding customization options, adding a few subplots, and giving characters like Taash a seat at the table, The Veilguard acknowledges marginalized communities in a rare way. It’s something we expect in the indie scene but get little of from AAA devs. BioWare did the right thing. A lot of other devs can do better.
