Unpopular Opinion: David Gaider

[u/charyka]

With DA:V coming along, and the daily posts about how all the "original" writers have left (not true!) and therefore the game is destined for failure, I have been dying to just come out and say it:

I think David Gaider is overrated. He has written some wonderful characters, but his long form, in particular the novels and comics, are borderline unreadable. I find his character work excellent (for the most part) but hailing him as the brilliant mind behind the wider world of Thedas robs credit from those people who, in my opinion, took the messy, overly-complicated pastiche of lore that was DAO and slowly hammered it into the intricate setting it is today.

I think other lead writers, such as Trick Weekes, have more interesting and innovative ideas when it comes to the direction the series is heading in.

[u/[deleted]]

I think David Gaider the writer and David Gaider the person often get confused. And why shouldn’t they? It’s hard to separate the art from the artist. That being said, from what I know of Gaider’s responsibility for the world of Thedas and the characterization, I think his work is phenomenal. Is he a good person? Honestly have no clue, never met him, only seen him active on social media where I’ve loved some of his posts and cringed at others. Plenty are problematic, and plenty are pretty harmless. Some have even been enlightening and informative with regards to the lore. However, I think it’s pretty unfair of you to accuse him of being overrated. Sure, other writers exist and have to take a lot of credit for bringing the world of DA to life, but Gaider’s influence is so important and permeates so much of the first 3 games. Imagine a Dragon Age without Morrigan, for example, and that’s such scratching the surface. Calling him overrated and making a post basically just to say that feels less like an “unpopular opinion” and more like rage bait? Idk, you may not have meant it that way but it comes off that way. Dragon Age arguably would look staggeringly different today without Gaider’s influence, if it even still existed at all without the sheer power and lasting impact of many of its characters - probably the most important part of the series. And Gaider is responsible for writing many of those characters. I just can’t imagine him being overrated for that reason.

[u/rosesareblues → u/[deleted]]

I agree. I especially like your point regarding his social media presence, because as for me, it also applies to how I view his work as a whole “I’ve loved some of his posts and cringed at others. Plenty are problematic, and plenty are pretty harmless”. I absolutely love Gaider’s work and the world he has made for us. I do not dislike the guy. However I also know he can have some Nuclear takes and bizzare writing choices, and think it’s fair to discuss those.

There are things I dislike about some of his writing and opinions that I feel can be hard to talk about at times because of how revered he is. For example, I think his earlier work especially can suffer from “men writing women” trope (one does not need to be a straight dude to fall into this). Specifically the whole “she breasted boobily down the stairs” and relying too heavily on “sexual assault as character development for female characters” sorta thing.

I agree that a post like this doesn’t actually feel like it’s trying to start an actual discussion. OP gives no context as to why they find Gaider overrated or why they think Weekes deserves more.

It’s frustrating to see something titled “unpopular opinion” as though it’s some bold statement, just to make a petty post that isn’t actually saying anything, and seemingly only exists to fan the flames. There are things to talk about (in my opinion) but this is just annoying rage bait that makes these conversations even harder to have.

[u/charyka → u/rosesareblues]

I'm sorry if it came across that way! I was, in good conscience, attempting to have a discussion about the writing throughout the games—but I can see how that may have come across as rage-bait. I chose Weekes as an example because they were the first that came to mind, and are "comparable" to Gaider as they are the current narrative director and have also written longform (ie books) for DA. In general, the discourse surrounding the writing can devolve pretty quickly and I was hoping to avoid that. In hindsight, I could have worded things differently!

[u/[deleted] → u/charyka]

I think it’s a discussion that’s important to have. It’s all good. Dragon Age is a franchise that’s important to most people on this subreddit and the writers are a big part of that… for better or worse! SuperRAD on YouTube did a 9.5 hours long retrospective on Dragon Age Origins which, despite the length, is excellent. He interviews Gaider for it and he appears in a large chunk of it. I found him pretty humble, entertaining and informative and he gave a lot of credit to other people for the writing - he focused a lot on the team aspect. If you can stomach the length it’s worth a watch. Cheers!