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Edgy

2021-08-18T12:16:54Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:3061:414C:ECD:6219: /* In closing */

{{Topquote|As far as I can make out "edgy" occurs when middlebrow, middle-aged profiteers are looking to suck the energy--not to mention the spending money--out of the "youth culture." So they come up with this fake concept of "seeming to be dangerous when every move they make is the result of market research and a corporate master plan".|[[Daria 40k|Daria]], Episode [3.05] The Lost Girls.}}

{{Topquote|My name is Not Important; what is important is what I'm going to do. I just fucking hate this world, and the human worms feasting on its carcass. My whole life is just cold, bitter hatred, and I always wanted to die violently. This is the time of vengeance, and no life is worth saving, and I will put in the grave as many as I can. It's time for me to kill and it's time for me to die; my genocide crusade begins... here!|The player character of ''Hatred''}}

{{Topquote|Make it [[World of Darkness|dark]], make it [[Grimdark|grim]], make it [[ANGRY MARINES|tough]] but then, for the love of God, [[Comedy Marines|tell a joke]].|Joss Whedon giving a nice example on how to avoid being edgy even while creating a dark world}}

[[File:Marvel Edge.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Unabashed Edginess from the 1990s]]
'''Edginess''' refers to people pushing violent and controversial subject matter in their stories, especially when they're doing it to to try and be popular with tragic, violent or controversial stories. This often takes the form of senselessly driving a vague argument, a plotline or a scenario to its darkest possible outcome, all the while openly expressing their disdain for whoever "the establishment" is, rationalizing villains or finding a middle ground in discourses. Like most internet terminology, it has been beaten to death, resurrected hastily, and then beaten some more. Has no relation to ''[[Hunter: The Reckoning]]''.

Another far less negative use of the term is to describe something on the 'edge' of what's acceptable, pushing established boundaries of convention. For example, by this definition ''Batman: The Animated Series'' was edgy for making an animated series which defied expectations of how true to its base concept and generally well-written a show designed to sell toys could be. Some more examples of this would be Ren and Stimpy (which was crude and vulgar) or Invader Zim (which could get dark in subject matter, and used a fair bit of black humor); in both cases, a decent bit of the comedy was of the "I can't believe that they did ''THAT'' on a kid's cartoon show!" variety. A milder version of this was Sonic the Hedgehog in contrast to Mario. In 1989 the Simpsons was the Edgy take on the classic family sitcom archetype and in 1999 Family Guy had slotted itself in as the Edgy version of The Simpsons. For the 1990s and early 2000s Edgy was a favored term of cynical marketing types which drew the attention of the world's sarcastic snarkers and contrarians, many of which came to congregate on sites such as 4chan.

An "edgelord" is someone who essentially is guilty of serial attempts to be edgy, like [[that guy]] at your tabletop role playing group who always, without fail, makes a specific type of self insert or wish fulfillment character; brooding, antisocial, militant types with problems with authority and a troubled past - all without the nuance or skill to actually pull it off (with their opponents often being stand-ins for whoever the edgelord considers "The Man™" or representing "the establishment™", usually big business, law enforcement or organized religion). The end result is they makes themselves look silly.

"Art" done by edgelords contain characters who are as dark, brooding and as painfully unhappy as possible, conflicts have zero compromise, institutions are the villains unless the edgelord made them and any conflict of interest will have the worst possible outcome. In writing, edgelords will go out of their way to make the story extra depressing, and subject multiple aspects of it to an increased shock factor when it's clearly '''illogical''' to do so. Needless to say, it can drive a perfect idea to make an entertaining story into the shitter, grating the nerves of even the most jaded audience. When commenting, the "edgelord" will simply push any predicament in the artwork to the darkest, deepest, worst outcome, while describing his fantasies. For example: In an adult and/or bondage predicament picture, edgelords can be found describing a paragraph of horrible fate the captive would suffer, *should* suffer because slaves are shit, and *deserve* abuse, even when the picture was of a predicament with nothing in context. Or he will simply fill the comment of any NSFW picture with his own sick fantasies, surely adding "women DESERVE it".

This is not to say that said dark elements like murder, slavery, extremism and rape are bad for literature, but rather that their sloppy execution with no regard to their depth is. As shown above, even the most "edgelord" of concepts can be salvaged and even made bearable with proper handling, especially going by the latter definition - but if you do it enough, the boundaries shift and what was edgy becomes the new norm, and there is always the risk of falling ''over'' the edge. This is why the old definition has fallen increasingly out of favor as time has gone on — people began seeing the dross sold under the title of "edgy", and the idea of what it meant thus moved away from the positive connotations marketing execs desired and closer to the qualities described above. Plus, this is the internet, and people would rather a word just be an insult or a compliment to reduce confusion.

==The Anatomy of Edginess==
Edginess is in some ways like a cargo cult. During WWII in the Pacific, the US military set up bases on remote, but inhabited islands, bringing with them a lot of stuff like planes and cars and so forth that was quite amazing to the stone age natives, to whom the world had been a few dozen square kilometers of land surrounded by ocean, with hazy stories of other such islands. When the military left, some of the natives took to making coconut and wooden radios and flight towers based off of some vague recollection of the military variants, unaware that making the shape alone does not get you the functional item.

[[File:Pizza-slicer.jpg|200px|thumb|right|The ultimate apotheosis of an edgelord: All edge, no point.]]
In that vein, most of what comes to mind when people envision "edgy" artworks tends to be the result of people who wanted to make ''morally grey'' characters and subject matter, but lack the maturity/experience/focus necessary to NOT end up with anything other than a multiple-personality-disordered mess or a power fantasy wrapped in propaganda. Someone with (at best) mediocre creative abilities sees some fiction that makes good use of melodrama, gritty settings, dark humor and such, made by people who know what the hell they're doing and figures "I can do that!", leading to said person haphazardly applying those elements incorrectly. The results of such efforts are either tiresome, unintentionally funny or just painful. The stereotypical teenager, especially one with gothic/emo tendencies or problems with authority, commonly embody this - all too eager for "adult" things (eg: violence, sex, etc.) in their limited perception of such, often born of denial. Individuals who pander to said demographic (or are otherwise just downright hacks) will favor this approach over any sense of complexity, subtlety, nuance and some actual understanding of the human condition.

===Edgy and [[Grimdark]]===
While edginess is frequently associated with invoking grimdark [[Derp|for the sake of it and nothing else]], it's important to remember that this alone does not edgy make. As an example, [[WH40K]]'s [[Imperium of Man]] has reasons to be fair and kind when capable: though it has plenty of genocide, xenocide (completely annihilating species even when they are gentle and kind), torture, forced labor (they draw the line at commercialized chattel slavery, but un-unionized indentured servitude is fair game), witch hunts and militarism that would give Hitler a chubby beyond the grave, said horrors have reasonable justifications. Aliens were buying and selling humans like pets and culling them by the billion, operating slaver outposts even in our solar system before the Emperor came into leading humanity into a roaring rampage of revenge. And regarding souls and the universe after the Heresy, any deviation from faith in the Emperor will ''literally'' send a human to hell upon death, with their soul becoming dæmon food (and/or sex toys).

Any mistreated machinery will attract foul entities and corruption that will fuck you up seven ways till Monday and chew you out; any ill-coaxed [[Machine Spirit]] will jam and blow up in your face; and any laxity will make [[Chaos]] cults pop up by the billion in a week. Then there's [[Necrons|the genocidal robots from another age]], [[Eldar|space elves that would murder a planet on the off chance that their]] [[Farseer]] would break a nail otherwise (and they're still the nice space elves despite that, as their [[Dark Eldar|webway dwelling cousins are even worse - murdering entire planets just because they like the sound of millions of people screaming]]), [[Orks|the ambulatory (AND belligerent) fungi that plague the entire galaxy in a series of wars]], and [[Tyranids|extragalactic horrors that intend to eat everyone's face.]] [[TL;DR]] The Imperium acts like an asshole Hitler/Hirohito bastard child because the alternative is much, MUCH worse.

At the level of narrative, the fact that things are very very bad is a core thematic element of this world. As pointed out there are reasons why things are so miserable in this world which flow logically and despite this there can be points of contrast. Imperials still have the same potential to love and be kind like modern real world humans do. The Tau are hopeful despite the evils of this world. Occasionally pragmatism can overcome the deep seeded prejudices to overcome greater evils, if only for a while. And even if it is preformed by Conscript Guardsmen, Commissars or Space Marines, each the product of horrendous military institutions, can fight to achieve acts of genuine (if still typically brutal) heroism.

Now if you want a senselessly edgy story in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, an example would be the now non-canon [[Khornate Knights]].

===Who's An Edgelord?===
<small>Who's a cute little Edgelord? Yes, you, you adorable little mass-murderer, you!</small>

"Edgelord" gets applied to two groups: '''Authors''' fixated on making edgy material, and the '''Edgy characters''' they write. While most of this article assumes the latter definition (as we at least try to avoid authorial mind-reading), it's quite possible for an Edgelord author to create an edgy work without an Edgelord character<ref>How? Well, just to start with, picture a modern retelling of The Little Match Girl (the one where the title character freezes to death on the street--looking back on it, Hans Christian Anderson was Edgelord as fuck).</ref>, and a non-Edgelord author to create an Edgelord character (either unintentionally, satirically, or de-constructively).

===Edgy Villains===

There's an important argument to be made about villains and edginess. Frequently, it's necessary to engage in authorial behavior that would be considered edgy in order to properly develop a bad guy. There are a few important questions to ask in this case, the largest ones being "is this a [[Mary Sue|Villain Sue]] situation, and if so, what kind of Villain Sue are we dealing with?"<ref>For an example of a non-Edgelord Villain Sue, there are plenty of Villain Sues who the author clearly hates, but can't bring themselves to kill off for reasons of marketability. It's usually only when the Doylist definition of Mary Sue comes into play, where the Author sees themselves as the villain and has more sympathy for them than the protagonist, that Edgelordery starts to set in.</ref> and "are the author's sympathies clearly with the villain's agenda?"<ref>Not with the villain himself; plenty of villains clearly have the author's sympathy (what [[TVTropes]] might call a "Villain Woobie" or "Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds"); what matters here is does the author believe what the villain believes. That may sound odd, but many cases of "The Bad Guy Was Right" involve characters created by another author, or are (usually bad) parody of such.</ref>

===Edgelords and [[Mary Sue]]s===

A lot of edgy characters also qualify as [[Mary Sue]]s. This is because many writers who aim for "edgy" in their works are terrible at writing, and writing a [[Mary Sue]] is a common result of terrible writing. Another reason is the "Power Fantasy" route, where the author uses their work and the character in question to attack something or someone from real-life that they oppose. There are a few important questions to ask in this case, the largest ones being "is this a Jerk Sue situation?", "do the villains represent a work the author hates?" and "do the villains represent a real person or thing the author is against?"

Be on the look out for plot armor, protagonists who not only share their author's values but are not challenged on these views in any way, and the other major Sue factors covered in our [[Mary Sue]] article.

==="Right Target, Wrong Method" Characters===

One important partial exception: Sometimes authors include a character that can be considered "Edgy" in theory... but in practice, it's clear the author isn't rooting for them, because they take things '''way''' too far. We're talking "Utopia Justifies the Means, No Matter How Horrific" and "Death Penalty for Jaywalking"-type characters here. While they can degrade into regular Edgelords quite easily, as long as it's clear that either the author's sympathies are not with them, and/or the story spends a lot of time on the collateral damage they inflict, they can be considered not wish-fulfillment enough to count as Edgelords... although note that such characters, particularly if allowed to be a protagonist or in the hands of more than one author, tend to degrade into Edgelordery for subtly obvious reasons.

===Sidenote: Chunni===

In some Weeb circles, an "Edgelord" is called "Chuuni", short for "Chuunibyou". This delightful Japanese word combines the concepts of "Sophomoric" ("Chuunibyou" literally translated means "Middle [School] 2[nd Year] Syndrome") and "Edgelord", with an optional side note of "I have supernatural powers". Importantly, the "Stupid and Lame" part is baked right into the word, while "Edgelord" is usually only ''implies'' stupidity.

===In closing===
{{Topquote|So maybe ordinary people ''don't'' always crack. Maybe there ''isn't'' any need to crawl under a ''rock'' with all the ''other'' slimy things when trouble hits... maybe it was just ''you'', all the time|Batman, The Killing Joke}}

There are many paths to success for a storyteller, some of which include going over dark territory in various ways or by innovating and pushing boundaries. However, all of them require care and attention to detail to pull off well. Being dark or pushing boundaries is not profound in and of itself. A lack of dark content doesn't equal lack of profoundness (eg; some of Aesop's Fables). Shock value and subverting expectations doesn't automatically equal good storytelling. Finally, using these things as an outlet for personal views/grievances is the writing equivalent of walking through a minefield.

==How Can I Tell If My Character Is An Edgelord?==

Every edgelord has at least four qualities; skilled at violence, moody, has easy access to weapons and are aggressively contrarian. While alone or even together these traits don't make an edgelord, each "Yes" answer from the list below gives your character a piece of edgelorddom:

* Are they either a power fantasy against or deliberately written to offend "The Man™" or "the establishment™"? (NOTE: With one exception below, and even if not targeting "the establishment™"/targeting enemies of theirs such as criminals, '''a "yes" answer here automatically grants the character edgelord status.''')
** Bonus points if the writer goes after ''the usual targets''; [[Capitalism|big business]], organized [[religion]], the education system or law enforcement. Double bonus points if they're a real-life example from the above, triple bonus points if they've already been frequently targeted in media (eg; oil companies, the Catholic Church, strict schoolteachers or the police) and quadruple bonus points if its a mix (such as Catholic boarding schools).
** The one exception are characters who '''start out''' as merely mildly edgy (particularly antagonists of the "right target, wrong methods" variety), and only graduate to full edgelord status if other writers are allowed access to them or the current writer gets carried away.
* Do they openly mock altruistic traits (like hope and love)? Compromise? faith or the Powers-That-Be? Bonus points if they do so without suffering negative consequences for it.
* Do they have a backstory dominated by abuse they suffered (often trotted out as an excuse for their violent contrarianism)?
* Are forgiveness and redemption things the character disregards, if not actively despises?
** Partial credit if they're seeking redemption... but only changing their targets instead of their approach or methods.
* Do they not care if they live or die? Or do they want to die?
* Do they have problems with authority? As in a negative attitude towards anyone else having authority over them.
* Are they heavily scarred individuals? (physical, emotional, whatever...)
* Do they regularly quote-mine philosophers or works of fiction and spout these quotes to validate their worldview?
* Do they share any of the same beliefs as the work's creator and openly express them? (for example, the protagonists of stories by [[Ayn Rand]] or [[Jack Chick]]). Bonus points if they're nihilistic. <ref>This item is more a [[Mary Sue]] trope, but there is significant overlap between edgelords and Mary Sues.</ref>
** Are these views never challenged or refuted in the story? Or are the challengers clearly strawmen, including tarring the entire group with the same brush as an extremist minority?
** The [[Star Trek]] Captain Exception: If said belief is cleanly confined to one speech towards the end of the story/episode, and the author seems to be legitimately trying to just sum up and state the message of the story, it usually doesn't count. (Normally not an issue for edgelords, but it has happened occasionally.)
* Do they always wear sinister-looking attire? Bonus points if the outfit;
** Includes a cloak or a long trenchcoat (think Neo's from the Matrix films).
** Has [[Chaos|built-in blades or spikes]]
** Includes a fedora
*** Any other excessively Cool Hat counts for half-credit--and yes, this does include Judge Dredd's Helmet.
** Is covered in insults, profanities, curses or threats
** Has tailored-on violent, anarchic or sacrilegious imagery
** Incorporates or is made of others' body parts
** Is alive (especially if it's a monster in clothing form or possessed)
* Do they wear warpaint?
* Do they have body modification, ranging from minor such as tattoos to extreme examples such as horns or wings? Bonus points if the modifications can be weaponized.
* Do they swear like a drunk pirate?
* Do they have an "adult" vice such as drinking or smoking (fantastical ones count). Bonus points if its an addiction.
* Do they have plot armor? (such as the Punisher being able to go toe-to-toe against superpowered beings who’d mop the floor with him otherwise)
* Are they a protagonist or antagonist written by [[Gav Thorpe]], Garth Ennis, Mark Millar, [[A Song of Ice and Fire|George RR Martin]], Garth Ennis or Alan Moore? Honorable mention: [[Judge Dredd|Pat Mills]] (Note, an edgelord can be written by someone who's none of these people. And Moore and Martin, at least, are capable of writing protagonists and antagonists who aren't Edgelords despite lots of their characters being unnecessarily edgy.)

==Notable Edgelords==

===Comics===
* The Punisher (pictured above), depending on the writer but especially when it's Garth Ennis. The ultimate example being Ennis' professionally published Hate Fic [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punisher_Kills_the_Marvel_Universe "Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe"].
* Billy Butcher from "The Boys", a comic series written by the edgelord Punisher author named above using [[Original character, do not steal|knock-offs of Marvel and DC supers]] in an anti-superhero genre power fantasy. Billy himself leads the titular group, and is a racist Punisher knock-off and author mouthpiece.
* The Joker, depending on the writer.
** Batman can be made into an edgelord in a edgy writer's hands (for example, Frank Miller's "All Star Batman And Robin"), although more rarely than you might think, since his usual respect for Police Commissioner Gordon and his "no kill" code usually heads off most of the worst edgelord tendencies.
* Lord Edgelord, later Lord Edgegod from Slackwyrm Keep. He's aware, and <s>he's loving it</s><span style='color:red;font-size:100%'>***CLANG!*** There's no love in edge, only chaos!</span>
* Adversary from DC comics (pictured below), as a jab at edgelord characters and perhaps also their fans. In addition to meeting most of the criteria above, he works for a demon named Lord Satanus who gave him his powers and is actually a kid in a wheelchair.

===Film===
* Jared Leto's Joker in "Suicide Squad (2016)".
** Compare this to Heath Ledger's Joker in ''The Dark Knight'' and Joqauin Phoenix's Joker in ''Joker''. Ledger's and Phoenix's portrayals were "edge with a point"; the former was about exploring human evils regarding terrorism and the latter was about exploring the origins of evil (both avoiding ideological baggage).
* Tyler Durden from "Fight Club". While he started out as "edge with a point" trying to give men catharsis from, and criticizing, the growing cultural and familial vacuum of the 90's, later in the film he descended into being a full-blown edgelord.
* [[Star Wars|Kylo Ren]] AKA Krylo Ben AKA Ben Swolo. The writers were doing it on purpose, to play up the First Order's dogmatic North Korea in space schtick, and to that end made Kylo an incredibly unsubtle Darth Vader pastiche. While "Kylo" may be the worst Skywalker ever, there is no denying that the edge is strong in his family. His mom's side are a bunch of crybaby desert backworlders with an incestuous sex drive and his dad was a scruffy, nerf herding spice smuggler - and all were war criminals, some with body counts in the hundred thousands and some with children's blood on their hands... He probably fits the mold better than we'd like to admit. Also his edge is undermined by fact that he never won a fight against [[Mary_Sue|Mar-Rey Sue Palpatine]] which doesn’t help things either.
* Peter and Paul from "Funny Games". Another "cool psycho gang that tortures, kills and dismembers a family" sort of director's wank which ups to eleven: when the woman in desperation manages to kill one, the other literally turns back time, and kills her child and husband, THEN tortures, gags, takes her for a boat ride and drowns her for fun, go to the next house and wink at the camera while acting happy and nonchalant, to start the cycle a new. Director Haneke has stated that the film is a reflection and criticism of violence used in media and definitely not getting his rocks off torturing a whitebread white woman with a family and gagging, killing, and raping her. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight (then again this is a tame letdown compared to what a hardcore gorehound would watch, with cinematography purposely ruining any payoff. Very messed while also giving a middle finger to [[Slannesh]] Worshipers as no rape occurs in the film). Oh, and he enjoyed it so much he remade HIS OWN MOVIE; after the original 1997 German language version he made a 2008 English version.
* "The Strangers" from the 2008 The Strangers movie. Literally a bunch of home invaders invade a couple's home, beat, torture and kill the husband, unmask themselves to the wife, act all chill and cute, act cool to a bible tract distributing kid and talk about "it will be easier next time". They are never found, never bested, and simply put, get away with everything in a "cool teenager" attitude.

===Live Action TV===
* Stargate's Sohkar- It's hard to get more edgelord than literally masquerading/cosplaying as Satan.

===Video Games===
* [[/v/|Shadow the Hedgehog]] for the PS2/XBox/Gamecube. For the unfamiliar: An edgy game about a radical edgelordy cartoon hedgehog shooting enemies, yet ESRB rated for Everyone 10 and up.
** The villain Infinite from ''Sonic Forces'', as a parody of edgy Villain Sue characters.
* Several characters from World of Warcraft, prime individuals being Deathwing, Sylvanas, Sargeras and Illidan Stormrage (pictured below). There's also edgy groups including the Forsaken, Death Knights and Demon Hunters (Illidan even founded the latter).
** Special mention goes to pre-retcon Sargeras. Originally, Sargeras was so traumatized by the evil of the demons he fought... [[Stupid Evil|he became convinced that good was futile and conscripted those same demons into an army to destroy the cosmos]]).
* Reaper from Overwatch. For whatever reason he cannot die, as he constantly regenerates his tissues (with an advanced necrosis, so he's basically sort of sci-fi undead). Of course, he blames his former friends from Overwatch (like he never considered it COULD be some side effect from supersoldier genetic modifications he'd received before forming of the Overwatch, even moreso when the shady scientist who modified him also joined Talon) for his sorry condition, so he became fixated on revenge and killing. Also, he was super jealous for his best friend, who was getting all the praise, while he was getting his hands dirty.
* Caesar's Legion and Caesar himself in [[Fallout|Fallout: New Vegas]] (along with some of their fans and the writer who created them).
* Not Important aka The Antagonist aka The Crusader from Hatred. Imagine every trope related to nihilistic spree shooters, push them to their uncomfortable extremes and then plop the result in a monochromatic mess of a game. What you get is the story about a very unlikable man with dialogue written by less likeable people (including an edgy as fuck death metal band) going around and killing everyone because...fuck you, it's edgy.

===Literature===
* [[Elric]] of Melnibone, arguably the first one.
* Euron Greyjoy, Littlefinger, and Ramsay Bolton from [[A Song of Ice and Fire]].
* Hamlet (yes, THAT Hamlet), possibly an example predating Elric. After his father dies dies, he wears black, becomes foreboding, dramatic and revenge obsessed for at least 6 months, monologues with skulls and murders his friends including the harmless father of his girlfriend (though to be fair he thought he was stabbing the man who he suspected killed his father).

===Tabletop Games===
* [[Blackguard]]s
* Vlaakith, the Queen of the [[Githyanki]]. On top of being a callous, violent, paranoid tyrannical lich, she hates systems of authority but wants to be goddess of her people [[What|despite hating religion most of all]]. She values strength... but kills people who ''might'' become powerful enough to challenge her; textbook edgelord.
* [[Lolth]] from Dungeons and Dragons. Started with trying to overthrow her divine husband because she didn't like her job and it all went downhill from there. For more information, look at the [[Drow]] and remember they're like that because her laws require it.
* Warhammer settings have too many to list them all;
** 40k is the worst offender, with groups such as the [[Black Templars]], the [[Marines Malevolent]] and most [[Chaos Space Marine|traitor marines]].
*** In particular, there's [[Konrad Curze]]...
*** ...[[Fabius Bile]]...
*** ...and the [[Dark Eldar]], each to such a degree they each deserve a separate bullet point all to themselves.
** For Warhammer Fantasy there's [[Valnir the Reaper]], [[Nagash]] and most [[Dark Elves]]. (None of whom are quite so ''needlessly'' edgy as to deserve their own separate bullet points, unlike the 40k Edgelords above.<ref>Nagash might come close, but is presented as more "he's just an asshole", compared to the "he might have a point" presentation of Bile or full Tragic Backstory of Curze. A similar point can be made about the Dark Elves (just assholes) compared to the Dark Eldar (who need to feed Slaanesh because if they don't s/he eats them).</ref>)
** On that note, [[Malal]] among the other [[Chaos Gods|Ruinous Powers]].

===Fan Works===
* [[Drizzt]] clones with extreme Alignment leanings, either towards good or evil.
* Various [[Original character, do not steal|fan-made]] and canon Sonic characters, particularly Shadow.
* The protagonist of "Ambience: A Fleet Symphony" and the story itself. A Fallout KanColle crossover fanfic that thinks it's a regular KanColle fanfic. It revolves around rape, killing, eugenics and an violent solipsistic protagonist with enough plot armor to make Ciaphas Cain look like a [[Star Trek|redshirt]] one day away from retirement. When the story was posted to a forum and scorned, the writer went ballistic against their critics.
* The whole "*teleports behind you* Nothing personal kid. *stabs you*" [[meme]] originated as a parody of edgelord characters.

===Anime===
* Half of the [[Animu]] protagonists in existence. Bonus points if the genre is [[Isekai]], triple points if there's a harem involved.
* As a general trend: Vegeta, of Dragonball Z started a long term trend in Shonen anime and manga for "edgy badboy antagonistic rival" (who usually either starts out or winds up as a full-on (anti)villain) characters who are frequently more popular than the milktoast main character, especially in fanfiction. Examples include Sasuke Uchiha of Naruto, Bakugo from My Hero Academia, and, going further afield, Riku from Kingdom Hearts (/v/, rather than /a/, if a very /a/ shaded /v/), and Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender (a Western example modeled on the type). Note that not all of them qualify for full "Edgelord", as many of them are merely ''mildly'' edgy, but it's a frequent enough vein of Edgelords that we need to mention it here. Particular mention should be made of...
** Bakugo from My Hero Academia, who probably counts as a deconstruction/parody of one. What else do you say about somebody who chooses the codename "King of Explodo-Kills" and later "Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight" while training to be a super'''hero'''?

===Notable NOT Edgelords===

* '''Cad Bane''' (Star Wars The Clone Wars): Bounty hunter who once killed a guy in front of their brother just to get his fedora back (''"What are you lookin at? It's a nice hat."''). Not an edgelord because he's perfectly happy to work for the establishment as long as the establishment is the highest bidder.

* '''Bronn/Ser Bronn of the Blackwater''' (A Song of Ice and Fire): Mercenary who would kill a baby for the right price. Not an edgelord because he'll also work for the establishment and his SOLE focus in life is looking out for number one; there's no price that's worth dyin for.

[[Category:Gamer Slang]]

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Lord_of_the_edge_by_takfloyd-d99sq48.png|The edgelord mindset in a nutshell.
File:1699592-elric_of_melnibone_by_isra2007.jpg|If any fictional edgelord could be called well-written, it'd be Elric.
File:Adversary_01.jpg|"Adversary" from DC Comics. Sinister clothes, aggressive name, smoking, swearing, trying to kill Superman for "rep"...
File:Tyler-durden-7.jpg|The face that launched a thousand edgelords (ironically doesn't wear dark clothes).
File:Darion Mograine.jpg|There's a small but distinct line between edgy...
File:531939-vertical-blizzard-wallpapers-2560x1440.jpg|... and edgelord.
</gallery>

Bioware

2021-08-18T06:34:14Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:3061:414C:ECD:6219: /* Mass Effect 4 */

{{/vg/}}
[[Image:Orig 320200 1 1257581825.png|750px|center|thumb|Remember, class, templates are the beginning of truth, not the end of it. (In other words, take it to the Discussion tab, James!)]]

A major computer game studio primarily driven by two lead designers; their names are Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V.

One of the most popular RPG game makers of modern day, making titles such as Baldur's Gate , Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age. At one point they were working on making a [[Warhammer Fantasy]] MMORPG. Have been brought under the heel of EA Games, resulting in a mass exodus of staff and new staff were brought in to fill the gap, but for now there's still life left in them.

They're currently working on games like Dragon Age 4 and weighing up the future of the Mass Effect franchise.

The company is possibly full of xenophiles, going by Star Wars: the Old Republic and Mass Effect, and family is a recurring theme in their works (especially daddy issues).

==The Rise of Bioware==
Founded by three Canadian doctors in the 90s, Bioware didn't start out publishing RPGs. In fact, it ''started'' doing medical software, before the founders decided to act on their mutual passion for games. Their first game was a [[MechWarrior]]-style simulator game, with the serial numbers filed off. But the founders were all fans of tabletop RPGs, and their second game began life as an independent RPG, but publisher Interplay saw potential in it for hosting their next D&D game, and it became [[Baldur's Gate]], Baldur's Gate became history, and Bioware became renowned as the savior and shining new light for the CRPG.

==Bioware Games==

===Shattered Steel===
A MechWarrior 2 knockoff with less customizability and weirder enemies. No one, not even diehard Bioware fans and video game history nerds, cares about it, so moving on.

===[[Baldur's Gate]]===
The game, the legend, the start of it all. The title that single-handedly saved the CRPG genre from its gloomy slide into irrelevance and [[Blizzard|Diablo-clones]] with smart writing, clever dungeon design, and attempts to actually let the player role-play instead of just throwing in tons of mindless hack-n-slash. Uses a cutdown version of [[AD&D|Second Edition AD&D]] rules, and is generally regarded as one of the best things about the [[Forgotten Realms]] setting. A recent "Enhanced Edition" remake brought it more in line with the sequel, graphics and gameplay-wise, and is well worth a look for the curious.

===MDK2===
This, this is an outlier to everything Bioware was making at the time, considering they were focused on making RPG's with a tight connection to their tabletop counterparts and this is a Run 'n' Gun Third Person Action Adventure Shoot 'em Up. They didn't even make the first MDK, that was Shiny Entertainment (who were also responsible for the Earthworm Jim games).

It is surprisingly good, though it's a bit contested whether it stands up compared to its predecessor. In either way, it sold quite well.

===Baldur's Gate II===
The second game, the even more legendary legend. From dating your adventuring co-workers to taking the piss out of the situation in dialogue, if you love Bioware's stuff it probably has its origin here. Also a pretty badass follow-up/finish to the saga of the first game, and using a fuller set of the game's rules. Don't play it first, you'll fucking ''ruin'' the original for yourself. Recently got an "Enhanced Edition" too, following in the footsteps of the first.
====Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear====
Brand new expansion from the developers of the Enhanced Edition, complete with the ''entire'' cast from the original 20-odd years later. Composed entirely of skub; see the main article for details.

===Neverwinter Nights===
On the one hand, the story and characters are generally regarded as forgettable at best. On the other hand, a pretty good recreation of [[Dungeons & Dragons|3rd Edition]] rules in video game form, and enough fan-made modules and content to make that last complaint rather moot. If you want to try the official stuff, read a summary of the core game and play the "expansion" stories instead (''Shadows of Undrentide'' and ''Hordes of the Underdark''), which start from level one, tell a continuous story, and have Deekin, who is one of the best things about the game.

===Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic===
One of the first [[Star Wars]] RPGs ever made, KOTOR received widespread praise and acclaim for its complex story and well-written characters, including one of the most famous twists in gaming history. Gameplay-wise, a mostly-fun conversion of [[Dungeons & Dragons]] rules into the Star Wars universe. Faggots will complain about "binary moral choice" systems because that's the trendy thing to do right now, but it broke ground at the time for actually ''incentivizing'' roleplaying and staying in character in a way few other games had before. Sure, the villain's a bit lame, the finale is just an endless swordfight against armies of piss-easy droids, the level cap's way too low considering the levels you can accidentally essentially waste before you can become a jedi, but on the other hand, ''holy shit I can slice through an army with a lightsaber''. To this day, often held up as one of the best things about the Star Wars brand as a whole.

BioWare isn't responsible for the sequel, which was lucky for them because the other guys had like four days so they didn't finish it, and [[fail|sold it anyway]]. But we'll get to that further on.

===Jade Empire===
Kung-fu ''[[wuxia]]'' action brawler glued to a pretty sweet story with ''another'' great video game twist that plays with the "formula" mentioned above more than the chart would suggest. Bioware's first original role-playing setting was something of a sleeper, not selling in great numbers compared to previous efforts, due in part to cutbacks and restraints, but in the present day is well-regarded by most players. If you haven't tried it, give it a whirl. If nothing else, it's a rare RPG that lets you [[Fist of the North Star|punch someone's pressure points until they explode in a shower of gibs]].

===Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood===
...Yeah, it happened. Story's okay, the character writing is a highlight, and the gameplay mechanics are at the very least quite creative, but the soundtrack is a goddamn ''abomination'', balance is a distant dream on both sides of the screen, and there's just not enough content to justify its existence. Better than the average 3rd party ''Sonic'' title, but... well, that's not exactly a high bar to clear. And the plot ends on a blatant sequel hook that will never amount to anything.

Behind-the-scenes development drama is the chief culprit: Bioware started out on the title as a bit of a passion project for one of the founders, but after working with Sega turned out to be a pain, Ken Penders kicked up a lawsuit against both SEGA & EA, and ''Dragon Age'' started looming on the horizon, they ultimately rushed the whole thing out under the door partway through to fulfil their contract and breezed away, never looking back.

===Mass Effect===
A cosmic horror story-space opera with much potential; handled properly from start to finish, it could have been to video games what Star Wars is to movies and Star Trek is to television. Despite being a flagship franchise of Bioware, the series ended up being a microcosm of the company's gradual rise and fall.

The core trilogy was released between 2007 and 2012 for Xbox 360, PC and PS3 (Mass Effect 1 was originally an Xbox console exclusive and came to PS3 in a digital release in 2011 to conincide with Mass Effect 2's own PS3 port), with a re-release called Legendary Edition coming out in 2021 for PS4, PC and Xbox One.

====Mass Effect 1====
The first game in the series was excellent, with top-notch characters, setting and story. The player character is Commander [insert custom name here] Shepard who can be customized to hell and back. Humanity is new to the scene and wants more of a say in the galactic community; [[Skub|some aliens support this, others think humanity is too greedy/selfish/domineering/impatient/etc]]. Shepard is undergoing assessment for joining a group of galactic peacekeepers called the Spectres, when a race of robots attacks, prompting a galaxy-wide adventure where the player gets to experience a whole new sci-fi setting, fight aliens, slavers and monsters and bang someone on your loveboat, the Normandy. There is MUCH more to the situation than meets the eye (the mission where we see the entire story shift from an action Space Opera to a [[Yog-Sothothery|Cosmic Horror Story]] is EXCELLENTLY DONE).

For 2007, it's pretty gosh darn good; visually it's a bit rough nowadays, and the gameplay is not what you'd call polished, but it's good fun still. A good bunch of the biotic powers can be wildly powerful and do really weird but cool things and there's a lot of powers available to most classes. It's often lauded as the most RPG-like of the Mass Effects, though it doesn't have too much in the way of choice - it's more of a "gain points to get more powerful" than a "customize your playstyle"-kind of RPG. Roleplaying-wise the game is a little weird at times, but very lovable - many characters do the "telling-you-what-you-already-would-know" thing a lot, but since it was the first introduction to the setting, it's justified. The characters are well-established, but arguably doesn't really become great until the next two games.

Many side-missions were a bit barebones. It also got two DLCs. The first one "Bring Down The Sky" was free, coming with a major bug-patch; and was fine, introducing the Batarian villain race. The second one "Pinnacle Station" was not free and was terrible.

BUT, for the time, this overall game is awesome, and introduced the world to the wonderful Mass Effect setting. The remaster added nicer graphics, more character customization, more lighting (cue lens flare memes) and shorter elevator rides, and it comes with BDtS. Although it didn't include Pinnacle Station, which was just as well; and it made Mirandabros all buttmad that the camera wasn't focused on her (admittedly top tier) booty so much.

Also famous for the nearly-indestructible-flying-almost-impossible-to-control-never-run-out-of-ammo-but-only-hits-shit-15%-of-the-time-and-then-gives-you-no-XP armored exploration vehicle of absolute, undiluted [[awesome]], the MAKO.

====Mass Effect 2====
Mass Effect 2 was a great game, arguably the best of the series (according to fans and critics alike). The game is more focused in scope and less open-world like, with tighter if-a-little-rudementary combat and more emphasis on the characters in your team than the entire world. ME2 is a bit more cinematic in comparison to 1 and spends more time presenting the setting to the player. Also notable for being fucking ''huge'' for the time, being released on TWO DISCS, which was becoming rare even for the time.

There was quite a change of scope of the story: Shepard must assemble an elite team of the galaxy's best mercenaries, criminals, and specialists to stop a race of aliens called the Collectors abducting entire humans colonies. You're forced to work with an extremist organization from the first game, who are financing your mission and are certainly not planning to betray you when you're no longer useful. "Main" missions take a backseat to recruitment and "loyalty" missions were you acquire and secure the loyalty of your team-mates, respectively. There's even some series-essential lore and plot-changing decisions locked away in specific recruitment and loyalty missions (in particular, Mordin's and Tali's missions are absolutely vital regarding the anti-krogan Genophage bioweapon and the geth/quarian conflict. Tali's also set a plot arc for a galaxy-wide threat that could upstage even the Reapers... [[Fail|that got retconned out in the third game]]).

This makes for a character-focused story that goes at the player's own pace and takes you to previously unseen, seedy parts of the galaxy. Your enemies are more often than not mercenary organizations than evil robots this time, and you tangle with the criminal underworld just as much as you do the Collector threat.

Combat and RPG mechanics took quite a swerve; now there is more focus on straight shooting-and-cover-camping than powers. While somewhat disliked at the time, it was at least less janky than ME1 and easier to get the grasp of. The RPG system also took a grievous hit, but in the grand scheme of things, the new system boiled down what the old system was to what it actually provided - simply progression, with a choice of specialization at the end.

The DLC was very split; the major ones are spectacularly good and are generally considered some of the best for the entire trilogy (Lair of the Shadow Broker), while the smaller ones reek a bit too much of EA-style pay-money-for-guns-and-cosmetics bullshit (Firewalker Pack). Major [[rage]] ensued when one of the "DLCs" proved to be ''actually on the discs'', a full extra party member, so content clearly written for the original story but - in a cash grab - suppressed from the player, unless you paid extra for it. Luckily all the good shit is included in the remaster.

====Mass Effect 3====
Mass Effect 3 is the most divisive of the three games and was host to some pretty impressive [[Neckbeard|nerd-protests]], but was overall a decent experience with a trip at the finish line. The game starts with the Reapers invading the galaxy in full force, leaving it to Shepard to do the impossible (again) and find a way to stop them before they purge the current galactic civilization.

The game expanded the previously streamlined combat and developed it to a fine point, and the game took another face-lift graphically. The story was overall decently received with a lot of YMMV discussion about how it was handled. Some did not like how some of the plotlines from earlier games were handled, how they were ended and whether or not they even mattered in the first place. Character development takes a bit of a back-seat now that Shepard has been on-board therapist for his entire crew since ME1 and 2 - and somewhat surprisingly, the one who gets the most focus is Shepard themselves, who visibly grows closer and closer to his/her breaking point.

A multiplayer mode was added, which, while originally controversial, turned out to be pretty fun and challenging.

Most of the problems with the third game were because most of the development team for the first two games (including several of the writers and head writer Drew Karpyshyn) quit partway through developing the second game or did not return to work on the third game. Their reasons for this were internal strife with Bioware as [[EA|they were subsumed into EA, conflicts of interest and disagreement over the direction they wanted the story to go]].

But all of this is not what you wanna hear about. You wanna hear about the ending, one of the most derived events in modern gaming history. Without going into too much detail, the ending(s) for the game were immediately seen as some of the worst writing in a game to date, casually ignored most of the choices prior in the trilogy (something the devs had promised wouldn't happen) and left a ship-load of unanswered questions. The result was a several-month long campaign to have the ending changed, which eventually led to Bioware releasing a DLC that added to the original endings. It was well-received but many felt it still did not do the games justice - but at the very least it was free. DLCs for the game are considered a mixed bag - Some are quite mediocre (like Omega), while others are considered better than the base game (Citadel). On that note, two story-essential arcs were initially rendered DLC ("From Ashes" and "Leviathan"), but they were later integrated into the main game at no extra charge.

A bit of a whimper to end on, but no end to a good journey has ever been perfect.

====Mass Effect: Andromeda====
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This is literally [[Chaos Spawn|what happens if Mass Effect had a child with the Immaterial God of Autism while consuming lead-laced mushrooms, then said spawn got raised by an SJW]]. Expand at your own risk.

tl;dr: It's like Halo with the Mass Effect name plastered on but without subtlety, good writing, or functional animation.
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After years attempting to essentially build ''No Man's Sky'' inside the Frostbite engine, the old devs got shuffled away, new devs were brought in, handed a pile of assets, and ordered to slap something together and shove it out under the door in a year and a half to recoup costs. Naturally, this went about as well as the last time they tried it.

Mass Effect: Andromeda is an intergalactic travel/space soap opera plot shoehorned into the story of the original trilogy released in 2017. You play as a member of the Ryder family, made (in)famous by Alec Ryder, a former war hero and Pathfinder for humanity who was blacklisted from the military for making the illegal AI SAM. There is also his deceased (spoiler - actually terminally ill and cryogenically frozen) wife and his adult children, who are male/female twins the player chooses from for the player character. Alec and a group of rich individuals pooled money and resources to build Ark ships and a knock-off the Citadel called the Nexus to go colonize the Andromeda galaxy (also to escape the Reapers, but that's classified in-universe. At the meta level, even though there are closer galaxies, the devs chose Andromeda because it's the most well-known galaxy besides the Milky Way). During the six century journey, massive amounts of [[Not As Planned]] occur - everyone arrived at different times, the multi-species quarian ark went M.I.A. and humanity arrived last with the human Ark sustaining damage and the non-PC twin rendered comatose. The Earth analog planet chosen for humanity to settle turned out to be uninhabitable for humans, when exploring it you made contact with hostile aliens and after an accident Alec dies saving the player character, who gets SAM implanted in their head and becomes humanity's new Pathfinder.

Throughout the story, the Milky Way races deal with all the socio-political and mental baggage they brought with them from the Milky Way while trying to establish new homeworlds. Along the way, the Initiative meets and interacts with alien races or their technology native to Andromeda. The first are [[Halo|Forerunner]]-expies called the Jaardan who don't appear in the game, but built artificial planets and may have left behind a [[Eye of Terror|semi-solid energy cloud]] that attacks anything near it, is attracted to certain types of technology [[Grimdark|and can shatter planets]]. The second are overemotional furless lizard-cat people with genetic memory called the angara, who struggle to trust aliens after their first contact (with the following race) went badly. The third are the hostile aliens encountered earlier; [[Doctor Who|Dalek]]/[[Halo|Covenant Empire]]-expies called the kett, rocky-looking aliens who worship a scientific genetic assimilation process around which they built an expansionist, eugenicist cult. They're one-dimensionally [[Stupid Evil]] and their leader the [[Archon|Archon]] is the game's [[BBEG]], the ultimate example of the kett's poor writing and arguably Bioware's most poorly-written antagonist. Unlike evil races of games' past (such as Mass Effect's geth and Dragon Age's Darkspawn), the kett aren't really analyzed or given anything more. No seriously, think about this; the Darkspawn were based around the concept of being a "living plague" and "bad guys (the player) wouldn't feel bad about killing", and they had more characterization and deeper lore than the kett.

The characters are almost all two-dimensionally nasty (such as practically every kett), lacking (such as Addison) or divisive (such as Peebee). Even the rare exceptions (such as Vetra) are watered-down versions of characters from the original trilogy, and were it not for that lack of good characters, the soap opera feel might have been forgiven. The few interesting characters barely get fleshed out, such as Bain Massani, son of the bounty hunter Zaeed Massani from the original trilogy's second game DLC, and a few characters from the original trilogy make hard-to-find cameos. Some interesting plot threads with characters and factions are hinted at, such as the disappearance of the quarian Ark ship (later resolved in a novel) and how not all kett support The Archon, but few get resolved and even fewer get resolved well.

The voice acting varies from good to terrible, though the latter outweighs the former along with several poorly written lines; such as the infamous "my face is tired", "I think I really pissed that one off. Maybe because I shot him in the face!" and "...I swear, we're the galactic good guys". There are also many glitches, bugs and instances of sloppy animations such as infamously bad facial expressions and running. Good animation is there (good luck finding it under all the derp though) and the environments while lacking in uniqueness are visually appealing and very open. The combat engine was functional and it probably would have made a good multiplayer, but that's arguably a kiss of death for a CRPG series. And since this is a Bioware game written after 2014, the writers made the mistake of pandering to woke culture and identity politics, especially since at least two key members of the dev team, including a leading writer, were avowed [[SJW]]s - but as was typical of the 'checklist' approach to representation, [https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/03/underwhelming-gay-romance-options-in-mass-effect-andromeda-disappoints-many-fans/ some people STILL complained] and got [http://blog.bioware.com/2017/06/06/mass-effect-andromeda-patch-1-08-notes/ even more tone-deaf pandering in response].

As far as actual gameplay goes, Andromeda is halfway decent, though quite uninspiring and mediocre at times. One of the few positives is that it takes a more open-world approach similar to the first Mass Effect, as opposed to the less appealing corridor-heavy sequels. The crafting system from the third game returns, along with a mining system that allows wider item access to party members. The combat is fairly solid, if lacking the usual ME polish, with a good amount of depth added by a short-range jump pack and the inclusion of previous classes' abilities and passive skills based on the specialization tree chosen. Even without the controversy, neither gameplay nor story is strong enough to carry each other, and far from up to the usual Bioware standard where it matters.

In closing, the game devs tried to push and capitalize on progressive narratives in a ham-fisted way, neglected to tend to the actual game, and failed miserably on both ends. In addition, the game was ''so'' widely panned that [http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/mass-effect-andromeda-is-officially-so-bad-it-killed-a-studio it caused EA to liquidate the game's development studio, not even 6 months after its release] and [http://mashable.com/2017/08/19/mass-effect-andromeda-story-dlc-officially-cancelled/#nrgDvEJVpmqH caused EA and Bioware to discontinue all support for the single player campaign and focus on multiplayer]. EA, already in the midst of subsuming Bioware, has pretty much given up on its lifeless corpse ''not even half a year after release'' due to the game being so subpar and fierce backlash from fans and critics alike.
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====Mass Effect 4====

Announced at the 2020 Game Awards alongside news of the Legendary Edition remasters. Little is known about the game other than the hint that the character Liara is involved, but given the string of failures Bioware has had in more recent years, this may well be a Hail Mary pass to keep the company alive.

===Dragon Age===
The Dragon Age series is a more blatant example of this degradation.

====Dragon Age: Origins====
The original, Dragon Age: Origins, was a game six years in the making, which shows in good ways (immense depth and craft to the situations encountered) and bad (wonky graphics that looked worse than ''Mass Effect'''s, despite coming out nearly two years later.). While far from being the grimdark spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate that Bioware hyped it as, the story of Dragon Age: Origins was above average and possessed an interesting character creation mechanic where your background changed numerous parts of the storyline.

The premise is that your character is a Grey Warden, one of the last of a legendary order of guardians in the world, and the story takes place on the continent of Thedas ('''The''' '''D'''ragon '''A'''ge '''S'''etting) in a nameless world. Start your adventure by picking your race as a Human, Elf, or Dwarf, then your class as a Warrior, Mage, or Rogue. The story begins with an explanation of the Blight and the Darkspawn who both caused it and arose from it according to Scriptures from the in-universe religion Andrastianism (a deistic religion centered around a woman called Andraste, whose essentially a combination of The Virgin Mary, Jesus, Muhammad and Joan of Arc). Darkspawn are Orc-like beings similar to Tolkien Orcs who were mutated by a contagious supernatural corruption (which may or may not be a divine punishment) and are also described as a "living plague". This living plague is said (and confirmed in future games) to have originated from a group of mages who travelled through the Fade (a spirit realm like the [[Warp]] but easier to enter and safely leave) who entered the Golden City (Dragon Age's version of Heaven) then tried and failed to overthrow the Maker (Dragon Age's Creator God who may or may not exist - this ambiguity a deliberate move by the writers). The mages actions turned it into the Black City, a place so dangerous no one whose gone there since those mages has ever come out and [[Malal|even demons avoid it]]. According to the Chantry (Dragon Age's Catholic Church analogue for the religion Andrastianism) this was a punishment from the Maker.

The Darkspawn are normally roving bands, but sometimes they rally under one leader, an archdemon - ancient powerful spirits taking the physical form of dragons, and when this happens it causes an invasion/natural disaster/epidemic called a Blight. During the first one, after much trial and error the Grey Wardens were created and successfully stopped the first Blight by killing the Archdemon leading it and have been a revered order of protectors ever since. However, cultural, political and religious differences have divided the peoples of the world and do so between each Blight, and things seem to be coming to a head in the first game. You play through the intro which establishes who you are and what your lot in life is and varies based on what you made your character, then the life you knew gets upended in various grimdark ways (ranging from being the elf peasant who killed the human nobleman that raped your friend to being a Dwarf prince who gets framed for fratricide by your younger brother). When a Grey Warden leader rescues you, you've proven your mettle and get inducted into the Grey Wardens to stop the Darkspawn in the human kingdom of Ferelden. Things later go really pear-shaped when the king's general/father-in-law abandons him to die in battle then framed the Grey Wardens for his death, making Ferelden's best hope outlaws or exiles. While the nations are threatened by a Blight and most of the realms are engulfed in civil war, you have been chosen to unite the shattered lands and slay the current archdemon once and for all.

The character development was good - there are some squadmates who are optional but have fully-fleshed out stories and character arcs. Evidence that things were starting to fall apart were obvious right when you met the questgiver who forced you to buy a DLC pack if you actually wanted to do the quest, but only after giving you the sales pitch. The "expansion pack" Awakening wasn't too bad either, at least if you ignored the fact that it had been visibly rushed and was loaded with gamebreaking bugs.

====Dragon Age II====
The most tragic game on the list. A perfect storm of wrongheaded design and corporate mismanagement, Dragon Age II was dead on arrival - the story veered from one plot thread to the next without any rhyme or reason while being completely disconnected to the previous game, most of the characters were either idiots, one-dimensional, or just plain unlikable, and both clearly put trying to be "different" and "unconventional" on a pedestal over being good. [[Star Trek#Films|'Cause it worked sooo well in ''Generations'', right?]] Gameplay was the worst kind of busywork, consisting of [[Dawn of War 2|running through the same not-even-reskinned maps over and over again]], pressing the same buttons to do the same things to the same generic enemies as they teleport in out of nowhere. All these problems might've been ironed out as development went on, if not for the fact that their [[EA|corporate overlords]] had them rushing the game out in '''less than a year''', in their endless quest to have ''all'' their properties work like the Madden and FIFA games they're used to bankrolling. And when, thanks to ''their'' interference, the game under-performed, EA promptly scrapped the expansion they were building to wrap up the dangling, jangling plot threads.

The game can be skipped entirely without missing anything; the narrator appears again in the third game and summarizes all of the important parts in one conversation. It's actually sort of the point of the story that despite Hawke and company winning every battle they were subsumed by greater forces, everything in their lives falls apart anyway, and nothing they did had any lasting effects.

====Dragon Age: Inquisition====
Dragon Age: Inquisition picked things up... a little. It's certainly the best Bioware game for a while, but a lot of that is because literally everything about the game is risk-averse. Both the story and the gameplay are assembled from pure fantasy cliche and the [[grimdark]] city-based environmental art style prevelant in the previous two games has been replaced with a glorious [[noblebright]] mostly-outdoor setting. The storyline is based on the player character accidentally becoming the [[Mary Sue|Chosen One]] by accidentally picking up a shiny green orb which allows them to fix tears in the fabric of reality. The villain has some interesting implications about the lore of the setting, but the writers never really actually commit to any of that lore, preferring to have it remain as hearsay, and the villain becomes boringly one-dimensionally evil because of that. Gameplay-wise, Inquisition started as an MMO, and you can still feel the MMO influence; you explore about ten wilderness zones which are very large and pretty but have very minimal interaction, spend most of your time running fetch quests, and only hit story beats every three levels or so. Combat is a game of managing cooldowns and throwing particle effects everywhere.

That said, unlike some of the past games from Bioware's decline-and-fall period, Inquisition is actually fun to play. Most of the characters in your party are well-rounded (except for Vivienne and to a lesser extent Sera), there's a ridiculously large amount of party banter, and the romance quests actually feature involving character development instead of being something to add to the checklist. There's even some series-essential lore locked away in some of the romances (in particular, Solas's romance reveals absolutely vital information about the history of the Elven race). The gameplay, cliched and MMO-ey though it may be, is actually involving and fun at times, and the quest to hunt down all ten High Dragons is pretty awesome (as well as being pretty much the only way to get value-for-money from the game's otherwise superfluous crafting system; pretty much every piece of gear you can craft is outclassed by the loot you find from monsters, except for crafted items which use Dragon Bone, which are hilariously overpowered). Certainly not a great game, but it's quite good if you aren't overly sensitive to cliche.

While the main game doesn't add much to the setting's lore (such as the lore around the BBEG), the DLC missions add '''a lot''' of lore to the setting. The first is a mission to help a Dwarf realm plagued by earthquakes and Darkspawn where you learn more about the origins of the Dwarfs and Lyrium (the setting's equivalent of [[Warpstone]]). The second is one where you fight the fanatical followers of a tribal war god while trying to unearth the lost history of the Inquisition (it reveals more about the nature of the human vs Dalish elves conflict). The third takes place after the main game and has the biggest implications of all in the setting, where you start by dealing with political blowback against the Inquisition and end up in a counter-espionage move against qunari assassins and conclude by meeting an elven god whose plans to help the elves endangers the world.

====Dragon Age: The Dread Wolf Rises====
Bioware and EA have announced that there will be a fourth Dragon Age game, called the Dread Wolf Rises. It will revolve around the elven god introduced in the previous game and their plans for the elves and Thedas. The developers estimated its release to happen three years time from the game's announcement.

However, Dragon Age 4 has already generated massive amounts of [[Skub]]. Several key developers - including Narrative Director John Epler - made announcements on social media about identity politics, stating this game's story [[SJW|will be “political” and that it will be “celebrating our diversity and differences.”]] Even more worryingly, they've dropped lots of buzzwords surrounding EA's push to turn all their series into "live service" model games, supported for years, and right after their previous attempt to do so (see "Anthem" below) fell flat on its ass and died on arrival.

Terrified fans predict this could be the moment when EA finally puts poor Bioware's neck in the guillotine...

===Star Wars: The Old Republic===
{{Main|Star Wars: The Old Republic}}

TL;DR: Bioware aimed to develop an MMO combining the setting and story of KOTOR with the sprawling, open-world appeal of WOW. Delays caused by production caused Bioware to rush development of other games in order to meet fiscal targets. The game itself became more controversial with time as expansion stories seemed to take TOR further away from KOTOR than its 100-year timeskip had already done.

===Anthem===
Anthem is an online multiplayer action role-playing video game developed by Bioware. Everyone in Bioware was on this project, with many people saying this is the company's do or die game. The game was initially slated for a 2018 release on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but this date was moved to February 2019. It is a [[Setting Aesthetics|science fantasy]] game, where humanity has numerous civilizations on a single planet. If all the science fantasy schticks, the armored duds, the emphasis on color and the grind gameplay makes it look a bit like a Warframe/Destiny clone, don't worry - that's exactly what it is.

The story takes place on the planet Coda. Coda was created by mysterious beings called The Shapers, who some humans consider gods; they planned to make the world in nine days but vanished on day three, leaving everything incomplete and hostile, especially for humans. After a brief period of enslavement by aliens, the humans broke free, formed three factions (the Dominion, the Guardians and the Freelancers - the PCs are part of the Freelancers) and began fighting each other. This is where you and your ability to infinitely farm resources and quests for NPCs come in.

Development was rough, with rumors swirling that EA is deliberately putting Bioware in a no-win scenario where no matter what happens, the C-suite has an excuse to exercise more control over or liquidate the studio; given the amount of resources put on this project, if Anthem fails EA will actually take a major financial hit, so all in all Bioware may have become expendable by this point, while if it is a success it could mean supporting and making more games like it instead of the kinds of games fans love and want more of. Worryingly, several members of the dev team left during development, including the lead writer Drew Karpyshyn.

Early "VIP" showcases were a mixed bag - great combat and movement, but otherwise not too impressive. The game didn't really gather any momentum in the hype side of things, and by the point of release, Anthem received mediocre scores at best: with the game having 61 Metascore and 4.1 User score to date. The game has seen been left almost dead in the water; a roadmap to fix the game was introduced and promptly dashed. As of 2020 there's been increasing talk of remastering Anthem, but between fearing a failed remaster, the possibility of forcing people who already brought the game having to pay for the remastered version, and the fact that the both Warframe and even Destiny 2 have done better and are even free-to-play, the chances of a successful revival are very slim. Then in early 2021, Bioware/EA threw in the towel and cancelled the plans for remastering Anthem.

==Associated Games==
Often grouped with Bioware's games, and highlighted as the pinnacles of Bioware's talent, these games were actually made by other, completely-independent, studios: Black Isle Studios and Obsidian, both of which included lot of the same staff. These games used engines developed by Bioware and were licensed by shared publishers, which resulted in graphical and interface similarities. Thus, many players believe that they were made by Bioware when this was not the case.

* [[Planescape: Torment]]
* [[Icewind Dale]]
* Star Wers: Nites of teh Old Rebuplik II - The Siff Lerds
* Neverwinter Nights 2

Both of those last two were rushed out for Christmas, NWN2 with only around nine months development, resulting in whole chunks of the game missing and bugs out the ass. Obsidian wasn't allowed to patch either, though much of the lost content has since been restored by fans.

==The Decline of Bioware==
In 2007, Bioware was bought by [[EA]] and since then their games have been slowly declining in quality. It began between the release of the first Mass Effect game and Dragon Age: Origins (note how EA isn't shown in the opening credits for ME1). More on this can be found in the entries for those two franchises. Simultaneously, their games since have been characterized by rushed output, bullshit predatory business practices, and terribly prevalent DLC.

Then the founders all left because it just wasn't fun anymore with the glowing eye of Jon Madden/Sauron looking over your shoulder and trimming away all the fat until only a skeleton was left. Followed, in the next few years, by most of the senior writing/production staff. Unfortunately, the people who stepped in, or were put forward by EA, to fill the gaps this mass exodus left tended to be incompetents, and it's shown in their later games such as Dragon Age: Inquisition and Mass Effect: Andromeda (see above for more details). They also have developed a rather nasty workplace, pushing their staff extra hard to work long hours to the point where it's causing them emotional and psychological harm. And, of course, EA relentlessly pushes for them to stop making the kinds of popular, deep, well-written single player RPGs that made them famous and that their fans want to play, and instead focus resources on heavily-monetized and monetizable looter shooters or multiplayer modes along with sprinkling in identity politics here and there to pander to the Anglosphere's current zeitgeist.

They haven't yet been sucked bone dry and thrown on the pile like so many other studios "acquired" by the Men From Redwood City yet, but everyone knows it's coming. [http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/mass-effect-andromeda-is-officially-so-bad-it-killed-a-studio With EA liquidating their Montreal-based Bioware studio, it looks like the clock is one minute closer to midnight for Bioware.]

So in short, if you want a good Bioware game, look to the past.

The Orville

2021-08-18T06:29:18Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:3061:414C:ECD:6219: /* Season Two */

[[File:The Orville.jpg|300px|thumb|left|The titular spaceship itself, The Orville]]
{{Delete|See Talk Page. I'm not sure this show has enough of a following to justify a page here}}
'''The Orville''' is <s>[[Star Trek]] fanfiction with the serial numbers filed off</s> a comedy drama sci-fi television series that began as a homage to Star Trek, created by and starring Seth MacFarlane of [[Fail|''Family Guy'']] infamy-- [[Skub|No wait, come back!]]

The guy's a huge Trekkie, to the point of having a few cameos in Star Trek, who went to the FOX execs and pitched his idea for a loving comedic sendup of The Next Generation because he felt too many shows sunk into a quagmire (pun intended, and ours not his) of grimdark. Many of the executive producers and developers are notable industry Trekkies such as David Goodman (who wrote the ''Futurama'' Trek parody episode), or Trek alumni such as Brannon Braga. First airing in 2017, the series is about the strung-out not-Picard protagonist Captain Edward Mercer, played by MacFarlane himself, of the eponymous not-Enterprise spaceship "The Orville" ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers#Orville likely named after one of the Wright Brothers]). His ex-wife Kelly is the first officer while the crew includes the beefy gay not-Worf alien Bortus, asshole not-Lore android Isaac, and John LaMarr and Gordon Malloy - an even more ridiculous parody of Harry Kim and Tom Paris. They explore the galaxy while dealing with personal problems and fighting various bad guys. The show has a mix of drama, comedy and commentary on real world issues.

=Can you play in this universe or what?=
There is no dedicated RPG for ''The Orville''. But that hasn't stopped elegant/tg/entlemen from trying. As a ''Trek'' knockoff it's Trekkies who've mooted systems for it. For those interested in the (dysfunctional) character-relations: GURPS. TRAVELLER, for those with a hard-SF bent. And then there's always ''Far Trek''.
[https://www.therpgsite.com/pen-paper-roleplaying-games-rpgs-discussion/the-orville-which-rpg-system-would-you-use/ Here's a 2017 discussion.]

And, yes, servants of the Divine Emperor: you ''can'' buy miniatures, through WizKids.

=The Show=

==Season One==
The first season was supposed to have thirteen episodes but The Suits didn't like the episode revolving around (gay) porn addiction, so that got pulled, leaving the first season with twelve episodes.

The pilot episode (creatively named "Pilot") introduces Edward "Ed" Mercer and the ship, opening with his soon-to-be-ex wife Kelly cheating on him then they begin their posting on the Orville while trying to build a professional relationship. As the crew learn to work together, one of the better episodes sets the stage for this; "Majority Rule", an episode with good (albeit heisted from ''Black Mirror'') commentary on social currency systems. There's also "About a Girl", a Bortus-centered episode that explores his relationships during a vital part of his race's life cycle. A later episode - "Cupid's Dagger" reveals why Kelly cheated in the first place, being due to biological properties of Kelly's lover Darulio, a slimy (in the "disgustingly immoral" sense, not the "covered in slime" sense... until you make him happy) alien playboy.

Since this is a Star Trek homage, the show has to have a bad guy group the protagonists alternate between killing and studying. Given the showrunners of both shows, they also represent/strawman something the showrunner opposes. That's where the Krill come in; [[vampire|Nosferatu]]-looking reptilian aliens, despite the name, with a fatal weakness to UV radiation. The Krill are villains because they follow a [[Protectorate of Menoth|violently xenophobic religion]] that claims all non-Krill are soulless abominations to be killed or subjugated. Also, [[Derp|the god of this religion and one of its religious phrases (see below) were named for throwaway jokes about U.S car rental companies and Katniss Everdeen from "The Hunger Games" franchise]].

This brings us to the subject the show is most preachy (pun intended) about by far, its anti-religion slant. While Star Trek also has those "better off atheist" overtones, the Orville goes further. Not content with using the Krill to beat the "religion bad" drum, they harp on for a quarter of Season One's episodes with "If Stars Should Appear" and "Mad Idolatry" (Star Trek's "Who Watches the Watchers" with the serial numbers filed off). Every religion is replete with visual references to Christianity - eg; Krill places of worship look like chapels with pews and all the religious vestments - plus a poke at Islam with "Temeen Everdeen", the Krill equivalent of "Allahu Akbar", resulting in a show pushing anti-religious atheism hard enough to make Star Trek look like [[C.S. Lewis|The Chronicles of Narnia]] (even non-religious viewers have also complained about it). Hey, if Seth can bog down a season of a TV show with it, we can bog down a paragraph of a webpage talking about it.

The critics did their best to tank the show this season, but most ''viewers'' liked it, a few recurring complaints notwithstanding. In light of positive reception it received, the show was greenlit for a second season.

==Season Two==
In the second season, the network got a little more confident in the show so, to save money, they aired Bortas' porno, held over from the previous season. Season One's preachiness rears its head in "All The World's A Birthday Cake", but substituting religion with astrology.

The main change here was writing out Alara a couple eps in. The character's actress, Halston Sage, was rumored (by various online tabloid publications) to have briefly dated Seth MacFarlane. It is also possible that other factors such as her role on ''Prodigal Son'' or a desire for a pay increase could've contributed to or caused her departure. In any event, if the dating rumor is true it just goes to show that [[Derp|dating a co-worker and subordinate 20 years younger than you rarely ends well]]. This may come back to haunt the showrunners as Alara was one of the better received characters. Don't worry though, Alara's character was immediately replaced with Talla, another alien of the very same race, gender, and profession... despite the lore establishing that Alara's career path as a security officer was unusual by her species' standards. To be fair, Alara's final episode ''is'' a good sendoff for the character.

The next big change is the Krill, who become the "lesser villains that need to team up with the good guys to fight worse villains" cliché. Given all the villainous setup the Krill have, this is jarring, the more so because this season pulls it out its own butt ''twice''.

The first instance was when Ed, his new girlfriend and the crew were caught between a contrived race of not-Orks doing WAAAAGH! and their targets, the Krill. Then... surprise! Ed's new woman is really Teleya - a female Krill he captured in Season 1 - disguised as a human to get close to Ed and kill him (resulting in plot holes because Teleya was last seen imprisoned on Earth and she was a schoolteacher not a solider or a spy), but they're forced to work together when trapped on a death world. We don't see the orks again in this season. The second is when the not-Federation teams with the Krill because the rest of Isaac's robotic race, the Kaylons, have gone [[Necrons|Full Skynet]] against organic life. Ironically, throughout the Season Isaac gradually turned good, becoming the crew's not-Data member. The Kaylons attempt to invade Earth and look set to become the show's Borg equivalent (minus organic parts and assimilation).

The cast seems to be gelling better - Halston's departure and rumored situation between her and Seth aside, the writers have a better idea of what the show should be and the humor is now used in service of the stories. Season 2 was definitely a step up overall.

==Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow==
The show is slated for a third season, but was cancelled by Fox and moved from TV to the streaming service Hulu. However, filming was delayed multiple times by the global COVID-19 pandemic. As of mid-2021 an official air date still has not been announced, making a 2021 release very unlikely.

Some commend The Orville as a well-made, witty breath of [[Noblebright|fresh air]] in an overly [[Grimdark|stagnant]] genre with a side of nostalgia. Others denounce The Orville as a derivative, sophomoric, uncomfortable vanity protect (some consider MacFarlane stunt-casting himself as the main character the height of vanity, especially when the show pushes his views on the audience - at least Roddenberry let others play Kirk and Wesley). Some think both sides have a point. Trekkies are equally divided on the show; many Trekkies [[butthurt]] over Discovery endorse The Orville, a significant number of Discovery fans hate The Orville, and a small and overlooked group quietly enjoys both.

As always, stay tuned for how this turns out.

= Would you like to know more? =
*[https://orville.fandom.com/wiki/The_Orville Not Main Memory Alpha]. The wiki.

[[Category: Television]]

The Orville

2021-08-18T06:26:07Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:3061:414C:ECD:6219: /* Season Two */

[[File:The Orville.jpg|300px|thumb|left|The titular spaceship itself, The Orville]]
{{Delete|See Talk Page. I'm not sure this show has enough of a following to justify a page here}}
'''The Orville''' is <s>[[Star Trek]] fanfiction with the serial numbers filed off</s> a comedy drama sci-fi television series that began as a homage to Star Trek, created by and starring Seth MacFarlane of [[Fail|''Family Guy'']] infamy-- [[Skub|No wait, come back!]]

The guy's a huge Trekkie, to the point of having a few cameos in Star Trek, who went to the FOX execs and pitched his idea for a loving comedic sendup of The Next Generation because he felt too many shows sunk into a quagmire (pun intended, and ours not his) of grimdark. Many of the executive producers and developers are notable industry Trekkies such as David Goodman (who wrote the ''Futurama'' Trek parody episode), or Trek alumni such as Brannon Braga. First airing in 2017, the series is about the strung-out not-Picard protagonist Captain Edward Mercer, played by MacFarlane himself, of the eponymous not-Enterprise spaceship "The Orville" ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers#Orville likely named after one of the Wright Brothers]). His ex-wife Kelly is the first officer while the crew includes the beefy gay not-Worf alien Bortus, asshole not-Lore android Isaac, and John LaMarr and Gordon Malloy - an even more ridiculous parody of Harry Kim and Tom Paris. They explore the galaxy while dealing with personal problems and fighting various bad guys. The show has a mix of drama, comedy and commentary on real world issues.

=Can you play in this universe or what?=
There is no dedicated RPG for ''The Orville''. But that hasn't stopped elegant/tg/entlemen from trying. As a ''Trek'' knockoff it's Trekkies who've mooted systems for it. For those interested in the (dysfunctional) character-relations: GURPS. TRAVELLER, for those with a hard-SF bent. And then there's always ''Far Trek''.
[https://www.therpgsite.com/pen-paper-roleplaying-games-rpgs-discussion/the-orville-which-rpg-system-would-you-use/ Here's a 2017 discussion.]

And, yes, servants of the Divine Emperor: you ''can'' buy miniatures, through WizKids.

=The Show=

==Season One==
The first season was supposed to have thirteen episodes but The Suits didn't like the episode revolving around (gay) porn addiction, so that got pulled, leaving the first season with twelve episodes.

The pilot episode (creatively named "Pilot") introduces Edward "Ed" Mercer and the ship, opening with his soon-to-be-ex wife Kelly cheating on him then they begin their posting on the Orville while trying to build a professional relationship. As the crew learn to work together, one of the better episodes sets the stage for this; "Majority Rule", an episode with good (albeit heisted from ''Black Mirror'') commentary on social currency systems. There's also "About a Girl", a Bortus-centered episode that explores his relationships during a vital part of his race's life cycle. A later episode - "Cupid's Dagger" reveals why Kelly cheated in the first place, being due to biological properties of Kelly's lover Darulio, a slimy (in the "disgustingly immoral" sense, not the "covered in slime" sense... until you make him happy) alien playboy.

Since this is a Star Trek homage, the show has to have a bad guy group the protagonists alternate between killing and studying. Given the showrunners of both shows, they also represent/strawman something the showrunner opposes. That's where the Krill come in; [[vampire|Nosferatu]]-looking reptilian aliens, despite the name, with a fatal weakness to UV radiation. The Krill are villains because they follow a [[Protectorate of Menoth|violently xenophobic religion]] that claims all non-Krill are soulless abominations to be killed or subjugated. Also, [[Derp|the god of this religion and one of its religious phrases (see below) were named for throwaway jokes about U.S car rental companies and Katniss Everdeen from "The Hunger Games" franchise]].

This brings us to the subject the show is most preachy (pun intended) about by far, its anti-religion slant. While Star Trek also has those "better off atheist" overtones, the Orville goes further. Not content with using the Krill to beat the "religion bad" drum, they harp on for a quarter of Season One's episodes with "If Stars Should Appear" and "Mad Idolatry" (Star Trek's "Who Watches the Watchers" with the serial numbers filed off). Every religion is replete with visual references to Christianity - eg; Krill places of worship look like chapels with pews and all the religious vestments - plus a poke at Islam with "Temeen Everdeen", the Krill equivalent of "Allahu Akbar", resulting in a show pushing anti-religious atheism hard enough to make Star Trek look like [[C.S. Lewis|The Chronicles of Narnia]] (even non-religious viewers have also complained about it). Hey, if Seth can bog down a season of a TV show with it, we can bog down a paragraph of a webpage talking about it.

The critics did their best to tank the show this season, but most ''viewers'' liked it, a few recurring complaints notwithstanding. In light of positive reception it received, the show was greenlit for a second season.

==Season Two==
In the second season, the network got a little more confident in the show so, to save money, they aired Bortas' porno, held over from the previous season. Season One's preachiness rears its head in "All The World's A Birthday Cake", but substituting religion for astrology.

The main change here was writing out Alara a couple eps in. The character's actress, Halston Sage, was rumored (by various online tabloid publications) to have briefly dated Seth MacFarlane. It is also possible that other factors such as her role on ''Prodigal Son'' or a desire for a pay increase could've contributed to or caused her departure. In any event, if the dating rumor is true it just goes to show that [[Derp|dating a co-worker and subordinate 20 years younger than you rarely ends well]]. This may come back to haunt the showrunners as Alara was one of the better received characters. Don't worry though, Alara's character was immediately replaced with Talla, another alien of the very same race, gender, and profession... despite the lore establishing that Alara's career path as a security officer was unusual by her species' standards. To be fair, Alara's final episode ''is'' a good sendoff for the character.

The next big change is the Krill, who become the "lesser villains that need to team up with the good guys to fight worse villains" cliché. Given all the villainous setup the Krill have, this is jarring, the more so because this season pulls it out its own butt ''twice''.

The first instance was when Ed, his new girlfriend and the crew were caught between a contrived race of not-Orks doing WAAAAGH! and their targets, the Krill. Then... surprise! Ed's new woman is really Teleya - a female Krill he captured in Season 1 - disguised as a human to get close to Ed and kill him (resulting in plot holes because Teleya was last seen imprisoned on Earth and she was a schoolteacher not a solider or a spy), but they're forced to work together when trapped on a death world. We don't see the orks again in this season. The second is when the not-Federation teams with the Krill because the rest of Isaac's robotic race, the Kaylons, have gone [[Necrons|Full Skynet]] against organic life. Ironically, throughout the Season Isaac gradually turned good, becoming the crew's not-Data member. The Kaylons attempt to invade Earth and look set to become the show's Borg equivalent (minus organic parts and assimilation).

The cast seems to be gelling better - Halston's departure and rumored situation between her and Seth aside, the writers have a better idea of what the show should be and the humor is now used in service of the stories. Season 2 was definitely a step up overall.

==Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow==
The show is slated for a third season, but was cancelled by Fox and moved from TV to the streaming service Hulu. However, filming was delayed multiple times by the global COVID-19 pandemic. As of mid-2021 an official air date still has not been announced, making a 2021 release very unlikely.

Some commend The Orville as a well-made, witty breath of [[Noblebright|fresh air]] in an overly [[Grimdark|stagnant]] genre with a side of nostalgia. Others denounce The Orville as a derivative, sophomoric, uncomfortable vanity protect (some consider MacFarlane stunt-casting himself as the main character the height of vanity, especially when the show pushes his views on the audience - at least Roddenberry let others play Kirk and Wesley). Some think both sides have a point. Trekkies are equally divided on the show; many Trekkies [[butthurt]] over Discovery endorse The Orville, a significant number of Discovery fans hate The Orville, and a small and overlooked group quietly enjoys both.

As always, stay tuned for how this turns out.

= Would you like to know more? =
*[https://orville.fandom.com/wiki/The_Orville Not Main Memory Alpha]. The wiki.

[[Category: Television]]

The Orville

2021-08-18T06:23:18Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:3061:414C:ECD:6219: /* Season One */

[[File:The Orville.jpg|300px|thumb|left|The titular spaceship itself, The Orville]]
{{Delete|See Talk Page. I'm not sure this show has enough of a following to justify a page here}}
'''The Orville''' is <s>[[Star Trek]] fanfiction with the serial numbers filed off</s> a comedy drama sci-fi television series that began as a homage to Star Trek, created by and starring Seth MacFarlane of [[Fail|''Family Guy'']] infamy-- [[Skub|No wait, come back!]]

The guy's a huge Trekkie, to the point of having a few cameos in Star Trek, who went to the FOX execs and pitched his idea for a loving comedic sendup of The Next Generation because he felt too many shows sunk into a quagmire (pun intended, and ours not his) of grimdark. Many of the executive producers and developers are notable industry Trekkies such as David Goodman (who wrote the ''Futurama'' Trek parody episode), or Trek alumni such as Brannon Braga. First airing in 2017, the series is about the strung-out not-Picard protagonist Captain Edward Mercer, played by MacFarlane himself, of the eponymous not-Enterprise spaceship "The Orville" ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers#Orville likely named after one of the Wright Brothers]). His ex-wife Kelly is the first officer while the crew includes the beefy gay not-Worf alien Bortus, asshole not-Lore android Isaac, and John LaMarr and Gordon Malloy - an even more ridiculous parody of Harry Kim and Tom Paris. They explore the galaxy while dealing with personal problems and fighting various bad guys. The show has a mix of drama, comedy and commentary on real world issues.

=Can you play in this universe or what?=
There is no dedicated RPG for ''The Orville''. But that hasn't stopped elegant/tg/entlemen from trying. As a ''Trek'' knockoff it's Trekkies who've mooted systems for it. For those interested in the (dysfunctional) character-relations: GURPS. TRAVELLER, for those with a hard-SF bent. And then there's always ''Far Trek''.
[https://www.therpgsite.com/pen-paper-roleplaying-games-rpgs-discussion/the-orville-which-rpg-system-would-you-use/ Here's a 2017 discussion.]

And, yes, servants of the Divine Emperor: you ''can'' buy miniatures, through WizKids.

=The Show=

==Season One==
The first season was supposed to have thirteen episodes but The Suits didn't like the episode revolving around (gay) porn addiction, so that got pulled, leaving the first season with twelve episodes.

The pilot episode (creatively named "Pilot") introduces Edward "Ed" Mercer and the ship, opening with his soon-to-be-ex wife Kelly cheating on him then they begin their posting on the Orville while trying to build a professional relationship. As the crew learn to work together, one of the better episodes sets the stage for this; "Majority Rule", an episode with good (albeit heisted from ''Black Mirror'') commentary on social currency systems. There's also "About a Girl", a Bortus-centered episode that explores his relationships during a vital part of his race's life cycle. A later episode - "Cupid's Dagger" reveals why Kelly cheated in the first place, being due to biological properties of Kelly's lover Darulio, a slimy (in the "disgustingly immoral" sense, not the "covered in slime" sense... until you make him happy) alien playboy.

Since this is a Star Trek homage, the show has to have a bad guy group the protagonists alternate between killing and studying. Given the showrunners of both shows, they also represent/strawman something the showrunner opposes. That's where the Krill come in; [[vampire|Nosferatu]]-looking reptilian aliens, despite the name, with a fatal weakness to UV radiation. The Krill are villains because they follow a [[Protectorate of Menoth|violently xenophobic religion]] that claims all non-Krill are soulless abominations to be killed or subjugated. Also, [[Derp|the god of this religion and one of its religious phrases (see below) were named for throwaway jokes about U.S car rental companies and Katniss Everdeen from "The Hunger Games" franchise]].

This brings us to the subject the show is most preachy (pun intended) about by far, its anti-religion slant. While Star Trek also has those "better off atheist" overtones, the Orville goes further. Not content with using the Krill to beat the "religion bad" drum, they harp on for a quarter of Season One's episodes with "If Stars Should Appear" and "Mad Idolatry" (Star Trek's "Who Watches the Watchers" with the serial numbers filed off). Every religion is replete with visual references to Christianity - eg; Krill places of worship look like chapels with pews and all the religious vestments - plus a poke at Islam with "Temeen Everdeen", the Krill equivalent of "Allahu Akbar", resulting in a show pushing anti-religious atheism hard enough to make Star Trek look like [[C.S. Lewis|The Chronicles of Narnia]] (even non-religious viewers have also complained about it). Hey, if Seth can bog down a season of a TV show with it, we can bog down a paragraph of a webpage talking about it.

The critics did their best to tank the show this season, but most ''viewers'' liked it, a few recurring complaints notwithstanding. In light of positive reception it received, the show was greenlit for a second season.

==Season Two==
In the second season, the network got a little more confident in the show so, to save money, they aired Bortas' porno, held over from the previous season.

The main change here was writing out Alara a couple eps in. The character's actress, Halston Sage, was rumored (by various online tabloid publications) to have briefly dated Seth MacFarlane. It is also possible that other factors such as her role on ''Prodigal Son'' or a desire for a pay increase could've contributed to or caused her departure. In any event, if the dating rumor is true it just goes to show that [[Derp|dating a co-worker and subordinate 20 years younger than you rarely ends well]]. This may come back to haunt the showrunners as Alara was one of the better received characters. Don't worry though, Alara's character was immediately replaced with Talla, another alien of the very same race, gender, and profession... despite the lore establishing that Alara's career path as a security officer was unusual by her species' standards. To be fair, Alara's final episode ''is'' a good sendoff for the character.

The next big change is the Krill, who become the "lesser villains that need to team up with the good guys to fight worse villains" cliché. Given all the villainous setup the Krill have, this is jarring, the more so because this season pulls it out its own butt ''twice''.

The first instance was when Ed, his new girlfriend and the crew were caught between a contrived race of not-Orks doing WAAAAGH! and their targets, the Krill. Then... surprise! Ed's new woman is really Teleya - a female Krill he captured in Season 1 - disguised as a human to get close to Ed and kill him (resulting in plot holes because Teleya was last seen imprisoned on Earth and she was a schoolteacher not a solider or a spy), but they're forced to work together when trapped on a death world. We don't see the orks again in this season. The second is when the not-Federation teams with the Krill because the rest of Isaac's robotic race, the Kaylons, have gone [[Necrons|Full Skynet]] against organic life. Ironically, throughout the Season Isaac gradually turned good, becoming the crew's not-Data member. The Kaylons attempt to invade Earth and look set to become the show's Borg equivalent (minus organic parts and assimilation).

The cast seems to be gelling better - Halston's departure and rumored situation between her and Seth aside, the writers have a better idea of what the show should be and the humor is now used in service of the stories. Season 2 was definitely a step up overall.

==Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow==
The show is slated for a third season, but was cancelled by Fox and moved from TV to the streaming service Hulu. However, filming was delayed multiple times by the global COVID-19 pandemic. As of mid-2021 an official air date still has not been announced, making a 2021 release very unlikely.

Some commend The Orville as a well-made, witty breath of [[Noblebright|fresh air]] in an overly [[Grimdark|stagnant]] genre with a side of nostalgia. Others denounce The Orville as a derivative, sophomoric, uncomfortable vanity protect (some consider MacFarlane stunt-casting himself as the main character the height of vanity, especially when the show pushes his views on the audience - at least Roddenberry let others play Kirk and Wesley). Some think both sides have a point. Trekkies are equally divided on the show; many Trekkies [[butthurt]] over Discovery endorse The Orville, a significant number of Discovery fans hate The Orville, and a small and overlooked group quietly enjoys both.

As always, stay tuned for how this turns out.

= Would you like to know more? =
*[https://orville.fandom.com/wiki/The_Orville Not Main Memory Alpha]. The wiki.

[[Category: Television]]

The Orville

2021-08-18T06:14:23Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:3061:414C:ECD:6219:

[[File:The Orville.jpg|300px|thumb|left|The titular spaceship itself, The Orville]]
{{Delete|See Talk Page. I'm not sure this show has enough of a following to justify a page here}}
'''The Orville''' is <s>[[Star Trek]] fanfiction with the serial numbers filed off</s> a comedy drama sci-fi television series that began as a homage to Star Trek, created by and starring Seth MacFarlane of [[Fail|''Family Guy'']] infamy-- [[Skub|No wait, come back!]]

The guy's a huge Trekkie, to the point of having a few cameos in Star Trek, who went to the FOX execs and pitched his idea for a loving comedic sendup of The Next Generation because he felt too many shows sunk into a quagmire (pun intended, and ours not his) of grimdark. Many of the executive producers and developers are notable industry Trekkies such as David Goodman (who wrote the ''Futurama'' Trek parody episode), or Trek alumni such as Brannon Braga. First airing in 2017, the series is about the strung-out not-Picard protagonist Captain Edward Mercer, played by MacFarlane himself, of the eponymous not-Enterprise spaceship "The Orville" ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers#Orville likely named after one of the Wright Brothers]). His ex-wife Kelly is the first officer while the crew includes the beefy gay not-Worf alien Bortus, asshole not-Lore android Isaac, and John LaMarr and Gordon Malloy - an even more ridiculous parody of Harry Kim and Tom Paris. They explore the galaxy while dealing with personal problems and fighting various bad guys. The show has a mix of drama, comedy and commentary on real world issues.

=Can you play in this universe or what?=
There is no dedicated RPG for ''The Orville''. But that hasn't stopped elegant/tg/entlemen from trying. As a ''Trek'' knockoff it's Trekkies who've mooted systems for it. For those interested in the (dysfunctional) character-relations: GURPS. TRAVELLER, for those with a hard-SF bent. And then there's always ''Far Trek''.
[https://www.therpgsite.com/pen-paper-roleplaying-games-rpgs-discussion/the-orville-which-rpg-system-would-you-use/ Here's a 2017 discussion.]

And, yes, servants of the Divine Emperor: you ''can'' buy miniatures, through WizKids.

=The Show=

==Season One==
The first season was supposed to have thirteen episodes but The Suits didn't like the episode revolving around (gay) porn addiction, so that got pulled, leaving the first season with twelve episodes.

The pilot episode (creatively named "Pilot") introduces Edward "Ed" Mercer and the ship, opening with his soon-to-be-ex wife Kelly cheating on him then they begin their posting on the Orville while trying to build a professional relationship. As the crew learn to work together, one of the better episodes sets the stage for this; "Majority Rule", an episode with good (albeit heisted from ''Black Mirror'') commentary on social currency systems. There's also "About a Girl", a Bortus-centered episode that explores his relationships during a vital part of his race's life cycle. A later episode - "Cupid's Dagger" reveals why Kelly cheated in the first place, being due to biological properties of Kelly's lover Darulio, a slimy (in the "disgustingly immoral" sense, not the "covered in slime" sense... until you make him happy) alien playboy.

Since this is a Star Trek homage, the show has to have a bad guy group the protagonists alternate between killing and studying. Given the showrunners of both shows, they also represent/strawman something the showrunner opposes. That's where the Krill come in; [[vampire|Nosferatu]]-looking reptilian aliens, despite the name, with a fatal weakness to UV radiation. The Krill are villains because they follow a [[Protectorate of Menoth|violently xenophobic religion]] that claims all non-Krill are soulless abominations to be killed or subjugated. Also, [[Derp|the god of this religion and one of its religious phrases (see below) were named for throwaway jokes about U.S car rental companies and Katniss Everdeen from "The Hunger Games" franchise]].

This brings us to the subject the show is most preachy (pun intended) about by far, its anti-religion slant. While Star Trek also has those "better off atheist" overtones, the Orville adds to this with a quarter of the season's episodes just about beating the "religion bad" drum - "If Stars Should Appear", "Krill" (named for the above aliens) and "Mad Idolatry" (Star Trek's "Who Watches the Watchers" with the serial numbers filed off). Every religion is replete with visual references to Christianity - eg; Krill places of worship look like chapels complete with pews and all the religious vestments - and there's also a poke at Islam in the Krill's "Temeen Everdeen" phrase, their equivalent of "Allahu Akbar", resulting in a season pushing anti-religious atheism hard enough to make Star Trek look like [[C.S. Lewis|The Chronicles of Narnia]] (even non-religious viewers have also complained about it). Hey, if Seth can bog down a season of a TV show with it, we can bog down a paragraph of a webpage talking about it.

The critics did their best to tank the show this season, but most ''viewers'' liked it, a few recurring complaints notwithstanding. In light of positive reception it received, the show was greenlit for a second season.

==Season Two==
In the second season, the network got a little more confident in the show so, to save money, they aired Bortas' porno, held over from the previous season.

The main change here was writing out Alara a couple eps in. The character's actress, Halston Sage, was rumored (by various online tabloid publications) to have briefly dated Seth MacFarlane. It is also possible that other factors such as her role on ''Prodigal Son'' or a desire for a pay increase could've contributed to or caused her departure. In any event, if the dating rumor is true it just goes to show that [[Derp|dating a co-worker and subordinate 20 years younger than you rarely ends well]]. This may come back to haunt the showrunners as Alara was one of the better received characters. Don't worry though, Alara's character was immediately replaced with Talla, another alien of the very same race, gender, and profession... despite the lore establishing that Alara's career path as a security officer was unusual by her species' standards. To be fair, Alara's final episode ''is'' a good sendoff for the character.

The next big change is the Krill, who become the "lesser villains that need to team up with the good guys to fight worse villains" cliché. Given all the villainous setup the Krill have, this is jarring, the more so because this season pulls it out its own butt ''twice''.

The first instance was when Ed, his new girlfriend and the crew were caught between a contrived race of not-Orks doing WAAAAGH! and their targets, the Krill. Then... surprise! Ed's new woman is really Teleya - a female Krill he captured in Season 1 - disguised as a human to get close to Ed and kill him (resulting in plot holes because Teleya was last seen imprisoned on Earth and she was a schoolteacher not a solider or a spy), but they're forced to work together when trapped on a death world. We don't see the orks again in this season. The second is when the not-Federation teams with the Krill because the rest of Isaac's robotic race, the Kaylons, have gone [[Necrons|Full Skynet]] against organic life. Ironically, throughout the Season Isaac gradually turned good, becoming the crew's not-Data member. The Kaylons attempt to invade Earth and look set to become the show's Borg equivalent (minus organic parts and assimilation).

The cast seems to be gelling better - Halston's departure and rumored situation between her and Seth aside, the writers have a better idea of what the show should be and the humor is now used in service of the stories. Season 2 was definitely a step up overall.

==Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow==
The show is slated for a third season, but was cancelled by Fox and moved from TV to the streaming service Hulu. However, filming was delayed multiple times by the global COVID-19 pandemic. As of mid-2021 an official air date still has not been announced, making a 2021 release very unlikely.

Some commend The Orville as a well-made, witty breath of [[Noblebright|fresh air]] in an overly [[Grimdark|stagnant]] genre with a side of nostalgia. Others denounce The Orville as a derivative, sophomoric, uncomfortable vanity protect (some consider MacFarlane stunt-casting himself as the main character the height of vanity, especially when the show pushes his views on the audience - at least Roddenberry let others play Kirk and Wesley). Some think both sides have a point. Trekkies are equally divided on the show; many Trekkies [[butthurt]] over Discovery endorse The Orville, a significant number of Discovery fans hate The Orville, and a small and overlooked group quietly enjoys both.

As always, stay tuned for how this turns out.

= Would you like to know more? =
*[https://orville.fandom.com/wiki/The_Orville Not Main Memory Alpha]. The wiki.

[[Category: Television]]