Reconsidering Ano Love
BelgarathMTH
Member Posts: 5,653
Hi, as many of you know, I've always been a sucker for Anomen's good looks and hot body. Then, I just tonight got this little gem of a dialogue upon showing mercy to a poor little low-level rogue caught in the crossfire between Renal Bloodscalp and Mae'Var:
Huh. This made me think, Damn, Ano, girl, how evil can you be? This fellow has a seriously bad, abusive darkside, that is making me rethink how I have defended him and "loved" him. How can he speak to Jaheira like that? Or to any woman, for that matter? Hotness will only give you a pass so many times.
The only thing is, the dude is so damned powerful. Which, when combined with good looks, equates to me as sexy. As in, drop-dead gorgeous, omg, I can't resist you, I don't care what your alignment is or if you abuse me, sexy.
And, I don't know who I could replace him with. A cleric with a free seven levels of fighter? Dang. And, I know that he is redeemable, eventually.
But still, the harshness of this exchange has got me to rethinking my support for the guy.
Thoughts? Comments?
Huh. This made me think, Damn, Ano, girl, how evil can you be? This fellow has a seriously bad, abusive darkside, that is making me rethink how I have defended him and "loved" him. How can he speak to Jaheira like that? Or to any woman, for that matter? Hotness will only give you a pass so many times.
The only thing is, the dude is so damned powerful. Which, when combined with good looks, equates to me as sexy. As in, drop-dead gorgeous, omg, I can't resist you, I don't care what your alignment is or if you abuse me, sexy.
And, I don't know who I could replace him with. A cleric with a free seven levels of fighter? Dang. And, I know that he is redeemable, eventually.
But still, the harshness of this exchange has got me to rethinking my support for the guy.
Thoughts? Comments?
3
Comments
Nevermind the goatee (?!). It looks like a blind gibberling tried to give him a haircut.
@Belgarathmth - Replace Anomen with Cernd! Kidding. Kidding. But, I think Anomen said that to Jaheira because of his upbringing, and such. However, what he said is pretty uncalled for.
http://www.shsforums.net/topic/54227-enkidas-portrait-pack-v2/
It "prettifies" the portraits, removes most of the scars, and adds better outfits, such as the red scarf Ano is wearing.
I agree with the artistic decision to make Minsc black, like Dynaheir. It makes perfect sense to me.
And the hair thing is meant to represent his head injury.
If you don't like those artistic decisions, just don't use the portrait pack. There, problem solved.
Since he's competing with a Mage/Cleric, a Fighter/Druid (who combines healing and Iron Skins with a raise dead because she's neat like that), a Drow's epicsauce magic resistance (and overall superior cleric-ness), a Halfling who happens to embody everything he *should*, better than he can ever hope to, and a comical berserker duo with their stats in all the right places, he's not even managed to stay in my party more than once or twice, there's someone better than him at pretty much everything he might hope to be.
Which is probably fortunate. Should that conversation have cropped up with 90% of my Charname's in the party of either gender, Anomen would swiftly find himself missing parts vital for ongoing life functions.
Re-educating him through a romance makes him a little better but it's a harsh ride.
That said, I do appreciate that they included a seriously flawed character in the game. Edwin is powerhungry evil, Viconia is a bitch, Xzar and Montaron are viciously evil but none of them came off as particularly broken or flawed.
Anomen is very realistic in his unlikable character, which is something to be appreciated, even if the characer himself is an ass.
If he's not your type, such that his good looks and huge muscles do nothing for you, then, it is very, very easy to hate him. Especially if you never played out his story to the point where he starts to soften up.
The thought of inspiring a dark personality to his redemption, through my influence and because he loves me, either as his friend or as his lover, is moth-to-flame, bait to self-destruction, for the likes of me.
The fantasy here for me, is that in the SoA story, Ano's redemption through my love and influence is actually possible.
Nine hells, I was even planning on having Anomen join the party when I get Keldorn because I wanted to see how snarky (or pissy) Adrian could get around them. Hah.
"The opinions expressed in this program are not necessarily those of the staff or management of Belgarath, Inc."
Sad, isn't it? LOL
Cleric/Mage: Absolute magical firepower, and more spells than you know what to do with. Plus whilst Anomen gets "swing hammer very slightly better", Aerie is getting "Gotterdammerung, the spell", and that's just ducky.
Drow Cleric: She's got what, 50-65% Spell Resistance? 9 more points in Dex for an extra -4 AC and +3 to hit with slings? An extra 3rd and 4th level spell from Wisdom even after Anomen is redeemed? Viccy is a little overrated but she's actually more survivable than Annie, not less, and not once have I had to hear her talk about killing twenty giants. Yes we know all about the bloody giants, I'm the child of an actual physical deity sent to earth and I wield phenomenal cosmic power and I've *still* talked about it less than those bloody giants.
Fighter/Druid: If you're in it for the tanking, then Jaheira is the bomb. Clerics simply have nothing that matches Iron Skins, nothing that handles mages like Insect Swarms, and if you're taking along Aerie or Viconia then you simply do not need her to be doing cleric duties as well, and a level 24/21 Fighter/Druid gets more HLAs, and better tanking HLAs, than a level 39 cleric.
For actual melee combat, and overall hunkiness, attractiveness and a great personality, I do have to go with Minsc. He's utterly loyal, brave, respectful, built for carnage, and he actually respects you, man or woman. Plus he's got that charming innocent smile going for him, and *no* daddy issues or drama.
Even Valygar, dark, brooding and capable of outputting sexy x3 backstabs like a boss. Plus he's actively against carrying on his family line, which means he's that much more likely to be interested.
Anomen, stuck up fella that he is, would be far too concerned with what others think of him than either, and as a result would stick to the societally expected action, he represents a lot that is wrong with the lawful alignment. Fighter levels ain't bad, but his THAC0 isn't stellar with only 7 levels, nor does he have the Constitution to really make full use of them. He may as well have gone for 13 levels, he'd have the same Cleric level in the end, an extra 1/2 attack, and that much more HP (I assume given his mediocre Dex that he's not pulling an archer role) and more proficiences.
It also can't be forgotten that before redeeming him he's got a terrible wisdom; from a mechanical perspective he's barely capable of mastering the magical abilities he's supposed to be slinging around.
And this is assuming that Charname isn't a beatstick Ranger/Cleric themselves, which if you really want to talk power, is probably the most powerful class combination that doesn't have "mage" somewhere in there. You know his mutton-chopped arse is not taking Charname's flail away from him unless it's roleplaying night.
And yes, by giving him attention and slowly working through his mountain of issues he stops being quite so insufferable (but even then has his little moments, I found). But the fact is that's simply an unhealthy relationship from the get-go, you're putting effort into a jerk all "Oh, I can change him! You just don't know him like I do.", that's just an unrealistic standard that leads to broken relationships across the planet and rewarding someone's negative behaviour with praise and affection.
You don't love Anomen, you love this idealised figure, and you seek to change him from being the insufferable sexist prick that he is and turn him into what you wanted instead, rather than just finding someone who was actually a decent person in the first place, built on a foundation of mutual understanding and support from the get go.
First off, Vicky is never going to be a suitable choice for me, because I am good, and she is evil, and I don't care to play a game where I have to keep my reputation in the sewer in order to avoid my cleric or my mage or my main dps tank walking off in the middle of a dungeon-of-no-return. (Vicky, Eddie, and Korgy, I'm looking at YOU!) I tried an "evil" party game once, and it got old so fast, I abandoned it before I had even gotten close to being ready to go to Spellhold.
It is never a choice for me to take Jaheira or Ano. Jaheira will always be in my BG party. I have undying loyalty to the woman. The same goes for Minsc. The two of them will always be in my party, no matter what. They might as well be hard-coded into my game as forced party members.
So, all of that said, my choice is between Ano or.... who? I actually have an alternate love if mods are allowed - Gavin. But who knows if Berelinde is going to adapt him for the new EE versions of the game, which I plan to switch to on a permanent basis.
I can potentially be the party cleric myself, and let him go that way, but I don't like to give up my skaldsong, and my high lore, and my arcane spells.
At 6'4" and 280 pounds in real life, I am never going to identify with any race but human (or half-orc, but, bleagh), so cleric-mage is out.
Sometimes I bring Aerie, but she is no substitute for Ano, as she is one cleric spell level behind him for the whole game.
And, again, Ano is hands-down, the most drop-dead, gorgeous, absolutely my type in every way, man that I have ever met in a game. (Close runners-up would be Carth and Alistair.)
I think that I will just have to keep my loyalty to him, and use my "feminine" wiles to turn him from his wicked nature and change him into the hero of a man I know he can be.
LOL.
Several times, he would say something or react in a way that even my last screws of sanity would get loose. What usually happened, was the following:
1) Listen to him, with patience.
2) Try to be understanding, since he had a rough life and a horrible father.
3) Fail miserably to do the previous.
4) When 3 occured, like every time, my face got an expression like my avatar, and then we go to number 5.
5) Save -> Kick his ass all over the place -> Load -> Kick his ass again -> And again -> etc
6) Load -> Hey Anomen, my paladin buddy, what were you saying? :]
Worked like a charm, i felt bad about my bursts of rage though :x
Now to be serious, i always thought that Anomen had distinct flaws that made him human and alive.
And that's what i liked about him, he caused reactions, no one was indifferent to him, which means good writing.
He's an insecure person, because of his past, and it shows, he tries to prove he's strong, and his insecurity comes out with sexism too.
Anyway, i like Anomen for his believable personality, although some times, i did kick his ass just to vent.
Sorry Ano o/
Meh, he's detestable. Not in a "I don't care" way, but in a "you really are a piece of work, I wish I could toss you in a room filled with Beholders. Oh wait, I *can*!
DONE!
Who knows, maybe the upcoming EE romance will actually feature a certain other human romance who you can swap portraits with Anomen? Though it's a little disconcerting to hear you say "powergaming perspective", then follow up with "Bard", heck, maybe someone will make a square-jawed Skald NPC you can bring along to romance instead. If decent and intuitive modding tools become available with all this newfound engine tidying then who knows what the modding scene will bring?
@Mornmagor - Actually that's a good point, Charname's father is the god of Murder, and they were raised by a crazy old coot who never bothered to memorise anything other than Magic Missile, yet somehow none of the "neutral" options in those dialogues involve telling valued team-mates that they're worthless, extolling the murder of helpless little dudes, or anything that pings above a 5 on the Misandry meter.
If he ever hurt one of my kitty cats, he wouldn't just be out of my party, he'd be dead. Fortunately, I've never known him to do such an unforgivable thing.
We are still just having fun here, aren't we? If there's any animosity going on, you win, and I'm out.
Edit: Having said that, yes, he is a complete and utter arse! But arses also need love, Anomen's story is quite good in that it gives you some background on how he became what he is.