I'm kind of perplexed about him winning best new character of 2014. There was almost nothing interesting about him at all. I like to switch up my party members and enjoy their banter, and he was so boring that I ended up never really using him.

I feel like Blackwall was a really strong one. Especially in his dynamic with Sera. He's the tired, middle aged veteran lifer with a weary and kind of resigned outlook on things, and he tries to connect with Sera using humor but they just don't get each other's jokes. Nonetheless, he's good natured about it.

Dorian was also a good character. He's a cynical highborn mage that nonetheless seems distrustful about magic and it's never really easy to guess which decisions he's going to approve of.

Iron Bull is just the big guy who likes killing and fucking things. What's so interesting about him?

I think what bothers me is there was no real discussion about him as a choice. It was just "oh, yeah he sounds pretty cool. Let's make him the winner."

I agree, but it doesn't seem like something worth getting worked up about.

The best character in DA:I was Cassandra but she doesn't qualify because she was in 5 minutes of DA2.

Right, I know I shouldn't be worked up about it. I just, I dunno. I actually loved DA:I where I thought I would hate it, so I'm maybe a little more passionate about it than I should be.

They said they liked him because he reminded them of Mordin Solus if I recall. Among a couple other things.

Didn't seem like a good reason, but I haven't played the game yet. For that matter I can't personally think of any character in any game that really stood out to me in general this year.

There really hasn't been any special characters to me since Francis York Morgan (that's not actually true, I'm just being silly internet).

Yep its a strange choice but whatever there aint much competition out there and at least Dragon Age won something.

@cornbredx: Pretty much every other new character in DA:I was great. Iron Bull is just generic cool dude.

@cornbredx: I havnt listened to the podcast yet but if the reasoning is that Iron Bull reminds them of Mordin Solus that explains it all... they where all smoking some really great stuff during their discussions :)

I thought it was common knowledge that the best new character in Inquisition was Scout Harding.

Seriously though I'm just happy they gave Dragon Age the time of day as it's my personal GOTY, and pretty much every other category and top ten list this year has been dominated by stuff I didn't care for or didn't play.

Think I enjoyed the catty banter between Sera and Vivienne the most, personally. Iron Bull was always in my party though because he was my favorite tank.

THE Iron Bull is great idk what you people are on.

Inquisition has a great cast so I could see pretty much any party member taking a Best New Character award but I don't see how you could play the game and come away thinking that Iron Bull, of all characters, couldn't deserve it.

I think Dorian is excellent. He's both entertaining in general and he strikes me as authentic. If I had pictured a Byzantine slumming it in Western Europe around the 14th century, he would have the same characteristics. My second* favorite conversation with Dorian is about how slavery just seemed completely natural, and he fairly can't understand how the slums and alienages and people driven to crime by necessity are a superior solution. It comes off as authentic, it seems like a legitimate feeling by a character who inhabits that environment. His attitude reminds me of Enlightenment thinkers. His moustache is fucking dapper as shit. I had him in this blue printed thing most of the game, he looked like a baller. Unfortunately I specced him mostly lightning and necromancy and it seems like both of those are weak against most bosses. When Pride demons appeared, Dorian was no help.

*My favorite conversation with Dorian came after I became a templar. He noted that I smelled different, that he could smell the lyrium on me, like the electrical crackling in the air after a thunderstrike. It was very attractive, he told me. I got a new specialization and it made my boyfriend hot. That's awesome.

Blackwall I didn't dig so much as a character, but what happens in his storyline is kind of unlike anything else I've played. I wish it had more of a tangible or noticeable effect on how your story plays out. It is technically a massive political scandal. I like the nature of how it happens. Blackwall fucks you over for all of the best reasons. He wants to help you so badly that he ends up hurting you. It's really interesting.

I want to play the game again as a more religious type to see where Varric's conversations can go. Varric being sort of a closet Andrastian is something I think is extremely interesting.

Sometimes I wonder if they didn't pick Iron Bull just because they find a big tough-talking bisexual pirate who is into rough trade to be humorous.

Yeah, never understood the amount of love that Iron Bull has. Yeah, hes a giant horned dude whos in to S&M, but not much more. I really like Cassandra . She starts out being the tough impenetrable type, but she becomes a much more interesting character as you go through her story. Also Dorian is great too.

I think Sera and Dorian are easily the two best characters in this game so i would kinda sorta have to agree with the OP, but meh, it's whatever. I think all the characters in Inquisition are, at the very least, good so it doesn't really bother me at the end of the day. Iron Bull just happened to be the character that resonated with them the most it seems.

@berserker976: I'm so bummed nothing comes of her dance lessons. I mean come on!

He's ok. Seems pretty standard fare as far as Bioware characters go.

Cassandra and Dorian are comfortably the best two characters in Inquisition, imo.

I'm pretty sure they liked him because he's into bondage. There isn't really much else there. It's important not to take Giant Bomb too seriously.

I think Iron Bull is just the most likeable and relatable out of all of them. Cassandra is too preachy, Dorian and Vivianne are constantly condescending, Solas is never happy, Blackwall is kind of boring, Cole is downright annoying with his constant "spirit" talk and Sera is a little too juvenile. Varric was the second best banter character as he seemed like a typical down to earth kind of guy.

My favorite team was comprised of Iron Bull, Solas and Varric - although I would sometimes swap in Sera as she was a more effective rogue. Yet each and every time I had Sera in my party for important missions it almost felt like a waste in terms of banter as she would add really nothing of value to the conversation.

I do think the entire cast was really strong though. I actually had a hard time choosing my final party - on one hand I wanted Cassandra to be there because I knew she was chronicling these events and wanted her to be present, on the other I had other people I wanted there for gameplay reasons. Thats really good, when a game manages to endear you to it's characters to a point where you feel "bad" for them.

I'm also really curious to see where they'll take the Solas stuff, and for once, am actually pretty excited about DLC. At this point I think Inquisition is probably my game of the year. Although riddled with small imperfections, it's damn good fun to play.

Giant Bomb likes the silly and roguish characters. I was glad to see a character from this game win it regardless because whichever is your favorite, I think they did the best characters this year. I am still playing this game but so far I like how many of them are unfolding.

I thought Iron Bull was a bit goofy at first, but his character has some cool experiences to talk about and overall he's pretty entertaining. Even if he says "Vints".

Iron Bull seems the closest to Wrex with his gruff, do-whatever attitude. Bondage, not so much, but Wrex did eventually become pretty popular with the lady Krogan.

Maybe they're just channeling some latent love for Krogans, is what I'm saying.

Cassandra and Dorian were my favorites, with Sera trailing just behind them. I also really enjoyed Cole, especially as I went through my second playthrough and listened to some of the banter he has with the other party members, as well as the environmental banter that he'll pop up with. Bull was just okay. He's your standard cool mercenary leader guy. Loves to fight, thinks dragons are sick and fighting dragons is just the best thing ever. Nothing I hated about him but nothing stands out from the rest for me either.

The weird thing about the staff picking The Iron Bull is that he's a total bro. I mean, I don't think Bioware could have written a more Bro-y character than Bull if they tried.

... And he won best character from the same staff that constantly derides "bro" stuff.

Sera and Dorian were easily the best characters. In any given party formation you could be sure that either Dorian or Sera would have an amusing conversation with someone else.

I have no idea how anyone likes Sera. Can't fucking stand her. My primary party is Iron Bull/Vivienne/Dorian. All the Iron Bull/Vivienne banter is priceless.

I didn't use Iron Bull a lot, but when I did he always had some pretty good party banter. Him and Sera have some really good stuff.

He's a brash rogue type but with big old horns, and easily one of the better designed characters. I thought it was interesting as an artist that they picked the two best designed characters as their favorites. But it became clear through that discussion nobody got all that far into the game. Certain types of sad internet people are going to hate anything with wide appeal but Iron Bull is appealing in an immediate way because that kind of character is pretty common. The reason he's common is because its likeable. Once you get out of your "only obscure things are cool" teenager phase you can appreciate easy appeal, especially when they bother to flesh it out and avoid easy pander.

Those two are just characters you immediately have an opinion on, Serah being another. The others require a bit of digging.Like if you told me at the beginning of the game Blackwall or Solas would have anything remotely interesting going on I woulda called you a liar.

But they didnt get that far into the game. The reason the story and character sections went so quickly is because that's not what these guys tend to play games for so there was no passionate defense or labored debate. If they saw this thread they might be like "eh good point" cus they're not super committed cus they kinda don't care. The winner was from a game two people on the staff played and they weren't even that committed to it.

So why anyone would get angry at an opinion they're not even that strong with is laughable.

I think the Iron Bull is the best character in DA3. I also think all the characters in DA3 are pretty great. You could make an argument for most of them.

I liked Iron Bull quite a fair bit, and he at least makes more sense than, say, Lamar Davis...

Iron Bull was also my favorite character in the game. It's kinda funny because he's pretty much carved from the same tree as Urdnot Wrex, Oghren and Canderous Ordo from previous Bioware games but these characters were always among my favorites. I feel like these guys together would make amazing drinking buddies.

Dorian felt like the most unique character of the bunch. He was well written.

Give it a half a year and I won't remember rest of the characters. Most of them felt so bland in comparison.

For this category I don't think they've ever really been interested in fleshed out character arcs or anything like that. Just characters they think are fun. Remember, in their first GOTY I believe this category was called "Character We'd Most Like To Party With."

Personally I would've picked Blackwall or maybe Dorian though. (Also Fetch would've made it on my list, and I'm surprised she didn't even get mentioned.)

Maybe it's his sex scene that they were into...

I think we're all thinking too much about a category where Boyle was a runner up.

Fuck Boyle.

Yep. But it's a recurring strength of Bioware that everybody relates to their characters differently, I guess, so I can't be too mad about it.

For what it's worth, Sera is very much it for me (and she's my girlfriend, too, so hey). I see how you could feel that she's too naïve... but she isn't. She's a political realist and there's this whole undercurrent about her running a spy empire very well all for the same very political reasons and her naiveté making her basically incorruptible, which may or may not be a front for how well she actually understands the upper class she's actively disrupting.

Also she's really funny and when she's very fond of you she'll nickname you Inky. So she wins.

I think Dorian is fun and clever, too, I actually enjoyed DA2, so I was already fond of Varric. Cassandra's gradual de-hardassing is interesting, but I agree with somebody above. Blackwall's story endgame is something I hadn't quite seen before in an RPG. The fact that he was lying about who he is from before you meet him and that you actually unveil his crime at a point when you are also the one tasked with judging him is fascinating. When he pops up in cutscenes or gets cute with any of us after that point I actually felt kinda betrayed and started being a lot less nice to him. And yeah, I wish the decision I made (he gets to hang out with us, but he's getting Grey Wardened right after the world is saved) impacted everybody's reactions to him more, rather than just pop up a new quest on the War Table.

Iron Bull is OK, too, though. I think maybe him being so cool and well adjusted is a bit too much, actually. I get the joke, the Qunari are super strict and operate on this very regimented worldview, so technically Iron Bull is really screwed up for a Qunari... so he's just basically a really nice, normal guy for our standards. It's just that you don't see that happening. I'll give Bull this, though: he has his own party and they all seem cool. I would totally play a spin-off game about the Chargers as they get recruited and go on adventures.

@master_funk: I completely agree about Cassandra. She was absoluetely great. Both of her major scenes with Varric, the confrontation and the book scene would be candidates for moment of the year for me. Her actress plays her so damn well in both of those, despite being saddled with a thick accent. Too bad she wasn't a new character, though I doubt they would have included her in the discussion anyway.

The part that makes Seras character just plain stupid is the bolded part. The way she is behaving she would get murdered at sight in about 5min but for story reasons she is just unexplainedly untouchable. Nothing of how she runs her Red Jennys make any sense whatsoever unless we are talking about a Disney spy empire. Simply put shes not a believable character but rather comic relief.

I found Iron Bull to be boring. Blackwall and Dorian were way more interesting IMO.

For what it's worth, Iron Bull wasn't even in my top half of characters in that game. He had an amusing personality but didn't strike me as a serious attempt at writing a realistic character. It was more like another person sitting at home was writing his dialogue. "I really like hitting things" and "that was awesome" and so on.

My favorite character of 2014 was probably Glory from Shadowrun Dragonfall, I guess, but I wouldn't say I feel strongly about it.

I disagree. I guess we have to fight to the death, to see who has the right to live.

I think the only reason Iron bull won, was because no one besides patrick at the table has actually finished the game. So they never really explored any of the other team members conversations or story lines. I may be wrong but from listening thats how it sounded to me.

And i agree bull was fun but he is the least interesting character of the team.

I disagree. While he is bro in demeanor he is actually pretty smart and he's a spy. He's kind of a thinking man's bro. Which frankly is Giant Bomb. This is a site with a wrestling podcast where the staff has been sitting around drinking Surge.

Lamar won last year so I wouldn't really consider their tastes in this category that relevant. The reason they seemed to like him was from just one funny scene and that he was voiced by Freddy Prince Jr. Seems a little superficial.

I dug Iron Bull, but he wasn't in my main party. I always see it as a strength that when there is disagreement on the best character, just means different characters struck different cords with different people.

Totally agree. I played Dragonfall right after Inquisition and it actually undercut Inquisition a bit. Thought the story and characters were much better in Dragonfall and Glory was the highlight.

@monty_vaca said:

Dragonfall is my GOTY, and I want to say you're both wrong. Eiger was by far the stand out character in that game. Loved her to bits.

Dorian and Sera blew that stupid bull out of the water when it came to new characteramifcationizing.

Good point. Lamar was a really annoying throwaway "wanna-be gangsta" character of the type that you see in a million narratives. I just don't think it's a category that they take very seriously.

@artisanbreads said:

I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you didn't mean to say that all "bros" out there are dumb as fuck. Anywho.

I disagree. What you're saying is that Bull is different because he has a brain and is actually a spy. I'm saying that his job doesn't define who he is; his personality does. Bull is a total bro. He tells you to hit him with a stick as hard as you can to beat the fear of demons out of him. If you try to talk to him about how he's feeling, he gets pissed off and walks away. If you comply, he feels better about himself and you both high five like total bros and he thanks you for helping him work through it. That is like, the fucking definition of a Bro.

And for the record, a Bro isn't a bad thing to be. Being dependable, and always down to help a friend in need aren't personality traits to be dismissive of, or to sneer at in a condescending manner. Bull has all of those qualities, and all of those qualities are appealing.

He's no Shit Bot, that's for sure.

@rethla said:

Based on the game, I thought that Sera was just a part of the Red Jenny organization, not the full on leader of the entire thing. Maybe a leader of a cell or branch, but not the only one. I mean, the Red Jennys have been in action since the first game, and we know that she was a child during the Fifth Blight.

I don't like her as much as some people, but I don't think her character is unbelievable in that regard. She's a piece of a larger whole, not the head of it. At least that's how it always seemed to be drawn in my conversations with her about the Red Jenny stuff.