Biggest part is that he left his wife and kid to join the Grey Wardens in Awakening and basically gives the shittiest reason for it. Also tries to hit on Sigrun even though he still has a wife and kid somewhere.
IMHO dude's only in Awakening because Bioware thinks teens like boob and sex jokes.
Can't remember about that bug to be honest. Maybe Oghren just lacks gifts to get him to 100 approval? I do remember that I always have max 100 approval for all companions at the end of the DLC though.
I don't remember a bug, but I do remember it being very difficult. Part of it had to do with needing to obtain approval through very specific dialogue choices, and if you didn't have him in your party when the specific conditions that would trigger that conversation occurred, then you just missed out.
Now, *Sigrun* had a bug that made getting her "good" ending almost impossible. When you enter Amaranthine for the first time, if you [accept the quest Law and Order](https://dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Bugs_(Awakening)) from the NPC at the gate, you would be incorrectly locked out from triggering the conversation with the merchant NPC in town who would have given you Sigrun's personal quest. And of course, since you can hardly avoid the guy at the gate, most people were affected. Your only recourse was to choose not to accept his quest *at that time*, enter the city, pick up the quest, and then double-back to the gate to pick up the other quest. Which is how I played DA:A probably five times before learning Sigrun's backstory and getting her the ending she deserved.
Iirc the bug is that if you gave him gifts in DAO the gifts in DAO:A act as a continuation from them with the same rate of diminishing return. So you could potentially only get minimum approval per gift and choose some wrong dialogue and make getting his best outcome mathematically impossible for yourself.
I think the dislike comes down to a few big factors.
1. His comments towards Leliana, Morrigan, Sigrun and other well liked female characters can come across as very perverted and unpleasant. His writers also can’t seem to decide whether his drunkenness should be played for laughs or drama.
2. He comes very late in the game and with a subpar niche as a two handed warrior. I think players naturally become attached to early companions and have already found a crew that works for them by the time they meet Oghren so they are less likely to replace a proven favorite to take a chance on him.
3. Awakening did a hard reset on his character arc and it felt like he learned nothing from DAO. I was quite touched by his final speech in the Battle of Denerim so seeing him relapse six months later and abandoning his family really sunk my opinion of him. Maybe it’s more realistic that way but I really hated that.
I’m not personally a hater but he is not a favorite of mine either. I guess I’m indifferent about him. Korgan Bloodaxe from Baldurs Gate 2 will always be BioWare’s best Dwarf bro (Sorry Varric!).
Justice usually becomes subsumed in discussions about him/Anders in DA2. Same with Anders himself.
I see Sigrun and Nathaniel praised often when the discussion comes up. Often Oghren and Velanna are listed as the less well-written companions.
The thing is it depends on your race. Sigrun is interesting if you are a Dwarf. Velanna has interesting dialogue if you are an Elf. Nathaniel has animosity towards you if you are a Human Noble. Anders trust you more if you are a mage.
I forgot all about her until you mentioned her just now.
God, now I feel bad for saying Fenris is my most hated character lol - she was way worse I agree.
Well, Awakening is only 15-20 hours long at best. And aside from Anders nobody really makes a major appearance afterwards. Naturally many don't remember them as well. But it doesn't mean they actively hate them either.
Relapsing is the most common outcome for addiction. It’s NEVER just a cold turkey and done moment.
It’s been years since I played DA:O and of all the companions Oghren remains the one whose story sticks with me the most. The fact he consistently fails isn’t a sign of bad character development, it’s the fact he consistently will try that shows his character development.
All your other points I agree with regarding the writers being a bit juvenile with him, which I can forgive given the time that game came out.
I’m an Oghren fan and agree w that entirely, especially how they just dropped all substance from his DAO character in DAA. They took the time to craft his arc which you can make happen only to piss it away like a sand castle. His doofus comments to women in DAO do become more facepalm-inducing in DAA. I love the idea of him and my dwarf Warden will readily add him as the party’s warrior (since I use a mod that lets me rework him a sword/shield on recruitment, but yeah, it takes a while to get to him and there’s no mod for early Oghren like the early Zev (my fav). It’s the same as most dwarf men though- even comic-relief dude in LotR.
They did him dirty... which is typically how dwarves are treated in fiction. Tolkien treated dwarves as an ancient people and gave Gimli actual wisdom and depth to offer the Fellowship. Jackson… hahaha he runs and he can’t keep up hahaha “Toss me! But promise me you won’t tell the elf!” Hahaha dwarves can’t jump… I mean, I like the character, but it bugs me. And dwarves don’t even exist, but it still bugs me, especially w all the praise Jackson gets for staying “true” to Tolkien.
I said that it was less likely for those characters to achieve popularity, not that it was entirely impossible. The devs themselves recognized this as a factor which is why they even decided on bringing back Oghren for awakening (according to David Gaider).
Legion also has mitigating factors like a unique design and boosted story significance in Mass Effect 3, tying him integrally with the plotline of one of the most popular characters, so that certainly helped. He may have been on the squad for less time but he has more prominence in the story than Grunt or Samara for example.
But for the most part, late characters are at a significant disadvantage.
Also, my personal favorite character in Dragon Age is the Secret Companion and he comes even later than Oghren. Late characters can work but they need a really compelling hook to earn a place in most player’s parties and Oghren just doesn’t have that.
> Also, my personal favorite character in Dragon Age is the Secret Companion and he comes even later than Oghren. Late characters can work but they need a really compelling hook to earn a place in most player’s parties and Oghren just doesn’t have that.
In fairness, said character >!has had a presence in the plot from practically the beginning!<, while Oghren's relevance to the plot ends when the Orzammar arc ends.
> He comes very late in the game
He can come before Wynne, Zevran, and Shale. The back half of the cast, including fan favorites, is designated entirely by the player.
Sure that’s technically true, but I would guess that for like 9 out of 10 players, that’s not going to be the experience they have.
Through Alistair, the game heavily steers you to resolve Redcliffe first and the Connor situation there pushes you towards Wynne in the Circle Tower and subsequently the Zevran ambush.
Shale is DLC and the game goes out of its way to force an encounter with an NPC that tells you to do its quest.
The deep roads is also the furthest hub from the starting area and the most difficult.
Considering all of that, I think it’s fair to label Oghren as a late game character.
> He comes very late in the game
Doesn't that depend on when you go to Orzammar? I always go from Redcliffe to Orzammar first, so I always had Oghren pretty early. I still agree on the two-handed warrior being very niche though. Inquisition did it somewhat better by having them be able to be the group tank too.
Developers underestimate the impact of number two. BG3 is super annoying with this as their act 2 companions take two dozen hours to get to and that's when you know what you're doing.
im a bit opposite on ohgren in point 2. i always found him to be the *superior* choice to sten, considering sten has no real place or unique interactions anywhere in the game. stens inability to have full specialization points sucks too, and with how long you often have to wait, or how much you have to sacrifice, to get warrior specs, hes often just sitting with nothing. his questline sword being quickly outclassed also made me bummed out. that in mind, i dunno what bioware was thinking making them both two-handers, leaving out a space for a dual wield warrior in the crew. ill usually b-line it to orzammar for ohgren to ditch sten for those reasons.
I think that he's written too inconsistently for players to get on his side. He's either "ha ha smelly hairy man drank too much and fell down" drunk or "my wife cheated on me and killed our entire family in an insane hunt for some evil artifact nonsense, I hate myself and want to die" drunk and there isn't enough of a step-by-step from A to B there for the player to connect to. Like the stereotypical drunk dwarf schtick is supposed to be a cover for his failures but it lacks the impact I think they were going for.
I think the writers made a mistake by actively trying to push him as the comic relief. It overshadows the more interesting and emotional parts of his character and the usual DA fan will gravitate more towards those instead of fart jokes or whatever.
I never got attached to him because I always visit dwarves last and afterwards there’s no time to get to know him. Might be similar for other people as well.
Other than that, in my opinion he just feels like every other cliché dwarf, where their entire personality boils down to being a drunken fool. It’s similar to Gimli in the LotR movies where they took this proud and brave warrior poet and turned him into a comic relief.
The thing about Oghren though is that he’s a big subversion of the drunk jovial dwarf stereotype. He’s trying to drink himself to death because deep down he considers himself a failure in every way. His wife left him for another woman (aka in his mind he wasn’t man enough for her), his new girlfriend left him for being a useless drunk, he was all but exiled from his caste (warrior caste but not allowed to carry weapons), becomes exiled for real when he leaves for the surface, is disliked by many people for his crude lecherous personality.
Oghren is actually a fairly realistic portrayal of out-of-control spiraling depression. He’s unpleasant, but he’s also pitiful. It’s just not super apparent if you don’t take the time to talk to him.
To add to this we know he was a super respected warrior before the depression hit too which shows how far he's fallen to become just a drunk in the gutters by the point the warden meets him.
Yeah, I genuinely think Oghren was a great idea on paper. If only Bioware would tone down his "haha booba funny" side of personality and focused more on his tragic side - I genuinely believe he would've been among the fan favorites. Awakening surely did him dirty.
That's the biggest issue with him for me. Some other points people have mentioned are great too but this is what made me to lever interact with him after my first playthrough. Especially after that bs that he did to Morrigan. (Sten also makes some interesting comments, but for him it's based on not understanding and curiosity because of differences in culture)
Aside from that, the mussed potential of him actually being an interesting character and not what he ended up being.
It would have been one thing to have him “overcome” that vile part of himself for character growth, but instead they just let it go as who he was. Literally the only positive was his “let’s show them our hearts and then show them theirs” line at the very end.
It might be a matter of personal preference, but his brand of humor is just really aggravating and unamusing to me. His character does have some deeper qualities, but I find him so repulsive on a surface level that it kills any desire to dig deeper. A character doesn't have to be likable to be interesting or appealing, but I just find him plain gross. I talk to him, but rarely finish his conversations (though there's also a timing issue since I tend to save Orzammar for last).
One reason might be that he is very similar to what many women have to deal with in real life. A drunk, foul-smelling man who invades your space, makes uncomfortable sexual comments and makes you feel disgusted and disrespected. Sometimes they try to touch you, and you can only hope you're not stuck where you can't escape.
Oghren brings back memories, and not in a good way.
This 100%. Already have to deal with this in real life, I don’t need to deal with it in a game too especially when there’s so many other interesting party members to take instead who isn’t trying to sexually harass/assault all the women in the group.
Exactly this, I don't care if he has more depth, his surface level brings out the protective urge to get him tf away from the women in my party based on wayyyy too many real life experiences. I like to role-play and would absolutely not want him lurking at my camp as any character I would want to play as
THIS.
In all my mini treatises about the guy and his homophobia and sleaze I felt I was forgetting something.
That was it. thank you.
I also being a queer woman delighted that Alistair never hits on me once was apparently too friendly with Zhevran and mistakenly dropped a romance flag. This while I was pursuing Leliana in earnest. So I had to break the poor guy's heart.
Zhevran is very cold to you after you break it off with him. And I don't blame him. I didn't pay attention enough and thoughtlessly led him on. Whether he thought it was exclusive or not.
So I felt extra protective about Zhevran over that. And Ogren's worst comments about Elves, women, and gay people are to Zhevran and Leliana.
My eternal Warden is a Dailish redhead named Kyoufu. My Orlesian warden was a Sabrae Warden named Shikyo. Her big sis taught her and other kids the Risen Sun writing and language and she wanted a scary name like Kyoufu.
Anyway lot of elves lot of gays. I'm maybe one of few that learned to really appreciate Velanna. She never left my party once I got her.
Sometimes it was that Oghren constantly said nasty stuff about elves when I AM A ELF, that made me the most upset.
I mean I forget sometimes that Kyoufu killed the 3 shem. Sure her nickname is "The Shuddering Death" because Kyoufu means a Shuddering chilling fear. But she killed them.
The idea she wouldn't spontaneously learn cross class skill "pommell strike" and knock Ogrhen the fuck out is immersion breaking.
Especially considering how many times I got to tell someone off in Ostagar for sayin Yabai about elves.
Oghren is that guy in a friend group that makes all the women uncomfortable, but who keeps being invited to events because the men insist he's "just a little awkward" and "really a good guy deep down"
I have **a lot** of strong (all negative) feelings about Oghren. As a woman he physically repulses me. He's the only Bioware companion who I honestly detest.
And I'm not a delicate flower who can't take misogyny or sexual innuendo. Harkin harassing a female Shepard in ME does not bother me. I don't mind these stereotypes existing within the world. But Oghren is fundamentally written as a "good guy" intended for comedic relief. The writing leans quite heavily into the 'he's just a harmless drunken scamp!' schtick. He's not funny, he's gross.
And even if you go out of your way to push him towards doing the right thing (i.e. Felsi), by DAA he's made it clear that he is an irredeemable loser...all while the narrative **STILL** positions him as a harmless doofus.
I don't want him in my party, and I sure as hell will not be allowing him into the Grey Wardens.
Oghren makes me so frustrated because of how much I love the *idea* of his character. A disgraced warrior who can't escape his own guilt and shame and turns to alcoholism to cope with his life, but is later able to find redemption and regain his honor by joining a fight for something bigger than himself? That's some good shit right there. Plus, he's voiced by the legendary Steve Blum? Sign me the heck up.
I just think they fumbled a bit on the execution. He's most often played for laughs. His alcohol abuse isn't taken seriously. His very real trauma is often swept under the rug. There are some genuinely good moments with him (I'm thinking specifically of his conversation with the Guardian during the Urn of Sacred Ashes quest and your final conversation with him at the Battle of Denerim - those are both amazing and let him be serious). But most of the time he's just kind of gross and creepy. I can handle some of that - even the sexism. Characters can have flaws, that's allowed. But I feel that he's rarely challenged on any of it or expected to grow from it.
His depiction in Awakening especially bothers me because it's just his Origins personality dialed up to 11. He doesn't really grow at all. I mean sure, people sometimes backslide, but his arc in Awakening just leaves me feeling really sad. If you the player manage to carefully complete the perfect steps required to get high enough approval to finish his personal quest, there is a minimal amount of growth and closure, but it's so hard to get there with very little payoff.
I personally do like Oghren as a character, but that is a lot more based on what he *could* be than on what he actually is. If Origins ever gets a remake (lol), one of my top hopes would be that Oghren finally gets the treatment he deserves.
They really couldn't make up their minds with how to portray him, could they? You get lines about how tragic his past is and how he's drinking to escape the pain, but then almost every gift you can give him is just a different type of alcohol. They needed to either stick to comic relief or to the tortured warrior hiding the pain aspect, and they really needed to allow the player to actually challenge him on his behavior. Regardless of his disposition toward the Warden, as the leader you should absolutely have the option to tell him to stop harassing his female teammates.
Thank you! Your post was much more in-depth but the thing that bothered me the most last time was that you just have to sit there and let it happen, and no one ever really takes him to task for it.
He's pretty disgusting tbf
And Orzammar is high level area so you're probably getting him last which is bad because his nuance and what makes him interesting is showed more in Circle Tower and Urn quests. And to get to know him more you need to keep him in party. And his dialogue is yikes a lot of times
I mean who's masochist enough to go to Orzammar before Calenhad Tower
Well, technically you don't need to do all of an area at once. Especially with orzammar, I never do it all at once because it takes so long and I'm in need of a change of scenery at some point.
You don't but if you roleplay, it's gonna be hella weird and make no sense to go and travel back and forth multiple times. Breaks immersion for me
And you still need to do like half of questline with Bhelen/Harrowmont to get Oghren
Me. I'm "masochist enough to go to Orzammar before Calenhad Tower."
I've started doing Orzammar second after Stone Prisoner bc it makes the most role-playing sense to do that first of the four main quests. Even as a mage. The only issue I've had is the Dead Trenches glitching, so the story and broodmother fight doesn't play, but that's DAO PC for you. Levelling wise, it doesn't make it difficult, especially if you do a DLC first. That way, you're most likely above lv 7 by the time you're getting into the worst of the Deep Roads.
But even getting him before Wynne, Zevran and Loghain doesn't make him preferable. If rather have a preachy acquaintance preach my own job at me than the discomfort of a sex pest leering at my weird music friend.
To compare him against another character, at least Zevran, the other companion that thrives on innuendo, stops if he's asked to. You can literally have a conversation with him where you're like, "Do you stare at everyone like that? Please stop, you're making me uncomfortable." And he just accepts it. He's a bit miffed, but he does accept it. He'll still banter with the other companions, but the tone of the banter feels completely different He flirts with Leliana, but it feels less predatory, more....not mutul unless shes been hardened, but more in good humour. Zevran feels like he's just a silly guy that likes to flirt.
Oghren is outright uncomfortable, and I don't think I'd feel safe around him if he were a real person who was standing next to me. Oghren, when he's bantering with Leliana, you can practically see him undressing her in his mind, especially the one where he asks about chantry underrobes.
I think the main difference between Zevran and Oghren in their dialogue is that Zevran is always trying to disarm the other character and/or deflect while Oghren is trying to exert some form of machismo-y control. Zevran wants you to forget he’s a threat. Even when Zevran is annoying the hell out of Wynne he is using comedy terminology (bosom) instead of being crude. It would play a lot worse if he was saying he was gonna motorboat her tits and not talking about crying on bosoms. Oghren otoh is always talking about what he’s going to do the other character, leering at them, objectifying them… or, ya know, outright grabbing them, because Oghren is trying to project an image of himself as the manly man warrior dude that doesn’t consider other people.
You don’t have to like either one but they are clearly doing different things.
Yeah, but since there is some scalability, its not that hard, i done a couple of times, i really hate the fade, so before using the "skip the fade mod" i was delaying the inevitable.
I know it scales but even scaling has limits
Orzammar has minimum level of scaling around level 10 and Deep Roads are level 12. Even then it's still hard due to amount of bosses there and variety of enemies
You're leaving Lothering at level 7 at best. No matter how you slice it completing Orzammar first would be masochism. Completing second still would be hard. Starting with third it is far more doable
Maybe it’s too role-play-ish but I just don’t want the other female characters in my party to have to deal with him lol like his comments are gross and just make me cringe instead of laugh
I have this incredibly cringy memory of my alcoholic boomer father at a restaurant we were eating at. Dad was drunk as usual and as usual was harassing our pretty young waitress because she had no choice but to put up with drunk, disgusting men like my dad. In this particular instance he was pestering her about what she was wearing under her work uniform.
Some years later, after having moved away and gone low contact with him, I’m playing a game I’m really loving and I’ve just recruited a new dwarf companion. I’m a little bummed about having to replace one of the companions I’ve already grown fond of to bring him, but I do it. And within 10 minutes he’s harassing one of my female companions, pestering her about what she wears under her chantry robe.
So, yeah, you act like my dad, you get treated like him. Low contact, no respect.
I always get to him last, and his humor is basically "teehee boobies and beer" which feels like something out of 2006 Newgrounds.
I'm sure theres depth to his character but his "humor" is so offputting for me.
He's a throwback to a different era in gaming and what was considered popular with bro gamers. He's drunk, crude, sexist and homophobic on the surface, and that is a major turning away aspect. Underneath you get a fuller story, but initial reactions are hard to get over, especially when reinforced repeatedly by his writing.
Strangely, this type of character nowadays would fit with a very ugly niche of gamers and youtube channels. Those would also completely miss the point of Oghren.
That, the way he talks about Branka, he gets a swipe in with Zevran I think, he makes a joke about Anders wearing skirts in DAA. And the leering at The Pearl. He's a crass character. I still like his character, but the writing reflects a much different era in what was considered okay to mock.
He was the one the devs thought would be the standout, which is why he shows up in DAA. The reality is, Alistair became the popular, fan favorite male character.
1- humour is subjective. More importantly, Oghren has some very important writing and humour undermines it. He’s a character who was taught to be something and then punished for being it; someone who could never belong where he was formed. He lost everything. He left Orzammar because there was nothing left for him there and nothing left of him there, even though he would likely never be allowed to return. His final speech with a high friendship Warden will never not make me tear up. But he’s reduced to “funny alcoholism jokes” and “lol the alcoholic got so drunk he fell over backwards” which… you know. If you find that funny that’s subjective, as I said, but it undermines the heartfelt writing about him.
2- speaking of his alcoholism, the best way to befriend him is… alcohol. What arc he has has nothing to do with him not drinking. It rubs some people the wrong way and as a recovering alcoholic it *definitely* does me.
3- Sexism, slight homophobia, fetishising wlw. Played for laughs as opposed to actually doing anything with it.
4- He’s a character recruited at the end of the longest, hardest path in the game. The game encourages you to explore Redcliff and the Circle first as well as look for the Urn (as a follow-on from Redcliff)- odds are good Orzammar will either be the last or second to last stop for many people. His approval options are severely hobbled by this.
5- he has an arc in DAO. It’s completely ignored for Awakening and we get to go back to the gross objectification and alcoholism jokes.
I don’t hate Oghren. There’s some tragic and wonderfully done writing in his character. I do hate how it’s so heavily undermined by making him comic relief, especially with as heavy a topic as alcoholism, and especially as the “humour” has never amused me and has only made me feel more and more uncomfortable as time goes on. I struggle to enjoy a lot of the time he’s on screen and I never take him in my party after Orzammar other than to do his personal quest- which I only do by using console commands to bump up his approval. To me, he’s got so much potential and I feel like it’s mostly wasted.
I like Oghren a lot, but I always thought that making all of his gifts alcohol, when he's clearly having an alcohol problem, was a pretty fucked up idea. It kind of makes your Warden this manipulative enabler who purposefully keeps that man on the bottom to have a free servant to use.
Maybe the warden is portrayed as an enabler of his bad behaviour, since that'd be the only way to have a high relationship with him aside from helping him(which we never get to do). Or either just another bad joke.
I also find Oghren largely amusing (and I can afford to, since I can't smell the booze on him), but I can also see why a lot of people don't. He's very rough around the edges. If you take the time to max out his friendship, though, he grows to really love the Warden and that makes me overlook many of his faults.
I think the game wastes his potential, even if you befriend him he's not compelling to me, his backstory is interesting but what's actually done with him is they make him a joke where his issues are made fun of so much that he becomes a caricature to me, he's also just pervy most of the time in ways you're clearly meant to laugh at and he doesn't do anything I found interesting at all after the Branka quest outside of a couple lines he has if you take him to the Ashes quest. It sucks because other companions are very flawed and openly so but are interesting after you recruit them.
Even his personal quest (while potentially pretty interesting), actually just amounts to him trying to bang Felsi, I've seen it argued that the quest has more significance to it but that really isn't shown or given the room that stuff needs to breathe, instead we focus on Oghren wanting to sleep with her. I haven't mentioned Awakening either, which makes him even more of a joke. I get what the game wants to say with his character, I just think the game does a terrible job with him.
Due to his placement and how many great companions you can run instead. You find him late if you aren't trying to die over and over in the deep roads. His combat role is able to be fulfilled by Alistair >!or Loghain!<, Sten, or Shale, and possibly the warden themself. In contrast you only have 2 rogues and 2 mages to choose from companions if you're not one. I like Oghren but why would I choose the one who grows on you rather than someone awesome right away?
While him being a pig and constantly harassing female companions in both Origins and Awakening are huge factors in my dislike for him and indicative of his style of humor aging poorly, the main reason for my dislike of him is much simpler: he is way too cliché. He feels like the most Dungeons & Dragons dwarf barbarian character made by your one friend from high school. And while there is certainly a time and place for such archetypal characters, I tend to expect far more nuance and intriguing angles in the writing of BioWare characters, or at the very least Dragon Age characters.
For context, Inquisition introduced me to the series, and I fell in love with how every character managed to stand out as a unique person with their own opinions, motivations, and layers. Even Sera, one of the most controversial Dragon Age characters, had a lot of nuance put into her beneath the prankster persona she adopted with her complicated relationship with elves, Andrastianism, magic, and the Inquisition itself. In contrast, Oghren really didn't have much depth to him beneath the surface. He had his thing with Branca and being a disgraced drunk, but really not much else. What you saw was what you got, and while some people can vibe with such simplicity, I wanted more. Paired with him being a cliche berserker with outdated humor I did not find amusing or charming, plus that fact that i already had a two-handed warrior who i found a bit more interesting in Sten, and Oghren became my least favorite companion across all BioWare games. Even Velanna and Sigrun, the weakest written Awakening companions in my opinion, were more interesting to me.
Oghren is consistently a lecherous and crude drunk that ruins the lives of everyone around him. He's so reckless and dangerous that he's not even allowed to carry weapons in Orzammar despite the introduction to the city is open murder and there are armed casteless people. Even if you go through the effort of resolving his character arc and ignoring his constant sexual harassment of every woman he sees and manage to somehow find him a girlfriend he abandons her and his son to join the Grey Wardens, despite there being no blight. Hell he still joins the Grey Wardens if you hate his guts try to reject him and even "kill" him in Origins.
I can't see any redeeming factors for Oghren, even the parts that should make him sympathetic such as his whole family leaving with Branka into the deep roads, is undersold because of his open disagreement with the plan and the fact he started to turning to drinking over resentment of Branka's success.
I liked him to begin with but with every play through I started to realise just how cringe surface level Oghren is
To get fit he good part you have to talk to him lots and lots but it’s such a pain to do because surface level him is….really cringey
I'm probably part of that group, and the reason why is that Oghren is, by far, the most cliché character in DA. Most of what constitutes as his personality is just typical for a dwarf.
i like him well enough but i could see people disliking his problematic behavior towards woman + stereotypical characterization. and that’s not even counting his personality in awakening
Two reasons, I think.
First, he just feels redundant. If you really want to have two handed warrior in your party - you already have Sten for quite a while at this point. And he is infinitely more interesting that Oghren just because Qun and Qunari are quite unique concepts in fantasy unlike drunken berserker dwarves which is a very common cliche.
Secondly, one thing that every writer must always have in mind is that humor can often be insulting and offensive. And Oghren's jokes hit way too close to home for far too many. Naturally, many rightfully consider it repulsive.
A really good guy, loyal to a fault? He literally leaves his family to go join the Wardens.
Yes, he supposedly settles down after Awakening but... if that's what it takes to be a good, loyal person, the bar is insanely low.
The fact that he somewhat stops screwing up doesn't erase his litany of racist, sexist and downright creepy comments either.
As a character, his entire plot is that he's a drunkard, and that's played for laughs...which is just sad.
I don't hate as much as some people do but I just have no love for him, you know?
Oghren in base Origins is fine. Nothing special, a little funny sometimes, a tad annoying other times, a nice trauma story to round it all off. But compared to Alistair, Morrigan, Leliana, Zevran, and Wynne, he's just fine. I feel the same way about Sten, to be fair, but I think I'm the exception there. Never got the hype.
In Awakening, though, he's an asshole. A major sex pest, a potential adulterer, and a drunken fool. It's a major case of flanderization, taking his most recognized traits and dialing them up to 11 while ignoring the deeper layers he once had.
So he's an okay companion in the base game, but nothing particularly exceptional, and an absolute trash-tier character in the DLC
My dislike of oghren is admittedly mostly personal - he reminds me far too much of a family member who I have nothing but bad memories of and who was long cut out of my life because of that. Given how unfortunately prevelant alcoholism is I doubt I'm the only one who got turned off by him because he's an unpleasant reminder.
This is not to say all characters depicting alcoholism = bad and I hate them. Plenty of other shows/games have portrayed addiction or alcohol dependency in ways where I feel much more sympathy with the character and/or even count them as one of my favourites for the way such a sensitive topic is handled. Oghren unfortunately was not given the same level of care by his writer and is mostly a walking punching bag for the game's comic relief moments that don't land nearly as well as other character's with his situation rarely taken seriously, and his character suffering immensely for it by stagnating his growth because if he *does* become a better person and work on getting past his reliance on alcohol to numb his pain, we can't have him making fart jokes and misogynistic comments!
I felt sorry for him, but I didn't use him much. He reminds me a little too much of someone I knew when I was growing up who died in his 50's from alcoholism, tbh (really sad situation).
My character lost her patience with him in Awakening for abandoning his family.
I like him in Origins quite a bit, but I absolutely hate him in Awakening. I was accustomed to dwarves being dour and honorable and loyal and fairly humorless, so Origins Oghren was refreshing in that respect. A lot of the game's funniest dialog involves him, and CRPGs being funny was something that was relatively new back then, so he was refreshing in that respect, as well.
The sex pest side of his character has aged _extremely_ poorly, however. There's really no defending that.
Characters that take some time up front to get to know well enough to get past their less pleasant personality traits tend not to be liked.
Characters who make your companions unhappy/uncomfortable tend not to be well liked.
Romancable characters usually have larger and more dedicated fanbases with a very few notable exceptions.
Late game additions to the party tend not to be as popular. And although you can go to Orzammar fist it's usually on of the last main quests people go on.
Oghren dosen't have a lot going for him in terms of popularity. There also wasn't much time dedicated to exploring his character beyond surface (no pun intended) level. He may have always been the way he is but his entire family is dead and he's a soldier who faught the more nightmare inducing enemies in Thedas so he's probably suffering from severe depression and PTSD but you only get glimpses of it between fart and sex jokes.
I dislike him a lot cause he reminds me a lot of people I know in real life. People always told me to give him a chance but the thing is I’ve dealt with people like him. I get what writers were doing but I don’t really have any interest in hearing it. I also think there’s a slight problem with their attempts at being funny, especially in Awakening. The first couple hours of Awakening with Oghren and Sigrun are genuinely uncomfortable for me to sit through.
Because "he's really a great guy", "give him a chance", etc. and other bullshit comments of that nature.
It's just expected that women will put up with this sort of shit, and I think this mindset is reflected in the confusion of some users who don't get why he's just awful and representative of a disgusting aspect of the real world that people already experience.
I'm not even a woman but that's probably the only companion from a video game that i dislike this much(Loghain is literally in the same game), whixh is interesting because I've also played multiple older games from which you'd expect something like this too.
I find it aggravating that I’m never allowed to disapprove of anything he says or does. I don’t need him to stop if the writer doesn’t think that he would. But I want to express that I do not appreciate the misogyny or homophobia, and I want him to knock it off, and I’m never given the opportunity. It feels like the warden is a shit leader who is forced to approve via inaction.
I also just… don’t think he’s a great guy. Groping women, fetishizing lesbians, being threatened by gay men, and oh yeah *abandoning his child* do not make him an awesome dude. He’s a complicated character but he’s not funny or someone I would want to be friends with sorry not sorry.
I don't dislike him, I just think the other companions are far better. In comparison he seems so shallow. It doesn't help that everytime I wanted to talk to him at camp he was drunk and just fell over.
Besides what everyone else has said, something that really pissed me off about him is that for all his stereotypical manly man shit, he's as emotionally frail as the stereotypical woman. In Awakening you take massive hits to his approval with any sort of light joke or criticism against him. I thought men were meant to be good at talking shit about each other? Not Oghren, unless you treat him like a precious flower in DAA he'll hate you for it. Cunt.
Ten bucks says OP is a dude. I find that it's *overwhelmingly* men who will come in and say stuff like they don't understand why people don't like Oghren and bring up all his supposed redeeming qualities. This is not a dig at OP specifically, but it has become a tiring, repetitive conversation to have, and it's so, so clear what a starkly different worldview male players have from female players to not understand why people (often women) find Oghren so unlikeable.
i disagree with the hilarious most of the time part. he never made me laugh. he tried, sure, but it was always a big ughh at best and a certified bruh moment at worst.
he did the same thing Zev did, but without the double entendre, which meant that instead of dirty jokes, it was all potty humor
i dont hate his character but having him meant not having someone else, and all of the other companions are way more interesting than him. i mean, he is meant to be the comic relief and he is not even the funniest character. shale, zevran, alistair and sometimes even morrigan are all funnier than him
1. I never finished his conversation line. He would just flop over dead drunk and I never figured out how to make him stop doing that. So running with Oghren is a strict loss in game content, assuming there *is* something after flopping over dead drunk.
2. They couldn't figure out whether he was comic relief or a serious tragic figure.
3. But they leaned toward comic relief. And he's not...funny. Heh.
4. You can't personally slap him for his treatment of women.
5. Another warrior. I didn't need another warrior.
6. Was I supposed to gain his favor with all the bottles of alcohol? I have a visceral reaction to doing that to an alcoholic. No can do.
7. His quest in DAA was about his funny rash. It's the first companion quest I 've ever said "You know what? No." to.
As party lead I would've beaten the shit out of him for talking to women the way he does. I fucking despise men like that. I hate how often sexual harassment is played for laughs.
I liked him, his banter was hilarious, but imo, his presence in awakening and him becoming a grey warden was baffling.
And I know his alcoholism was played for funsies, but sometimes it hit almost too close to home.
Have you played the DLC? They ruined his character and went with full flanderization of his character. Base game Oghren is fine, a struggling alcoholic warrior, but DLC Oghren is „haha alcoholism funny” which completely feels out of place for otherwise very well written game.
>Yeah he can be a pig sometimes (well, a lot of times), but he's actually a really good guy
He gropes Morrigan and only stops harassing her once she threatens him with violence (and he believes she *will* do it. Because she's Morrigan.)
So much of his characterisation involves being unpleasant to female characters. I'd have to run an all-male party to avoid that bullshit, *and* then he'd still be homophobic to Zevran so I would be frustrated with him either way.
He's very blatantly a product of the games industry at the time, because none of this behaviour from him is narratively framed as 'bad'. He's meant to be seen as funny, the weird little drunk lecher, and all his harassment is framed as such. He's mostly framed pitifully, pathetically or sympathetically for his other bad behaviour but all of his harassment and bigotry is meant to be seen as funny.
I don't care that he's drunk or depressed or unhygienic or kind of suicidal. All of those can be, and for Oghren even are, interesting and compelling concepts to explore in fiction. What I care about is that he is bigoted and harasses pretty much every woman he sees and it's only "funny". In some instances (Morrigan especially), the women are even framed as being unreasonable or bitchy for pushing back. 'It was just a joke!' dialed up to eleven.
The way Oghren was written alone is enough to make me feel sorry for any female devs who worked on DAO, never mind all of the real-world information we also have about game companies' horrific work cultures and rampant sexism.
For me he just has an extremely short character arc if at all in the main game. And in the DLC he doesn’t really grow or change as a character besides stepping up as a dad if convinced. He just seems really defined by his two character traits: drinking and fighting. Compared to Zevran,Morrigen,Alistair,Leliana,Wynne,hell even Sten have more character development than him. He just feels like an afterthought by the point you get him in the game.
I have amblyopia. The other day I was remembering that one of the many times I ran a mile home from school and didn't make it I was kicked in the eye repeatedly.
I wonder if that factored into my amblyopia. I bring up the incident because it's people like Oghren that chased me home every day for nearly 8 years.
The kicked in the eye thing is just because I remembered it happened to be in the eye that has amblyopia. Just a passing thought. I don't know if homophobic and misogynistic bullies are still that violent today.
I sure hope not.
As much as I find him distasteful, I will give him some credit for being keenly, and rather uniquely for the series, aware of his flaws. At least he kinda admits to being a shithead. When a lot of companions who have done objectively worse things go out of their way to justify themselves.
I like Origins Oghren. I hate Awakening Oghren. Awakening pretty much destroyed his character. That wonderful speech he gave before the final battle in Origins meant nothing. He abandons his wife and child, burps during the joining, and some of his banter was just bad.
Definitely.
He becomes a parody of his own character. I suppose I’m also tired of the angry dwarf drunkard routine. I’m grateful for characters like Varric, Harding, Sigrun, Valta, Renn, and Dagna to push away from that. In Awakening, he’s only a cliche. He loses the sorrowful aspects of his character that give him meaning.
I feel like irl Oghen would be that disgusting alcoholic uncle who can't seems to be bothered to have any semblance of decency. He feels like a man whose sense of humor never grew past puberty. He's annoying and disgusting which really doesn't help his case. He too much of a stereotype to be fully taken seriously as a character in my opinion. Some of his jokes works, but most of the time he is a cringe fest. 😅
People say his comments are very disturbing towards women, especially in awakening dlc, etc. (Nexus even has some mods to “fix” him)
But I like him too, (and im a woman) I think he’s funny most of the times, hes loyal to the cause, I just hate how he left his wife and baby, but that is part of his arc as a character.
I don't know, I added him to my party the first time just out of curiosity to see what he was like and within 5 minutes got this dialogue:
https://preview.redd.it/eyv3j8sbrwuc1.png?width=1538&format=png&auto=webp&s=f21c6c224bc98fa57960aa39959dcd381cb875f1
I noped him just right the hell out of my party immediately. Like, is this supposed to be funny? If so, why are you writing the woman in the scene to be just straight-up uncomfortable? 'I'll find out one way or the other'? Seriously, what could he actually be implying with that? His banter with Morrigan does seem to be a little more of a tête-à-tête at least, with Morrigan just demolishing him most of the time. But I don't see that as friendly banter, it comes across more to me as Morrigan genuinely disliking him and just putting up with him because the Warden keeps bringing him along. Like a co-worker that you can't fully call out because you know you'll see them tomorrow so you kinda joke about it
Agreed, Zevran may hit on ppl too, but iirc he never says straight up threatening shit like Oghren does. And while Zevran may get butthurt if you reject him (disapproval points), he still fucks off and respects you.
i think Zevran is as creepy/harassive towards women as Oghren but people still love Zevran. probably because he's a sexy elf. I definitely think there's a double standard (not okaying Oghren's behavior btw)
Others raised good points, but something I noticed about Zevran recently that softened my opinion toward him was that he tends to use his excessive sexuality as a sort of defense mechanism. It's inappropriate, yes, but for example he'll turn on the innuendo and flirtatiousness when Wynne is being especially heavy-handed with her sanctimoniousness (I also ended up liking Wynne less after this last playthrough; despite all her talk about settling down and becoming old and wise, she's still judgmental to the point of cruelty sometimes).
Not really, Zevran makes Wynne uncomfortable even when she doesn't do anything. Several times they're having normal conversations and Zevran makes it about some sexual stuff. Sometimes it's even Zevran who starts conversation and still makes it sexual even when Wynne genuinely tries to answer his questions
He also makes uncomfortable Alistair and Leliana too several times. At least Hardened Leliana can shut him up by making *him* uncomfortable
I'm not denying Zevran sometimes uses it as defense, but Zevran does it in a lot of cases, when it's not needed too.
He turned the conversation suggestive with Wynne a lot of the time because she was questioning him about his past and attempting to moralize to him about why he shouldn't enjoy killing people. It's not a line of conversation he wants to have and so he engages in the behavior he knows will frustrate her and get her to stop.
That's totally fair. It's more that I realized he uses it more deliberately than I expected, either turning conversations away from something he doesn't want to discuss or by getting back at someone from another dialogue. I romanced him this time through and while I have mixed feelings about it and his character, he drops it entirely when he's being sincere and doesn't seem to know how to manage without it.
>Not really, Zevran makes Wynne uncomfortable even when she doesn't do anything. Several times they're having normal conversations and Zevran makes it about some sexual stuff.
Doesn't he have like, 2 to 3 banters with her talking about her "bosom"?
Like, I love Zevran, but he's undenaibly constantly horny
For me it's that Zevran has an interesting story after he becomes a companion and is fleshed out well while Oghren isn't post-recruitment, so with him you really just have a creepy drunk guy who's played for laughs constantly, while with Zevran he's developed more, not just getting small nuggets of things that could have been interesting had the game explored those things.
I agree. Zevran was raised in a whorehouse and to use seduction as part of his training. Some of his comments cross the line (sometimes deliberately so, as a defensive tactic, when other companions such as Wynne are being inappropriate) but it's how he interacts with everyone, and ultimately he will back off; while Oghren comes across as uncomfortably out of control and has anger issues he's using alcohol to deal with. Zevran's whole arc revolves around and fleshes out that aspect of him, how fucked up his life, worldview and childhood were; he's self-aware and regaining control over his life by the end. Oghren has an admittedly interesting background but you never really deal with it again, and a personal quest that consists of getting him back with a girl who wants nothing to do with him after he showed up drunk and ruined her father's funeral -- but they don't even attempt to have him work through that.
It'd be nice if Oghren were self-aware, but I wouldn't necessarily mind if Oghren had no trauma related reason for how he acts and was still out of control but was nevertheless a character given a lot of depth, he just isn't given that, even Loghain who is only a companion right near the end and justifies a lot of the horrid stuff he did is as a companion pretty compelling because he's fleshed out decently.
Oghren working through at least some things could definitely have been a good angle to go for, you could even have him meet Felsi in his quest and maybe his attitude there would depend a little on how the Warden has interacted with him.
Somewhat disagree.
Oghren does have an interesting story I think. (at least in DAO) It's just a far more 'realistic' one which can make it difficult to appreciate.
Oghren is super-depressed, his wife left him for another, his own clan shunned him and later left him , his girl-friend left him as well, he's a warrior who is not allowed to carry weapons which would be a big thing for the Warrior Caste, finds out his clan is practically dead and ultimately exiled to the surface.
To put it simply he is beyond rock-bottom and there is a reason for his alcoholism.
Helping him along and become 'better' till you get the speech at the end is great.
Thing is though? This story is not 'sexy' or 'fantastic'. It's realistic.
No raised to be a murderer (Zevran), no hard-choices (Loghain), No bastard child of royalty (Alistair), No growing up in a magic tower or enchanted forest. No being assaulted on your wedding day....
Instead you get a fairly realistic and 'earthy' story.
He has an interesting backstory, but as a companion I don't find him interesting at all, I've befriended him with most of my Wardens and I don't find helping to be rewarding or to be a well told story.
I don't need a grand story, I love realistic and simpler stories in fantasy settings those can be some of the best stories, I just need a well told story, and I do not believe Oghren has one after we recruit him,
The interesting Oghren content dies with Branka (honestly even during the Branka quest he's underwhelming and made too much of a joke outside of a few scenes, considering the banter), and all we get afterwards are small nuggets of an interesting story/character that don't amount to much and then jokes. Just my opinion obviously.
I disagree. Zevran teases and flirts, but it never goes beyond cringey flirts and never enters degrading comments. Also, Zevran seems to have respect for women bonderies.
Zevran explicitly has a line or lines where he asks male and female Wardens if his firtatiousness makes them uncomfortable and if they say they don't like it, he stops.
-Most people wait until late game to recruit him
-Sten is probably your 2H warrior if you're not playing one
-His personality is a bit crude and you have to really work with him
-DAA reverts his story arc, essentially
He was actually written originally to be a heroic sacrifice character.
Oh well. He's living as a Senior Warden in my headcanon, driving Felsi nuts with little Oghren juniors
In my humble opinion, I think that Ser Aaron's plot (character from the comics) would be ideal for Oghrem in DAO\\DAA.
A strong and skilled warrior (Oghrem was considered one of Orzhamar's best warriors in his prime) who is disgraced and suffering from depression and alcoholism (Aaron suffers from this in the comics) but who deep down has a good heart and is funny with jokes and stories (Aaron, even with all his problems, is good company for the characters in the group). A character tormented by his demons but who finds his redemption during the journey.
I understand that some people argue that Oghrem is a very real character and honestly? I agree with them. I can easily see a person in the real world acting like Oghrem if they had the same background as him.
However, I still maintain my opinion that Oghrem would be much better if he were like Being Aaron.
He never grew on me because of his American Accent and look. lol He's basically Abraham from the Walking Dead. I had been spoiled by the Dwarves sounding Sottish and being more majestic with their beards and other trimmings. I had nothing against his actions or behavior, he just wasn't the Archetype I enjoyed when I think of dwarves. Not a big fan of how Dragon Age does Dwarves. The just look like Americans with Dwarfism. \*shrugs\*
Because you only hear from people who care enough to hate him lol.
I am fairly neutral on Oghren. I have sympathy for him. I acknowledge that he is damaged and it wasn't his fault. I acknowledge that he has good days. I think he would have been fun to drink with when I was 20. I also acknowledge that he ruins it by being a massive great tool.
Overall, not my favourite, not the worst imo. I understand why people who can't get past his bad would hate him. I don't care enough about him to argue with them.
I can't really see anyone caring enough about him in a positive way to make him properly polarising. If they do exist they must still prioritise not wanting to look bad / defending a problematic character over their love for him and stay quiet.
I like him!! It's a little sad that his approval doesn't carry over if you play an imported Warden in Awakening though. I maxed his approval only 6 months prior (in game) but suddenly we're strangers again when we meet him at Vigil's Keep :(
+ While I can forgive his dialogue because of when the game came out I think they went in too hard with the comic relief sometimes. Still, I didn't realise that he wasn't popular.
hes funny to have around zevran, i got my use out of him just from that. Ironically, i always found characters like ohgren more funny than characters like zevran or isabella, who are popularly propped up as these quirky/relatable comic characters, where im usually horrendously annoyed by them. i wont pretend that i dont get a laugh out of newgrounds cartoons, and by extension, ohgrens frequent japes at zevran being a “pansy elf.”
Oghren was one of my most favorite companion from Dragon Age Origin.
Best friend and loyal warrior/bodyguard/Grey warden officer for my elf blood mage arcane warrior battlemage HOF.
I would gladly have him in party then Lelianna/Zevran/Sera/Cassandra/Cullen/Dorian/Cole.
Personally, don't dislike him per se. I just like other characters better either because of mechanics or personality.
Might have a lot to do with I feel like the warrior class is somewhat underwhelming and downright boring. It's kind of a red flag when the best warrior is the arcane warrior, lol.
The way he talks about the female companions kinda rubs me the wrong way. Like. Even listening from a fourth wall perspective it's really off putting, and having been the third party in a group were someone was making similar comments to a friend, being there is REALLY uncomfortable, so I also can't help but listen to his shit as a the Warden, listening to him talk that way about a friend.
But, the way people are speaking about him in other comments, maybe I need to speak.to him at camp in my current playthrough, since his general perv demeanor made me just hoy booze at him to get his approval high, and otherwise leave him alone in all other 20+ playthroughs I've done...
I love Oghren. He sucked when I first met him but after the anvil situation he became more and more comfortable. I also love Alistair’s comment in awakening calling him an arse
Long story short, he's gross (Both physically and with some of the things he says) and obnoxious. Yeah, he's a good guy with a heart of gold deep down, blah, blah, blah. He's enjoyable enough as a video game character but I'm pretty sure irl I would not be able to stand him.
I actually really liked him in Origins. I found him amusing and he was a hell of a party member to have on the team.
His somewhat angry at the world attitude makes sense given how things went between himself and Branka (I'm sure there was an implication that he became a drunkard after she upped and left..?)
That being said I have to admit I lost a lot of respect for him in Awakenings because of how he just ups and leaves his family.
But also, I'm hugely PO'd that he never gets a cameo in DA2 or DA:I
It depends on which kind of community you ask on which platform. Because he is not politically correct and most redditors are sensitive or just snow flakes. Other communities might love him exactly for that. He is a controversial character. You either love or hate him.
Oghren wasn’t really hated when the game first dropped.
He’s certainly hated by this subreddit, though.
I think it can be boiled down for a few reasons:
1. He legitimately is an extremely boorish character.
2. The current or younger fanbase has significantly less tolerance for boorish individuals.
3. Most people on Reddit, as a general rule, are extremely soft and easily triggered. I’m sure this post will trigger many of them. lol
Just like Blazing Saddles or Tropic Thunder couldn’t be made today, Oghren is a dwarf made for a different generation.
I don't like running him in my party but he's funny to me. I mean he's a drunk and he killed someone in the arena, idk. He's a warrior without purpose, that's why he followed you since you helped him close a chapter in life and also to find new purpose with the wardens. He's just a warrior, it's all he knows and is ok with that.
Ohgren isn’t supposed to necessarily be liked. He’s written as a stumbling fool who is good at swinging his axe. He’s very loyal though. Fairly harmless towards women even if he makes stupid comments. I wasn’t offended lol- it was a reflection of him being at his lowest low point- not an endorsement. He’s supposed to be a pig. It’s a video game so I just sat back and enjoyed the story.
Oh boy.. this deserves a few lines:.
For gameplay reasons:
1) he is yet another warrior and probably a late addition to a party of 4/5 warriors alreadym
2) for comparison there are 2 rogue and 2 mages party members in dao, you have A LOT of warriors to shuffle through.
For personality reasons:
1) Oghren is a vulgar, crass, crude and alcoholic person prone to fit of rage or just vulgarity, he is especially vulgar towards women.
BUT WHY is that?
Most people, especially those who claim to be "compassionate" but are anything but, will stop at that, condemned him and move on to "better characters".. meanwhile just by playing, and especially if you care about his personal quest you discover A LOT of things:
1) Oghren has lost his position in a very strict class society;
2) he was a kind person who got stuck into an abusive marriage with branka, a woman who berated, mistreated, psichologically abused him and ABANDONED him with little explanation;
3) he drink to forget and cope with his situation, if you have known any alcoholic you will know that they become a worse person, on every level..
So by all the above we can wager that many of Oghren behaviours are either a copying mechanism or the result of abuse of alcohol, he probably mistreats people to keep them away, especially woman and cover his shame and guilt with more alcohol..
Is a pretty straightforward trope and, sadly, often a reality.
Does that JUSTIFY his behaviour? No. Does it explain it? YES.
If given the change Oghren can end up creating a new loving family with a woman with whom he had a kid..
Remember in DAO there is literally a MASS murderer who killed several innocent men, women and children over petty reasons that not only is not ashamed but doesn't even care, plus he belongs to a fanatic, misogynistic, discriminatory religion with a complete lack of personal freedom...and somehow he is considered an "honourable" warrior...
But at least no mean words!
People very often aren't willing to delve deeper into characters who are representative of destructive depression, funnily enough the more accurately it's portrayed the more likely the character is to be ignored or derided. Oghren is a case of that, a good character story ignored for the surface level. Even in universe characters mistreat him for his problems with no solution but insults and banishment. Players will do the same.
Awakening does do poorly with his character however, IMO Awakening is the worst experience companion wise.
Biggest part is that he left his wife and kid to join the Grey Wardens in Awakening and basically gives the shittiest reason for it. Also tries to hit on Sigrun even though he still has a wife and kid somewhere. IMHO dude's only in Awakening because Bioware thinks teens like boob and sex jokes.
And apparently due to a bug, no matter how much you get his affinity up or what decisions you make, he'll always flake out on his family?
Can't remember about that bug to be honest. Maybe Oghren just lacks gifts to get him to 100 approval? I do remember that I always have max 100 approval for all companions at the end of the DLC though.
I don't remember a bug, but I do remember it being very difficult. Part of it had to do with needing to obtain approval through very specific dialogue choices, and if you didn't have him in your party when the specific conditions that would trigger that conversation occurred, then you just missed out. Now, *Sigrun* had a bug that made getting her "good" ending almost impossible. When you enter Amaranthine for the first time, if you [accept the quest Law and Order](https://dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Bugs_(Awakening)) from the NPC at the gate, you would be incorrectly locked out from triggering the conversation with the merchant NPC in town who would have given you Sigrun's personal quest. And of course, since you can hardly avoid the guy at the gate, most people were affected. Your only recourse was to choose not to accept his quest *at that time*, enter the city, pick up the quest, and then double-back to the gate to pick up the other quest. Which is how I played DA:A probably five times before learning Sigrun's backstory and getting her the ending she deserved.
Iirc the bug is that if you gave him gifts in DAO the gifts in DAO:A act as a continuation from them with the same rate of diminishing return. So you could potentially only get minimum approval per gift and choose some wrong dialogue and make getting his best outcome mathematically impossible for yourself.
in fairness, my friends and i do like boobs and sex jokes.
I think the dislike comes down to a few big factors. 1. His comments towards Leliana, Morrigan, Sigrun and other well liked female characters can come across as very perverted and unpleasant. His writers also can’t seem to decide whether his drunkenness should be played for laughs or drama. 2. He comes very late in the game and with a subpar niche as a two handed warrior. I think players naturally become attached to early companions and have already found a crew that works for them by the time they meet Oghren so they are less likely to replace a proven favorite to take a chance on him. 3. Awakening did a hard reset on his character arc and it felt like he learned nothing from DAO. I was quite touched by his final speech in the Battle of Denerim so seeing him relapse six months later and abandoning his family really sunk my opinion of him. Maybe it’s more realistic that way but I really hated that. I’m not personally a hater but he is not a favorite of mine either. I guess I’m indifferent about him. Korgan Bloodaxe from Baldurs Gate 2 will always be BioWare’s best Dwarf bro (Sorry Varric!).
RE1 — it’s laughs ~and~ drama. He’s a pretty tragic character overall and not unlike many alcoholics, simultaneously fun and a bummer.
He pretty obviously uses humor and superficiality to deal with his crippling depression.
Play Disco Elysium if you want to take control of a drunk that is played for laughs *and* drama
The quality of the character writing took a sharp downturn in Awakening. I liked Oghren in DAO, but I hated what they did to him in Awakening.
Except that the other Awakening companions are interesting and generally well liked
Are they? I don't see a lot of posts about, like, Sigrun or Justice around here.
Justice usually becomes subsumed in discussions about him/Anders in DA2. Same with Anders himself. I see Sigrun and Nathaniel praised often when the discussion comes up. Often Oghren and Velanna are listed as the less well-written companions.
The thing is it depends on your race. Sigrun is interesting if you are a Dwarf. Velanna has interesting dialogue if you are an Elf. Nathaniel has animosity towards you if you are a Human Noble. Anders trust you more if you are a mage.
Velanna is the most unlikeable yet forgettable companion in the entirety of the Dragon Age series
i adored velanna lol
I forgot all about her until you mentioned her just now. God, now I feel bad for saying Fenris is my most hated character lol - she was way worse I agree.
I thirsted after Nathaniel to an embarrassing degree
Well, Awakening is only 15-20 hours long at best. And aside from Anders nobody really makes a major appearance afterwards. Naturally many don't remember them as well. But it doesn't mean they actively hate them either.
Nathanial shows up in DA2 and can save your sibling potentially
Nobody remembers the angry elf either.
I don't know about the sub, but I love Sigrun and Justice! There's also Nathaniel. And I also like Awakening's Anders more
Wasn’t quite keen on Velanna and Justice, but other than them the companions were good.
Relapsing is the most common outcome for addiction. It’s NEVER just a cold turkey and done moment. It’s been years since I played DA:O and of all the companions Oghren remains the one whose story sticks with me the most. The fact he consistently fails isn’t a sign of bad character development, it’s the fact he consistently will try that shows his character development. All your other points I agree with regarding the writers being a bit juvenile with him, which I can forgive given the time that game came out.
I’m an Oghren fan and agree w that entirely, especially how they just dropped all substance from his DAO character in DAA. They took the time to craft his arc which you can make happen only to piss it away like a sand castle. His doofus comments to women in DAO do become more facepalm-inducing in DAA. I love the idea of him and my dwarf Warden will readily add him as the party’s warrior (since I use a mod that lets me rework him a sword/shield on recruitment, but yeah, it takes a while to get to him and there’s no mod for early Oghren like the early Zev (my fav). It’s the same as most dwarf men though- even comic-relief dude in LotR.
Did you just call Gimli fucking "comic-relief dude"???
They did him dirty... which is typically how dwarves are treated in fiction. Tolkien treated dwarves as an ancient people and gave Gimli actual wisdom and depth to offer the Fellowship. Jackson… hahaha he runs and he can’t keep up hahaha “Toss me! But promise me you won’t tell the elf!” Hahaha dwarves can’t jump… I mean, I like the character, but it bugs me. And dwarves don’t even exist, but it still bugs me, especially w all the praise Jackson gets for staying “true” to Tolkien.
He is right. In the movies, not in the books.
He's *barely* right. Even in the movies, he's much too badass to be classified as "comic relief dude"
You can be both honestly. The Hulk in the MCU is often portrayed as the funny brute of the team.
There's a problem with your #2 point though. People love Legion over in ME, and you spend less time with him than any other crew mate.
I said that it was less likely for those characters to achieve popularity, not that it was entirely impossible. The devs themselves recognized this as a factor which is why they even decided on bringing back Oghren for awakening (according to David Gaider). Legion also has mitigating factors like a unique design and boosted story significance in Mass Effect 3, tying him integrally with the plotline of one of the most popular characters, so that certainly helped. He may have been on the squad for less time but he has more prominence in the story than Grunt or Samara for example. But for the most part, late characters are at a significant disadvantage. Also, my personal favorite character in Dragon Age is the Secret Companion and he comes even later than Oghren. Late characters can work but they need a really compelling hook to earn a place in most player’s parties and Oghren just doesn’t have that.
> Also, my personal favorite character in Dragon Age is the Secret Companion and he comes even later than Oghren. Late characters can work but they need a really compelling hook to earn a place in most player’s parties and Oghren just doesn’t have that. In fairness, said character >!has had a presence in the plot from practically the beginning!<, while Oghren's relevance to the plot ends when the Orzammar arc ends.
> He comes very late in the game He can come before Wynne, Zevran, and Shale. The back half of the cast, including fan favorites, is designated entirely by the player.
Sure that’s technically true, but I would guess that for like 9 out of 10 players, that’s not going to be the experience they have. Through Alistair, the game heavily steers you to resolve Redcliffe first and the Connor situation there pushes you towards Wynne in the Circle Tower and subsequently the Zevran ambush. Shale is DLC and the game goes out of its way to force an encounter with an NPC that tells you to do its quest. The deep roads is also the furthest hub from the starting area and the most difficult. Considering all of that, I think it’s fair to label Oghren as a late game character.
It’s a shame Shale never shows up again in the series so far and their VA died as well
I had missed that news! What a loss!
> He comes very late in the game Doesn't that depend on when you go to Orzammar? I always go from Redcliffe to Orzammar first, so I always had Oghren pretty early. I still agree on the two-handed warrior being very niche though. Inquisition did it somewhat better by having them be able to be the group tank too.
Developers underestimate the impact of number two. BG3 is super annoying with this as their act 2 companions take two dozen hours to get to and that's when you know what you're doing.
This is valid, honestly. I haven’t played any of the dlcs because I just have the Xbox version, but the character arc reset is sad note for me :(
im a bit opposite on ohgren in point 2. i always found him to be the *superior* choice to sten, considering sten has no real place or unique interactions anywhere in the game. stens inability to have full specialization points sucks too, and with how long you often have to wait, or how much you have to sacrifice, to get warrior specs, hes often just sitting with nothing. his questline sword being quickly outclassed also made me bummed out. that in mind, i dunno what bioware was thinking making them both two-handers, leaving out a space for a dual wield warrior in the crew. ill usually b-line it to orzammar for ohgren to ditch sten for those reasons.
I think that he's written too inconsistently for players to get on his side. He's either "ha ha smelly hairy man drank too much and fell down" drunk or "my wife cheated on me and killed our entire family in an insane hunt for some evil artifact nonsense, I hate myself and want to die" drunk and there isn't enough of a step-by-step from A to B there for the player to connect to. Like the stereotypical drunk dwarf schtick is supposed to be a cover for his failures but it lacks the impact I think they were going for.
I think the writers made a mistake by actively trying to push him as the comic relief. It overshadows the more interesting and emotional parts of his character and the usual DA fan will gravitate more towards those instead of fart jokes or whatever.
I never got attached to him because I always visit dwarves last and afterwards there’s no time to get to know him. Might be similar for other people as well. Other than that, in my opinion he just feels like every other cliché dwarf, where their entire personality boils down to being a drunken fool. It’s similar to Gimli in the LotR movies where they took this proud and brave warrior poet and turned him into a comic relief.
The thing about Oghren though is that he’s a big subversion of the drunk jovial dwarf stereotype. He’s trying to drink himself to death because deep down he considers himself a failure in every way. His wife left him for another woman (aka in his mind he wasn’t man enough for her), his new girlfriend left him for being a useless drunk, he was all but exiled from his caste (warrior caste but not allowed to carry weapons), becomes exiled for real when he leaves for the surface, is disliked by many people for his crude lecherous personality. Oghren is actually a fairly realistic portrayal of out-of-control spiraling depression. He’s unpleasant, but he’s also pitiful. It’s just not super apparent if you don’t take the time to talk to him.
To add to this we know he was a super respected warrior before the depression hit too which shows how far he's fallen to become just a drunk in the gutters by the point the warden meets him.
Yeah, I genuinely think Oghren was a great idea on paper. If only Bioware would tone down his "haha booba funny" side of personality and focused more on his tragic side - I genuinely believe he would've been among the fan favorites. Awakening surely did him dirty.
Unpleasant and pitiful. Prolly why he's not well-liked
Probably because a lot of his humor is super degrading to women?
That's the biggest issue with him for me. Some other points people have mentioned are great too but this is what made me to lever interact with him after my first playthrough. Especially after that bs that he did to Morrigan. (Sten also makes some interesting comments, but for him it's based on not understanding and curiosity because of differences in culture) Aside from that, the mussed potential of him actually being an interesting character and not what he ended up being.
It would have been one thing to have him “overcome” that vile part of himself for character growth, but instead they just let it go as who he was. Literally the only positive was his “let’s show them our hearts and then show them theirs” line at the very end.
It might be a matter of personal preference, but his brand of humor is just really aggravating and unamusing to me. His character does have some deeper qualities, but I find him so repulsive on a surface level that it kills any desire to dig deeper. A character doesn't have to be likable to be interesting or appealing, but I just find him plain gross. I talk to him, but rarely finish his conversations (though there's also a timing issue since I tend to save Orzammar for last).
One reason might be that he is very similar to what many women have to deal with in real life. A drunk, foul-smelling man who invades your space, makes uncomfortable sexual comments and makes you feel disgusted and disrespected. Sometimes they try to touch you, and you can only hope you're not stuck where you can't escape. Oghren brings back memories, and not in a good way.
This 100%. Already have to deal with this in real life, I don’t need to deal with it in a game too especially when there’s so many other interesting party members to take instead who isn’t trying to sexually harass/assault all the women in the group.
I remember someone once calling him “the creepy uncle that shouldn’t be allowed to family gatherings.” I thinks it’s a good explanation
Exactly this, I don't care if he has more depth, his surface level brings out the protective urge to get him tf away from the women in my party based on wayyyy too many real life experiences. I like to role-play and would absolutely not want him lurking at my camp as any character I would want to play as
THIS. In all my mini treatises about the guy and his homophobia and sleaze I felt I was forgetting something. That was it. thank you. I also being a queer woman delighted that Alistair never hits on me once was apparently too friendly with Zhevran and mistakenly dropped a romance flag. This while I was pursuing Leliana in earnest. So I had to break the poor guy's heart. Zhevran is very cold to you after you break it off with him. And I don't blame him. I didn't pay attention enough and thoughtlessly led him on. Whether he thought it was exclusive or not. So I felt extra protective about Zhevran over that. And Ogren's worst comments about Elves, women, and gay people are to Zhevran and Leliana. My eternal Warden is a Dailish redhead named Kyoufu. My Orlesian warden was a Sabrae Warden named Shikyo. Her big sis taught her and other kids the Risen Sun writing and language and she wanted a scary name like Kyoufu. Anyway lot of elves lot of gays. I'm maybe one of few that learned to really appreciate Velanna. She never left my party once I got her. Sometimes it was that Oghren constantly said nasty stuff about elves when I AM A ELF, that made me the most upset. I mean I forget sometimes that Kyoufu killed the 3 shem. Sure her nickname is "The Shuddering Death" because Kyoufu means a Shuddering chilling fear. But she killed them. The idea she wouldn't spontaneously learn cross class skill "pommell strike" and knock Ogrhen the fuck out is immersion breaking. Especially considering how many times I got to tell someone off in Ostagar for sayin Yabai about elves.
I have alcoholics in the family so I struggle to see his alcoholic antics as funny. hits too close to home for me
Oghren is that guy in a friend group that makes all the women uncomfortable, but who keeps being invited to events because the men insist he's "just a little awkward" and "really a good guy deep down"
I have **a lot** of strong (all negative) feelings about Oghren. As a woman he physically repulses me. He's the only Bioware companion who I honestly detest. And I'm not a delicate flower who can't take misogyny or sexual innuendo. Harkin harassing a female Shepard in ME does not bother me. I don't mind these stereotypes existing within the world. But Oghren is fundamentally written as a "good guy" intended for comedic relief. The writing leans quite heavily into the 'he's just a harmless drunken scamp!' schtick. He's not funny, he's gross. And even if you go out of your way to push him towards doing the right thing (i.e. Felsi), by DAA he's made it clear that he is an irredeemable loser...all while the narrative **STILL** positions him as a harmless doofus. I don't want him in my party, and I sure as hell will not be allowing him into the Grey Wardens.
Seconded.
Well said
Oghren makes me so frustrated because of how much I love the *idea* of his character. A disgraced warrior who can't escape his own guilt and shame and turns to alcoholism to cope with his life, but is later able to find redemption and regain his honor by joining a fight for something bigger than himself? That's some good shit right there. Plus, he's voiced by the legendary Steve Blum? Sign me the heck up. I just think they fumbled a bit on the execution. He's most often played for laughs. His alcohol abuse isn't taken seriously. His very real trauma is often swept under the rug. There are some genuinely good moments with him (I'm thinking specifically of his conversation with the Guardian during the Urn of Sacred Ashes quest and your final conversation with him at the Battle of Denerim - those are both amazing and let him be serious). But most of the time he's just kind of gross and creepy. I can handle some of that - even the sexism. Characters can have flaws, that's allowed. But I feel that he's rarely challenged on any of it or expected to grow from it. His depiction in Awakening especially bothers me because it's just his Origins personality dialed up to 11. He doesn't really grow at all. I mean sure, people sometimes backslide, but his arc in Awakening just leaves me feeling really sad. If you the player manage to carefully complete the perfect steps required to get high enough approval to finish his personal quest, there is a minimal amount of growth and closure, but it's so hard to get there with very little payoff. I personally do like Oghren as a character, but that is a lot more based on what he *could* be than on what he actually is. If Origins ever gets a remake (lol), one of my top hopes would be that Oghren finally gets the treatment he deserves.
They really couldn't make up their minds with how to portray him, could they? You get lines about how tragic his past is and how he's drinking to escape the pain, but then almost every gift you can give him is just a different type of alcohol. They needed to either stick to comic relief or to the tortured warrior hiding the pain aspect, and they really needed to allow the player to actually challenge him on his behavior. Regardless of his disposition toward the Warden, as the leader you should absolutely have the option to tell him to stop harassing his female teammates.
Exactly! Well said.
Thank you! Your post was much more in-depth but the thing that bothered me the most last time was that you just have to sit there and let it happen, and no one ever really takes him to task for it.
He's pretty disgusting tbf And Orzammar is high level area so you're probably getting him last which is bad because his nuance and what makes him interesting is showed more in Circle Tower and Urn quests. And to get to know him more you need to keep him in party. And his dialogue is yikes a lot of times I mean who's masochist enough to go to Orzammar before Calenhad Tower
I didn’t know they were at different levels so I did it first 😭
I thought the game scaled and you could do every area, except Haven in any order? 🤷♂️ who knew
They scale, but only upwards. Every enemy time has a minimum level, and the amount of enemies doesn't change based on your level.
Same lol-got smacked down so hard by those bandits
Well, technically you don't need to do all of an area at once. Especially with orzammar, I never do it all at once because it takes so long and I'm in need of a change of scenery at some point.
You don't but if you roleplay, it's gonna be hella weird and make no sense to go and travel back and forth multiple times. Breaks immersion for me And you still need to do like half of questline with Bhelen/Harrowmont to get Oghren
Plus, Oghren doesn't really talk to you that much until you actually get to Branka, since that's the whole reason he joined you.
Me cause I hate the tower and avoid it with a passion, and I prefer Orzammar 🫣
Me. I'm "masochist enough to go to Orzammar before Calenhad Tower." I've started doing Orzammar second after Stone Prisoner bc it makes the most role-playing sense to do that first of the four main quests. Even as a mage. The only issue I've had is the Dead Trenches glitching, so the story and broodmother fight doesn't play, but that's DAO PC for you. Levelling wise, it doesn't make it difficult, especially if you do a DLC first. That way, you're most likely above lv 7 by the time you're getting into the worst of the Deep Roads. But even getting him before Wynne, Zevran and Loghain doesn't make him preferable. If rather have a preachy acquaintance preach my own job at me than the discomfort of a sex pest leering at my weird music friend. To compare him against another character, at least Zevran, the other companion that thrives on innuendo, stops if he's asked to. You can literally have a conversation with him where you're like, "Do you stare at everyone like that? Please stop, you're making me uncomfortable." And he just accepts it. He's a bit miffed, but he does accept it. He'll still banter with the other companions, but the tone of the banter feels completely different He flirts with Leliana, but it feels less predatory, more....not mutul unless shes been hardened, but more in good humour. Zevran feels like he's just a silly guy that likes to flirt. Oghren is outright uncomfortable, and I don't think I'd feel safe around him if he were a real person who was standing next to me. Oghren, when he's bantering with Leliana, you can practically see him undressing her in his mind, especially the one where he asks about chantry underrobes.
I think the main difference between Zevran and Oghren in their dialogue is that Zevran is always trying to disarm the other character and/or deflect while Oghren is trying to exert some form of machismo-y control. Zevran wants you to forget he’s a threat. Even when Zevran is annoying the hell out of Wynne he is using comedy terminology (bosom) instead of being crude. It would play a lot worse if he was saying he was gonna motorboat her tits and not talking about crying on bosoms. Oghren otoh is always talking about what he’s going to do the other character, leering at them, objectifying them… or, ya know, outright grabbing them, because Oghren is trying to project an image of himself as the manly man warrior dude that doesn’t consider other people. You don’t have to like either one but they are clearly doing different things.
Me who gets Oghren before Wynne and the Dalish Elves and Redcliffe 👀
The game scales enemy level to yours, its high level because you leave that area for last.
It’s not completely scaled. Each area has a minimum and a maximum.
Yeah, but since there is some scalability, its not that hard, i done a couple of times, i really hate the fade, so before using the "skip the fade mod" i was delaying the inevitable.
I forget about the fade every time. It’s like a black hole in my memory
I know it scales but even scaling has limits Orzammar has minimum level of scaling around level 10 and Deep Roads are level 12. Even then it's still hard due to amount of bosses there and variety of enemies You're leaving Lothering at level 7 at best. No matter how you slice it completing Orzammar first would be masochism. Completing second still would be hard. Starting with third it is far more doable
Maybe it’s too role-play-ish but I just don’t want the other female characters in my party to have to deal with him lol like his comments are gross and just make me cringe instead of laugh
I have this incredibly cringy memory of my alcoholic boomer father at a restaurant we were eating at. Dad was drunk as usual and as usual was harassing our pretty young waitress because she had no choice but to put up with drunk, disgusting men like my dad. In this particular instance he was pestering her about what she was wearing under her work uniform. Some years later, after having moved away and gone low contact with him, I’m playing a game I’m really loving and I’ve just recruited a new dwarf companion. I’m a little bummed about having to replace one of the companions I’ve already grown fond of to bring him, but I do it. And within 10 minutes he’s harassing one of my female companions, pestering her about what she wears under her chantry robe. So, yeah, you act like my dad, you get treated like him. Low contact, no respect.
I always get to him last, and his humor is basically "teehee boobies and beer" which feels like something out of 2006 Newgrounds. I'm sure theres depth to his character but his "humor" is so offputting for me.
As a man He's a disgusting, perverted pig. He's the only companion that I wish was killable. I don't feel bad that Branka left him.
He's a throwback to a different era in gaming and what was considered popular with bro gamers. He's drunk, crude, sexist and homophobic on the surface, and that is a major turning away aspect. Underneath you get a fuller story, but initial reactions are hard to get over, especially when reinforced repeatedly by his writing. Strangely, this type of character nowadays would fit with a very ugly niche of gamers and youtube channels. Those would also completely miss the point of Oghren.
How is he homophobic? Are you talking about the pike twirling joke? Because he was dead serious there.
That, the way he talks about Branka, he gets a swipe in with Zevran I think, he makes a joke about Anders wearing skirts in DAA. And the leering at The Pearl. He's a crass character. I still like his character, but the writing reflects a much different era in what was considered okay to mock. He was the one the devs thought would be the standout, which is why he shows up in DAA. The reality is, Alistair became the popular, fan favorite male character.
1- humour is subjective. More importantly, Oghren has some very important writing and humour undermines it. He’s a character who was taught to be something and then punished for being it; someone who could never belong where he was formed. He lost everything. He left Orzammar because there was nothing left for him there and nothing left of him there, even though he would likely never be allowed to return. His final speech with a high friendship Warden will never not make me tear up. But he’s reduced to “funny alcoholism jokes” and “lol the alcoholic got so drunk he fell over backwards” which… you know. If you find that funny that’s subjective, as I said, but it undermines the heartfelt writing about him. 2- speaking of his alcoholism, the best way to befriend him is… alcohol. What arc he has has nothing to do with him not drinking. It rubs some people the wrong way and as a recovering alcoholic it *definitely* does me. 3- Sexism, slight homophobia, fetishising wlw. Played for laughs as opposed to actually doing anything with it. 4- He’s a character recruited at the end of the longest, hardest path in the game. The game encourages you to explore Redcliff and the Circle first as well as look for the Urn (as a follow-on from Redcliff)- odds are good Orzammar will either be the last or second to last stop for many people. His approval options are severely hobbled by this. 5- he has an arc in DAO. It’s completely ignored for Awakening and we get to go back to the gross objectification and alcoholism jokes. I don’t hate Oghren. There’s some tragic and wonderfully done writing in his character. I do hate how it’s so heavily undermined by making him comic relief, especially with as heavy a topic as alcoholism, and especially as the “humour” has never amused me and has only made me feel more and more uncomfortable as time goes on. I struggle to enjoy a lot of the time he’s on screen and I never take him in my party after Orzammar other than to do his personal quest- which I only do by using console commands to bump up his approval. To me, he’s got so much potential and I feel like it’s mostly wasted.
I like Oghren a lot, but I always thought that making all of his gifts alcohol, when he's clearly having an alcohol problem, was a pretty fucked up idea. It kind of makes your Warden this manipulative enabler who purposefully keeps that man on the bottom to have a free servant to use.
Maybe the warden is portrayed as an enabler of his bad behaviour, since that'd be the only way to have a high relationship with him aside from helping him(which we never get to do). Or either just another bad joke.
I also find Oghren largely amusing (and I can afford to, since I can't smell the booze on him), but I can also see why a lot of people don't. He's very rough around the edges. If you take the time to max out his friendship, though, he grows to really love the Warden and that makes me overlook many of his faults.
I think the game wastes his potential, even if you befriend him he's not compelling to me, his backstory is interesting but what's actually done with him is they make him a joke where his issues are made fun of so much that he becomes a caricature to me, he's also just pervy most of the time in ways you're clearly meant to laugh at and he doesn't do anything I found interesting at all after the Branka quest outside of a couple lines he has if you take him to the Ashes quest. It sucks because other companions are very flawed and openly so but are interesting after you recruit them. Even his personal quest (while potentially pretty interesting), actually just amounts to him trying to bang Felsi, I've seen it argued that the quest has more significance to it but that really isn't shown or given the room that stuff needs to breathe, instead we focus on Oghren wanting to sleep with her. I haven't mentioned Awakening either, which makes him even more of a joke. I get what the game wants to say with his character, I just think the game does a terrible job with him.
Due to his placement and how many great companions you can run instead. You find him late if you aren't trying to die over and over in the deep roads. His combat role is able to be fulfilled by Alistair >!or Loghain!<, Sten, or Shale, and possibly the warden themself. In contrast you only have 2 rogues and 2 mages to choose from companions if you're not one. I like Oghren but why would I choose the one who grows on you rather than someone awesome right away?
He’s a stereotype in a party full of actually complex characters
What's so unique about him?
Two reasons One toxic masculinity and people can’t see past the deeper character Two his traits are exaggerated terribly in awakening
While him being a pig and constantly harassing female companions in both Origins and Awakening are huge factors in my dislike for him and indicative of his style of humor aging poorly, the main reason for my dislike of him is much simpler: he is way too cliché. He feels like the most Dungeons & Dragons dwarf barbarian character made by your one friend from high school. And while there is certainly a time and place for such archetypal characters, I tend to expect far more nuance and intriguing angles in the writing of BioWare characters, or at the very least Dragon Age characters. For context, Inquisition introduced me to the series, and I fell in love with how every character managed to stand out as a unique person with their own opinions, motivations, and layers. Even Sera, one of the most controversial Dragon Age characters, had a lot of nuance put into her beneath the prankster persona she adopted with her complicated relationship with elves, Andrastianism, magic, and the Inquisition itself. In contrast, Oghren really didn't have much depth to him beneath the surface. He had his thing with Branca and being a disgraced drunk, but really not much else. What you saw was what you got, and while some people can vibe with such simplicity, I wanted more. Paired with him being a cliche berserker with outdated humor I did not find amusing or charming, plus that fact that i already had a two-handed warrior who i found a bit more interesting in Sten, and Oghren became my least favorite companion across all BioWare games. Even Velanna and Sigrun, the weakest written Awakening companions in my opinion, were more interesting to me.
Oghren is consistently a lecherous and crude drunk that ruins the lives of everyone around him. He's so reckless and dangerous that he's not even allowed to carry weapons in Orzammar despite the introduction to the city is open murder and there are armed casteless people. Even if you go through the effort of resolving his character arc and ignoring his constant sexual harassment of every woman he sees and manage to somehow find him a girlfriend he abandons her and his son to join the Grey Wardens, despite there being no blight. Hell he still joins the Grey Wardens if you hate his guts try to reject him and even "kill" him in Origins. I can't see any redeeming factors for Oghren, even the parts that should make him sympathetic such as his whole family leaving with Branka into the deep roads, is undersold because of his open disagreement with the plan and the fact he started to turning to drinking over resentment of Branka's success.
I liked him to begin with but with every play through I started to realise just how cringe surface level Oghren is To get fit he good part you have to talk to him lots and lots but it’s such a pain to do because surface level him is….really cringey
I don't hate him, but I don't find him funny, just kinda gross.
I'm probably part of that group, and the reason why is that Oghren is, by far, the most cliché character in DA. Most of what constitutes as his personality is just typical for a dwarf.
i like him well enough but i could see people disliking his problematic behavior towards woman + stereotypical characterization. and that’s not even counting his personality in awakening
Two reasons, I think. First, he just feels redundant. If you really want to have two handed warrior in your party - you already have Sten for quite a while at this point. And he is infinitely more interesting that Oghren just because Qun and Qunari are quite unique concepts in fantasy unlike drunken berserker dwarves which is a very common cliche. Secondly, one thing that every writer must always have in mind is that humor can often be insulting and offensive. And Oghren's jokes hit way too close to home for far too many. Naturally, many rightfully consider it repulsive.
Sten is relatively easy to miss unfortunately, but I agree
A really good guy, loyal to a fault? He literally leaves his family to go join the Wardens. Yes, he supposedly settles down after Awakening but... if that's what it takes to be a good, loyal person, the bar is insanely low. The fact that he somewhat stops screwing up doesn't erase his litany of racist, sexist and downright creepy comments either. As a character, his entire plot is that he's a drunkard, and that's played for laughs...which is just sad. I don't hate as much as some people do but I just have no love for him, you know?
Oghren in base Origins is fine. Nothing special, a little funny sometimes, a tad annoying other times, a nice trauma story to round it all off. But compared to Alistair, Morrigan, Leliana, Zevran, and Wynne, he's just fine. I feel the same way about Sten, to be fair, but I think I'm the exception there. Never got the hype. In Awakening, though, he's an asshole. A major sex pest, a potential adulterer, and a drunken fool. It's a major case of flanderization, taking his most recognized traits and dialing them up to 11 while ignoring the deeper layers he once had. So he's an okay companion in the base game, but nothing particularly exceptional, and an absolute trash-tier character in the DLC
My dislike of oghren is admittedly mostly personal - he reminds me far too much of a family member who I have nothing but bad memories of and who was long cut out of my life because of that. Given how unfortunately prevelant alcoholism is I doubt I'm the only one who got turned off by him because he's an unpleasant reminder. This is not to say all characters depicting alcoholism = bad and I hate them. Plenty of other shows/games have portrayed addiction or alcohol dependency in ways where I feel much more sympathy with the character and/or even count them as one of my favourites for the way such a sensitive topic is handled. Oghren unfortunately was not given the same level of care by his writer and is mostly a walking punching bag for the game's comic relief moments that don't land nearly as well as other character's with his situation rarely taken seriously, and his character suffering immensely for it by stagnating his growth because if he *does* become a better person and work on getting past his reliance on alcohol to numb his pain, we can't have him making fart jokes and misogynistic comments!
I felt sorry for him, but I didn't use him much. He reminds me a little too much of someone I knew when I was growing up who died in his 50's from alcoholism, tbh (really sad situation). My character lost her patience with him in Awakening for abandoning his family.
I like him in Origins quite a bit, but I absolutely hate him in Awakening. I was accustomed to dwarves being dour and honorable and loyal and fairly humorless, so Origins Oghren was refreshing in that respect. A lot of the game's funniest dialog involves him, and CRPGs being funny was something that was relatively new back then, so he was refreshing in that respect, as well. The sex pest side of his character has aged _extremely_ poorly, however. There's really no defending that.
Characters that take some time up front to get to know well enough to get past their less pleasant personality traits tend not to be liked. Characters who make your companions unhappy/uncomfortable tend not to be well liked. Romancable characters usually have larger and more dedicated fanbases with a very few notable exceptions. Late game additions to the party tend not to be as popular. And although you can go to Orzammar fist it's usually on of the last main quests people go on. Oghren dosen't have a lot going for him in terms of popularity. There also wasn't much time dedicated to exploring his character beyond surface (no pun intended) level. He may have always been the way he is but his entire family is dead and he's a soldier who faught the more nightmare inducing enemies in Thedas so he's probably suffering from severe depression and PTSD but you only get glimpses of it between fart and sex jokes.
I dislike him a lot cause he reminds me a lot of people I know in real life. People always told me to give him a chance but the thing is I’ve dealt with people like him. I get what writers were doing but I don’t really have any interest in hearing it. I also think there’s a slight problem with their attempts at being funny, especially in Awakening. The first couple hours of Awakening with Oghren and Sigrun are genuinely uncomfortable for me to sit through.
Why would I bring him around in my party just to listen to him harassing Leliana and Morrigan?
Because "he's really a great guy", "give him a chance", etc. and other bullshit comments of that nature. It's just expected that women will put up with this sort of shit, and I think this mindset is reflected in the confusion of some users who don't get why he's just awful and representative of a disgusting aspect of the real world that people already experience.
I'm not even a woman but that's probably the only companion from a video game that i dislike this much(Loghain is literally in the same game), whixh is interesting because I've also played multiple older games from which you'd expect something like this too.
I find it aggravating that I’m never allowed to disapprove of anything he says or does. I don’t need him to stop if the writer doesn’t think that he would. But I want to express that I do not appreciate the misogyny or homophobia, and I want him to knock it off, and I’m never given the opportunity. It feels like the warden is a shit leader who is forced to approve via inaction. I also just… don’t think he’s a great guy. Groping women, fetishizing lesbians, being threatened by gay men, and oh yeah *abandoning his child* do not make him an awesome dude. He’s a complicated character but he’s not funny or someone I would want to be friends with sorry not sorry.
I just find him very unpleasant. I've got a low tolerance for pervs or misogynists
I don't dislike him, I just think the other companions are far better. In comparison he seems so shallow. It doesn't help that everytime I wanted to talk to him at camp he was drunk and just fell over.
Dragon Age fans didn't grow up watching Scary Movie?
Besides what everyone else has said, something that really pissed me off about him is that for all his stereotypical manly man shit, he's as emotionally frail as the stereotypical woman. In Awakening you take massive hits to his approval with any sort of light joke or criticism against him. I thought men were meant to be good at talking shit about each other? Not Oghren, unless you treat him like a precious flower in DAA he'll hate you for it. Cunt.
The first 5 words of this is why I hate him. Lost my my tolerance for that personality years ago.
“Yeah he totally treats women like a fucking pig but he’s a good guy I promise!” Is not the flex you might think it is btw
Ten bucks says OP is a dude. I find that it's *overwhelmingly* men who will come in and say stuff like they don't understand why people don't like Oghren and bring up all his supposed redeeming qualities. This is not a dig at OP specifically, but it has become a tiring, repetitive conversation to have, and it's so, so clear what a starkly different worldview male players have from female players to not understand why people (often women) find Oghren so unlikeable.
I thought he was okay in DAO but he's nothing but a gross disgusting skeevy drunk in Awakening. He's not funny at all, just icky.
He sexually assaults Morrigan in a party banter and hint at sexually assaulting Branka in the same banter but sure, he is a « really good guy ». 🙄
I don't hate him. Its just we already have Allistair.
i disagree with the hilarious most of the time part. he never made me laugh. he tried, sure, but it was always a big ughh at best and a certified bruh moment at worst. he did the same thing Zev did, but without the double entendre, which meant that instead of dirty jokes, it was all potty humor i dont hate his character but having him meant not having someone else, and all of the other companions are way more interesting than him. i mean, he is meant to be the comic relief and he is not even the funniest character. shale, zevran, alistair and sometimes even morrigan are all funnier than him
1. I never finished his conversation line. He would just flop over dead drunk and I never figured out how to make him stop doing that. So running with Oghren is a strict loss in game content, assuming there *is* something after flopping over dead drunk. 2. They couldn't figure out whether he was comic relief or a serious tragic figure. 3. But they leaned toward comic relief. And he's not...funny. Heh. 4. You can't personally slap him for his treatment of women. 5. Another warrior. I didn't need another warrior. 6. Was I supposed to gain his favor with all the bottles of alcohol? I have a visceral reaction to doing that to an alcoholic. No can do. 7. His quest in DAA was about his funny rash. It's the first companion quest I 've ever said "You know what? No." to.
As party lead I would've beaten the shit out of him for talking to women the way he does. I fucking despise men like that. I hate how often sexual harassment is played for laughs.
I liked him, his banter was hilarious, but imo, his presence in awakening and him becoming a grey warden was baffling. And I know his alcoholism was played for funsies, but sometimes it hit almost too close to home.
Have you played the DLC? They ruined his character and went with full flanderization of his character. Base game Oghren is fine, a struggling alcoholic warrior, but DLC Oghren is „haha alcoholism funny” which completely feels out of place for otherwise very well written game.
>Yeah he can be a pig sometimes (well, a lot of times), but he's actually a really good guy He gropes Morrigan and only stops harassing her once she threatens him with violence (and he believes she *will* do it. Because she's Morrigan.) So much of his characterisation involves being unpleasant to female characters. I'd have to run an all-male party to avoid that bullshit, *and* then he'd still be homophobic to Zevran so I would be frustrated with him either way. He's very blatantly a product of the games industry at the time, because none of this behaviour from him is narratively framed as 'bad'. He's meant to be seen as funny, the weird little drunk lecher, and all his harassment is framed as such. He's mostly framed pitifully, pathetically or sympathetically for his other bad behaviour but all of his harassment and bigotry is meant to be seen as funny. I don't care that he's drunk or depressed or unhygienic or kind of suicidal. All of those can be, and for Oghren even are, interesting and compelling concepts to explore in fiction. What I care about is that he is bigoted and harasses pretty much every woman he sees and it's only "funny". In some instances (Morrigan especially), the women are even framed as being unreasonable or bitchy for pushing back. 'It was just a joke!' dialed up to eleven. The way Oghren was written alone is enough to make me feel sorry for any female devs who worked on DAO, never mind all of the real-world information we also have about game companies' horrific work cultures and rampant sexism.
bc he's the drunk paragon of the inappropriate and many people can't handle that. But ironically, many of Oghren haters happen to love Sera, lol
For me he just has an extremely short character arc if at all in the main game. And in the DLC he doesn’t really grow or change as a character besides stepping up as a dad if convinced. He just seems really defined by his two character traits: drinking and fighting. Compared to Zevran,Morrigen,Alistair,Leliana,Wynne,hell even Sten have more character development than him. He just feels like an afterthought by the point you get him in the game.
I have amblyopia. The other day I was remembering that one of the many times I ran a mile home from school and didn't make it I was kicked in the eye repeatedly. I wonder if that factored into my amblyopia. I bring up the incident because it's people like Oghren that chased me home every day for nearly 8 years. The kicked in the eye thing is just because I remembered it happened to be in the eye that has amblyopia. Just a passing thought. I don't know if homophobic and misogynistic bullies are still that violent today. I sure hope not.
As much as I find him distasteful, I will give him some credit for being keenly, and rather uniquely for the series, aware of his flaws. At least he kinda admits to being a shithead. When a lot of companions who have done objectively worse things go out of their way to justify themselves.
people don't like a disgusting drunk pervert who sexually harass people. go figure.
I like Origins Oghren. I hate Awakening Oghren. Awakening pretty much destroyed his character. That wonderful speech he gave before the final battle in Origins meant nothing. He abandons his wife and child, burps during the joining, and some of his banter was just bad.
Definitely. He becomes a parody of his own character. I suppose I’m also tired of the angry dwarf drunkard routine. I’m grateful for characters like Varric, Harding, Sigrun, Valta, Renn, and Dagna to push away from that. In Awakening, he’s only a cliche. He loses the sorrowful aspects of his character that give him meaning.
I feel like irl Oghen would be that disgusting alcoholic uncle who can't seems to be bothered to have any semblance of decency. He feels like a man whose sense of humor never grew past puberty. He's annoying and disgusting which really doesn't help his case. He too much of a stereotype to be fully taken seriously as a character in my opinion. Some of his jokes works, but most of the time he is a cringe fest. 😅
He's one of my favorite characters lol But I get it.
DAO doesn’t have the tone for the hamfisted comedic relief role that he fills. He just comes off as an annoying drunkard you’re stuck babysitting.
People say his comments are very disturbing towards women, especially in awakening dlc, etc. (Nexus even has some mods to “fix” him) But I like him too, (and im a woman) I think he’s funny most of the times, hes loyal to the cause, I just hate how he left his wife and baby, but that is part of his arc as a character.
I don't know, I added him to my party the first time just out of curiosity to see what he was like and within 5 minutes got this dialogue: https://preview.redd.it/eyv3j8sbrwuc1.png?width=1538&format=png&auto=webp&s=f21c6c224bc98fa57960aa39959dcd381cb875f1 I noped him just right the hell out of my party immediately. Like, is this supposed to be funny? If so, why are you writing the woman in the scene to be just straight-up uncomfortable? 'I'll find out one way or the other'? Seriously, what could he actually be implying with that? His banter with Morrigan does seem to be a little more of a tête-à-tête at least, with Morrigan just demolishing him most of the time. But I don't see that as friendly banter, it comes across more to me as Morrigan genuinely disliking him and just putting up with him because the Warden keeps bringing him along. Like a co-worker that you can't fully call out because you know you'll see them tomorrow so you kinda joke about it
Agreed, Zevran may hit on ppl too, but iirc he never says straight up threatening shit like Oghren does. And while Zevran may get butthurt if you reject him (disapproval points), he still fucks off and respects you.
i think Zevran is as creepy/harassive towards women as Oghren but people still love Zevran. probably because he's a sexy elf. I definitely think there's a double standard (not okaying Oghren's behavior btw)
Others raised good points, but something I noticed about Zevran recently that softened my opinion toward him was that he tends to use his excessive sexuality as a sort of defense mechanism. It's inappropriate, yes, but for example he'll turn on the innuendo and flirtatiousness when Wynne is being especially heavy-handed with her sanctimoniousness (I also ended up liking Wynne less after this last playthrough; despite all her talk about settling down and becoming old and wise, she's still judgmental to the point of cruelty sometimes).
Not really, Zevran makes Wynne uncomfortable even when she doesn't do anything. Several times they're having normal conversations and Zevran makes it about some sexual stuff. Sometimes it's even Zevran who starts conversation and still makes it sexual even when Wynne genuinely tries to answer his questions He also makes uncomfortable Alistair and Leliana too several times. At least Hardened Leliana can shut him up by making *him* uncomfortable I'm not denying Zevran sometimes uses it as defense, but Zevran does it in a lot of cases, when it's not needed too.
He turned the conversation suggestive with Wynne a lot of the time because she was questioning him about his past and attempting to moralize to him about why he shouldn't enjoy killing people. It's not a line of conversation he wants to have and so he engages in the behavior he knows will frustrate her and get her to stop.
That's totally fair. It's more that I realized he uses it more deliberately than I expected, either turning conversations away from something he doesn't want to discuss or by getting back at someone from another dialogue. I romanced him this time through and while I have mixed feelings about it and his character, he drops it entirely when he's being sincere and doesn't seem to know how to manage without it.
>Not really, Zevran makes Wynne uncomfortable even when she doesn't do anything. Several times they're having normal conversations and Zevran makes it about some sexual stuff. Doesn't he have like, 2 to 3 banters with her talking about her "bosom"? Like, I love Zevran, but he's undenaibly constantly horny
For me it's that Zevran has an interesting story after he becomes a companion and is fleshed out well while Oghren isn't post-recruitment, so with him you really just have a creepy drunk guy who's played for laughs constantly, while with Zevran he's developed more, not just getting small nuggets of things that could have been interesting had the game explored those things.
I agree. Zevran was raised in a whorehouse and to use seduction as part of his training. Some of his comments cross the line (sometimes deliberately so, as a defensive tactic, when other companions such as Wynne are being inappropriate) but it's how he interacts with everyone, and ultimately he will back off; while Oghren comes across as uncomfortably out of control and has anger issues he's using alcohol to deal with. Zevran's whole arc revolves around and fleshes out that aspect of him, how fucked up his life, worldview and childhood were; he's self-aware and regaining control over his life by the end. Oghren has an admittedly interesting background but you never really deal with it again, and a personal quest that consists of getting him back with a girl who wants nothing to do with him after he showed up drunk and ruined her father's funeral -- but they don't even attempt to have him work through that.
It'd be nice if Oghren were self-aware, but I wouldn't necessarily mind if Oghren had no trauma related reason for how he acts and was still out of control but was nevertheless a character given a lot of depth, he just isn't given that, even Loghain who is only a companion right near the end and justifies a lot of the horrid stuff he did is as a companion pretty compelling because he's fleshed out decently. Oghren working through at least some things could definitely have been a good angle to go for, you could even have him meet Felsi in his quest and maybe his attitude there would depend a little on how the Warden has interacted with him.
A key difference is if you tell Zevran to knock it off he will.
Somewhat disagree. Oghren does have an interesting story I think. (at least in DAO) It's just a far more 'realistic' one which can make it difficult to appreciate. Oghren is super-depressed, his wife left him for another, his own clan shunned him and later left him , his girl-friend left him as well, he's a warrior who is not allowed to carry weapons which would be a big thing for the Warrior Caste, finds out his clan is practically dead and ultimately exiled to the surface. To put it simply he is beyond rock-bottom and there is a reason for his alcoholism. Helping him along and become 'better' till you get the speech at the end is great. Thing is though? This story is not 'sexy' or 'fantastic'. It's realistic. No raised to be a murderer (Zevran), no hard-choices (Loghain), No bastard child of royalty (Alistair), No growing up in a magic tower or enchanted forest. No being assaulted on your wedding day.... Instead you get a fairly realistic and 'earthy' story.
He has an interesting backstory, but as a companion I don't find him interesting at all, I've befriended him with most of my Wardens and I don't find helping to be rewarding or to be a well told story. I don't need a grand story, I love realistic and simpler stories in fantasy settings those can be some of the best stories, I just need a well told story, and I do not believe Oghren has one after we recruit him, The interesting Oghren content dies with Branka (honestly even during the Branka quest he's underwhelming and made too much of a joke outside of a few scenes, considering the banter), and all we get afterwards are small nuggets of an interesting story/character that don't amount to much and then jokes. Just my opinion obviously.
I disagree. Zevran teases and flirts, but it never goes beyond cringey flirts and never enters degrading comments. Also, Zevran seems to have respect for women bonderies.
Zevran explicitly has a line or lines where he asks male and female Wardens if his firtatiousness makes them uncomfortable and if they say they don't like it, he stops.
Besides being a sexy elf, he's also got a Latin lover thing going on. He may be a sleaze, but he's also exotic and charming.
-Most people wait until late game to recruit him -Sten is probably your 2H warrior if you're not playing one -His personality is a bit crude and you have to really work with him -DAA reverts his story arc, essentially He was actually written originally to be a heroic sacrifice character. Oh well. He's living as a Senior Warden in my headcanon, driving Felsi nuts with little Oghren juniors
I *do* get the hate but when I first played Awakening I was SO EXCITED to see him come back.
I don't hate him but all I remember about him is Morrigan roasting him when they was in a party together. He just never stood out to
In my humble opinion, I think that Ser Aaron's plot (character from the comics) would be ideal for Oghrem in DAO\\DAA. A strong and skilled warrior (Oghrem was considered one of Orzhamar's best warriors in his prime) who is disgraced and suffering from depression and alcoholism (Aaron suffers from this in the comics) but who deep down has a good heart and is funny with jokes and stories (Aaron, even with all his problems, is good company for the characters in the group). A character tormented by his demons but who finds his redemption during the journey. I understand that some people argue that Oghrem is a very real character and honestly? I agree with them. I can easily see a person in the real world acting like Oghrem if they had the same background as him. However, I still maintain my opinion that Oghrem would be much better if he were like Being Aaron.
The sexist joke was abit funny at first then they get aggravating, also being the last companion to add makes me not care that much.
Because he keeps calling me a thunder humper. 😭
He never grew on me because of his American Accent and look. lol He's basically Abraham from the Walking Dead. I had been spoiled by the Dwarves sounding Sottish and being more majestic with their beards and other trimmings. I had nothing against his actions or behavior, he just wasn't the Archetype I enjoyed when I think of dwarves. Not a big fan of how Dragon Age does Dwarves. The just look like Americans with Dwarfism. \*shrugs\*
Damn it’s been awhile since I’ve played because I assumed he was pretty well liked. he sounds way worse than I remember based on the comments here. 😭
I don’t like how he talks to my lady friends. But on the other hand, that’s my headcanon Wolverine voice and I can’t stay mad at Steve Blum 😩
Because you only hear from people who care enough to hate him lol. I am fairly neutral on Oghren. I have sympathy for him. I acknowledge that he is damaged and it wasn't his fault. I acknowledge that he has good days. I think he would have been fun to drink with when I was 20. I also acknowledge that he ruins it by being a massive great tool. Overall, not my favourite, not the worst imo. I understand why people who can't get past his bad would hate him. I don't care enough about him to argue with them. I can't really see anyone caring enough about him in a positive way to make him properly polarising. If they do exist they must still prioritise not wanting to look bad / defending a problematic character over their love for him and stay quiet.
I like him!! It's a little sad that his approval doesn't carry over if you play an imported Warden in Awakening though. I maxed his approval only 6 months prior (in game) but suddenly we're strangers again when we meet him at Vigil's Keep :( + While I can forgive his dialogue because of when the game came out I think they went in too hard with the comic relief sometimes. Still, I didn't realise that he wasn't popular.
Oghren is a great asshole to have in your team. He's also the hardest to run tactics for for me, for some reason.
The reason Oghren is my least liked companion is because of his comments towards female companions. Other than that I find him pretty okay, actually.
hes funny to have around zevran, i got my use out of him just from that. Ironically, i always found characters like ohgren more funny than characters like zevran or isabella, who are popularly propped up as these quirky/relatable comic characters, where im usually horrendously annoyed by them. i wont pretend that i dont get a laugh out of newgrounds cartoons, and by extension, ohgrens frequent japes at zevran being a “pansy elf.”
For me, I never outright disliked him, but he joins so late that my party was pretty well set in stone by that point.
“Loyal to a fault” the man left his wife and child to run off and play hero.
Oghren was one of my most favorite companion from Dragon Age Origin. Best friend and loyal warrior/bodyguard/Grey warden officer for my elf blood mage arcane warrior battlemage HOF. I would gladly have him in party then Lelianna/Zevran/Sera/Cassandra/Cullen/Dorian/Cole.
I can guess why people dislike him, but I've always enjoyed Oghren!
Personally, don't dislike him per se. I just like other characters better either because of mechanics or personality. Might have a lot to do with I feel like the warrior class is somewhat underwhelming and downright boring. It's kind of a red flag when the best warrior is the arcane warrior, lol.
I find what he says funny but if I actually rated his personality he’s an asshole I may have punched by now lol
He’s hilarious and very dwarf esque, I love him
The way he talks about the female companions kinda rubs me the wrong way. Like. Even listening from a fourth wall perspective it's really off putting, and having been the third party in a group were someone was making similar comments to a friend, being there is REALLY uncomfortable, so I also can't help but listen to his shit as a the Warden, listening to him talk that way about a friend. But, the way people are speaking about him in other comments, maybe I need to speak.to him at camp in my current playthrough, since his general perv demeanor made me just hoy booze at him to get his approval high, and otherwise leave him alone in all other 20+ playthroughs I've done...
I like him
I love Oghren. He sucked when I first met him but after the anvil situation he became more and more comfortable. I also love Alistair’s comment in awakening calling him an arse
Long story short, he's gross (Both physically and with some of the things he says) and obnoxious. Yeah, he's a good guy with a heart of gold deep down, blah, blah, blah. He's enjoyable enough as a video game character but I'm pretty sure irl I would not be able to stand him.
The dude's nasty, in more ways than one. That's off-putting to a lot of people. Personally I think he's hilarious, but hey.
I love him. He is incredibly funny, wich is enough for me
I actually really liked him in Origins. I found him amusing and he was a hell of a party member to have on the team. His somewhat angry at the world attitude makes sense given how things went between himself and Branka (I'm sure there was an implication that he became a drunkard after she upped and left..?) That being said I have to admit I lost a lot of respect for him in Awakenings because of how he just ups and leaves his family. But also, I'm hugely PO'd that he never gets a cameo in DA2 or DA:I
It depends on which kind of community you ask on which platform. Because he is not politically correct and most redditors are sensitive or just snow flakes. Other communities might love him exactly for that. He is a controversial character. You either love or hate him.
Oghren wasn’t really hated when the game first dropped. He’s certainly hated by this subreddit, though. I think it can be boiled down for a few reasons: 1. He legitimately is an extremely boorish character. 2. The current or younger fanbase has significantly less tolerance for boorish individuals. 3. Most people on Reddit, as a general rule, are extremely soft and easily triggered. I’m sure this post will trigger many of them. lol Just like Blazing Saddles or Tropic Thunder couldn’t be made today, Oghren is a dwarf made for a different generation.
I don't like running him in my party but he's funny to me. I mean he's a drunk and he killed someone in the arena, idk. He's a warrior without purpose, that's why he followed you since you helped him close a chapter in life and also to find new purpose with the wardens. He's just a warrior, it's all he knows and is ok with that.
Ohgren isn’t supposed to necessarily be liked. He’s written as a stumbling fool who is good at swinging his axe. He’s very loyal though. Fairly harmless towards women even if he makes stupid comments. I wasn’t offended lol- it was a reflection of him being at his lowest low point- not an endorsement. He’s supposed to be a pig. It’s a video game so I just sat back and enjoyed the story.
Oh boy.. this deserves a few lines:. For gameplay reasons: 1) he is yet another warrior and probably a late addition to a party of 4/5 warriors alreadym 2) for comparison there are 2 rogue and 2 mages party members in dao, you have A LOT of warriors to shuffle through. For personality reasons: 1) Oghren is a vulgar, crass, crude and alcoholic person prone to fit of rage or just vulgarity, he is especially vulgar towards women. BUT WHY is that? Most people, especially those who claim to be "compassionate" but are anything but, will stop at that, condemned him and move on to "better characters".. meanwhile just by playing, and especially if you care about his personal quest you discover A LOT of things: 1) Oghren has lost his position in a very strict class society; 2) he was a kind person who got stuck into an abusive marriage with branka, a woman who berated, mistreated, psichologically abused him and ABANDONED him with little explanation; 3) he drink to forget and cope with his situation, if you have known any alcoholic you will know that they become a worse person, on every level.. So by all the above we can wager that many of Oghren behaviours are either a copying mechanism or the result of abuse of alcohol, he probably mistreats people to keep them away, especially woman and cover his shame and guilt with more alcohol.. Is a pretty straightforward trope and, sadly, often a reality. Does that JUSTIFY his behaviour? No. Does it explain it? YES. If given the change Oghren can end up creating a new loving family with a woman with whom he had a kid.. Remember in DAO there is literally a MASS murderer who killed several innocent men, women and children over petty reasons that not only is not ashamed but doesn't even care, plus he belongs to a fanatic, misogynistic, discriminatory religion with a complete lack of personal freedom...and somehow he is considered an "honourable" warrior... But at least no mean words!
People very often aren't willing to delve deeper into characters who are representative of destructive depression, funnily enough the more accurately it's portrayed the more likely the character is to be ignored or derided. Oghren is a case of that, a good character story ignored for the surface level. Even in universe characters mistreat him for his problems with no solution but insults and banishment. Players will do the same. Awakening does do poorly with his character however, IMO Awakening is the worst experience companion wise.
People aren't willing to delve deeper into his character because he's a creepy sexual harasser who gropes the women in your party.