Larian Studios Forums Dragon Commander Dragon Commander - General Catherine

Does the ever intolerable Catherine ever get any better? Also, why when she discusses marrying off the Imp's daughter is there not an option to point out her hypocrisy AND fix the problem?

She's so shrill she makes me want to be bad person. She could tell me she wants me to save baby kittens from a fire and all her attitude makes me wanna do is pour lighter fluid on them instead.

The perfect in-game Feminazi, finally a true modern-feminism simulator!

It's easy to choose the right thing to do when the one proposing it is polite and charming. It doesn't require any thought at all. "Yeah, sure fine, whatever."

By forcing you to balance your dislike for the character with your agreement with her goals, it makes the choice harder. It makes you stop and think what you really want to do. It makes the choice harder, and that makes you more invested in the decision than you would be if Catherine was nice and you wanted to please her.

Does she get better? Well, if you finish her arc with mostly decisions that agree with you, then she will have words of praise for you.

So the game isn't about playing the game as I would play it I just have to pick the "Right Choice" even though I don't want to because of the way it's phrased. I guess the dragon prince isn't being played as myself because I'd do the right thing and not be an arse about it.

Not a big fan of that tbh.

No, you can pick whatever choice you want, the game won't judge you - although Catherine sure will.

There is no middle ground option. It's a matter of deciding what your priority is: Would you rather point out the hypocrisy of the woman you don't like, or decide that whatever her attitude, she does have a point. Which matters more to you? If you'd rather have the satisfaction of putting her in her place, do it. It will change her character arc, possibly for the better, even.

I turned down one of her later requests and her response next turn left me thinking I had done the right thing.


Conversely, for one of Edmund's quests, I did what I thought would be the wrong thing, and it had a result that surprisingly seemed to be the right thing.

After hearing all the complaining, I expected Catherine to be a lot worse than she is.

She's... very tame. I don't get why so many gamers are so infuriated by her. I can only assume they're of the opinion that feminism and gender equality are things that, in general, are utterly intolerable.

And--not on the Larian forums, but elsewhere--some of the comments strike me as being rooted in some pretty deep-seated misogyny. I always find it amusing, and a little tragic, when people can look at a piece of comedic media and be perfectly fine with everything--enjoying and then laughing at all the jokes--and then, suddenly, decide to take one joke as some sort of personal attack. It's silly.

Again, not talking specifically about anyone here, just about the general reaction I've seen to Catherine elsewhere. (I've been all over the Internet participating in Dragon Commander discussions in an effort to get more people to buy this phenomenal game).

Maybe it's the fact that she's an outrageous hypocrite and that equality is the last thing she has to say about the genders.

Yes, it is true, Catherine is a rare example of a female sexist. She is not polite at all. I haven't tried to see if you can make her more polite by turning down her rudely-phrased requests.

So far she has not improved her manners. She still considers herself the epitome of the only gender really worth having. Furthermore she cannot congratulate you on your victories without hinting that your positions should be reversed (you should fight for her country, she should rule and give you treats/medals).

I find it a bit infuriating. A bit.

And I share some annoyance that you have to accept the whole package; the game doesn't allow you to disagree with astonishing hypocrisy and still (for better reasons) choose the same actions she would have chosen.

Once I refused to increase the female generals' wages, solely because the only one that wanted it was the one I hoped would quit.

Bundling sensible decisions with poor reasoning adds little depth to the game. It seems nonsensical to have to "agree" with her in order to implement the policies she suggests. (Sometimes I can treat the choice as a thumbs up/thumbs down issue and pretend I didn't respond with the words that were on the screen.)

I bear with it though. The flavour of the game features a small cast of ridiculously exaggerated representatives (dwarves/representative are purely greedy, undead are religious fanatics through and through, Edmund is utterly racist and Catherine is equally sexist).

Alternate arcs where you make decisions for your own reasons would probably add greatly to the development time and cost for this game.

Catherine is a former monarch of an Amazonian people being administered by a male bastard child. Her attitude should not be unexpected. She doesn't even have the worst attitude of the 4 generals. (Hi Edmund, who doesn't even have the excuse of being a deposed Monarch).

I also find it humorous that people zero in on Catherine; or act surprised at her, when Edmund and Henry START THE GAME calling you a bastard and worse. Edmund is openly racist to non-lizard kind, and yet Catherine being outraged at unequal pay is somehow surprising.

Henry doesn't provoke the same strong reaction because his manner is clearly more bluster (and a complete disregard for political correctness) than actual bad attitude, and his initial disdain for you is reasonably justified by his background with your father.

Edmund and Catherine, on the other hand, have actual attitude problems, although Catherine's is a bit understandable given the circumstances: it isn't just the sexism but the fact that she's used to being the one giving orders and can't quite let go of that.

Edmund's racism is manageable because he is consistently racist, in such a manner that disagreeing with him, his choice of words and his attitude or preferred policy is generally the same thing.

Catherine is similarly sexist, but she's effectively in charge of your equal opportunity policies. She's spouting female-supremacy nonsense with support of the equal-opportunity case, and can do so only because those look similar in a male-dominated environment.

I find her to be the worst because she presumes to be in it for some form of justice. Even though she is quite open about despising men not only for disrespecting women, but for being men.

Coming from an environment that teaches such an attitude does perhaps explain her behaviour, I don't think it fully excuses her behaviour, and it certainly doesn't make her any less annoying.

NOTE: I actually exaggerate slightly here. At least I think I do. It's more that she taints everything with female-supremacy attitude than that she "spouts" it.

For Catherine's arc, I voted for the equal opportunity/women's rights stuff several times in a row, because it seemed reasonable... but her last one, she wanted me to



That was the point where she crossed the line from policies promoting equality to those promoting sexism, and I turned her down. I still got an ending for her arc where she was pleased with me.

The game does lack middle ground options, aswell as more correct (or perhaps just an expanded) wording of what is actually happening. Too often I found myself saying "wait that's not what we agreed upon".

Also, why is every character (except perhaps Maxos) an extremist to the very core of their being? the function of politics is not to choose one proposition at the expense of any other alternative, it's about everyone agreeing on a compromise that benefits the most people in the most agreeable way.

To avoide all of this, a proper solution would have been to go totally bunkers on all of it so that nothing could have been taken even remotely serious.


Equality? no thanks, I suggest uniformity!

I concur that agreeing with the General should not lead to an immediate policy change. In the context of this topic: You should be able to repudiate Catherine and later support women's rights. This could be resolved by having the Generals try to sway your opinion but they still have a normal council session the following turn. Would have made it especially interesting if you agreed with them but THEN changed your mind.

I like Catherine's character, and I especially like that she is blatantly sexist. If I had the choice, I would make her flustered for the pure delight of it (not resentment: delight) and then agree with her fundamental proposal in council.

Addendum2: Planning to test this myself when I have the opportunity, but I'm curious as to what happens if you do not come up with a resolution on the turn of your generals petitioning for a policy change.

They're essentially serving as representations of those particular ideologies.

In this case it's about navigating politics through horse trading rather than compromise - give one group what it wants here, another group what it wants there. Taken together it looks like compromise because everyone gets some of what they want out of the decision-making.

Catherine more than anyone made me want a "Have arrested and tortured on an hourly basis" button. Seriously, this obstinate shrew DARES to talk to me, her emperor, commander, and a dragon to boot, like a dog and she wants me to support her policies as well? No. Not only did I absolutely refuse every policy she presented to me in that shrill, hate-filled voice of hers (great VA by the way, she really made me despise an unlikeable character even more) but I also wanted her dead.

Seriously, death to Catherine.

What are you people talking about? Catherine is a great character.

Never thought I would stroke my grossly unchecked and empowered male privilege with such joy and vigor after oppressing her with my mere patriarchal existence and politically correct choices.

10/10 character.

Killing a lady with such a lovely figure is a crime against humanity.


This guy gets it.

Well, she has good, although she isn't very good at bringing them up.

And if you threat her good, she becomes nicer and you get her respect. She isn't a bad person, only one who was born into power and one who is now bitter about losing her utopia to the gender she was teached from birth is beneath under her.

But what I'm asking myself is this one: does she actually like men in bed or was she teached, that there isn't a purer relationship than a woman with a woman? Or does she "like" men as playthings and think that they are good for sex and for the kitchen, like her male counterparts?

All in all, I don't think she is that bad...we have Edmund for being the complette asshole of the whole crew (and than we learn what he wants to marry, haha).

In my experience, it's not that Catherine is a frothing Amazonian femi-nazi that makes me angry.

It's that in every battle that I let her command, she has either returned in humiliating defeat, or scratched out a Pyrrhic victory that still has my army completely mauled and unable to press my advantage. Then her femi-nazi routine kicks in, and I loved it.

I loved feeling speechless at the unmitigated gall. I took far too much pleasure in antagonizing her, I must guiltily admit. She was an awful commander (I get that she's bitter about losing her kingdom, but if she lost it in the first place, that should say something about her own fighting abilities versus all her boasting, shouldn't it?), a raging hypocritical shrew, and worst of all, she wasn't a dashing lizard in a monocle (<3 Edmund).

"Sure, Catherine, go and build your academy of warrior women," I said. "As long as they fight like Scarlett and not you." Besides, I needed my own money to buy juggernauts. Lots and lots of juggernauts.

I think the worst part was when I had won,

Anyway, I thoroughly love to hate Catherine, and that's okay. Because Edmund is still on my ship, making everything better.