jkateel

[jkateel]

We know Mythal is split into fragments. Are there at least three fragments? Mythal in the Crossroads, Andraste, and Flemeth/Morrigan?

I say three, because Andraste led a slave rebellion and truly isn’t like the Crossroad fragments or Flemeth. Or it could they be the same, but Andraste and Morrigan, being good people, brought out the benevolent side of the spirit? While Mythal and Flemeth, both betrayed, brought out the demon side of the spirit?

Idk thoughts.

[jkateel]

playing as a mourn watcher rook who's besties with emmrich is so fun cause you're both constantly like "ah necropolis 🥰 spirits 😍 corpses ☺️ necromancy 😜" while all the other team members give you side eye. like. you're just two nevarran nerds vibing together and i love that.

[jkateel]

Dragon Age: Origins | Scenery - Dalish Camp

[jkateel]

Emmerich is suave as fuck, damn. Just seduces the young mage by showing off some intricate magic.

[jkateel]

It's terribly uncivilized to drop in on a lady unannounced. Now the evening's ruined.

[jkateel]

The Veil is Yggdrasil, change my mind.

(Also endgame stuff under the cut.)

On that thought, can Solas change the veil? Keep blood mages from ripping into it, or spirits being turned into demons if they’re pulled through? Make it so everyone can at the very least touch magic, even if they’re not a mage?

The veil doesn’t have to be a bad thing. It just needs some tweaks. The world Solas envisioned, the one he passionately tells the Inquisitor about where people and spirits coexist happily—maybe he can make that happen without all the death and destruction now that he IS the veil. The world can be more like how Rivani or Neverra or the Avaar have it. Or the Crossroads can become a meeting place for the living and spirits, as it’s starting to already. There’s a lot to work with!

And if he has Lavellan with him, well, she’s always been thoughtful and wise and crafty at times. She could show him what’s possible, like she’s always done.

I wish the game had explored this more, damn.

[jkateel]

I mean, it's technically true.

[jkateel]

Someone was being a fucking hater on my explicitly positive DATV post AGAIN (u all know I can see your tags right. They get delivered to me express mail style) so here’s an essay about how I thought the Grey Warden plotline was great:

First, it was extremely lore-consistent. I don’t know how to tell people this, but the Grey Wardens simply are sort of shady— it’s part of their charm. In DAO alone we found out they:

- kill anyone who refuses the joining

- are definitely using a blood magic ritual to induct people

- tried to usurp the throne of Fereldan

In DA2 they:

-Forced Malcolm Hawke to perform a blood magic ritual against his will to contain Corypheus, by threatening to kill his family

- Built a giant prison in the mountains they didn’t tell anyone about and that someone could wander into and not be able to escape

- the entire Corypheus thing. They didn’t even tell the other Wardens like what he was or how dangerous he was.

DAI:

- the demon army thing was pretty bad

And that’s not even mentioning any stuff from the books or comics or shows! That’s just stuff in the games!

So they’re shady. It’s okay! They’re my little woobie guys, idc if they’re sort of shady!

But the plot in DATV is about all of those previously established issues coming back to bite them in the fucking ass, as they should! Knock knock, it’s the consequences of your actions, baby! The chickens are home to roost

(Which is just good storytelling. Like if you set up a bunch of issues and then never pay them off or anything that’s bad.)

Destroying Weisshaupt was inspired! Firstly bc Davrin is Weisshaupt, metaphorically (bulwark against the darkness, etc, I already made a post) so it serves his character arc. But also because it strips away the pageantry and the grandeur from them; no more castle for you! No more myth!

Davrin explicitly tells you that the First Warden is a traditionalist; he represents the historical attitudes of the Wardens. They do not accept help, they do not give up their secrets, they are standing alone against the dark. And it doesn’t work! He’s fucking wrong (and very punch-able). Being secretive and isolationist is a mistake that costs them nearly everything.

But also, and I’m not sure how many people experienced this on the first go-around, the game does ultimately come down on the side of the Wardens always trying to do the right thing. You CAN talk the First Warden down, because in the end he’s a Warden, and he might be stubborn and curmudgeonly and miserable but he CARES about the world. He came to do good. He admits he was wrong and he helps you. Because the heart of the Wardens is about selfless service to other people. In Death, Sacrifice.

Stripping away Weisshaupt and the glory and pageantry leaves the Wardens at their most vulnerable and forces them to return to their fundamental principles: helping people. That’s what Lavendel is about. Helping individual people and preserving every life possible even if it doesn’t feel that glamorous or heroic. Lavendel isn’t a significant place; it doesn’t matter, but it matters so much.

And then, the Cauldron.

First off, do not at me about Last Flight. I don’t think people should have to read external materials to play this game and understand it. If the information is vital it should be presented to the player in the text.

The Cauldron is the repository of the Wardens’ secrets; it’s where the keep the bones of the Archdemons, the secret to the Joining, ancient and dangerous weapons, as well as the bodies of the griffons, which represents their most shameful errors. Isseya is the avatar of the Wardens’ mistakes; she’s been hurt by what they made her do, and her pain was never acknowledged by them. They buried her story and her suffering like they bury everything they don’t want to deal with and are ashamed of. They left the bones of the griffons, whose deaths they directly caused, to rot because they were too sad to acknowledge them.

But it was wrong to walk away, it was wrong to bury it. Isseya makes sure that they can never do that again, that they have to own what they did and take responsibility. By discovering who she is and by restoring her personhood to her, by reminding her of her love which drove her to her anguish in the first place, Davrin saves her and he saves the griffons. He doesn’t do it using violence, because another sin of the Wardens is just assuming that they can kill their way out of their problems, which the game disproves by revealing the origin of the Blight. You can kill as many darkspawn as you want, you will never fix it! The Titans’ dreams do not need to be slain, they need to be healed.

Isseya is in so much pain because of her incredible love for both the griffons and the Wardens, and because of her guilt. Look what she builds! An alternate Weisshaupt, a distorted reflection of her home. She entreats both Davrin and Assan to join her, because she doesn’t think she’s trying to destroy anything. She’s trying to save them! She wants them to come home. “I am their mother,” she says, and she’s right. She saved them, then, and she ends up saving them now! Because she made Davrin and the other Wardens look, unflinchingly, at what they had done, it will never happen again. She was going about it wrong during the game, but she was ALWAYS trying to save them.

Davrin, Antoine and Evka represent the Wardens’ commitment to being different. They let Flynn undergo the Joining without becoming a Warden, they reveal secrets to non-Warden Rook, they offer to help the Viper without asking for anything in return. They ask for help and offer it freely. If the Wardens are going to persist into a world without Archdemons, they HAVE to change. They can’t be what they were anymore. The game is asking what a Warden is when they have to be more than their oath, when they have to live. It’s a great exploration of and expansion on previously established lore.

Anyway, my advice if you hated the plot and the game and the characters is to a) make your own post b) don’t bother me about it, because I have the time and I will be loudly positive in response!

[jkateel]

i like davrin a normal amount, i study screenshots of him and paint him over and over again vigorously to the point i forget to eat or sleep. i'm fine

[jkateel]

I always thought Merrill's eluvian wasn't very practical for travelling. Anyways they should be friends

[jkateel]

[jkateel]

You can stand to see the Imperial flag reign across the galaxy? – It's not a problem if you don't look up.

154 days until andor s2

[jkateel]

Isabela: Great show. Guess the Mourn Watch are good at fighting more than just skeletons. Rook: Well, when you think about it, we're always fighting skeletons. Sometimes they're just still inside people.

[jkateel]

↳ ᴅʀᴀɢᴏɴ ᴀɢᴇ: ᴛʜᴇ ᴠᴇɪʟɢᴜᴀʀᴅ — ʙᴇᴅʀᴏᴏᴍꜱ

[jkateel]

TW: Violence, but this singer is clearly singing (in Old Tevene) about Solas and a romanced Lavellan, right?

Look at these lyrics:

If only to say my late goodbye

Call upon the center of the Fade

My love, come to me one last time

Call upon the center of the Fade

If only to grant me my rest

Was Solas publishing songs in his ten years alone? Songs that become popular enough to be sung in a tavern in Docktown, the same one you meet the Inquisitor in?

Solas, I have so many questions.

[jkateel]

Five scarves fluttered in shock out of five? I can’t imagine the scandal this book caused.

It’s all about the Inquisitor’s love life, let’s be real.

[jkateel]

Rook's main team