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Aww!

Dorian recognizes Emmerich and calls him "Professor Volkarin" if you bring him by the Shadow Dragons hookah bar hideout.

And The Viper and Tarquin are a thing, right?

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I'm going to name my first male Rook

Garrus. And he'll romance Emmerich so if they get married he can be Garrus Volkarin.

... I'll see myself out.

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*disgusted noise*

I have to stay off Reddit for a while. The Dragon Age subreddit has long been one of the more chill places on the internet to talk about the games (no, really! Especially compared to the old BSN forums), but when a new one comes out people just go a little wild with all the airing of grievances.

I just need to remember that this same thing happened when DAI came out, and DA2 (oh my Elgar'nan did people have Strong Opinions about how DA2 was the END OF RPGS AND FUN FOREVER). And now all the stuff that made people mad back then is the stuff they love now.

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My second Rook, Liara Mercar (made on N7 day). I really do love the CC.

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A few Veilguard snapshots

The Lighthouse music room:

I think this is the only room that's fully fixed up and tidy when Rook and crew first get to the Lighthouse. Therefore, I think it's where Solas spent most of his time.

Compare to this sad little scene in the dining hall:

I can just see Sad Solas trudging over to the dining hall to eat all by himself with only wisps and regrets to keep him company.

He didn't have Assan to hug:

This story has griffons in it!

Unlike these in a hidden conspiracy theorist's room:

Someone's been paying attention...

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Spoilery Solavellan thoughts

I'm not kidding, this will be Dragon Age: The Veilguard ENDGAME spoilery. Tagging with "veilguard spoilers" if you want to blacklist.

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So, I think the solasmancer subreddit must have played an entirely different game than I did, because they're all cranky and upset and I'm sitting here just basking in how utterly beyond perfection the Solavellan ending was. FAR beyond even my most pie-in-the-sky hopes.

I had been keeping my expectations very low. I mean, I don't know the numbers on how many players ran a Solavellan DAI, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't the majority. So I was thinking I'd be happy if they just acknowledged it happened. Or if someone said "vhenan" I'd be happy. Well, both those things happened. And SO MUCH MORE.

I think some people are upset about the Mythal stuff, but that didn't bother me at all. First, they leave the nature of their personal relationship wide open for interpretation, as directly signposted by the library table conversation with the crew. She could have been a lover (or not), she was definitely a kind of mother figure in that she was the reason Solas took a physical form, and they were friends/colleagues/companions/etc for thousands of years. She is integral to the majority of the guilt and regret Solas feels. I kinda wonder if there was some kind of geas in play, considering a) Solas's vehement argument against drinking from the Well of Souls, b) the other gods calling him "Mythal's lapdog", and c) the wording Mythal uses when she kisses him on his forehead scar (!!!!!) releasing him "from her service."

He needed to hear that to move forward into the future so that his life wouldn't continue to be mired in regret and he could start to walk his path of atonement.

So not only did we get mutual instances of "vhenan" from both Solas and Lavellan, but Inky also points out all the clues that Solas wanted her to stop him, if a way could be found. THEN... Oh my lordy, we get a KISS and them walking hand in hand through the Fade to walk his path TOGETHER.

I AM DEAD.

And don't think I didn't notice the Herald of Andraste walking off with the guy who made the Black City. Lol. What's the Chant going to say about this in a few hundred years?

It's also got shades of Loki and Sigyn, bound together till Ragnarok.

Personally, I think they move into the Lighthouse and bang on every surface for like a year at least. Then they get right on that atonement.

More than I ever could have hoped for:

Now here's my blasphemous thoughts: I kinda dug the idea of Rook/Solas. I mean, with a non-solavellan Inky of course. But I dug their snarking back and forth, and Solas's grudging respect, and especially the possible 'outwit the trickster' ending.

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Two Crows in the moonlight on a romantic Treviso bridge...

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Who's whispering in whose ear now?

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Uh, you think there's something in that next room I should be worried about?

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Non-spoilery Dragon Age: Veilguard thoughts

Hey, I liked it! I really liked it! It's flawed for sure, and is clearly a Lore Dump/Fan theory confirmations/denials game, but hey, it's good to be back in Thedas (and some of those fan theory confirmations were ones I believed in, so yay!).

Now, as a Solavellan... I was surprisingly quite pleased. The Solavellan subreddit is very mixed at the moment, but for me, it was perfect. I may go into detail about that in a spoilery post later.

I also romanced Lucanis, and I've seen some mixed thoughts on that romance but I mostly liked it. It was very (VERY) slow burn, but he can talk to me about knives and coffee in that voice any time.

I played as a mage and I expect mages to be very squishy in the early game, but I was getting my butt kicked every encounter for a while. I eventually figured things out. Hint: don't try to be an early game nuker mage when your only warriors are the last companions recruited.

I wasn't in love with the reduction in party size to three. My fave DA party composition is two mages (support and nuker), a rogue, and a warrior. I also chafed against the three active skills limit. But then I specialized as a Spellblade and discovered the True Godly Power of the VOID BLADE. Definite flashbacks to a Vanguard Shepard charging around the battle field with a shotty. Except the blade is the charge AND the gun.

Speaking of, Act 3 had definite Suicide Mission from ME2 vibes, and I mean that in the best way possible. It flowed together and the choices felt hefty and the villains never felt nerfed to me. There were pacing issues in the early/mid-game, but Act 3 was killer.

Overall, I enjoyed it a lot even as the tale was bittersweet.

Oh and the character creator is fantastic.

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Huh

One of the most basic rules of chess is that you can only move a single piece at a time. This applies in every situation, except one: castling. This exceptional move is an important strategic tool that helps protect your king while also developing one of your rooks.

--MasterClass on chess

Hmmm....

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So I guess it takes a new DA game

to get me to log back into Tumblr....

The past two years have been hectic and at times distressing. Some totally superficial fannish takes on media I have consumed:

The Last of Us - got a PS5, so I replayed 1 & 2 and also watched the tv show, which I loved. I can't wait to see how they handle the dual protagonist/parallel story in the next seasons. Am very excited that Jeffrey Wright will play live-action Isaac.

Star Wars - Played Jedi Survivor and UGH I LOVED IT. Watched Andor and UGH I LOVED IT. Watched S7 of Clone Wars and UGH I LOVED IT. Watched Mando, Obi-Wan, and S5 of Rebels--er, I mean Ahsoka and they were okay.

Fallout - Watched the series and loved it. How did they get the tone so exactly Fallout-y? Chef's kiss.

Spider-Man - Replayed Spidey 1 and Miles Morales on the PS5, so fun and smooth and pretty. Played 2 and mostly dug it. Tony Todd has the perfect Venom voice.

Horizon - Played Forbidden West and adored it.

Let's see... played a lot of Civ when I was killing time. I haven't played Baldur's Gate yet, but I will, I will... Read a lot--A LOT--of KU trashy romance and I am not ashamed. Gimme those smutty alien dicks!

And then Dragon Age The Veilguard (DATV? DAV? What are we calling it?) was announced and I remembered tumblr. It looks good to me! I am cautiously optimistic and trying to rein in my wild speculations. But OMG I can't waiiiiiiit!!!

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moving

Is there anything more tiring than packing up your entire life to move? I just don’t wanna... where did all this dust come from... why do I have three of those things? 

Am moving to a newly built apartment building with all sorts of modern amenities and I just... I kind of feel like I’m living in a J.G. Ballard novel. If I had an EV, I could park up on the nice parking deck with the beautiful people, instead I’m down in the fossil fuel dungeon. But also, super fast fiber internet and no gross rental carpet.  

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Wes Chatham as Amos Burton THE EXPANSE - “Why We Fight” (6.05)

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Discovery of grinding

My nephew, playing Bloodborne at my house: Oh. OH! I bet I could just go back to the Hunter's Dream and these easy guys would respawn and I could get more blood echos that way!

Me, a proud auntie: That sounds like a brilliant idea sweetie!

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Year end lookback

So 2021 was not a great year for me, and most of the media I consumed was entirely comfort/escapism. 

TV

I watched a lot of Murder, She Wrote. Angela Lansbury is a treat and I love how every silver fox in her radius keeps trying to put the moves on Jessica. Except for Seth Hazlitt... but come on, he’s over for food like all the time. Do he and Jess have a little old-fashioned FWB thing going on? 

Also watched all of Castle for the first time, and it was charming fluff. Finding out the leads didn’t get along IRL surprised me ‘cause they had chemistry for days. 

Castle led me to try The Rookie, but I stopped early on because I’m just not interested in stories about street level cops anymore. Especially fantasyland cops where there’s no thin blue line in the LAPD. Either make it a full-on fantasy set in a made up org, or show the real shit. Don’t try to ‘few bad apples’ a real world organization that has systemic problems baked in for generations.

I gave in and got Disney+, so I also watched all the Marvel shows, which were all very enjoyable. I also rewatched The Clone Wars (still so fucking good), finally saw Rebels (Jesus, way to punch me in the gut with emotions, Star Wars), and watched The Bad Batch (just in case I didn’t have enough feelings about clones) as it came out.

Games

Look, I’m not saying I played the Mass Effect Legendary edition 100% through with four different Shepards, but I’m also not not saying that... 

Books

I was terrible about updating my goodreads as I went this year, so this is more scattershot. I got a new Kindle so I took the free four months of KU. I have read so much trashy (and I say that with the deepest, most heartfelt levels of affection) fantasy/sci-fi romance. Ice Planet Barbarians? Read ‘em. Obvious Reylo fic with the serial numbers filed off and turned into incredibly popular romance novel? Read it. Obvious Jaime/Brienne fic with the serial numbers filed off and turned into a popular romance novel? Read it. Fireblood Dragons (dragon/human romances in a post-apocalyptic hellscape)? Read ‘em. Alien abduction romances where hapless earth ladies are abducted by sexy aliens who just want to eat pussy all night long? Read SO MANY of ‘em. 

Podcasts

Really enjoying That’s Messed Up, a podcast about Law & Order: SVU. Still chugging along with Hello From the Magic Tavern. I can’t believe it’s been going on for so long and still makes me laugh. Also enjoying The Evolution of Horror, a British show about horror movies separated into loose themes. Watch if you Dare, a horror movie podcast with two friends, one who is more easily scared than the other, is a lot of fun. I am utterly in love with the music podcast No Dogs in Space, hosted by a married couple who really really love music, y’all. The first season was about Punk, and I learned so much about the genre. They did a miniseries on the Beastie Boys (so good!), and are now into a series about Alternative. Great production values and the hosts have such a charming rapport. Highly recommend if you like music at all, even if the genres they’re currently covering aren’t your bag. 

Movies

Look, I’m not ready to go hang out for hours in an enclosed space with strangers yet. I saw no movies in a theater. I did watch Shang-Chi and Black Widow on D+ and really dug them both.  

Now I’m gonna curl up and watch Leverage: Redemption and catch up on The Expanse. 

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your last words before you die are the 3rd line of the last song you listened to. what are we saying ladies?