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Veilguard is the embodiment of trying to make a franchise that used to have Themes and Something To Say and Complexity into a 'young witch trying to solve her neighbours cats disappearance in the Alps' game and I am not kidding. If u ever played DAO and wanted it to be more cozy fantasy they made u that game it's called Veilguard and it is Not Good.

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Hey I've got a question. Why are none of the main shadow dragons we meet ex-slaves? Why are none of them even elves? Dorian, Maevaris, The Viper, Neve etc. Why is the organisation that's supposed to be taking down slavery seemingly built not for the ex-slaves themselves to work in but instead to rescue the poor elves? Even a shadow dragon rook isn't allowed to be an ex-slave?? What??? The shadow dragons feel incredibly like a white saviour charity organisation than a grassroots operation to end slavery.

And I guess it kinda makes sense if the shadow dragons are what Dorian's faction in the magisterium became but uhhh. Then why is that never questioned? Why can we never, not ONCE, have an actual long cut scene conversation with an ex-slave or even just any ELF in Tevinter or in the shadow dragons?

Idk man it just feels off and icky to me a bit.

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As the person who wrote the Fenris post mentioned: 100% this.

I liked Neve...fine? In the same way I liked all the Veilguard companions fine. If Neve had been given to me as a companion in some other game series she would have been one of my favourites. But it's so achingly clear from the art book that Calpurnia ---> Neve was what happened at some point during development which I'm. God. I was so excited for Calpurnia to come back in DA4, particularly given her brief appearances in the comics with a will they/won't they relationship with an inquisition agent.

And the tension that would introduce! Because rook would probably end up being pro-Calpurnia, whereas Harding and Varric (and the inquisitor) would have heard 'venatori' and potentially 'last decades main mini-boss' and been like; hey wtf. Why is she allowed here?

When I realised calpurnia wasn't going to happen I was like. Okay. Fine. Maybe we will see her if this franchise gets more comics. But then I was waiting for a long time for Neve to reveal something MORE about her backstory or herself...perhaps that she was an ex-slave because I figured...well. I figured that would be a given companion for the game set in Tevinter? I even briefly had this idea she might be a half-elf who was 'adopted' (AKA taken) from her birth family - a different angle from an ex-slave but still showing the systematic horrors of elvish oppression in Tevinter.

And yes, obviously it's nice to see that not only ex-slaves are fighting for an end to slavery, but. Uhhhh. Why are basically ALL our shadow dragons not ex-slaves? Dorian, Mevarius, The Viper...Not even a shadow dragon rook is allowed to be an ex slave??? And so it kinda feels more like a white saviour organisation than a grass roots rebellion which. I mean. Sure if they were going for that. But it's pretty uncritically presented as them being the bestest good guys ever and the true fighters for an end to Tevinter oppression so... (God I gotta write a whole post about this)

I wondered briefly whether it would have been far better to have Neve be a Soporati. I genuinely think if Neve had been conceived as her own character instead of as an almost-Calpurnia she wouldn't have been a mage. Because then we would get a fresh perspective; we've already heard how Soporati are caught in the middle from Krem. They are citizens technically, but their non-mage status often condemns them to poverty. They rarely own slaves themselves, but any work they could do can either a) be done ten times better by a mage or b) be done ten times cheaper by a group of slaves. So having Neve be a Soporati would have linked in with dock-town being a slum full of poor desperate people who are also suffering the issues of the system. In this world we could have had a Neve who clashed because of her class with Lucanis (uhhh can u tell I think the conversation about money with Lucanis and Neve was a wasted opportunity to actually contextualise Neve as someone who is incredibly poor. Anyway) and we could have explored class in Tevinter and dragon age in general. And THAT would have made her connection to the shadow dragons make way more sense because she's literally suffering in this system too! Quite intensely! To get a bit of added 'omph' she could have been conscripted to the fight with the Qunari because Soporati seem to be used as canon fodder in that war and she either could have a) dodged the draft or b) experienced war and have some prejudice against qunari. OR she could have had a family member in that situation.

But she doesn't get that. Because she is the Calpurnia replacement. Which sucks because she could have been developed way better and been an overall stronger character for it.

But instead we don't get a strong Neve and we also don't get Calpurnia. As OP said Calpurnia would have been way too raw though. An ex-villian, an ex-slave who's been shown to go to quite ruthless ends if it will achieve her goals. Instead we get a weaker character who is not quite her own but not quite Calpurnia either. And it shows.

This is not petty character discourse, but I'm still stuck on why Calpurnia was scrubbed and Neve created to replace her.

I'm not even particularly attached to Calpurnia? But she and Neve overlap each other so much that recasting the role feels like the lead actor suddenly got fired and the amateur understudy got shooed onto the stage at the last second. They're both mages, both hail from Tevinter, both women, both strong-willed and independent, and both anti-slavery. Hell, they even gave Neve Calpurnia's exact prosthetic leg. In fact, there are only two ways that Neve is noticeably not a duplicate of Calpurnia as far as I can see: one, she isn't a former slave, and two... Well. It's obvious what "two" is.

Calpurnia's personal mission to bring low slavers and fight the oppressive powers in Tevinter would have made her an excellent fit for the role of Shadow Dragon liaison. She lived that. She suffered that. She has already begun fighting back against that system, and it's her life's work to see it through. Calpurnia is also a legacy character that series players are likely familiar with, though it's hardly a prerequisite to know her to understand her cause. Not utilizing her lessens the cohesion of the overarching narrative, whereas the inclusion of Neve adds... what? Neve's personal mission is among the most generic of the roster with an adversary that is so unbelievably hokey and cliché that I couldn't believe that anyone wrote Aelia not to simply be a tongue-in-cheek placeholder until a proper villain was written later. It's unfair to point out that Neve contributes nothing of value to the team or main story when most of the companions don't actually do anything of value, I get that. However, I don't see the point of eliminating an intriguing character whose backstory has already been introduced, thus allowing the writers to dig deeper into that character as they move forward with that tale. Instead, they had to go back to square one to establish an entirely new character, only for that one to be bland and unattached from the plot.

When I've spoken to some people who try to justify the existence Neve, the main reasoning provided is "she's a subversive take on the detective noir archetype", and that it's so empowering to see a woman in what is traditionally a man's role or... whatever. And not sorry, but that's such a cold take. In Dragon Age, women have risen to the highest ranks of leadership, being the heads of powerful nations (Anora, Celene), elite military commands and orders (Cauthrien, Meredith Stennard, the Inquisitor potentially, the HoF of the Wardens in Amaranthine potentially), organized religion (the entire southern Chantry, Leliana, Cassandra). There is little bar for women to achieve the heights that men do. Why does Neve get celebrated and treasured just for existing and doing a job? And I ask this genuinely, because when I pose Neve-likers the question of if they'd feel the same about the character if Neve were a man, it becomes clear that they would not. So if the only reason some fans like Neve Gallus is because she's a woman... Um. Calpurnia already had that?

A while ago, a good post made the rounds about why Fenris could not have appeared in Veilguard (apologies to the source for not digging it up). The point was made that Fenris' presence alone would have broken the very fragile illusionary wall constructed by the devs to conceal anything distasteful about Tevinter. In a choice that mirrors the ancient Achaean dramas in which all the unsightly violence occurs off-stage and is reported on by messengers relaying updates of death and terrible misdeeds done out of view of the audience, so too does Veilguard hide anything "upsetting" about the Imperium behind the curtain. Slavery? Elven oppression? Blood sacrifices to elevate officials in an irrevocably tainted governing system? Veilguard will only mention such things in passing, but will never show it. Fenris' existence would force the devs to confront long-established lore now determined to be too unpleasant for a modern audience to stomach. To be featured in the game without disrupting the safe space where all the bad stuff happens out of view, Fenris' entire characterization would have to be reworked. A complete overhaul.

And considering that truth, it's obvious Calpurnia was not "replaced" in the narrative with Neve. Calpurnia would have challenged the devs' vision too much. Neve is merely the safe, edge-free rewrite of Calpurnia that doesn't threaten to crack the shoddy facades of Veilguard. A complete overhaul of a character, and not one for the better.

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I need to put my hands in his ribcage

forgot the last time I did a digital painting (definitely did one in 2019) but anyway. Here ye go

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love how in all his appearances on btvs angel just kind of always looks like he has a rock in his shoe and is awkwardly waiting for a good time to take off his shoe and dump it out but the time never comes so he just perpetually has to deal with the feeling of a rock in his shoe

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what if we both struggled with our faith and we got really toxic about it

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good morning, varric ☀️

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Clan's First

commission for @/@KolboKolb on twitter

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Perhaps an odd request but does anyone have any hobby recommendations? Could be a craft or an activity - I wanna learn something new this year and I'm trying to work out what I want that to be.

(current hobbies including; reading, writing (though more in theory than practice these days), board games, video games, baking and cooking, going to museums/galleries, I can knit and crochet)

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I have learned far more about Baldurian politics in the past 48 hours than I thought even existed.

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madam de fer

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I try very hard to be normal at work but they know..

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💕

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they say a dog is a man's best friend. and a woman's best friend? well it's the walking corpse of course

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Have some bellarook for new year's <3