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Davrin who, for the first time in his life, is realizing he’s lowkey suicidal and that being a warden gave him an out… and then freaking out over not being dead after weisshaupt and he can’t even put it into words because if he does he will not just be lowkey suicidal anymore he’ll be highkey and he has to find something to cling onto to keep on living just as the wardens gave him something to cling on to as an escape (dying heroically)…

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Why even ask whether the Inquisition was disbanded if you're going to ignore it anyway?...

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This is such a hilariously roundabout way to admit he's impressed with Rook lol

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Weisshaupt was epic! This is pretty much what I expected the Minrathous/Treviso city fight to look like. After 29 levels and more than 40 hours, I finally end the first act and see the mission that was the first leak of this game, years ago.

Very clever trick to explain why there are only two people with Rook in the main party.

I confess: I played it safe and chose to persuade the First Warden, even if it would have been far consistent with my aggressive/stoic Rook to punch him. I think I've seen someone mention that it might be beneficial later? Anyway, if it ends up not mattering, I'll just retcon it.

We finally witness Ghilan'nain's monster-making powers in action! I've already lost hope of seeing that.

Let's recap: the "old god soul" we've heard about in Origins is the fragment of the corresponding Evanuris's spirit that is held inside the archdemon. Usually when a Grey Warden kills an archdemon, that soul goes into the Warden and is annihilated. This time, when Davrin stabbed the archdemon, the main part of its soul was nearby, so the fragment inside the archdemon merged back into it.

By the way, congratulations to anyone who might have theorized that Razikale was the counterpart to Ghilan'nain. "Mystery" could have suggested Dirthamen as well, but on the other hand, there are codex entries in JoH that refer to Razikale with she/her pronouns, which should have been a good hint.

Everyone attributes Lucanis missing the shot to his concern for his blighted home. What does it look like if Treviso was saved? As far as I gathered, it was still Lucanis who missed even in that route, not Neve. Even in my game the excuse sounds really flimsy, I imagine it's even weirder in the other.

It's really funny how insistently the game is telegraphing its mechanics. Didn't do it enough in case of Minrathous/Treviso (want to finally recruit a tank to defend your band of squishies? fuck you, quests missed forever), is kind of overdoing it here.

I really felt for Davrin afterwards, and it felt significant to pick the openly sad or nice dialogue options as a stoic/angry character. And yet again, I had to force myself not to click the heart option. They just feel so natural! But I've already decided on Neve for this playthrough, and I don't want to lead him on, especially in this situation. I didn't realize he had been passively suicidal the whole time!

I expected Solas to laugh at my failure and/or chew me out, and instead he... consoled and complimented me?... Repeatedly? Rook sounded so arrogant when she complained about not being able to kill an entire god on the first try, even I was taken aback. But Solas comforted her and congratulated her on the victory! I guess he's starting to see himself in her. "I have absolute faith in your ability to aggravate enemies who should know better than to underestimate you" (read: Solas himself) is practically a love confession. Is he manipulating her into letting down her guard, or being sincere, or both?

My recording of this sequence is 1 hour 15 minutes long, and takes up almost 7GB. Recording video instead of screenshots is convenient because I don't have distract myself from the game with hotkeys, but god is it heavy on the storage space. I have around 85GB total by now, and I just finished act 1...Perhaps I'll have to delete some later.

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The detailed stats screen seems to be bugged. I have tried to equip or unequip several items or skills, and the changes in stat bonuses never got reflected there. I have no idea what my Rook's stats are really like.

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negativity about a certain Taash scene

hey can we warp to Dock Town real quick so you could repeat this in front of Maevaris Tilani...

Okay, seriously. I get that Taash is supposed to be venting incoherently while Rook and Neve (both from the Trans Faction of the Trans Country capital) exchange knowing looks. But like what all of them say here makes no sense on any level whatsoever? Why wouldn't a mage wear "fancy mage clothes"? Why is Taash getting on Neve's case for being too feminine by wearing "barely even a shirt" when Neve is in fact currently dressed in a pretty androgynous and even masculine "romantic pirate" way, and when out in the field she wears multi-layered and very modest clothes that are neither revealing nor form-fitting? What does this have to do with wearing dresses when Neve is not wearing a dress and Taash's mother never said anything about wearing a dress?

Most importantly, why does the writing equate "dress" with "woman", and "not wanting to wear a dress" with "not a woman"? Does Trick W. think that all of the women who fought for the right to wear pants were not women actually deep down? And how come when this immature impulsive character blurts out "Being a woman sucks!", the narrative does not even acknowledge anything even close to "Living under the patriarchy and being subjected to misogyny does indeed suck regardless of one's personal identity", and jumps straight to "Anyone who says that is likely not a woman 🤓☝"?

Now that I think of it, this is representative of the way the game presents the sides of Thedas that the player can interact with: there are no systemic problems, only individual ones. There is no sexism, or transphobia for that matter, so if something about your position in society is bothering you then it's a problem with you. Just like the factions that the player can interact with are all presented as good, and the systemic harm they do is ignored or denied, while the bigger factions whose foundational problems are still acknowledged (Tevinter, the Qun) are tucked far away into the background and codex entires where the player can't touch them.

(I have to say, it's funny that the writer and I were still on the same page enough that the scene did result in Taash getting told to go talk to Maevaris. Though Neve clearly meant it in a fond "This will help you understand yourself :) " way rather than my own "You need to get a grip and realize how stupid was the thing you just said" way.)

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I'm sorry, are the screens showing a clip of Sara Kingdom from the Doctor Who serial "The Daleks' Master Plan" (1965)?

(gif source)

Kid Cudi dancing on stage at Coachella durng MGMT’s set to “Electric Feel”

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'A Collaboration with Nature' environmental artworks by Andy Goldsworthy (1990)

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Vincent van Gogh, Field with Poppies, details (June 1889)

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White Peacock, Botanical Garden, Lisbon, Portugal

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continuation of this

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a selection of centuries-old vampirisms (courtesy of armandstat)

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they make fun shapes this episode so have a triptych