sneakyneighboururchin

[sneakyneighboururchin]

Mythal is so funny. She's so delusional. She coerces a wisdom spirit into taking a physical body and becoming her second in command and then ignores the wisdom he has to share because acting wisely would stop her from doing whatever she wants. She marries a lunatic and oppresses people alongside him (but more nicely), ostensibly to "keep him in check", and then is surprised when she gets killed by said lunatic when she actually tries to keep him in check. She needs to be CONVINCED to help stop that very same lunatic from destroying the world thousands of years later because...?? Why! It's not like she's got anything better to do! She's dead (kind of)! Why is she like this. She's so ridiculous.

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'Revenge is bad' to YOU. i love when a character destroys everyone who wronged them. i love when they get to bite and maim and tear and rip and scratch and kill. Sorry ur catholic about it but i'm different

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Sometimes you just gotta draw a medusa.

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Had to ban the phrase “tricky dick” from my classroom during watergate lesson because saying the word dick in front of 30 fifteen year olds is like lighting a bomb and throwing it through the doorway but now they’re just calling him Richard the Treacherous like they’re all medieval peasants. gonna lose it

[sneakyneighboururchin]

I just got my Veilguard art book and I absolutely love how the early icons for whether the Inquisitor was with or against Solas are just

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illario moments in 'the wigmaker job' that make me giggle

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Vhenan

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Neve w pin curls 🤭

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Since I'm back in my Dragon Age Era™ I'll upload some of the stuff I've been sketching lately (and it has to do with spirits, of course)

I'm living in the Necropolis arc forever now, and dreams about Cole meeting Manfred (and Emmrich) don't cease to torment me (in a wonderful way).

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to be clear this is a sketch for a real piece but felt the need to go crazy with it first

[sneakyneighboururchin]

Thinking many thoughts about Miss Andarateia Cantori tonight because what do you mean we get to be in her house for the entire game, in which she and her boyfriend/partner-in-crime run a gambling den, assassin guild ANd find the time to argue with the public administration while opposing a military occupation?? who does it like her??

Joke aside, I think she's an incredibly fun character, and I'm really happy that hers was the lens through which we saw the Crows this game. Whenever I see random posts and critiques commenting that the Crows were too "sanitised" or "found-family", I want to yell a bit, because DATV never claims that to be the case!! Obviously everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but what we see is anchored in a very specific context: not just Treviso under Antaam occupation, but also the Cantori Diamond, which falls under Teia's jurisdiction.

She's an elven orphan turned Guildmaster and Talon, who desperately wanted to find family in the Crows! While the other Talons resisted her attempts at every step (some more succesfully than others ksks), that implies 1) her approach towards her own House was probably not dissimilar and 2) it got her the Talon position in her 20s. Ergo, her modus operandi was probably fairly successful.

For all that she threatens to evict anyone who treats her like a landlord (lol), the Diamond is very much a reflection of her as a character. It's all completely in line with both her general characterisation in 8 Little Talons and with the point she reaches at the end of that story when confronting Emil. I don't think it's a coincidence that out of our two POVs in 8LT, she's the one discussing Crow ideology with their would-be-murderer:

and

and

Following this particular set-up, of course orphans like Jacobus are treated kindly; of course fledglings have time to gossip in quiet corners while training; of course she helps the Dellamortes however she can?? She decided these people are family to her, and she wants to do better by them than what she got. This is wildly compelling to me personally, because she's such a delightful mix of idealism and disillusionment, honesty and manipulation, compassion and retribution - and she's so fucking obstinate about it!!!

There's also the little connection with the Crows' beginnings, specifically in Treviso. Iirc, it's mentioned in 8LT that her base is Rialto (she's also got gardens there), so a part of me wonders whether the Diamond was an inherited property from a previous Cantori Talon, or whether she got it up and running between then and the events of the game. I think that between that little tibdbit and with Lucanis being named First Talon at the end of the game, it's pretty obvious that the theme of rebirth is very much the point in the Crows' plotline - a messy, hopeful and spiteful rebirth.

All of this is to say, what we get doesn't at all negate the other aspects we've seen from the Crows in previous games, but rather puts them into perspective. The game just goes on to ask - isn't there another way to do this? what else is there room for us to be? is there any chance we might find some kindness in this world? and one of the ways these answers are explored is through Teia's character (we start this series with Zevran's story within the Antivan Crows - an elven orphan bought from a brothel, who doesn't have the power to change this guild, and end with Lucanis, Viago and Teia, who is, specifically, an elven orphan picked up (?) from the streets, who remains one of the powerhouses of the organisation. I love a bit of narrative symmetry ✨)

And honestly, I find this entire thing delightful - it's cheeky and dramatic and a lot of fun, and it makes sense for these characters, if you only sit with it for a second and give it a bit of thought!

(PS the way she draws Viago into her orbit and the way their partnership works is another rant entirely, and they drive me absolutely insane nghhh)

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Awww, Spite

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I'm now thinking about the parallels between Crow Rook and Illaro. They both fucked up monumentally and should have been killed for it by someone who loves them dearly and in both instances kindness were shown instead

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disco elysium heritage post

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one thing about Neve and Davrin is that they're basically the same height and yet Neve would still be drowning in his shirt 🤌

[sneakyneighboururchin]

I'm glad that they cut the "elves running to fenharel to join his army and they'll stand in your way" as Solas is far more interesting as a lone man egg menace. He didn't need to be a cult leader.

Also having to fight a bunch of freed slaves with a cult like devotion to Solas is just awful and horrendous optics