suaine

[suaine]

The sweetest married couple in all of Thedas

[suaine]

Just because you're at work doesn't mean you have to leave Thedas ✨ Here are a few backgrounds for your next video call!

[suaine]

I have done this and THEN watched the show. It was a trip and a half.

What's my favorite pastime you ask? Absorbing the plot of a show I've never watched via fanfiction osmosis. You think I've watched that show? Wrong bitch.

I read a convoluted fanfic, looking up characters as I went and then binge read half of AO3 and determined the plot based on what stayed consistent.

I will join every fandom and not ever interact with the source material and nobody can stop me

[suaine]

[suaine]

the :) AO3 gives you after telling you you’ve already left kudos on a particular fic is my archenemy because what do you mean :) ? what do you mean I’ve already left kudos here? have you read my favorite author’s work? look me in the eyes and tell me one kudos is enough. I’d give them a thousand kudos and my kidney plus my firstborn. what do you mean I can only give them one kudos??????

[suaine]

it’s almost that time of the year again, so you know what that means

[suaine]

[suaine]

Happy birthday to AO3 🎂🎉

[suaine]

Lucanis Dellamorte 🖤 hi tumblr! been awhile <3

[suaine]

[suaine]

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Look buddy, i’m just trying to make it to Friday.

[suaine]

former gifted kids sound off in the comments lmao

[suaine]

to be perfectly honest. i don't care if it is cheesy or cliched or idealistic. i like stories where the core of it is about kindness, the warmth we can offer others and the gentleness we receive in return. maybe the moral of the story IS love triumphs. it better fucking be

[suaine]

where's your favorite cat cafe? ours is in Dock Town

[suaine]

I think people see something they don't like and apply the bad writing label very broadly and inexpertly, which itself is an unfortunate consequence of diminishing reading comprehension. Bad writing is writing that fails to do what it sets out to do. Most people who throw around bad writing as an argument aim it at the least correct target.

The writing for Taash is absolutely stellar - it's incredibly authentic to a young queer, first gen immigrant person trying to find their place in the world. It's a deep dive into a person that makes them a completely three dimensional character in a very short time. A+, no notes.

Taash is absolutely delightful to me BECAUSE they're an abrasive young adult struggling with their identity. But, obviously, people don't have to like them! That's okay! It would just be easier if they accepted that this has nothing to do with overall quality or morality or any of that, they just don't vibe. And that's fine.

On Taash

I think one reason people keep pretending that Taash's character is badly-written is because they remind them of what they were like as a young adult: blunt, convinced that they were always right (and everyone else was stupid), and flailing around for an identity that didn't hurt. That often makes for an unpleasant person to be around, and someone who at times is even unlikable. But we never see the beam in our own eye while discussing the splinter in someone else's, so I think there's a certain degree of "well I certainly wouldn't yell at my mom like that!" (You would, honey. You would.)

IMO, Taash is one of the best-written companions in Veilguard precisely because they are thoughtless and callous and blow up at people for no reason at times. They're trying to figure their shit out! They got voluntold to work with the Veilguard without any warning, under a leader who's a complete stranger and alongside people she's never met and often has fundamental conflicts with. They've got an extraordinarily complicated relationship with their mom, who gave up her entire life and culture and place in the world out of love for them, but who withholds approval in a way that so many of us can relate to. They're confronting the wrongness of their old gender expression (woman), then embracing a new one (nonbinary) almost as soon as they learn about it—which is how a LOT of identity works, remember? Remember learning the term "trans" or "bisexual" or "genderfluid" and thinking oh shit that's me? It's relatable, but it's still uncomfortable as hell. Considering all that Taash has on their plate, including hiding a fundamental aspect of who they are (their dragonbreath), it's a wonder they're as stable as they are.

As for the conversations about their identity that people are claiming are "cringe" or "unrealistic"—my babies, I have listened to more people talk through their gender and sexuality journeys than you've had hot dinners, and let me tell you they often sound a LOT like Taash. That's not a bad thing! But it's like learning a new language—or heck, joining a new fandom—where you use the unfamiliar terms in clumsy ways and want to talk about it all the time, even to people who aren't fluent. (Taash talks about other shit too; yes, a lot of their quests touch on their gender, but a lot of them don't and frankly expecting someone who's only just figured themselves out to not talk about it is...kind of cruel. Of course Taash isn't a real person, but man I hope you people complaining about how often you have to "deal with" Taash's gender conversations don't have any friends who have trusted you with those conversations.)

Taash is extraordinary in so many ways—the way they talk to Spite directly like a kid who needs firm boundaries; the possible romance they have with [spoiler]; the nuanced and emotional way they talk about dragons; the way they care for birds and refugees and anyone else in their orbit, if they're allowed to. They are one of my favorite companions (although right now it's kind of a seven-way race between all of them), and I have snort-laughed at more of their lines than any other companion by a country mile.

It's just a shame that so many people saw a reflection of the more grating parts of their own personality and so decided that Taash is badly-written, instead of considering the possibility that they are simply badly-heard.

[suaine]

Dragon Age Veilguard is the spiritual successor to Dragon Age II and the narrative twin to Mass Effect 2, and I'm not mad about it.

[suaine]