#& i get anders dealing with that power dynamic

[dragynkeep]

i cannot get over pro anders argument of him sexually harassing aveline as a "coping mechanism" for her being part of the city guard & him being in the circle. blegh.

[fade-and-loathing-in-thedas]

do any of your other amells have romances? also what are the deets for akroma leaving cullen 👀

Hahaha omg you've unlocked the beast.

I'll start with the Akroma/Cullen break-up. She really only just began her romance with Cullen when she ended it. Alistair is King in her playthrough, so since she recruited the mages she encountered him at the end. It was awkward for everyone involved. Alistair kinda lingers in her mind afterwards. She pursues the relationship with Cullen with incredible speed and a level of fixation that was a clear indicator she was trying to avoid something else (specifically her residual feelings for Alistair). It's after encountering Avacyn, and hearing her story, she kinda has to reassess how well she knows him. Then throw in her cousins getting involved, Kaalia Hawke (the Champion) and Kalum Hawke (the warden contact) and their relationship with the former Templar. Then you have the moment she wakes up in Cullen's arms, after dreaming of Alistair, and thought it was Alistair she was with. After a deep and meaningful conversation with Leliana, she kinda realised she'd been using him as a place holder and that she might need to work on getting over Alistair before trying to have a new relationship (she is very much avoido girl when it comes to dealing with her own actual emotions, and not just urges, so progress). She tells Cullen she can't be with him, cue his brooding, and then she heads to the Western Approach to avoid any awkwardness (okay, so not that much progress lol). That's all I've got, except they eventually kinda become friends again (leaning towards over protective brother in law now lol)

I've actually seriously been thinking a lot about romances for the siblings, which is how I ended up here lol

For Roman I have been leaning heavily towards Dorian. Roman has a weakness for pretty men and especially pretty men with major smarts, confidence, bordering on arrogance, and can be drama. I've got some stuff to work out here. He's kinda already in a casual thing with someone in his mercenary group, but the guy's an Orlesian and a complete dick (which has kind of been Roman's type/dating history). It's gonna take him a while to realise everyone he dates doesn't have to be an asshole. He doesn't have to be dirt for others to shine ya know.

I have also been tossing around a Jowan romance for Roman, only because the squick factor for Akroma would be hilarious. And Jowan is totally the kinda drama Roman's attracted too.

I haven't decided if Avacyn is having a relationship, but I could see her with the Iron Bull. Especially given his strong feelings around consent, understanding of power dynamics, and ability to read people. I could see him being her friend. Helping her let out the rage, setting up dummies for her to set aflame, and getting her to socialize more. He's also very much not someone who would pursue someone without explicit interest, which she would appreciate. I also think he is the kind of person who understands sex, romance, and relationships aren't all synonymous. You can have any of these by themselves, or in conjunction with any number of others and it doesn't make them any less meaningful. Idk I think they could click. What that will look like is still swimming around in my head.

Remus is straight up crushing on Leliana. Her skill with both a blade and a bow, not to mention how she could/would murder a man in his sleep. Yeah, she's his kind of woman.

As you are already aware Arcadia is currently trying to seduce Cullen in my head lol and failing dismally.

Oh and for the Amell cousins: Kaalia Hawke romanced Isabela, and Kalum romanced Anders.

[higheverweave]

*Pulls up chair* here is the deal

I don’t think the advisor companion line up is going to be as clear cut as it has been

We have the fewest number of *New.* companions this time round… which would make sense if it is because you have to create like a roster who’s who line up of characters to kick elven god ass

Also this is going to depend on if this is the final game in the dragon age series as some have been saying or not

Our Inquisitor whether you like it or not I think will probably join really early on for a number of reasons. The biggest one being other than the elven gods

The main reason being other than the elven gods who is the closest Mortal to that kind of status? Maybe the one character who is literally considered a prophet (Like Andraste was considered a prophet at first.)

That and companions from each of the old games are going to have skills and input we need depending on origin choices and choices in game (Which might also explain more of why the game took as long as it did to make.)

Here are my thoughts:

•Varric for obvious reasons

•Solas for obvious reasons

•Mythaligan?

Those are the starters for the advisor line up.

The Recruited Advisors Im betting are as follows

•Lavellan

•Dorian His knowledge of Tevinter expertise on Magic and understanding of Necromancy are all going to be extremely useful to a protag from any origin

•Maevaris (If you don’t know her look her up.)

Maevaris will more than likely also have a big part given her alliances with Dorian,the Inquisitor, Alistair,and Varric. Her father’s death is a bit of lore that would raise the stakes and risk in the imperium. She also is brilliant at magic,diplomacy and political navigation.

Here me out on these:

•Merrill other than an elven Lavellan which mortal would have the deepest connection to the elven lore and gods as well as ways we have seen to cleanse blighted objects. Also her pro blood-magic views would offer one hell of a contrast to Solas’s. As well as Blood Magic may not be an option in terms or cleansing and curing blighted.

•Fenris I think could play a big part not for the reasons you think but for the following reasons. One Fenris is the elf with the closest thing towards ancient Vallaslin seeing how Ghilhanain and Elgarnan interact with that could be very interesting

That and Fenris had lyrium literally infused into his body whatever is going on with the waking of the sentinels and the way lyrium already plays a key part (Lyrium dagger, Lyrium to boost magic, Lyrium as ancient Vallaslin, the way Magic is much more prevalent and we are in Tevinter he is going to want to free slaves we have seen as much in the comics

Also Fen like Fen -Harel

His name means little wolf and the dynamic between him Solas the gods and Tevinter is too rich to just ignore.

•Anders Anders is going to have invaluable information that can help Lucanis sure but also Anders experience with spirits and the fade will prove needed in a world where the veil is becoming thinner and thinner and demons are becoming more paramount

•Miriam with her connections to Tevinter, her past as somebody enslaved ,her expertise on powerful relics and the fact she is an elf that would have to recon with the Gods being real and being slaver blight causing dicks

For the expansion of Dwarven lore my bets are on the following characters returning in some capacity as they have the biggest stakes in Dwarves getting magic it would just be a little weird if they weren’t in it.

•Dagna

•Sandal

Origin and choice specific Cameos

•Grey Warden Alistair

•Grey Warden Blackwall

•Carver/Bethany (Either mentioned or cameo.)

Antivan Crows:

•Zevran Given his rouge status and efforts to reform the crows as somebody from an ex Talon house he may have just the answers Lucanis and the others need to balance the traditions of the crows with a more ethical and respectful approach

Add onto that Zevran is elvish and will have to recon with the effects of wait hold up the gods are real and did what?as well as you are crows 👁️👄👁️

•Josephine if The De Riva’s are high up in status they would more than likely know her if not Catterina Lucanis and the crows certainly will

Lords of fortune:

•Isabella (She is kind of our only in game character tie to lords of fortune at the moment would be kinda weird if she didn’t show up with that origin.)

Mournwatch:

•Cassandra- We don’t have many if any direct ties to mourn watch but we do have ties to the Pentaghasts who would be pretty high up in Nevarra and mourn watch society.

That and it is likely Cassandra will show up in the capacity of Divine Victoria if you chose that.

There are more but it is first thing in the morning for me will discuss later

so do we think the advisor lineup is solas/ morrigan/ varric/ inquisitor this time around, or

[essayofthoughts]

According to Percy’s goodbye letter, after he dies, he said thatVex would be the clever one in their group. We know that Percy considers himself (and Vex) to be the only adults in the room, but do you think he considers Vex to be on his level of intellect? In her own way, of course. Or do you think, maybe, the only people he considers to be up there are Ripley, Anders, or Victor?

I think you're conflating intellect, cleverness and even arguably wisdom, here?

Like... I don't think Percy considers "cleverness" to be the same thing as "intelligence" or "wisdom". Keyleth can be very wise, increasingly so over the course of the campaign, experience lending her a better understanding and giving her more chances to put these thoughts to words. Grog can be: Grog's got a fantastic grasp of emotional intelligence, combat dynamics and tactics. Intelligence is just... knowing stuff - arguably Tary is intelligent and has an intellect. It doesn't equate to wisdom or common sense or emotional intelligence necessarily.

Cleverness, in Percy-language, I think is problem solving. It's applying what you know. Percy is clever when he figures out the trick with the threshold crests, for example. Ripley is clever for figuring out guns. Raishan is clever for tricking them all and making them work to serve her purpose. These are different things.

(Vex is clever for haggling them better deals and better pay. Vex is clever for keeping the group together. Vex is clever for understanding, even when very few words are said. Vex is clever.)

And, well... Vex has always been the clever one?

Vex may not know as much ... stuff as he does, but she's got common sense, a great grasp of social dynamics, much less awkwardness than he does - she has a social ease he struggles with outside of formal situations. While I think he considers Keyleth to match his intelligence - alongside Ripley or Raishan, for example - I think he knows that Vex is intelligent, experienced and great at spotting opportunities. Vex knows how to apply what she knows and has experienced in ways that work for them. She knows how to problem solve. She looks at the discussions and can deftly redirect them or point out something they're missing: Vex can get things done.

And it's not like Vex is stupid. She reads and researches, she socially networks. Regardless of game stats, Vex can keep up with Percy... and Percy respects that. When Vex asks for his attention, even before he ever indicates any particular interest in her, he gives it immediately and utterly: he knows Vex is one of the cleverest, not just wise as Keyleth is, not just knowledgeable as he and Tiberius are, but able to apply those things.

For what it's worth, Scanlan can also apply those things, but he doesn't always hold the braincell, gets easily distracted by entertaining ideas, and Percy seems to think less of him for the crass jokes while Vax tends to be a bit too reckless and impulsive at times for all he can be pretty damn good at it too sometimes.

Everyone has their strengths. Vex's are such that, despite the limited combat use of a ranger, especially a beastmaster ranger, she is incredibly useful for VM as their primary front-facing member and... I think Percy's always recognised Vex's social power. She handles the group's funds, she's their face, Vex can say a few words and redirect the whole group with ease. Percy was raised around power: he recognises it. He recognises that Vex has it and knows how to use it.

Vex is clever, to Percy, in a way he can't do like she can, and she's intelligent in a way he understands as well. I think he does consider Vex a peer, especially because at times her emotional intelligence outstrips his own (even if she doesn't always practice what she preaches) and so she is, in a way, an expert he can turn to when it comes to things he's less accomplished with. And, in turn, she turns to him for help with things she's less accomplished in - like modifying the broom.

They've always respected one another's skills and appreciated them, and understood that these things all have value.

And, well... Ripley's smart and she replicated guns based on second and third hand reports, but she also made a deal with Orthax (just like him) and didn't have the power of friendship or any morals with which to fight him, so at the end of the day, I think he eventually concludes that maybe Ripley wasn't as clever as all that after all.

Raishan, on the other hand... Raishan absolutely was.

[bhaalble]

I'm in a minority for chantry critical blogs in that I actually still have a soft spot for Aveline (what can I say, I'm a sucker for straight man in a party of chaotic idiots archetypes) but literally her character and her choices would be so much more bearable if she was just a Guard, rather than the Captain.

Like imagine the potential character moments if Aveline exposes Jeven, gets his ass fired....only for the next Captain to be someone just as corrupt and incompetent. She comes to realize, that's how Kirkwall is. Ethics don't matter. Laws don't matter. All that matters is that the right people get money at the right time.

This would:

A. Explain why she continues to pal around with Hawke rather than just assigning her guards where Hawke notices a problem. If Kirkwall law won't handle it, then she and her friends will.

B. Make her far, far less culpable for the failures of the guard in Kirkwall (e.g. the rape of an elven woman, that serial killer who targets elven children, Leandra and Emeric's deaths, Petrice's unchecked conspiracy). Shes only one guard, and can't force her supervisors to assign her where they willfully turn a blind eye.

C. Make her interaction with Anders way less gross because she doesn't threaten him with the might of Kirkwall's police forced.

D. Make her romance with Donnic have less uncomfortable undertones as they're now on equal footing power wise.

E. Could've led to some interesting branching choices that deal with her frustration about her ability to get justice done when no one in a seat of authority seems to give a damn about the population she's sworn to protect. Does she stay, and try to change the system from within? Does she give up, go along with what she's told, and keep her head down? Does she go outside the law entirely? All of this could be connected in various ways to her relationship with Hawke and lead to a far more interesting dynamic than "my cop friend who looks at me sternly and asks me for help with her love life"

This wouldn't fix everything about Aveline: her anti-elf and anti-mage bigotry, her slutshaming of Isabela, her rejection of Carver from the guard would still be there, and would still have to be dealt with. But that one simple change would have made her far less problematic as a character. She could talk about how broken Kirkwall is without the background noise of "what can I, the mere captain of Kirkwall's only other Police force, possibly do about it? Anyways...."

[gotinterest]

The writing of the Fenris v Anders conflict frustrates me to no end because it just doesn’t work on many levels. The idea of Fenris and Anders not getting along because Fenris is wary of mages and Anders is a very “pro-mage” mage is good in theory. I’m even fine with them never getting along. 

Unfortunately, the writing suffers from “Dragon Age Oversimplification” disease as well as a bad case of “Racist Fantasy Oppression Metaphor” syndrome.

For the oversimplification thing. This is a problem that got significantly worse in DA:I, but you can begin to see it with Fenris in DA:2. You can see what they wanted to do: show an idealogical struggle between a sympathetic pro-mage character, and a sympathetic anti-mage character. 

That’s great, it gets you to see two very different sides of the coin. Previously, you hadn’t really seen someone who came from a society where mages actively oppressed other people. It makes Fenris’ perspective interesting. Even pro-mage players can sympathize with him and understand why he feels the way he feels. 

They could have gone two different routes with this: 1) a completely anti-mage character whose arc is that he starts out justified and sympathetic, but his hatred of mages fuels him into being like the people who oppressed him or 2) Someone who hates mages and thinks they are all corrupt, but then begins to realize that most of them aren’t bad people and slowly loses some of the fear and resentment towards them and comes to understand that the chantry circles are not the way to go, either (even if he does still vehemently disapprove of blood magic).

The problem is they tried BOTH. Fenris, when you first meet him, is cautious of mages, but tells a mage! Hawke that he is willing to see what kind of person they are before judging their character. But then he continuously justifies the absolute shit treatment of mages, even after finding out that people are being lobotomized and abused. But he is also convinced by such arguments as “everyone deserves freedom”... except when it’s Anders saying that.

It’s flip floppy and inconsistent. It’s clear that they wanted to write a nuanced character, but also felt as thought they needed a hard counterpoint to Anders’ pro-mage stance to “balance things out”. But Fenris’ stances often don’t match his established character. I’m not saying that a character can’t be hypocritical or occasionally contradict themselves  (real life people do that). I’m saying that it gets to a point where you have to IGNORE certain things he does and says in order to form a consistent picture of the kind of person he is. 

A Fenris that hates mages so much he wants them to be lobotomized and abused (which he does, if he is still ok with the circles even after learning of the abuses in them) is not one that would fall in love with a mage! Hawke and say something like “I am yours” to them. You literally have to sacrifice his character development where he heals from his trauma and opens up more in order for him to still be so angry and hateful that he is ok with the abuses in the Gallows.

Anders also suffers from the “they need to absolutely disagree all the time and be 100% opposed to one another for ‘balance’” trap as well, but to a lesser extent. The most egregious example is him approving of Hawke giving Fenris back to Danarius. That’s COMPLETELY out of character for Anders, even if he does hate Fenris’ guts. 

And that’s just the way it’s bad from an in-story perspective. From an out of story perspective... mages are a very bad metaphor for oppressed people. Mages ARE dangerous. If they don’t get training they can get possessed, they can lose control and be a danger to themselves and to others. Their ability isn’t just a tool, it makes them inherently dangerous because their powers can go out of control if they aren’t trained properly. Rogues and Warriors aren’t born inherently carrying weapons around with them that they have to worry about hitting other people with. Particularly powerful mages (like Solas) have godlike abilities. Regular people have absolutely EVERY reason to be terrified of them.

This does not reflect the reality of oppressed people. Fear of oppressed people is based on biases and bigotry, it’s cultivated by the powerful to maintain systems of control. If mages weren’t capable of being so powerful, and the mere fact that they are different was the reason they are hated and feared, than that would be different. But that isn’t the case in the Dragon Age universe.

It’s an extremely bad look to have your freedom fighting, civil rights leader allegory character be white. Fenris is brown and from a fantasy race heavily inspired by Indigenous Americans, Romani, and Jewish people. It’s a very bad look for a white character like Anders to refer to him as an “animal”. Anders is supposed to represent oppressed people fighting for their rights, but Fenris has far more in common in with actual real life oppressed peoples who have to fight for their rights. It falls very much into the trope of a poor oppressed white character having to deal with a bigoted person of color, especially when the writing consistently paints Fenris as the aggressor in their arguments.

It’s bad writing to make a narrative that’s responding to real world issues while, at the same time, not reflecting real world dynamics at all. But things didn’t have to be as bad as they were, if they had just changed things a little bit, made Fenris and Anders’ dislike of each other a bit more personal than political, presented it as more equally petty, and didn’t sacrifice Fenris’ character development to make it make sense, than it could have worked better. You’d still have the issue of mages being a bad metaphor for oppression, but that’s baked into the universe, so what are you going to do? DA:2 at least handled it better than DA:I. 

[wardenari]

Well now I have to ask for Fenris too

Well if you have to then who am I to deny you LOL

How I feel about this character

He's easily one of my favorite in the series.  I personally feel like people that don't like him didn't really friend him in the game because he goes through a HUGE change as far as his character arc. At the beginning he is incredibly untrusting of mages (understandably so) but recognizes he needs the help of the ones in Hawke's group if he's going to get his freedom. But little by little he begins to open up as he sees Hawke can be trusted. Slowly his feelings change, he starts to see the nuances in mages and that they aren't all like they are in Tevinter. It takes a long time, but his trauma is severe and it's not like they had therapy then so it makes sense that healing is a long, probably life long, journey for him. He makes mistakes based on instinct he has from years of abuse - for example when he accuses Hawke of making Orana a slave when you first hire her. But he's also quick to apologize when he realizes he's made a mistake - again look at the Orana scene. By the end of the game Fenris stands in support of the mages if that's what Hawke chooses. That's something the Fenris from seven years earlier would never have done.

All the people I ship romantically with this character Hawke - Male or Female. Zevran (I think they'd make an interesting dynamic)

My non-romantic OTP for this character I feel he and Sebastian would have been close friends

My unpopular opinion about this character I think he and Anders continuing to bicker despite fighting side by side for years was just Varric adding some artistic license to the tale he's telling Cassandra. There needs to be some tension to make it an interesting story. In truth, I believe while at first they bumped heads, over the years he and Anders become friends. I see them still making comments, but it's more friendly ribbing then actual vitrol.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon. I would have liked to see Fenris team up with the Inquisition. He could use their power to help fight slavers while using his skills to help the Inquisition battle Corypheus.  If he was Hawke's romance, he absolutely WOULD be there. I think instead of the dialog it would have been great if as the Inquisitor is asking Hawke about where Fenris is and Hawke is explaining how he left him behind you suddenly get Fenris storming in yelling at Hawke about how DARE they think they can just leave Fenris like that. We do this together or not at all. I believe if if was a Hawke romance and Hawke is left in the Fade (you monster!!!) then Fenris is heartbroken. He perhaps travels to Starkhaven to see the Prince, to get help with dealing with his emotions.

[thedinanshiral]

Magic, mages and more

If you’ve played the Dragon Age series you’ve probably noticed some differences here and there. Origins was heavy on tactics, something Inquisition lacks considerably, and Dragon Age 2 allowed for blood magic, which Origins had little of and Inquisition barely mentions. All lore aside, we can experience magic in Thedas more closely through our mage companions in each game ( or your character if you chose the mage class).

First, i’ll discuss briefly how magic spells have changed throughout the games, then i’ll analyse a mage pattern and how it broke. And finally i’ll entertain some future over the top possibilities.  

Origins and DA2 were designed primarily to be played on PC, and we see this more clearly on Origins through its tactics-heavy gameplay. Spells in Origins are more suitable to a carefully planned combat strategy, with passive and status-inducing spells presented in a variety that didn’t survive into the following games. DA2 also allows for tactics but the combat system is more dynamic, it’s not necessary to pause/unpause 5 times per second, one can do battles in real time and as a result spells were considerably reduced, prioritizing active/offensive spells, and almost entirely eliminating status-inducing and supportive spells.

Unlike its predecessors, Inquisition was way more console-friendly and all but eliminated the tactics system from Origins; now combat was fast, direct, with a tactical screen capable of basic commands and overall limited, and spell trees were reduced to the bare minimum, with elemental attacks, and very few defensive spells, having completely eliminated healing.

So, in short, summonings disappeared after Origins, as did most of the Creation, Spirit and Entropy trees. By Inquisition, none of the glyphs or hexes survived. Some spells icons from DA2 reappear in Inquisition, but most from Origins never made it past it, and some spells changed name or spell tree between games. There’s a gradual simplification of spell trees from one game to the next, adjusting combat to a more straightforward style, with less support or status-inducing spells and an increasing concentration of active spells with enhancing passive ones. On the other hand, Healing all but disappeared from Inquisition spells, “spirit healer” not even surviving as a specialization, with the only healing spell available being Revival which as the name implies you can only use on an already fallen party member. Surprisingly, Dispel made it through all three games staying in the same spell tree, Spirit, and elemental spells remained the same across all games, with minor changes.

Now let’s take a look at all our main mage companions.

In Origins we have Morrigan (apostate, shapeshifter), and Wynne (circle mage, spirit healer, vessel for spirit of Faith). In DA2 we have Merrill (dalish, blood mage), and Anders (former circle mage turned apostate, healer, vessel for spirit of Justice/Vengeance). In inquisition however we get three mages: Dorian (Tevinter pariah, pyromancer, necromancer), Vivienne (circle loyalist, icemancer, knight-enchanter) and Solas (apostate, electromancer,rift mage).

Just in case the pattern isn’t clear enough..In both games we get an apostate and formally educated and trained mage, a mage who lived in the wild and a mage who lived in cities, a mage who dwells in obscure or forbidden magic used for offense and a mage dedicated primarily to healing and support, a mage who deals in dangerous magic but remains their own and a mage who despite dealing in safer magic harbours a spirit within (by Chantry dogma, an abomination).

This pattern is broken in Inquisition; while we still get an apostate and a circle mage, we also get a mage that while not from the circle still isn’s technically an apostate (Dorian), we also get no healer but we do get a mage that specializes in obscure magic (necromancy), and we don’t really get a mage that has lived in the wild but one who’s lived outside of Thedosian society (Solas, being who he is and having recently woken up from the longest nap ever). And instead of getting a mage sharing their body with a spirit of the Fade, we get an ancient elf who secretely is an elvhen god and the creator of the Veil. Solas breaks the pattern (as well as everything else, apparently).  

I’ll focus on Inquisition from now on and leave Solas for last. 

Auto-level evidences the default element of choice of each mage. Solas is an electromancer, Dorian is a pyromancer, and Vivienne is an icemancer. Dorian preferring fire makes sense as a Tevinter who constantly complains the South is cold, implying his homeland has a warmer weather he sorely misses. Vivienne choosing cold spells goes perfectly with her personality, presenting herself as an ice queen.

Here is where it begins to get a bit tricky: Specializations.

Dorian’s is Necromancy, which would make a lot of sense...if he was Nevarran. Being a Tevinter it’d make more sense for him to be a Blood Mage. But Origins and particularly DA2 already exposed blood magic, painted it in all its evil colours, made it pretty clear it’s the wrong kind of magic to use for all the dangers it entails. By the time we get Inquisition, we face an actual Magister Siderial and Tevinter is painted as this degenerate empire full of evil blood mages, so getting a blood mage specialization was out of the table. Therefore our Tevinter ally got the next most questionable line of magic, necromancy. Because nothing says “almost evil” as raising up the death to fight for you and draining lifeforce from your enemies.

Next we have Vivienne who specialises as a Knight-Enchanter (KE). She’s a Circle mage, a Loyalist at that, and KE is a path reserved for Circle mages allowed to engage in combat when requested. But we learn from Solas that the powers used by Knight-Enchanters have their origin in the Arcane Warriors of the ancient elves. Vivienne has no known connection to anything elven, so her being able to become a KE is just another example of the cultural appropriation of elven elements and knowledge done by humans and the Chantry. 

None of the specializations are entirely new, as already stated KE takes from Arcane Warriors, much of the Necromancer tree comes from the previous games’ Entropy trees, and the Primal and Force trees lend some spells to the supposedly brand new Rift tree. 

Then there’s Solas, who is the default Rift Mage once specializations become available. The Rift spell tree is a post-Breach occurrence, as it was developed by mages studying the Breach and resulting rifts that appeared all over Thedas. It should have unique spells yet it recycles old ones: Stonefist no longer deals physical damage as it did in Origins and DA2 when it was in the Primal tree and meant hurling rocks at the enemy, but spirit damage as it now involves summoning a boulder directly from the Fade. Similarly, DA2’s Force spell Fist of the Maker and subsequent upgrades, Maker’s Hammer and Maker’s Fury, described as “slamming enemies into the ground” with some invisible force became Veilstrike in the Rift tree of Inquisition, there described as “smashing nearby foes to the ground” by “recreating your own fist from from the essence of the Fade”.

Knowing what we know about Solas, his specialization makes sense, he’s responsible for the Veil’s existence so of course he’d know how to manipulate its properties. He’s Fen’Harel, after all. 

Still with me? Good, because this ride is about to get bumpy.

As the default Rift mage he can use Veilstrike, recreating his “own fist from the essence of the Fade”,  but Veilstrike is actually a rename of Fist of the Maker…So what Solas is really doing whenever he casts Veilstrike is casting the Fist of the Maker. By recreating his own fist..It’s all in the name. Fist of the Maker pre-dates Rift magic, but its rebranding as Veilstrike is post-Breach and named after the Veil and not the Maker, possibly because the one who introduces us to this particular spell now is not Andrastian but the ancient elvhen god and creator of the Veil.  Technically speaking  we could say Solas, having created the Veil ages ago and therefore being the one responsible for the present reality of Thedas, is then, in a way, its maker. It’s a wild idea, I know, and there are some bits of lore scattered around that could support it, but i’m not jumping into that abyss yet-

In addition, let’s go back to his auto-leveled spells. At first sight there’s no basis for Solas being an electromancer. But like his Rift specialization, his magic preferences are lore/plot oriented. To consider:

Solas prefers the Storm tree. Skyhold is, by its very name, the place from where the Veil was installed. Some codices found at Skyhold mention electricity being used in unknown rituals at Skyhold’s location. Solas was responsible for creating the Veil.

With this in mind it can be concluded that Solas has always been an electromancer, and even used his electric powers in some way to help put up the Veil in the past.

tl;dr Solas was originally an electromancer and is a Rift Mage because he created the Veil and knows it better than anyone else. Also, he may be the Maker. (loljk or am i)

Now what would you say if I told you Solas possibly also does blood magic? Too much of a stretch? Maaaybe..Except maybe not. He’s not against it, thinks of it as simply a means to an end, and doesn’t disapprove of it unless it’s done in excess for all the wrong reasons (as they do in Tevinter) or is used to limit freedom like when used to bind unwilling spirits or control people’s minds. It’s just an idea, but there must be an explanation why blood magic and lyrium (titan blood, so, still blood magic) can be used to tear the Veil open. The Magisters did it before, and a second time when Corypheus sacrificed Divine Justinia in a ritual that also involved...Solas’ Foci. That is, Fen’ Harel’s Foci.

From Tevinter Nights we learn Solas is after the red lyrium idol (again, titan blood) which he claims belongs to him and is a necessary element for the ritual he must perform to take down the Veil. A ritual for which he’s willing to destroy Thedas as we know it, regrettably causing the dead of thousands. For all we know, those deaths are a necessary sacrifice because they are part of a massive blood magic ritual, Solas’ own death may also be part of it. If the blood of a Divine could be used to open the Breach, what could the blood of Fen’Harel be used for?? Solas’ new powers as Fen’Harel are, frankly, terrifying*, and he’s decided to do whatever it takes to see his mission through, sadly.

And all this leads me to future possibilities..we can imagine with Solas actively trying to take down the Veil there will be places where the Veil gets super thin or begins to disappear. Pockets of space where reality no longer respects natural laws of physics or logic. The Fade is fluid, ever changing, with the right power it can be reshaped at will and i imagine some of that may begin to leak into the physical world, so we may get mage (or spirit! )companions with skills capable of taking advantage of that. 

Lastly, i may add, right now and as far as we can see, Solas is OP as fuck*. He can kill you in your sleep from within your dreams. He can turn you into stone with just thinking of it, which means in a way he can bend the laws of nature of the physical world like he can do in the Fade, If in the future we get close to him,if we get our hands on artifacts or intel.. it won’t because we gathered the right people and resources, it won’t be because of clever tactics and espionage, it won’t be at all because we did anything right. It’ll be because he allows it, because he let us get that far. 

If we stop him at all it’ll be because he wants to be stopped.   

(Apologies in advance if some of this is poorly written, i revised it so many times words no longer look like words. Also half of this is just wild speculation on my part and nobody has to agree with me, after 5 years i may be connecting imaginary dots but hey, it’s fun! If you read this far...i am so sorry, thanks)

[merrybandofmurderers]

how are you so racist and ignorant while masquerading as woke??? you writing about mage rights doesnt make you an activist. and your shitty tropes and gross consumption and creepy portrayals and enjoyment of stuff from other culturs and brown paper dolls is nasty. whhy dont you actually do the work instead of pretending? cuz people of color are countin on you and your fake wokeness is gonna hurt them

first of all, i think i’ve written like one? maybe two things? about “mage rights”. like, yes i’m invested in the mage storyline due to the way bioware handles them with their awkward oppression metaphor and i’ve reblogged plenty of posts about it, but also mages aren’t like, real. i’ve definitely written more on behalf of the shitty handling of bioware’s elves and generally poor handling of their queer characters and characters of color and vivienne specifically (and i definitely reblog stuff by fans of color about bioware’s racism)

(if this is about my defense of anders, i’ve read posts by several muslim fans of late and i realized i’ve probably reblogged posts/made comments that were islamophobic or bordering on it; i will go through my blog to delete/fix the posts i can find)

second, in regards to shitty tropes, gross consumption, and creepy portrayals: is this about the fic i write? the fic/art i reblog? is this becuz of something i ship (fenders? adoribull? pavellan? varricass?)? is this because i like enemies-to-lovers and heavy angst? becuz i like age differences and exploring power dynamics? because i like grappling with the darker side of things like consent and trauma? specifics would be helpful

wrt my pavellan fic specifically, there were problems in early versions in dealing with racial issues and there was an instance of criticism i didn’t handle well, i admit; i’ve since fixed those to the best of my ability. i have been guilty of reblogging questionable art/edits of fenris and sten; i’ve gone through my blog and deleted those i could find. i avoid content that makes light of abuse or rape

third, i’m afraid i don’t know what you mean but “enjoyment of stuff from other cultures.” did i use an inappropriate pic for an edit? something culturally appropriative in a picrew? i will go back and look, but a starting point would be helpful

fourth, brown paper dolls. all right. so look. i have 60+ characters (90 something including kids). i know for most ppl in fandom, they have 1-3 characters that get the most attention, that the creators are most invested in, and in many cases are a personal representation in some way. that is not how it works for me

my characters are racially (and gender/sexually diverse) because thedas is diverse. making characters is by far my favorite part of story writing, and honestly if this were a novel with sixty ocs and they were all white, it would be weird (in fact i have seen ppl called out for making “too many” white ocs). i have characters from all over thedas with different backgrounds. pieces of myself go into my characters but none of them are a representation of me. i’ve never hidden my race or used my characters of color as a mouthpiece

i’ve also never worked under the illusion that my characters of color will ever be as authentic or deep as those made by creators of color. i put in a lot of effort to flesh them out and avoid relying on stereotypes (which is something i’ve had to improve on over time, i admit) and i like sharing them with my followers, but i know there will always be a level of authenticity i can’t provide, and i’ve always done my best to support creators of color because of that

i know there are some character designs i didnt put too much thought into and i’m presently working on fixing that. i need to work on finding more accurate faceclaims and i’ve closed that page until i’ve done so. i have a lot of ocs, and i simply cannot give them all equal attention at once. if a character seems shallow its becuz i havent found the time/spoons to talk about them or its ruminating in my mental headspace until i can focus on it

if there is something egregious i have overlooked, again, i would deeply appreciate a starting point

lastly, this is the second message to this effect i have received. i don’t know if it’s by the same person, but since i received the last one i have been trying, and it’s distressing to know that hasn’t shown. i don’t know what words to use to express how hard i am trying. i thought i was being aware, i thought i was rectifying my problems, i know i can’t catch everything but i thought i was doing everything i could

look, i know it’s not anyone’s job to educate me, but since you have taken the time to contact me about this, it would be vastly helpful if you could give me something, anything specific, as a starting point. i’ve thought so much about this, i thought i’d identified the problems, and i thought my actions showed that. but if they haven’t, then obviously i am missing something and i need help. if you could give me that, i would deeply appreciate it

EDIT: also pls no one comment on this unless you are a poc

[caitlynlynch]

This set of novellas are all second-chance romances, all featuring ‘older’ heroines. I think the youngest is about 31 and the oldest, well, it’s not polite to ask a lady’s age, but I’m going to guess around 50. It’s a really nice theme for a collection, and if you want to read about some older heroines, I’d definitely recommend giving this set a read.

As I always do with collections, I’ll give each story a short individual review and rating, and then an overall rating for the set.

Mrs. Sartin’s Secretary by Wendy LaCapra - a rather interesting twist on an office romance, set in the Regency era, with a female boss! Flipping that trope makes the usually very unequal power dynamic of Regency romances flip around as well. Charming and thoroughly enjoyable, I also liked the fact that the heroine was quite a few years older than the hero. 5 stars.

To Hell and Back, by Annabelle Anders - Another one with a flipped power dynamic, as the hero is working for the heroine as her ‘man of business’. Eve is very much in distress throughout this story and Niles does a wonderful job of being her knight in shining armour while ensuring everything that happens is entirely her choice. 5 stars.

A Lady’s Guide to Marriage by Tabetha Waite - Okay, this was the one out of the bunch I really didn’t like, mainly because the hero literally ABANDONED his wife when she was at her lowest point (dealing with empty-nest syndrome and grieving the loss of her parents) for FIVE YEARS and… expected her to get over her depression entirely without his loving support and come back to him when she Felt Better? Honestly, YIKES. 1 star.

Heart of Decadence by Jenna Jaxon - I was a bit confused about just why Amelia’s scandal was So Terrible. She may or may not have slept with her betrothed before the marriage, which was apparently accepted as normal at the time, and then when he died, she was suddenly beyond the pale For Ever? Certainly Lord Ainsley did the right thing in not really caring about her past. As he pointed out, if she’d been a widow nobody would even have blinked. The whole thing seemed a bit blown out of proportion to me. Now, if she’d been suspected of her former fiance’s murder, THAT would have been an interesting story. As it was, I didn’t quite believe the level of Drama in the story. 4 stars.

A Letter From a Lady by Cynthia Sterling - A second abandoned-wife story, but this time the husband was a terrible person. I really liked Adam’s determination to shield Clarissa’s reputation from scandal even though he was obviously hopelessly in love with her. Adorable plot moppets in this one too. 5 stars.

A Lady of Courage by Catherine Tinley - I normally love Catherine Tinley’s stories but… this one fell a tiny bit flat for me because Elizabeth was such a wet blanket. I loved Juliana, her daughter, and actually I’m really keen to read Juliana’s story, which was possibly the point of this novella. I just wanted to tell Elizabeth to buck up a bit and stop feeling faint every time her father was even mentioned. 4 stars.

Overall a very solid collection badly dragged down by one story where I just wanted to smack some sense into the hero. I’ll give it an overall 4 star rating.

Second Chance Love: A Regency Romance Set is available now.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for review from a representative of the authors.

[wits-writing]

Shazam! (Movie Review)

Shazam!, directed by David F Sandberg from a screenplay by Henry Gayden, brings the story of Billy Batson (Asher Angel), a wayward foster kid who can turn into an adult superhero, played by Zachary Levi, with the magic word “Shazam”, to the big screen. When he’s chosen to be a champion to protect the world, he starts using his powers for fun and profit until he comes into conflict with Doctor Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong.)

I had a fantastic time with this movie and I’m not going to say too much else about it in this preamble. This is the rare major blockbuster that gave away almost nothing in its promotional material. The body of this review is spoiler free as well, but I do tilt my hand towards some thematic stuff that might give the game away. Do yourself a favor and go out to see this movie as soon as possible.

[Full Review Under the Cut]

Power, its use and what that says about people who have it gets brought up consistently in Shazam! as we see the actions of the Billy and Sivana play out. In the movie’s prologue, Sivana gets offered the powers of Shazam as a boy by the Wizard (Djimon Hounsou), a dream come true for a boy who got belittled by his father and older brother no matter what he did. He gets rejected when he fails the test of resisting the Seven Deadly Sins, as we later find out has happened with every candidate for thousands of years. That rejection and the Wizard’s remarks about “purity of heart” developed into a sense of entitlement for Sivana, because if he couldn’t meet that standard then obviously no one can. He’s obsessed over proving he can get power for himself, driven by his father saying real men don’t need to ask for help. Mark Strong’s playing a complex version of a potentially simplistic villain, bringing the phrase “power mad” to a literal place when he figures out how to take the magic of the Seven Deadly Sins for himself.

While Sivana’s drive comes from a life of privilege with a background radiation of familial neglect, Billy Batson’s life is defined by being a foster kid bumped around the system because of how he rejects potential familial connections. He lost his mother at age four in a crowd and spent the next decade running away from group homes in the self-assurance that his mom’s out there and wants to know he’s alright. Longing for a lost connection rather than building something out of what he finds in front of him made Billy into a young teen actively trying not to care about the people around him. Asher Angel believably plays a kid who’s put himself through the ringer for the sake of proving he wasn’t abandoned for no reason. We see a better inner nature shine through in Billy’s actions early on, while he’s still planning how to get out of his latest foster family from the moment he arrives. He’s not “pure of heart” but when the Wizard chooses him it’s the ancient mystic’s last chance to find a champion that can protect the world from the Sins.

From that moment onward we see how Billy initially deals with having the powers of Shazam. While Zachary Levi as the adult hero version of Billy takes focus in those scenes, what makes them work is the dynamic Billy has in both forms with one of his foster brothers, Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer). His passion as an in-universe superhero fan, since this does take place in the DCEU, makes him suited to helping the new hero figure out what he can do before they face what he must do. The montages of Freddy enthusiastically helping Billy navigate having superpowers and an adult body by making YouTube videos and generally goofing off is some of the best material in the movie.

Freddy’s presence serves a thematic purpose as well and back to the idea of how power is used. On their first day of school together, he does a subtle test of Billy’s character by asking him if he’d rather have flight or invisibility. He starts talking before his new brother can make a choice to discuss the implications of each power. Invisibility gets called out as a power that’s more useful if you prefer to be alone, a comment about Billy barely hiding his plans to run away. Flight gets boiled down to a simpler notion, “heroes fly.” Freddy has clear preference for the idea of flight himself. Aside from the mobility it would provide him as opposed to the limp he walks with, he’s not like Billy and doesn’t want to disappear. Freddy wants to be seen in a positive light, not ignored, bullied or pitied because of his disability. When he sees Billy with powers later, it’s a chance to experience that dream by proxy if nothing else.

On the question of power and purity of heart, Shazam! arrives at an answer connected to the other major theme of the movie, family. The foster family Billy meets Freddy at is a humble setup with four other kids besides them overseen by foster parents, the Victor and Rosa Vasquezes (Cooper Ander and Marta Milans), who grew up in the system themselves. The theme of finding and accepting family in the people life throws your way gets set up in a joke when the oldest kid in the house, Mary (Grace Fulton), is told by Victor to play up her life as a foster kid during a college interview, but it ends up the beating heart that brings everything in the movie together. When the climax of the movie roles around, the solution to what “purity of heart” means becomes about how accepting love from others can make a person better.

Shazam! is a family movie in every sense of that word. There are intense scenes, including one that’s as close to rivalling the Doc Ock hospital scene from Spider-Man 2 as anything in the superhero genre has. However, it’s at its best bringing the childhood fantasy of turning into a superhero to life on the big screen. It does well not to leave it at that by confronting some of the tougher aspects of the themes it explores and take the movie straight into tearjerker territory for me. Gayden’s screenplay gives enough room for the messing around with superpowers scenes and subtle character beats the looser breathing room they need and keeps the plot tight enough that there’s rarely a wasted moment. The production design and costuming do a lot of unspoken worldbuilding and foreshadowing. Sandberg and company have delivered a fittingly modern yet never too cynical take on the Big Red Cheese with a collective magic of their own.

If you like what you’ve read here, please like/reblog or share elsewhere online, follow me on Twitter (@WC_WIT), and consider throwing some support my way at either Ko-Fi.com or Patreon.com at the extension “/witswriting”

[happywitch416]

Ok, now do Leliana, Merrill, Iron Bull, and Blackwall. I love your opinions.

I have lots of opinions and some of them are even good ones so I appreciate the love for them lol

I already did Blackwall here.

The Iron Bull

How I feel about this character

Look, when I discovered I could romance The Iron Bull, 6-year-old me found her prince charming dreams come true. Why? Tim Curry as Darkness in Legend. My tastes have been odd forever. Pretty boys are exactly that and usually boring. And he's disabled, yet tall and strong. He finds himself a family? Also BDSM but that is probably more info than anyone has ever wanted from me. There is just so much? He is a big character, not even because of his size but because he takes up metaphysical space and does not apologize for it. And he's a spy! You would expect all spies in the Qun to be like Tallis and instead you have this motherfucker that could bench press a wagon and the horses. Also, his love of dragons mirrors my own. Spiritual bonding.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Dorian and tiny Cadash inquisitors because I am easily made happy. So much tall and small.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Sera. Mayhem.lace Harding. Viv, I love their dynamic. She mother hens this giant and he's just? So down for it? He's cool with being adopted.

My unpopular opinion about this character

I love him as is. Folks who say he's abusive I will meet in the pit. And I will win. Dealt with that in real life, get your purity brownie points elsewhere. Far the fuck away from me. Triggering? Sure. But that's a personal issue you need to work through, not take it on people who are fine with it.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

More of life after the qun. I want him to grow past that. There is just so much shit packed into that way of life and I want him to unpack it. Show your emotions! Feel them! With less sticks! Or more sticks bc honestly that makes sense.

And maybe make his relationship with Dorian without those sketchy bits. Like why the fuck were those even there. why.

Leliana

How I feel about this character

It took a long time for Leliana to grow on me. That whole chosen by god thing just grates. But it makes sense storywise! So I'm okay with it really. Hardened Leliana in DAI? Where is the sweet girl who sang around a campfire? Like I get it, she was in the game and the left hand but they idk. It really bothered me to see her so cynical and harsh. People change sure. But I don't like how it worked with her. Now her feelings of failure in regards to divine justinia? Yes, good. Also her becoming divine and basically razing it to the ground? She is probably the truest follower of the chant since andraste. Her reaction to morrigan being in orlais was...fucky. why make them enemies. Where is the setup for this. Wtf. I also dig that she's a redhead and an archer. I am shallow okay. But we do not see a lot of the fun Leliana in dai and I think thats a disservice. 

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Female wardens, any race are brilliant. I just can't picture her with a dude beyond using him to get something done. I like her with Josie and Morrigan as well.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Iron Bull and Sera, hold with me here, because she needs fun and to remember she can have it. Same for Lace. But I also see her being friends with Viv. And of course Josie and I kinda dig her friendship with Cassandra. She could be friends with anyone, until she stabs them I guess.

My unpopular opinion about this character

I think they wanted a hardass spymistress and almost neglected everything else. We get bare hints of the Leliana we met in dao in dai. Once again people change, but i think its fucky.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

No to the lyrium ghost? What the fuck? She fakes her death if the warden kills her. Boom done, and keeping in line with her Bard status. You can't tell me the chantry allowed a god damn ghost. Although, a lyrium based ghost could be corrupted by blight and thats scary. An evil Leliana, scary but hot. 

Merrill

How I feel about this character

She is adorable and performs blood magic. She's my one of my top 5 characters in this realm. She goes around picking flowers out of random gardens? Her pure excitement at seeing a mugging. I however despise her clan. The people who should have cared for her the most, betrayed her the most. And she restores an Eluvian, just how powerful of mage is she? Like yes i know she has a demon or whatever but she has far more control of that deal then Anders does with justice. It seems to be a healthy deal.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Isabela! You know she brings home all the exotic flowers she can find while shes on the sea for Merrill. 

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Also Isabela. They have such a good friendship in game? Puts marbles in her boots. 

My unpopular opinion about this character

Every time someone writes her as a sweet little pushover i want to sacrifice them to the seven circles of hell. She's arguably one of the strongest mages we meet, and not necessarily spell wise. The will power she must have, she has a successful partnership with a spirit. She laughs at near muggings? You think balls that big would be a doormat? Gtfo.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

She should have been brought in as an advisor, arcane, elven whatever, in dai. Morrigan? The elven expert? Eluvian expert? A lot of that was based off well flemeth is her mom and she just felt a connection with research into elven magic. Sure jan. As a Daughter literally never do you listen that well to your mom. She could have been a knowledge buddy with Merrill. Even with Solas, they literally trust some rando that wanders in. A total unknown that spouts off about the fade that is suspicious use of elfroot sounding. There was an opportunity and they missed it.

[illcasthealinghands]

it’s 2am and i’m sleepy but here’s what i could come up with off the top of my head before i forget:

since it’s our introduction to thedas it gives us a very clear idea of just how awful the world is with the blight, cailan’s death and loghain’s betrayal. even before that though no matter the origin you choose your life is about to change because of awful circumstances you may or may not have controlled when a bright and shiny duncan waltzes in and gives you a ticket out of it, signing your life away in the process but nevermind that. in 2 if you send bethany to the wardens she expresses how difficult it is knowing that the rest of her life has to be devoted to killing darkspawn and how she struggles with it, hell anders is in hiding for desertion - army rhetoric anyone? don’t see any of that in origins

essentially all of your experience with companions and other npcs is a lot of talk about duty and being what operates on the outside of society and law (which gets you out of arrest/death/whatever) but we never really see any consequence of this beyond the two failed joinings and riordan in denerim. even with how they describe the calling as something honourable like it isn’t a promise of being driven to madness and sending yourself to your death in the deep roads which doesn’t tell you how long that will take or just how unpleasant a death it will be.

the whole purpose of the game is to garner allies to kill the archdemon, which only the two of you can do since loghain is too busy having his pissing contest to ask orlais for help. as you’re helping out all of these on-the-brink-of-collapse societies you get to see the worst elements of them and quite often the dialogue highlights how separate they are from the party and you have the option to say you want to help but every other option negative/sarcastic is derogatory in nature. as we see in daily life with cops this separation just creates space for you to think of how different you are and since you operate on a different set of rules - better than them.

if you look at inquisition with clarel and what they were willing to try to end the blights forever it clearly isn’t the ‘let’s go on an adventure’ impression that we get from origins. in crestwood as well when the wardens refuse to stop to help because they have orders when a village is on the verge of slaughter nearby, same with stroud refusing to stay during the qunari attack on kirkwall. they may talk about honour and duty like it makes them any different than footsoldiers with a biological difference that makes them important during the blight - outside of the parameters of origins they really aren’t much more than a name to throw around, which is made pretty clear by every dwarven encounter saying ‘they’re cute but we’re the ones who deal with the darkspawn 24/7’

the problem with organisation and power is that it breeds corruption like we see literally everywhere but origins does very well to not showcase the worst bits and ends the game before you really see any resurgence in warden activity except for the dlc, the hero worship and us against the world dynamic does a lot to create an idea of these are the people that are going to fix everything like the sky doesn’t tear itself apart 10 years later and the hero you recreated the wardens with disappears into the very cesspit they should be running from to find a cure for what they signed up for in the first place. sounds romantic in the first game but in practice? not so good.

dragon age origins is grey warden propaganda

[blschaos3000-blog]

Its 8:00 pm dusk

I have written before about the massive Dollar Tree sales that happen about every six weeks. One of the things I don’t know if I mentioned or not is the fact not every store gets the same movies. Every store gets a huge hodge podge of whatever is sent to them. Thus when we collectors look at various You Tubers who post their hunts online,we are often left with “Damn!!! I didn’t see that at all!! And on BluRay to boot!!” You are then left with a few options if you’re me….you can ask your pal Catfish to keep a eye out for said title,you can broaden your search pattern or you can just wait six weeks and have another go at it.

  Well my patience paid off and when the next sale came by,I got a BluRay copy of the first season of “The Almighty Johnsons”. Why the excitement for a 8 year old show I can hear many of you asking….well this is my first show from New Zealand. I mean I have a few seasons of “Xena” and “Hercules” that were filmed there but “The Almighty Johnsons” was a made for New Zealand series and I had never seen one before.

The show was created by a pair of writers,James Griffin and Rachel Lang and it aired on TV3 in New Zealand for three years,from 2011 to 2013 and its series run was 36 episodes. The premise is that various gods from different cultures exist on Earth in human form. The Johnsons are descended for the Norse gods and have lived on earth for hundreds of years. Whenever a god turns 21 in human years,they gain their various powers,which while sounding awesome,really isn’t as exciting as it seems. This is because with each generation,their powers haved waned to a shadow of what they used to be. They are still capable but just not what you would expect.

The Johnsons consist of four brothers,the eldest is Mike aka Ullr (Tim Balme),he is the most down to earth and sensible. He is the God of Games and cannot lose at anything he plays. Mike is terribly guilt ridden after his best mate Rob was put in a coma when he and Mike were attacked at a pool hall after he had won several games against some thugs. Mike ends up marrying Rob’s girl Valerie and the two are trying to have a baby. Next is Anders Johnson aka Bragi (Dean O’Gorman) who can manipulate mortals with his voice. Anders owns his own PR company,beds several ladies and takes advantage of loyal assistant Dawn. Mike and Anders don’t see eye to eye on much.

Next up is Ty Johnson aka Hoor (Jared Turner). Ty’s power is he is able to rediate deep cold,which is great as a ice sculptor or refrigerators but absolutely terrible in terms of having a normal relationship. Because he is so shy and a good listener,Ty has plenty of female friends,many who assume he is gay. This leaves Ty is a depressed state most of the time. Every family needs a gradfather and in the Johnson’s case,this would be Olaf Johnson aka Baldr (Ben Berrington). Olaf is a oracle but over 90 years of partying and carrying on like a surfing bum has dulled his power as well and he isn’t able to see the signs of the world around him like he should. He holds most of the family’s history in his head. He also could as for 35. He is irresponsible and thoughtless when dealing with mortals.

Last but not least is Axl Johnson (Emmett Skilton) who when the series starts is on the verge of 21 years old. He also has no idea about his heritage or what his family really are. When he turns 21,he is taken to the forest to finally be told and to learn which god he has become. He naturally doesn’t believe it until Mike proves it in a rather unsettling way. He is given a sword and holds it up and its struck by lightening. As Axl lies there recovering,Olaf tells them that their little brother has been reborn as Odin,Father of the Gods. Olaf tells them that Odin must find the Frigg and be with her in order for everyone to be truly immortal and the their full powers again. Until then,Axl,while strong,is vunerable to death and if he dies,so does his entire family. They must find the Frigg. Unknown to the brothers,a group of female goddesses are also watching and they are not keen on the idea of Odin finding his soulmate. It would once again relagate the goddesses as being inder their male counterparts.

Led by their leader Agnetha (Alison Bruce),the goddesses try to stop the Johnsons by deciding to find the Frigg first. Agnetha has her own oracle,Ingrid (who likes to drink a wee too much) and two very interesting assistants.

We meet Stacey aka Fulla (Eve Gordon) who tries to kill Axl before his 21st birthday but fails. She leaves a very interesting looking knife behind which tips off the brothers that Axl is in trouble. Stacey is used as a spy and information gatherer for Agnetha. She and Michele started out as rivals but as the season went on,Stacey’s true role was revealed and it made for interesting dynamics.

Next we have Michele aka Sjofn (Michelle Langstone) who is the goddess of love. She is a doctor in her human form and can treat people and gods by using a slim branch from Tree of Life. But she is also a complete bad ass fighter and fought Odin to a standstill. She is the perfect package of brains,beauty and smarts and despite being called a “minor goddess” is also the one to take charge. In addition to the above gods and goddesses above,we have Axl’s two housemates,Zeb and Gaia (Keisha Castle-Hughes) who also get involved with the antics of the Johnsons and the various other gods.

This is a fun show,the cheetah and I were hooked instantly. While it was our first taste of New Zealand programming,we did know who Keisha Castle-Hughes was,she was the star of the film “Whale Rider” and was nominated for an Oscar for that film. This was the first time I had seen her onscreen and she is a very good actress. Dean O’Gorman is the one actor I knew,he co-starred with Ryan Gosling for two seasons in “Young Hercules” where he played young Iolaus. He also starred as Fili in The Hobbit trilogy.  His Anders definitely had to some influence on Tom Ellis’s turn as Lucifier,they could be twins in the way to played their roles. Both started out purely as rogues and users but slowly learned that maybe using your powers to use people isn’t always the best idea.

The rest of the cast was all new but Michelle Langstone? Easily the best thing we loved about The Almighty Johnsons. She steals just about every scene she is in. She is drop dead beautiful,has the best smile this side of Jennifer Garner and is a very capable psychical actress.  She has chemistry with every actor she was played a scene in and O’Gorman and Michelle’s banter was fresh and sassy. The rest of the cast is also strong,there wasn’t a bad turn among the bunch. I really loved that the creators powered down their gods,that they,for all of their history and strengths,are far more human then they may realize. They can be hurt emotionally and feel their short-comings,its a nice touch. What will (and did) surprise you is the language,its VERY salty,its what you find in a R-rated movie more then an American network show. Also the first 5 episodes features graphic nudity who also is quite different. The nudity vanishes half way through season one.

Normally I would tell you which episodes were our favorite but with only 10 in the first season,I think I would mistakenly give out spoilers and yeah,the show is over and off the air but I still think you should buy “The Almighty Johnsons” if you get a chance. It is a wickedly fun show. But the real fun to about to be had….finding the next two seasons here in America….

The cheetah and I gave “The Almighty Johnsons” two thumbs straight up.

If anyone has seasons 2 and 3 in Region 1,drop me a email and maybe we can do a trade.

Have Cheetah,Will View #374 – “The Almighty Johnsons” Season One (2010) Its 8:00 pm dusk I have written before about the massive Dollar Tree sales that happen about every six weeks.

[aion-rsa]

The City in the Middle of the Night Review

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In The City in the Middle of the Night, Charlie Jane Anders uses a tidally-locked planet to imagine a better way forward for us all.

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Feature Kayti Burt

Science Fiction Books

Mar 5, 2019

Tor Books

In an op-ed appearing in The Washington Post in January, Charlie Jane Anders wrote: "Sen. Kamala D. Harris was half right in her speech launching her 2020 presidential campaign when she said we need to address climate change based on 'science fact, not science fiction.' The truth is, we need both."

This belief is more than just lip service for the woman who co-founded (alongside Annalee Newitz) io9.com, a website formed with the mission to keep readers informed about the latest news in both the science and science fiction worlds.

These days, Anders is using a different medium—the speculative fiction novel—to think radically, critically, and empathetically about our present and, perhaps more importantly, all of our potential futures. The City in the Middle of the Night, out last month, is Anders' second book following 2016's Hugo-nominated and Nebula-winning fantasy novel All the Birds in the Sky.

While All the Birds in the Sky was about a witch and a techno-geek and their attempts to save our world from imminent disaster, in The City of the Middle of the Night, disaster has already occurred for the people of Earth. (Fitting, for a time when we've already caused catastrophic climate change that have led to mass extinctions.) The story is set much later, generations after humans presumably fled Earth for another planet altogether: the tidally-locked January, one side of which continually faces the sun and the other the cold darkness of space.

On January, humans live in one of two declining cities (mostly) situated in the light: The rigid, oppressive Xiosphant, where people say things like "Heed the chimes, know your way," and the more laissez faire Argelo, run by nine family-affiliated gangs, keeping the city in a perpetual cycle of violence. 

Both cities have devastating class systems, hierarchies that continue to be informed by the dominant cultures of the generation ship that first brought humanity to January. In Xiosphant, we meet POV character Sophie, a young woman from the working class side of town studying at the city's university. While there, she meets and falls for upper-class Bianca, an aspiring revolutionary who is more interested in what rebellion says about her than in how it might change the world.

In City in the Middle of the Night, Anders examines the inextricability of the personal and the political. Nowhere is this better exemplified than in Sophie and Bianca's complex and toxic dynamic, in which Bianca uses Sophie's trauma as political capital and Sophie must learn the agony of putting up necessary personal boundaries.

Sophie spends the entire book trying to escape the glamorous gravity of Bianca. That struggle, part of Sophie's larger journey to live with her trauma and find hope in an unjust world, is infinitely relatable—tragic, brave, and so very human. "I need to learn to belong to other people the way everyone seems to," Sophie tries to coach herself at one point, "with one hand in the wind." 

read more: Best New Science Fiction Books

Sophie's path forward (and, ultimately, away from Bianca) is informed by her role as a human ambassador into January's dark, cold night-side, and the aliens who live there—telepathic, collectively-minded creatures known by the humans as "crocodiles," because of their vague resemblance to the Earth animal, but whom Sophie calls Gelet after one saves her life when she is cast out of Xiosphant for a minor crime she did not commit. Telepathic and connected to their native planet in ways humanity doesn't value, the Gelet are the weirdest, and most hopepunk part of the entire novel, and directly tied to the book's exploration of climate change.

And, yes, this world is informed by climate change—a climate change catalyzed by the arrival of humans years before. From the human's perspctive, the weather has become more violent, with storms worsening and toxic rain falling. From the Gelet perspective, the planet's very soul has been compromised.

"'It's all up for grabs,'" one single-minded Argelan character muses, giving a broad strokes example of the human perspective. "'The sea is fished out, meteor quarries coming up empty, textile factories at half capacity. Toxic rainstorms have been trashing our crops, and the aquifers are getting polluted or drained. Shortages mean one thing: opportunity.'"

read more: Best New Speculative Fiction Young Adult Books

Sharing protagonist duty with Sophie is Mouth, a jaded smuggler from an otherwise extinct nomadic people called the Citizens. (One of my favorite, introductory lines from Mouth: "You only fantasize about princes when you've never seen one.") Mouth, too, has experienced a great deal of trauma, and has responded to that trauma by mostly distancing herself from others. Slowly, through her relationship with Sophie, among others, she begins to see another way forward.

"The secret you shared," Mouth says to Sophie, at one point, "it's the most precious thing in the world. And you're just opening it to us. I thought everyone was just selfish. I just thought, that's the world we live in. But then you go and offer this to us. I can't tell you what it means." 

Pop culture is rife with stories that are far too comfortable with criticizing existing hierarchical power structures without imagining alternate relationships to power in their place. In this era of grimdark storytelling, stories too often assumes that everyone has or will always have the same, narrow relationships to power: that everyone wants more than they need and that, when they get it, they will use it to accumulate more through the exploitation of others. What a monumental failure of imagination, what a cynically narrow view of humanity.

read more: Best New Fantasy Books

In The City of the Middle of the Night, Anders dares to imagine something different, a better way forward. This is not to say the book does not include tragedy, trauma, pain, or devastation—the repercussions of systemic violence enacted and inflicted is a continuous, intrinsically-exhausting theme. This book is, often, a downer. But it explores what healing looks like, too—both for the individual and for the community. It champions something strange, new, and much more inclusive in the place of what its human characters know. It recognizes that change is terrifying, yes, but that the alternative is far worse.

"I can't do this thing anymore, where we live in a tiny space and pretend it's the whole world," Sophie tells Bianca. "People always have brand new reasons for doing the same thing over and over. I need to see something new." 

The City in the Middle of the Night is radical enough to suggest that something new could also be something better.

The City in the Middle of the Night is now available to purchase online or at your local independent bookstore.

Kayti Burt is a staff editor covering books, TV, movies, and fan culture at Den of Geek. Read more of her work here or follow her on Twitter @kaytiburt.

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[dicecast]

Blast from the Past: Dragon Age II, Why the Mage Templar Conflict Fails

So Dragon Age II is the best game in the series (I will fight you) and has the best writing in the entire narrative thus far...but dear god the Mage Templar Conflict is handled terrible.  This is also true of inquisition, but it is the main focus of II and I think that is a major reason why people have so many problems with DA:II, because for all of its greatness, so much of the narrative is based on this aspect which just...doesn’t work. 

So why is that?  I mean the Mage/Templar dynamic was one of the few things in DA;O which is better than DA:II, and there are some really powerful moments involving the conflict in DA:II so why does the overall effort just fall flat?  Wait, I know the answer because I am awesome

Basically there were 5 different ways you could have handled this conflict and any one of those could have been a workable story in their own right.  But Bioware in their infinite wisdom tried to do all of them and...it was a mess.  So I am going to break down the various narratives that could have been and how that should have been told, and why DA:II just doesn’t work 

1) A conflict between two equal forces

So the obvious narrative (and the most typical) is present this as a conflict between two roughly equal powers each with valid points, each side has bad elements and each side has some good elements, a very Grey vs. Grey type deal.   The player is encouraged to choose which group they/their character personally feels is more valid, but the game is making it clear that the other side is understandable.  There is no true good or evil option in terms of which faction you choose.   The themes would likely be something like “oh no, look how extremism tears people apart, isn’t it terrible when people won’t listen to the other side” or the same golden mean pablum RPGs do with these sort of narrative 

  Why this doesn’t work

Well right away, there is the problem where both sides aren’t in fact equal in terms of power. Like at all.  The Templar are organized, have the support of the entire society including the church, most of the populace hates mages, and the mages literally are trapped inside a prison tower.  The mages are not organized, they don’t have any resources outside their own magic, and of course the Templars can basically mistreat them with impunity (which literally contradicts lore from the first game I might add). You really can’t view this as “Both sides have a point” when the Templars under Maredith are regularly raping, tranquilizing, and just generally abusing the mages. 

    And what really just kills this “both sides have a point” style conflict is the final choice because...the mages didn’t blow up the CHantry.  Anders did it, who is a renegade who explicitly says he is independent.  We literally see the head mage both trying to appeal to the Grand Cleric right before and go “WTF man” right after, hawk knows full well that the mages did not do this.  So Meredith’s choice to massacre all of the mages (including children) is just loony, like we know full well that she is killing innocent people for a crime they didn’t commit.  Even when I play a pro templar hawk I can never really bring myself to side with Meredith because not only is she an obviously crazy evil lunatic with no redeeming qualities, but I can’t imagine any way my character would murder thousands of innocent people for no reason without seeming out of character.  I couldn’t even imagine Fenris doing that.  

   This conflict just can’t be “Both sides have a point” because Meredith is just too fucking psychotic for anybody to really side with her.  Unlike Ser Gregor from the first game, Meredith constantly breaks the rules of the chantry itself because she is a paranoid sadist.  She uses the rite of tranquility for things that we know in universe the templars shouldn’t use it for, like people speaking out.  There is rampant sexual abuse, torture, and...look my point is that the Templars are way too evil and cruel for this to be an equal conflict.

Like if this was Tevinter vs. the Templars, that would be one thing, but this isn’t an equal conflict, when one side is literally locked in their prison, 

If Dragon Age wanted this to be a moral situation where neither side was necessarily right or wrong, than they needed to make the conflict more nuanced, the templars should be more like they were in one, and the mages should have actually been doing evil shit, rather than a rogue terrorist.  And the final conflict shouldn’t have been “massacre everybody for crime they didn’t commit.”

2) Mages are Right, but lets Understand the Templars

DA:II is obviously trying to tell a story about bigotry and oppression, and at parts sets out to do so in a mature and serious way, and try to explain why the Templars behave as they do.  After all, just because a work disagrees with a character doesn’t mean it can’t depict them in a human and understandable way.  Dragon Age II could have been trying to explain exactly wy pepole believe things that the game views as wrong, to say “ok yeah, the Templars are wrong, but lets understand their perspective, after all they aren’t cartoonish monsters but people”.  And parts of the game seem to do that, for example Fenris is like an anti mage bigot (Magist ?) in a really unacceptable way but he is very understandable. He came from a really bad background and is lashing out his own feelings against the vague group that hurt him, and he is utterly terrified of Tevinter coming to southern Thedas.  He is wrong, but the game doesn’t wish to demonize him and wants us to understand how these prejudices grow.  We see a similar treatment with Cullen, whose experience in the Origins Circle tower has made him see everything in an extremely black and white perspective, and we pity him even as he commits evil. 

Where it went wrong

Well...Meredith is just too fucking awful....again.  Unlike many of her minions, she is just kind of an asshole all the way through, from her first appearance she is haughty, callous, paranoid, indifferent and ambitious.  We never really see her reasoning or psychology, yeah I know we are told about tragedy  in her back story but it never really comes up in scene. She just kinda does awful things because she is an awful person, nothing more complicated than that.  For example, punishing people speaking out against her with Tranquility (which again is suppose to be illegal) just makes her out to be a despot, we don’t really see any reason to support her or sympathize with her.  And anybody who stays loyal to her comes off as an idiot.

   This also makes Grand Cleric Elthina just come off as a complete tool btw, if the Templars are acting out of bounds then the Chanty needs to pull the lease.  Again and again Meredith is violating Chantry rules, and Elthina just doesn’t do anything about it, the chantry is strangely passive in all this.  

3) Templars bad, Mages response isn’t appropriate 

Another approach the game could have done what the Witcher I did, the system perpetuated by the templars is evil and wrong, and really not acceptable, but the mages response to said system isn’t good.  The game kinda does this with Anders, who has a very valid point but his extremism makes the whole situation worse and also makes him really unacceptable as a person.  Basically ‘Man the Templars are awful and we need to fix this.....why did you blow up the Chantry Anders?”

This version doesn’t actually contradict version 2 btw.  Personally I think 2 and 3 combined would be the best way to handle this game

Where it Went Wrong 

Well....Anders is the only real anti Templar mage who gets a lot of narrative focus...and he is  renegade.  I know we run into evil mages who do evil mage things over the course of the game but they are just kinda cartoonishly awful rather than you know...interesting.   This narrative would require a lot more focus on the mage resistance and mage responses to the templars in a more human light.

And no, the massive amount of evil Blood Mages don’t count, they are just kind randomly evil douchbags who don’t relate to anything else in the story.  

4) Both sides need to come together and unite

In this narrative the conflict is the result of am misunderstanding, and if the two sides just saw thigns from the other’s perspective, a compromise could be reached, and the true evil could be destroyed.  Honestly this is the narrative where Meredith makes the most sense, a force of evil that the mages and the templars could unify to fight against because she is so utterly awful.  THe ending kinda implies this ending with the templars all going “screw you” to Meredith  and her going all Red Lyrium, 

Where it went wrong

but then we have a stupid binary moral choice.  Enough Said

5) The Templars are totally wrong, VIVA LA REVOLUTION

Finally the game could have just been very black and white, the templars are bad, the Circles are an evil, the mages should rise to fight against their oppressors. 

Where it went wrong 

This is the only other narrative where Meredith makes sense, and this story would be very clear cut.  But again...the presence of Fenris, Cullen and Aveline really implies that this is suppose to be a more complicated conflict than that.