#<- this for personal art because i like making things hard for myself

[angrykittybarbarian]

A list of things that bother me about Dragon Age: The Veilguard Part 2

I already touched on a few things that caught my attention and personally irked me about the game. After getting through some more of it naturally a few more points have come up. Though I think they are not really new aspects but more concrete examples of what I had touched on last time.

Without further ado, let's get into it.

!Spoilers below the cut!

The dialogue is repetetive and at times contradictory

Like I already discussed last time the dialogue is bad, to express it in the simplest of terms. As I progressed through the game I stumbled upon a glaring example for what I mean.

In the questline where you infiltrate a Venatori meeting there is a part where Neve in disguise and in company of Rook and another companion gets a Venatori to admit that Elgar'nan was present but not Ghilan'nain. For some inexplicable reason Neve turns around and repeats this twice as if Rook wasn't present.

But moving on.

I stated in my last post that the game feels the need to state the obvious. This is what I mean. It makes the dialogue feel like a rough draft that was incorporated into the game without further polish.

As of its contradictory nature two examples come to mind.

In Harding's companion quest you meet this dwarf of Kal Sharok. His dialogue is stoic, no bullshit straight to the point and passionless. Which was fine. But after several minutes of him being that way they get to stone statue Valta who speaks in these misteryous riddles and suddenly he switches to this unserious tone of "Oh that weird statue, we never know what she's saying, ain't she funny." (I'm paraphrasing here). I was confused for half a minute because of his sudden change in attitude and left wondering what his characterization is supposed to be now: serious or quirky?

Same thing with Taash's whole story. This is especially upsetting because I feel like they could have done such great work with it.

Instead it suffers so much from several inconsistencies that I felt sorry for the VA because they actually did a great acting job.

Taash has a coming out scene with their mother where they reveal they're non-binary. Ignoring the usage of modern terms in a medieval-ish setting, the conflict about their gender makes no sense.

The writing wants you to believe Shathann is not okay with her child being non-binary but she never actually expresses such a thing. Actually Shathann sort of had an inkling that Taash was no ordinary woman ("Behaves more like a man...") and she never passed any negative judgement on it. When Taash told her this she even tried to understand by categorizing their identity into qunari vocabulary she knew (remember the term aqun-athlok?).

I get how hard it is to have an overly critical mother and the feeling of not being good enough but that was not what Shathann was about in that scene and it did Taash so dirty because they looked more like an entitled teenager than someone suffering from trauma and perfectionism.

Some old characters are mischaracterized

It's Scout Harding. I mean Harding.

I was really excited to have her as a companion in the new installment but they sort of butchered her character that I found myself annoyed everytime she opened her mouth.

And this is because they make her sound so immature. Really think about it. DATV somehow makes Scout Harding sound younger and more childish than she was in DAI despite the fact that she is supposed to be a whole decade older in DATV than in DAI.

I don't know what direction her VA recieved while recording but everything was pronounced so slowly and extra clear that it seemed at times that Harding was either talking to a confused elderly person or a child.

She herself uses expressions not fit for her age. The most jarring moment was when she called the Blight in D'meta's Crossing 'weird' and sounded like a teenager who has stumbled upon furry art for the first time on deviantArt. This pattern pretty much continues throughout the game. And it hurts so much.

Also Morrigan. She at least still uses her even for DA setting standards antiquated vocabulary but she is too happy and cheery and friendly.

Morrigan is not a nice person to those she does not know and like personally. But to Rook she was so nice despite having met them for the first time.

The Morrigan we have come to know love/hate should have been more snarky or at least more neutral in her demeanor.

The Venatori

I don't know why they are still a thing honestly. I was under the impression they have lost all footing after the death of Corypheus. Why would they follow the Gods of the people their country systemically abuses anyway?

Bonus: Why would the Antaam for that matter, as the qunari are so notoriously arcanophobic that they leash their mages, sew their mouths shut and literally call them "dangerous thing"?

Solas' spy network and agents

What happened to them? Where are they? Shouldn't he have a small army? Why weren't they used as the gods' agents instead of the Venatori? Surely, Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain would have an easier time simply controlling Fen'Harels elven army after imprisoning him in the fade.

The Chantry

It is just not present. Sure there are some Chantry buildings but there is no discussion of faith. In all previous DA games the Chantry has had a constant influence that could be felt everywhere. Faith was discussed and explored from various angles and perspectives, ranging from ultra conservative to progressive. But in Veilguard it's not there.

Why are we not exploring the Tevinter Chantry more? Why doesn't Emmrich discuss the nevarran Chantry, who follows the Sunburst Throne in Orlais, in regards to the Mournwatch, their necromancy practices and magic? Why was he not affected by the mage uprising that started in Kirkwall? How does he deal with faith and the Chantry? It is simply never mentioned.

By all accounts, this game avoids delving into the world like the plague.

[bonemittens]

Lalalala gotta make an emotional charged post for today because I CAN!!! ✨✨✨

So….4 years of Bugsnax and 2 years for me being in the community. And I gotta say, I’m immensely proud to be apart of it :3

Just because of this silly game, I’ve learned to overcome and push against my depression and anxiety, allowed myself to be kind to myself and others, be emotionally open, found an interest in psychology, and learned to accept the imperfections of myself.

And I can’t forget the wonderful people I’ve met and made murals and friends with! I still remember the day @orbits-the-watchman first followed me after posting some art because like DUH their art is amazing and honestly inspired me a lot to draw grumps since they seemed pretty hard to tackle at first since like…look at them they look like felt covered trash cans (but i still love em all the same).

And I honestly believe that I’ve gotten better with art since 2022 because of how much I actually draw :3

And of course, I’ve met people that I’ve gotten closer with genuinely see them as close friends that mean the world to me. @astronomergrump is wonderful and has helped me through a lot of the stress I’ve been going through as of late and that means everything to me, luv ya you silly goose <3

Never thought this game would make me this emotional and allow me to become a better person overall and sorta escape that sense of loneliness I’ve had in my life prior to 2022. Of course things aren’t entirely perfect and things got bumpy here and there, this is still the most comfortable I’ve been in a community since like…ever :)

Okay yall are free from my emotions being spilled on top of yall, love you all :3

[jnple]

i was planning on like. staying away from here while in my new home because i don't really know how private my internet activity is here

but………. i really feel like drawing sometimes. and i want to share my art and my thoughts again. and you know, i also really want to share whatever joys i have in this world. we need all the joy we can get right now, right? i don't know the exact amount of joy and good that my being here brings but because of the nice things so many of y'all have said to me, i have to believe it's not zero. and i want to do whatever little part i can to make this world better.

I'm always scared I'm going to say the wrong thing. accidentally reveal myself as a terrible or stupid or unbelievably weird person. or, absolute worst of all: overlook someone or fail to properly pay back their kindness, and make them feel sad somehow. so i hope y'all will forgive me if i say stupid or bad or annoying things or if i mess up. i hope you'll forgive me. i try to be a good friend but actually i don't really know how and i worry about that just like all the time and it really holds me back and i want to stop. so I'm gonna stop!!!!!

I'm going to start queueing up a bunch of art now. and I'm going to try really hard to 1) only look at this place occasionally 2) not be sad if i feel alone here 3) not feel guilty for being myself 4) be somewhat active with interaction and 5) actually start blocking/unfollowing people that make me sad. edit: feel like i wanna add a disclaimer that even if i don't follow you anymore i still think you're cool. certain things in my feed have sent me into misery spirals of sadness in the past and i want to prevent that happening again.

if you want to support me too, i really really appreciate all interaction, even just likes if that's all you want to do. i notice it and will remember it and to be honest it kinda scares me how much i really really CARE about it, care about what people think of me, of my things. how much i want to see other people relate to them or even just enjoy them because i really really really really don't want to be the only person like me. but maybe that's just inevitable and i need to learn to be ok with that. i want to be ok with that. i don't want to be ashamed to be different from everyone else anymore..

[moonstruckdraws]

Flowers & Stinging

still life I just did in two hours

I think this is technically the first post of artwork I've made that doesn't include my sona or anything else from/inspired by those I know, and isn't fan art.

Huh.

[puppyeared]

sleight doodley before i go to bed <3

[potatobugz]

i submitted my lovely mouseboy Finnegan for the @ahatintime-oc-competition yesterday :D here is the art i drew 4 them!

for those unaware: he came from a dream i had once involving him and Snatcher But As A Bird; and i sorta just. added onto them from there. they're so sillay

[mercyluvsyouuu]

People when fucked up media is actually Fucked Up and not just "haha silly little gremlin makes SEX JOKE?!?!🤯 so DEVIOUS..."

[j-esbian]

does anyone else feel like they need to Make Fan Content That Is Also Good And Interesting in order to make/keep internet friends so as to be worth other people’s time

[magpiesketchins]

✨art✨

[piplupod]

and i often get upset with myself for complaining and venting as much as i do, or also for being as anxious as i am, but given the circumstances that I live in, I do think realistically I am being ... incredibly "well-behaved", all things considered. i could be acting so much worse.

but i do still wish i weren't so ... [gestures vaguely at this whole mess] because it's off-putting for people! and understandably so! but i wish i could make friends!

[ladsofsorrow24]

one of the... weirdly good thing about AI art invading the illustration field is that now, whenever i look at art that doesn't cater to my weird fucking taste, i'm able to appreciate the efforts and creativity that are put into making the artist's own personal vision come to life

[01tsubomi]

i'm taking the jlpt this sunday and had a stress dream last night abt it bc it sort of snuck up on me and now it's kind of a question of how much my actual japanese abilities will carry me (versus if i should've been cramming on flashcards this past month) but the listening portion is far simpler conversation than my coworkers and i have so. i think that maybe instead of "damn i should've been studying japanese" my perspective should just be "i speak japanese"

[highwaydiamonds]

Not a resolution - just maybe a bit of hope and intention to start out the year

[b4kuch1n]

4, 11 and 13 for the ask game, pls! Thank you and have a good day!

ask game here!

4. Fav character/subject that's a bitch to draw

let's see we can list more of this! I draw birds and wings a decent amount and still every time I draw that I still have to look up one of those wing anatomy charts. I find I'm not well practiced with transparent materials yet, but I hope to get better at that in time. I'd like to get better at figuring out how to lay down a nature scene quickly too, I love to work with that in theory but in practice every time I draw that kind of background I had to stare at like eighty tabs of refs the whole way through. I'm such a city kid through and through...

I'm mostly blessed to not have to worry about hands and shoes too much, I usually have an okay time with them, but I do have days I call bad hand days and bad shoe days the way folks have bad hair days. sometimes even things I like drawing and usually have a good time with don't come out right! just gotta stand up and do something else for a bit

11. Do you listen to anything while drawing? If so, what

absolutely! especially nowadays. I rotate between my current favourite albums and youtube videos/stream VODs. the most consistent caveat is I cannot listen to anything with a plot. that will distract me way too much to draw at the same time.

I also call my friends and hang out in vc while drawing sometimes! especially if I really need to get something done. this is honestly the only way to subject me to new medias I don't know about

13. A creator who you admire but whose work isn't your thing

ahh this is hard... I usually don't look too hard into things I don't actively care about. I guess I'd say the Phong Dương comic team, they're immensely talented people who practically carried Vietnamese comic on their back for a while, and I love Thành Phong's inking style, I just... can't read their comics. for some reasons. they just flow off the back of my skull! I still have all three volumes of Long Thần Tướng currently out on my shelf, but every time I try reading them they just don't stick. I'm honestly kinda mad abt this lol

[caffeinatedopossum]

I feel like I'll never be a good artist because of my aphantasia

[bfpierce]

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