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jillsandwhichs · 4 months ago

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Time Crunch

Chapter 6 to RE Character x Reader Smutshot Collection

Masterlist

Pairing: F!reader x Ada Wong

Summary: Ada is about to leave from the extraction point in 10 minutes. That gives you just enough time to say goodbye

Status of your guy's relationship in this one shot: Partners in crime

WC: 2.1k

Type: NSFW

Warnings: This is very vanilla, sorry y'all. Hookup, making out, slight dirty talk & oral sex (You receive)

A/n: Hi! Hope you all enjoy. Please check out my masterlist, there's a lot of stuff there. You can get to know me, you can see the rules of my blog and then you can see all of my fanfictions. You'll be able to find the previous chapters to this fic and upcoming ones. You'll also be able to find my Wattpad & AO3. Comments, reblogs & likes are appreciated. Thank you

Silence.

It felt awkward.

The two of you just shared a very steamy kiss.

Yes, the two of you have fucked before, but never on the job, you kept it strictly professional when working, it was just a code you both lived by.

But knowing she'll be gone for awhile after these final ten minutes, neither of you can hold yourselves back, especially yourself. Ada, despite her many flaws, means a lot to you. You've both formed a bond due to your similar interests in life and work, even sexual interests. Ada is a mysterious lady, but that hasn't stopped her from allowing you to at least explore her body, in which you've done quite a bit.

You've been working together for a year now, exactly a year one month ago. Ever since, you two have always chosen each other for missions. You're both reliable and make sure the other escapes, even if your guy's selfishness begins to interfere. Ada has had to save your ass more than you have had to hers but either way, you both are there for each other. Ada was much more hardened when you first met, she's softened up somewhat now.

"How long?" "How long what?" "How long will you be gone for, Ada?" You wondered, crossing your arms and walking back and forth. You'd be alone from now on. Where was she even going and why? "Just a couple of months. I have some unfinished business to attend down in China, you understand?" Ada hummed to you. Ada was leaning against the brick wall, her thin arms at her slender sides. You do understand. She has work, and sometimes work requires you to travel.

Gazing at her, you thought about the kiss you two had just exchanged. It was hot. It was erotic. Kissing for you two is the ultimate form of intimacy. You two tend to get very touchy whenever you kiss or make out, you can't help yourselves. "I hate to say it, but, It'll be difficult without you." You admitted, your tone very low, almost as if you didn't want her to catch onto what you said. "I understand. If it makes you feel better, this won't be the last time you see me. I plan to even remain in contact with you while I am overseas." Ada also admitted something.

Her words meant a lot.

It's not like she owes you that though. You two aren't in a relationship. You two hookup, it feels good, it's nice, that's it, it isn't anything more. But, it almost seems hard to avoid one another. Ada is a drug, morphine to you. You need that woman in your system at least once within the day. Just being around her causes arousal to stir up inside of you. Every single time you both finish a mission, you guys meet up and fuck. It's a ritual at this point.

You stood there, your head tilted down, your eyes glancing at the muddy ground. It had rained not to long ago. You and Ada were slightly wet from it, but it's dried up for the most part - In some places... You looked back up at Ada, she was gazing at you with a soft look. You began to amble closer to her, your heart thumping repeatedly in your chest as you did. Oddly enough, you felt nervous this singular time when approaching her. "I want you... For one last time." You whispered, your front finally pressed up against hers.

"You may have me for one final time." Ada bit her lower lip, it was tinted a darker shade of red, her lipstick was always an attraction.

You cupped her face in your hands, aggressively, yet passionately, pressing your lips against hers. Your lips moved in sync, it was rather beautiful actually. Ada's miniscule hands encased around your back, making sure you weren't going nowhere. She held you, her hands stroking your entire time. Her touch felt like a thousand suns. You'd miss it so very much. You are sure it won't be the last time you feel her - It can't be the last time.

Ada licked your lower lip, desperately wanting to taste you. She couldn't live without kissing you, kissing you with her tongue. Your mouth is a safe haven for her. Your mouth went slightly agape, and her tongue slipped into your mouth, an honest moan coming from her when she pushed it in. "Fuck." You grunted, your bodies flipping so that you were now against the cold, hard, red brick wall. Both of you are switches at the end of the day.

"I wanna taste you." Ada mumbled, her lips finally detaching from yours. You were panting, trying to catch your breath. Her seductive tone was enough to have your panties soaked and your pussy wanting her even more. Ada has a way with words.

You smiled at her, your head diving into the crook of her neck. Your lips found her sweet spot, and you took advantage of that. You pecked all along her neck, your breath sharp as you breathed in. Her scent was lovely too, she smelt like Vanilla and that was very sexy to you. Maybe she knew that because anytime you hookup, its what she smells like. It drives you crazy. "You want to taste me?" You cooed on her throat. "You know I do, honey." Ada responded truthfully.

That just made you drip more.

Adas eyes locked with yours as she moderately lowered her body until her face was at an alignment with your core, a look of need was on her face. Disbanding the eye contact, she gandered at your jeans and the buttons on them as she began to undo them, wanting you terribly now. "We have to be quick." "I know." You replied. It seriously sucks that she'll be going away for some time. You'll miss the way her firm tongue feels on your pussy.

Her lean fingers pulled your pants down with haste, your damp panties directly in her face. "I can already smell you." She sighed softly, breathing it all in. You moaned softly. You didn't know where to set your hands, she hasn't eaten you out in this position before. "My shoulders baby." She cooed, as if she could read your mind. Obliging, you placed your hands on her slender, boney shoulders; The stability will come into use later.

With your hands on her shoulders, her hands went to your panties, tearing them off of you as quickly as she could. Your soaked cunt was revealed to her alas. The cold, windy air hit you like a bullet, causing you to shiver. "I'll warm you up." She teased right before she buried her face in your cunt, her tongue profusely lapping at your wet folds. "Oh." You whimpered in surprise, shocked that she so soonly began to eat you out like it was the last time she ever would.

Maybe it is.

Your head leaned back against the wall, your hair already becoming a mess. The brick wall was cold on your rear, the texture of it wasn't the best either but you'd endure it just for this. "Fucking hell..." You panted, her tongue was going mad on you. Adas eyes were closed. It seemed as though she was channeling everything inside of her to make you feel good, which was clearly worked. Your legs already felt wobbly. You felt like you could fall at any second, you held onto her tighter.

The lewd noises that were being made only enhanced the sexual pleasure Ada was making you feel. That extraordinary pit in your stomach - The one that lets you know your orgasm is about to rush over you, was slowly yet surely taking over.

As she continued, Ada began to adjust your legs to be sat on her shoulders. You helped, shifting them and blowing out deeply as you felt the comfortability of it. It felt way better this way. You began to moan much more loudly, Adas tongue causing your muscles to tighten inside of you. It was hard not to, but you began to practically ride her face. You grinded your pussy up against her mouth. She didn't seem to mind, if anything, she reveled in it.

"Faster." She spat out, her nails digging into your plump thighs. Another thing about Ada is that she worships your body, especially your thighs. She'll stare at you and get horny. There is just something about you that does that to her.

Listening, you began to ride her face quicker. Your movements were sloppy but you didn't care, just as long as she was licking you, tasting you and making you feel pleased. "Oh Ada..." You let out a sharp breath. Your hands ran through her jet black hair, it was soft, healthy, easy to tug on - Which you did. "Right there, that's it." You whined. Her tonuge on your clit was exactly what you needed. The sensitive bud needed to be focused on.

She suctioned your clit between her lips, slurping on it. You slammed your head back, your back arching too, you were going to cum on her tonuge.

"Oh..."

Your orgasm flew over you. Suddenly, the crisp air made your nipples hard and your body to shake slightly, that was due to it mixing with your climax. You rode her face for a few more seconds and then you pulled away, pushing yourself up against the wall. You were still dripping, your wetness with the mixture of your squirt dripped onto the ground. Ada stood up, maintaining her gaze on you as she did.

Wiping her mouth as well, Ada spoke up.

"You tasted amazing." She said softly, stumbling over to you. You just giggled, your vision still felt hazy, you were a bit out of it, that's for sure. You stared at her for a moment. You wish you two could have more time together, you wonder if you have enough time to at least eat her out as well. Probably not. She's a very coordinated lady, she'll want to get out of her the second the correct time strikes the clock.

You pulled your panties up and then your pants, you rebuttoned them up too. You didn't want to look like a mess when it is time to go, your boss will be concerned. "Do you think we'll have time to-" "No. Two minutes until I must leave." Ada interrupted you. She just didn't want you to get your hopes up for disappointment. For some reason, you're upset. You don't care for Ada a whole lot as a person, you guys are simply forced to team up. That doesn't mean you don't care at all. A part of you is going to miss her.

As Ada was letting her eyes roam around as she waited patiently, you grabbed onto her, pouncing your lips onto hers. She gasped but quickly melted at the gesture. She swathed her arms around your neck, her fingers messing with your tied back hair. "This is my goodbye to you." You hummed, your tongue slithering along hers; The texture of it turned you on once again. "This is a good farewell then." She smiled into the kiss. Not your average smile though, very small and barely noticeable.

You slid your hands down her back and onto her ass, holding it in both hands. You squeezed her, a sigh coming from her. "I won't be gone too long." "A couple months is long, Ada." You stated. You found it to be too damn long. No one will suffice like Ada does. "You'll be fine." She cupped your face, her thumbs caressing both sides of your cheeks before she finally had to pull away, her watch buzzing.

"Gotta go."

Her hands were in yours. You wanted to homd onto her as long as possible but she backed and backed away slowly til eventually, your hand dropped from hers.

"So long, beautiful." She winked as she tilted her head before she randomly used her grappling hook to sail away. You could hear what seemed to be a helicopter in the distance, most likely her getaway vehicle. You stood there in silence, all that could be heard was that motor and your soft, calm breathing. All you can think about is how much things will be different. You'll either be alone or with a new partner, both options don't sound pleasant whatsoever.

You blew out a deep breath, collecting yourself.

"Time to go home." You whispered before you began to run off, the events of tonight on repeat in your head.

#resident evil #ada wong #ada wong fanfiction #ada wong fanfic #ada wong smut #aeon #aeon fanfiction #aeon fanfic #ada wong x you #ada wong x reader #lgbtq #wlw #smut #smutshot #resident evil smut #tumblr fyp

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guilty-pleasures21 · 2 months ago

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One thing that i love about Miguel is that everything about him is a little more... wild

This man has fangs (and poison) and talons! That's kind crazy to me

I remember watching Spider-Verse and thinking that somehow they want to make him even more feral (which I think suited his character) But there's also that softness behind all of this when it comes to his daughter (who wasn't exactly HIS daughter and yet he couldn't help himself)

Okay, I am SO. EXTREMELY. SORRY!!! But I am a certified nerd and my brain immediately went to poison VS venom 😭😭😭.

Anyway! I've seen those posts about people talking about him having been compared to an animal? Especially in the script, apparently? And that has, like, CRAZY racist undertones, of course?

But then certain characteristics definitely helped make him seem like more of an ambiguous character which I think they wanted for the movie? Like personally, I'm like, he's obviously not a bad guy, but there are people who do categorise him as a villain because they don't agree with the way he handled Miles's situation? To me though, I think he just made basic human mistakes. Like, he was just trying to protect Miles - and everyone else in the multiverse. That's how much he cares. It's just that men's default emotion is usually anger, so especially when they get scared, their first instinct is to get defensive.

Then of course Miguel's DNA has been altered by his accident, so I guess it can amplify his anger or how he takes it out? I mean, we have men today in real life who get so angry that they have literally killed people without any super powers!

And then yeah, we also see his soft side, but honestly, I don't think they portray it realistically enough in the movie. I was just re-watching Miguel's scenes the other day (😅) and I almost cried for him!!! My baby!!! 🥺 Like, how could he possibly walk around replaying his trauma like that?!!

This is all stuff I've planned to explore in my 'You suck!' fic, which is the original fic I wanted to use to give Miguel a safe space to heal. To just give him some softness, you know? I just came up with a scene last night that had me tearing up in bed while I was trying to sleep!! I really love character exploration, so I'm excited!!

But, yes, fangs are my personal weakness 🙃. Like some guys have those tiny fangs in real life where their incisors are just a bit sharper than normal?! IT DRIVES ME CRAZY!!! 🥴

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spiegelgestalt · 8 months ago

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Have you ever asked yourself - what does it do to the damsel if they are saved?

So re:zero has one of the most interesting explorations of the prince-who-saves-the- damsel-in-distress trope this side of Utena. And it's breaking my brain.

You see like Utena re zero begins with a princley character who saves our protagonist who his so touched by this encounter that he vows to become a prince himself. (And was that really such a good idea....?)

Spoilers under the cut

Emilia saves Subaru. He lies there, beaten up by thugs, completely at his wits end, despairing about the world and in comes Emilia who not only chases the thugs away but heals Subaru and doesn't want anything in return for her troubles. And he can't stand it. And so he offers help. His reasons are the following:

Narrative conventions dictate that the summoned person is the protagonist and hero while the cute girl who summoned him is the damsel. In a more progressive text she also gets to do some stuff to show that she isn't useless only to cutely fail and be saved again. Isekai protagonists don't get saved

He's really grateful and he's ashamed that he has troubled her and he wants to.pay her back (and how is he supposed to do that if he isn't the pretty girl who pays with sex! And he has nothing else to offer...)

He sees himself in her. He sees a genuinely good person who's a bit awkward but who means well and who will be crushed if no one's taking care of her (and maybe just maybe he wishes someone could take care of him...)

Subaru objectifies Emilia in two ways: as the shining hero who can do no wrong. She is from now on the glorious person who saved him. And at the same time he never wants her to be this hero again. Because than she might get hurt. Because than she might decide she won't need him anymore. Emilia has to be the damsel because that's his way to.make sure that she never can leave him. The man provides and the woman smiles and needs. (Subject and object)

And if this was all there was re:zero wouldn't be different from your typical isekai story. But as the story goes on some cracks start to show, some questions become louder and louder: isn't Emilia far more suited to the knight role? She is far stronger than him... Why does Emilia always remember Subarus smiling face when she thinks about what he does for her, why does she seem miserable when she hears that everything has been taken care of for her, why does she turn Subaru away again and again and tells him he is hurt and he must promise to wait for her...and how can Subaru be a good knight if he wishes for his beloved to be in danger only to prove himself. Isn't that kind of fucked up?

And you notice two things: As Subaru damsels Emilia, Emilia damsels Subaru. She's looking back. Because from her perspective Subaru came out of nowhere and saved her without any reason. And she can't stand it. It makes her feel terrible (see reason 2 +3 from Subaru) So she tries to protect him back, which he can't stand etc. Etc.

AND this game of hot potato who's supposed to be the damsel in distress becomes even more complicated if we add Satella into the mix (who Is probably (???) Emilia, kinda -kinda not) and who since the beginning of the series saves Subaru again and again and again ( and Subaru loathes her....)

where was I going with this?

Oh I know: at the end of season 2 Subaru and Emilia realized that what they need from each other is a good pep talk - they fight their own battles and the fight together and that should be enough.

#I also have stuff to say about the other characters in the series Re this theme #re zero kara hajimeru isekai seikatsu #Re:zero spoilers #Emilia #natsuki subaru #otp: the witch and her archbishop

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balrogballs · 27 days ago

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I’m curious how you “plan” your fics in your notes! If it’s okay with you to share your secrets ofc… I always face the trouble of wanting to write a story where “nothing happens” and its more an exploration of ones character. But then i never know when to start? I always feel like stakes need to be involved in order for me to write 😖

Of course, perfectly happy to share!

So sorry it took me a day or so to get to this, I was travelling and wanted to answer properly haha. Below the cut!

Just a note though this is just my chaotic little process and is by no means particularly expert/useful - I do put in quite a bit of work into them but I defo don’t take myself too seriously so this could fully just be me rambling! Also I am still in my cold tent hence forgive typos!

Have also attached some examples of my plan, from The Sword Tree oneshot but ofc no need to read that, its just an overview of the process :)

With the below re, planning, this applies to anything that isn’t in my Feral Children series - that series is a bit more loosely planned in that I centre them all around family/parenthood so its a bit more fun. I like to balance posting both kind of fics, and I’d say Cast in Stone would be the sole story where it’s both.

Normally I like to think of a few themes first, normally one or two for each, and theyre quite basic/expansive. In False Spring it’s an eldritch manifestation of sea longing as chronic illness in Elrond, and then in Rats of Valinor, the spiritual sequel, it’s how said illness isn’t ‘cured’ in Valinor, with a side of diasporic ‘reverse’ longing. Then I write, normally by hand bc I’m a dweeb, a general thematic outline of what I’d like the story to convey. Here’s an example that I’ve shared before from the Sword Tree.

Since with most of these stories, nothing very much ‘happens’ in terms of story beats, eg. climatic point of Rats is literally Elrond seeing a rat, the one for Sword Tree is Maedhros chopping down a tree, the “drive” is mostly emotional rather than action based. So I plan out the emotional arc, and then decide the best ways to convey each aspect of it. I don’t really write this out, but have a vague idea in my head.

However, and this doesn’t really apply to the lighter feral children stories at all as I dont plan those, I do spend a bit of time on the prose and symbols/elements for each aspect before I write the story itself — this is me being unimaginative actually, as I’m writing in a very similar style and process to my novel writing, where again, the prose matters more than the narrative arc. I actually find it a lot harder to write long plot driven stories, and hope to challenge myself on this front in the future.

But yes, here, I talk to myself a bit on Google Docs, think of interesting ways to say what I want to say, tighten some important bits of prose before I actually put it all together - here’s an example, again from The Sword Tree just to keep it consistent!

And then I just write it! Most of the dialogue, and definitely all of the humour/random observations/inserts are written as I go, and I’d say my general narratorial style is conducive to this as for the most part it follows a somewhat ‘storyteller’ style, which works well with said random inserts or fourth wall breaks so to speak - I actually very much played this up with Cast in Stone for narrative/plot reasons, as anyone who’s read it would know haha. I will say though, said storytelling style works nicely with Tolkien due to how the original books are written, and is probably why I’m so compelled to and enjoy writing for this fandom, but it’s not read too well when I wrote for, say, Naruto haha.

Anyway hope thats helpful and that I havent been just chatting out of my arse for such a long time! Sorry for the lateness as well, I wanted to answer properly and just really didn’t want to be the person that says “oh haha i just write xoxo” because wayyy too many people in litfic say stuff like that lmao

I also wanted to say this is by no means expert advice or even that this is very good advice even - it’s just what works for me!

#balrogballs writes #asks

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wanderingmoonmen · 2 months ago

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Hi! I just wanted to come here and gush about how much I love your half doomed and semi sweet series real quick! I binged it all in two days and you guys have done such a good work on it. I honestly think the first installment is probably one of my favorite pieces of fanfic ever just due to how great the mix of character interaction and action is within the fic. I also just adore how Mary is handled with James and how he realizes that Mary wouldn’t say a lot of the stuff his hallucinations are saying but also it’s still overwhelming and hurts despite this! I’ve also been enjoying the lot more day to day ness of the sequel fic too, where issues still come up but it’s also not, running from monsters all the time (unless those monsters are silent hill remnants/bad thoughts, sorry James!).

I don’t know if it’s ever detailed anywhere, but what exactly inspired you to write the sequel fic if you don’t mind me asking?

aaaaa this has been sitting in my inbox for a bit because I saw the nice words and it makes me melt into a puddle and I want to take time to properly answer your question. Thank you ❤️

I ended up writing way too much in my answer so the tldr; I have way too many thoughts and ideas and with @fly-rye 's encouragement and participation we're now in a place where there's a whole timeline and already drafted events still out there to do.

My ramblings and more detailed explanation under the cut

I think in the preface to Promise, or somewhere, I've said that literally all of this started as a joke. I'm also going to keep to my guns of coming up with it back in 2018 (albeit a joke that I kept to myself lmao). I had sort of kept my 'joke' meeting in some sort of filing cabinet in my mind. And honestly if @fly-rye wasn't a super cool and amazing friend and didn't indulge my bullshit we wouldn't be here (also I'm pretty sure that DBD audio of Leon sounding very......... y'know affected it too. I also started a playthrough of RE4 on Oculus at the same time. Also also this literally started I swear a couple months before remakes were formally announced.) ANYWAY this isn't an answer to your question, I just like rambling.

Now that sort of plays into what inspired the sequel, I think I am a 'too many thoughts head full' type of person and just have too much to say sometimes (and perhaps also too much imagination). I also like trying to explain things so the in-fiction lore makes sense (like... extensively thinking about how to actually for real explain how James got to Spain or What Is The Scientific Explanation For Silent Hill etc etc. I just like to make things Work in my head, idk how to explain it).

When Promise turned into a project, there was more serious thought into how their relationship worked and how to explain Leon's character changes in future media. Then it was a thought of 'how could things be better for the both of them?' Or 'what if they were allowed to heal and grow as people' and whatever else that can be narratively satisfying about seeing hurt people finding each other and helping each other.

Then that turns into 'let's put that thing into a situation.'

Which, of course, there are A Lot Of Situations considering Leon has... 4 movies and 1 game he's in after RE4.

There's also the interest of exploring the mechanics of Silent Hill and exploring how SH3/SH4 can become entangled with the mess.

There's then the flip side of the domestic life and living as """""normal"""""" people.

So to fill the gaps between Situations we've brainstormed a Lot of timeline stuff and certain relationship beats that should occur (yknow like their gay wedding, spoilers). I'm also trying to show how James integrates with the rest of the RE crew and with Harry and Heather.

So... Basically I've thought... a lot about how to make their ship and this universe integrate into all the canon events and have some random drafts for it (of course much credit goes to @fly-rye to a) indulging me b) getting sucked into this c) being super supportive d) brainstorming the Situations with me) because there's just so much potential!!

Now, this is kinda where I get stuck and why there hasn't been more posted, if you're wondering

I like to be thorough and in my head I think I need to explain and show character development in detail because, again, in my head, I think it'll then be viewed as 'bad' or idk, 'not well written' or 'not making sense' (as if any of this makes sense). So I feel like I need to show how these relationships develop so it's more convincing or whatever. I think about how some media is panned or criticized for bad relationship writing, ie 'we've been best friends for 10 years and he really helped me out, right bob?" Like who says that.

So in starting PE I wanted to try and thoroughly and logically explain how we get to the current point.

Obviously this is also literally fanfic and [insert meme here] it's my AU and I can do what I want [just tell you This Is How It Is]

But... I'm not great at writing fluff or character interaction stuff just for the sole purpose of development. I thrive on hurt/comfort and angst stuff (if that wasn't obvious) whereas trying to come up with story beats for a beach trip or something is much more difficult for me. So I've struggled to move forward because it's just not my forte and it takes practice and patience...

Unfortunately, I can be rather impatient.

It's really annoying when you're trying to be thorough! So even when I've got a plan, I just get annoyed with my writing because I just wanna get to the good stuff!!! Why can't I write this out faster!!!! I need to beam my thoughts into a document!!!

I keep on feeling like I'm making empty promises, but I do really wanna keep writing and posting. I am trying and I think about sitting down and writing a lot, but between all those other hangups and not having time, I just haven't.

I know a lot of this isn't exactly what you asked, but I hope it answers your question and then some. Thank you again for reaching out it means a lot to hear from readers!!!

#ramblings #kennderland #jumpscare of john f kennedy tag coming up while writing that jfc #James Sunderland x Leon S Kennedy #my fic #also re: having too much imagination... im an only child so that was my entertainment growing up lol #a lot of me getting in my own way is just who i am as a person but also comes from previous experiences and A Person being an asshole #also bad writing advice from like... high school that just is so ingrained i have to conciously try and not do it or convince myself its ok

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galehowl · 4 months ago

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Watched Ghost Game more or less ( and re-watching it again immediately with company ), and I didn't really like it.

I know it's just not for me, but somehow it still infuriates me that it came so close to being what I hoped to see from Digimon all these years - a proper horror/mystery setting, and then fell flat because it's still aimed more for kids.

God I WISH they went for a different art style and made it for a bit older audiences, so the horror element could be properly explored more.

The pacing and monster-of-the-week thing where each issue is resolved within a very short episode also just kills it for me, because some episodes have SUCH cool premises that could've worked much better if they were given a few more episodes per plot, to really give it some atmosphere and actual mystery-solving, or proper character development. The overall plot is also just a mess and feels like it barely existed, and IMO the main villain was just underutilized and just, eugh. I'm not even gonna say anything about the last episode lol.

The characters were also very flat and superficial, like it was hard to care about anything at all when the characters ( who are kids!!! ), are dealing with stuff like that, get tortured, cursed and god knows what else, and just don't have any reaction to it. Like come on, this really would've benefited from if we had them written better and more grounded, with more psychological stuff involved, too. Same goes for side characters.

Not to mention some very weird use of some Digimon, unresolved storylines, etc..

I liked some things about it - namely some great story ideas, the animation, some of the episodes were still really neat even with the insane pacing, Gammamon is very likeable, but overall, just. Ugh.

It feels like it could've been SO much more had the creators gone with some better direction for it, one way or another.

#Yes I KNOW it's for children and so on #and kids deserve their own introduction to horror stuff #I wish they'd just make something more interesting for older audiences too and stopped being cowards #like I know they can LOL and this show partially proves it #but gotta sell merchandise yadda yadda #and appease the “modern audience” with no attention span? I guess??#It just annoys me because this one for me was so close to something really great #like it feels as if the creators just didn't know what they wanted from it #digimon #text post #digimon ghost game #why is Seekers NOT an anime season

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tonydaddingham · 1 year ago

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LWA: Just some random stuff on a Sunday morning!

Missing scenes: Furfur's book of angels includes "bishop" as one of Aziraphale's jobs, and as we've already seen all the others on the list, even if only in deleted lines (the music tutor was originally in the Rome scene), I would guess we'd see that one as well. Not necessarily a good fit for 1650, though, although since Gaiman has done things like have the Bastille still standing in 1793, anything's possible.

Assumptions about character progression: I think there's a tendency to assume that Crowley and Aziraphale develop or ought to develop towards something "better" as the series progresses, but that's not quite right. They become more /complicated/, which is a neutral--dare I say grey?--concept. The novel and series both deny that good and evil are steady-state aspects of character: you /aren't/ good or evil (or something in-between), you /do/ good or evil (or something in-between). S1 Crowley, as both Gaiman and Tennant have said, has no real character arc, but one of the reasons I think the fandom needs to pay attention to my favorite bugbear, the child murder manipulation subplot, is that it is also about moral complexity. Flood-era Crowley offers the moral absolute "you can't kill kids." Armageddon-era Crowley runs Aziraphale over with a trolley problem in order to duck the more unpleasant reality that if you're fine with someone killing a kid for you, you're fine with killing kids. (I have to say that the sentimental "Crowley wuvs Warlock" headcanon is one of those instances where supposedly-positive fanon constitutes outright character assassination, right up there with "Aziraphale had an affair with Oscar Wilde" [oh, do /not/ get me started on why that's horrifying].) The series is on the side of Flood-era Crowley and Madame Tracy, not the "developed" Crowley. Meanwhile, Aziraphale learns how to lie, which is a skill that can be put to different moral purposes in different contexts. Sometimes it's unambiguously good, like saving Job's children; sometimes it's ambiguous-to-evil, like concealing the Antichrist's whereabouts from Crowley (revealing this knowledge to Crowley would mean more pressure to murder the child, but his rehearsed speech suggests that he's willing to let Heaven handle it, perhaps, which is not a viable moral alternative).

AWCW and being "impressionable": one of the funniest things about Crowley is that in some respects, he's every bit as conformist as Aziraphale is, and sometimes more so. His unreliable narration about the Fall hints very strongly that, as you say, he just went along with the "cool kids"--which, despite his protestations to the contrary, /is/ a moral failure on the terms set out by the novel and series. Even later, both Crowley and Aziraphale rebel in ways that maintain the fiction of the overarching system (the Arrangement) rather than dismantling it entirely. Crowley also enjoys his job, especially in the novel. Which, to be clear, is also a moral failure: slacking off is, hilariously, the most moral choice he and Aziraphale can make. FWIW, for me, neither the novel nor the series are "burn it all down" narratives, in part because they both advance a theory of humanity that suggests burning it all down just gets you the same thing from a different direction. The most radical political ideas are given to a conspiracy theorist and to children, and the Antichrist concludes by rejecting all of them and hitting a literal reset button. Pratchett may have co-written the book from a place of "anger," but anger can lead to a lot of different political practices. Obviously, YMMV.

LWA✨ woke up today and chose analytical violence, what a legend

1. see, i feel like 1650 could work for aziraphale's bishop occupation, even if only mentioned retrospectively. theoretically, he could well have been a bishop before the abolishment in 1646, and exploring the episcopalian polity vs presbyterianism argument of the time could be really interesting narratively (especially if handled somewhat like the resurrectionist episode)... but detail aside, even if by the time we see him in 1650 it's only mentioned casually that he was a bishop "a few years back", i don't think it would be entirely out of field. we don't necessarily need to have everything played out on screen!

2. okay, a lot to unpack here, but essentially i agree. the issue it seems to me is to posit moral absolutes in the first place; there will almost always be a contextual 'except'/'but' clause that comes along with it that turns it on its head.

it's bad to kill children, except when they are the antichrist and could bring about the apocalypse.

it's bad to lie, except when it would prevent unimaginable cruelty and grief being wrought on those that don't objectively deserve it.

it's bad to manipulate and brainwash a group of people, except when there's no lasting harm done, and you were only trying to demonstrate to someone that you love them.

it's good to try to further human medicine and prevent needless suffering, except when doing so puts the desperate as the first to fall in the figurative battlefield.

it's good to forgive a huge debt when you don't have any necessity of it being paid, except when it's primarily borne out of materialistic selfishness.

neither character does anything so completely reprehensible, or alternatively so inarguably irreproachable, that someone, somewhere, can't or won't argue a justification for their actions. we individually, according to our own moral compasses borne of our experiences, may justify or condemn what they've done in the narrative - objectively, the morality behind their actions as we've seen them so far is never absolute.

eg. for me, crowley's plan on killing the antichrist, a child, in the specific context of GO is not the condemnable action here; its the manipulation of getting aziraphale to do it because he, personally, will not do it himself. i understand why, but the thing that i personally consider to be unambiguously bad is not killing the antichrist itself, but instead the fact that crowley considers that the only solution to the hellhound being named - ignoring the 'running away' that crops up later, for a moment - is to underhandedly manipulate someone he cares about into doing it instead of him. however, others may see it differently.

who is to say what is 'better', anyway? what even is 'better'? is 'better' to do things only when it's for the benefit of other people? is doing 'better' for your own self not also worthy of consideration? is 'better' wholly only when doing something that is kind or generous to others, rather than being kind or generous to yourself?

whilst crowley hits certain moral epiphanal milestones before aziraphale does, neither have the full right of it - aziraphale should not hold morality to being plainly black or white, dictated to by a set of absolutes that are so basic and lacking in complexity that they are by all accounts redundant. and crowley should not dismiss alternative choices or solutions just because they do not fit his perspective or reasoning, nor hold that his understanding of morality is the only viable one or is the only one with any weight or validity. ep6 imo succinctly demonstrated this.

both of them are still so young at the flood. aziraphale holds that whatever has been decreed by the source 'of all that is good' must therefore be good (and choosing to not see beyond it) and crowley acts so incredulous that something he sees as being absolutely bad would ever be entertained (despite, you know, having been cast out of heaven for 'just asking questions'....). both of them by the time of job have had a pretty seismic shift in that respective naivety - aziraphale begins to question what god actually intends, and crowley acts stoutly bitter and unsurprised by the assignment. neither reactions are compatible still, they constantly circle each other, and literally indicate that some level of understanding (of god, of her will, of morality 'in the real world' itself - take your pick) is still lacking.

re: Oscar Wilde and warlock hcs (i couldn't let these stroll by without comment)... god, where to start. re: warlock, i never begrudge any hc where it's borne out of a developed fanon background. that's arguably one of the main benefits of having the fanon side of things: to develop a point/event/gap in the story for yours and others' amusement - that's cool! for this example, any fic that gives more insight into their years in warlock's life, and therefore gives legitimacy to crowley having a fondness for warlock - yep, i like that! that's awesome, i could see it as an unrealised narrative, but that's where it firmly stays, for me - in fanon.

but i do get frustrated when certain narrative points are pointedly ignored in order to establish a character trait that would otherwise not exist. crowley in canon does not - to me - demonstrate any fondness towards warlock. he literally proposes the option of his murder! i don't think him refusing to entertain killing warlock himself indicates any sentimentality towards the kid - thats a bit of a stretch, imo - but instead it reflects on his character being, put reductively, a bit of a knob sometimes.

as for aziraphale and oscar wilde... yeeaaah. i think anyone that holds that hc seriously needs to reevaluate the implications of it, and whether or not beyond professional (?) respect for his work aziraphale would willingly want to associate with him... ultimately, i refer back to my above point about "...anything so completely reprehensible...". and, respectfully, perhaps there needs to be a little more separation between michael sheen's filmography and aziraphale's narrative - whether in hc or canon.

3. right, AWCW time. i agree re: his conformity to the 'cool kid group' being something that is deserving of scrutiny on his own morality, but i feel like this only is viable once that association goes beyond a certain point (and an arguably arbitrary one at that). essentially, i think it's possible to still see AWCW's decision to associate with the group as understandable and empathetic. we know from the narrative that a) AWCW starts hanging out with them at some point, and b) that lucifer et al. are in the end considered bad people. but were they actually bad at the time that AWCW comes across them? if they were, did AWCW himself know? we don't really have enough narrative to reliably confirm this.

but we do know that AWCW fell, and it's therefore rather likely that he continued associating with them past a point where he would have known that they were Bad News Bears. in the beginning, he may have just been glad that these people seemed to listen to him and make him feel valid for having questions - that's understandable. but as time goes on, as lucifer etc. hypothetically get more and more questionable in their actions and beliefs, AWCW presumably choosing to stick with them, possibly even defending them, confers the deserving of negative judgement onto AWCW in turn (presuming there's no element of coercion or blackmail involved, mind you).

i like the point you raise of aziraphale and crowley respectively not conforming to their inherent purposes (being an angel or demon respectively) when it benefits them personally, being an almost accidental 'good thing', especially when the story puts forward that, however you look at it (ie. whether bc they are lazy, or it poses more excuses to see each other - immaterial), the arrangement is entirely self-serving. 10/10 narrative irony. but this is kinda going back to one of our first asks, LWA - it is for me once again the key difference between rebellion, and revolution:

(never been more grateful for making the LWA masterpost, thank you past-me)

so whilst i agree to a certain point that the 'burn it all down' narrative may not be a viable option, or is at the very least a reductive one, i think that the question is what it is replaced with, if at all. adam hit the reset button and put earth back to how it was, because what humanity and earth was - by my interpretation - was just fine as it is. it's not perfect, but not worthy of being destroyed in totality.

so what can we say about heaven? is it a mirror to earth in this respect? i don't think it is. heaven may well have been intended originally as a neutral party with the best of intentions, and then pigeonholed into being the 'good side' following the fall, but it has been allowed to fester and corrupt. maybe we will see more in s3 that there are other angels that feel that heaven as a system is flawed (personally, i think we see this in saraqael's introduction to GO, but that's just my interpretation of the character so far), and maybe those angels will represent the part of heaven that is still redeemable.

so okay, yeah, maybe heaven shouldn't be completely gutted and dismantled, but it is not in the same place as earth is at the time of adam's reset. earth and humanity were arguably the innocent parties in their prospective destruction, whereas heaven has sown their own seeds for it. i don't think the two are entirely comparable. heaven does need a major realignment, and i personally don't think this can happen without some form of systematic reform, without revolution (especially if the wider fandom's evaluation of metatron is true come s3!). it needs reworking with an alternative system that works to be fairer, and removes any binary rhetoric of good vs. evil. don't ask me for the minutae of how this should happen, because i have zero idea (well, very little, anyhow), im not that clever.

but this is what i hope aziraphale will actually be successful in come s3. he can't just - in anger at the injustice of it all - set heaven on fire and walk away from the ashes; it will invite for the original regime to rebuild or something worse to take its place. that being said, it's not just him that needs to do it - to build an alternative to heaven in his own image is equally questionable. again, this is the suggestion that i liked in the armageddon 2.0 meeting in ep6; the idea of democracy in heaven, even if the current board is less than ideal (and the point could poetically hark back to the hypothetical 1650 flashback...?).

#“just random stuff” no you came for the throat LWA own it #i had written like another 4 paragraphs on the anger thing but it got personal really fast so i opted to delete it #youre welcome for being spared from it #once again never sure if ive ever made an Actual Point in my LWA responses but make of it what you will #good omens #ask #the fall/the great war spec #AWCW spec #heaven theory #s3 narrative spec #crowley meta #aziraphale meta

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chaili-1512 · 2 years ago

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"Cold night"

CW: SFW, y\n, The main character is a Na'vi, na’vi quaritch x na’vi reader

TW: blood, fire,water,profanity

AN:In turn I want to say that this is my first work of this genre, it came out quite large but hopefully not bad, also worth mentioning that English is not my native language, but hopefully that doesn't hurt! Enjoy reading and thank you for your attention, I will try more in the future!😎

Stuff in italics in the Na'vi language

My previous account was deleted for reasons unknown to me, so I am re-uploading to the new!!!

Your life on Pandora seemed easy and fabulous, until the Celestial Men came and destroyed the lives of many Na'vi, including you, under such circumstances your southern clan was on the verge of extinction and destruction, only a few Omaticaya remained. One day, while hunting, you encountered Na'vi with demon blood, fully armed, souls of five, they spoke to each other, your English not terrible enough to understand them. Sitting in a tree, you watched them warily, one of them exploring the thicket and the other holding a huge weapon.

- Check the perimeter, they might be close by, - a hoarse male voice sounded, and several guys headed in different directions, and this one headed toward you.

- Damn demons, - you drew your dagger and cautiously leaned against a tree post, waiting for your target, but something you still hadn't considered - you were spotted from the side.

- Target from above! Fire! - shouted another voice, and, reacting quickly, you jumped from the tree and rushed to run.

- After her! -There were screams behind you, and though there was demonic blood in them, they were no different from yours. At the same second a shot rang out and a net clawed at your legs, you barely had time to recoil before the muzzle of the gun was pointed at your head.

- I'd put it away if I were you, - Na'vi smiled triumphantly, and the rest of the team joined him.

- Are you here alone, or are the others with you? - one of them asked, but you turned away, staring at the net tangled at your feet.

- Hey, am I talking to you?! - One of the soldiers grabbed you by your braids and lifted you up, with a scream you spoke in your own language, cursing everyone present.

- You will all be dead, demons, - you hissed at one of them.

Footsteps were heard nearby, and another soldier emerged from there; he nodded silently in your direction, ordering the corporal away from you. You, in turn, continued to hiss, glaring at each of them.

- Why so rude, Lyle, we don't want to damage the trophy, - the corporal squatted across from you.

- And you have a temper, don't worry, we're not going to kill you, we just want information for now, - these words didn't calm you down one bit, to which Miles, sitting across from you, sighed heavily.

- Untie her, but keep your eyes open, she'll be interrogated in moderation at the base, - the team looked at each other, - Did I not make myself clear? GO - The guys hurriedly untied your legs, but they snapped handcuffs on your wrists. Continuing to follow them obediently, you waited for the right moment, apparently this man was their commander and therefore a suitable victim. As you got closer and closer to the ship, you pretended to feel sick and fell to the ground.

- Sir, she's down, why don't we finish her off, it won't be that hard, - Lyle said, pointing his gun at you.

- Look, Corporal, have you decided to replace me? - Quaritch walked up to him, looking straight into his soul.

- No, sir! - agitatedly he answered.

- Well, that's another thing… - Miles was about to turn around when a knife was put to his neck, your knife.

- Get out of my way. - Your English was garbled, but that didn't stop them from understanding you.

- So you understand us, then? Very well, - said the colonel with a smirk, and then the dagger came even closer to his throat, - Hush, hush, make way for her, you fools, - the crew just stared at Quaritch and you. As soon as you disappeared from their sight, you took possession of his weapon, now Miles is your potential prisoner.

- Let's go, - you said, pointing the gun forward.

- Look, these guys would kill you in a second, why don't you give it to me quietly, - you immediately put the gun to his head.

- You've got a long tongue, go faster, - you weren't going to give up, but the footsteps behind you were really speeding up and getting closer.

- You don't have the guts to shoot, we haven't even met yet, and already you're pointing a gun at me. - You raised one eyebrow in surprise, and then you shot him in the shoulder, and the soldier groaned in pain.

- Damn bitch, I didn't ask you to check! - he obediently staggered faster forward, holding onto his shoulder, each step indicating your location to the pursuers, and finally you came to the slope of the waterfall.

- Damn, - you looked back from where the soldiers had run out, and without wasting time, you pushed Quaritch into the water and jumped in after him at the sound of gunfire.

- Goddamn, we lost them, - the corporal said over the radio, to which he got a clear signal to retreat back to base.

Underwater you had a few seconds to assess your position while the colonel was knocked out, apparently having fallen in the wrong place. Rolling your eyes, you picked him up and began to swim toward the cave that was next to the waterfall. It was a great place to rest and assess your condition.Finally, once out of the water, you began to bring the body of the wounded Na'vi to its senses.

- Wake up, demon, - the soldier immediately spit out all the water he had in his chest with his fist.

- Ahem, next time warn me about stupid plans, - Miles coughed and tried to figure out where he was, but the place was clearly unfamiliar to him, as the wounded shoulder later confirmed. While Miles endured the pain, you discreetly cuffed him with the handcuffs you were originally wearing. Blood was oozing from his shoulder, but the soldier tried not to show the unbearable pain and cold.

- You are weak and stupid as a child, - you said, approaching him with something in your hands, Quaritch though wounded and concussed, but his subconscious was still in place, his hands gripping your approaching wrists.

- The savage decided to finish me off? - the soldier replied threateningly, but you only raised your eyebrows in surprise.

- I am no murderer, celestials are murderers, just like you… - Pulling his hands away, you began to cover the wound, making the man hiss in pain.

- Be patient, it will hurt, but I need you alive, - you continued in the same vein, pressing against his wound.

- Then why the fuck did you shoot me?! - he hissed through his teeth.

- Shut up and stay out of my way. - You stepped away from him, having finally finished your work. The sweat on his head indicated that he was tired and ready to pass out.

- You know, I still don't know your name, savage, - Quaritch turned his head tiredly.

- Y/n, - you answered him, continuing to sharpen your dagger.

- Y/n? How do you even pronounce it, - the soldier said sarcastically, grinning. - My name is Miles Quaritch, commander of the group you kidnapped me from. - the soldier was watching carefully as you were actively not keeping up the conversation.

- You just have a crooked tongue, you can't talk, Y/n, right, stupid demon, - he finally put his business aside and looked at the prisoner.

- You know, it's cold enough here at night, why don't you build a fire? - Kuorich looked toward the exit, where the sun was already setting over the horizon.

- Demons have to be able to stand the cold, you think you can fool me," Kuoric reloaded his weapon and looked in his direction.

- Wait, wait, okay, I hear you, then we'll die together in the cold - the colonel looked in the direction of the sun, which was no longer visible. To his surprise, you did listen to him, stepping closer and ripping his T-shirt open.

- What are you doing? - he asked perplexedly, watching as you made a fire out of the remains of your already dried clothes and some sticks.

- Stop shouting, I am making a fire, - you easily made a small fire, the heat of which was enough for some time. The captive immediately crawled closer to the fire, warming his body, which was now spread out before you.

- Thank you, savage, I feel a little better now, - Miles sank wearily beside the fire, clenching his teeth a little at the pain in his shoulder, you've chosen the most searing salve to heal the wound, so that life will not be a raspberry. You, for your part, bent your knees, staring first at Quaritch's face and then gradually at your naked torso.

- Oh Holy Mother, why must I put up with this, - you muttered to yourself.

- Do you really enjoy it so much that you can't help yourself? You know, I know your language a little, - said the soldier, still with his eyes closed, with a peculiar smirk. After these words, you hastily turned away and lay on your side, muttering something else to yourself. Unfortunately, by the end of the night the fire had gone out, and a sharp chill ran down your back. Quaritch felt the same way; unfortunately, the other branches were damp, and there was no other remedy nearby.

- Now we're either going to die, or warm ourselves with our own bodies, - Miles raised slightly on his elbows as he looked at you, his expression invisible in the dark, but he could see your displeased face perfectly.

- If you do anything in the night, I'll kill you without a second thought… - Everything inside was arguing with each other; it was dangerous to stay out in the cold, but even more dangerous to be in the foul clutches of this demon.

- I don't bite in my sleep, but I want to live - after his words you sighed heavily, you had no choice but to move closer to this demon, because his hands were tied, he had to lift them so that you could be in his "embrace". There seemed to be mixed feelings inside from his touch and, most likely, from the fact that there was literally a pumped-up soldier with a naked torso behind you.

- You know, if you're this tense, none of us will fall asleep, relax, - these words came softly, literally near your ears, which twitched afterward.

- Shut up and sleep - your last answer served as a command to yourself to go to sleep, but to be on the outfit with someone like him.

#awow #quaritch imagine #quaritch fanfic #quaritch x reader #quaritch x oc #Colonel quaritch x you #Colonel quaritch imagine #Colonel quaritch headcanon #Colonel quaritch x y/n #Colonel quaritch #colonel quaritch x reader

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illegiblewords · 1 month ago

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Dragon Age: Veilguard Review

I finally finished my run of Veilguard. Most of what I heard going in was negative, but also not blindly hateful. I had editor brain switched on throughout to make sure I was paying really close attention because I wanted any commentary to be fair. I can also only speak for myself, of course.

That said, I am extremely critical here. I still had fun and will examine stuff/potentially replay bits, but if something read as unsuccessful to me I'm gonna talk about it. To me, identifying critiques gives fans (including me lol) opportunities to better examine things and make choices while exploring fan content. Below the cut, I am going to give an explanation of some of my own decisions/mindsets entering the game (since that shaped my opinions) as well as discussing various characters, lore, narrative techniques, etc. It's going to be big and I don't even know if I'll be able to hit everything. Unmarked spoilers ahoy, buckle up.

ILLEGIBLE'S RUN AND THE CHOICES THEREIN

Understanding the game doesn't acknowledge past decisions, my personal world state involves the following:

The Warden-Commander, elven mage Alim Surana, went off about ten years ago in search for a cure for The Calling. He fathered a child named Kieran with Morrigan, was in a committed relationship with her, and as far as is currently understood remains alive but laying very low. Magic drew primarily from death magic, lightning magic (spark of vitality/life and death), and arcane warrior disciplines. Kieran was born with the soul of Urthemiel, Tevinter god of beauty and unknown blighted Evanuris, inside him. Mythal/Flemeth removed this apparently purified soul from Kieran to keep with her, leaving only the mortal soul behind to grow independently from there. The Architect, sentient/sapient darkspawn and a former priest of Urthemiel, was spared from death and remained in an alliance with The Warden while trying to find a way to co-exist with non-blighted life. Companions all lived, Alistair was made king.

Champion of Kirkwall Marian Hawke was a reaver warrior. Her sister Bethany survived the events of Dragon Age 2 as a Circle Mage and was freed when her sister took up arms to defend the mages. Hawke entered a committed relationship with fellow warrior Fenris. It's worth mentioning that this Hawke locked into rivalry with Merrill not due to lack of friendship/care but because her fixation on discovering the past by any means came at the cost of her present. Hawke also killed Anders not because of disagreeing with his cause or finding spirits inherently evil, but because more and more it became clear that either Anders was corrupting Justice or Justice was corrupting Anders to the point of not being able to navigate reality or nuance without extreme danger to others. See being ready to mindwipe and re-enslave Fenris, being ready to kill a Circle mage who was afraid of him, blowing up the Chantry instead of targeting Templars directly. Arc-wise it made sense that there were opposite parallel developments between Anders and Fenris in terms of becoming less versus more open/forgiving. Hawke survived Inquisition.

Inquisitor Mahanon Lavellan was a knife-wielding rogue assassin who had been sent to observe the Conclave for the Dalish. He was very devout and that made for a complicated situation given the Herald of Andraste deal. Lavellan forewent all official romances to flirt regularly with Harding. They were confirmed to be dating as of Trespasser. Cassandra became Divine Victoria, Lavellan vowed to convince Solas from his path, mages were sided with over templars, Seekers are seeking to undo the Rite of Tranquility, The Inquisition continues to operate under The Chantry. Unofficially, I already intended that my Inquisitor spent time post-Trespasser/pre-Veilguard telling the Dalish the truth of The Creators. It was probably soul-shattering for him.

My main Rook is mage Valerius Mercar of the Shadow Dragons. He was a young qunari saarebas who got taken in by a Tevinter commander. His upbringing was complicated, he works to free those enslaved and suffering in Minrathous while his adoptive father fights to free those bound and suffering under The Qun. Rook was viewed with a combination of suspicion, curiosity, and pity most of the time depending on the person. He has seen some pretty horrendous shit in Tevinter working with Shadow Dragons, has mixed feelings at both his birth and adoptive nations. Subscribes to the Tevinter Chantry, magic uses mainly meteors and void-of-space cold from the evoker specialization. Worth noting most magic in the Imperium is not combat-oriented. Between the fear qunari invoke in Tevinter and his own talents with combat magic specifically, Valerius made a solid career safeguarding diplomats before he attracted Venatori attention. He was doing a bit of mercenary work until things calmed down when Varric hired him. Romanced Lucanis. My Rook didn't actually realize he was group leader until after the attacks on Treviso and Minrathous--previously had assumed everyone was equal status and they were just winging it. Temperament is very pragmatic and no bullshit when it comes to making decisions, but is surprisingly gentle with wounded people. I finished the game with all companions EXCEPT FOR HARDING GDI alive. I actually tried both death scenes and despite my Harding/Inquisitor OTP it hit me that the parallels between Harding's story and The Inquisitor's story worked with her death. They were two ordinary people who became chosen ones with weird powers by virtue of being at the wrong place at the wrong time, both faced mortal danger and heavy cultural history, both got raised up with religious reverence by others and felt weird about it. One of them lost his hand, the other died. It could have happened to either of them. Also though, Harding went in at her personal strongest. She overcame her own sense of rage for her ancestors to realize she still loved people despite the cruelty and ugliness they sometimes have. The world has good in it worth protecting. Harding also shared the legacy of the titans with other dwarves to avoid being the sole possessor of that history, which ties up a major personal responsibility for her. The Inquisitor had to tell the Dalish about the gods previously, so parallel. There was also a callback to the story's beginning when Harding got injured with an implicit question about whether she changed her mind about the risks involved by leading the way (no) and there were cool reflections with Neve too as someone else who had questions of leadership and sacrifice put in front of her. By comparison, 1) I cannot kill critically endangered baby griffon Assan who gives the best hugs 2) Davrin's story arc as I explored it would not have made sense if he died. He went in expecting to fall for a noble cause killing darkspawn like a badass. The greater good for him is to live for a noble cause protecting vulnerable life that genuinely needs him. Lol @ my Inquisitor tho.

Anyway. Despite being completely pissed off--with the help of Mythal, Morrigan, and the Inquisitor, Rook managed to convince Solas to maintain The Veil. I loved that it unfolded that way. It made sense after Rook learned how Lucanis mentally staying trapped in The Ossuary even after ostensibly being freed, because he didn't know how to heal and keep living after everything. When Rook was thrown into the Fade prison crafted to trap him in regret, my guy actually had the surreal experience of it...not really working. Which also shaped his reaction to Solas.

See, Neve tried to guilt Rook early after he chose to protect Treviso. He saw her as a peer and equal Shadow Dragon, gave her more resources between companions, home turf advantage, the full force of The Shadow Dragons, AND the most powerful mage force in Thedas. With Treviso the actual infrastructure would have made for a worse Blight. The city was actively being occupied already and at a disadvantage. Treviso is not the seat of Antivan power, just one of its cities and a companion's home. Lucanis is skilled but also literally just got out of being imprisoned and tortured for a year, doesn't sleep out of fear of what might happen, is possessed by a demon that occasionally assaults him, and isn't up-to-date with the current state of his home the way Neve is. Support was needed there. Since most resources went to Minrathous, Rook went to Treviso personally as one dude. Guy was obviously heartbroken Minrathous fell but if it was anyone's fault it was the gods/Venatori. Neve tried to blame Rook at the time and it made zero sense to him that she thought he was some tide-changing authority. Sorry u choked Neve, but you were taking the lead on that defense. You were trusted there.

Neve's arc in my game involved her on the one hand struggling with the idea 'people don't show up for me' but gradually realizing often people do but it still isn't realistic to expect everyone to drop everything all the time. When people show up sometimes they survive and sometimes they don't. For my run Neve had to build herself up and do the best she could knowing that others would also do the best they could to give support but sometimes she might just have to lead the way. Neve was the one who dismantled the enchantment during final stretch knowing it was dangerous, and she got abducted. Neve was also rescued by her companions as soon as they could pull it off. She pushed forward even when others offered her a break. She used what she learned in captivity to take control of the Blight threatening her city and her friends knowing she might die in the process, and she lived to know she succeeded without being blighted forever.

So in the Fade prison, Rook was sad but didn't rule out Neve's survival. He mostly felt intense respect for both Harding and Neve's choices. They weren't his choices to make and both Harding and Neve were his equals. Both of them made informed decisions knowing there were risks, same as he did. Varric was trickier because he'd encouraged Varric to try talking Solas down and that got him killed--but by that point Rook realized he couldn't have a double standard. Varric also made an informed decision and decided it was worth risking his life to try anyway.

So facing Solas at the end, on the one hand my Rook realized that while he personally had the awareness and sense of limitation in responsibility to escape he prison... Solas didn't. Solas didn't know how. But the way to honor Varric was to try and show him. Open the door for someone else.

It doesn't make what Solas did okay or undo anything, but it gives him a future as part of the world where he can still shape things for the better. And he isn't alone either. CRITIQUE OVERVIEW: I enjoyed the game, but there were problems. Some of the biggest ones imo were lore holes/contradictions, sanitized settings and cast, narrative preaching, poorly thought out relationship dynamics in places, extremely bad arc navigation, lack of nuance or room for interpretation, and overall narrative inflexibility. It felt like the game did not want me as a player to have a meaningful impact on the narrative beyond the ending or get to participate in creating a distinct character/story but expected me to be satisfied with superficial scraps. It's counterproductive to the type of gaming experience Bioware is known for. It absolutely felt like the narrative was pressuring me toward some choices, away from others, and going out of its way to try and block me from certain possibilities--not because they were unreasonable but because of controlling devs. I mostly enjoyed combat but it had some major problems in its own right--speaking as someone who normally doesn't notice that.

I've seen people get defensive and try to argue that the criticism leveled at Veilguard is because of headcanons not being met. This is factually incorrect. Storytelling is a craft and there are elements you can measure based on evidence, cause/effect, and how various techniques produce results. The things I've mentioned can be discussed with concrete examples to back them up. The problems are legitimate.

Again, I enjoyed playing overall. There were things I liked a lot and I actually appreciated the companions more than most Inquisition companions. 'I like it' and 'it's technically good' are separate categories. I also have sympathy because it sounds like development was hell and at some stage stronger directions were definitely on the table. It's very obvious to me that someone (or a few someones) behind the scenes sabotaged things repeatedly. There are people who were wrongfully fired and there are people who are still working at Bioware who should have been fired instead as far as I'm concerned.

LORE: Not fully going into how many choices in Origins, DA2, and Inquisition were absent, this game cut corners trying to make itself look bigger and more impressive by exploiting the work, care, and investment tied to past games then destroying what came before.

It was not narratively necessary or credible to make Southern Thedas helpless against The Blight. It was not narratively necessary to destroy Ferelden, Orlais, and Orzammar. The developers did this because they wanted players to feel sad, to create a heightened sense of stakes, and because they wanted the current threat of the evanuris to be framed as beyond anything faced previously. The effect actually produced was that all the work, strength, and investment players had built in Southern Thedas got undermined and disrespected without actually making the current antagonists look any better. It makes heroes look weak instead of antagonists look strong.

An example of what I'm talking about to clarify. Lets say you're working in a franchise with multiple recurring villains. Villain A has rich history and story arcs where the hero struggled both logistically and personally to overcome them. A storyteller comes along to work with Villain B, and wants audiences to have a real sense of threat with Villain B but isn't sure how to go about building it in a way that stands out. The storyteller decides to have Villain B use Villain A as canon fodder. The hero downs Villain A in seconds during a a single scene on the way to Villain B. Or maybe you see Villain A just destroyed by Villain B with little effort. Villain A is actively made less capable, complex, clever, and self-respecting for this to happen. Villain B doesn't do anything particularly capable, complex, or clever in the course of their schemes but the writer insists they were so brutal that audiences should be impressed. Audiences will not have room to experience impactful narratives with Villain A going forward because of how intensely they were diminished. Villain B has earned no respect because everything they accomplished comes through derailment and the author insisting 'because I said so'. The storyteller didn't know how to make Villain B look stronger based on merit, so they made someone else look weaker instead. This sabotages respect and investment.

That is how past games were treated by Veilguard. That is how Southern Thedas was treated.

There were also issues like (for example) the reveal that undead are immune to Blight and this is common knowledge in Nevarra. Nevarra holds status within the Andrastrian Chantry to the point that it is possible to have a Divine who comes from Nevarran nobility--and if she doesn't, she's still serving as Right Hand of the Divine.

There is no longer any reason the Wardens exist, or ever should have existed. There is no reason Circles should have ever existed in the form that they had either. There is no reason for cremation to have been practiced as a funerary rite. There is no reason it wouldn't be widespread knowledge that spirits can exist as a benevolent force. Logistically, well before Veilguard or even Origins, there should have been skeleton on zombie warfare anytime The Blight reared up so that mortal and vulnerable-to-spreading-Blight people weren't on the front lines. Undead could have been the ones killing archdemons and there would not have been a threat of the archdemon transferring into its killer. Emmerich's mention was there to go 'oh look how cool and capable the Mourn Watch is, Blight can't do anything against the undead!' but that just opened a wholeass can of worms for the history of Thedas.

Additionally. The mechanics of archdemons were erased altogether to make them weaker than they ever were in the series. That was THE final boss of Origins. The game throws at minimum two individual archdemons at the player and leaves a third unfought, and all of the archdemons are minibosses. This is what I mean when I say the past games were degraded in an attempt to make the current game look better.

Sentient darkspawn lost everything about their thought processes and limitations (namely empathy) that made them interesting. See the Gloom Howler versus The Architect. The entire difference in faith between the Andrastrian and Tevinter chantries was thrown out, and there was zero examination of how faith in Tevinter's Old Gods differs from the Tevinter chantry in-turn. (WHERE WAS THE BLACK DIVINE? I KNOW ARCHON RADONIS FUCKED OFF TO NEVARRA OR SOMETHING BUT WHERE TF WAS URIAN NIHALIS?) The entire social structure of The Qun was dissolved in order to have flat brute Antaam antagonists without recognizing how that's like saying the entire legislative branch of US government disavowed America and ran off to conquer Spain or something with no replacement legislative branch. Tbh it's even worse because the Antaam aren't just government officials but thousands of ordinary qunari citizens. Saar-qamek is no longer a serious lobotomization risk. Saarebas are no longer abused and The Qun is no longer understood as practicing slavery (see vidaath-bas) and conquest in its own right. There is no persecution of those who leave the Qun supposedly (unless it's by rebel Antaam, who by rights are tal-vashoth) but also aspects of The Qun that were good like acknowledgment of aqun-athlok got handwaved. Par Vollen just sitting on their hands while tal-vashoth Antaam abuse close allies in Rivain and Antiva does not make sense unless the majority of the original Antaam forces straight up left The Qun and Par Vollen's forces are weak right now. If that is the case, then Tevinter should be going absolutely ham on the forces of Par Vollen as per opportunism. Might explain Minrathous falling if military was elsewhere but like... tell the audience. If it's not the case, Par Vollen should have been going absolutely apeshit on the rogue Antaam.

Slavery as a common, accepted, and financially significant part of Tevinter society is made socially unacceptable in just ten years. Fear of mages and abominations outside Tevinter is barely present as lip service now. Fen'Harel acted alone and had no loyal elven followers whatsoever while the Dalish (acting in direct opposite to everything surrounding Merrill) immediately accepted in ten years that their entire culture and religion are not just fake but built on further slavery and exploitation at the hands of elves. Nbd just add Veil Jumpers.

Urthemiel is missing in action. Kieran is also missing in action. What Well of Sorrows? What arc about Morrigan being terrified of losing her personhood to the point of matricide? All of the past antagonist choices made through ambition or jealousy, fear or greed, etc. are now being framed as 'the devil made them do it' via executors as if people are incapable of natural negative impulses. Any hints that The Forgotten Ones could be the Tevinter Old Gods were thrown right out. And like... I'm not inherently opposed to archdemons/the old gods being alternate faces of the evanuris with the evanuris being particularly powerful spirits. The irony that they were elves first is fun. But the evanuris were stressed as being ancient elven mages WAY above anything remotely spirit related, which undermined their power/influence/archetypal nature to a huge degree imo. I'm lowkey mad as hell that we didn't have Elgar'nan sometimes taking a human face and answering to the name Lusacan while dealing with Venatori. When did the other evanuris even die???? Did they die during past Blights with their archdemons or did only the archdemons die? Meanwhile The Forgotten Ones have been made wholly irrelevant and are like some long-lost-cousin plot twist out of a soap opera when it makes no sense for that to be the case. Executors as spooky boogeymen from across the sea are pulled out of left field with no foreshadowing to be the next main antagonists. Templars have no power or relevance anywhere. What are the Venatori even doing anymore? Why isn't there discrimination in Tevinter toward qunari, elves, and especially Dalish elves?

With titans, dwarves, and both lyrium subtypes. I had previously hit the page that blue lyrium ties to reality, physicality, and the world as it exists while the Fade/magic ties to what could be, spirit, and the creation of new possibilities through imagination. Red lyrium as the mad, isolated dreams of titans I can get but I think it was a MASSIVE mistake to leave it as generic madness/anger at being wronged by the spirits who became elves. The Architect/The Messenger both indicate that, without being actively controlled by archdemons, they basically have no instinctive empathy. What I remember from Origins/Awakening also involved darkspawn having instincts like kill/eat/fuck with no regard for harm caused. There was room to do something where divorced from other sentience for so long and even basic physical instincts, when the Blight does find material form all it knows how to process are a sudden influx of reflexes tied to exercising power (after being powerless) and pain that cannot be articulated or understood. The Blight could have been portrayed as something legitimately feral like a human that never learned language or socialized. The idea has a lot of potential and sure like... as a fan I'll explore that. But the devs should have. Harding being upset about selling lyrium doesn't make sense to me because it's like a willing blood donation versus being mauled and left for dead by a vampire. Those are not the same.

I also looked into critique about the altered nature of the Blight in terms of source/progression, and while the devs didn't bother with anything I think I figured out a workable and fun solution so will share that in a later post.

The Antivan Crows of all people being compared to circus freaks BY AN ANTIVAN POLITICAL OFFICIAL with the casino element emphasized in order to voice disrespect made no fucking sense culturally. Ivenci should have been dead for that well before Veilguard. That's like walking into Vlad the Impaler's room and peeing on his shoes while making eye contact. Even getting close enough and getting your pants down to try isn't likely to work--much less getting out of that encounter still in possession of your urethra. I think it's okay to show some Crows are decent folks for assassins and groomed into that without any choice, but the attempt to hardcore moralize the faction is nonsense made even worse by how Lucanis's abuse by his family was framed as acceptable.

'ONLY FEMALE DRAGONS HAVE WINGS' is female supremacist bullshit only introduced to argue that males can't be cool or powerful. It defies established lore about archdemons and dragons in-universe generally. I get that there are vertebrates like anglerfish where the male is tiny and gets absorbed into the body of the female upon mating. I also know that IRL there are all-female gecko species (ex. mourning geckos) that reproduce asexually by cloning themselves, which is a bit similar to what happens in FFXIV. Both of those things are interesting as hell, but for dragons in Thedas specifically those angles don't add anything or even make sense with previous content. The impression matches what I mentioned with the villain situation. There is ZERO cause to cut down male dragons to that extent when you could easily just make the female dragons bigger, stronger, and matriarchal. I'm also looking at this like... for reproduction are males or females supposed to be the choosy sex?????? Are there courtship rituals/is one sex flashier than the other? Is one faster? Why? Both my inner dragon nerd and my inner animal nerd are so pissed that these creatures got made less badass on any front just because someone thought shitting on men was more important than lore or consistency. It's not like there's an indication we've got idk, East Asian-esque male dragons who don't need wings to fly and look awesome while they do.

Taash could have said the title 'Dragon King' is dumb because it's cheesy (if that's even necessary), which raises 'well what do you think of Shadow Dragons' and could turn into fun banter. Taash could have said 'dragons don't do monarchs' and instead gone on a spiel about dragon social structures that enriched lore. But no. The whole point was just to go 'lol men suck and are inferior' and that entire addition can fuck right into the sun.

EDIT: Talked to a buddy who mentioned that there is an issue but it's a different issue than I remembered! Basically, the problem isn't 'male dragons are wingless'. Origins had female, winged high dragons having their nests guarded by a harem of wingless drakes. That makes sense because the wingless males are performing a job and there is incentive to mate with them so there's a swarm of males protecting offspring while the female hunts + not having wings would be tied to them defending nests on the ground. I also wonder if the males would be flashy logistically or not with current game graphics tho bc could be a display for a female and could also warn away potential threats. I'm good with that. The problem is insisting Archdemons are all just high dragons and not something different when the Archdemons have established sexes where some are male. I'd actually have liked a mythozoological info dump from Taash about dragons that brushes up Origins lore. But the presentation and the Archdemon thing were still messes, and the way it was presented read more like shitting on some dragons to man-bash instead of exploring fantasy creatures and their social structures. And tbh my trust in the devs to not do that has been non-existent. So, critique to be made but it's a different one.

I could go on. And thing is, as a fan I'm looking at shit asking myself whether there are potential solutions that add upon worldbuilding (even if the devs didn't bother) versus 'this element cannot be salvaged and has to be discarded'. I've done that before and you can get really fun results that way. And again, I understand there was shit going on behind the scenes. But the execution of lore was horrendous.

SANITIZATION: I touched on this a bit. The Crows as an organization are now good guy freedom fighters all about family no matter what--barring Ilario being a clown. Slavery and racism are suddenly socially unacceptable in Tevinter of all places. The Lords of Fortune, headed by Isabella 'I stole sacred documents from The Qunari for coin', are very culturally sensitive and doing the world a service with their treasure hunting by making sure museums and religious centers are provided for. The Qunari are strict but just a little culturally spicy/the only negatives when it comes to Qunari are the Antaam. The Dalish have no xenophobia and no conflict over the true nature of the evanuris and would never follow Solas OR follow the evanuris/are immediately game to kill their gods with no questions asked. Kal-sharok are just nice all around and have none of the social conflicts or xenophobia of Orzammar, purely victims and too pure for this earth. We hear about how Wardens are often former criminals but Davrin remains on a moral high horse pretty consistently (I do actually like the guy a lot disclaimer) and the only Wardens we encounter who are even unkind are the First Warden, Gloom Howler, and whoever ordered the griffons be killed hundreds of years ago. Templar and mage conflicts, with all the prejudice/suffering/fear associated, are basically gone. Tranquil and even people recovering from past tranquility are gone. It is damn hard to so much as get disapproval with companions and players aren't really given room to disagree with them in meaningful ways. There is one 'Good and Moral' way to think and be for Veilguard. You get to phrase it differently but that's about it. No biases or discriminations in the cast, no serious personal flaws to overcome either individually or culturally.

People. Aren't. Perfect. Not even while trying to be. Not even subscribing to the most current ideas of sensitivity according to particular political ideologies that DO NOT APPLY to the worldbuilding of Thedas--let alone in a uniform way. And there is a massive lack in self-awareness about areas where the devs themselves perpetuate cases of dehumanization, invalidation of suffering/victimhood, and unfortunate cultural implications.

I saw a reddit commenter raise the point that there is a recent pattern of framing qunari as bestial, and it seems racist. People immediately flocked to argue that there are plenty of non-white characters who don't have bestial connotations. I think the actual point was missed and the original observation was not articulated with precision.

It's mostly not a race thing. It's that the Qunari are NON-WESTERN coded. They do draw from Plato's Republic (Greek) but the execution presents them as distinctly non-Western and collectivist. Other cultures in the game are mostly framed as very Western, with a few debatable exceptions for ex. the Dalish. You could argue that the Avaar in Inquisition (with their ties to animism and nature) had some beast themes while Western-coded and were explored respectfully. If instances of non-Western beast themes were also represented respectfully it would help, and if there were multiple non-Western cultures with and without that element even more so. But both the Antaam and Taash specifically with growling/snarling/mindless rage crap? That's awkward. The two qunari loyal to The Qun without beast expression that we see either die or exit stage left without allowing room to explore the subject much. When again, the majority of the story leans hard into Western culture regardless of racial demographics--having the one decidedly non-Western coded culture presented that way? Not great. It isn't like we've seen human, elven, or dwarven reavers hulk out the way kossith qunari do. It's not like we have human, elven, or dwarven characters growling and snarling while being heavily compared to animals.

Inquisition had crazed templars/mages explode into muscular hissing messes while the tal-vashoth in DA2 and qunari in Origins had a variety of personalities, mindsets, and behaviors. Those things help avoid making it weird and culturally targeted for those games. Veilguard wasn't great there.

Meanwhile holy fuck the handling of Lucanis's story was a wreck. Victim of severe child abuse and torture rescues his abuser. Her first move upon encountering him again is to try and beat him with the same cane she used when he was a kid. He kisses her on the cheeks shortly afterward. If he so much as imprisons his cousin who sent him to be tortured and killed by the Venatori, he's framed as mean/unforgiving as if it wouldn't be 50000% correct to kill that fucker right there. 'But faaaaamilyyyyyyy' no. That is grossly unacceptable to do to another human being, let alone family. It's not okay. And stripping Lucanis of agency AGAIN after that year of torture, after he was forcibly implanted with a demon who made him afraid to even sleep because he won't have control of his own body, after he was trapped in abuse and murder since childhood--lmao u r First Talon now even though u explicitly don't want that position. Hooray for FAMILY you are a hero!!!!!1!!

Vile and hypocritical. And the game presents everything as if it cannot conceive of the idea that anyone might have a reasonable objection.

The attempted sanitization hugely compromises immersion and credibility of the narrative on the one hand, limits the scope of human potential/thought/expression on the other, and only makes it more egregious when the storytellers expose their own ideas about acceptable targets.

PREACHING/PLAYER CHOICE/NUANCE: Veilguard struggles to respectfully consider a variety of perspectives and values, in-universe and in what options are available to players.

I'm going to use Emmerich as an example. Emmerich has been absolutely terrified of death since he was a child. Emmerich has been working to protect and respect the dead along with spirits for his whole life. He has an assistant in Manfred, a spirit of curiosity animating a skeleton. Emmerich wants to become a lich so he can completely avoid death and also continue safeguarding spirits/the dead, but that process carries risk and he needs to pass a character test first.

Meanwhile, there are multiple spirits being tortured via a device that threatens to cause mass casualties. Emmerich tries to dismantle the device once, realizes it's really dangerous/he could get killed, freaks out and steps away. He's afraid to try again because he might die. Manfred, who has been starting to speak and shows growing intelligence about the world/people, throws himself in harm's way to retrieve the device and get it to Emmerich. Manfred is killed in the process.

Emmerich tries to dismantle the device again and succeeds.

Emmerich could revive Manfred, a brave spirit who confronted the unknown of death because he cared about and wanted to protect others. Manfred is just starting to grow into himself and has so much to learn. This would mean that Emmerich also has to accept his own mortality as he has been informed he would be rejected from lichdom if he does this revival. He would have to stand shoulder to shoulder with Manfred as equals and treat the unknown of death not as something to run from but sometime to discover with a level of curiosity. Or, he could keep running from death to abandon Manfred and pursue his own personal ambitions of lichdom with the prestige it offers.

I chose to bring Manfred back. The narrative framed this as Emmerich being unable to cope with or accept personal loss, making him a weaker person and unworthy of his lich aspirations. Because selfish ambition at another's expense is the quality you want in a bunch of powerful undying guardians. When you ask if Emmerich regrets his choices he goes 'yeah my dream is crushed but I'd regret not saving Manfred more'. There wasn't really reflection or growth there. Both in that moment and earlier, players are framed as if disagreeing with Emmerich's goal is just crushing someone's dreams and being intolerant because it's a spooky lifestyle.

Lichdom is an avoidance tactic for Emmerich. If the point is to protect others, it's more important to do it well and sincerely than for a long time. It's important to be able to put selfish ambitions and fears aside to protect others in that position because the potential to abuse power is pretty huge. Emmerich had his protectiveness of spirits/the dead pit against his own ambitions, and the story acts like not enabling his ambitions makes you an asshole.

THAT is preachy as hell. Being told you made Lucanis merciless for daring to imprison Ilario is preachy as hell. And there are A LOT of further examples across many characters (frankly some even more egregious), where the narrative tries to instruct audiences on how to navigate social situations with no reasonable opportunity to disagree.

It is not appropriate for a video game that is supposed to let players shape the narrative. The video game isn't there to tell players who they're supposed to be and it isn't an authority on that subject. It can examine perspectives and why someone might think the way they do, but pressuring players to comply or be morally shamed is ridiculous. And honestly? If a player wants to do an asshole/evil run LET THEM DO IT. IT'S A GAME.

Origins, DA2, and Inquisition all gave room to players to explore many different viewpoints and values while trying to understand the merit in each possibility. That was not the case in Veilguard, and it not only made the experience less fun--it also flattened out antagonists to a huge degree by making them strawmen and caricatures who are evil because they are evil.

RELATIONSHIP DYNAMICS: I really enjoyed aspects of Lucanis's romance a TON and love his character to bits, but agree with the critique that the game held back too much. This doesn't mean I advocate immediate gratification as some fans are trying to argue. I actually liked that Lucanis panicked and fled the room for the almost-kiss scene. But there should have been at least one consummated kiss before the final quests. Fenris was similarly nervous and dealing with trauma, he got a kiss scene. It's possible to do that. Felt like there were a lot of missing moments and the third act in particular was sparse.

I liked that Lucanis made a dessert for Rook. It still felt like that exchange was cut off at the knees and there were more significant scenes outside it that players didn't get to participate in. Massive shame imo. The background relationships Bioware put in felt forced. No substance or chemistry, hit a point of reading gratuitous and 'pair the spares' like there was something wrong with being single. And listen, I have a history of trying to find angles to work ships between any two randos as a personal challenge. These ships, particularly in how they were executed, felt deeply uninspired to me.

I am all for 'sometimes in a time of crisis while trying to save the world, people stumble into love along the way'. Most scifi/fantasy romances fall into categories like that. Characters are largely focused on other stuff, shit happens anyway. But especially when there are so many other factors at play there should be something to the dynamic omfg.

Harding getting paired off felt like insult to injury when A) I rejected the 'official' options to flirt with Harding and only Harding through DAI, achieved canon 'they are dating' in Trespasser even though there was never an official card acknowledging it or a kiss scene B) when asked about the Inquisitor Harding just goes 'yeah that's not a normal person I don't associate' like wtf C) Harding dies if you are not willing to murder a baby griffon in cold blood. There was no way to opt out of Harding being shipped if Rook wasn't with her and you befriended Harding and Taash. It wasn't as if there were parallels between Harding and Taash either, ways they shaped each other's growth, anything beyond tall and small really. It felt insanely shallow and kind of spiteful tbh. Neve and Lucanis I know about because I've seen cutscenes about it online, I think it was token hetero romance between humans. What, they both drink coffee? Mage and mage killer? Again I just do not see any chemistry. Lucanis is in a vulnerable spot, Neve can be kind of resentful without much consideration beyond her own interests for a good stretch. I wound up liking Neve because of how her arc unfolded in my game but I was really annoyed at her for a bit and I still don't think she and Lucanis specifically are compatible. Lucanis is prone to making himself extremely low priority next to others and the task at hand, Neve can be blind to others if they aren't tied to Dock Town's well-being. Given the Treviso versus Minrathous choice and what I've gathered, it doesn't seem like there's much room for them to really enhance each other's development.

Emmerich/Strife is city versus forest mage between two older dudes and that's basically it. I'm lowkey annoyed that Strife doesn't have an elven name to begin with but that aside he just feels very generic as a character imo. What arc is he going through? Does he have hopes, fears, any personal details of his own not shared by other Veil Jumpers? Did he have a clan or family? Was he raised Dalish or did he join from an alienage? We don't know.

Neve/Bellara would actually be cute, make sense, and have shit they can each draw from. They go out of their way to cheer each other up and entertain each other with the serials, the respect and appreciation between a human Tevinter mage and a Dalish elven mage under the circumstances is interesting and offers room for pretty solid discussion on magic, history, culture, and personal relationships to all factors. Bellara and Neve are going through similar situations in a lot of ways in terms of the identities of the old gods and evanuris. I think I remember Bellara cooked something for Neve specifically too. They have kind of opposite things going on with responsibility--Bellara blames herself for things that aren't remotely her fault, Neve feels like other people let her down all the time, but Neve also recognizes Bellara and tries to uplift her/be aware of her situations. They could actually build into each other's arcs and give each other room to grow.

AND YET, the devs went out of their fucking way to have Bellara go OH NEVE IS LIKE A SISTER. Dude, let your players ship them jesus christ if people want to go with 'and they were lesbians' why are you barring the way wtf.

And lbr Davrin/Lucanis could be so good, I absolutely loved their dynamic. Stood out as distinct, added to both of their development arcs, parallels on corruption, funny as fuck, not afraid to challenge each other. I'm fine with them as friends but would totally support that ship too. Like shit, what the fuck would Davrin even do if he learned Lucanis hasn't actually had a relationship before when they'd been flirting? He's had this image of a very untrustworthy, unflappable, remorseless assassin but guy is shy and skittish with romantic stuff.

It's not like past Dragon Age games didn't have companion ships in the background. Dorian/Iron Bull--fucking solid. Cultural backgrounds, compared levels of comfort in their own skin, banter + willingness to challenge each other. Legitimately interesting. Fenris/Isabella, the very opposite personalities (serious vs more playful, brooding vs live-and-let-live) but common ground in mischief/teasing was 100% respectable. But I think past games kind of understood not to overload the amount of canon ships because it could be distracting, might not always have chemistry or be something that audiences want. Veilguard it felt like crap was getting shoved down my throat constantly while the devs wagged their fingers at me going 'YOU AREN'T ALLOWED TO SHIP XYZ, THIS SHIP HERE IS MANDATORY'.

I think I saw someone from the dev team comment that they went out of their way to cram in background ships. From what I remember there was a mentality of 'you are not the center of the universe player they'll find other people' but like. They're there to save the world. They aren't speed dating. If chemistry is present cool but again, companion pairings happened in the past already. Players know the characters are doing shit when the player isn't spending time with them and ships could happen. There's no need to 'teach' anyone that.

Why are you forcing people to eat your undercooked ships Bioware? No one even ordered this and you're trying to give us all food poisoning. Take it back.

ARC NAVIGATION: Harding was solid, Neve became solid because I twisted her arm, Emmerich I think was a mess for previously mentioned reasons, Lucanis I think was a mess because of abuse apologism/'the abuse victim has to say it's okay' and because his story was set up as someone who has lacked agency his whole life being denied agency again at the end. The choice never should have been about what to do with Ilario, but Lucanis becoming First Talon or defying Caterina and leaving the Crows.

Davrin was okay but there needed to be a point he realized he himself is capable of being a monster not because of the Blight in his blood but choices he makes. I think it would make sense for him to not become a monstrous person, but being aware he could if he dehumanizes others I think would have made more sense. He who fights monsters and all that.

Taash I think was an actual clusterfuck and deserved so much better. People have critiqued 'Be Qunari'/'Be Rivaini' and I agree with the critique--that felt like a weird cultural supremacy thing trying to make Rivain better and more enlightened than The Qun on all fronts. It was a false dichotomy for a multicultural character imo. I actually wanted to see Taash explore their Qunari heritage and try to understand it better when they'd previously blanket-rejected shit, but the game was framing that as intolerant/'they could neeeeever be themself in that culture'. Thing is, Taash has the freedom to pick and choose what resonates. They don't have to obey blindly, and they don't need to let The Qun dictate their gender identity either. They realized after Shathann's death that they'd never actually understood her properly, and imo the best way to honor their mother would be to try and understand better even if they didn't agree all the time. But that was not how the game framed the choice.

I actually think Taash needed to learn to be a better listener and to reflect/try to understand people outside themself more. They were awful to their mother when she didn't even reject them--was just trying to understand what they were saying about the gender stuff. Taash's character seemed like they had more empathy for dragons than other people tbh, and I'd have preferred to see a choice reflecting whether they continued focusing just on their own wants or if they factored in others more. Not 'everything is about me'/'nothing is about me', but stepping more in one or the other direction.

Bellara's story felt kind of incoherent imo. It seemed like from the outset she was being challenged in a similar way to Rook in terms of 'where does your agency stop and another person's start'. She was blaming herself for what happened to Cyrian before learning he was alive, as if he didn't have his own choices in the face of risk. I was very irritated that when it came out he was borderline possessed by Anaris, she kept blaming him as if he still had full agency and awareness. I think I remember her saying he should have died or something? Insanely fucked up. And then her choice is 'do I trust people to make their own choices given knowledge of the past (not knowing if the knowledge will be used for good or bad ends) or do I limit people's potential and keep them in the dark to avoid others making choices I might not like'. The choice felt really creepy in part because of being abstract, and creepier because the game was pressuring toward getting rid of the Archive like 'WHAT IF VENATORI LEARN ABOUT THINGS WHAT IF WE BECOME CONQUERORS'.

I think there are two better options on how to progress for Bellara. 1) Cyrian comes back and it becomes a question of how to react to compromised agency/do you have compassion for someone in a trap not able to act freely or do you say that doesn't matter because harm was caused. 2) Cyrian doesn't come back, focus is kept the Archive revealing both information that could save a lot of lives/inform people about their past but also really dangerous shit--with Bellara having to decide if she's going to let people make their own choices or try to control and limit the outcome. I think her arc was trying to do too many things at once and so her development wound up super confusing.

With Rook, I think there wasn't enough time given to Varric and his situation before the final quests. Imo the game was so focused on maintaining a surprise reveal that it undermined the character development attached. Rook struggling with Varric's death, whether they encouraged him to try to talk Solas down or told him it was a bad idea, felt like it needed more time to actually ground out that there WAS a sense of guilt there. Seeing 'Varric' really struggling with the injury, trying to talk to 'Varric' about what motivated him/how he continued to feel about both Solas and past losses in his life, would have made sense and gone a long way on that front. Rook can know about Bartrand and try to speculate on how that might have impacted Varric's choice, and about Hawke, and Anders, and even potentially about the Inquisitor a bit. They can reflect about Cole and about stories Varric has told them and how they think Varric felt personally about his own experiences. I think trying to empathize with Varric, who he was, what his experiences were, would make a lot of sense both in terms of wrestling with the loss but also in terms of Rook accepting that Varric made his own choice for his own reasons and it was never for anyone else to decide.

I know for my Rook, again like... prison of regret didn't work very well. Mostly he went through the game and was able to make the separation. Varric was meant to be more complicated and difficult, but there just wasn't enough attention given TO Varric before the reveal imo for the impact to carry clearly and at full strength. And honestly, Varric deserved more focus if he was going to get killed off like that.

Morrigan I think there needed to be clarity that she was not herself Mythal given how fucking scared she was of losing her identity. While we're at it, Flemmeth also wasn't Mythal. They were themselves but carried Mythal as one facet of who they are. If anything, they both became closer to abominations given Mythal was a spirit--but emphasizing that identity was not lost or destroyed I think mattered.

Solas imo was solid.

COMBAT: I mentioned that I normally don't notice this much but jesus fucking christ the revenant fights. I felt like I'd been thrown into a soulsborne game out of nowhere. Asked a friend and it's because everyone always aggros at you unless you come with a tank/the other characters have no health to lose. If you are a mage u r cooked. And the healing mechanic the most difficult enemies got just made me angry tbh. It felt like being told the work I'd put in didn't count.

Realtalk I didn't like the lack of party control in FFXVI when they did it there. Veilguard was a little better because at least you could give a party member a command periodically, but I didn't like the limitation here either.

I would have preferred more differentiation between the mage skills and the mage companion skills. When characters do the same shit it feels annoying and redundant to me. I also think there were too many mages in the party and Bioware might need to sit down and think about balance.

I played as a mage because I haven't since Origins. There were three other mages in the party, leaving a total of four. It felt completely excessive, and I generally try to have a warrior and/or rogue with me to help balance so I didn't get to travel with the other mage companions as much. Bellara being kind of a tinkerer was interesting as hell, I don't know if she strictly needed to be a mage for that. I know Bioware tends to do an archer-rogue and a knife-rogue most of the time, along with a sword-and-shield warrior + two-handed weapon warrior. If there's going to be more than two companions per class, imo it might be worth it to put in another combat option for variety. Tinkering/traps/status effects maybe?

DIALOGUE: I actually thought most of the voice acting was pretty strong. Want to particularly shout out Taash's VA not only for a distinct and believable delivery (I didn't love some of the actual lines but Jin Maley did a great job with what was given imo), but also holy shit respect for the scene when Shathann died. I wasn't a huge fan of Bellara's voice acting, and I'm sad that Bioware has completely thrown out the idea that different cultures have different accents. Ex. The Dalish sounding Irish from DA2 was really really cool and I miss it. I remember the dwarves usually have American accents but there were so many American accents elsewhere this time that it actually broke my immersion a bit.

I was distracted by my Rook's voice acting. Didn't feel like there was a noticeable difference between male British at low or medium but more than that--voice was too similar to male British Inquisitor's on the one hand while on the other there were places delivery felt kind of awkward. Sounded like Inquisitor's voice got pitched lower to me and idk if I'm imagining it. I like the fem VAs for Rook a ton at medium pitch, American male VA I need to investigate more but when I tested it wasn't really into that performance.

The actual dialogue, I think there were issues with modern language/slang as a whole. A lot of the lines were very awkward and lacking subtlety, dialogue options when given a wheel to choose felt extremely limited, and there were few ways to express sorrow about anything in-game without either 'I'm sorry' or self-blame specifically.

A friend of mine said that it felt like the game didn't give players enough room to define Rook's personality through dialogue variation. I was skeptical going in but really felt that in practice. There were a couple of moments I felt like I could get something resembling the voice I was after in terms of words and sentiment, but they were sparse and I'm annoyed about it.

I enjoyed most of the banter, it was very fun and cute.

CHARACTER CREATOR: Fan fucking tastic tbh. Someone heard the protests about Inquisition's six flavors of bald and the terror of horizontal hairline and vowed not to repeat sins past. Graphics are great, no more greasy look, solid control over features. I wish there was better labeling on some of the adjustments and that the eyes had better width and shape options. I will also say for Qunari specifically--I think something needs to be done about the hairline. I keep going to bangs so the forehead doesn't look huge and weirdly shaped but there are limited options. If you get bangs, the sides of the head are buzzed or shaved. Managing but it would be nice to have more variety.

DESIGNS: Whyyyyyyyyyyyy don't we get any black or gray armors. Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy can't we see previews of shit before purchasing? Whyyyyyyyyyy do certain outfits use metal that doesn't go with anything? Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy is that one all white outfit impossible to obtain even when you view all of Solas's memories?

Some armors are decent. Some are weird and poop.

I think the actual companion designs are pretty good overall too. I like Ghilan'nain's look a lot but kind of hate Elgar'nan's. Isabella's concept art was way better. I like the amount of pus and bulbousness put into the Blight and darkspawn but I think some of the designs/colors needed refining there.

Listen, I like vibrancy a lot so it didn't bother me that the game had more of that generally. Just would have liked a little more for black/white stuff too. I think the companions read pretty visually distinct from each other while having enough in-common visually to feel cohesive. I would like more options ofc but that's no surprise lmao.

FACTIONS: Despite being a Shadow Dragon I never felt any personal connection at all with my faction or anyone in it besides Neve maybe. Also, name and catchphrase weren't great imo. It also read as very divorced from the actual people who needed help because the devs shied away from showing slavery, which was annoying. I'm extremely annoyed at the Lords of Fortune for reasons previously mentioned. The Crows I like the characters a lot but I think it's a major problem that they were framed as purely noble and nice within being assassins. I think Teia and Viago are great but I also think the ongoing practice of child abuse to make assassins needed examination. It could have been interesting to see which Crows are continuing to perpetuate that and which are rejecting it. The Wardens felt like a lot of the competence was undermined, the actual presence of criminals in their ranks was an informed attribute, and I miss my Warden-Commander so much. The Mourn Watch is fun but I think there were problems because the devs were treating the dead kind of closer to very expensive party city skeletons or pets rather than full people at times. Without value for the living and life, there can't be true understanding or respect for death. I also think it's a problem that stigma was framed as people just being mean and intolerant of someone's career because spooooooooky instead of individuals facing a heavy subject that might be religiously charged. Also though, the devs shot themselves in the foot so many times trying to stress how cool and beyond competent the Mourn Watch is instead of just letting the Mourn Watch be cool. See 'the undead can't be Blighted'. The Veil Jumpers felt shallow and like there was a whole lot of Dalish angst/conflict about the gods that got completely omitted to their detriment. More could have been done, they were all massively hurt by the sanitization issue.

ANTAGONISTS: This was one of the biggest failures of the game. I could go into individual characters here but it would be the same refrain over and over again so I'm going to speak broadly.

Solas being an exception, the developers refused to even entertain how or why a person with complex thoughts, loves, hates, hopes, fears, and ordinary moments could perpetuate horrific acts. The entire game had zero concept of the principle 'everyone is the hero in their own story'. Empathy, good intentions, past trauma, trying to protect something--there was zero examination to speak of. Antagonists were abstract 'others', just monsters in human skin who no decent person could ever become. There is no understandable goal. There is no negotiation. People are evil because they are evil and if you try to understand it then that might just make you evil too.

And tbh, having that approach should disqualify a storyteller at the outset. That is an unacceptable level of incompetence.

I would be able to understand (not agree obviously, but understand) if the Venatori were fighting to preserve slavery because Tevinter's economy would take a huge hit without it and there is a non-zero chance that while they're trying to restructure, the Andrastrian Chantry might invade and attempt to punish/control Tevinter's mages Pretty sure that happened before. And if the Chantry didn't attack, Par Vollen very well might.

If Elgar'nan saw and was upset by the conflicts and violence that had swept Thedas for millenia, it would explain why he wanted to take absolute control. I've personally seen someone say they wished mass mind-control was a thing because they could use that to stop people from fighting and behave 'the way they're supposed to'. Absolutely disturbing sacrifice of free will in the name of peace at any cost. Elgar'nan could have been of that mindset and it could have been something to examine.

Instead we got sadists for sadism's sake, evil for evil's sake. Over and over again. No reason. The Antaam allying with the Venatori made ZERO sense and contradicted the deep rooted Qunari fear of mages (let alone red lyrium-weilding mages), but they're being dehumanized into stupid brutes who only value strength anyway so who cares right?

When you make everyone you find morally repulsive a strawman, when you file them as irrevocably 'other' and something you could never have anything in-common with, you open yourself to the greater likelihood of falling into the same trap. Under what circumstances might YOU become unimaginably cruel? Who are YOUR acceptable targets? What do YOU let slide because you think it's for a greater good? Fear, selfishness, convenience, apathy toward others. Having suffered an injustice and using anger/power to hurt others to make sure you never feel helpless again. Caring about something so much that you'll destroy anyone that even might cause it harm.

Power and cruelty for their own sakes are meaningless, but that's all the devs were willing to think about.

Also to clarify part of the issue. I'm pretty sure that the devs would argue Elgar'nan is a litterer because he's evil and evil people litter. Elgar'nan eats kitten because why would an evil, evil person be decent to kittens? If he was nice to kittens then those had to be evil kittens. Elgar'nan would NEVER read The Randy Dowager, but if he did then anyone else who read The Randy Dowager would become evil by association. He cannot so much as brush his teeth without it being a malevolent act.

That's the level of strawman he and pretty much all the other antagonists are. It's ridiculous.

CONCLUSION: Like I said, I have other thoughts/directions based on holes left by the devs. I didn't hate the game. There were totally things I had fun with. But I do think it deserves criticism, and by admitting those criticisms I think fans have the opportunity to address them on their own terms with fan content.

Larian overdid post-release edits, removed things that were good, and put in shit that actually lowered the game's quality. I think if Bioware wants to recover from the abysmal sales being reported for this at all, they actually should do post-release edits like Larian to actually fix crap. I doubt they will and even if they did idk that it would work because they'd need to get someone with a very different approach to assist, but that's what I'd advise.

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