#Bioware pls

[shewolfofvilnius]

what, in the name of sanity, is Isabela wearing in Dragon Age Veilguard.

I'm not fond of the outfit on SO many levels (including that knife tucked away in somewhere it's likely to slice her open and that the whole thing feels weirdly racist), and just...what the hell is going on here. I'm positive about this game broadly but what the fuck.

Of course nvm that this isn't my Isabela (Hawke romanced her prior to her [Hawke] dying in the fade in Inquisition, and no choices means it never happened probably). I just...there are things in Veilguard I like, and there are things I'm clearly not going to, and the massacre they've done with Isabela is damned near top of the list.

[teamdilf]

I am feral for the idea of Solas falling to his knees in supplication before Lavellan once they’re reunited, fully and completely at her mercy, only for her to kneel in front of him and embrace him. 🥹

[saladruiner]

can you imagine, after spending a long time in the character creator for Rook and the Inquisitor, a third one pops up for Hawke. unexpected but exciting, and if you go with one of the default appearances, it doesn't take much time.

but after you finish, a fourth one appears. "create your hero of Ferelden" it says, and it includes voice options.

I don't think it'll ever happen, but I really want to see all four protagonists in the same room

[kamvna]

✧ Knight-Commander Meredith

[bdafic]

ohhhhhessopatheticicantnotfuckhim.jpg

[elf-trash]

my kingdom for a dye system in veilguard

[arya48]

Made a Varric fanart! Been in Dragon Age mood lately. Where's that trailer Bioware?!? (ノ｀Д´)ノ彡┻━┻

[dragonagitator]

I know they're getting rid of Dragon Age Keep and will instead have us make choices during character creation to set up our worldstate at the beginning of Veilguard, but I do think it's still significant that one of the Keep variables was whether our Inquisitor wanted to try to save/redeem Solas or not.

Now in the first gameplay preview, our Rook has to make the exact same decision early in the game.

I suspect that if the Inquisitor and Rook made different choices, they will eventually come into conflict, and our Rook might even have to kill our Inquisitor.

Because that's exactly the kind of fucked-up heart-wrenching shit Bioware likes to do to us.

[dragon-age-official]

I have so many questions. Who are these tiny people and why are they excavating cheese? Why are there bodies? 

[murder-and-mayhem]

Day 439 of me begging Bioware to let me have a Zakuulan stronghold, and to let mE FUCKING CHANGE ARCANN'S ARMOR....

[shewolfofvilnius]

Me, in 2022 after having completed FOUR playthroughs of the Dragon Age trilogy: "I refuse to play any of these again until they get serious about a release date and there's proof the game's really happening" Me, in 2024, booting up Origins knowing that Veilguard is coming in the fall:

[teamdilf]

BioWare, please let Lavellan ride the wolf.

[jewishquarians]

[lyriumsings]

i hope dragon age does something in five minutes bc i need a dose of serotonin bc these silly little fetch quests in destiny ain’t cutting it rn

[dragonagitator]

Hey OP do you have any stock tips or winning lotto numbers you care to share?

I am well aware that I’m delusional, but here’s how Varric-mancers can still win in 2024

But he’s not a companion.

Yeah, so? While he may not be an active companion, he appears to be taking an advisory role. Perhaps he’s a liaison between the Veilguard and the Inquisition remnants. If he is an advisor, that wouldn’t preclude him from being a romance option. See: Josie and Cullen.

But BioWare is going to kill him off.

ngl this prospect scares me.

I’ll admit that he is giving one-week-to-retirement vibes. But maybe he’s just tired of being in the field after so many years. He’s getting older; He doesn’t need to be slogging through the muck with us when his most formidable weapons are pen and paper.

But if he was going to be romanceable, he’d have been an option in an earlier game.

Not necessarily. Again, see: Cullen. It took three games for Cullen to be romanceable, which made sense! Cullen, as a character, was very much NOT mentally in a place that he would be open to romance in DAO and DA2. I’d argue the same for Varric, which I’ll get into below.

But it makes more sense for Varric to romance Hawke.

It’s true that Hawke and Varric are besties. Varric is clearly ride-or-die for Hawkes of all flavors. Varric has also known Hawke longer than any of the other protagonists. However, during those formative years in Kirkwall, Varric was very much still stuck on Bianca. (And let’s not deny that Hawkes of all flavors are also messy). Varric built an intentional wall between himself and Hawke or, you could argue, between himself and the character, the Champion of Kirkwall. See, Varric is a writer and he has a way of idealizing and romanticizing life and the people around him.

Being the teller of the story allows him to be in some kind of control.

Ok, but Varric couldn’t romance the Inquisitor.

That was even more implausible than Hawke. Again, Varric seems to see the people around him like story characters. The Inquisitor, the Herald of Andraste, is this big, potentially tragic, hero figure. DAI takes place over a shorter period of time than DA2, and while you may be able to build a friendly relationship with him, there is still clearly a wall there. Not to mention, he’s still comfortably pining for Bianca until the ‘Well, shit’ quest.

But Varric is in love with Bianca.

Bianca Davri. Gorgeous and brilliant dwarven woman voiced by Laura Bailey. It’s hard for my bi ass not to love her on those points alone. She has an amazing mind and is the only surface dwarf ever to be nominated for paragon status because of her inventions. She and Varric had a romance and were forced apart by the Merchant’s Guild before she was betrothed to a guy in the smith caste. And in the years since, the two of them have kept up a secret correspondence. Tell me all of that doesn’t smack of tragic storybook doomed romance. Of course Varric was stuck on her. Not to mention, he has carried around one of her inventions ever since; one that he named after her.

I think that, in the years since they were forcibly separated, Varric built up an idealized version of Bianca in his mind. You can see he does that to a certain extent with everyone. He separates himself, the writer, from the characters. Sometimes an old hurt is safer than opening up again and Varric has been safe and comfortable with not entering into a new romance. And there’s always that sliver of hope, fed by secret letters, that he and Bianca could be together in the end.

But then ‘Well, shit’ happens in DAI and Varric walks away angry with Bianca after it is revealed that SHE is responsible for leaking the location of the red lyrium. I think (I hope) that this event has shattered the idealized version of Bianca that lives in Varric’s mind. I don’t know how much time has passed since DAI, but I hope that that revelation has started a chain reaction where Varric has reevaluated his relationship with Bianca and is finally ready to put that chapter behind him.

And here’s where my batshit delulu theory starts:

I propose that Bianca the crossbow breaks early on in the game. This would be symbolic of Varric moving from active companion to an advisor status. It’s a sign to Varric that it’s time for a change. On the romance front, it’s the final nail in the coffin of his pining after Bianca.

Rook and The Veilguard are a smaller group than the Inquisition. Stakes are still high, but there’s not this strange reverence for Rook like there was for the Inquisitor. And the group is small and intimate, not a massive, world changing machine like the Inquisition was. I can see Varric being surprised, but cautiously open to flirting overtures from Rook.

It has been so many years since Varric has really allowed himself to love and be loved. It’s been too long since he allowed himself to be a part of the story rather than telling it. He’s getting older now, maybe it’s time to let that chapter close and really try to live and love again.

It has the potential to be a very mature, slow burn, beautiful romance and I know I’m deluding myself but I want it so bad.

[larkoneironaut]

Sometimes Magister Dorian Pavus also needs a break from his duties, during which he thinks about those who mean the most to him