#I'm now very invested in these characters

[felassan]

David Gaider on Dorian, under a cut for length:

"Now this is a fun one. It's no big secret I have a lot of feelings about Dorian, not least of which because he was my first (and only) gay male companion. There's a lot more to him than that, of course (as there should be), and it was quite a trip. So let's go! Now, DAI is a story all its own, but I'm sticking to the characters. In this case, back at the beginning, the writers were going to try something new: we were going to let the artists take a more active role in the companion creation process. Why? Because not doing so had caused a lot of problems. See, here's the thing: writers and artists speak two different languages. When talking about characters, we talk about their story. Who they are. What they want. We'd write up these briefs, huge and full of information... but it was never the information the artists needed. They wanted visual cues. I don't mean describing their appearance. Sure, we'd usually provide that, especially if there was a story case to be made, but often the artists vetoed us on appearance stuff anyhow so meh. No, I mean they looked for visual language while we tended to only talk about who the characters *were*. What would happen is they'd hone in on something visual in our write-up not intended to be a focus. The first write-up for Anders in DA2, for instance, mentioned he was "haggard" after his journey... and the first concept we got was this pale, shriveled man. "What... is this?" "YOU SAID HAGGARD!" 😅"

"That was the other trick: sometimes when we DID try to be more descriptive, we had to be extra cautious because the words could be interpreted very differently. You encounter this recording VO, too. A VO note says "hysterical" and you *meant* "really upset" but the actor read "scream like a banshee" Thus this caused problems, like I said. The artists would struggle, sometimes conjuring details just to give the character *something* but which would change the character... and, to us, the character was created. Done. We were already invested, probably already writing them. Something had to give. So this time we wrote a bunch of character briefs - but short. One paragraph. We stuck to vibes and the *emotions* we wanted the concepts to evoke. And we didn't name them. They got titles like "Slick Con Man" or "Ice Queen", so we wouldn't get too attached. Then we handed these off to the artists. And it worked nicely. The ones that just weren't inspiring we'd discard, no problem. The others had juice... and the artists felt free to play and offer lots of variations because we weren't set on anything yet. A lot of times, what they produced ended up inspiring US. It was a neat back-and-forth."

"This is what led to Dorian, in fact. He came from a short write-up entitled "Rock Star Mage" and it really boiled down to "I'm cool and I know I'm cool, so take that you cretins". And just like that, the first sketches (by Casper Konefal, I think? I bet I'm wrong) were all amazing. Instant fire. Me: "He looks kind of like... Freddie Mercury?" Him: "Is that bad?" Me: "NO ARE YOU KIDDING THIS IS AMAZING" Plus there was a monkey. Sadly, we had to lose the monkey. There were iterations to come, but this was really where Dorian was born: Tevinter mage, noble, savant, and too cool for school."

"When did he become gay? Not right away. Like I said elsewhere, we didn't talk romance and sexuality until after the concepts were more in place. But as we were brainstorming about why this hot shot mage left Tevinter, the idea DID come up that maybe it was because he was gay. Not directly, however. Homophobia isn't really a thing in Thedas, after all, so at first blush I didn't think that could work. "Rich kid gets kicked out of the house for being gay" wasn't a trope I wanted to explore. But, then again, magister families in Tevinter are *obsessed* with the appearance of perfection, so...? Any deviation from the "norm" is considered scandal-worthy. It said weakness. It said you couldn't control your house. Now... THAT had real promise. The writing pit discussed it a lot. So I think it's fair to say that the gay fairy was already circling Dorian even before we got to the romance talk. I think it's also fair to say that the rest of the team realized I low-key wanted to write him, because when everyone started calling dibs, who was left standing for me? (I pick last, remember.) I gleefully snatched him up and got to work... ...about six months later. I was very busy at the time. 😅 That late start meant I had to design and write VERY quickly. And I did. Somehow, though, this one... it came easily. "Catty gay man" isn't digging very deep, no surprise to anyone who knows me, and it had an extra layer of being so fun because Dorian was confident. He sparred verbally. I loved it."

"There was more to it, however. The conflict between Dorian and his father... ugh, how do I say this? Let's be clear: Dorian's story is not MY story, but it's also not far off. I wrote the entire confrontation scene in one go. After I was done, I probably cried harder than I ever have in my life. 🫠 I was unsure whether it was any good, however. I just didn't feel objective. I passed it over to Cori May - my friend but also Dorian's editor - and asked her to please tell me and be honest. She read it. She walked into my office after, tears streaming down her face, and just nodded. "It's good." Here's the thing. Not everyone is going to agree with this, but: I don't think a writer NEEDS to be a minority in order to write a minority. Sometimes those characters should simply exist, and we want them to. But if that character's story is ABOUT their experience as a minority? That's different. Dorian's story didn't need to revolve around his sexuality - and, honestly, it only did so as a tangent to his family issue, but they're so bound together it's probably irrelevant to split them - but my writing him meant it could be. It allowed me to SAY something. That felt good. It felt right. Ramon Tikaram came on board after a lengthy casting process (so many British Indian accents, oh god). I sat in on a few recording sessions... the confrontation scene, though? Ramon: *says line* Me: (curled up on a nearby sofa in fetal position) *shaky thumbs up* Caroline: "Yep. Great work, Ramon!""

"Dorian's sexuality isn't all he's about, but that's certainly how some viewed it. When the character was announced in 2014, his being gay was mentioned as the last of a number of points, and the instant response from some gamers was to act as if we'd called a press conference just to say THAT. 🙄 It was annoying. Still is. Overall, however, the reaction to Dorian was very positive. The number of straight men who said they romanced him still pleases me. The number of fans who privately contacted me who'd been through conversion therapy, some who said Dorian helped them survive? Well. Gosh. 😭 I did write him for Trespasser - though I hear that a late scope cut meant every conversation had been chopped by 1/3rd or more, and that meant a lot of nuance lost. Which is sad, if true, because it sounds like the result of that left some Dorian romancers a bit cold. Such is how game dev rolls. 😔 If you need more proof of how it was hard for me to let go of him, a short story I wrote after Trespasser came out where Dorian has a bit of closure with his dead father: medium.com/@davidgaider... So yeah. He'll always be my boi. And I'll always be thankful Bio gave me this opportunity. ❤️"

[source thread]

User: "I'm not going to lie, it's hard to take my mind off Dorian almost having a monkey." David Gaider: "If by “almost” you mean there was a picture of a monkey that the concept artist put there as a whim, and which would almost certainly have taken more cinematics and modeling time to put in than we could ever afford… then yes. 😉" [source]

[hauntingofhouses]

arcane rant. spoilers for all of season 2 #caitlyn-critical

yeah okay i was scared to say this which is SILLY but ALAS. anyway yeah seeing that im not the only one i feel like i have to get this off my chest as well.

i wanted to give caitlyn a chance in season 2, especially in the beginning of this season during her """corruption""" arc wherein she was turning into a tyrant and a bad guy. because see, to me that was caitlyn at her best. not as a person but as a character. before this she was just so uninteresting and downright annoying to me, but starting with s2e1 i started really enjoying where the writers were taking her journey. i would've loved to see her continue down that path and caitvi evolving from reluctant allies to lovers and then perhaps to enemies-WHILE-lovers. i wouldve loved seeing caitvi hatefucking, and i thought that was where this arc was taking her. but no, instead she's still the good one, while maddie turned out to be the bad guy all along. plot twist! but it made me feel nothing but more annoyance not only at caitlyn but also at the way the narrative seems to baby caitlyn and excuse her for everything despite the supposed anti-cop messaging intrinsic to the way vi was written throughout season 1.

i understand that caitlyn's whole thing in season 1 is that she's a naive rich girl just trying her best in the ways she knows how, and that's by being a cop. like yes i get that, which is why i didnt mind her very much and gave her a chance to grow, and even though i didn't care for her as a character at all because she's boring AND a cop, i did like that she was in the story as vi's love interest, and primarily served the story in that role.

but when season 2 decides to give her a bigger role and allow her to shine on her own, they do a good job! until... they don't. because caitlyn still has to be a good guy, because she's SO loyal to vi. and why? the two barely know each other, they're attracted to each other but I don't understand why and how caitlyn could so easily put aside all her rage and grief and desire for vengeance and retribution, to be loyal to vi. to betray ambessa and work with jinx?

like i think my biggest problem is how little conflict there is for vi and cait to end up fucking in that prison cell. like if it was angry hate fucking, that would be perfect and honestly a natural followup if you really do wanna implement a sex scene right there and then. but it wasn't. instead it felt more like "okay my suicidal sister gave me her blessing to fuck you so i can finally do it now yippeee" meanwhile jinx literally went to kill herself over and over again while ekko had to keep trying to talk her down.

like the thing is i'm here for the drama and im here for a rollercoaster ride of emotions and i'm here for character development. but more than anything else i'm here for the drama where vi and jinx's story as sisters, as family, is ultimately the driving force of the story. so for them to just push that aside SO quickly, felt JARRING. like "okay sister MOVE i wanna fuck this cute cop who was acting like a tyrant in the city for the past few months (?), and btw the cute cop works for an institution that killed my parents and destroyed our whole lives ❤️ #lovewins"

like okay. i dont mind if the final ending finds both jinx and vi distanced and estranged because they both need to heal and move on from the past (and each other) in order to grow and invest love in their own new found families. but for it to have been done just like that, for caitvi to get together in the same prison cell where vi's suicidal sister had just been suffering in mental agony and grief... I don't know. i don't like it.

[almayver]

GMM2025 Lineup Game / Tier List

Rules: write your thoughts on all the GMMTV series pilots released (or just the ones you plan to watch) and tag people whose thoughts you wanna know about!

@jojotichakorn @wangxianinventedromance and @valentinaonthemoon tagged me in basically different variations of this, so I'm gonna smush them all together. Thanks for tagging me 😊 I love to be given the chance to ramble.

Prefacing this with a reminder that I am the personification of CinemaWins so I find things to like in everything, and that I was born to yap, so this will be long :)

I'm going to do it in the order of the trailers and put the tier list at the bottom. I'm adding a twist to mine and tracking the most important thing to me, Will I cry? (mostly just so I can look back and see if my guess was correct)

Dare you to death: I LOVE a good murder mystery. Yes. Give it to me. Snarky partners solving a crime was THE dynamic i was raised on and I still love it. It's going to be so entertaining trying to pick up clues and stuff while seeing these two bicker and fall in love. Don't think ill cry on this one, but serial killers, brothers, possibility of whump? There's a chance.

Head 2 Head: FUCK YES. Starting with the fact that I adore SeaKeen with all my heart, this one has me so invested!! Their bickering-flirting? ON POINT. When Sea says the line of “I've been saving my lips for you for ages” while flipping him off?? Yeah, that's my shit. But add to that the whole magic plot of seeing that they are in love and together years in the future, but then he dies!!! In his arms!!!! Yes. Yes. Just yes. “I will do anything to prevent that from happening…except not loving you”?? Yep. They made this show for me specifically, the rest of you can stay only if you are nice. The side couple also has me 👀. Basically, I loved every single second of it, and I'm ready for it. Oh, I will absolutely cry. No doubts about this one. These boys had me weeping with their soft rom-com, adding looming visions of death to it? yes, I'm ready to cry.

Burnout Syndrome: I'm intrigued by this one! Looks very messy and full of complex feelings all around, with some very very interesting characters. I don't actually have more to say about it except !!!, and it's on the watch list for sure! Hmm from what I get, I'm thinking is going to be more in the stressful, thoughtful side than in the emotional one for me, so maybe teary eyes but not full-blown crying.

I Love “A Lot Of” You: I've only seen one thing in which this topic didn't feel wildly offensive, so. Hmm. Even without that whole can of worms, I'm not fully interested in it? It seems cute and fun I guess, and the title is very sweet but eeeh. Not in the watch list for now, unless it gets some strong endorsements once it starts airing.

Whale Store xoxo: Oh this looks lovely! So so so warm and sweet. Having a character in just full-blown crisis and feeling lost, is always the best way to get into my heart. Add to that a sweet girl, full of joy, trying to help?! And the You've got mail vibes with the whole small business being threatened by the family of the love interest, plus feeling a duty to the store because of a parent without knowing if its what you truly want? Say less babe, I'm there, I'm seated. The side couple story also has me really intrigued. Oh yeah, tears will be very much present. Not full on wailing, but rom coms do make me cry, I see some tears due to both the angst and the character finding herself.

Only Friends-Dream On: Making the entire first half of the trailer one shot that manages to explain all the dynamics is enough for me to put it in the watch list no questions asked. I haven't watched Only Friends and from the bits I know and have seen I know I wouldn't enjoy it purely for weird personal reasons. This however? Oh yeah bestie sign me up, ill have popcorn ready, let the messiness begin. Also, the cast is insane and as someone who was absolutely taken by Ohm and Leng week after week, I'm so excited. Hmm, I'm going for yes. At least one of these assholes is going to be broken in a way that speaks to me and I will cry about it, I see it in my future. (Side note, please tell me I'm not the only one that laughed at the characters being called Jack and Dean)

That Summer: I CHEERED. Troublemaker sent to the beach to find some discipline finds a kind, amnesiac prince is something that i didn't know I needed so hard but fuck i do. It's going to be so fucking charming, and it has this very quiet emotional vibe to it that I'm going to eat up weekly, yes sir. I have no thoughts except loud cheering, I'm just excited for it. I was going to say I hope it comes in summer like that means anything to me. pft. Umm, yeah probs some tears, nothing too big, but I can see some emotional moments hitting hard specially considering the two people acting here. *side eyes that We Are scene that I still can't fucking rewatch because it did enough damage once*

My Romance Scammer: Marriage scam!!!!! I could cry of joy. This is the kind of shit I love sorry. It's so messy and at its core very silly, and I'm just going to have such a good time watching. It's going to be fun! I also feel like some of the backstories of these characters are going to be interesting and emotional, I'm excited for that. I was going to say I won't cry, but I always cry with fictional weddings and I'm guessing some sort of “real” wedding is going to happen at the end that will break me, so maybe.

Melody of Secrets: I'm fucking thrilled. As a horror fan, I don't know what I did to get this gift but ill fucking take it, thank you. This was SO WEIRD!!! Isn't that great!! What the fuck was happening? Is it ghosts, is it magic, is it a curse, is it trauma? I don't know, and the character doesn't know either, and ooof the journey we will go in while trying to figure it out! My only request for this show is that I want to say “What the fuck??” every episode. That's all. Whether I cry or not depends on where they are going with it so, no clue. Possibly.

Love you teacher: I had such a strong negative reaction to this, that it kind of went back around, and now it's in my watch list? It was a journey. So, fun fact about me, one of the fanfiction tropes that I adore the most and I will eat up every single time it pops up even though it's not that common is amnesia in an established couple (I'm sure no one was kind of scared I was going to say something else). I just love the idea of a couple having to kind of fall in love again, with the angst of one of them not knowing anything while the other has all the memories and feelings. It's specially interesting if the person with amnesia has a very different life in the present to what they expected/think they should have, or in a enemies to lovers dynamic? it fucks. So I was really really excited. And then he was 7 years old, and I got so shocked I stopped processing the trailer. But now I'm intrigued. I want to see if this show is going to surprise me, I'm going to be there seated for the first couple of episodes at least because there is something there that just, its intriguing. I think there is a chance this one will be special. I mean if I hate it I can just stop watching right? No big deal. The other thing is that Dome gave me a show so fucking special to me that I have to give the dude a chance. He already surprised me. I trust him enough to know that this will be fun at the very least. And also, if I do stick with it, tears 1000% guaranteed. The emotional beats of this will hit, absolutely, and motherfucker over there knows how to hit you with emotions with the simplest stuff.

MU-TE-LUV: Yeah so I'm probs only watching the SeaKeen and OhmLeng parts. Those are actually so compelling to me and I love watching them act, so I will be having fun with those stories. The rest fully depends on my mood and what other people are saying when it airs. Also, the Dew one that is just Amarres: la serie, kind of seems interesting. I kind of doubt this one will pull my heartstrings much but hey I'm willing to be surprised!

Cat for Cash: I have my blanket and my warm drink ready, I will be seating there just cooing at everything and feeling all the emotions. This is going to be a chill watch, it's going to be fun, and I love it for it. The familial shit is going to break me and sell me for parts, so that's going to be fun. And yes, absolutely going to cry, no-brainer.

Girl Rules: We all cheered. So what is going to happen is that I'm going to liveblog this, absolutely, and all the liveblogs are just going to be me being in love with Namtan, and I need everyone to be cool with that. In all seriousness, leaving behind my gigantic crush on her, this is going to be so gooood. Messy!!!! Hot!! FUN!!!!! The dynamics between all the characters are already delicious, and i can't wait for this one, it's going to be great. Grabbing pop corn and something to fan myself with. The NamtanFilm relationship has some real potential to pull some tears from me.

Boys in love: I love fluffy shit, sue me. We are going to sit here, and giggle and kick our feet and have a good ass time while doing it. The Chokun and Aston relationship drew me in so hard, I'm going to live there, but everything was just so sweet and delightful!! Its a fun time. Honestly, yeah, I can see a couple of tears. Not sad tears but more like, overwhelmed with softness kind of tears.

My Magic Prophecy: Once again, angsty visions of the future are always compelling to me, so I'm here for this. It's kind of in the same level as Burnout where I'm not shaking chihuahua levels of excitement but I'm interested! The relationship seems fun and touching, the science vs. magic thing could be interesting. If I get invested enough, yeah crying for sure.

A Dog and A Plane: I'm sure no one who has spent more than a minute in my blog knows this, but i fucking love these two so much. Shocker, I know. But seriously, they have something that makes me 20000% invested whenever they are together on screen and i didnt want to hope for a new show but i was secretly wishing for it and the universe decided to throw me a bone the size of Jupiter. And to add to it, they are bickering, they are horny, New is a fancy flight attendant and Tay Tawan is a paramedic with tattoos that wears a lot of tank tops. They both think the other one is better than them in some way. The plot is just the kind of rom com i eat up. And I know, I KNOW, I'm going to cry. I cry every time these two are involved. They will have one vulnerable moment and i will be in the corner cheeering with tears in my eyes. They will have the conflcit and the same thing will happen. They will have the happy ending and i will be weeping. I'm so fucking happy. Just one thing. I need them to fuck in that plane. I dont care where, I dont care how, but it has to happen. I have that small wish. Oh and MarcPoon!!!! Their bits seem so so good too.

Me and Thee: I made the joke that I read this Phumpeem au before, because actually yeah kind of, but also because these are the exact same vibes that drew me to Phum. The characters are super different and so cool, but oh lonely rich boy!!!!!!! I'm gonna have a new one for my list. And this one is so weird! and a dork! and loves soap operas so he is speaking my language. I love him already. The plot is also just for me. Teach me how to hit on someone?? And he uses it all on him!! yes yesssss. I cant wait to see more of them. I cant wait to see them each fall in love in such different ways and the conflict has the opportunity to be so so so my thing. In terms of crying, he is a sad lonely boy, i dont have to say more. I'm ready to imprint on him and feel very emotional.

WU: This was less of a plot and more of a "here, we heard you, they'll keep working together, dont kill us". I haven watched their show yet because of a silly reson, but i had been planning on binging it before the last episode next week, so im excited!! The brief glimpse we got compels me, i love me some red string of fate.

Memoir of Rati: I said I could watch them read the dictionary (and i fucking meant it) and instead they give me an intense period show??? I could cry. Look, one could say Great Sapol single handedly got me back into live bloging, i have a debt with the guy, add to that the fact that him and Inn became two of my favorite actors ever in just a couple of episodes? Yeah I'm here for this. They have an insane chemistry that is such a joy to watch, and i dont mind period shows, they arent my favorite but I find them charming if done right and they often teach me new things. These two are about to eat the shit out of these roles and i will be clapping while suffering. Also the AouBoom story is so interesting too!!! No notes. I'm going to cry like a baby multiple times. I still cry with their fake break up. This is going to kill me. Can't wait.

Ticket To Heaven: First let me list some fun facts about me. I was raised catholic in a very catholic family in one of the most catholic countries in the world. I still live in a house where my room is the only one that doesnt have some form of religious imagery. Bare a pop opera and Jesus christ superstar are two of my favorite musicals of all time. I ran away from religion before my confirmation but after my first communion, and every time i think about it i discover some new complicated feeling about it and a fun trauma it left behind. I am right now wearing a Look Khunnoo shirt.

They made this show for me and its going to break me. I'm already making playlists for it. I keep listening to Heaven while staring at the wall. This is just, gods, this is everything to me. The vibes of it are just so so so delicious. The aesthetic? The quotes? I am so going to relate more with Gemini's character, and thats going to be a fun painful little trip. And of course. These boys. I adore them. I'm ready to be killed by them acting the shit out of every single frame. I am going to cry in ways that will be dangerous to my health. I can't wait. There is no way that the ending isn't going to fuck me up, whether is super tragic, a time skip, a hopeful ending. Its going to be a Thing. Fucking Rosa de Guadalupe got me with its gay episode. and its. La rosa de guadalupe. This? Will murder me. I will listen to the ost and cry instantly like i do with Bare.

Basically im excited :)

And the tier list!!

I kind of did it in the scale of how much is it going to make me feel like a dog waiting for its owner, sadly pawing at the door, wanting to be let in.

I think everyone I would tag on this has already done it or has already been tagged so if you see this and you have thoughts that you want to share, you are tagged. This is legally binding. I want to hear your thoughts

If you read all that you can reclaim a cookie before leaving

[alongtidesoflight]

so here's my honest thoughts on dragon age: the veilguard, after ~40 hours of playing. i finished the main quest after having finished all companion quests and major faction quests. just to clear up what content i saw, i played as an elven transmasc rook who is a member of the lords of fortune. he romanced lucanis (although after finishing the game i'm now leaning towards taash). i don't know what's happening in playthroughs that have a different race, gender identity, romance or faction going on.

full spoilers ahead, i mean it. don't read further if you want to avoid them. i don't want complaining about it in my asks.

oh and also, if you're worried because of a few negative reviews online i can comfort you by saying don't give a fuck about a certain big name youtuber who is very much tied to bethesda franchises giving this a negative review. i'll explain why.

i'm starting off with the things i liked

the game looks really pretty. i was worried it wouldn't feel like thedas anymore (with them trying to "focus on northern thedas only" i thought they'd make a clear cut in environmental design. they do and they don't. it's complicated. i'll elaborate on it when talking about the negative stuff). anyway it does. minrathous feels like kirkwall. treviso enchanted me like the winter palace did. the hossberg wetlands reminded me of the hinterlands and a couple other inquisition maps. arlathan looked like... arlathan. the crossroads were different, but familiar. overall i like the way it looks and feels. it's thedas, with a twist. it's a good one, and gives everything a solid but unique feel.

combat is top tier. if you're a hardcore dragon age player you WILL miss the tactical aspect of it for a bit, but i promise you, once you're used to the way the combat works, you will be lapping that shit up. and once you get to ability combos you'll mourn the control you used to have over your companions in battle a bit less

the MAIN quest and its story. i expected worse, way worse. and for a while the game even had me tricked (harr harr you'll get it in a second) it is Really That Much Worse. but holy shit was it good. i walked away satisfied ngl.

your choices have SOLID weight. there's consequences, good AND bad. i got minrathous blighted, ruled over by venatori, and the leader of the shadow dragons ultimately died because of my decisions. i made those at the beginning and throughout the game. he died at the end. DAVRIN died because i didn't expect what i was saying to have that much weight. i thought i was in the clear. he had hero status. well turns out, your choices can still get your companions killed even if you do everything right. i fucking love him. he shouldn't have made that sacrifice just because i told him to do everything it takes once.

the inquisitor, morrigan and dorian being there, surprisingly. there's also negatives to this though, see below.

speaking of companions dying and the inquisitor playing a bigger role: the final quest feels like me2's suicide mission. i was blown away by it and the fact that i got to see the results of all my efforts playing out in front of me.

bioware are NOT trying to redeem solas. they love him as a character yes, but i wasn't forced to see any good in him. he betrays you. he fucked my rook over twice. he fucked him over right back, for good this time (the veil wasn't torn down, i anchored it by binding him to it, he's doomed to uphold it). but solas really lives up to his name as the trickster elven god. rip to all the people who grew really attached to him over the years.

varric died. if you like him that's probably as hard reading it as it was watching it. varric died and the game lies about it until the very end. when the realisation hits, it hurts. but in the very best way.

the amount of care they put into gender expression and trans identities this time around. (i'll add onto this with negative points as well too).

rook feels very much ingrained in the world of thedas. he doesn't ask questions that expose the player to lore through dialogue as if he's stepped foot into thedas for the first time. those conversations feel very solid and good. i hope other faction players got as much joy out of this as i did.

and the things i didn't like and boy there's a lot unfortunately

the music. let's just get that out of the way holy shit. it doesn't feel like it belongs in this universe. it gets so incredibly sci-fi-y at times you'd think it's taken straight from mass effect andromeda. there's not a single song unique to veilguard that i really enjoyed. it broke my immersion, real bad. hearing a busker play the tavern songs from inquisition on a lute right after i killed some venatori with wobbly bass songs playing in the background is just odd. weird tonal shift. don't like it. it's made for people who like flashy light-weight cinema.

tevinter nights is required reading. the podcasts are required listening exercises. the game is so fast paced, especially at the start, that there's no time to introduce you to characters and how much weight their names carry in-game. i would not have known who half these people are if i hadn't skimmed over tevinter nights. i'd care even less about them than i already did. there is no time to get properly attached to them. people will act as if you're talking to a legend personified and you'll be thinking man goddamn which chapter of tevinter night were they in again and what did they do???

there's a weird mismatch with the animations. you'll have beautifully fluid ones, like emmrich casting spells. and then you'll have rook's face animating in the most unnatural manner that's sorta reminiscent of mass effect andromeda's "my face is tired" addison, when their emotions SHOULD be landing with the player rn instead.

i'm not vibing with the art style. sometimes it works. most of the time it doesn't. at points i felt like i was watching tangled.

that also brings me to some of the dialogue. same issue. i am watching frozen. i am watching tangled. someone on the writer's team really likes the adorkable trope. bellara is its victim.

for all the talk about identity, bioware sure doesn't like theirs. the grey warden armor got a redesign again and it just makes them look like a generic army. i hate it lol

in general, i don't like the armor design. the wardrobe/appearances system is fine, but it's just not helping if all the armors are just... kinda bland or downight bad looking? and don't get me started on the lords of fortune armor. that is orientalism personified.

the world states should have been carried over, full stop. i know they said they didn't because they want to separate what happens in the north from what happens in the south, which... i could have lived with that. but the inquisitor sends you letters that keep you up to date on... the south of thedas. you learn that there's a blight again, that people are standing strong but it's difficult, denerim's fallen, the rulers are taking care of it, orlais is fighting and they're successful for a while, etc etc. what's good bioware. i thought we don't care about the south this time around. why are you feeding me so much boring generic information. if you're not gonna show any of it and just write letters, then carrying the world state over should not have been an issue. i have a game dev background. those few lines of code would not have broken your budget or pushed your engine's limits. fuck right off.

this gripe of mine carries over to all the cameos. as a lord of fortune you have to deal with isabela a lot. it's fun. i missed her. you get to go drinking with her and taash and bellara! also my hawke romanced her. she's not mentioned once. they had the opportunity to put a sentence or two about her in there with not a lot of effort, trust me.

when varric dies, all she has is a single line about it. for gold, for fortune, for varric. she only says it if you interact with her on your way to the final push. that's not mandatory.

morrigan is there. kieran isn't. the old god soul that mythal and then solas absorbed? who cares at this point, the gods are dead now and solas is locked away for eternity. i suppose? why is morrigan there. she feels unneeded. i wish they'd just left her down south, at least that way i wouldn't have had to witness her god awful redesign.

dorian at least feels as if he belongs in this story. the shadow dragons are a crucial part to protecting minrathous. he's also weirdly underutilised. isabela and morrigan had more lines than him in my playthrough.

on the topic of romance: bro that was underwhelming. no, genuinely. you know when romance picked up a bit? after the point of no return. i heard maybe two lines of companion banter about it before that. maybe i missed something which i honestly doubt, but romance did not play much of a role in lucanis's storyline. i saved his grandmother as he wished me to (and if you read tevinter nights you know she was rather abusive and their relationship not the healthiest) and told him to focus on his family. a reunified family my rook wasn't even introduced to as a partner at the end of all that.

really, do not buy this game if you're only in it for the romances. others might be better, lucanis's basically gave me nothing. except for an outing (the second coffee date i had with him, it was getting repetitive) all of it played out once i committed to the final quest. the sex scene was a fade to black. annoyingly right after davrin died. if you're looking for well paced and good spice, pick up something else. the sweet talk and the final goodbye were nice though.

for all the good the ever-presence of gender identity does, it is brought up in such a disruptive manner too. it doesn't even play out naturally if you CHOOSE the lines that are meant to be said. hearing the words trans and non-binary in this setting doesn't feel right, and i'm saying this as a trans guy. i think it could have been handled more gracefully. the amount of times my rook went "i'm a MAN" as if he's about to start drumming on his chest and roaring any second now got super nerve-grating. "i'm so glad you're into me... the me who is trans. remember?" just. tell me one trans person who'd talk like that to a person they've grown close with and are trying to romance. this game doesn't handle sexuality well, so all this hey my body might not look like the way you're expecting it to look talk amounts to nothing anyway. i feel about this the way i feel about krem: this is partial exposition to trans experiences... packaged up for cis consumption. the ONLY exception to that is interacting with taash. holy shit was all of that heartwarming and bro did it feel good and natural to talk to them about theirs and rook's gender.

rivain and nevarra are new locations added by veilguard. they're also incredibly underwhelming, small and constricted maps. rivain is a coastline with a few ruins. the hall of valor is a partial ruin nestled into a cave on a beach, with a fighting pit. isabela is there in her skimpy outfit commentating your pit fights. that's it. i'm sorry if you were looking for a bustling pirate cove or whatever. you're not gonna get it. the nevarran crypts btw are a long ass dungeon crawl. that's it.

speaking of maps. i thought people were being dramatic when they said you're gonna be fighting the same enemies on them again and again. i thought they were figure of speeching it. they're not. you WILL fight the same amount of enemies. in the same spot. every time you reload the map. best to stay on a map and clear out the enemies and do as much questing on that map as you can before leaving, because you WILL have to do it all over again once you return.

the three choices i made for my inquisitor didn't matter lol she didn't have to face solas and therefore couldn't stop him at any cost as she had sworn (maybe because my rook tricked solas into binding himself to the veil, there was also an option to fight him. would she have stepped in? who knows). blackwall wasn't mentioned. and either her using a small amount of her forces in the final fight was the reason the civilians of minrathous fared so well..... or it just didn't matter. ultimately i think she had very little impact on anything

[yuseirra]

I'm so????

?????

No but Fatale really must be Kamiki and Aqua's song, I need the full song

There are two singers singing this op, what if that implies that it's the two boys that were the closest to Ai expressing their feelings towards her? Oh boy..; she really IS a fatale. She's got these boys hopelessly(in a literal sense) attached to her. I think there could be a reason why the op is a duet.

[tracle0]

a colourful comic sans intro :)

Been a little while coming now. Hope you enjoy!

[avoidmint]

While scouring the internet I noticed sometimes people like to make the Green Flavor Gadget from the one game cover into his brother? I liked the idea of an older brother for Gadget so I just made him bigger and fluffier. I have named him Sage and he would not approve of his lil bro's future boyfriend probably.

Anyways I immediately killed him off for the drama of Infinite killing Gadget's older brother alongside his friends but y'know-

[prettyholic7]

Ok so this may sound kinda random, but

I just got an idea for two Monster High OCs. What if there was a mananggal girl and a teke teke girl, and the teke teke girl just went dragging herself around asking people if they've seen her legs somewhere like she usually does and then she'd come across the manananggal girl who'd be like "Oh, I haven't seen them but you can use mine!" and then she'd just deattach her upper body and the teke teke girl would just stand there (not stand, but I can't remember a better word) looking perplexed and then they'd start hanging out and become besties.

[cipheredsong]

Don’t Ever Lose It: an essay on threads consistent for Vi throughout Arcane, and what it means to have and lose your place in the world through the loss of loved ones

for the first time in years I've gotten way too excited about a piece of media that isn't from my own head, and how do I engage with it? by writing an essay. academia has changed me irrevocably but I hope that someone else can also enjoy my descent into madness.

if I get the time, I have a paired essay planned for this regarding Caitlyn and grief, which I skimmed over here to remain focused on Vi's arc and character. warning: this post contains SPOILERS for act 1 of Arcane s2, as well as the whole of s1. buckle up kids, this is 3k words of me being one hell of a nerd. I've never posted something this long on tumblr before so let's all hope the formatting survives.

Vi as Her Family’s Protector

There are more than a few words to describe Vi at the beginning of Arcane — sister, leader, fighter, then criminal and ally. Protege and prodigy, who wins against men twice her size in fights where she is outnumbered. At the core of every fight, at the center of who she is, is “protector.” Vi has charged herself with this task, and been charged with it by outside forces as well: Vander, who warns her that her crew looks up to her; Powder, who adores her and follows her all but blindly. It is this central identity as a protector that Vi carries throughout the series, and it is this identity which is stripped from her by force in season two, disrupting her place in the world and the story.

The first time that the audience sees Vi, she is in that role as leader, executing a heist in Piltover with Mylo, Claggor, and Powder. The other three look up to her and follow her, and when the heist goes south and causes issues both at home and above, Vander is sure to remind her of her power.

[25:40 ep. 1 – Arcane s1 act 1]

He warns her that because of their willingness to follow, Vi is the one who bears the weight of responsibility for whatever she leads them into. This warning is filled with good intentions for all of their safety, but also unintentionally serves to instill in Vi a guilt over all that is to come. Vi becomes resolute in her desire to protect her family. She is, in fact, so steadfast in this desire that she nearly turns herself in to the Piltover enforcers when she learns of the trouble that her heist is causing, and the ultimatum that has been given to Vander. She believes that this would protect her family, and her actions also uphold another of Vander’s messages to her: that not every trouble can be solved with fists, because sometimes violence only serves to deepen divides and make situations irreversible. Vi is only stopped from turning herself in by Vander, who, at the last moment, shows up and takes her place.

This choice on Vander’s part, to, in turn, sacrifice himself for his family, is what leads up to the end of s1 act 1. It is also a choice which is nearly identical to Vi’s. There is a reason that Vi is sometimes seen as Vander’s protege, and it is because they step into similar roles. In the moments before his arrest and then capture by Silco, Vander tells Vi this:

[3:40 ep. 3 – Arcane s1 act 1]

Immediately after, he tells her to “protect the family.” He validates her choices while stepping in to take the fall, confirming for Vi that her choice to take this blow for her family was the right one. Again unintentionally, Vander, through the best of intentions to protect the children he has raised, has given Vi reason to believe that taking blows for others is the right thing to do, and that nothing is more important than family. She is young, and desperate, and in circumstances that feel dire, she has no chance to take in this lesson and parse through it. Instead, she takes it and flings herself into a rescue attempt. In the process of the rescue attempt, as a way to further protect her family, she insists that Powder stay behind.

It is this sequence of events that builds up to Powder’s attempt to intervene on her own, and the deaths of much of Vi’s family. Which is, of course, not to pin all of the blame on Vi, who was still a kid doing her best with what she’d been given — but Vi does eventually take much of the blame on herself for not protecting them, and especially for not protecting Powder, who she turns her back on at the worst possible moment. She spends years in prison thinking that her sister might be dead, and one of the first things she says when they’re reunited is that she tried to come back. She was a scared, grieving child, as was Powder, and the clash and blow between them were a mistake born of Vi’s fear and anger.

[33:55 ep. 6 – Arcane s1 act 2]

There’s a lot of significance to the points of contact in moments with Vi. Here, the way that she reaches out to hold her sister’s head is a parallel to the way that she struck her back in act 1. It’s also similar to how Vander held her face to tell her, in a moment of urgency, that she had a good heart, and how she held Powder’s face in scenes when she was younger. What she wants is her family back — a chance to be her sister’s protector again, because she never meant to give it up. Despite knowing that her sister has changed, she wants another chance for the two of them, because she believes that deep down the two of them have stayed the same, despite outwardly saying that they’ve both had to change. Her refusal to call her sister by “Jinx” is a mark of that. She holds onto that thread of family, and of having a good heart, hoping for her sister to be the same.

The tragedy of things is that while Jinx has changed in ways that have made her more independent, ways which are for the most part internal, Vi’s changes have predominantly been surface-level. Internally, there was little change that she could undergo while in prison, and she remains the hopeful protector, still trying to pick things back up from where she was forced to drop them years ago.

Vi and Caitlyn: Belief in a Good Heart

It’s both fortunate and another tragedy in the making for Vi that someone else is there to believe in her good heart — Caitlyn Kiramman. Caitlyn is a fresh viewpoint, someone with no prior experience with Vi, who nevertheless sees the good in her nearly immediately. By doing this, she both confirms Vi’s good heart for viewers as an outsider of sorts, and confirms it in a narrative sense confined within the bounds of the story: she is an enforcer who challenges Vi’s beliefs about and experiences with them, proving that Vi is willing to open up to those who reach out and overcome her biases. In turn, Caitlyn begins to overcome biases about Zaun’s residents by seeing Vi as more than the criminal that she was made out to be.

After Vi’s fight with Sevika, Caitlyn is there to pick her back up and look for help. Though Vi is hallucinating and exhausted, speaking to a younger Powder who isn’t there, it’s Caitlyn who responds to her, accepting an apology without a second thought, and insisting, just like Vander, on Vi’s good heart. Regardless of Vi’s intentions, Caitlyn is open to not just an alliance with Vi, but to her as a person. Unwittingly, she calls back to multiple people that Vi lost a long time ago, and solidifies herself as a character who plays a major role in Vi’s sense of purpose and sense of herself. She draws on Vi’s grief over what she has lost, but also provides some hope in the form of reassurance that she hasn’t lost what makes her good.

[17:59 ep. 6 – Arcane s1 act 2]

Throughout all of Vi’s grief as she comes to terms with how her sister has changed, destroying what little is left of her family, there is someone there to tell her that she has a good heart in the form of Caitlyn. Though grief is present throughout much of Vi’s life, and holds tremendous weight in all of her decisions, she has time and time again had someone tell her that she is still on some semblance of the right path. If this is the course that Vander set her on, then Caitlyn has told her to stay that course.

This is true again when we reach season two, and Caitlyn has apparently spread the word of Vi’s good heart to the rest of the enforcers. It’s because of this insistence — that she has a good heart, that she’s one of the good ones, that she can do something to help people because of all the good inside of her — that Vi is persuaded to join Caitlyn’s strike team as an enforcer herself. In fact, in this scene with Maddie, Vi once again has it confirmed for her that enforcers don’t always match her expectations. She expects to be subjected to a random search, or escorted off the property after a long night of drinking. Instead, Maddie talks about how Caitlyn has spoken highly of her, and how it’s “nice to know there are still good ones left” after some of the corruption — Marcus, previous Piltover sheriff — in the enforcers came to light.

[19:54 ep. 1 – Arcane s2 act 1]

In these stills, we can see Vi’s trepidation, her reluctance to believe this, and possibly also surprise that Caitlyn would say these things about her after she left the night before when offered a badge. There is an aspect of potential manipulation at play from Caitlyn, as we have no evidence that Vi actually enlisted herself (she did just refuse a badge) — Caitlyn’s grief, and subsequent manipulation and how she herself is manipulated, are a major factor in act one of season two, and cannot be ignored. However, for the purposes of focusing on Vi at the moment, that manipulation must be treated more simply, and the nuances of it left for another essay. It can be left at this: Caitlyn is not currently emotionally stable, nor is she the same person that she was in season one, and this, in turn, has an impact on Vi.

Regardless of her hesitations, Vi joins the strike team. She is ready and willing to fight her sister, even if she hasn’t given up all of her hope — she holds on, still, to that idea of having a good heart and using it to protect others.

Rather than focusing on her own good heart, though, Vi begins to hesitate because she questions Caitlyn’s. Implicit rather than explicit is Caitlyn’s own good heart, shown through her trust in Vi and her questioning of Piltover’s authority and decision making in season one. Vi has previously been given good reason to believe that Caitlyn will act with the general good of people, regardless of their status or citizenship, in mind. Caitlyn has been Vi’s new cornerstone of belief, both in Vi’s good, and in there being good in the world to count on. With the advent of season two, and Caitlyn’s own grief, all of that belief in good is shaken.

In the third episode of season two, we see Vi begging Caitlyn to see reason, and to still maintain her own good heart, though not through such straightforward words. What Vi asks of Caitlyn is for her not to change. It’s just unfortunate that this moment of immense grief makes it impossible not to change. Though some theories suggest that Caitlyn’s sigh is because the ensuing kiss is another manipulation, there’s an equal chance that it is because Caitlyn herself knows that what Vi asks is impossible, whether she might want to give that assurance to her or not. She has already changed, and she cannot stop herself from changing, but knowing how to convey that in such a tense moment is difficult under the best of circumstances, and she has been handed, instead, the worst of them.

Vi herself may already know that Caitlyn is changing — she steps between Caitlyn and Heenot in the previous scene, sensing potential violence, and she knows that Caitlyn before her mother’s death would not have been so aggressive. She has reason to ask Caitlyn to talk to her, and to make this request.

[8:15 ep. 3 – Arcane s2 act 1]

Vi’s face is desperate in this still where she asks Caitlyn to make her this promise. The kiss that they share is desperate, on both sides — see Caitlyn’s hesitation, the moment that lingers between them, the way that Vi so quickly drops her guard to reach out. In some ways, Caitlyn’s response, the way that she could well know the inevitability of her own change, stands in stark contrast to Vi’s arc. Vi is so resistant to becoming something other than the protector that even in the midst of tremendous change for Piltover, Zaun, and everyone within them, she is trying to stay the same. She can’t let go of the things that have changed, and this includes her sister, despite her claims otherwise. She is in her role of protector at this very moment, trying desperately to protect the Caitlyn who convinced her that there were still ways to be good in this world, and simultaneously protecting Jinx: the Caitlyn who Vi first met would not have been so ready to kill her without hesitation.

Vi Without a Person to Protect

Vi’s continued belief in her sister becomes evident when we see when Vi won’t let Caitlyn take the shot in episode three of season two. Moments before, Caitlyn shoots Jinx’s gun out of the hand of the child protecting Jinx, so clearly her aim isn’t actually in question. Notably, though, Vi had no power over that shot, and may not have even known that Caitlyn was about to fire: her eyes never left what was directly in front of her, and all she sees is this child’s determination to protect Jinx. There can be more than one influence at play: multiple possible influences here could be Vi’s continued hesitance to kill Jinx, her fears of Caitlyn’s change, and what she sees in Isha, as the series credits name the child.

Vi’s feelings toward Jinx have genuinely changed, even if she still holds onto some hope. Vi specifically says that her sister is gone, and she does seem to believe something like that — but all she has ever known is that she was supposed to protect that family. She was protecting Powder from a very young age, even if she wasn’t alone in the task. Now she’s faced with a child, a child who could be just like she or Powder was when they were young. Vi’s protective focus has first and foremost been on that younger version of her sister, and she hasn’t been able to get to know Jinx as she is now. The desperation of a protective child has to be a moment that shakes her, and makes her question what she’s doing now — if she has abandoned who she is, if she has changed just as Caitlyn is changing. Because of both of those things, she has reason to fear that this could go wrong, and that she’s recreating the things that hurt her all over again.

At the time which Vi stops Caitlyn from taking the next shot, Vi, despite herself, must see something of who she and her sister used to be in the child. She still can’t quite let that past go, and odds are that she’s thinking of more than just Isha when she turns to Caitlyn.

[26:35 ep. 3 – Arcane s2 act 1]

Certain aspects of Vi’s protectiveness have transitioned to focus on Caitlyn, which can be seen in just how badly she wants Caitlyn to retain her own good heart, and, in more visibly evident ways, how her first priority when Sevika triggers the setup that Jinx has been working on is to grab Caitlyn. She may be questioning Caitlyn’s decisions, but she has her back, and has no intention of leaving someone alone again. Just as Caitlyn was there for her when she was struggling through her own form of grief, she clearly intends to be there for Caitlyn as best she can. 

[27:31  ep. 3 – Arcane s2 act 1]

And that’s what makes it all the more heartbreaking when the aftermath of the scene finally hits, when Vi and Caitlyn are alone together again, and all chance of taking out Jinx is gone. In that moment, Caitlyn doesn’t see Vi’s good heart anymore, and Vi has just had her view of Caitlyn’s own goodness at the very least altered, if not shattered.

In that moment, Vi is the one who is left alone. Her form of grief and Caitlyn’s form of grief clash in ways which make their differences too difficult to reconcile; things like class differences, which could be overlooked when it was just the two of them together, become much more complicated when Caitlyn holds so much power and is filled with so much anger. Caitlyn hurting Vi is quite possibly a snap impulse, something she will regret when she has more time to think about it — but it also directly parallels, for Vi and for viewers, how Vi hurt her sister and left her behind. And because she was the one to stop Caitlyn from taking the shot, given the way that Vi has responded to events like this before, it seems plausible that there is some part of her which will believe it to be her own fault.

In the intro of the new season, Vi smudges over the tattoo on her cheek, the tattoo which, in a more literal sense, is a part of identifying her — when Maddie finds her in episode one of season two, and Vi asks how she knew who she was, Maddie says it’s “written on [her] face.” The combination of the intro, the focus on Vi’s good heart and how she is identified, and the scene in episode three where Vi is left entirely alone, suggests that Vi’s identity is being changed and blurred, whether she likes it or not. Her ability to protect has been compromised by the fact that in her desperation, she left herself unguarded, thinking that she was safe with the people she had chosen to let in. She has clung to her identity this whole time, finding it at the center of all her relationships. Left alone, she has effectively been robbed of all the impact of the good heart that so many people have insisted is her best trait, and left with those physical capabilities that she uses as a form of protection, which explains why she might turn to the pit fighter arc depicted in trailers for season two.  Now that she is on her own, she will need to find something new, or a way to adapt, but she sets out by doing the only thing she still knows: fighting her way through.

Vi cannot protect everyone, and she has just taken a literal and metaphorical blow from the one person she was still vulnerable with. Throughout the series, there has been an emphasis on her good heart and the way in which she protects people, which, while physically effective, often causes further strife down the line. To the people Vi meets, her good heart is considered valuable, and yet it has only brought her pain. Her identity has been torn away from her in a way that collapses her entire existence, because the one stable thing left to her was her connection with Caitlyn, however new it might be. As of the end of act one of season two, we see Vi cut loose and adrift, and we can only hope that we will see her overcome grief again, and perhaps finally learn to accept her own change in a changing world.

[mymarifae]

wao... the real herta herself? in the flesh and everything. what the fuck

[kageyahma]

watching/reading haikyuu for the first time when it felt like it was the only thing that saved me is a little sad as an indication for how i felt during that period of my life but also it's kinda beautiful ??

[banapricot]

Remember when Gintoki had a nightmare about carrying a dying soldier on his back through a field of corpses and one the corpses voiced all his doubts and self-depricating thoughts about how he never managed to protect anything anyway and it would be easier to just give up after he saw the Harusame take away Shinpachi and Kagura when he left them alone on a job cause he was hungover and in a shit mood (due to the depression)?

[kanerallels]

Listen I absolutely love autumn but the only down side is that every year I absolutely lose my mind over who to be for Halloween

[amelikos]

Explorers backstory.. soon.

[lulady030]

Lapis doodle, with a shovel and hat for a joke that sounded way funnier in my head.

[quietlyblooms]

honestly speaking, the idea of going back to my dorverold multimuse stresses me out bc i think i would just want to start over? and make rin the main muse like i always should have done, but i dunno. it felt like work trying to get people invested in her before, and i just!! don't particularly want to deal with that again. which is sad to say, but it is what it is. i'm happy enough being able to just incorporate aspects of that lore into chiyo's modern fantasy verses for now. maybe in the future i'll commit to putting in the work for rin and her story.