#JAIL FOR BIOWARE WHY DID THEY DO THAT

[reiverreturns]

"veilguard is a bad" this "it's not a dragon age game" that. noise to take us away from bioware's greatest crime - covering up dorian's peekaboo shoulder and titty.

[midnightwind]

Lucanis concept art has me breaking out the fic plot tree again because I am Incensed

[mythalism]

the ambiguity of solas's ending actually really does piss me off so bad. like i dont know why they think they were cooking by being vague about where exactly he ends up and whether or not he is trapped or able to leave, especially if your own player character ends up there with him, whether thats rook or lavellan. the imagery in the epilogue slides and implication in the "atoning for the blight" ending is clear but only if you're well versed in lore that veilguard does not really explore, and thats only for the atonement endings where he leaves to heal the blight willingly. where does he end up in the other endings? where did the rift behind him lead to? is it just the fade? do all the rifts lead to the black city even if he doesnt intentionally leave to go heal the blight??? if so why??? the rift opened naturally, solas didnt open it. is it just luck that it leads to exactly where we need hin to be?????? does rook even know where it leads???? do they even think before shoving him into it?????? does it even matter if he has the fucking dagger anyway????? if so whats the point of any of it??????????? WHAT THE FUCK???????

if that was just the game's refusal to employ it's own vocabulary that would be one thing, because its a larger issue in the game overall. the black city/golden city is not mentioned to my knowledge, though perhaps it is in codex entries, and so to use that terminology in the end would be confusing to the incompetent and stupid "new players" the game was written for who apparently cannot be trusted to absorb worldbuilding information on their own. but the fact that several people have asked for clarification from the devs and we have gotten more ambiguous, unsatisfying answers or straight up refusals to elaborate is so ridiculous to me. why? spoilers? for the game you are never actually going to get to make? even if it was a spoiler who fucking cares? an ending that leaves you unsatisfied because you are CONFUSED is not a well-written one. when i first finished i genuinely felt PANICKED because it was over and i didnt understand how it ended. i felt so desperate to know where exactly they were. the way the ending feels completely different if they are in the black city versus the regret prison is HUGE. those are two completely different endings. whether or not he has agency and is able to leave makes a HUGE difference in the overall messaging of his character. it makes a HUGE impact on lavellan's willingness to join him. i guarantee that like half of the people who hate the solavellan ending and were really upset by it would have felt far better about it if it was just explained where the fuck they were. like what is the point. how does it serve the narrative for the audience to leave the epilogue unsure of what just happened? and the worst part is that, while i am a full 99.9% sure that they are in the black city rather than regret jail, because thats where the blight is and thats the visual imagery used in the epilogue slides, that 0.1% uncertainty exists not because i just dont know the lore well enough or didnt understand the ending, but because i no longer have faith in bioware to stick to their own writing.

i know that it only makes sense for solas to be in the black city if his goal is healing the blight, but what if epler decides he wants solas to be in the regret prison instead being psychologically tortured because he thinks hes annoying and deserves it? what if some other dev who has a bone to pick with bald guys gets hired and pushes for it really hard in meetings for 5 years? will what they established for the ending actually matter, then? or will they do a complete 180 from what was set up and retcon the ending? and i get it- they have always done this on some level. corypheus returning after da2 to be inquisition's antagonist, for example, though i'd counter that argument with there being clear foreshadowing that he body hopped so that seed was indeed planted. or killing flemeth with morrigan in origins only to find out in da2 that she gave her soul to hawke just in time to survive. but these things have an internal consistency with the world-building that i have lost faith in the writers to continue. corypheus survives because he uses blight body hopping, an established ability that we already knew archdemons had, then elaborated on when he returns in inquisition. flemeth is an ancient unknowable legendary swamp witch who is suggested to be playing 4d mind chess with the characters even before you know about her own body-snatching, so finding out she was able to cheat death like that isn't unfounded or far fetched. but veilguard so gleefully tramples over its own world's rules and established stories, whether its stupid small mechanical gripes like rook wading through "blight pools" and exploding "blight cysts" all over themselves with no explanation meanwhile we know that felix alexius died of blight from just coming into contact with hurlock blood when attacked, and that ferelden mabari biting darkspawn was a death sentence for them unless they could be cured with a rare herb. or larger things, like.... idk. solas's characterization, motivations, and massive network of agents and supporters. or slavery existing in tevinter. or the existence of the titan's heart orbs that each evanuris has? or um. RED LYRIUM. and so much more.

i think thats why the vagueness of this game bothers me in a way it did not previously. granted, i do not think inquisition is NEARLY as vague with its lore reveals and character epilogues. its actually very straight forward and explains everything sufficiently. theres more of an argument for da2 being very vague. but previously, i would have trusted that it would be taken care of in a way that made sense, or at least was internally consistent with the world. i have completely lost that faith. instead, after playing the rest of veilguard and seeing how little respect the game has for it's own world and story and characters, the ambiguity of solas's ending is nothing but anxiety-inducing and unsatisfying. i cant even clearly analyze his character arc if i dont truly know the implications of the ending. and on top of that, what reason do i have to believe the writers will respect their own writing going forward?

[bluecladone]

Beat Veilguard last night, here’s some of my thoughts (SPOILERS BELOW):

First, some positives: Holy shit this game is a visual gem. The art direction and set pieces really blew me away in some places. That mountain with the titan corpse? Treviso? The lyrium chamber with the Oracle? I can’t wait for the art book lol. Also the animations and hair physics are *chef’s kiss*. I was really worried about the animations as Bioware has repeatedly gone on record saying how difficult the Frostbite engine is to work with (and I’m still a bit scarred from Mass Effect Andromeda lol) but they seem to have finally mastered it here. I was surprised at how expressive Rook was and loved how nuanced the dialogue choices were. Somehow, no matter which dialogue option I chose, I felt that the delivery was exactly what I wanted or better. There were times where I wanted Rook to be angrier or meaner though lol. Also, the worlds weren’t nearly as linear as I feared they might be. I thought it was a good balance between open-world and linear level design.

Now for some things that irked me:

There were a lot of bad line reads, especially at the beginning. Bellara springs to mind, though when she wasn’t trying to sound quirky she actually sounded alright lol. Looking up her actress, it doesn’t look like she’s done a lot of voice work, so it could just be rookie mistakes. Then again, Ali Hillis—Harding’s actress (and Liara T’soni and Aloy)—also had some clunky line reads. My guess is that they probably weren’t directed very well. Considering most of the clunky dialogue is in the beginning of the game, it’s not too egregious. I think they both found their footing with their characters as they went along. There were also some things that were worded or represented weirdly but I don’t know if it was on purpose or not? The two instances I’m thinking of are when Bellara tells Rook about her brother, and when Caterina was killed. My problem is the refusal to really say “killed.” Bellara says something like “wherever [her brother] is” and the implication is that he’s dead, of course. But the dialogue choices were either offering condolences or asking intrusively what happened so I wasn’t given a hard confirmation of his supposed death until a later conversation. The same happens during Lucanis’s recruitment mission where, after returning to Crow headquarters, Illario tells us that Caterina was “taken” by Venatori. I automatically assumed she was kidnapped, (which turns out to be the case, but I digress) since we just sprung her grandson from mage jail. That is, until Lucanis later swears that her death will be avenged, and I was like “Oh. Well maybe I missed something, even though I don’t think I did?” For hours afterward I was really confused by the coded language used and wondered why no one would just say dead or killed lol. But then it turns out that both characters are alive after all, so maybe it was on purpose? I guess? It was a clunky set up, if so.

Which leads me to my next gripe: during the mission to help with Caterina’s funeral, Lucanis tries to ask Illario about the details of the murder, (where did it happen, how was she killed, etc.) and doesn’t get a straight answer. Then Illario is weird about picking up “Caterina’s” ashes, which not only immediately made it obvious that he was a traitor, but also baffles me that the Crows somehow fell for the body double ruse twice in a row?? Not a lot of discerning people in a faction where the correct body should be tantamount to their success, no? Then, when it is glaringly obvious to the cast that Illario is the traitor, they just...kind of sit on that info and do nothing about it?? No warning to Teia and Viago, or anything? Honestly, everything about the Crows bothered me a lot lol. I didn’t like that they were portrayed as this plucky, lily-white faction of underground freedom fighters when we know that’s not how they operate. Not saying that they can’t be a terrible organization and patriotic, but the game does nothing to portray them as the neutrally evil entity they’ve always come off as. According to Zevran, they buy children from brothels and if they fail training, they’re killed. If they survive, they’re tortured to build their resistance to pain. Not to mention how Caterina used to beat Lucanis with a cane to correct him as a child, yet they still act weirdly warm toward one another. I get family is complicated, but geez. Maybe the Crows of Treviso are a softer touch, but I doubt they’d last long if that were so. I just wish the writers had tried to make them more morally gray than what we’re shown. I honestly forgot they were supposed to be scary assassins most of the time lol.

Some other little things before I move on to the big ones (besides the Crows lol):

While I loved Taash and loved getting to help them discover themselves, I was a little sucked out of the narrative by the ham-fisted lesson on gender identity lol. I get that they probably wanted to give a rundown for people who aren’t familiar with the topic, but I don’t think anyone who’s made it this far in the series isn’t at least somewhat familiar with the concept or are trans/non-binary/genderfluid. The Dragon Age fandom is very colorful that way lol. I could tell it came from a good place, at least. It was just funny to see the characters all but face the camera and say, “Hey kids, here’s a primer on gender identities for the uninitiated.” I didn’t really understand why Shathann was so hung up about Taash’s identity when Iron Bull flat-out tells us in Inquisition that the Qun has words and beliefs for people who identify that way and that they’re pretty chill about it. Not to say that EVERYONE in the Qun is likely to be chill about it, but still. Shathann even gives the same explanation before being interrupted, so it had me scratching my head a bit.

Then there was Bellara’s little “follow your heart” speech which made me roll my eyes a bit. Just a bit too corny and stereotypical for me personally. There are plenty of anecdotes about staying true to oneself without having to explicitly rely on the words “follow your heart.”

I got locked out of Lucanis’s romance without realizing until it was way too late lol. I don’t expect the game to be like “WARNING: CHOOSING MINRATHOUS OVER TREVISO MEANS YOU CAN’T FUCK THE HOT ITALIAN” but I feel like locking the romance entirely is kinda mean, especially after I looked it up and saw you could still romance Neve if you choose Treviso instead. As far as I know, Lucanis is the only romance option that gets locked because of a choice you made. I didn’t realize why I wasn’t getting flirt options until several hours later when I looked it up, after completing a shit ton of sidequests lol. Didn’t help that Lucanis is absent from the team for a good chunk of time afterward, and I’m a stickler for getting as many sidequests done as I can before moving on with story missions. I knew I could flirt with any of the other companions but it felt a bit late in the game to start at that point, and I was worried it might effect the pacing of the romance, so I just went without. Romance is kind of a big part of the appeal of these games to me, but it’s not everything. I thought about reloading an old (very old, by that point) save, but I didn’t want to deal with the frustration. Besides, I thought, if the game still holds up despite missing out on this one thing I was kind of looking forward to, then that speaks to its merits. I still had a good time overall, and am already starting a second campaign to explore some other choices and finally make that manlet mine lol. Still, it is quite annoying when choosing to save Minrathous is clearly the right call in my opinion. The game itself doesn’t make much ado about the consequences of leaving Treviso to fend for itself besides the civilian casualties. But it definitely makes leaving Minrathous sound more alarming. (You’ll basically be handing over the most powerful city in the North over to the Venatori and Evanuris. Treviso doesn’t have a giant floating castle with magic weapons that can pick a single target out of a crowd of people lol. Also the game acts like there wouldn’t also be a high civilian toll for some reason.)

While I feel that reading the tie-in books and comics isn’t required to get an understanding of certain characters and whatnot, I feel like it adds important context and makes you actually somewhat care for the fate of a lot of the characters in the game. It’s frustrating to track all that stuff down and read it, though most of it is covered in Tevinter Nights, however I might feel about some of the writing in that one lol. I suppose it could be argued that none of the Dragon Age games have ever been guaranteed sequels since its inception, so this was the next best thing to offer closure and/or extra worldbuilding just in case. In fact, the ending to Veilguard kinda feels like they’re trying to keep it open for a sequel since there are some minor loose threads, (And an end screen that basically says the Veilguard stands prepared lol) but who knows if we’ll see one. EA has never seen Dragon Age as a priority IP, since it’s an RPG and those can be hard to make into bestsellers. They’d rather focus on something more like Mass Effect— a traditional third-person shooter with some RPG elements—which we’re almost certainly getting another of. Hopefully. If there ever is another Dragon Age, I really struggle to imagine what in the world it would even be about.

Another gripe is the fact that Morrigan is not at all as prominent in the game as we maybe expected. (At least, I did lol) It’s not that big of a deal to me, but it does make me wonder why they even put her in the game. I guess to give the player an explanation about Mythal and her relationship to Solas, and to give over the aspect thingy if you do all the sidequests in the Crossroads. It didn’t really warrant Morrigan’s presence, though. Then again, I’m sure the fans would have rioted if she hadn’t been there. I guess I wish they would have utilized her more, and better lol.

The same can be said of the Inquisitor, but at least they had the excuse of keeping the South together while Rook did their thing. (Which would be a great idea for a dlc/expansion; playing as the Inquisitor and maybe seeing more about the choices made in the last game since we didn’t get to see many in Rook’s journey.) Though I do have a big problem with an Inquisitor who still wants to redeem Solas after everything he did, which I’ll get into more detail later. An Inquisitor who romanced him and still wants to get back together with him is doubly icky, but once again, I’ll come back to it lol.

Now the big things:

Varric. Oh, my poor, poor Varric. I made a post a while back about how I thought I might not enjoy the game as much if it turned out he died right at the beginning, and well...I was half right. His death was a twist I really didn’t see coming, and I’m honestly not sure how to feel about it right now. I admire the bait and switch for how clever it is, but am a bit frosty about how cruel it is, too. It feels a bit dumb to say for a fictional person, but I truly think I’m in mourning for Varric. I remember how I lamented in my old post about how it would have been so unsatisfying for him to die among strangers who barely knew him, away from the people that loved him best. This was softened somewhat by his relationship with Rook. Clearly, Rook cared about Varric a lot as a mentor, and possibly even as a father figure. (It helped that I headcanoned my Rook as someone who was separated from her parents at a young age and therefore craved that connection.) It’s still upsetting that I was half right with my prediction, and my heart breaks when I think about the Kirkwall gang not being there when he died, especially Hawke. Once again, I’m unsure of how I’m feeling about all this. I’m upset, but also aware that he couldn’t last forever, despite my wishes lol. Would it have been better to hear about him dying offscreen in a supposed sequel or tie-in book/comic? I’m upset Solas killed him, but I can’t decide if it’s out of character for him to have done so. I was surprised he stabbed Varric when it happened, but it’s not like he didn’t give Varric a warning when he broke Bianca. And he did kill Mythal, who he was closer to than anyone, despite how complicated their relationship got. I still need to reflect on all of it, and maybe my opinion will change when I have a clearer head. What I took the most exception to was the Inquisitor’s reaction to it as one who both romanced Solas and wanted to redeem him. Looking back on how you get to choose whether she gets back together with Solas or not leaves a bad taste in my mouth. At this point, the Inquisitor is obviously aware Varric is dead and that it’s Solas’s fault. I feel like even the most besotted, kindhearted Inquisitors would have trouble reconciling that, regardless of how close they might or might not have been to Varric. He was part of the inner circle, integral to stopping Corypheus. I feel like that should warrant some kind of reconsideration on her part. I’d be fine if she still wanted to redeem Solas, but pursuing a romantic relationship with him despite everything he’s done not only to Varric, but the world...it’s just gross to me. Maybe the Inquisitor sees Rook’s encouragement to get back together as some kind of forgiveness towards Solas on Rook’s part? I don’t know...it takes quite a bit of mental gymnastics on my part lol. But maybe others feel differently. I’d love to hear someone else’s opinion on the matter. As it is, the kiss before Solas and the Inquisitor disappear was soured for me. I might go back and try some of the other ending choices to see how I like those, but for now I’m focusing on another playthrough with an Inquisitor who did not romance Solas and swore to stop him. We’ll see which I like better lol.

Another big issue is, while I totally expected Solas to betray Rook at some point, the way it was handled was not very good in my opinion. Why, of all times, would Solas turn on us after killing Ghilan’nain? I know it’s likely a pride thing, or possibly he’s lost faith in Rook’s efficiency after they get one of their people killed. (Or more, depending on your choices for the assault, but I looked up the optimal choices after getting Harding killed so I didn’t traumatize myself further lol. Sorry Davrin and Assan :’(.) In fact, I was so confused by Solas’s timing that I thought it was actually Elgar’nan fucking with Rook’s head as revenge lol. Anyway, deaths in the line of duty didn’t seem to phase Solas in the past, though we do see that memory in one of his regrets. It just seemed hasty for him to immediately banish Rook to the Fade prison when they’re the one who’s done all the heavy lifting so far. And somehow, Solas seems surprised shit doesn’t work out like he planned later, but once again, I guess that’s his pride at work. This is also a complicated one for me that I think I need more time to puzzle out. I just have a hard time reconciling how someone so smart could be so dumb. Even when he was at his most powerful, he still had help from Felassan and other rebels. And yes, while Solas does take charge of Rook’s faction after trapping them, I highly doubt they compare to ancient elves with powerful magic and spirits. Credit where it’s due though, I was concerned when Solas had that line in the beginning about “abhorring blood magic” when he says the opposite in Inquisition. I can see now that it was clearly a lie meant to put Rook more at ease. Or at least, that’s how I saw it.

Overall, I did enjoy the game, despite my many problems with it. That being said, I think the mass layoffs at Bioware really made the game suffer in the writing side of things. Hopefully the new staff finds their footing after this, and I wish them the best of luck.

R.I.P. Varric Tethras, a self-admitted liar who could be honest to a fault, whose charm captured me from the moment I met him. He’s the charismatic character all writers strive to create.

[thessalian]

Thess vs TLOVM S3, Ep 8

Hoboy. Not entirely looking forward to this, even if I do know it works out in the end. But to get to it, you have to get through it, so...

Pre-beard Grog. What the--? Wait, is this when they meet Percy?!? I seem to remember that his backstory was that they kind of ran into him while he was in a jail cell.

Yep, they're there without him. ...Wait, which one of the prisoners is the what-now?

I seem to remember that originally (or at least according to the comics, which I think were pretty true to character backstories), they needed to question the cult leader because they needed the skull of a Nightmare to cure Grog of his whole ... being the phylactery of a lich ... thing. But we're doing it as a bounty now? Okay.

Well. That was ... to the point, Vex.

You're going to shake down the prisoner. Who, if he came from money - or at least, accessible money - would have been sprung by now.

Percy, are you lying to them right now? Or are you just ... not being frank about how small that fortune is? I-- Ah. Yeah, Vex would have at least been grudgingly impressed at being used if you'd been less honest, Percival.

Ah, and Vex gets defensive. Which means no, dear; he's not shit at negotiating.

Where the truth takes you iiiiiiis ... a funeral. Woe.

Awwww. Feeling a little bad about butting in on some of their earlier moments, Trinket? ...Ah, who am I kidding; I can't be sarcastic at Trinket when he's so worried about his momma.

Yeah, no, I am not okay. Though Matt Mercer getting voice credit as Trinket amuses the hell out of me. Particularly since the one time we heard Trinket speak words, he was voiced by Cheech Marin.

(Most of you are too young for the above; look up Cheech and Chong, and then you will fully understand why it was so fitting for Cheech Marin to be voicing Trinket as heard by Vex while tripping balls.)

Ooooooh Scanlan, I don't know how you're going to feel about yourself after that. I mean, you couldn't have done anything had you been there, probably? But Percy dying while you weren't there has got to hurt.

Vax ... why is it you only manage to say the right thing to your sister?

Hrm. Vax... Are you going to do something stupid--? Oh. Maybe not?

Okay, Keyleth, how are you going to handle this? Please handle this better than Vex did...

THANK YOU.

Ooooooh, Scanlan. Yeah, that's got to hurt. All that for nothing.

...WHAT THE FUCK.

No. NO, Raven Queen. You don't get to dictate that shit.

Oh, FUCK not you again. GO AWAY, RAISHAN.

.........Oh, holy hell. This is when they find out about who killed their parents.

No, Allura, I prefer Kima's terminology.

Grog finally manages a nat 20 on his INT check. Or possibly WIS check in this case.

Not sure what precise subclass of monks we've got here, but this is some Stormlord shit, and if you've got the Stormlord on side, you're doing well.

They actually bothered to do blood splatter on the camera lens that isn't technically there? With realistic blur and everything?!? DAMN, those animators rule.

I was wondering why it wasn't Vex going to talk to Zahra and Kashaw, since she was the one with the best rapport (albeit of a frenemy type) with Zahra, who's clearly the leader of that particular duo. But Vex is going to face Syldor?!? Ooooooh this is going to be either very good or very painful.

Oooooooooh. Both. Definitely both.

Well, at least a cloaking spell still does some good.

Wait. Pike can read sheet music?

Hello, Syngorn forces! That's a loooooooot of Syngorn forces. HOLY SHIT.

Larkin LIIIIIIIIIVES. ...And I don't trust that far too convenient back entrance.

HE USED THE TITLE, HOLY SHIT.

Echoing what I just said about the Stormlord; NIIIICE. Also, Ike Amadi ... well, given how much my little Dragon Age-loving corner of the internet is panting for Veilguard ... that's Davrin's voice actor, guys. Also Javik. And ... Koth-- This guy is seriously prominent in Bioware's Rolodex.

Heh. It's nice that they more or less remember that for all they never officially agreed on it, Vex was always more or less the leader.

It's a little too quiet... GILMORE NOW IS NOT THE TIME.

This ... this is fishy... I do not trust Raishan worth shit; she worked too hard to get them there.

...Oop. AMBUSH.

Wait. WUT. YES, THANK YOU, KIMA.

RAISHAN WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO?!?

Oh. Oh shit. Oh shit DUDES RUN.

YEAH YOU GUYS TOO. SHIT SHIT SHIT.

OH HELL. No, no, Vex, OFF THE GUILT TRAIN.

AAAAAAA NO FUCK OFF WITH YOUR CLIFFHANGER I WILL FEED YOU BEEEEEEEEEES!!!

...Anyway, who wrote this? Meredith Kecskemety. Only writing credit. Pretty new, too. Gotta say, for someone who was mostly executive assistant, casting assistant, and assistant writer on an episode each of The Midnight Gospel and If You Give A Mouse A Cookie? That's a hell of an episode for your first solo writing credit ... and she nailed it.

(I am still going to feed her beeeeeeeeees for that fucking cliffhanger, though.)

So now I have a choice - watch the Omn1 reaction to this episode first, or go straight to the next episode. Proooooobably the former. ...Look, I found out just the other day that Omn1 did reactions to the Michael Flanagan series on Netflix and I got to spend most of today mucking around with Terrascapes and listening to him react very much as I did to The Fall of the House of Usher and he might actually make Midnight Mass something I can watch at least in part without religion-based PTSD flashbacks. Anyway, I find him comforting. As I said, I don't get to watch stuff with people very often; this is the next best thing.

Of course, I kind of want to watch TLOVM S3 in its entirety before Arcane S2, but I've got about two weeks before I need to worry about that, so I won't rush.

[in-finitesuns]

so my veilguard thoughts

perhaps unpopular opinion but i fucking loved it, it made me rework a lot of lore understandings i had in my head.

some end/late game spoilers ahead, so read on at your own risk.

the entire game i veered wildly in-between, ugh solas i missed you, and UGH SOLAS I'VE GIVEN YOU TOO MUCH GOODWILL BECAUSE OF INQUISITION, and most of the time it was just a mix of both.

when he temporarily fights alongside you in the last quest was fun as fuck though.

southern thedas getting wiped off the map as the in-game reason for why nothing we did mattered is actually the funniest (derogatory) thing bioware could've done.

my solavellan just leaving to join solas in the fade while southern thedas burns????

THE ENTIRE VARRIC REVEAL???? (and the fade jail.)

i'm pissed about harding or davrin being the ones to sacrifice - and i really thought i had doomed bellara to death when she got got by elgar'nan. (neve disapproved but i was like 'baby girl it's the curse of the romance interest you're always in my party!')

without guides i kept everyone besides davrin (I DIDN'T KNOW BUT I ALSO DON'T KNOW IF I COULD CHOOSE HARDING NOW THAT I KNOW) alive through the final bit.

got all factions, including the crows, back up to 3 stars, all heroes of the veilguard. i want to do shadowy protecter neve next because i like the legendary armor better.

when mythal goes 'i did not think my children would ever walk the dread wolf's crossroads again.' i had to lay down (also my rook had mythal vallaslin.)

when you're in the hossberg wetlands and you get the notification, "because you helped destroy the blight, the flowers can grow again." that about put me into the ground.

i loved bellara so much more than i thought i would.

i have neve brainrot. she's so sassy but under the cynicism is so much heaviness from the burden of responsibility and fear (the whole returned cultist questline and how afraid she sounded the entire time i wanted to hug her forever.)

i got got by lucanis, i'm gonna have to romance him at some point. the romances remind me more of DA2 format than DAI format, which I thought was a weird step back.

the companions doing so little damage had me grinding my gears.

i agree that act 1 is the weakest and act 3being the strongest.

absolutely foul that an elf romancing neve gets to be fake venatori neve's servant.

i was doing thousands of damage at the end, spellblade was so fucking fun. i'm gonna run a dual daggers rogue next and see how it works.

[svartalfhild]

Even more thoughts!

Emmrich has officially stolen my Rook's heart. Sorry, Lucanis, you had a good run, but your game just wasn't quite as effective on me as Emmrich's was.

This is fine, though, because my lowkey shipping of Lucanis with Neve got major vindication.

10,000 years of shame for Illario. Go directly to jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $100. What a dumbass.

Idk what happens if you save Minrathous, but if you don't, Neve's final confrontation with her personal villain is, uh...well, let's just say I'm a bit worried for her. Woof.

Worms! (if you know, you know)

Been lusting after Myrna's robe and I thought I finally found it, but it turns out it's a pants version that's basically the Mourn Watch starter outfit with a coat. I hate those pants so much. I just want that cool ass coat but alas the clothes underneath are awful.

Not sure how I feel about Shathann getting character development at the last second, but man, I feel so bad for Taash.

Harding and Taash are very cute together.

I didn't expect Harding to be the one to cancel the old man for romancing Rook. Davrin's reaction to the news is hilarious, though.

The Lucanis and Davrin drunk scene is priceless.

Crying big ugly tears for Bellara.

MANFRED!!! BIGGER, UGLIER TEARS FOR MY SON!!!!

Harding's banters with Lucanis about dreaming are so funny and often relatable.

The choice at the end of Emmrich's arc is heinous. Thanks, BioWare. I will never recover.

Never over the fact that the Veilguard has a book club. Love these nerds.

"I think we're out of onions. Again." XDDDD

I love how between banters with Neve and a codex entry about Manfred, it's pretty clear that Lucanis is a Union Man, or should I say Guild Man. He is all about fair compensation for labor. I know this isn't necessarily surprising, since he's a guild assassin, but I'm very much enjoying the fact that it comes up in game.

I support Bellara and her writing aspirations.

Lmao, Rest In Annoyance, Johanna. Enjoy watching/listening to Emmrich woo his girlfriend and not being able to leave. Enjoy Manfred routinely walking up to you to (in his own way) call you a nasty bitch.

Also love the banter where Emmrich's like "Why the FUCK did you think it was a good idea to build a mech, Johanna???"

Highly recommend bringing Lucanis/Neve and Taash/Harding along for each other's personal quests if they're together or even just at the flirting stage, because you get good shippy stuff.

Earning Solas' respect is so satisfying. That's right, experience growth, bitch!

Haven't done Davrin's big final arc quest yet, but I'm fully prepared to get emotional, given how things went with everyone else's arcs.

Some fun DATV things I'm experiencing:

Playing as female Rook makes the first few quests until you get Lucanis very Girls Night, which I really started to notice after a friend pointed it out and she is so right.

Neve is bestie.

Lucanis' intro cinematic made me feel so attacked. That shit was so my brand lol.

Lucanis and Neve's banter is hilarious and if I don't romance Lucanis I may end up shipping him with Neve.

Did Bellara's first personal quest and almost cried. Hit me a little close to home.

Neve's hangout quest was delightful. I want to chat and snack and walk around with her all day.

Neve and Bellara's developing friendship is so fun. I want to see a scene where Lucanis gets involved in their cooking adventures.

Shopping and getting coffee with Lucanis was like Oh No He's Thoughtful And Charming And I'm Weak.

Chose Lucanis over Neve in that one decision that made me want to scream and now she's hardened and I'm so sorry bestie I was thinking of the defenseless people and I will never be okay again.

Varric playing mentor to Rook got me right where it hurts. He's there for when you need an adultier adult to tell you that you're doing okay and that he's proud if you. I cry forever.

Assan and Manfred are my SONS and I LOVE THEM and I make the most ridiculous noises when they are on screen. THEY ARE SUCH GOOD BOYS.

The quest to acquire Emmrich is fucking delightful if you're a nice Mourn Watcher and you bring Bellara along. Just three huge nerds enjoying each other's company while doing dangerous shit.

Davrin and Emmrich's banter is like two dad's comparing notes.

As a Watcher, Myrna kinda feels like my mentor-mom, which is funny.

More thoughts to come. Just wanted to scribble down a few things so far for the people to let y'all know I'm having a fucking blast.

[queen-scribbles]

Alright, so, Endrali’s class companions + dealing with the fact she’s dating in love with Arcann. (lmao this wound up going best to worst reactions, that was unintentional 😂)

Nadia takes it the most in stride. It still throws her for a little bit of a loop, but the Ossus colony has been cut off from the rest of the galaxy long enough to not have first-hand exposure to most of the terrible things Arcann did. Practically everything she knows about it is second hand reports, which are still... pretty bad, but some of the oomph is gone. But, beyond that, she’s a) Endrali’s best friend and b) Force Sensitive, both of which mean it’s easy for her to see Endrali is genuinely, unreservedly happy in this relationship. So she does the cursory bff “Does he treat you right now(even if he did imprison you and try to kill you in the past)? Do you love him? Do you trust him?” and when the answer to all three is a resounding YES (with the caveat Endrali is 100% convinced Arcann would die for her without her even asking and that thought scares her to death) she’s just kinda, “Okay, I’m happy for you, if he breaks your heart, I’ll kick his ass, but otherwise, I trust your judgement.” and that’s that.

Qyzen is.... confused, more than anything. She did get him back midway through KotFE, so he was there for part of fighting Arcann and for her choice to let Senya take him after kicking his ass /cough at the end. Given their respect for each other, she keeps him apprised of how things go during KotET so he’s not in the dark. Qyzen is thus less surprised than most of the Alliance when she rolls up with Arcann in tow at the end of ch 6 bc unusual allies and showing mercy have always been the Herald’s way, why would she change now? So he more than any of the others saw the evolution of her and Arcann’s relationship through enemies to uncertain to cautious allies to friends. By the time that changes once more to lovers, Qyzen is more suspicious of anyone proving worthy of being mate to the Scorekeeper’s Herald than he is about it being Arcann specifically. Endrali gambles on the 50-50 shot of reminding him Arcann’s the only one who’s ever managed to capture her, the only one who’s proven her equal (or better) in a fight, so if anyone’s going to be worthy, it’s him. Qyzen takes a minute or two to process that, still seems confused and maybe ready to point out that capturing her is more an affront to the Scorekeeper than Arcann proving Endrali’s equal, but she’s the Scorekeeper’s Herald. If she says this is the right call, he’ll take her word.

Tharan, tbh... between how late he joins the Alliance/reunites with her and the fact he’s friends with Duras Fain and Syo Bakarn(both of whom she spared/redeemed), when he finds out she’s partially responsible for the redemption of the tyrant who spent five years strangling the galaxy and is now in love with the man, he just goes  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ OF COURSE YOU ARE. That’s just.... such a very Endrali thing to do. (Not only is it on-brand for her, who else could pull something like that off? lmao) He’s no stranger to the concept of “the heart wants what the heart wants” what with his exotech holo-girlfriend and the bond they share, so he’s less judgey about it than some people.

Felix needs quite a while to come to terms with it, given what Zakuul put him through. He sorta blue-screens when Endrali first tells him, even though he was rescued by and joins the Alliance not long after Arcann joins. He knows Arcann is there, knows Endrali swears he’s different now, and it’s not made clear during the Jail Broken alert if Arcann was aware of/gave the order for what Jarak did to Felix(I, personally, am still pissed BIOWARE did that to him  :|) so I don’t wanna presume there would be personal level animosity, but it’s still not great news for him. He has more firsthand experience with what the Force can do than the other non-Force user crewmates, so he believes Endrali when she says Arcann’s changed now, he knows that’s possible, but that doesn’t erase the harm he caused before. As of about... Echoes of Oblivion(when they go finish off Valkorion and Arcann doesn’t turn on her), Felix is at a point where he can accept this, bc it’s her life and her choice, but he can’t be happy for her like Nadia is.

Zenith... lmao. Zenith practically goes apoplectic at first. He’s already reluctant about joining the Alliance bc there are (former)Imperial there, only did it bc Endrali was asking. Aaaand then he sees Arcann around the base one day before Endrali has a chance to warn him “Oh, btw, I recruited the former emperor of Zakuul :D” and very nearly punches him in the face. (The only reason he doesn’t is Endrali stops him. Arcann would’ve let it happen. >.>) Since not only did Balmorra have a Star Fortress, but the Exarch overseeing it was one of the more fanatical and ruthless ones, Zenith is kinda furious to see that the person responsible for the program and so much other galactic devastation is here as anything other than a prisoner awaiting execution. He’s ready to walk, this is too much, out of all the people Endrali should’ve killed and didn’t this one really takes the cake(he’s yelling by this point. She’s not fazed in the slightest. Arcann’s not sure if he should leave or be ready to haul her back if she gets too passionate about this). There’s some--rising in volume--back and forth that involves Endrali pointing out every one of those people she redeemed went on to validate her decision to spare them and Arcann(he has a NAME, Zenith) is no different. He helped save her base, he’s had her back through countless fights, etc etc. Zenith is Zenith; hardline, stubborn, black and white, “He did all these horrible things, he deserves to die” (paraphrasing, lol)  Endrali gets just frustrated enough that when Zenith starts in grumbling about how she thinks she can “waltz up and just redeem anyone, regardless of what they’ve done”, she lets slip a slightly snarky “who says I ‘just’ redeemed him?” that has him demanding an elaboration. “First off, he agrees with you that he’s beyond redemption; his joining the Alliance is atonement, and second, we” --Endrali plants herself between Zenith and Arcann-- “fell in love.” Zenith just stares absolute daggers at her for a few seconds, spins on one heel, and stalks off. Endrali was more than half-sure he was going to leave and wouldn’t have stopped him if he did. But he doesn’t. Straight up refuses to acknowledge Arcann’s presence; won’t talk to him, won’t look at him, pretends she didn’t say anything if she mentions him in conversation, nothing. But he stays, and she’ll take that.

[anora-mac-tired]

Long winded Anora rant ahead, and a most likely poorly worded explanation of what happened at the Arl's Estate, and Anora's motivations, since y'all are struggling.):

am i the only one here who was not betrayed by anora to ser cauthrien?

Like when cauthrien showed up and was like "Y u kidnapping the queen" instead of even pointing anora out i just when straight to the "GET OUT MY WAY OR FIGHT ME" option

That way, Anora gets away with the rest of your companions and no one says "She betrayed us tf"

Its really common sense that you shouldnt expose Anora to cauthrien, idk why y'all struggle with this.

Arl Howe jailed her, fearing she was working with wardens, or "against her father" (ie, against Howe. Howe isnt exactly loyal to Loghain (he's a self serving snake, no offense to snakes), and it was likely Anora was trying to get her father to do something about him. Ive no proof of that but it works as a motive for Howe to seal her in a room and try to threaten her no?) Anora asks for the wardens help because she thinks it was Loghain who ordered her locked up. Its obvious when cauthrien shows up that she was under orders to retrieve anora by Loghain, so locking her up was not loghains plan. (obviously, he loves his daughter far too much. Thats one of loghains defining traits)

So anora's choice is a) Follow Cauthrien and claim the wardens were kidnapping her or b) Side with the wardens and be seen as a traitor to loghain (yall realize that she would lose any edge she may have in the landsmeet, against loghain, because her support for the wardens required the element of surprise right?)

Of course, if your warden realizes this, it makes sense why you shouldnt make Anora try and explain to Cauthrien that wardens were rescuing her, and just tell cauthrien to eff off or fight. After that, Anora yeets out of there during the combat most likely and goes to Arl Eamon. (because she realizes the Blight is Bad and she needs the wardens to get the support if the bannorn, so they can supoort her for the throne back from her civil war instigating father, so she can stop the civil war.)

she can back either Eamon or Loghain in the landsmeet, and that decision ways on whether the Warden (the Neutral Factor) will support her bid for the throne. If the warden promises support, then she will support them in the landsmeet (btw, Alistair stannies, you can promise her support and still make alistair king, its called Lying. (no seriously you can go back on your word. Politics yo)

If the warden doesnt, then what fucking good are they?? If Alistair becomes king, first of all Anora doesnt get the throne (which she wants, because she believes shes the best for ferelden and she has basically ruled the country for 5 years. No one is going to just hand over the reigns of something they hold dear to a random noob who hasnt ruled a day in his life (the whole "But hes of the Royal Blood" is exactly the reason why monarchism is so damn dangeous and daft. Being of "royal blood" does not qualify one to rule. And we all know Eamon would have done all the ruling lmao) and secondly, she fears she may be EXECUTED. Tell me eamon wouldn't. She would be seen as a threat to alistair's rule (and by hidden extension, Eamon).

On that note: Anora doesnt owe you loyalty. Yall need to sit and eat some humble pie.

End rant.

This is why the landsmeet is my fave mission. Its an extremely well done politcal mission and honestly? Bioware did so well with that entire arc. Its just.. So... COMPLEX

Anyway, Stan Anora Mac Tir

[feynites]

On Flemeth, Thedas, & The Chess Master Archetype

"I nudge history, when it's required. Other times, a shove is needed." - Flemeth

Thedas is a terrible place.

There are a lot of terrible places, of course. And a lot of places that are more terrible than they might seem at first blush. But Thedas is basically the fantastical world-building equivalent of Mr. Burns from the Simpsons. Just with apocalypse scenarios rather than diseases.

It is therefore safe, in my opinion, to conclude that anyone pulling the strings behind the scenes in this setting is either:

1. Contending with one or more malevolent forces of equal or greater power

or

2. Pretty much just evil themselves

Flemeth would make a good case for just being evil, to be honest. Despite the fact that she’s saved two of the three greatest heroes to appear in Thedas in the past decade, she is currently sharing a body with Mythal (the ‘best’ of the evanuris... who were power-mad slave-owning tyrants), she is an abusive mother, and her full agenda would not need to be benevolent for her to ‘nudge’ history in ways that ensured things like the failure of the Blight, or Hawke’s survival. Saving the Warden only really confirms that she is not in favour of the Blight, and of course, Hawke’s survival was part of a bargain which resulted in her own resurrection.

But BioWare is very fond of maintaining ‘grey area’ in its characters, so it’s highly doubtful that she (or Solas, for that matter) will be revealed as complete villains in the fullness of the series.

Despite a shared history with one another, and the obvious potential for an alliance, Solas also does not approach Flemeth to conscript her voluntary aid. He instead seizes some kind of essence from her (the full details of which are still unknown) in an act that seems to result in Flemeth’s death (but, Flemeth has appeared to die before, and would seem to have created many failsafes and back-ups - whether Solas’ actions negate those or not remains to be seen). 

This would imply that Solas’ plans, and whatever Flemeth has been ‘nudging’ the world towards, are not one and the same. Or, if they are, that Solas is unaware of this.

So what is Flemeth doing?

While Solas may have gained the ultimate reputation as a manipulator and schemer in Dragon Age, being Fen’Harel himself and all, from what we know, his own machinations must pale in comparison to Flemeth’s. Solas has seemingly spent the time between the erection of the Veil and the events shortly preceding DA:I in uthenera, essentially regaining his strength and watching the world through whatever parts of the Fade he could perceive.

His plan appears to have actually been quite simple and quite devastating - tear down the Veil, destroy the world as it is, and replace it with something else. That is not a ‘chess master’ type plan. That is reactionary and brash, inelegant and probably quite emotionally-driven. This isn’t to say that Solas cannot excel at subterfuge or calculated games. Only that he doesn’t seem to have been engaging in such schemes for the past several centuries at least - and why would he? If he had already decided to scrap Thedas as it is and arrange some kind of do-over scenario, then there would be no need to tweak or nudge situations beyond ensuring that nothing interfered with his ‘wake up, get power, remove veil’ plan.

But Flemeth has obviously not just been waiting for Solas to wake up and get started on that.

The thing is, whilst Solas may have known that some form of Mythal was still out there, it’s not much of a leap to suppose that he had barely accounted for it in his own schemes. Him going after her was an obvious last resort, after the foci was broken. And, from the way he approaches the death of the Spirit of Wisdom, and the way he speaks about Mythal, we can suppose that Solas does not truly consider Flemeth to be equivalent to the person he knew. Part of her, yes. A form of her. A shape that has come from her ashes. But not the same individual.

On the other hand, we have no reason to think that Flemeth has not been entirely aware, ever since Mythal came to her, that Solas is out there. And knowing him as she did, one might also suppose that she could make a fair guess at what his own plans would be. Perhaps not down to exact details, but Solas seems to have had agents acting for him in ways even while he was sleeping (Felassan, who is probably not alone in this), and so Flemeth may well have gleaned more of his aims through spirits and elves and even just what she could infer from rumours, too.

So in one corner, we have a character who has been set up by the narrative to be a skillful nudger of history and planner of plans, who has been conscious and active for at least six hundred years (the nearest thing we have to a birth date for Flemeth - not Mythal - is 3:00 Towers, game events are currently in the middle of the Dragon Age, which started in 9:00). 

In another corner, we have a notorious trickster and manipulator who has basically been napping this entire time, and only just woke up to try and knock the chessboard over to start a new game. Upon failing that, he has since been forced to try and join into a game that has already been in session for centuries.

And in a final corner, I deeply suspect that we have at least one other party, and that this party is, if not purely malevolent, somewhat closer to that mark than either Solas or Mythal. Thedas has a problem that does not stem from either of those two - we know this because all evidence suggests that Solas is playing against time and is reacting to something, and if it were only Mythal, that need for haste would have been resolved when he seemingly neutralized her. (Unless, of course, Solas doesn’t realize that Mythal is as big of a threat as she is). 

Also, if there isn’t at least one another major player lurking in the dark, then either Solas or Mythal will have to lose their grey moral status in order to account for the fact that Thedas is, simply, as shitty as it has become. Another possibility is that Mythal is actually really incompetent at manipulating things, but that doesn’t seem to be where the narrative is leading. 

Regardless, though, the actual odds that Flemeth has just been out-maneuvered by Solas seem... really, really low. I mean, best laid plans of mice and men and all that, but she has quite simply had too much time and too many advantages for her to not have supposed that, once the orb was destroyed, Solas would make the choice that he did (the likeliest possibility for her being caught by surprise would be that she just never thought that he’d betray her, but given Flemeth’s cynicism, that also seems less likely than other options). Even if she doubted that he would take such an approach, it must surely have occurred to her as a possibility.

Here’s another point of interest - Flemeth’s first positive action in the series, saving the Warden and Alistair, is probably not a choice that Freshly Woken Solas would have made.

Though Solas is definitely no fan of the Blight, he’s also no fan of the Grey Wardens, and doesn’t seem to consider their actions to be all that beneficial. They are, in his opinion, stalling for time. In banter with Blackwall, he questions the assumption that killing all the Old Gods would stop the Blight - which also throws into question the notion that the Archdemons really do ‘lead’ the darkspawn, or are actually the source of the unifying call which the darkspawn hear.

Flemeth, of course, sends Morrigan along to fetch Urthemiel’s soul from the archdemon. But this is only a potential outcome - Morrigan offers the ritual, but she can’t force it. In plenty of world states, it never happens, and Urthemiel’s soul is lost with the warden who kills him. Such can be the outcome of gambits, but, really good manipulators rarely make moves with just one winning outcome. The best moves will net you advantages even when they seem to be losses, and Flemeth risks a lot when she sends Morrigan with the Warden. She risks her daughter, who she has obviously raised with an intended purpose and invested a great deal of time (and at least some emotion) into, she risks being killed (she’s not at all surprised when the Warden comes to slay her), she risks further awareness of her activities (if the Blight is stopped, the Warden and/or Alistair stand to become powerful figures - if not the flippin’ king and queen of the whole country - who are well aware that she is out there, probably even if they do decide to kill her).

In other words, Flemeth probably stood to gain more than Urthemiel’s soul by investing in the Wardens. She stood to gain something that she would get unless the entire endeavour failed. The end of the Blight? That’s, so far, her given motivation. But the Blight probably would have ended even if it had taken most of Ferelden down with it, and Flemeth doesn’t really seem to concern herself with the plight of the little people all that often.

But, the Warden’s survival also means that the Urn of Sacred Ashes is discovered. Haven is established and becomes easily one of the most famed locations of great, mysterious power in Thedas. 

Flemeth’s actions also mean that Hawke arrives in Kirkwall - Kirkwall, which is a hop skip and a throw away, relatively, from Corypheus’ prison. One of the only people who could open the prison of the guy who is the seemingly-perfect pawn for Solas - who is waking up, now - is freed by Flemeth’s nudging. The location where he performs the ritual to unlock Solas’ orb is also opened up by Flemeth’s nudging.

Flemeth, given her sheer age and experience, probably knows that Corypheus can hop bodies. She can, after all.

Solas’ plans are part of Flemeth’s plans. Ordinarily, I’d say it’s far-fetched to assume that Flemeth could know about stuff like the Warden’s need to find the urn, or Hawke’s father’s role in Cory’s jail time, but given how long she’s been around for and how many ‘fortuitous’ places she has turned up in, I don’t think it’s actually as absurd as it might seem. A lot of it probably is luck, but that’s the thing - if not Corypheus, Flemeth might have found someone else, someone who fit the same criteria, to tempt Solas with. Maybe the Architect. Maybe one of her daughters. Someone who could survive the destruction at Haven, someone who would reach for more than Solas expected.

Hawke just happened to present her with one option, and she seized upon it.

"Is it fate or chance? I can never decide." - Flemeth upon meeting Hawke in DA2

But what would her goal be?

Solas might disdain the wardens for only being able to buy time, but that’s because, I think, he still has a predominantly immortal perspective on things. Delaying tactics just seem short-sighted to him, especially if he doesn’t really have a workable plan beyond a do-over. In fact, if that’s all he’s got, delaying might even be actively worse because it could tempt him to put things off continually, and the longer he puts things off for, the more likely that the clock will run out and he will miss all windows of opportunity for whatever it is he needs to do.

Flemeth, on the other hand, has been living with mortals and mortality a lot more actively for the past few centuries. Decay isn’t as new and weird for her, and delaying Solas might be exactly what she needs. Delay, manipulate, distract, and trust him to do what he thinks he needs to, while he actually races down a track with barriers she’s been setting for hundreds of years. Flemeth’s actions have indirectly ensured that what Solas meant to have happen in little more than a year has now been set back by several.

But what is she pushing towards?

There’s some implication that it might be total destruction, as her desire for revenge has been alluded to. A lot of people read this line:

“She was betrayed as I was betrayed – as the world was betrayed - and I will see her avenged!" - Flemeth explaining some of her motivations in DA:I

As Flemeth having something of a ‘burn the world’ mentality. But, in that statement, she does not put the rest of the world in the ‘traitor’ category. Instead, she equates it with herself. And, unlike Solas, or Abelas, who seem to struggle with the connection between modern elves and ancient ones, Flemeth has no problems speaking of modern elves as the natural inheritors of their ancestors’ culture, legacy, and even bad habits. Which makes sense, because she’s seen a lot more of the actual transitions happen. But, the point is that if she wanted revenge against the whole world, why would she be offended at the world’s suffering?

We know of two big betrayals in the course of Mythal and Flemeth’s existence. One is Flemeth’s, which of course is Lord Connobar killing her lover and locking her in a tower, which seems to be how she and Mythal... uh, met. So to speak. The other big betrayal is when Mythal herself was killed by her fellow evanuris. If Dalish legends are at all accurate, the other evanuris were in large part Mythal’s own family, too, which probably added to the feelings of betrayal.

But when was the world betrayed?

Solas, despite having a calamitous impact on the world by raising the Veil, didn’t betray it. Raising the Veil was a last-ditch effort on his part to prevent the world’s destruction. It’s been likened to something like amputation (for obvious Inquisitor-parallel reasons) and I think that fits. Solas cut off part of the world because at that point in time, it was all he personally could do to stop it all from being destroyed. There’s a lot to unpack in that, but the ‘treachery’ part of the equation seems largely angled at the same people who betrayed Mythal, too.

So we have yet more space where it would seem a mysterious third power player - the person(s) Flemeth has truly been sitting across the chess board for all this time - to come and fill in. The other evanuris? Supposedly they’re still locked away (and the locks breaking on that prison might be the clock which Solas is racing against), but we don’t know how much influence they might still have (after all, Mythal’s supposed to be dead and Solas was supposed to be sleeping, but they still did stuff in the meantime). The Forgotten Ones? A wrathful Maker? The Titans? A titan? Or some combination of those things?

I’m honestly not sure. But, Flemeth seems pretty convinced that she is going to avenge Mythal - and has implied that avenging Mythal will avenge the apocalypse doorjam that is Thedas, too. And she knows Solas is up, about, and making plans when she tells you this vow. This vow which comes after the Well of Sorrows choice, aka a sequence which concretely introduces the concept of magical contracts and promises into the setting.

Under those circumstances, I am less worried that Flemeth might have targeted the world at large for retribution, and more worried about the collateral damage.

But, on a final note in this long rambling thought train - it’s a point of interest that unlike the Warden and Hawke, Flemeth does not seem to have manipulated events to bring someone like the Inquisitor into prominence. She doesn’t get involved with the Inquisitor until much later, and then it’s only optional that the Inquisitor will be placed under her influence. Solas is the one who decides to involve the Inquisitor in things, and in this case, I don’t think it was under a set of circumstances which even Flemeth could account for. Even Solas wasn’t expecting the Inquisitor to potentially do stuff like befriend him, romance him, jolt him out of his sleep-walking, or help convince him of the personhood of all mortals.

Of course, this might be nullified if you drank from the Well. Otherwise, though, the Inquisitor is in something of a Wild Card position.

[randomramblesandlearning]

10 Things I Loved About Mass Effect:Andromeda

Warning: Spoilers! And I wrote this on the spur, so there might be grammatical errors.

1.      I enjoyed the story. Yeah, people will say it recycles from the trilogy, but come on, people. Why are you surprised? Bioware recycles their plotlines all the time. It’s pretty much the same in all of their games. A protagonist gains special abilities and leads a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits team to defeat a big threat. And I’m not bothered by that. Sometimes familiarity in your franchise is good, just as long as you do new things to the formula, and I think they do.

What interested me the most was the theme of starting over. A lot of people in the Andromeda Initiative were former criminals or outcasts. The reason they joined was to start a new life, and it’s explored in the main questlines, the loyalty quests, and numerous side quests. I was worried about the game talking about colonization since humans are looking for a new home, but I was pleasantly surprised that the game made it clear that Andromeda is the angara’s home first, and humans and other Milky Way species will have to work with them. Thank god! No Mightey Whitey trope this time!

2.      Ryder as the player character. I honestly never thought I would love Ryder as much as I did when I played the game. Sure, no one will ever replace Commander Shepard, but Ryder isn’t meant to replace the Commander, rather show a different perspective in a new story. Commander Shepard is the hero we want to be while Ryder is more of a relatable character. Ryder has to learn through the entire game how to be a leader while going through the obstacles of their inexperience and youth so people will take them seriously. And it was compelling, uplifting, and at times amusing to see them become a hero in their own right and step out of their father’s shadow.

Also Sara and Scott felt like their own person. In the original trilogy, the player character is pretty much the same no matter what gender. But sometimes the dialogue can be different depending on if you play a male Ryder or a female Ryder. That’s because they are two different people who have had their own experiences and personalities. That really adds to the replay value!

3.      Female aliens everywhere! One of my major issues with the original trilogy was the lack of female Turians, krogans, and salarians. Sure we had asari an all-female race, and female quarians, but it felt weird that we met so many aliens with very few ladies. Not only do we get a female Turian squadmate, we also get plenty of lady alien NPCs gathered everywhere for random quests. We also have Kesh who works at the Nexus. And we get to see female salarians! And they kind of look the same as male salarians except with different voices. Thank god! It would’ve been horrifying to see salarians with boobs. Uh! And I’m pretty sure there were just as many female angara NPCs as there were males.

4.      The romances. Especially the queer ones. One of the things I love about Bioware games are the romance paths. Bonus points if there is a queer option. And as of patch 1.08, this game has the most number of queer romances in any Bioware game. I think my two favorite romance paths are with Sara and Vetra and Jaal and Scott. While representation for the LGBT community is improving in media, there’s no denying we still have a long way to go. And after again the crap year 2016 where we had a huge number of queer women characters die in tv shows, it was so wonderful to have a healthy and happy relationship between two women when I first played the game. And even if it wasn’t added until the patch, the romance between Jaal and Scott is absolutely sweet since we see two men show a lot of love and affection for each other which is rare to see in media.

5.      The Tempest Family. I adore every single character on the Tempest, and they really did feel like a family once you played further into the game. I am a sucker for found families, and to see these people who are trying to find a home ending up finding a home with each other just gives me so many feels!

Since there’s not really a huge crew in the ship like in the original trilogy when Shepard had an army of humans. In Andromeda, we have six squad mates, four additional crew members, and Ryder. And I think it made the family more intimate. It’s like our own little family lives on the Tempest.

Also I liked how there were more quests spread out throughout the game with the squad which I think was lacking in Inquisition. Plus. Movie Night is the best scene ever!

6.      In my opinion, the side quests were fun. I think this was one thing they improved from Inquisition. Inquisition side quests just felt like a bunch of fetch quests that got kind of boring pretty quick, and didn’t really add to the overall story. Some highlights from Andromeda were: Kadara, the angara reincarnation questline, the Turian jailed for murder, the anti-AI group, meeting Zaeed’s son, and those kids sending out a distress signal for a new light for their weed plant. HAHA!

They were compelling in their own right and included cut scenes instead of the Inquisitor going to some location like in Skyrim to do a thing come back to the quest giver saying, “I did the thing.” “Ok, good.”

7.      Unlike in Inquisition, there’s actual payoff for some of the quests you do. I don’t mean to be mean to Inquisition, I still love the game, but remember when we were promised that you had to build your forces up in order to defend against the main threat. Yeah, you built forces to get influence points to gain perks, and that’s it.

In Andromeda, while, yes. It’s not the same level as Mass Effect 2. When you actually complete quests and help out leaders, you can get different results during the final battle. Like, there’s a chance Captain Dunn may not survive.

Also, when you get 100% viability on all the planets, you get a special surprise on Habitat 7- being told that it will one day be habitable because of our efforts. Sure it was a side quest, but it just felt so rewarding!

8.      The climax was actually fulfilling and exciting. Again, something else Inquisition was lacking in. Seriously, when I first played Andromeda, I legit gasped when the archon was taking control of SAM node. The villain was actually living up to his threatening nature!

Just when we think we got everything under control, and are about to find Meridian, the Archon fucks shit up, and our sibling has to step up to save the day. Then we have to gather people we helped out and prepare for a final battle, and Ryder can finally prove themselves as a true Pathfinder and kick the Archon’s ass once and for all. People are saying the ending was as disappointing as ME3’s? Pfft…What are you even talking about?

9.      The angara. Bioware never fails to make me love an entire fictional species. Yeah, it feels a bit off that they pretty much have the same faces and the same 3 voice actors, but I really do love their culture. And I appreciate that they were clearly coded as POC while Andromeda didn’t go through with the whole Mighty Whitey Trope. The game wants you to respect their culture and to respect their home.

I love the angaran people are open about their feelings, I love how their religion believes in reincarnation, I love how we see angaran scientists, soldiers, merchants, mercenaries, and civilians. Also Aya and Hivraal are absolutely gorgeous!

And when Jaal finds out his people were created by the Kett, I was worried it was going to go the Dalish elves route, but Jaal points out that it doesn’t change anything about the angara. They are still their own people. And that was such an uplifting message.

10.  The overall light-hearted tone. I wrote a small post that got a good number of notes. (Probably the biggest number I’ve ever gotten), so to quote: “There was always this sense of hope and optimism about finding a new home. ‘Yeah, things may have gone totally wrong, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make them better’ was the overall message I got.

And really, with so many bad things happening in the world right now and too much of our entertainment supposedly being our escapism being dark for the sake of dark, this was something I think a lot of us needed.”

Mass Effect 3 had its light-hearted moments, and I love it, but man, that game was emotional draining.

It’s a bit discouraging to love something so much and get recommended videos on youtube pointing out the same flaws of that certain game, and why they thought it was a huge disappointment. Do I agree with some of their criticisms? Sure. Does the history behind the production explain the flaws? Oh absolutely.

           But people seem to forget that the original Mass Effect trilogy wasn’t without its flaws. I mean, sure everyone can agree on the Mass Effect 3 ending, but I could make a list of all the issues I have with the other Bioware games including Dragon Age: Inquisition (which despite winning Game of the Year, kind of suffers the same problems Andromeda had).

           So yeah, after the crap year of 2016, I was so excited to get a newly-released game that made me happy. And still makes me happy, and makes me in the mood to play another Ryder.

[sleepymarmot]

Markarth

What I expected when a suspicious looking red eyed man challenged me to a drinking contest in a Whiterun tavern: to be kidnapped by vampires or bandits

What I didn’t expect: to be teleported to a beautiful city on the edge of the map which I haven’t visited before. Thanks??

Markarth reminds me of Kirkwall a lot. A gorgeous city of white stone on the upper levels, a mining hellhole of poverty and brutality down below, all of that peppered with corruption and dark magic. (It also reminds me of Orzammar for the same reason + because it has its own dwarven city underneath. So it instantly has my heart because it's like my beloved terrible home -- almost two of them.) But it's even more effective here, because all levels are in the same map and you can gaze up and down and walk between them freely, without loading screens. And the intricate pattern of stairs is beautiful, though very hard to navigate.

Dwarven city:

I'm clearly underleveled for these Falmer. So many deaths and equipment swaps!

It's like the Deep Roads all over again: a beautiful dwarven ruin that is so big and complex and requires so much backtracking and difficult fighting that you feel you've been here forever.

Why the hell do I need to destroy the defenses I just activated?! What was the point of it then?!

I had to go back because the quest log thought I didn't pick up one of the journals (I did).

This game's arbitrary definitions of what is legal to take and what isn't continue to baffle me. Go to an archaeological site, steal a lot of artifacts and melt them down to make weapons -- completely fine in this world, apparently. Before I complete the quest, these artifacts lying around its giver him are marked "steal", afterwards they're marked "take". He gives me access to a museum where the same artifacts are all marked "steal".

How come this lizard can make herself dwarven armor and passersby will compliment it, but my dwarf Warden in DAO had to wear crap :(

Getting to play detective in a long quest was already cool, and now I get thrown into jail and have to investigate the problem in there and get out? That's awesome! And the plot itself is interesting too, and in this city I finally started to understand the main political conflict. I didn't expect this writing from the game that so far mostly consisted of exploration and grinding.

Welp. When two shitty factions were conspiring together I expected to take down both in the name of justice, not side with one or the other. Well, here's my first big choice in this game!

First try: I tell the thief "Madanach says hello" to see how he reacts and don't attack myself, he pulls out a knife and is killed by someone else. I follow the Forsworn, get their cool reward, watch as they wreak havoc on the city, feel bad.

Second try: Through persuasion I get a shiv and try to attack Madanach with it, though it doesn't work and I have to reload and just kill him with spells. I want to get the rest of the prisoners out, but they're hostile now. I leave alone, a Silver-Blood jerk meets me at the entrance. I kill him, because fuck him. The guards attack me and thankfully I remember that I can yield, which hasn't come up before because this is my first crime ever, murdering the most important person in the city right in the middle of the street. They offer me to pay a fine or serve jail time, I pick the latter because I'm very stingy. And now I'm stuck there. I even thought it was on purpose, because no one gets out of that mine. Finally I found the explanation: apparently the way to serve time there is to mine the ore, and I depleted all veins during the quest. I tried waiting a few days, but of course they didn't respawn that quick. I'm not even mad, this is hilarious. Oh wait, I reloaded and the option to serve time appeared. Problem solved, then. But I still want that loot... Though a guard just said to me that my name's been cleared by Thonar... who was the person I killed!

Third try: I keep trying to kill the king after getting his reward but get overwhelmed. One time I managed to kill him in the streets, but then I couldn't find Thonar's body, which was the whole point.

Fourth try: I kill Thonar very cleanly alone without witnesses, loot his body. (Thankfully, it's in the middle of the night.) I breathe out in relief and then realize that in this save I didn't get the Forsworn reward. Then a guard comes to arrest me, to my shock -- but the bounty I can pay is ridiculously low, 40 gold instead of 1000+ I got the last time. I checked, and this sum is for assault. Okay??

Damn, I wish this game would let me name saves, because I have like ten of them from this quest and it's a mess... I think I'll go with the last one. I can't take all of the Forsworn in the ruins at once, I tried several times but it's too difficult even with my best potions/poisons and equipment (yeah, I doomed myself to this by grinding crafting instead of combat skills...). I just hope that asshole is dead for real. I know this isn't a scripted ending and the game will probably have no way to acknowledge it... But still. Treasury house now has things for me to take, btw, and this confirmation that I officially sided with the Silver-Bloods makes me feel dirty. I feel this is another decision like choosing Harrowmont that I's going to haunt me... Meanwhile, Thonar's dead naked body continues to lie on the street in an undignified position. Realistically, I should not be able to get away with this, because I'd be the prime if not only suspect, but if the game lets me... 

Damn, and here I was peacefully working on my craftsmanship, thinking I'd be a lawful good who never commits crimes! Ha. Now that I've tasted the power of eliminating  a corrupt politician just because I want, I'm afraid it went to my head... I need a mod that makes the game acknowledge it, though. The Silver-Blood in the keep says "My brother tells me you've done us a service" -- I've murdered your brother before he could come home! Look, I know it's a lot of work to account for the death of every NPC, but don't make them killable then if it has no effect! I'm used to asinine binary choices in Bioware games, but when you can get rid of faction leaders through ordinary gameplay mechanics and it still doesn't count...

Well, that was a much wilder ride than I ever expected from the game. I think I've had enough of this city for now.

[commanderlurker]

I've had a day to decompress, I’ve thought about the game, and I've worked through a few of my feelings on it. They are contradictory and hypocritical. I fully acknowledge that. 

2,300 word diatribe under the cut, with game spoilers and character hate. I need to get it out of my system so I can move on with my life.

I went into the game with low expectations and the game still managed to let me down. I think one of the reasons for this is that I went into the game with the wrong mindset. I went in with high expectations for the characters while not really giving a shit about the story, because characters are what Bioware is good at! But in the end, the story was the most interesting part while the characters... well... they lacked.

My one continual feeling throughout the game was boredom. The side quests were boring. Travelling between systems was boring. Side quests that required you to travel between systems were so boring. Mining was boring. Crafting was boring. The characters were, mostly, boring.

There were a few moments of ah! Yes! But they were let down by poor execution. Take Ryder Family Secrets, for example. I absolutely loved that quest line and if I end up writing any fic for Andromeda, it will be based on this. Sure, finding floating orbs of light as 'memory triggers' was dumb but it's a game mechanic so whatever. The memories themselves were great. Alec's reasoning for partitioning them was mostly great. Then the big reveal at the end? Your mum isn't dead? WHOAH!! BUT, and this is a huge but,  the reactions you get from the two Ryders are, 'Wow! Isn't this great! Mum's not dead!' But I'm sitting here like, WHAT THE FUCK GUYS??? I was fucking pissed off that Dad hadn't told us. That he'd lied about her dying, that he'd gone so far as to take an unconscious woman who had already accepted her death to another fucking galaxy possibly without her consent. Don't get me wrong, it's a great twist! But the execution, the fact that the only 'angry' option I had to respond with was a confused and sad 'why didn't dad tell us' instead of an actual angry 'wtf dad' response really pissed me off and took away from the emotional impact of that whole story.

Sticking to the Ryders for a moment, I really did love my Ryder. Frustrating character creator aside, I made someone who looked great and the VA was perfect for her. I can’t stand BroRyder’s VA but that’s just me, not really a legitimate criticism against the game. BUT that your sibling is asleep for such a long part of the game doesn’t really give you much time to develop a relationship with them, or ‘remember’ them, as it were. Sibling wakes up and is very soon thrown into the Main Plot deep end. The stakes are raised too soon. I was sitting here thinking, if I end up having to choose between me and Bro, I’m going to choose me because I have very little reason to care about Bro.

First contact with the Angara was really underwhelming. We get a couple of interactions where we can't understand each other and then our translators kick in no problem. That's what annoyed me the most, actually. That they were so wary of outsiders/aliens was understandable in light of what you learn about the Kett, so I have no complaints there. But the whole scene was just… short. And… dull. That was really frustrating.

And, this might just be me being an Antipodean, but making the angara sound foreign by giving them Australian (and Dickens-eque servant/maid) accents just made me laugh. I kept expecting an Angara to turn up with a cork hat and a dagger between her teeth and suggest we go wrestle a crocodile. Not really a complaint, just something weird that kept pulling me from the game in an amusing way.

My other translation gripes are with the Kett interactions and then the Jadaan at the end. How did SAM manage to instantly translate this dead language? ~plot reasons~ obviously. SAM ended up coming across as a bit of a deus ex machina, except when the plot meant he needed time to decrypt something that he had no problem decrypting from a mission ago.

One thing I really liked about SAM: When you're in the Archon's ship and SAM say he (is he a he?? I don't care) has to stop your heart, kill you, in order to get you out of the Arcon's fancy jail. That for me was cool. It really highlighted the AI/Human conflict, and the characters' reaction to that, Lexi, in particular, was great. Again, if I write anything, the AI/Human relationship will be considered (but there are people out there who will do a much better job of that than me), BUT I didn't really feel like I had enough time to work up to that, to consider life before an AI implant and life after.

Game play: There were a couple of very frustrating instances of the game not being good in telling you what to do. In Liam's loyalty quest, you have to shoot/smash through a wall, but there is nothing about that wall to indicate that it is smashable. I kept following my quest marker and getting stuck at the wall, thinking, it can't be this way, I must need to go another way. In another mission, I encountered another such wall and Ryder or someone said, 'maybe try shooting it'. I don't know if I just didn't hear that the first time or what, but I got so fucking frustrated (don't get me started on how much I fucking hated Liam's loyalty mission and how much I ended up hating Liam afterwards.) I ended up watching a walkthrough on youtbube and when I this fucking player just shot the wall I almost threw my fucking controller across the fucking room. My god. In other games, a breakable wall is usually pretty obvious: a different pattern, a slightly off colour. It looks out of place. But these breakable walls just looked like they were part of the room.

The Krogan/Salarian conflict: Oh my god. Call me a space racist, I don't give a fuck, but I fucking hate the krogan and wish they'd not been brought to Andromeda. Being constantly reminded how much the Krogan and Salarians hate each other was really fucking grating. Morda was a fucking cunt. Wanted to shoot her. Wanted to nuke the entirety of New Tuchanka (with the exception of the nice romantic krogan guy. He was a sweetheart).

There is no nuance to their conflict. In the Trilogy, the krogan are fucking awful, too, but they're tempered by Wrex. The Salarians' involvement in the genophage is ~okay~ because Mordin is cool. (I don't like Mordin, FYI, I think he’s a fucking dick). But in Andromda, the generations-long conflict is constantly shoved down your fucking throat to the point where I stopped caring about the Krogan at all. Grow up, put on your big boy pants, and join the negotiation table. Stop playing the victim and acting like none of this is your fault (to be fair to them, they were treated very badly on the Nexus), take some responsibility, and stop threatening to blow people up. Terrorism, or the threat of terrorism, doesn't make people want to work with you, Morda! Or whoever. That quest was confusing. I wasn’t paying attention because my god, I just stopped caring about the fucking krogan and their fucking problems.

The shove-down-your-throat issue was really highlighted on the Archon’s ship. The choice between saving the Salarian Pathfinder and her mates, or some random fucking krogan scouts of Drack’s? Of course I’m going to choose the fucking pathfinder over some random fucking krogan scouts. Oh my god. What is wrong with the krogan.

On the topic of cunts, how the fuck did so many low life scum get into the Initiative in the first place? Just how many fucking exiles were there?!?! I killed so many. SO MANY. HUNDREDS. And the hundreds more in Kadara Port that I also wanted to murder with nuclear weapons but for some reason the game didn't give me that option. I read Nexus Uprising and while it gave me a bit more context (especially with Sloane--but that's a can of worms I'm not going to open right now) than what non-readers had, neither the book nor the game really answer a) how these fucks got into the Imitative and b) why so many people were woken up. If I remember correctly, only two people in the book had manual override codes for the cryo pods, and Tann, Addison, and Kelly agreed (for once) to only wake those needed to get the Nexus working. But there must have been, what, 10k people across the Nexus and the exiles? That’s the impression I got. I understand the need for “low skill” people like dancers and bar staff and cleaners in Helius, fuck, not everyone is a scientist, but I question why the people likely to shiv you were allowed in. That made me really depressed, actually. You travel to another fucking galaxy and we end up with another Omega. Great. Conflict like that lasts generations. Sons and sons and sons of the first exiles hating the sons and sons and sons of the Nexus for history that no one really remembers the truth behind. I vacillated between wanting to save as many as I could, bring them back into the Nexus family, and wanting to fucking nuke them all.

This leads to a point that I read in another post: Just about everywhere you, as Ryder, went, the exiles had been already. Whether it was a planet or a star system, chances are, Ryder stumbled across stolen Nexus shuttles/gear/satellites. In a game that was advertised as going-where-humans-have-never-been-before, there sure weren't that many opportunities for Ryder to actually be the first.

Do I do a breakdown of the characters? I feel like I should, since I went into this game really hoping to find my new OTP, the person who would break my heart in all the right ways. Positive first: I really liked all the female squadmates. That was the one thing I wanted and the one thing I got: Likeable women. I didn't fall in love, but I did get a great female crew.

All in all, the characters fell flat, and that's the most disappointing part of Andromeda. In Inquisition, I could forgive the shit plot and that the whole story peaked with the destruction of Haven because the characters made up for it. In Andromeda, the characters were at best, interesting, but mostly not much more than cardboard cutouts. Not much in the way of nuance. They rarely felt like real people, fleshed out.

Cora was not what I was expecting personality wise but I loved her anyway (except for her tragic biosecurity blunder with the seeds on Eos, but I'm putting that down to writing rather than her character). Her loyalty mission made me feel feelings, which is an achievement, to be honest.

Vetra is amazing. She's wonderful. I love her and I love Sid. Had she not been turian, I would have romanced her in a heartbeat.

Peebee was fun and unpredictable. She's who I ended up romancing and I enjoyed it, but that's all.

Liam. He was gone as soon as I figured out how to change my squad (and that took a fucking long time. That loadout system is not intuitive at all). I liked him fine to start off with, I just preferred Cora and Peebee on my squad. But then came his loyalty mission and fuck him. He was out. I was glad I got to yell at him at the end. Never used him again.

Drack grew on me. Totally love grandpa Drack. Surprise star. Still, never took him out except when I had to deal with the Krogan, which I avoided whenever possible.

Jaal got on my tits. Bro, please talk faster. I have five other crew mates to talk to, I don't have all day.

After I got over my disappointment of Lexi being an Asari and not, you know, Natalie Dormer, I really liked her.

Suvi's great. Liked her a lot, especially after you discover the ~truth~ about the Angara. There’s lots of nuance there, lots to explore in terms of creation and evolution. Her lip gloss looks like it tastes like strawberries.

Once I could remember Kallo's name, he was cool. I liked his and Gil's continual conflict and the way it was resolved.

Gil was great, though I worry he has a gambling addiction. I don’t have any strong feeling either way on his baby with Jill. I thought Jill was a dick, but whatever, I didn’t need to be friends with her.

I really liked the main missions. For the most part, it was action packed, full of suspense and wonder, and well executed. HOWEVER the Archon was a pretty fucking boring antagonist. One sided. I did see a post that talked about him being effectively a middle manager defeated by his own hubris, and that take does add some interest to him, but ultimately, he's boring. The kett are boring. They are Collectors. There is barely a difference between them and the Collectors. Cough *reapers* cough. A more interesting story could have involved just the Remnant tech. But you got to shoot, something, I suppose.

A list of the other shit I didn't like: crafting, R&D, AVP, mining, SAM talking over my squadmates to tell me shit I already know about AVP and mining, huge maps, mining, why the fuck am I the one doing the fucking mining, HUGE MINERAL DEPOSITS of 67 iron wow thanks that's great.

Yeah. I think that's it. I'm disappointed by how disappointed I am. I resent how much of the game is shit, and how much that shit detracts from what is actually good. I don't know how many of my complaints are legitimate criticisms or nitpicking, or whatever. But like I said at the start of this diatribe, I went in with low expectations and the game failed to even make it to that low bar. Perhaps, after enough time has passed, I'll pick the game up and stick only to Priority and Allies missions and hopefully enjoy it more. But right now? I'm bored. So bored. And so disappointed.

[pregnantcornbread]

Mass Effect: Andromeda - Choices, romance, further questions.

So, I preordered Mass Effect: Andromeda to be delivered to me via courier on release day. Why? I absolutely loved Dragon Age: Inquisition, and loved BioWare’s style. The hard choices you have to make actually make a difference in the story, as do your personality and influence (not like TellTale’s Walking Dead series, who promote that your choices matter, when actually, they really don’t, the story continues regardless). In DA: I, I was a female hunter Lavellan, with not-so pointy ears (which made a difference how the other elves interacted with me), and a Ghilan'nain vallaslin (which endeared me to the halla herders). I originally romanced Blackwall, but when he left, I went full Cullen, a satisfying relationship filled with awkward coughs, innuendo, and drug withdrawal – and frequent visits to the ramparts for ‘alone time.’ I spent over 300 hours completing every side quest, relishing in new environments, killing everything bad in sight, trying not to whine when all the important choices somehow fell to me (including what is to be done with a man who is flinging goats at my stronghold) and taking down all the dragons. I never felt tired playing that game, the ‘fetch’ quests were fun due to the party banter (hint: if you have your romantic interest in your party, things get hilarious!), and the lovability of your party, well developed characters who don’t just rehash the same lines all the time (except in fight mode: “Solas needs help” is still ringing in my ears, after all this time). The DLC was quite well crafted as well (although The Descent is possibly my least favourite – why am I collecting mugs in the deep roads again? Trespasser had a great ending, and gave you another change to mix it up with your crew). So my expectations were quite high with ME: Andromeda.

After spending a quick five minutes deciding on a male or female Ryder, I chose the obvious. After having to play countless RPG’s as a man (Far Cry, Shadow of Mordor, Sleeping Dogs, GTA:V, Witcher), I chose a woman, because yeah, I am one. I spent an hour fixing my Sara to look like a human rather than whatever the preset was. My Sara, in the design part, sort of looked like a young Mary Steenburgen. Satisfied with my choice, I got on my merry way with the game. Upon waking up out of cryo, I saw everything that was wrong with my Sara’s face, the shading was shitty, the skin was terrible, her nose was way bigger, her eyes looked purple in some lights (instead of deep blue) and what was up with her goddamn eyebrows? But in some scenes, she actually looked like the Sara I had designed. Rather than spend another hour redesigning her face, I decided to roll with it and keep her. It was a good choice, because she looked like present day Mary Steenburgen with worse skin and a neck tattoo, and looked like she had seen some shit and could handle her shit, rather than some prim and proper pathfinder’s daughter who was only on the ark because her dad said so.

End game spoilers ensue, so please read at your own peril:

The following is split up into three parts: My choices in the game, romance, and post-game questions.

My game is at 111 hours and 98% completion. There were two quests that I did not finish before completing the game (excluding the medicine quest after Herbal Entrepeneurs, because it was bugged) – ‘Path of Hero’ and ‘Aid Apex’ (because I killed all the architects before I got the mission, and so had no option to scan them). Post game, these quests are no longer available to me.

My Choices:

Sometimes I would leave the game running for hours while deliberating on a choice. My first choice was whether or not to have a scientific outpost or a military outpost on the first world, Eos. As your advisors tell you, what you choose will reflect on how the initiative is seen in the eyes of possible intelligent life in the system, and will set the standard of what you intend to do in the system. I chose a scientific outpost – less “we’re coming to invade you”, more “we’re just here to live and learn.”

First murderer: I chose to release Nilken, because intent is not a crime, but I also didn’t speak to his wife outside the jail, so his secret was not exposed.

Vehn Terev: I gave him to the resistance, because interfering with Angaran justice wasn’t the right play.

Path of a Hero: I spoke to Kerri, but declined her offer, as I was just new to this pathfinding business, and didn’t feel that I could offer any nuggets of wisdom. Then I forgot about it and it failed the quest. Meh.

Reyes Vs Kelly: Both are terrible choices for leaders, but at the time, I wanted to see where a romance with Vidal would go, I played it out, and was disappointed, but in my do-over, I still let Kelly die, because she was quite evil. Even though Reyes was a tosser for cheating, he still seemed the better hand.

Angaran AI: I gave the Angaran the AI, because I didn’t feel right about keeping it for myself – and potentially angering the Angara.

Secret Water reservoir: I let the Angara merchant keep the water in reparations for the outcasts killing her brother, and to prevent the Nexus from becoming a thoroughly colonising body in Elaaden.

Drive Core: This one was a bit fuzzy for me, because I was also doing the quest with the AI saboteurs, and they were talking about Overload (I think), a program about a weaponised AI, and Drack was sending me emails about Overload Morda, so I thought that Morda was a weaponised AI. I ended up scanning Knight’s hideout a little too thoroughly, which made her people hostile to me, and she ended up being sniped on the Nexus. Alain vows revenge, which is unfortunate, because SAM made him walk again. After finishing a few more quests, I came back to Elaaden and I ended up trusting Morda with the drive core, because pissing off all the Krogan was not my idea of ‘peace among worlds.’ Also, after all the shit the Krogan have been through, the Krogan need a voice at the table – they didn’t even get their own pathfinder!

Avitus Rex: Rex became a pathfinder, because he was out finding Turians when the Turians weren’t.

Sarissa’s Fate: I couldn’t let Sarissa keep her position after all that dickery that got her Pathfinder killed. It may not have been the smart move, but although she was the best person for the job, a huntress without her squad’s support will not go far. Also, I don’t think I could have looked at Cora if I agreed to lie to everyone about it. If Tann (number eight in line) can be the director, why can’t Valderia?

Salarian doctor: Ehh, what a moral dropkick. He got jail.

Exaltation facility: I let it stand, for further help in the final mission.

Salarian Pathfinder: This one was heartbreaking. A female Salarian who is an actual trained pathfinder (would have been the only one in my crew), who is captured trying to rescue her people despite my commands to get the f out of there vs Drack’s dime a dozen Krogan scouts. I had planned on saving the Krogan scouts beforehand, and had Drack in my party, but while I was doing this mission, I was really torn. If I choose the Salarian, the Krogan won’t trust or respect me, but if I chose the scouts, I would get further support from the Krogan, with no real consequences on the Salarian side. Whatever I chose, I would be taking a side, with consequences down the line. I went with ‘Krogan lives matter,’ despite sacrificing the most badass Salarian, ever. I mean, every Salarian would want to mate with her just for the prestige!

Kill code: While it may come to bite me in DLC or sequels, I used it, just to get it out of the way. I don’t trust Primus to honour his deal in the future.

Ambassador: I loved Morda for the choice (just to spite Tann), and Bradley would have been a good second, but I ended up conceding power to the Moshae, I believe she was the smart choice. Although I had enough of a presence to unite the Angara and the Initiative, the Moshae would not be swayed by outside or inside influence. If I chose Hayjer, the Krogan would hate me, as much as “Krogan lives matter,” Morda would only act in favour of the Krogan and Clan Nackmor, and possibly make a heated attack against the Salarians/Turians in retaliation for the genophage, and Bradley, well, I could be accused of being specist.    

  Romance:

This is where I think the game could use improvements. It is pretty disappointing if you are FemRyder or a MaleRyder who doesn’t romance Cora (the extreme effort put in this relationship compared to the minimal effort of the others is quite disappointing – they actually kiss properly and there’s thrusting!).

Look at those two humanoids realistically kissing!

The lack of dialogue choices means that relationships become boring and quickly. While in DA:I, the cut away sex scenes did hold a little to imagination, that fact that you could go and talk to your interest during long, arduous missions and sneak away for a little kiss cut scene helped keep your interest in them, and having them in your party was always a hilarious time (“Keep your eyes off the Inquistor’s behind!”). While playing the game, you get a sense of your SO and your squadmates, their endearing and not-so endearing traits, it almost felt like they’re almost real people. DA:I is a well-fleshed out, well-written RPG, and the relationships are defining trait of this game – I’m sure that if all there was to do was going around killing things, I probably wouldn’t care. Instead, you help Cullen get off his lyrium addiction, let Iron Bull teach you your umm… limits, hunt around trying to find the perfect gift for Sera (much to the utter dismay of your compatriots), read terrible poetry to Cassandra, strong-arm a fop for Dorian’s pendant, save a spirit with Solas, challenge Josephine’s fiancée to a duel, save Leliana from spy assassins, and want to give Blackwall the coward another chance.  

The last major RPG I played that had multiple romance options was Fallout 4, and I romanced MacCready, Cait, Piper (just to shut her up – every time I’d talk to her, she’d want something more - ehhhhgghh), Danse and Curie (to also shut her up). Having one romance option in FO4 became too tedious, the only thing that changes is their scripted dialogue when they wake up next to you, so I romanced others to see what they said – because I honestly didn’t care about romance in that game because it was so flat.

Here’s who I romanced in ME:A (usually by flirting with everyone and then seeing what happens):

Liam – I started off flirting with Liam because he seemed interesting, until he quickly didn’t. His dialogue doesn’t change. You can’t really flirt with him in between missions after you’ve had a one night stand, and he’s so boring, I’d rather eject myself out of an escape pod than deal with him. If you go the whole game with Liam, he makes you a jump pack, but is it really worth it for being bored to death?

Vidal – I quite liked having someone off the ship to avoid a HR nightmare, but it turns out that after you become exclusive and dance with Reyes, that’s it – that’s your big romantic scene. Reyes becomes a chatterbox of nothing after that.

Jaal – Jaal is interesting, and unknown, and kind of reminds you of a perfect, dreamy boyfriend who is too in touch with their feelings, and you stay with them because you don’t want to deal with the fallout if you break up with them, because they’ll probably kill themself. Rocking a sexy, deep voice, I was almost convinced to be in a relationship with him, if not for Jaal’s confusing switch between Vulcan logic and hopeless romantic during the course of a conversation. Jaal is a warm space Mufasa, and will tell you what you want to hear, but his sex scene kinda sucked. Although the post coitus (?) debrief with Lexi is quite hilarious.

Vetra – I’m not sure if I didn’t flirt enough with Vetra, or if she didn’t want to be with me because I told Sid off – a lot, but perhaps it was never meant to be. My codex reads that Vetra hopes that we can be friends, so perhaps admonishing Sid worked against me.

Suvi – I didn’t flirt with her at the beginning, and I decided against a relationship with Suvi because her sex scene was awkward/awful.

Which leads to my commitment for the game:

Peebee is the one with the purple jacket… not young Sarah Paulson rocking the undercut…

Peebee – Peebee is a thorn in your arse from the moment she joins your crew. Rem-tech this, remnant structures that. Tight-lipped, evasive, and a motor-mouth, she’s a bit like Sera from DA:I, but a bit more grown up. She has limited long-range fighting skills, so bringing her to anything bigger than a small raider camp firefight is pointless. She insults Vetra, Liam, and Cora, but has some quite funny conversations with Jaal (interspecies breeding) and Drack (about their age). Liam and Cora, even during the final stages of the game, relentlessly question her loyalty. I chose Peebee because her storyline was the most interesting, as opposed to other potentials (Liam – “Hey, I’m a boring human too.” Jaal – “I’m an alien, meet my mothers, I moisturise my neck flaps.” Vidal – bad boy Han Solo). I turned down Peebee’s offer of casual sex, because at the time I didn’t want anything to do with her, so I told her that I’d want more to get her to leave me alone, and I didn’t want a Liam thing – where you have a one night stand once and then all of a sudden they want you to commit. But I kept flirting with her, regardless, recycling the “I like it when you flirt” dialogue whenever I got on the ship. I couldn’t do that with Liam, Jaal, or Reyes. Turns out, the more I learned about Peebee, through doing her loyalty missions, the more endeared I became towards her. From being tight-lipped and evasive to slowly trickling out interesting snippets – like her relationship with Kalinda, and her rem-tech project, she started to grow on me as I realised that she was not like the others, who give you all the information up front and you spend the rest of the game cycling through dialogue that you first heard 70 hours ago, with minor changes mirroring your progression in the story. You have to prove to her that you’re trustworthy. If you do commit to a relationship with her, and reciprocate her trust - it leads to a pretty explicit sex scene – complete with Asari melding. While the mechanics of the scene are quite awkward with FemRyder’s weird facial features – she looks like she’s super confused and not enjoying it all – trusting Peebee enough not to leave you brain dead during the first time she has melded with someone, and having Peebee trust you enough to meld with you makes the relationship all that more worthwhile. While I’m all for space boinking, Peebee’s relationship was less about the physicality of the act of boinking, and more about the trust and emotional connection inherent in the relationship, which I felt was satisfying. Post-meld Peebee has some killer dialogue aboard the Nomad, inviting Cora over for a pyjama sleepover, faking extreme horniness to get Jaal to admit that he was faking being asleep, and at the end, when you ask her ‘what am I going to do with you?’ she offers to make you a list. But the relationship and closeness doesn’t really go anywhere near the level of a relationship that DA:I does, due to the stunted dialogue choices. Although, I hope I didn’t get Peebee pregnant.

Post-Game Mysteries:

The ending scenes kind of set up the unfinished issues for the DLC/sequels – Primus wanting to kettify everyone, exploring Meridian, understanding the Jaardan, finding all the other lost arks, how many more useless solar systems are around, etc. Some questions remain, though. Say if I find a way to fix Ellen Ryder, what could she add to the story, other than my mother being there? She may be able to assist with new gadgets for players who chose a biotic route, or will she just serve as a ‘bringing your romantic attachment home to mum’ trope? Should we care about Jian Garson’s death and the mysterious benefactor? You learn during the game that the Milky Way has been fucked over by the Reapers, but we can’t save them, should we care?

After finding out why Alec Ryder made Sara the Pathfinder, all I wanted to do was talk to Cora about it – she wasn’t “looked over” and the promotion was to protect Alec’s secrets (i.e. Ellen on board, Milky Way gone to shit). I felt like my number two deserved an explanation, rather than sullenly assisting the other untrained Pathfinders on the Nexus (who did nothing, by the way – go out and bloody Pathfind – it’s not that hard!). I noticed that after ‘Journey to Meridian,’ Cora seemed cold, and would barely speak to me. Perhaps she was disappointed in me choosing Peebee, or perhaps SAM leaked what I found out to Cora. Will I ever get the chance to tell Cora about it?  

During the pre-prologue descision making process, you get to choose if you want a Male Shepard, or a FemShep (your ME:3 save has no bearing over this game). I went with a FemShep, like my ME:3 counterpart. Did I hear Jennifer Hale during the game? No. Does it even make a difference? Unknown.

After leaving Meridan and coming back to talk to everyone, some questions remain. During the epilogue, you meet the new crew responsible for Meridian. After you come back, the Australian implores you to go and find the sprog (a baby). Every time I see Addison, I ask about the baby that was born on a spaceship flying away from the Kett, who I suggested the family settle on Eos (no way was I going to get that lady on the Nexus – she’d have hated it!), but when I’m in Prodromos, I can’t find the baby. If that baby has been stolen by the Kett, I swear – I will hurt Bradley!

Further questions: Will Lexi and Drack ever get together? Will Vetra find love? Will Peebee take Jaal’s offer to try Asari-Angaran reproduction? Will the Nomad ever get some tunes? Will Drack live to see great-grandfatherhood? Will Cora hook up with Scott? If I agreed to sign up for Jill’s insemination program, and Peebee was carrying my child, could I raise them as siblings? How would my FemRyder deal with being a father?

What would happen if the Jaardan came back to Meridian to check on their experiments? What happens if the scourge takes over Meridian? Have I screwed over all of humanity by settling them there?    

[lumateranlibrarian]

Black Emporium Exchange Letter

Hello, My Anonymous Friend!

Real quick, here are my listed pairings:

Female Cadash/Cullen Rutherford

Isabela/Vivienne

Female Cadash/Cassandra Pentaghast

Female Adaar/Sera

Male Adaar/Cassandra Pentaghast

Female Adaar/Cullen Rutherford

Cassandra Pentaghast/Cullen Rutherford

Female Cadash/Varric Tethras

Cremisius “Krem” Aclassi/Lace Harding

Female Cadash/Lace Harding

I have a lot of Female Cadash, a lot of Cullen, and a LOT of Cassandra, apparently. Not sure where the Isabela/Vivienne came from, but hey. I saw it and I went for it. I’m gonna list all the things I can come up with that might be good ideas to write about by pairing. Then I’ll lay out my squicks, and that will be that!

Possibilities for Female Cadash/Cullen, Female Cadash/Cassandra, Female Adaar/Cullen, Male Adaar/Cassandra:

If our characters met before the events of Inquisition, how would it have happened? Or maybe, how would it have changed their relationship at the start of or during the events of Inquisition?

I have a thing for Cop/Criminal AUs. Cadash and/or Adaar are roguish, romantic criminals, and Cassandra/Cullen are the flustered, frustrated cops who keep having to arrest them.

Consider the possibility: the Inquisitor comes to bail their lover out of jail for whatever reason. And they can’t. Stop. Laughing. Cassandra and/or Cullen just wants to go home.

Any fluff that takes place during Inquisition timeline. First dates. First kisses. Anything along those lines is GREAT.

For Female Adaar/Sera, Female Cadash/Lace Harding, and Krem/Lace Harding, some ideas:

FLUFF FLUFF FLUFF FLUFF. Cuddles, inside jokes, being soft with each other when there’s nobody else around.

Pranks and other shenanigans.

Modern AUs. Coffeeshop AUs. College/Grad Student AUs. ALL the cliched meet cutes!

Isabela/Vivienne:

I don’t even know. But these are two fiercely intelligent and dangerous ladies. How would they even meet? With Isabela’s belief in freedom and Vivienne’s defense of order, how much would they clash? Would there be a life-changing road trip in the works?

Cassandra Pentaghast/Cullen Rutherford:

MY MOST SECRET SHIP OF DREAMS.

FLUFF. ALL THE FLUFF. Just the sappiest stuff you can possibly come up with. You know they cuddle when they think nobody can see them. Cullen kind of likes the idea of being Cassandra’s disney prince, even if he straight-up sucks at it most of the time.

Practice. Sparring. Are they snarking or are they flirting? Bonus points if one of them sees the other person’s abs and walks into a wall (another person). And Cole is... there... being Cole...

This is definitely NOT the plot of that 30-second bit of Cassandra, Varric, and Cullen from that one awards video Bioware did. Not. At. All.

Honestly if you wanted to do the whole “person A has to bail person B out of jail and can’t stop laughing the entire time” here, it would totally also work.

Female Cadash/Varric Tethras

I’ve always liked the idea of Cadash and Varric knowing each other from before the Conclave. It seems to me that someone like Varric, with all his connections and informants, would definitely have some ties to the Carta. Why couldn’t Cadash be one of them? Exploring any aspect of that relationship would be really cool!

Cadash and Varric pass the time by testing each other’s skills at various criminal activities (pickpocketing, lock-picking, etcetera). It drives everyone else crazy.

That’s all I can come up with. Feel free to swap ideas between pairings if you think one of the ideas would work better with a pairing it’s not listed with. If all else fails, I like modern AUs, friends-to-lovers, and cultural misunderstandings. I hope I’ve given you some good stuff to go off of!

Now, for squicks. A short list, I hope. Please, none of the following:

Non-con or dub-con (this goes for kissing as well as smut)

Adult/minor relationships

Student/teacher relationships

Incest

Suicide/self-harm, or mentions of either

Thanks so much! I’m really looking forward to writing and reading for the exchange this year. You can reach out to me via anon if you have any questions!