#a nice criticism

[lairofsentinel]

But the beauty of the series’ portrayal is that it speaks to faith in the more general sense as well. Faith in a cause, faith in oneself, reaching into the darkness of the future and praying that history doesn’t bite your arm off. You must have faith to believe in any cause, and you must struggle with it, knowing you will never receive a final answer. Dragon Age is a highly theological series that nevertheless understands faith as a pillar of even the most thoroughgoing secularism. [...] Whom or what do you believe? And how do you wrestle with the doubts and contradictions thrown your way?[...] Dragon Age never made fools of the faithful. There was always somewhere for faith to live, and it was revealed to be the fountainhead of virtue as well as evil. For every zealous, abusive Templar, there was a true Champion of the Just; for every conniving sister, there was someone like Leliana or Seeker Cassandra, for whom faith was an inspiration to do good in the world. And there was something quite beautiful about the fact that your Warden, your Hawke from Dragon Age 2, your Inquisitor, could explore ancient secrets few were privy to, yet only find more mysteries than answers. This is a realistic and respectful reflection of faith—it’s a beautiful, lifelong struggle.[...] Veilguard, by contrast, is a parade of Final Answers that the game has little interest in exploring.[...] This is in stark contrast to something Solas himself said in Inquisition about the Fade—the realm of dreams and spirits where these memories play out in Veilguard. Your Inquisitor can ask him what he’s seen in the Fade, and he gives an example drawn from the series’ own history, such as the Battle of Ostagar, which opened Dragon Age: Origins. Teryn Loghain MacTir left King Maric (and your Warden) to die to a horde of darkspawn by calling an early retreat. You can excitedly ask Solas what ‘really’ happened. But, he says, there is no Truth to be found. Only the reflection of peoples’ experiences and memories. Thus, some view Loghain as a hero who saved the army from a vainglorious suicide march by a naïve king, and others view him as the traitor who condemned the king and the Grey Wardens to death. There is no truth, only perspective. The elemental stuff of history.[...] Dragon Age’s earlier games thematise silence beautifully. When the series presented you with mystery, it enjoined you to embrace the silence and think with it, to embrace the beauty of all you didn’t know and might never know. Veilguard is quite noisy, however.

katherine cross's writing on dragon age is always beautiful and insightful and this article on aftermath in particular gets at the ways that i felt let down by veilguard's many many many cosmic answers

[planefood]

rules for thee and not for me

[lizzybeeee]

When you spend 20 years attempting to bring down the child slavery, murdering, human trafficking exploitation ring that stole your childhood, murdered your friends, and killed countless innocents only to have them rebrand as 'Noble Freedom Fighters™' off-screen.

[slfcare]

be critical of yourself in a way that lifts you up, which means: catch yourself when you're thinking mean things about yourself / correct yourself when you're imagining what negative opinions others might have about you / encourage yourself to do better next time in a gentler and more optimistic way / never strive for more without acknowledging how far you have already come. it's okay to be nice to yourself.

[bixels]

I watched Starship Troopers tonight.

[batfamfucker]

What About The Kens?

I'm already seeing guys complain about the Barbie movie end, how they wanted Kens to be equal in Barbieland but were only given a small part on the Cabinet.

That's the point.

You're meant to feel bad for the Kens. Believe me, women aren't partying over the 'Returns to Matriarch' ending. Some will be, but the ones who also clocked the meaning behind it won't. Most women will also feel bad for Kens. Because it's an exact parallel to how women are treated in reality.

Men, you're meant to be upset. You're meant to question it. Because you're meant to feel it, and feel what that is like, so you can finally understand women. You're upset at seeing it in a movie, now imagine living it in reality. That's being a woman.

Kens were shit on so you could feel what it was like for women this entire time. Kens were being used as a placement so you could see yourself in a woman's shoes. A world dominated by the opposite sex. When Ken leaves, and sees male presidents (All men) for the first time, men being doctors and lawyers, etc, realising he is more than just a prop for Barbie, that was on purpose. Because that is the feeling that Barbie gave to women. It's why you cheer for him at first before he goes a little overboard.

It's exactly why the real world was an exaggerated Partriarchy and Barbieland an exaggerated Matriarchy. Neither wins. Neither is equal. None of them change for the better. It's why you should want women in the real world to be respected, and Kens in Barbieland to be respected.

The thing is, women also didn't win. Not in the real world. In Barbieland, yes, but not anywhere else. The real world didn't change. But you didn't notice, did you? That Gloria (The mother that helped Barbie) also didn't get a position on the Mattel board? It was still all men? Her idea was ignored until it made a profit, and the men will likely get the credit? She'll still just be the receptionist? The women representing the real world didn't get anymore opportunities, neither did the men in Barbieland.

I was hoping that Gloria would be offered a position on the board, and that the Barbie Cabinet would introduce another entire Cabinet to represent the Kens, but neither happened. They're complete mirrors.

But which one did you actually notice? Which did you actually care about? Now tell me again the ending was unfair. Because it was. For both parties. That's the point.

The difference is, Barbieland is fictional. You will walk out of the theatre with the reassurance that at least it's not real. Women won't. Women can't. Companies not giving women equal opportunities or voices isn't fictional, and that was just one example. There are no women presidents (USA at least) for us to go look at in the real world. We don't have somewhere to go to realise it could be different for us like Ken did. Barbie and make believe is all we had when we were kids, or even now.

You're supposed to be mad, just not at the movie.

[swordmahes]

BIG DICK IS BACK IN TOWN

[formulaonedirection]

and when I hurt / hurtin' runs off my shoulder / how can I hurt when holding you 💕

[hemisphaericas]

Essek doodles!

[jadequarze]

I miss them T^T I miss the blue girlies

[benevolenterrancy]

("Always. Continuously. With increasing apprehension, and decreasing hope. I will love you if I never see you again, and I will love you if I see you every Tuesday. I will love you as a corpse loves the beak of the vulture. I will love you no matter what happens to you, and no matter how I discover what happens to you, and no matter what happens to me as I discover this." -- paraphrased from The Beatrice Letters, Lemony Snicket)

[liltaireissocute]

i love those girls so so so much

[burr-ell]

i cannot believe perc'ahlia nation thought vax II would be all soft and sensitive and when we finally meet him he's a heinous little shit. incredible, no notes, i need five hundred more hours of this

[fleckjayky]

I find it a little funny how Laudna 'holding Imogen down' is depressing, while over there's Fearne asking Ashton to "not let her float away" an them saying "got you"

It's like..

[ruby-static]

Welcome to another episode of “Riley’s curiosity gets the better of him, and now he has to experience situations™.”

This time, he’s gotta deal with the Twilight Zone mad scientist crater.

[phemiec]

nice