#after everything we've been through

[angrykittybarbarian]

Not burning Bioware's HQ or cancelling anyone but after the audacity that was ME: Andromeda and Anthem I and many others have lost our trust in them.

To be fair the pleasent surprises about the marketing still outweigh this setback of the measly three choices we get.

But am I going to buy it when it premiers? No. They are not getting my money until I know what I am buying. I was so close to buying at release and you wouldn't believe how quickly I flipped my mind when the news about the choices dropped.

I get being friendly to new players but this also proves one thing: they are willing to sell what makes them unique for a quick cash grab. And I don't see how this could have been the only way to be new player friendly. As if it wasn't possible to simply have the three choices for new players and keep the Dragon Age Keep for the veterans. Or at least have us select more world state choices.

Because, yes, many things concerning southern Thedas may not affect the north so much but who has been selected to be Divine Victoria is a crucial consequence that carries over beyond Orlai's borders.

As we will see Morrigan again the question who drank from the Well of Sorrows should also play a big role and I honestly don't see how you will have Morrigan in the game and not override that choice. Not to mention the whole Dark Ritual thing in Origins.

Another relevant choice is what happened to the Grey Wardens in DA:I. It made a huge difference wether the Inquisitor exiled them or conscripted them into the Inquisition. This also is an effect that can be felt in the new game as we have a literal Grey Warden companion and may also choose to be one ourselves. How can you exclude that from the world state choices?

These are the things that I can think of on top of my head only.

So in conclusion: no the news about the world state choices is not worth cancelling the whole game and developer company over. But after three games where all of our choices mattered and a decade with no update it is a massive dissapointment.

And they have set the bar for themselves higher than necessary with this. I am sure we would have forgiven any flaw if we simply could import our world states as we were used to.

But now they cannot afford any mistake. This game hast do be perfect or it's going to be a gigantic burning sinking ship of a flop.

Folks, I gotta be real with you: Yes I too am disappointed that there aren't more choices carrying over in The Veilguard from the last three games, but I think the current fandom rage is a little over the top. It's not the end of the world. Can we just take a breath for a second and remember that this new game is set in Northern Thedas, where 99% of decisions made in Southern Thedas ten or more more years ago of course aren't going to matter, if you think about it? And on a meta level, I imagine the goal is to make this game as friendly as possible to brand new players, not out of spite towards existing fans.

[shanastoryteller]

the family dynamics that 1x20 dead man's blood establish are incredible actually. the og the blueprint we should have never strayed from this light

[wifiwuxians]

why would you say something so horrible

i really have great appreciation for the manhua making xue yang tear up exactly one time when his feelings are hurt. you know shitposting is my lifeblood though and i have slowly been trying to work my way back up drawing wise (it's pretty rough!), so i had to dunk on my favorite little princess 💖

[ID: a three panel comic of xue yang and song lan having an encounter. the backgrounds, consisting of a few rooftops and branches, are very roughly drawn, as are the panels. in the first panel, xue yang smugly asks song lan "You following me? Are you in love with me or something?" with a hand on his hip. in the second panel, song lan bitterly responds "No." with the top half of his face in shadow to denote disgust. the third panel is of xue yang bristling in offense, with crazed eyes filling with tears. his hair is puffing up as if he were a ghibli character. xue yang is tan and has red eyes and red tips in his hair. song lan is pale and has blue eyes and blue tips in his hair. /end ID]

[tennessoui]

Also for the martian-esque au idea! What if Anakin had short, clean-cut hair but they were stuck on a planet for years and haircuts were just Not A Priority so he ended up with long curls a la Hayden's original hair length with the ponytail and etc for ROTS before they went with the wig. And Obi-Wan gets a bit more Attached to Anakin's curls than he realized, when the crew offers to give them haircuts post-rescue....

yes!!! also anakin teases obi-wan because he's fastidious about his beard and facial hair so they trim his beard once every week, minimum, so that it doesn't get too long or else obi-wan gets bitchy about it

and obi-wan teases anakin because they only have to shave his face once every like. two weeks. because he doesn't grow hair the same way. just a lot of homoerotic shaving/trimming of facial hair but also obi-wan starts really liking the way anakin's hair looks long and curly and never cuts it as short as anakin requests and anakin likes that obi-wan obviously likes it and so even when the crew offers to cut his hair back into the military close-cut of his first days on the planet (let's call it mustafar but we all know it's just mars), he turns them down

he can't articulate why he turns them down but he does. rather loudly and angrily actually

[commonmexicanname]

If I may also add…

This reaction is coming at the heels of being praised by the voice of God. The same voice of God who stopped archangels from threatening Aziraphale and Crowley. The same Archangels who have talked down to Aziraphale, telling him he's expected to fail in season 1, and whom he responds with these facial expressions:

To me, these and the ones above are similar. There's more hurt in the original set than this set, but both are telling us how hurt he is and how he's trying his best to mask it.

And now Crowley basically admitted that no matter what Aziraphale is planning, Crowley doesn't believe in Aziraphale either?

I think I understand a whole lot better than you do.

From my point of view, Aziraphale responds to Crowley's hurtful comment the way he has responded to other's hurtful words in the past. Just... ya know... even more hurt than ever before because this is coming from the person he cares about the most...

all this to say: when crowley says "I think I understand a whole lot better than you do," what aziraphale hears is you idiot and how can somebody as clever as you be so stupid and I was right, I was right, you were wrong, I was right. and he's fucking sick of it.

[goldenpinof]

When did they go to iceland?👀

i wish i knewwwww! Dan just told us during the ywgttn event in London that he has been to the Penis Museum in Iceland.

[amelikos]

Thinking about the portrayal of ancestry in Horizons.

[a-story-teller]

I was in a major car accident yesterday (got t-boned) and was very luckily a) alone in the car, as the passenger side got walloped and b) not injured. However I took care of everything and then went home and proceeded to sleep for 19 out of the following 24 hours.

[ayyponine]

not to be a milennial but harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban really is that bitch....

[catwyk]

im not even on ep 20 yet but john and arthur are just a podcast embodiment of the most toxic couple you know arent they

[allramnostorage]

wait jjk nation ARE WE SO BACK??

[blujayonthewing]

list of heavily moralizing questions to make my true neutral and deeply exhausted and fucking fed up ranger go berserk and just start tearing out throats

[naniwagusto]

I think Asuka's new wind attacks and vfx she has going on in 8 are her manifesting Kazama powers. She will either never get the ability to cleanse devils OR this is her precursor to getting that down the line. Even if she were to get her family's holy powers it would have to come from a moment of deep catharsis or emotion; Asuka would have to sincerely want for someone other than herself. In fact I'm still deeply glad 8 had Jin be the one to cleanse himself, due to a laundry list of reasons I believe that would have made Asuka terrible in that role, as opposed to him being the one to fix/better himself in the allegory.

But back to her and wind, wind makes perfect sense as an element she can be associated with. It fits with her bird motifs from the very beginning as a thematic symbol for her free spirit. For her taking pride in her freedom. For the storm that she is and exudes with all her strong headed turbulent emotions. For her self sufficiency. She's always been someone to do what she wants; someone blown in many directions by the circumstances that find her or she pursues. And it implies her movements have only grown in power that the force behind all her attacks is now becoming visible. Her power isn't getting stagnant it's growing meaning she's working at it and her body is responding.

She's gained a nature association like the other Kazamas but in a way that manifests from within herself, not a connection made with the world or the spiritual around her. From 5 to 7 she was forced into being alone. The battles she threw herself into then left her with no choice but to rely on herself and her own inner strength, running opposite to both Jun and Jin who matured their powers because of and in response to outside connection.

The new dragon install mechanic they gave her with 'Naniwa Gusto' is exactly this in practice to me. It's a rise in power and focus because Asuka off camera and through time became in touch with herself more and gained deeper understanding of her own spirit and power, but more importantly how to better control it. A lot of her new animations while in Naniwa Gusto exhibit precision, deliberately telegraphed control, focused aggressive bursts that make her active over reactive in only using her opponents against themselves before. And she's a Kazama from the inner city so detached from the heavy nature and spiritual tradition emphasis of the now dead main branch. Of course it would make sense for someone isolated like that to instead reach within themselves to connect to those sorts of concepts and forces. Most likely subconsciously when it started.

This is personal aesthetic choice too but I like to think when she does activate Naniwa Gusto, her eyes briefly glow whitish blue green to match her wind and the aura she gains in that state.

But I do really like the idea of Naniwa Gusto and her Rage Art now being able to summon wind on purpose down her arm/punch, giving her the Kazama dive kicks with massive gales behind them etc. Asuka has always been a self contained, opposing take on what it means to be a Kazama. So it's only fitting even when she gains power a Kazama is naturally expected to have her version of it manifests from her individuality, not conforming to her family.

[dichromaticdyke]

YOU ARE NOT UNLOVABLE !!!!!!!!!!

i know who this is from, and because i know who this is from, i have to believe this is true. at least a little bit.

[lululeighsworld]

excuse me !!

[miasanmia44]

Not the comment on my stream that calls us FC Hollywood normal like it's our real name