#also theres like no fantasy racism in this game

[cockringvarric]

something struck me last night but I think this is the first dragon age game without fantasy catholics? I really don't think anyone has mentioned the chantry or the maker or andraste once

[hungee-boy]

Feel free to ignore if you’re uncomfortable with or just don’t want to answer but how would you change isebela to not be caricature without changing the whole character? Would it be more fashion changes or physical or something else?

Kinda like: how would you change her if you were her character writer/designer for the new game?

isabela at her core i think is a very compelling character and is relatable to a lot of romani experiences, especially with her doing whatever she has to to survive

i would definitely keep her stealing as castillion's responsibility, him making her steal the tome of koslun under threat of death for example would be fine because if he wasnt in the picture, chances are she wouldnt have stolen it in the first place

other forms of thievery besides just like looting bodies and picking chests (as those are gameplay mechanics for all characters) shouldnt be for her enjoyment or greed, only for her survival or just not done at all

her staying a pirate is fine imo and i like the idea of her being an ethical pirate (like her freeing the slaves castillion had her transport) but we all need to look at how pirates are depicted in fantasy and how much of that is anti-roma racism and caricatures

her being so sexualized and her comments on "life back home" are where i have the biggest issues honestly

like romani women have always been targets of fetishization and sexual violence, as well as many women being sterilized without consent to prevent more romani children being brought into the world

getting some damn clothes on her would be a great start, like some pants at the very least. i would like to incorporate more romani clothing in her design tho like maybe a traditional blouse instead of her usual top

maybe a romanced isabela can have her replace her blue dikhlo with red, since wearing a dikhlo is usually reserved for married women of certain vitsas (most common with eastern european roma if im not mistaken) or giving her a red hipcloth (again specific to certain vitsas)

romani dress is usually modest and loose fitting, with women commonly wearing long skirts and blouses with jewelry and adornments to symbolize her wealth and status and im not saying isabela should be covered head to toe, shes an open person and not every romani woman should be expected to dress one way over another, its just her look is way too impractical for the sake of being sexy and again romani women are very often sexualized regardless of what they wear

isabela's attitude towards sex and being open to intimacy is not an issue on its own, what is the issue is how the writers make fucking jokes of her sexuality at every chance they get (like the std joke in anders' clinic, aveline's slut shaming, etc. etc. etc.....) and this is just my personal opinion but there are times that she comes on too strong to like hawke or carver or fenris that seems unrealistic and just like an attempt for the writers to further hone in on how horny shes supposed to make you feel

like yes have her be open and not ashamed of being intimate but put more love and respect on it. i love an isabela that is repressed in her own feelings and the only way she knows how to have meaningful connections is through sex cus thats what was expected of her. like oh my god do you know how many people relate to that, if its done right it could be a very compelling arch to her character and maybe something she learns isnt concrete the more platonic/romantic meaningful time she has with everyone in da2 and beyond

as for her comments about rivain and the people there, like the phrase "even deny a fortune teller and theyll run you out of town" to merrill, just makes rivainis out to be greedy and shameless swindlers and that projection is obviously also put on romani people since that is a VERY common stereotype

like the phrase "getting gypped" literally means to be cheated and comes from the word gypsy. theres no denying the intention the writers had when they wrote that line for isabela

and honestly i love the idea of rivain (i say the idea cus we only hear accounts of the nation, we havent seen it in person yet) i love the idea of a matriarchal society that is religious and spiritual but does not tolerate the chantry's bigotry and openly accepts society's outcast such as mages and qunari

romani culture irl is patriarchal and often anybody who is not romani is typically not trusted, but if rivain was treated as an idealistic fantasy romanistan, where our values and traditions are implemented and we make a better world for ourselves and other outcasts then it could be very compelling

thats the thing with representation, sometimes it doesnt have to reflect reality 100%, but it still requires knowledge so that you can make new ideas based on the facts and reasoning of the group youre representing

[raven]

As someone who plays persona I feel you’re a good person to ask: should I play a persona game

you know a game is a real one when the answer is "if you do, please dont think im stupid for liking it". the first persona game anyone should ever play is persona 5 royal and that game is. well. the best part isnt until 70-90 hours in on average. tries really hard to be a social commentary but fumbles basically every aspect. can barely keep a cohesive character arc for most main characters. "the gameplay is really good though" -karl marx. so like short answer, do you have a hundred hours or so and want an excuse to hate on something's story and politics while also having a good time in the actual gameplay, sure... i feel like i can recommend this to any general person but i feel less confident recommending it to you specifically as i feel you are a woman of taste. but you're also someone who loves the slop at times. and what is this game if not slop. i put the rest under a read more because i said too much. My bad for being loquacious

like storywise i do like it... Mostly. and i do like the characters. and i think akechi is genuinely a great character, well written, well acted, yaoibait, knocked everything out of the park with him. he is what kept me going, but if you dont like characters whose main flaw is that theyre a teenager and therefore stupid, he might not click with you. like yeah, everything he does is poorly thought out... it's consistent. it's in character. and he does it with such swag, too. everything in the game's story seems designed around him, including the phantom thieves themselves. but i dont know whats in it for people who dont like him. not that you'll really get to know him for a good chunk of the game. which is the biggest thing... i could say "keep going, it gets better" but... does it? for everyone? it did for me, but it was made in a lab for me.

the game can understand that violence against women is wrong, but it doesnt understand what violence against women is. it can understand that the current system isnt working, but is too weak to actually take a stance on how to fix it. it's too obsessed with giving the player a power fantasy than to give them any challenges at all, or to make them think for a second. which i like in a game. i like it when games fuck up hard because theres more to discuss. and one of my biggest issues was discussed in the very last part. not necessarily to the depth i would have preferred, but it lets you draw your own conclusions. it also really shocked me at one point near the end there, which really colored my view in a positive way. i had grown complacent. i stopped thinking. i didnt think the game could do anything interesting... and then it did. but that level of shock was only because of my specific proclivities... i dunno. like it's hard to defend.. oh also theres a massive climax that builds up to a twist and reveal which is genuinely one of the worst ive seen a story ever do it, especially with such a strong set up. like genuinely laughable. but once you reach that part you're about 3/4 of the way through so you cant really stop there just have a laugh and know it's almost done.

the gameplay IS good though. like it's not only flashy, it's fun. i think the only issue is that it can be too easy, and the merciless mode is famously easier than hard. but as persona games go, it really is the best. it's just fun! the social sim elements are... well lets just say the majority of character writing in this game is stupid. otherwise, it can be fun to try to balance everything. it's possible to do it all on your first playthrough even if you don't know the perfect strategy, but if you fuck up too much you really wont be able to finish them all.

but heres the thing: metaphor refantazio just came out, which, aside from the time aspect (you have so much time lol) almost improves on persona 5 in every way. it's slightly less misogynistic. the social commentary... well, its fantasy racism, but it's a little more well thought out than p5's. but the main thing is the gameplay. and like, the gameplay in p5 was already good! metaphor is much more balanced for difficulty than p5's, but if you really get a hang of character building you can really take control. the slight differences in battle systems really take it for me. press turn system every day. i adore it. basically you get turns if you hit a weakness but if you miss you lose two turns. same goes for the enemies, so you can really get destroyed, but you can dodge every attack and they wont be able to do shit. but the story is, well, it's okay. there were some really good moments, and i liked it mostly because its kind of.. the least bad anyone could ever do it? it's pretty idealistic but just seemed like, nice in a way that i really cant describe. like, i have my issues with it that i could go into detail, but i still generally liked it. beautiful presentation as well-- and is that not all that matters? give me literally anything with a beautiful cutscene and I'll be tearing up. and the words "election magic" are so potent to me. its also shorter than p5r. but will it stick with me as much? no. would it have caused me to play the rest of the persona games? unsure. have i listened to the soundtrack so often while falling asleep that atlus is my number 5 artist on my spotify wrapped, not because the soundtrack is so calming or because i especially like it, but because i was trying to conjure a character in my dreams? NO. and persona 5 was a resounding yes on all fronts.

in terms of the other persona games, i dont recommend 4 unless you want to feel like, actually bad? i dunno it just put me in a foul mood. it was like radiation emanating from my switch for several weeks. incredibly homophobic with a side of (possibly slightly unintentional) transphobia. as well as some very fatphobic jokes (what game from this time period doesnt, but.. well it's bad every time!) and of course our classic misogyny. all this and the gameplay is worse than every other (new) persona game, and the story is fine. it thinks its twin peaks at the beginning. it is not twin peaks. LMFAO. 3 is better than 4 but theres not really a definitive edition even though it just got remade. each version has its ups and downs. if you look it up and any of it compels you i can give you more info on that one. the aesthetics alone are enough to be compelling , I'll admit. if you like boring and repetitive gameplay this ones for you! Im being serious. the story's pretty good though, and the characters are probably the best in the persona series. 2 (which is a duology, but the gameplay is the same and the second is well, a sequel) is pretty bad gameplay wise that i would only recommend if you're really into the series. i really liked the story but yeah i dunno. eh, it's fun. hard to recommend. 1 is okay. underwhelming. nothing much.

[cherriesandcharms]

What are your thoughts on the lack of elvish prejudice in DAV? As an elven rogue, I was pretty disappointed tbh

okay so beware spoilers below and im going to get rambly

also im assuming we're discussing the prejudice and hatred TOWARDS elves? if i got that wrong sorry for the unsolicited essay on the lack of fantasy racism lmao

im putting this below the cut bc it did get long

I will admit that this didnt cross my mind my first time through. but ur right, theres a distinct lack of "knife ear" comments. I haven't gotten far into my playthrough with my elf rook so idk how ppl react to them yet.

from what i remember there are comments from Bellara and maybe Davrin about the gods actions making things harder for elves but we dont see the evidence of this, which i would have liked to explore more

i have a couple of lore questions that i dont know the answer to that popped into my head while thinking about this:

do cities in northern thedas have alienages in the same way that the south does?

Is this something that the game doesn't show us, or do they just not exist and there is more elven integration, at least in the poorer areas we're shown (dock town in minrathous)?

with the way the class system and slavery in tevinter works, is the disdain shown towards slaves generally, regardless of race? Fenris was an elf, but his mistreatment was focused on him being a slave from what i recall

The Exalted March of the Dales was an Orlesian Chantry crusade in the south, without this kind of conflict in the north were tensions not as high between elves and other races (also potentially answering the alienages question???)?

maybe im stupid and easy to please but i can also rationalise the lack of fantasy racism with what we see in game

Factions:

the veil jumpers are lead by elves (or at least irelin and strife are our main contacts), spend all their time with elven artifacts, and primarily work in arlathan forest and are close with the dalish. makes sense we dont get racism there

the crows care more about their contracts, and again one of our main contacts (teia) is an elf, plus they're dealing with the antaam taking over the city, if ppl are gonna be racist im sure they have a target that makes more sense (sanitization of the faction attitudes is another issue)

the wardens are focused on trying to end the blight, and accept all races into their ranks anyway. i like that the first warden doesnt hate u bc of ur race but bc ur this random lunatic who strode in yelling about elven gods and distracting his wardens from fighting the blight. and then later on we're mainly dealing with Antoine, an elf (and his wife)

Lords of Fortune has Isabela and i am an isabela/merrill truther 😌(pls refer back to "stupid and easy to please") (also again, dont love the portrayal of the lords, but thats a different issue)

i feel like it makes sense that we dont get racism from the mourn watchers, theyre so respectful of the dead, i dont think u can care that much about a persons eternal rest and hate them in life

full disclosure i picked saving treviso, so in my experience the shadow dragons had bigger issues to deal with. im chill with the viper not being racist when he got blighted and is fighting a cult. but also goes back to my points about minrathous having a different way of looking at class systems

other world building points:

we dont spend a lot of time with royalty/politicians unlike in previous games. v easy to show elves being mistreated in the winter palace, or the arl of denerim's estate, but we dont get shown a lot of that in these cities

I do think it's weird that we have such a lack of bigotry to the elves with the history of the other games, and the fact that the old elven gods are tearing the world apart, it could have been explored more. however im not upset by the lack of. ambient racism

i know a big complaint that people have is that veilguard isnt as "dark" as origins, but i dont think a game needs bigotry to be a dark and confronting story

[wardenv5]

You know, as much as I enjoy the Total Warhammer/Vermintide games and parts of Warhammer Fantasy's lore, I do have to recognize that it is I think the most openly racist of any fantasy setting I've seen, specifically of that 19th century style of racism.

As much as I hate Games Workshop's practices and pathetic attempts to get everything under a copyright, as well as throwing out decades of lore for a pretty reviled end to their setting all for what many people see as Warhammer 40K: Fantasy: If I was handed the franchise, I'd have to somehow modify and rework a setting that is usable for a wargame while also dealing with a fanbase who would see any change as heresy. So tbh I would fully dump it.

While Warhammer 40k rightfully gets lambasted for its open fascism, its almost subtle compared to Fantasy. Look at the world map. I've written out all the examples, but

tldr; human empire/good guys in western europe, non-humans/"savages" in the southern continents, egyptians are all dead, the near east is evil slaver tyrants or hordes of fat destructive morons, north is full of barbarians, and the further you get from Fantasy Europe the less we know about it.

Oh the Empire? The protagonist faction of the setting and majority representation for humanity? Well its essentially Holy Roman Empire with magic! Don't worry though, for diversity we have France! (and also Venice/Italy/Spain kinda). Oh and I guess Araby but we literally never see art of them ever (Fun Fact: In this game, the Crusades was the fault of the Arabs wanting to invade The West I mean Tilea or whatever). I legitimately think we have not seen a brown/black skinned human in the art/models of WF (with the exception of Blood Bowl).

Oh wait! We also have the Amazonians in South Ame- I mean Lustria! Oh, and in the Southlands, theres the - No I won't talk about them look it up yourself. In Fantasy Egypt all the humans there are reanimated skeletons from Ancient Fantasy Egypt. Oh and Cathay, Ind, Khuresh and Nippon? What about em. Except in Total Warhammer, where Cathay is Imperial China with some See See Pee Evil Commie there as well.

Lustria? All lizard people. You know how South America is just all lizards right? right? NO ONES TIRED OF THSI RIGHT? RIGHT? ANYONE? ALSO THE LIZARDS ARENT VERY EMOTIONAL AND SEEM ALIEN, ITS GROUND BREAKING STUFF.

Naggaroth is a land filled with slavers who sail the world, installing despair and stealing from anyone they can, living on torture and cruelty that even they themselves can't escape. So an accurate portrayal of the United States and Canada, but you'll notice not even an attempt of mentioning indigenous North Americans.

Southlands? Orcs! Not just any orcs! SAVAGE Orcs, with bones as jewelry and wielding wooden masks and no armor. Do I have to continue? No.

Norsca? Its vikings but like back before vikings were all cool for conservatives AND liberals and they were just seen as the classic barbarian raiders thing.

I could go on. I won't.

[roughentumble]

also just slapping the series with "theyre all bad people" seems to be flattening out really complex issues and nuanced worldbuilding like it isnt wrong, per se, and theyre about as bad as any other fantasy when it comes to "low-level pervasive fantasy racism" but the difference is in the quality of the writing, the realism, and not in a "gritty game of thrones Rape Is So Common" realism way but honest to god genuine very carefully crafted realistic thought put into how all these intersections of different fantasy elements would interact to provide shortsighted worldviews and sometimes horrendous behavior that cant all be handwaved away and the protagonists arent magically the most enlightened folks in the world AND it also isnt the first thing you learn about anybody because these subtle opinions obviously wouldnt be the first thing they blurt out! it's all revealed gradually, in ways that might seem interesting, or humorous, or "just a bit off" because they dont see anything wrong with their own point of view. they're not a parody of racism or whatever

its like. i dont even go here and im annoyed by this flattening of a nuanced work made by someone who puts a lot of care into how they present their often funny, often meaningful, work of art

the characters are good and well rounded and fleshed out and loveable and care about each other and are funny and nice and FLAWED in a world where theres like 20 different vectors for bigotry and misunderstandings to breed than in the "base" world of reality

tumblr can be really "sociology and social justice in media 101" which is fine for an intro but leaves works like dungeon meshi in the dust to be misinterpreted because the reading being brought to it genuinely isnt deep enough to like. meet the series where its at. pretentious as that potentially makes me sound. and there are good dungeon meshi convos happening, where do you think i got all this knowledge on the series, but the other discussions are soooo *vlows out air in frustration*

[jackienautism]

Literally hate that dedue, the only dark skin team mate you get is so sub servient to a white male character and I feel like no talks about this,

hmm you're. absolutely right. i never actually thought abt it like that before. it really DOES give off white savior type shit... i know dimitri's whole thing is trying to get dedue to FINALLY see him as an equal, but youre right. the implications of it are very... bad. esp when it couldve been ANY other character in the game, but they chose to pick the black man? esp ESP when lorenz in one of the beginning chapters says that some nobility bullshit probably is even worse than slavery? like. lets be for real

also? i never rly thought abt it until now but like. of COURSE the regions outside of fodlan (almyra, duscur, etc) all have some sort of .... conflict for lack of a better word w/ the white man from the church right? of course theres people LIKE ingrid in faerghus that disdain people of duscur due to what happened. and of course people of the alliance are weary of almyrans too. LIKE. of COURSE realistically racism is going to exist, but to have both places have such huge conflicts and be portrayed as the "Evil" towards the primarily white area is a bit ............. bad. it's bad. fire emblem needs to be better. adding one person of color per house isnt going to magically make the game's own racism disappear. doesn't matter how much "discussion" they have surrounding it either, theres still bias and prejudice seen in the game itself

like they rly gave petra an irish last name? making people doubt that brigid is most certainly inspired by polynesia? they clearly did their research when designing her, so why didnt they do more when naming? it just doesn't make any sense.

and with shamir? she's from dagda but... what IS dagda meant to be? they just say shes from a foreign place and refuse to elaborate. but i suppose that's just petty of me to bring up, its just somethign that's always bothered me

and you're right that no one really talks about it. /I/ certainly havent seen much discussion surrounding it, but then again i dont necessarily go out of my way to search for it. but yeah. it deserves to be criticized

and maybe all that i talk abt doesnt even matter or its not a big deal or whatever but like. whatever man. i sometimes just want people of color to just exist in my silly fantasy video game. without Racism and the change everyone has to go through being their like. main arc

[psychotrope777]

if i could give an example one thing ive been thinking about a lot recently was a few years ago when it was like a common talking point on mineblr whether or not villagers are antisemitic caricatures? and its like. obviously im not jewish ive never experienced antisemitism personally so im never going to completely disregard it because ultimately what do i really know and i think it is good to be mindful of how things can come off but. i really couldnt always help but feel like... what? 😭 and it's like again it's not really my place to speak + a lot of people who are either bigoted and / or hear something they dont want to hear about the piece of media they like will always try and downplay criticisms like this and i really dont want it to sound like thats where im coming from. fantasy as a whole has a huge racism & antisemitism problem that basically permeates throughout the entire genre. look at LOTR, TES and D&D. but its like here the argument was they have unibrows, big noses and are greedy. the first two is like. yeah, they do but whether or not that approaches the level of an antisemitic / racist caricature is contextual just like any fictional depiction of any real life feature that people have. and then the third thing is kinda just... there's nothing to suggest that? villagers dont really have any personalities in basegame. i think theres an argument to be made that they dont really do anything besides trading but they also arent really needed to do anything else and while i do think it would be cool giving them bigger personalities in basegame might go against the philosophy of it being a sandbox game and ruin the experience of the player being able to project their own original stories / traits onto them. i havent played them but from what i understand the sidegames do develop on the "canon" personalities of the villagers which. i dont know a lot about so i cant really say anything about them actually but generally seem to be generic "peaceful commoners". like i think i can see greed being extrapolated from shit trades but thats mostly because mojang hates us. or the only other thing that even kind of computes is theyre greedy because they use currency and have material goods which is bold but im willing to hear it out. the gamer subculture is as a whole infected with bigotry, it definitely used to be worse but its still frankly quite bad. i have definitely seen shitty comments abt villagers before and i have seen people characterizing villagers as greedy and unscrupulous because they have big noses and unibrows which is antisemitic and racist but from an objective standpoint i think i can say pretty confidently that theres not a lot of that in the source material

i will say that on a personal level it feels kinda weird to me because i do depict big noses and unibrows a lot in my art. i take a lot of inspiration from cartoons like spongebob, ren & stimpy and tgaobam with similar styles. its also a bit of a personal thing because i have a big nose and big eyebrows and i like those things about myself. i was insecure about them for a long time but now i think they r Cool and i think other people should think the same way and if anything thinking they are mildly funny is still way better than people thinking they are like hideously unattractive. (i will admit that cartoons tend to abuse unibrows in design but they are fun to draw.) one of the core tenets of cartooning is exaggeration and a lot of artists who have a similar design philosophy tend to depict the features theyre most insecure about in themselves, like zits, double chins or weird boobs and its the same idea. im still very careful with what i depict and i do my best to be socially conscious but at the same time its honestly incredibly annoying to see people jump to the worst possible interpretation of what to me feels like a very innocuous feature & i also dont see how it helps to fight the demonization of certain features to react with performative outrage when those features are depicted...? there was a lot of suggestion that villagers should instead have button noses and plucked eyebrows which like. why!!!!! why is that your answer!!!! why is that the most intelligent response that you can formulate!!!!

and again most of the people who were doing this in the moment were like white 14 year olds just discovering social justice who also werent jewish and had no real frame of reference for what they were talking about besides very basic debriefings on what antisemitism is. it really doesnt help anything that most of this websites userbase is white americans. there is a lot to criticize about minecraft which i will probably get to eventually but like that was so strange to me sorry for writing an essay

its good to be mindful of if something might look bad but still whenever i see someone on this site deliberately reaching to show they condemn the worst possible interpretation of something that is also clearly not what's going on it just kinda leaves me at a loss bc like what do you even say to that. its usually people who are pretty young tbf but its like come on man you cant be doing that

[procrastinatingattorney]

thinking about how f/ire emblem tanked my love of dragons

[emberoops-archive]

@architeuthes i hope you dont mind me submitting a character too! please let me know if this is too much or if you need me to change details! thanks! <3

·         Name: Ruckt’l Ashaara

·         Pronouns: they/them, with no strong preference

·         Species (feel free to go off on this): Nafar (fire elemental, also partly draconic in nature). This means that they are mostly humanoid, but have wings, horns, and a tail (all retractable into pocket dimensions). Their hair is fire, which reacts to their emotions by changing color. (Anyone who knows them well will know what colors are what; they’re consistent across time.) Their eyes, too, are this fire. So is their blood. They have a stone in their chest which houses their soul; this takes place of the sternum, which is shorter in Nafar than in humans. All of their magical parts (soulstone, wings, horns, tail, and channels along their bodies which mirror major blood vessels) are extremely sensitive, especially to intention (or emotion, if there is no intention present). This sensitivity is not by definition sexual, but has the potential to be in certain contexts.

·         Appearance (will also accept doodles and fun MSPaint sketches): See above; their base color is orange, which is generally the color for passion in their emotional coding. They are about five foot ten, with very little muscular definition. They tend to dress fairly modestly, and try to appear more human when around people they do not know well. (This modesty is more a result of the weak spots described above, as skin contact has the potential to be surprisingly painful and/or intense in uncomfortable ways for all parties involved.) They tend to move and gesture with clumsy exhuberance, and often have a brace on at least one joint as a result of this. They do not conform to gender roles, but tend to appear more feminine than masculine, although they aim for androgyny.

·         Key personality traits: blunt, outgoing, and bookish, they are clumsy both physically and socially, often stating something without intending to be insulting. However, they intend to be very kind, and usually try to cheer up their friends. They also are generally very, very quick to call someone friend - it takes usually only one positive interaction or two for them to consider someone a friend.

·         Key ambitions and fears: desperately wants to be of benefit to other people; fears abandonment and accidental harm to others. She also fears turning into a monster, both metaphorically and literally. She has a battleform which has been corrupted (this is reptilian and not useable) which she fears being drawn out, as it has become an indiscrimate killer which she has little to no control over - similar in many ways to some versions of lycanthropy, with the exception that it is magically triggered, rather than triggered by cyclical events.

·         Key relationships: They have a very strong affection for the personification of dreams, and although this relationship is technically open, due to personal contexts they do not generally pursue romances currently. They have a strained relationship with their brother, due to previous familial strife. They have a few close friends; one human, Val, and one skeleton, Doug. Their relationship with Doug is complex and changes frequently; they are very affectionate and were once very explicitly romantically engaged. Although they have not explicitly broken this off, they are no longer quite as close as they were in terms of romance; still Doug is their closest friend and ally, the first person they turn to, and someone they love dearly.

·         Home planet/location (also feel free to off on this: including native species, weather, cultures, gastronomy, etc.): They were born on an alien planet (which has since been destroyed) and raised largely on earth, although they spent large swaths of their time on their home planet before it was destroyed. Their people, before destruction, were pre-industrial, with only a few cities, albeit very large ones. One of the neighboring countries (the Fae-Wilds to the west) had more developed technology, including some limited steam power. There were no other technologically advanced species on the planet. However, Ruckt’ls people were very magically developed, thus why they were off-planet when it was destroyed. Their brother survived by freak luck.

·         Backstory: Ruckt’l was a chosen one archetype with an apocalyptic twist who has since completed their task. They are also one of two survivors of their race, which was first nearly destroyed by a war waged against them, and then utterly destroyed with their planet. Since then, they have tried to live normally on earth, only to find that as a previous child soldier, they have a hard time settling down. I presume this to be what drew them to the game situation/plot.

·         Base Stats (Please distribute 20 points across the three stats - min. 2, max 10 points per each): CHARM (ease of persuasion of others) | FORCE (raw physical strength) | REASON (prowess in logical arguments) CHARM: 7 FORCE: 5 REASON: 8

[symphorine]

i lied i cant sleep

im worried i accidentally hit on the best lineage/faction combo... ive seen ppl complain abt lack of content or reactivity for other factions, and being an elf just gives a special flavor to the main plot stuff. didnt even think abt it when i made daea! i just missed the wardens and thought its been a while since i played an elf, so why not

also isabela and the lof and the treatment of the qun and antaam are still a goddamn racist mess and its very disappointing that despite fan objections and them being able to hire cultural and religious sensitivity consultants, this was not only considered a good idea, but was approved and put in motion with no one stopping it. the exotification and orientalism of the lof, the pure dehumanization of antaam enemies AND sexualization of qunari uniquely, the mess of taash's multicultural identity and how u Have to pick and make them pick one... a lot of bullshit. yes there good queer rep and taash's nb stuff is. fine. good 101 for players. i dont think thats a reason to ignore or give a pass to the obvious racism thats also so close to it (like the contrast in taash's personal quests between how queer identity and multicultural identity are handled makes it very clear). i hoped theyd do better but they just doubled down. and ofc theres a lot to be said abt the dalish and elves as well, with how theyre coded in general as indigenous and rroma, and the foundations of their culture is destroyed but we dont even get to actually... explore that much? bellara talks abt it most and theres some mentions but it frustrates me (esp as playing a dalish elf). actually we see little of the dalish except as victims - all dalish companions and npcs have a more "important" identity (veil jumpers or, in davrins case, warden). i a game that features their gods prominently id have hoped for more. and how bringing down the "pagan" gods - elven gods, and old tevinter gods i think reinforces the point - but giving an explicit pass to andrastianism/fantasy catholicism also speaks of double standards.

yeahhhh

can't sleep so gonna jot down some thoughts abt davg under a readmore. itll have spoilers!

[vamptastic]

actually why does the arcana have such a bad reputation like iirc it got 'cancelled' bc some of the devs had posted incest n i think some of the art was whitewashed or theyd rbd whitewashed art/cosplay.. which is bad dgmr but it rubs me the wrong way that there r people who r like do not even fucking look at me if youve ever played this when there r a million popular video game franchises that r objectively worse. I get not wanting to give money to/have other people give money to the devs but like. Just pirate it.

[maid-of-the-golden-deer]

to actually gather my thoughts about the triangle strategy demo: 

gameplaywise, its fun, i very obviously like tactical rpgs lol.

in many ways it feels like a HARD course correction from octopath (in terms of story + character, the gameplay genres are obv different). like theres 9 main characters, but unlike octopath where you could only find out their story connection in the post game, you get them all really early and have some connection to the plot at hand. i especially enjoy the voting mechanic- it has a chance of becoming annoying (like if EVERY major choice is made like that it will get old), but compared to many other rpgs where characters will follow the protagonist to places they absolutely would never go to just bc game mechanics, its neat.

it also is clearly trying to go for “big ensemble cast, but one narrative”, and in some ways it seems geared up to succeed at this. everyone feels like they belong there. but, unless the writing gets much, much cleverer or there are some fun twists down the line. my god it is dumbed down. like the first or second narration tells you the peace negotiations are going to go tits up, right? then why does every. character. you. talk. to. go. like. “hmmmm these make me nervous u know ppl in power are sneaky i dont think this will go good haha lol dont mind me actually”. like just have some people acting suspicious or saying things seemingly counter to everyones “shared” goal. it just beats you over the head with the rlly fucking obvious fact its gonna go wrong bc this is an tactical rpg so u need a war in order to have battles to fight. its a given. its not like its a game intended for young kids. even if u had to spell it out there are much smoother ways to do it. everything in the game is honestly repeated at you endlessly in really blunt ways, its tiresome.

 and the big elephant in the room is. well. under the cut for discussions of racism and specifically Islamaphobia:

for firstly, im a little sick and tired of the rpg (and specifically jrpg) thing where its like “fantasy racism except its mostly against conventionally attractive anime women who have like, a different hair color” (the rosalle or whatever theyre called). like yes it is a real world thing for non traditional features to be demonized but like actually DO that instead of just giving them pink hair and calling it a night. like a LOT of the oomph in frederica scenes are undercut due to that. shes a hot, skinny as a toothpick-with-still-prominent-breasts white lady, and her hair is just pink. thats fucking it. if ur gonna make this point, fucking commit. but its not even about the message, its just about giving a main character a tragic backstory, bc thats all racism is to a lot of game writers especially

the even BIGGER issue tho, is hyzante. thats the path i chose to take for my first playthrough of the demo, and i noticed some. Issues. like its clearly an Islamic inspired region, like i recognized those geometric tiles immediately (and thats just bc i know art history, the orientalist way the characters are drawn, the stock standard music, everything, reeks of the inspiration in a way that isnt flattering, but what do u expect from these people [looks at primose and where u meet her with a glare]). theyre considered the most “advanced” nation of the three in the game, which SHOULD be a good thing, but the plot if thats where you choose to go? the (all lily white, european inspired) protagonists discover that their peaceful way of life and religion are actually oppressive and only function by tight control of the people. the native religion of the Arabic inspired region is oppressive to free thought and self expression, and it based on strict rules one cannot stray from.

you’re picking up what im putting down, yeah?

to add the cherry on top, the ones responsible for + the most active participant in the aforementioned fantasy racism against pretty white ladies with pink hair? the Arabic inspired people, who are like the ONLY group in the game to have characters who arent freshly fallen snow white, are the main racists in the game. cool cool awessssome.

like honestly, id be willing to believe its just extremely harmful ignorance and the writers + artists werent making this connection but the “ignorance” part of “harmful ignorance” doesnt reduce the “harm” part, especially from a company and genre that seems personally hellbent on ensuring orientalism never dies

[wyvernscales]

Here’s my chapter by chapter analysis of The Masked Empire. Technically spoilers but also not at all.

Ch 1: I’d be floored by the gift of Moira’s sword to Teagan if it wasn’t, you know, completely in character for Gaspard to be a right bastard. I did enjoy the insight into the daily lives of people in the palace however. It gives Orlais more life.

Ch 2: Some tableaus of our protagonists: Celene’s morning tea with Briala, Gaspard planning treason, Michel walking into a setup

Ch 3: SWEET HOME ALA-FUCKING-BAMA??

Ch 4: Now add a heaping shitload of fantasy racism. 

Ch 5: So you’re just gonna bring up a character you mentioned in one scene fifty pages ago and expect me to remember what happened? Especially one that is going to be as important as this? I suppose the original intent was to suggest that the strife of the elves was occurring as the same time as lavish events in Val Royeaux, but I’m not sure I would’ve chosen to do it that way.

Ch 6: I... hoo boy. theres nothing funny to say here.

Ch 7: So all of Celene’s tact comes from Briala. Expected. The big question is how the hell she didn’t see that coming? I found the interaction between Briala and Gaspard to be very well written though. So much characterization packed in there.

Ch 8: *DAO random encounter sword sound*

Ch 9: For a book that very clearly shows that Celene doesn’t care about the elves without Briala’s influence, it sure goes out of its way to make it look like she believes she does

Ch 10: Two and a Half Elves -- Felassan doesn’t even need magic to absolutely char Michel with that burn ft. Queen Gaslight lives up to her name

Ch 11: Mom, Bioware is once again doing the thing they do with the Dalish where they imply Dalish suspicion is arrogance rather than survival mechanism and blame the violence that befalls them on their hostility even though they have every reason to be wary.

Ch 12: AHEM... Choice.. spirit. And whatever the fuck Felassan is

Ch 13: Sylvans are a Pain in the Ass Part 2: Electric Boogaloo

Ch 14: Well one thing’s for sure: He’s Michel de Chevin

Ch 15: Gaspard is awful, but he’s right about one thing and one thing only. Celene lives in a false reality where she can burn down a city and still have the trust of the Elves. Just because Briala has affection for her, does not mean that any other Elf can be swayed like that.

Ch 16: That Gaspard will go more out of his way than Celene to protect Briala is... oof.

Ch 17: UGH the FOreshadowing! The conclusion?! tHE threads all coming together?!!

Epilogue: solas you bitch

tl;dr: This book covers the beginning of the War of the Lions that the Inquisitor ends in Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts. Through Briala’s influence, Celene begins to take actions that benefit some elves which doesn’t endear her to the nobility. Gaspard uses this to his advantage to imply that she is treating the elves too kindly, and Celene burns down a slum in Halamshiral to prove him wrong. Expecting this move, Gaspard takes his first military move against Celene, destroying the army she led to burn down the city and causing her to flee. The remainder of the book is about Gaspard chasing her down through the Dales and later the Eluvian network in his bid for the crown. There’s much lore on Orlesian nobility/politics and the Dalish present throughout the novel.

Thoughts: I’ve actually been really looking forward to reading this one, and I must say that it’s my favorite of the novels so far. I didn’t particularly enjoy the style of writing in the first two books personally, and I felt the change worked really well with the plot and subject matter (They’re by two different authors, so I’d expect this). I enjoyed the prose much more, and it was a very nice look into the lives of Orlesians that the games haven’t been able to explore in depth. 

That being said, the way time flowed and perspective changed was a bit hard to follow. I found myself having to refer back to scenes because they jumped around so much. There were a lot of characters to keep track of, and even though they all came together in the end, the beginning was confusing.

Moving to the characters however, Celene doesn’t even thinks what she does is wrong, and for all her talk of ‘this was the only way,’ it was also the most obvious one. It caused all of the proceeding events and for what? To prove a point? That she doesn’t actually care about the elves? Infuriating. I actually found the relationship between Briala and Gaspard to be the most compelling in the whole book personally. He sees her as less than him for being elven, but also sees her as a clever and dangerous player of the game. It’s in stark contrast to how Celene believes she supports the elves at large while also thinking that Briala can’t figure out how Celene screws her over. I wish that had carried over into the game.

I don’t think I’ve even scratched the surface of all my thoughts on this one because I have so much to say, but this shall suffice for now.

[foxieflower]

HALF ORC DRUID YESSSS, i love that!!! And omgg yeah theres just so much to do in the game, im sure its gonna take us forever to get through but its addicting. Ahh, i gotta admit, a lot of the characters, though pretty, seem so rude to me. Maybe i just also have the tiefling mindset, but god, everyone has a problem with fantasy racism besides like three of the people so far. Thats my one gripe, but hey, it matches Vanquish to really just be an ass to anyone that calls him a foulblood or devil. So its fun to be a lil bit sarcastic and sassy

Foxie I need to know your thoughts on Baldurs Gate 3. There are so many gorgeous men and women. You can fuck a Druid who's wildshaped into a bear. There's an obligatory vampire elf twink but he actually looks middle aged instead of a teen thank GOD. There's a large barbarian demon lady. FOXIE PLEASE BRAINROT WITH ME

-who else calls you foxie? You know me :))

okay so like, im watching my friend who roleplays Aywin with my Vanquish play the game as Vanquish so our play is to date the brainworm instead of any of the npcs. HOWEVER, watching the game play out it would certainly be really fun to play as various characters with a focus to date some of them as they are very pretty. rn, my favorite of the npcs is actually Gale and not the elf vampire strangely enough.

BUT OVERALL, its a very wonderful game and im very addicted to playing it with Toby rn cause just the various ways you can choose any conversation to go is SO MUCH FUN. Also yes, Vanquish looks gorgeous in the game.

[tillman]

whats final fantasy abt? also hii is that a catboy

i dunno about the actual final fantasy games. crystals i think. but ffxiv is the beloved mmo game in the series and its about ur little guy called the warrior of light just stopping the baddie of the week. its very good the story starts off slow as hell (but with some actually interesting political intrigue that no one talks about cus theres no fruits. sad. (but also some racism. nad some other shit i dont remember. the games like 10 years old or some bullshit whatever). its cool i like it a lot smile.

and YES

look i just got him the coat. but this is canis omnes caelum (bad latin for all dogs go to heaven) and he is my divorced little catboy smile