#am i going to reblog it anyways? absolutely

[rederiswrites]

Alright, I've got to get the gripes out. Doesn't mean you have to read it. If you love the game you probably shouldn't. This is for people who are really disappointed or angry about...things and would like to feel like they're not alone.

This is not about the absolute value of Veilguard. I enjoyed the game and I am, if anything, enjoying it more on the second playthrough. Like all the other installations, inevitably it is its own thing. Some franchises are just logical continuations of their previous installments, but Dragon Age has never been like that and I sure wouldn't expect it after this long since the last installment.

[Edited to add that I reblog locked it but 100% encourage sharing your feelings in the replies or even my dms. It's fine to talk about it! I want to talk about it!]

That said, my biggest gripes about Veilguard:

The sanitizing of the Crows

Come on now. I even defended you, Bioware! Before the game, I said, nahhhh they won't make the Crows Good Guys just because of Lucanis! Lucanis was tortured too! Well, they didn't do that, I guess. They did it as part of a much larger pattern of ironing out the moral grey areas the franchise was formerly known for.

The Crows are Patriots! Well, they are. And also, though you wouldn't know it, slavers and torturers and murderers of children. You'd be forgiven for not realizing that, considering the creation of the feel good House for orphans who really wanna be contract killers. But it is pretty foundational lore and all. There is the like, one previous Crow character, whom they wrote as going on a righteous mission to kill Crows, because of the whole them being bad thing.

What was being raised by the head of the Crows like, Lucanis? Torture? Hahaha funny oh you mean literally. Literally your grandmother tortured and starved you and never gave you the slightest choice in your life and you've accepted that because you accept the logic that it was necessary. But again. That's based on my knowledge of material outside this game.

Any previous game would have reveled in that! Do you ally yourself with these people, this objectively bad organization full of people who don't see themselves as bad at all? Because they are very good at killing, and that's what you need! But this game just makes them good guys. No moral dilemma needed. Nope, we like black and white now.

And speaking of which,

The dehumanization of the Antaam

Ew. Ew ew ew.

Gimme a minute and I'll come up with something better to say but seriously? Ew.

They neither look nor sound like any of the other qunari characters. They sound like animals, literally. Exactly once does one make the slightest attempt to do anything but attack you--and then he attacks you anyway. Not a single one deserts. I guess the lesson here is that apparently qunari really do become mindless beasts without the structure and discipline of the Qun??? Ew. No thank you.

I know, you gotta have faceless mooks. In Inquisition we fought rebel mages for absolutely no good reason but that they attacked us. In da2 thugs literally fell from the sky. But the absolutely comprehensive way in which the Antaam never spoke for themselves, as actual people... Wow.

Imagine. Imagine if we could have actually negotiated an agreement with a group of them, for that final battle. Would that have been so impossible? To fight mages?! Imagine if we'd had a former Antaam companion. Imagine if he'd been mulling over what the Arishok, Sten, the OG proof that qunari are NOT animals outside the Qun, said before the Antaam rebelled.

Mythal: basically a nice mother goddess!

What. What. What.

In this, the culmination of her sins, the finale of Solas' millennia of taking the blame for shit she set in motion, Mythal is... Flat as hell. Millennia of her scheming. Surviving. Using and abusing her children, arguably using and abusing Solas, seducing and manipulating and whatever it takes to nudge things her way. And now she's just... Kinda imperious I guess? And Morrigan just has her memories and nothing is bad about that ever. Huh.

The thing is, I was never against Mythal, in all her complex nastiness. We didn't know what her game was! I just wanted to know! What made it all worth it? What was the plan?

Well I guess the plan was--nothing? Don't worry about it. I guess.

Side note, the design work on the Mythal fragment was some Computer Animation Is My Passion, early 2000's Barbie straight to VHS looking shit. Profoundly disappointing. Did you even try.

Tell, don't show

Is the strange new voice in the blight coming from over there really horrifying? Or did you just say it was roughly fifteen times, but then actually it was just a big blob of Blight that you had to shoot extra times? Is the Butcher cruel? Or did Teia and Viago just tell us he was cruel with absolutely no detail whatsoever? Is Minrathous really blighted if you choose to save Treviso? Or are there just more beggars and some rubble and literally one blighted character? And so on, and so forth.

Remember that popular post not long ago, about how one of the great joys of Dragon Age was the sifting through unreliable narrators? Piecing together Avvar epic poetry and fragments of ancient elvhen runes and Andrastian canticles to try to guess what actually happened. The unique and unusual (in fiction) joy of the historiography of it all? We got to actively engage with the discovery. We got to piece together that Solas was the Dread Wolf, bit by difficult to find bit.

The fridge horror of it all could be really incredible. Making us work it out for ourselves meant that we experienced it much more intimately. It was an incredible storytelling tool.

Yeah I guess we just watch movies about it now. Just plug in the DVD Wolf statuette and now we know. And the codexes are reduced to flavor text and puzzle clues.

And last but definitely most,

Flat writing

Look man I know that's subjective as shit but it was. A lot of it was. You either agree or you don't, but for me, it was never more obvious than in the moments of contrast, when it was up to standard. The conversation with the Butcher. Every minute with Solas. Spite.

Contrast the Butcher (intense! Passionate! Creepy fucken pale face Harkonnen vibes! Deranged but genuine love for Treviso!) with the Dragon King (I don't even know what to put here. You don't even have to fight him! He just...blusters, and then there's a dragon, and then Taash shoves him and he falls over.)

It's just...I could probably forgive a lot of the stuff that went before if it was just more compellingly written.

Even here I absolutely will not be getting into character complaints. Those are too personal, and frankly I think people should keep them to private conversations. They have too much potential to hurt people for too little gain.

Sigh. I'm done now. I will try to focus on the good and the creative because I think that contributes a great deal more to everything and everyone. But for now, let me contemplate what could have been.

[ecofear]

i need help with vet bills (again).

hi. for those of you who remember, earlier this year i asked for donations to help me afford toos' vet bills, who we found out through your help had kidney failure, and again with your help we got her on medication for it. unfortunately it wasn't enough, and we lost her. and then shortly after, dexter began deteriorating, which we put down to his grief of losing toos - she kept him young, he followed her everywhere, he only played because of her, he only ate when she ate, etc. without her he just stopped. and then he started to have seizures and fits daily. we got him blood tests, but he was suffering so badly. we made the decision to put him down. i didn't ask for donations this time, because i was so deeply embarrassed to ask for help again. but we are still recovering financially from that, as well as the parts of toos bills that didn't get covered from donations. my mother hasn't worked for a very long time, she's disabled and very sick, and she receives PIP from the government that only covers her monthly medications that are not covered by the NHS. my father retired early to become her full time carer, and we are living off his pension. i am too disabled to work, but because my mother already receives PIP and i live with them, the government are resistent to giving me any help - so i have zero income, and rely entirely on my parents.

this is jenny. she's a 14 year old cairn terrier, who loves when we garden because she wants to help dig holes. she helped us bury dexter and toos, digging their graves for them with my dads help. she's an angel, and loves people so much she likes to escape under the fence and join other families for awhile. one time she got into someones back garden and asked to come in as they were eating lunch. she really hates flies, and will try to bite them out of the air (she has never succeeded but i believe she will one day). she will rub her face against you until you start stroking her, and will growl and even bark if you stop! we don't have the money to take jenny to the vets, for a checkup or for anything they may want to do. this has been an ongoing issue, but toos and dexter took priority, and it hasn't been a bother to her. she existed as normal for a long time, but that's since changed.

jenny has this lump in her mouth, it is larger than the picture shows, but she is a nightmare to force open her mouth since this got so big, i think it's uncomfortable or painful for her. she can't properly close her lips now, and it has pushed all her front teeth away, misshaping her mouth, and sometimes it bleeds profusely. eating has become difficult for her, she can't eat anything hard, and currently will only eat soft human foods like rice, scrambled egg chopped up so small she doesn't have to chew, and things like soups and gravy. she's lost a lot of weight, and i'm getting frightened. to add onto it, i've found lumps like this across her body. i've done as much research as i can, and i believe it to be an oral tumor, it fits, and it looks right, and it spreading across her body is called 'full staging'. and going by all i've read - they will want to remove them in surgery. according to my research, this will cost anywhere from £585 - £4,740 for just the lump in her mouth. that's not including any checkup/test costs, or the other lumps on her body.

she hasn't been to the vet yet, i don't have any secure goal or bills to share, just my assumptions and beliefs from researching myself online. my parents refuse to take her because we can't afford it. i want to save up money, have it in my bank, and show them that we can help her now, before it gets worse, or it's too late. as i said before, i don't have any income, so the only way i can do this is with help.

here's a link to my paypal.me

the icon is a little mouse, and the @ is rivellon

i struggled so badly posting the first post like this for toos. i felt so guilty and embarrassed and ashamed. but i have no choice again, i want to help jenny. i don't want her to suffer. and selfishly, i can't handle losing another dog so soon. this year has been waking nightmare, and i need your help to stop it getting even worse.

please reblog and share, even if you can't donate.

thank you for reading.

[introspectivememories]

NICO: WE SHARED THE LIFT THIS MORNING! I WAS GOING TO THE POOL TRAMPOLINE WITH MY TWO DAUGHTERS AND HE WAS GOING TO THE RACETRACK. PINKHAM: VERY DIFFERENT LIVES YOU'RE CURRENTLY LEADING.

[hiraethwrote]

don’t mind me, just going to queue up some amazing fics while i sulk a little about not participating in kinktober 🥲

[rainingincale]

...

[seaofashes]

Zlatko Yunho

I know, I'm as surprised as everyone else that I actually finished something

[jacensolodjo]

Y'all after Ukraine was attacked by russia: well Ukraine IS a country of nazis I mean they have Azov right? what do you MEAN it's actually russia that has been murdering gay people and trans people and people of color and muslims and jews and-- Y'all after ~1000 civilians are murdered by Hamas: Yeah we're Team Hamas even though they have made statements saying the Holocaust didn't go far enough in absolutely no uncertain terms as to their meaning and they're best buddies with literal neo-nazis and have trained with neo-nazis and neo-nazis sing their praises and have murdered Palestinian Jews and and claim Jews are the cause of everything bad in the world and gee wouldn't it be nice if all the Jews were dead and--

for a crowd of 'yeah let's all punch nazis' you sure do stand up and get behind the actual nazis awfully quick instead

I want to believe at least with Hamas it is a whole mess of ignorance about what Hamas actually is. Which... honestly just makes me really twitchy because... did no one like... take a teensy little Google search to see what Hamas stands for first before going YAY HAMAS? Cause I've also seen people try to compare it to a bunch of other fights for independence and liberation and like how fucking dare you? How fucking dare you compare antisemitic terrorists to those freedom fighters? Especially when you boohoo Ukraine because of Azov but Hamas is hunky doorey when they are literally listed as an antisemitic terrorist organization w/o any quibbling whatsoever by numerous third party, independent worldwide organizations who make it their job to classify these things.

Which leads into... did y'all not see the part about 'civilians'? Not Israeli Defense Force bases. Not Israeli soldiers. Not even Israeli colonizers or whathaveyou. But literal civilians, many of whom were minding their own business at a literal celebration of Torah. Simchat Torah. A holiday now stained in blood just as much as Yom Kippur was 50 years ago. We can argue who should be settling where until we're blue in the face but I thought we agreed eons ago that civilians are off limits no matter what. They didn't do anything. Not every Israeli is a colonizer. None of them did anything to precipitate the attack. And even then, once again, violence against women is not okay no matter what group you are a part of! AND THERE WERE CHILDREN!!!! What could a CHILD have done?! It doesn't matter which side, a civilian is a civilian and rape is rape! I don't want to be a part of any liberation, support any kind of liberation, with those kinds of ingredients where rape is okay and the murder of civilians is greenlit. You can't tell me you do either. I have to believe you truly don't. You made a mistake. You misread something. You didn't read enough. You did something that caused you to miss the parts that said you shouldn't support Hamas. Okay. Accept it. Learn from it. Stop supporting them.

Bear that in mind when you see posts about how Jews in and outside of Israel are hurting and are now watching in shock and despair as their friends seem to be ignoring all of these facts.

Hamas and russia have many many many MANY things in fucking common and if that makes you uncomfortable then I'm sorry. If it makes you uncomfortable being told the people you thought were the freedom fighter good guy liberator types are actually murderous rapist antisemitic terrorists then maybe that's your own fault for not doing the legwork to find out before you went on a spree of 'yay Hamas'. Do yourself a favor and find a water hose before you burn that bridge between you and your Jewish friends.

And if you actually care about Jews AND Palestinians? Why are you pro Hamas if Hamas has been found to murder Palestinian Jews or indeed any Palestinian they find to be lacking in being a proper Palestinian? I don't know about you but I am so not here for the murder of Palestinians, Jew or otherwise. By anyone. So it IS a mistake, right, to say 'yay Hamas'? Right? We agreed, right, that we don't respond to atrocity with atrocity right? We agreed, right, that we don't murder hundreds of civilians in a surprise attack right? Civilians are civilians are civilians. If it's bad when Israel does something to civilians, it's bad when a Western country does it, then it's bad when Hamas does it. End of fucking discussion.

So yeah. Especially don't talk to the Ukrainian Jew and act like he has no right to be upset and hurt and watch two years in a row as people who should know fucking better are suddenly seeming to delight in the deaths of people they claim to care about and say are worth defending. Or if not delight, at the very least seem to be okay with it even though they should be completely against it.

This is not what liberation should look like. Hamas is not what heroes look like. You are being hypocrites.

And perhaps here's the main thing: This was not actually about politics at all. This was about the hatred of Jews. And it is absolutely 'your bad' you are so blinded by 'Israel bad' you decided any of this was inevitable, was bound to happen just for being Israeli, that it's okay to do. No amount of 'but Israel--' justifies what happened on Saturday. The largest single event massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and you're okay with it because 'but Israel'. At the end of the day that is what happened, innocent Jews were murdered during one of the most joyous holidays of the Hebrew calendar. Hamas didn't do it for the Palestinians. They did it because they want Jews to no longer be on this Earth.

[sexynetra]

What if instead of finishing all my WIPS that I’m hoping to have out by the end of the year I started writing another Drabble about the fallout of a collapsing relationship and infidelity. Hm. What if 🤔 💭 ✍️

[voidimp]

TRAIN 2.0 (NOW WITH THE FRONT IN THE FRONT)

[the-kipsabian]

also i literally wrote a whole thing about the kip as tumblr sexy man thing but search isnt letting me find it so you just gotta believe me

[ashmcgivern]

Tbh I'm shocked I haven't posted this here, I drew this in March of 2022. I knew for sure I was Ace at the tail end of 2021, when having a conversation with my cishet male friend about a D&D PC of mine's sexual habits, and how "unrealistic" they perhaps were given the personality I gave him. It wasn't offensive to me at all, but it made me think, why did I make him so reserved? And a few days later it smacked me that this was likely because what I had suspected for about a year prior was true - my ass is Ace.

And this explained a lot about me and my thoughts and habits throughout my life. Sex never bothered me, but I had no desire to even consider it unless I was already close to someone, and couldn't understand how other people didn't feel the same. I never had celebrity or fictional crushes, and I got teased a lot for being ~a virgin~ (which, honestly, made me FURIOUS because who were they to tell me what to do with my body?). That and how I interacted with the few irl crushes I did have (which if we're counting, 3 people in my 30 years on this earth) really pointed in this direction.

And in true Ash fashion I realized I sit in this category via an OC. Because of course. It's on brand and absolutely hilarious.

Anyway, Happy Pride, to those who are out and those who aren't, and remember just cuz the month is over it doesn't mean your visibility doesn't matter anymore. Also, fuck them terfs.

[red-dyed-sarumane]

i dont have "liked it before it was cool" syndrome i have looking at a wiki and going "i know more than you" syndrome

[justsomeoneunordinary]

sometimes i make the brave yet stupid mistake to click on the notes of an art piece or gifset with 1k notes and feel my blood boil in anger as i realize only 100 of those are reblogs and the rest are all likes. with every year i am on here, this is getting worse and worse. does the reblog button mean nothing to you??? even tho it's literally the reason you see posts on your dash??? it's right next to the like button, you can't bloody miss it! it shouldn't be that hard to reblog the things one likes, hello??? art takes time and love and energy to create and the minimum one can do is spread it, even leave a kind comment if/when you have the time! stop taking it for granted ffs

[dirtbra1n]

I’m doing proof of life posting. to prove I am alive. is it working yet

[khaotunq]

🥹🥹🥹🥹

[pizzasteveofficial]

I wanna go on record saying I very much dislike Nickacado. He is loud, annoying, very stupid, and the video of him eating Chicken McNuggets from McDonalds and wasting all of it for his stupid gross tempertantrum tirades or whatever the fuck kinda toxic bullshit him and Orlin do made me so viscerally upset and angry while I was high, I don’t think I can forgive him he crossed a line so personal to me that he ain’t comin back