#and I think I know why

[mumms-the-word]

Mini Veilguard update!! Under the cut as per usual because there are early game spoilers here (I have thoughts!)

Explored most of Treviso and Minrathous, as much as I can before going to get Davrin anyway. Treviso is gorgeous and Minrathous is interesting (idk what I expected out of Minrathous but we’re also only seeing Dock Town so…we’re not really seeing much of the actual magisterium sector). I know there’s a big choice coming up because I got spoiled by people who don’t tag their spoilers (still mad about it) and it’s making me think

I read an excellent post about how DATV has essentially sanitized a lot of the lore to make the game palatable and on the whole I do agree. I feel like I’m getting LaCroix spritzes of lore flavor rather than bold and confident lore flavor. Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of lore, plenty of callbacks to all three of the earlier games! It’s just…subtle? Or hidden in codexes

I think the thing that strikes me most is that for all the talk of slavery in Minrathous we don’t really see slavery at all. At least, I haven’t, this far in the game. Where are the magisters beating their slaves? Where are the merchants buying slaves because it’s Just How Things are Done? Obviously if slaves live in estates with their masters, then that explains why we don’t see a lot of them in Dock Town. But where are the conversations between Dock Town citizens where people are facing difficult choices to potentially sell themselves into slavery to feed their families? Both Dorian and Krem talk about these as realities in Minrathous and other cities in Tevinter.

As for Treviso, I think it’s beautiful and the fact that the Antaam has broken from the Qun and dissolved into war bands fascinates me. I think that’s cool! But the Crows baffle me. They’re too nice. It’s very odd. On the one hand, I LOVE Teia and Viago. On the other hand, they and Lucanis should be the exception, I think, for being Crows interested in freedom fighting and protecting Treviso. And maybe other Crow cells not in Treviso are still cutthroat brutal tormentors who buy children to train as assassins, as Zevran tells us, but we sure don’t get to see it in the game.

I can shrug and set most of it aside, lose myself in the beauty of the game and the charm of the companions (who I do like, a couple of weird conversations aside). But apparently I have to choose whether to save Treviso or Minrathous soon. I guess from the Blight? I don’t know details because I have tried my hardest to avoid spoilers lol so if you’re reading this DON’T tell me!

Buuuut

I don’t know. Right now that choice hinges on who I will disappoint (Neve or Lucanis) and who among the NPCs I may be willing to sacrifice (Hal the fishmaker, certain faction members, perhaps). I suspect, given how nice the game is being, that I won’t lose access to Teia, Viago, The Viper, Tarquin, Mae, or Dorian. I mean, I doubt I’ll see Dorian again but he’s a fandom darling. I’ll be very surprised if he dies. But I digress. The point is, I know it will feel like a sacrifice…just a smaller one than it could be.

Because the choice could be so much harder, so much more complex, if it was a choice between two obviously corrupt cities. Do I sacrifice Minrathous and call it a lost cause because slavery is so rife there, the magisters are corrupt, the Templars aid the magisters and not the people, and they keep sacrificing people for blood magic? Is full on destruction the only thing that will get the city to reset and recover in productive ways? Or do I sacrifice Treviso, which houses a bloodthirsty guild of assassins who buy and raise and train children to be killers, who is now under siege by reckless Antaam, who cannot be defeated by anything short of a major catastrophe? What if both cities were revealed to be more gritty and cruel than we actually got to see in the game? How do I choose which to save and which to allow destruction to come in?

Some of these elements are still present. But they’re buffed down. Maybe the game will surprise me! But for now I feel like I’m choosing between saving my favorite NPCs or my favorite aesthetic, rather than facing a complex choice over which city to save, knowing both the good and the bad and everything in between.

We shall see! I am off to the Anderfels (I think) to meet a couple of wardens and hopefully see Davrin soon. So I will update again soon!

Oh, PS: COMPLETELY baffled by the fact that Varric recognizes the lyrium dagger as being the red lyrium idol. Like, sure, fine, those two things are related, and its true that’s why Solas wanted the red lyrium idol (just see Tevinter Nights and the comics)

But bro they look nothing like each other!!

What do you meeeaaaaannnnn

“it has the same ring at the top” okay and?? One is blue and shiny and the other has twisted corpse figures and is red and crumbling and was also turned into a giant ass greatsword back in the day??

Super weird reveal, not a fan, but it was more funny than annoying so there’s that.

Anyway we press onwards lol

[mealfucker471]

about to peep the horror (open my professors notes on my final essay)

[buttercuparry]

Reblog the fundraisers you mfs!!!!! I don't know why you all skip those to reblog some pic of a banner saying "FREE PALESTINE" or of news from Columbia University! Literally these people from Gaza have made an account on Tumblr and is writing in english to communicate what they need and you all are coming onto my blog or on the tag and not reblogging their posts. We have people both Palestinian and non Palestinian vetting the fundraisers! I mean more the reblogs, more the chance of the fundraisers gaining momemtum, the more there would be a chance of a donation. Please donate if you can and reblog!!! and follow them if it is possible.

@/mohammedayesh has posted about getting leaflets, telling them to evacuate Rafah. They are very low on funds. Go follow them and reblog their posts and donate if possible.

We have @/haneenatya too whose mother is suffering from eye stroke and need to evacuate. Please I have been following them for some days and it doesn't seem their own posts are getting much attention.

Follow them! They are on tumblr. Reblog their posts and donate. The protests in universities are being done on account of them. They should be our focus.

(EDIT: on re-reading my post it seems as if I am dismissing all that the students of universities are doing. I am not. I just meant, since all of it is to help Palestinians, we must not ignore them when they ask for help).

[callisteios]

i made a character uquiz. i 100% promise you that you will get a character you know AND like

[hinamie]

10 years later

[deviousdevilx]

Wow gotten a lot of new followers on this blog lately lol

[batcavescolony]

Non-Americans please look away, this is private family matter.

[mynnthia]

was talking with a friend about how some of dunmeshi fаndom misunderstands kabru's initial feelings towards laios.

to sum up kabru's situation via a self-contained modernized metaphor:

kabru is like a guy who lost his entire family in a highly traumatic car accident. years later he joins a discord server and takes note of laios, another server member who seems interesting, so they start chatting. then laios reveals his special interest and favorite movie of all time is David Cronenberg's Crash (1996), and invites kabru to go watch a demolition derby with him

[captainkirkk]

Concept: Peter actually got bitten by a totally normal spider. It's just a coincidence that his mutant powers were awakened around the same time

[vraska-theunseen]

DID YOU ALL KNOW THAT YOU CAN DO WHATEVER UOU WANT WHEN YOURW MAKING ART ISNT THAT WILD

[salamander-crimes]

what is it about the least canon-compliant aromantic headcanons that makes them the best. like when a character shows no romantic attraction okay that is pretty awesome. but when romance is a big part of a character/plot? oh now we're fucking cooking

[fox-mulder-gets-pegged]

I just wanna say bc I KNOW you're somewhere on tumblr, to the teenage girl who attended Take Your Kid To Work Day at an office building in Ontario, Canada circa 2013 and had a conversation with a middle aged woman in which you showed her your Black Veil Brides fanart and fanfics and ship content and told her about different fanfic tropes including a/b/o verse bc she happened to know who Panic! at The Disco and Fallout Boy were and thus you felt the need to show her your bandblr ship art, that was my fucking mother and I had to clarify all that to her including looking my mother in the eye and trying to explain a/b/o verse without sounding like a lunatic.

It's been 10 years and I still regularly sent evil energies in your direction. Since you'd be probably two years younger than me and thus legally an adult now, please know if this post reaches you it's on sight.

[chloesimaginationthings]

Purple Michael is the best FNAF Michael

[heedra]

talking to preschoolers is awesome bc they have not fully differentiated stories into 'true stories' and 'imaginary stories' yet so you will tell them about something that happened you once (coyote came out of a bush right in front of you and got startled) and they will tell you about how one time their house was full of coyotes in every room 'including five in the garage' and they're not even like, aware i think of the idea that they are technically 'lying'. they are simply telling stories about coyotes bc its time to tell stories about coyotes.

[crumb-crumblet-s-crumbington]

the high guards littlest fan

[me-beef]

@strangeravatar made a great point

i was gonna focus on the spike-hotboxing-celestia aspect but i got distracted somewhere along the way and i think i forgot what joke i was trying to make

but dont you think its interesting how many guards of the exact same color/body type she's managed to accrue?? i do

ooohh you want to go look at our stickers so bad