#and in turn Rook's age vs Lucanis'

[midnightwind]

I am once more begging games to make age ranges more obvious

[carabas]

Dragon Age Veilguard liveblogging, starting the endgame -

One final bit of running around treasure hunting before we go to the point of no return, and I found these guys:

Dungeon Meshi???

The very first view of the ritual site and the first thing we see is Falon'din of all the possible gods looming large beneath the eclipse - which, first of all, Rook's god of choice, also, death; Lucanis was so pessimistic about our odds during that last talk and now Rook's staring his own personal god of death in the face.

The Lighthouse but at the ritual site? Elgar'nan did complain that Solas was copying one of his towers, he was not lying, down to the green streamers.

WHY IS IT ALWAYS NEVE, EVERY TIME THERE'S A DECISION WHERE ONE OF MY COMPANIONS GETS HURT IT ALWAYS WINDS UP BEING NEVE, IN THE PROLOGUE, MINRATHOUS VS TREVISO, NOW SHE'S KIDNAPPED, IF SHE SOMEHOW WINDS UP BETRAYING ME I WILL DESERVE IT

...WELL I GUESS IT'S NOT ONLY NEVE THIS TIME.

WELL. SHIT.

I guess technically one of the companions was keeping secrets. Rook, from himself. I did think it was odd Varric never had conversations with the other companions outside the big group scenes (and I guess he must not have actually interacted with them in those scenes, huh, just talked to Rook), no one ever visited him in the infirmary the way all the other companions visit each other, but I was thinking along the lines of voice actor availability issues or something maybe, because the lines he has with Rook are so limited too, 'when's the last time you slept, remember to take breaks' on endless repeat, and Claudia Black was brought in relatively late and isn't it odd that Morrigan is our go-between with the Inquisitor when that seems like the role Varric should be in... The limited 'get some sleep, take a break' dialogue was because there's only so much advice Rook can fill in for him, huh? His death was speculated about so heavily after the gameplay trailer that this isn't a shock, but I was so relieved when he survived, dangit! Congrats to David Gaider, he finally got his wish.

The trap, the way the whole shape of the story has built up to this - the heavy theme of regret right from the start, Solas's regrets but also Rook continually being put in a position to form some of his own; and then the contrast that our spirit companion who usually embodies the main theme in these games is not Regret, it's Spite, or as the Lords of Fortune call him, Determination; and this whole time I've so very much enjoyed the way Solas was training Rook into something like the Dread Wolf through all their talks... the way all the threads running through the story come together, beautiful. Chef's kiss. And these are all specifically things that I've enthused about in these liveblogs before!! Everything hit exactly as they intended, I'm in pain and they thoroughly laid the groundwork for this pain and it's beautiful.

Rook was trapped by becoming too much like the Dread Wolf, but escaping traps is what the Dread Wolf does. Both of them, now.

Bianca's been sitting in two pieces on Varric's bedside table this whole time, was that real? I turned the game off for the night before writing these last few flailing paragraphs, but I should go check if she's still there when I get back to it.

[damallarky]

Behold! My first Rook, Efa Aldwir Lavellan. I decided to do a playthrough where I go with my gut for all choices before I bring out my "canon" Rook, Renan.

Efa, like Renan, is my Inquisitor's sibling. Efa is the youngest of the seven, and Renan is the oldest.

I also decided to make their surname Aldwir (the Veil Jumper Surname). Basically, that's their family name before (most of) the siblings joined the Lavellan clan.

Canon, for me, is merely a suggestion. Just FYI.

A brief glimpse of The Boy. The Mad Lad. Solas's future Brother-in-Law. I wasn't entirely happy with how he turned out so I will probably remake him once I'm done with Efa's playthrough. He is also going to be the protagonist of the fic I'm planning.

The Aldwir/Lavellans, in order by age from oldest to youngest, if anyone was curious:

Renan ("Canon" Rook), Arin, Aisling ("Canon" Inquisitor), Mara, Orla and Efa.

MORE PICS! SLIGHT SPOILERS FOR VEILGUARD:

MY BABY. MY DARLING DAUGHTER. LOVE OF MY LIFE. AISLING YOU LOOK SO GOOD. SOLAS WON'T KNOW WHAT HIT HIM.

Emmerich and Davrin argue about parenting techniques. It was really cute. I wish I recorded it or something. Basically the gist was protecting the kid (Manfred) vs letting the kid (Manfred) learn from mistakes.

Lucanis is just done with everything and Emmerich doesn't understand why everyone is so freaked out by all of the walking corpses.

Manfred. Son. Boy. Son Boy. Baby Boy. Baby. Stepson.

(ngl, while I find the Matt Mercer Skeleton Noises endearing, I kind of wish he could talk. Cuz, like, it's Matt Mercer! I am maybe 20+ hours into the game, so maybe there's still a chance, but idk).

Anyway. I'll post some of my photo mode pics next.