#as a solasmancer i got my happy ending

[scribeofmorpheus]

Why Dragon Age Veilguard isn't a "Cathedral"

Concept art by Matt Rhodes

"To disinherit the storylines of past games goes directly against the notion of building cathedrals."

What is inherent with Veilguard that keeps bothering me is the fact that the world's choices truly didn't matter--and it doesn't simply bother me from a player perspective, it's not simply a grievance borne of frustration to what I (as a longtime fan) have lost. It's about the very culture of the arts under capitalism's new media habituation cycle [x][x].

Yes, I spent hours of my life playing and replaying each instalment of Dragon Age. Yes, I painstakingly curated a 'canon' world state by replaying what came before in preparation for Veilguard. Yes, I am even more unsatisfied with the end product--time hasn't helped, it's just widened the divide. But, and I can't stress this enough, these very personal gripes aren't what hit home the most. It's the inherent disregard of legacy. A legacy that the previous writers and game developers were building towards.

In the DAV artbook, "cathedral" is the word used to describe the process of making a game. Matt Rhodes' exact words are: "One artist can make a painting, but it takes a team to build a cathedral." Cathedrals took centuries to build. The architect who drafted the first blueprints would likely never see his work realised, he had to rely on those who came after him, like-minded and passionate, to see it through--for the culture, for the future, for legacy. Painters took on several apprentices for this reason too--giant frescoes were not completed by one man's hand, even if it is one man's name that immortalises them. Similarly, if you weave a narrative around choice, what good does it do to take it away at the final act if not to fall to caricature?

To disinherit the storylines of past games goes directly against the notion of building cathedrals.

Late-stage capitalism and profit-margin-obsessed game producers forcing developers to churn out meager content, to make a known brand into something it's not, to chase a fad or a popular trend... o, how reductive and cliche you've been forced to become Bioware. We have lost the cultural thought patterns relative to Cathedrals. We know only of barn-raised churches--done in a day but unlikely to last the turn of the seasons.

And don't even get me started on the music of Veilguard either. From Origins to World of Warcraft to Everquest to Baldur's Gate to Dungeon Siege, you can hear the intricate interconnected weave of sounds inspired by the Dungeons and Dragons-esque fantasy genre. You hear it in the repeated use of certain instruments, in the harmonic weeping notes of a bard-like singer or the foreboding echoes of drums as if of war. In tavern songs. But then, rather than hire someone who loves these worlds and this genre, who is a hungry artist looking to make a name, a legacy if you will, for themselves with a spectacular score, you hire any already sated composer, one well-into the encroaching years of career fatigue, whose notes repeat in countless projects, who feels less concise and more uninterested with each new project. One who has long since cemented his legacy. Someone in it for a paycheck and nothing else! And, to top it off, you let him compose something so minimalist? I am offended actually.

Cathedrals! We should have witnessed the final tile being placed on the Dragon Age cathedral. Instead, some architects walked up, tore down the interior and installed IKEA furniture and called it authentic before having to call the previous architects to come and fix the "load-bearing issues", forcing them to rush and add a coat of varnish and a few 'aged' details for authenticity.

[yes-these-obsessions-are-healthy]

Ok I’ll give Veilguard this. In Inquisition you grow to love Solas (if you actually like him, haters need not apply here). In Trespasser you can feel the weight of his hinted past and sorrow and feel that uncomfortable mixture of betrayal and sympathy but also more betrayal and doubt. You look at him as a friend or a lover, and in high approval he very much behaves as a thoughtful man with a touch of wry irony to him. But always gentle. That’s the framework Solas loving/liking Inquisitors see him in.

But in Veilguard… hoooo boy, I hate him (in a good way). Like I love him? But the game showcases him at his most snide, his slyest, his most calculating, his most haughty. We can argue whether it’s a facade that he’s channeling to help him push through to finish his goals or if his Pride is in fact twisting him, or if this truly is all of his flaws front-loaded for Rook and the player to see.

It *does* fulfill the warning that Solas gave Lavellan in Trespasser that he didn’t want her to see what he’d become. I came into the game a die hard pining Solasmancer and yeah, I wasn’t.. frightened or put off, but I was admittedly unnerved. In fact it fulfilled a specific fear I have of people, it being “I don’t know who is secretly evil”, so watching Solas sneer and talk down to Rook in their first two conversations from a place of power and self-importance made my stomach turn in an evocative way. It was effective for me, and they managed to keep the facade up by not making Solas one-note in his evil. He was regretful, nostalgic, and gave kudos to the people of the Inquisition. I was happy to know he didn’t see them only as pawns in the end. He did grow to care for them. But in his mind, that phase of his life, that “mission”, is over.

Like thank GOD they didn’t completely butcher this character. Lotta stuff surrounding him was fucked but Solas himself remained at least somewhat coherent and functioned adequately as a versatile ‘anti-villain that thinks he’s an anti-hero but also a villain and it’s complicated, okay, but he does have some villainous mannerisms that make you go ‘uh..hold on a sec, you seem to be enjoying that a bit..’ villain.

To see my man be that wicked to Rook is like.. wow, this is how he treats people he has no feelings for who stand in his way. The Solas we got in Inquisition was de-powered, and maybe you built an antagonistic relationship with him, but he got to *know* you. With Rook you are conversing with a Max Disapproval Solas from the jump. It is greatly derived from the fact that you foiled his ritual—you, some guy. He treats you like some random off the street who infuriatingly messed with his plan, because you are. You have no direct connection to him. You might as well not even exist to him. That it wasn’t eveb a former member of the Inquisition who managed to pull a fast one on him. If it were a member of the Inquisition he would have deemed them worthy. But you? You’re unworthy of having accomplished trapping him.

Like Who are you to stop him? Who actually in the fuck are you? You’re a whelp, you’re vapor, a waste of perfectly good yearbook space.

It’s giving Sovereign v. Shepard vibes, naturally. And I’ll admiiiiiiiit it was at least modestly interesting to see this dynamic play out with a humanoid rather than a giant eldritch space monster.

But anyway, yeah. Solas was kind of misused, as was everything in Veilguard, but there are some decent truffles to dig up in this mud.

[lyriumflames]

managed to finish the game in 3 and a half days, still ill and very little sleep, I'm delirious

Oh My God

No seriously I was actually nauseous the whole last like 3 hours because I was convinced there was literally no way of him coming out of this alive, I just kept thinking how cruel it was to keep giving us hope only for it to be knocked down time and time again I was SO upset for so much of it, this hit me like a freight train.

(sidenote I wanted to check the details and ended up on the solasmancers subreddit and they seemed to hate it and I was like huh??? but then I realised most of them actually had this idea that it'd be the Solavellan Game with a bunch of scenes and all that which....how? this isn't about the inquisitor? also how would that make sense to everyone who DIDN'T romance him?)

I think the best thing I did was use mass effect as a previous example and didn't get my hopes up on happy endings. I just kept thinking of mordin and shepherd and repeating it's okay it might end like this. I also thought of andromeda, which is universally panned but tbh I do like it, like I very actively set my expectations low so i am VERY pleased.

OH I did accurately predict that his first word to her would be Vhenan though. Yeah predicatable but you should have heard the noise come out of me when it finally happened.

SO many twists and turns throughout the game. even at the end I was like "will he die with the blood magic??" I become an absolute idiot at the end of video games, I spent the epilogue of cyberpunk thinking V was in cyberheaven but I'm getting off topic.

MAN yeah I really enjoyed that, you can tell love was put into the game even if the studio treated them like fucking shit for it.

The Varric stuff? Holy shit, I began the game thinking he was gonna die, SHOCKED that it happened so soon, relieved that it was a fakeout, fucking TAKEN THE FUCK OUT BY THE TWIST I mean my god the dialogue options gave me like 4 tries to say "I suspected something" but the truth is I absolutely did not.

Second sidenote they should NOT have put the sex scene so late I couldn't enjoy the moment because I was actively sobbing about varric and DAVRIN and ASSAN my god.

The semi-open world thing threw me off at first and I wasn't a fan but honestly after a few hours I totally got it, they could use great design and new mechanics and put these grand things in and not have to worry about the map, and I quickly got used to only having two companions instead of three.

Yeah you know what I really enjoyed it.

[genocidalfetus]

Brain Rot Thot Dragon Age Edition

Since Veilguard is next month and we've gotten so much stuff as of late, guess I wanna give some thots on this.

The whole three choices thing when it comes to Inquisition-related stuff. That's....certainly surprising and has me feeling weird. Until that, I was hyped about the game. I mean, I still am, but the only questions involve Solas, the status of the Inquisition, and your love interest....hmmmm. I mean, wouldn't it be important to know who the Warden Commander is? In my Worldstate, it's Alistair. I was hoping to see him again, especially since we're going to the Warden's HQ in Veilguard. I already headcanon that Alistair is the one who recruits Ash, my Qunari grey warden warrior and that won't change regardless. Still though, Alistair has been in EVERY Dragon Age. I was looking forward to hearing Steve Valentine again...unless he's a surprise or something...but something tells me the new dev/writing team has broken the streak of having him in the games...pity. And it would be nice to know if our Wardens managed to find a cure for The Calling. I mean, unless they're planning to address that in the next game....if there is one....

So is it safe to say that a Levallen romanced by Solas will be getting a lot of content while Inquisitors who romanced the other companions get maybe a line of dialogue at the most? I was hoping for a glance of Cullen, who is married to my Inquisitor. He's also a character that had been in every game so I was hoping to see him again(and before anyone mentions his VA as a reason, that's bullshit. VAs can be replaced) Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for the Solasmancers because they didn't get nearly as much content in DAI and a romanced Inquisitor does deserve proper closure, but I'm of the 'either make it equal or don't do it at all' mindset when it comes to things like romances and whatnot.

I get that it's Rook's tale. They are the one whose fuckup leads to Solas' fuckup. So Rook is the one who has to assemble their 'Avengers' or 'X-Men' to go unfuckup their fuckup. But every DA game has had the previous game choices shape the world, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse. It seems that this time around, choices don't matter so much. Like I understand the game is centered in another part of Thedas, but the events of the previous games should have somewhat rippled to other parts of Thedas through travelers' tales and whatnot. The New Divine would be normal gossip, as would other choices we made. Just kind of bums me out that everything that happened in Inquisition got boiled down to three questions...

Like regardless, I'm going to play it. Already have my Rook's class, race, and faction decided and little tidbits of his lore, as well as who he's ending up with(GILF Necromancer, eat your heart out), but that whole thing with the Inquisitor made me feel a little bummed and also seeing some of the writers being a bit dismissive and weirdly smug about things. I also don't like that people in the DA fandom are attacking them and being twats about everything....then again, this is the DA Fandom, where people claim to be anti-bully while bullying people so I kind of expected the backlash. There's a reason I would rather set myself on fire than tread back into that cesspool of toxicity that's apparently a fandom...

So yea, those be my thots I guess...I want to hope the game will do well and be great. Been waiting over 10 years for this game. Could care less what some Chuddy losers think of the CC or any other 'woke' element of the game. It's not for them. It's for those of us who have sunk so many hours into Thedas. I guess we shall see next month....

[ir0n-angel]

Comfort Character Challenge

I hope @fiadhaisteach doesn’t mind me taking up the open invitation to play. People rarely tag me in these games/challenges.

Rules: Post your top three comfort characters.

( A comfort character is when a character, which can be from a TV show, game, book etc makes you feel safe and happy when upset, sad, down etc.)

1. Optimus Prime, Transformers. Without going into too much detail, I had a bad childhood. Gen-1 Optimus was the father-figure I looked up to, the one who helped me form my morals, and to be fearless in the face of adversity. Peter Cullen, the VA for Optimus, talked of his brother’s influence:

Peter told his older brother, a former Marine who served in Vietnam, that he was going to audition for a hero in a cartoon show for kids. His brother advised, "Well Peter, if you're going to be a hero, be a real hero. Don't be one of those Hollywood heroes pretending they're tough guys. Just be strong and real. Tell the truth. Be strong enough to be gentle." When the audition came around, Peter ultimately based and voiced Optimus Prime on his brother, successfully securing the role.

To Optimus Prime, who taught me to be strong enough to be gentle, and that freedom and the power to choose is the right of all sentient beings.

2. Elisa Maza, Disney’s Gargoyles. Normally her partner Goliath ends up on these lists, but for comfort, Elisa wins out. There have been many strong female characters in fiction, but very few have been compassionate and open-minded as well as smart and tough. If Optimus was my guiding light as a kid, Elisa was the same for my teenage years.

3. *grumbles* All right, fine... Solas, Dragon Age: Inquisiton. I’m not a Solasmancer (yet). I do, however, have to confess a respect for the guy. When I first learned of Solas, I didn’t like him one bit; all I could see was another murderous bastard yet everyone thinks he’s sexy, like Elder Maxson from Fallout 4. But when I finally got around to playing DA:I years later, I learned more about him and his motivations. Somehow, I managed to max his affinity out faster than anyone else’s. Believe me, it was a total shock to learn that all of my compassionate choices granted me points with him. He does what he thinks he has to do, no matter the cost to himself. And he still tries to be a good person (see: the Crossroads scene when he kneels to help the injured). He cares. 

Heh, I guess y’all can see the trend... This was a really hard challenge for me. I’ve never watched/played/read a book, game, movie, or tv show in my entire life ever.

Tagging @crackinglamb​ @madangel19 @st0nergh0ul @ranaspkillnarieth @the-desert-dancer @steamcaptain @kenais-posts @lilbittymonster @elizabethtaylor9 @galactic-cannibalism and anyone else who’d like to join.

[sleepymarmot]

honestly it's absolutely fine re what you put on my gifs :') if it makes you feel any better, I wrestled with this decision for months. I completed the game, did all its DLC, and imported my Aeducan being alive into DA2 and got the majority of the way into Inquisition (got the letter from Aeducan to the Inquisitor) before I realized doing anything other than the ultimate sacrifice would be untrue to her character. I think if I had played any other origin then my Warden might have remained alive but there's something about Aeducan sacrificing themself that hits different.

God, that sounds rough! I don’t think I’ve ever had to retcon anything in my playthroughs so hard.

For my Aeducan, it was not inherently OOC – she had taken her banishment and contamination with darkspawn blood very seriously and was already torn between thinking of herself as (un)dead and appreciating the second chance at life. So, now that I think about it, the decision whether to accept the Dark Ritual was similar to the binary choices companions get at the end of their personal quests – commitment to one of the two ways of life that have been equally appealing to the character in question. My Aeducan, in the end, chose life. But in most stories, that kind of decision is presented as product of someone’s strength – she considered it weakness. She wouldn't have done it if not for Leliana.

DAO was my first RPG, so I messed up a lot – most notably, had to go about 20 hours back because I missed not only all of Leliana’s romance triggers, but some significant Zevran gifts, and had to kill him. In that alternate timeline, after my Aeducan failed to confess her love and killed a friend with her own hands, she would not allow herself enough selfishness to convince a man to participate in the Dark Ritual and to keep an Old God soul alive with unclear consequences just so she could survive.

I think it took her some time to fully make peace with her decision to live. She needed to know it had done more good than harm – done any good other than making herself and her lover happy. I think Sigrun’s presence was very important – another dwarf who considered herself dead, yet walked and laughed in the sun. And I’d like to think she met Kieran and saw how good having him was for Morrigan. And unless the future canon contradicts it somehow, she spent the last decade building connections between the Grey Wardens and Orzammar – something nobody but her could do. In my headcanon, she visits Skyhold between the events of Inquisition and Trespasser, and by then she's long past the angst – on the contrary, she and Leliana are the happy couple whose success my solasmancing Inquisitor feels slightly envious of.

[mayahabee]

Secret Palentine here! Tell me about your OCs! What are they like? What are their pet peeves? Who did they romance and why? 😍 Tell me all about them!!

Hello, Secret Palentine! Tis a good question, my friend! I have quite a number of OCs (Inquisition having the most lol) but I’m just talk about OCs from completed playthroughs! Bee warned that my OCs are pretty basic lol 

DAO

Nura Surana - Arcane Warrior/Bloodmage/Battlemage. She’s pretty laid back and always give witty remarks on almost everything. Doesn’t do things without good reasons, she has to think about it a lot before she decides it’s for the best. She doesn’t really remember much about her early years but she has been content being a Circle mage. Romanced Alistair (remains a Warden) because they’ve been stuck together from early on, friends to lovers you could say. I haven’t thought of any pet peeves for her tbh XD 

Aeran Bartholomew Cousland - My smart-but-kinda-dumb-in-a-way blond dual-wield warrior boi (I forgot his other specializations). He mostly just goes with the flow and he jumps head first before thinking LOL. He doesn’t say no when women throw themselves at him, including Morrigan. That being said, he romanced Morrigan. They don’t always agree with each other but they were infatuated with each other and eventually they really do love each other. He left with Morrigan and raised Kieran together ahuehuehue. Pet peeves? He doesn’t like being told no lol. 

DA2

So far I only have one Hawke, which is Maya Hawke. Force Mage. She’s technically my self-insert as a human character, hence the name lol. Diplomatic with a bit of spicy sarcasm at times and respects her companions. Maya was planned to be a happy Hawke and she was supposed to friendmance Fenris as a mage but I messed up the approval. So she moved to Anders (his friendship was already super high and they are both mages) and it all went down south, turning into an angst romance lol. She killed Anders (feelsbadman) at the end. I really need to think of pet peeves for her too lol.

DAI

Irira Lavellan-Rutherford - Knight Enchanter. My first DA OC (yes I played DAI first lol) and she’s another self-insert alongside Maya and Nura. She’s just like Nura in a way. XD She tries to be as diplomatic as she can, despite hating politics. She prefers to not take sides in an argument but when it has to be, she has to think about it real hard. As seen by her surname (don’t judge, I just love combining surnames), she romanced Cullen and is happily married to him. Cullenmance is my kind of romance. XD I played DAI because of Cullen. Her pet peeve is being disturbed in her nap or sleep. She looooves her naps and sleeps. 

Saryn Lavellan - Rift Mage. My poor Solasmancer. I made her as I was playing my Cullenmance playthrough because I just had to romance Solas even though I knew what was going to happen lol. She represent the other parts of me that are the opposite of Irira or things that I wish I have within me. I got the name Saryn from my favourite frame in Warframe of the same name and her colour scheme is based of that frame too. She’s stoic, super introverted, straight forward and doesn’t question much but she had a personality shift after Solas broke up with her and she became a lot more direct and angrier XD. She still loves him though. Haven’t decided her pet peeves yet LOL. 

Sorry for the wall of text. This took a while to type LOL 

[therealdragonnerdagain]

First off . . . fuck you, DreamM, for talking down to Solasmancers like we're a bunch of morons just for wanting some closure. Fuck you.

My first Inquisitor was a Lavellan who romanced Solas, and I did not go into that romance expecting a happy ending.

But I did expect AN ENDING.

Silly me. I'm so stupid for expecting that my character would get some fucking closure.

Instead, my character is defeated by Solas, utterly, in every conceivable way -- sort of in the same way she defeated Corypheus, ironically enough -- and there's nothing she can do.

That sucks.

People play video games because they want a power fantasty. This includes the power to WIN in the end, not lose horribly and be sidelined for a new protagonist.

The Inquisitor is the only DA protagonist who loses their final fight. They are also the only DA protagonist whose ending we don't get to play out. Trespasser made it painfully obvious that she/Quizzy will be hiring the DA4 protagonist to fight Solas in her place, while probably showing up as a crappy NPC every now and then.

Imagine for a second if people who romanced Morrigan never got that Witch Hunt dlc?

Or imagine for a second if Hawke was never allowed to confront Anders for his betrayal?

People would be just as mad. But Solasmancers have the gall to want closure, power over our situtation, and some kind of actual ending for our character, so we're just silly morons, right?

Fuck you. Fuck you and every Dragon Age fan who thinks like you.

As someone whose canon warden was a Dalish who sacrificed herself to the Archdemon (after romancing Alistair) I am not afraid of sad endings. I also didn't go into the Solas romance foolishly thinking the ending would be happy.

I can handle tragic endings just fine. What I CAN'T handle is having no ending at all.

My Warden got her ending. My Hawke got her ending. My Inquisitor gets no ending. Instead, she sits on the sidelines while someone else finishes her story.

Granted, I could be reacting prematurely. For all we know, the Inquisitor might get closure with Solas in DA4, and instead of her being some poorly done NPC, maybe we'll actually be able to control her.

This is how I imagine (and hope) DA4 will play out.

Solas succeeds in taking down the Veil. Story opens with New Protagnoist seeing this happen and it probably kills thier family or something, so a personal motive for the NP is established in regards to Solas.

I mean, who in their right mind would go up against an elven god who can turn people to stone otherwise? This is why I've often said in the past the new protagonist will need a motive as personal as the Inquisitor's. Otherwise, throwing yourself at a god makes zero sense.

If someone in ancient armor descended from the sky right now and blow a hole in the middle of Missouri, how many of us would leap forward to kick his ass?

Heroes in fiction are often driven by personal vendettas (even the Inquisitor might be sealing the Breach just to save their own ass), and the ones who are duty and honor driven usually have the power to back up being recklessly stupid. I imagine the NP won't be initially so powerful that they will try fighting Solas off the bat (no, not even a mage). I imagine they will become powerful, though.

After the Veil is destroyed, the Elven Gods rise, and the Inquisitor mentors the new protagonist in thier work against Solas and the Elven Gods.

New Protagonist cleverly leads Solas into a trap, where the Inquisitor ambushes him and captures or kills him with some kind of powerful artifact (I mean, if this happens in Tevinter, there's bound to be something there that can stop Solas).

If Bioware isn't cruel, they will allow us to control the Inquisitor as she is facing down Solas (mine would be killing him, not capturing him, even though -- yes -- she romanced him).

With Solas dead, locked behind a mirror (again), or otherwise incapacitated, the Inquisitor gets to have her closure and her ending. Yay.

New Protagonist, after growing into a powerful hero under Quizzy's mentorship, then goes on to fight the Elven Gods. Wins. Then end.

I could live with this.

But even if everything played out just like I wanted, I'm still not buying DA4.

Why?

Because Bioware has already proven that they don't care about consistency. They don't care about honoring their own lore. They still don't care about their female audience: the majority of our romances are always tradgic and fucked up -- plus, they take way too much pleasure in mocking Cullenites and Solasmancers in the game itself. And finally, they are anti-indigenous, anti-pagan bigots.

So no. I won't be buying DA4.

[seeker-ophelia]

Fantastic read

Why Dragon Age Veilguard isn't a "Cathedral"

Concept art by Matt Rhodes

"To disinherit the storylines of past games goes directly against the notion of building cathedrals."

What is inherent with Veilguard that keeps bothering me is the fact that the world's choices truly didn't matter--and it doesn't simply bother me from a player perspective, it's not simply a grievance borne of frustration to what I (as a longtime fan) have lost. It's about the very culture of the arts under capitalism's new media habituation cycle [x][x].

Yes, I spent hours of my life playing and replaying each instalment of Dragon Age. Yes, I painstakingly curated a 'canon' world state by replaying what came before in preparation for Veilguard. Yes, I am even more unsatisfied with the end product--time hasn't helped, it's just widened the divide. But, and I can't stress this enough, these very personal gripes aren't what hit home the most. It's the inherent disregard of legacy. A legacy that the previous writers and game developers were building towards.

In the DAV artbook, "cathedral" is the word used to describe the process of making a game. Matt Rhodes' exact words are: "One artist can make a painting, but it takes a team to build a cathedral." Cathedrals took centuries to build. The architect who drafted the first blueprints would likely never see his work realised, he had to rely on those who came after him, like-minded and passionate, to see it through--for the culture, for the future, for legacy. Painters took on several apprentices for this reason too--giant frescoes were not completed by one man's hand, even if it is one man's name that immortalises them. Similarly, if you weave a narrative around choice, what good does it do to take it away at the final act if not to fall to caricature?

To disinherit the storylines of past games goes directly against the notion of building cathedrals.

Late-stage capitalism and profit-margin-obsessed game producers forcing developers to churn out meager content, to make a known brand into something it's not, to chase a fad or a popular trend... o, how reductive and cliche you've been forced to become Bioware. We have lost the cultural thought patterns relative to Cathedrals. We know only of barn-raised churches--done in a day but unlikely to last the turn of the seasons.

And don't even get me started on the music of Veilguard either. From Origins to World of Warcraft to Everquest to Baldur's Gate to Dungeon Siege, you can hear the intricate interconnected weave of sounds inspired by the Dungeons and Dragons-esque fantasy genre. You hear it in the repeated use of certain instruments, in the harmonic weeping notes of a bard-like singer or the foreboding echoes of drums as if of war. In tavern songs. But then, rather than hire someone who loves these worlds and this genre, who is a hungry artist looking to make a name, a legacy if you will, for themselves with a spectacular score, you hire any already sated composer, one well-into the encroaching years of career fatigue, whose notes repeat in countless projects, who feels less concise and more uninterested with each new project. One who has long since cemented his legacy. Someone in it for a paycheck and nothing else! And, to top it off, you let him compose something so minimalist? I am offended actually.

Cathedrals! We should have witnessed the final tile being placed on the Dragon Age cathedral. Instead, some architects walked up, tore down the interior and installed IKEA furniture and called it authentic before having to call the previous architects to come and fix the "load-bearing issues", forcing them to rush and add a coat of varnish and a few 'aged' details for authenticity.