#but also this sucks because dragon age is so important to me and like...i want it and its creators who have given me such joy

[notebooks-and-laptops]

It's just WILD to me that bioware would pull this shit right after bg3 comes out to outstanding reviews for it's writing and characters!! Like I haven't played bg3 yet but it's clear to everyone with eyes that it's setting a new standard for RPGs despite how other studios are scrambling to claim it's a one off and impossible to replicate the same standard. And then bioware, in the wake of this, where half it's fans are seeing how amazing bg3 is and maybe losing interesting in da because of it are like...oh hey why don't we fire the writer who wrote some of our best received characters and a bunch more of the team to the point where it feels they don't care about the games anymore (depsite their stupid claim that this will help with releasing DA4). like. How is this not going to make people just lose complete faith and look somewhere else - especially when that something else is RIGHT THERE because it JUST CAME OUT

[lavellaned]

Actually I think one of the reasons why this game is so awful to get through is how it treats abuse, abusers, and abuse victims.

Under cut due to length of rambling:

First of all, Morrigan. Abused as a child by her mother, Flemeth aka Mythal, learned about the world and how to interact with it in a skewed way. Was treated in a way that no child should be by anyone let alone their parent.

Fast forward to Inquisition, particularly a worldstate in which Kieran is alive. The scene in the fade where Morrigan confronts Flemythal is one of the most important and special scenes in all of dragon age to me.

Growing up through abuse as a child you never think "I don't deserve this", you mainly think things like "Why is this happening to me?" and "Bad things happen to me." You know that these things are bad and make you feel bad, but when your baseline for how you should experience the world is abusive, you don't have the point of reference to think otherwise. And then you grow up. You look back on the abuse through the eyes of the child who experienced it but also through the detached, adult view that you currently have and have to reconcile the two. It's not easier nor pleasant. Getting to the age your abuser was/getting into the position of power your abuser had over you is difficult. Being at that stage and picturing yourself doing what was done to you to someone else is fucking sickening, and then you start to realize "I wasn't the problem, it WASN'T my fault, YOU are the one that's fucked up." But a lot of people can't and therefore the cycle of abuse continues.

But Morrigan does. She straight up tells her abuser "I will not be the mother you were to me." To have a character who survived childhood abuse be able to reach a point in their life where they can take back their personhood from their abuser is pretty damn important, actually. To this day I get weepy just thinking about it.

And then fucking veilguard happened.

Not only does it not matter if Kieran is alive or if Morrigan drank from the well (something that would BIND HER SPIRIT TO HER ABUSER), but Morrigan straight up let Mythal hitch a ride in her. The very thing that Morrigan tried to prevent ever since the first goddamn game? And we're all just supposed to accept and be ok with this?

The only way I can see this not being a complete character assassination of Morrigan is if Mythal just straight up possessed her unwillingly/killed her. Have Mythal use Morrigan as a information receptacle for new players, but also use old players' already-implemented relationship with her as a way to manipulate them. Either way, shit sucks.

Then there's the Crows. You know, the guild who takes children from brothels, orphanages, the streets and puts them through Hunger Games levels of training in which they either die or survive to become a slave assassin for the rest of their life. Not in veilguard. We're all just one big happy family. We rule Antiva, yippee!

Finally, there's Solas. One could argue his entire existence is the product of abuse, and everything that has happened in Thedas is because of it. I think framing his regrets as physical manifestations that want to kill him is a really interesting narrative choice. Unlocking the regret murals was one of the very few parts of this game that invoked a strong emotional response from me, not just because I'm an unapologetic Solas Enjoyer but because the implications are heartbreaking.

And then the game has you sit through the most fucking unbearable CBT group therapy session to talk about them with some of the most annoying damn people in Thedas who treat the literal apocalyptic levels of abuse Solas went through for millennia as something like a joke? And we the player are not given the option to challenge this? This game makes the point to force the player to agree with the flippant attitudes brought up from this.

Then brings up the final scene with Solas. Do I think the meeting with Mythal and Solas was handled well? Yes and no, but that's for another time. Solas is so far in the trenches of the trauma of abuse that he will not stop until his abuser pretty much tells him "I'm done abusing you." I think this was good and bad, again another time.

The way Solas interacts with his abuser is the direct flipside of how Morrigan does. You see more than one way someone can heal/not heal from it.

Morrigan, someone with arguable little power in the world, stands up against her abuser unflinchingly.

Solas, described through history as a GOD, someone with unfathomable amounts of knowledge and power, cowers and offers his abuser a literal weapon to kill him with, unprompted.

If this was a good game, it would be about regret but also about survivor's guilt, something that those who survived abuse have to deal with for the rest of their lives. But it's not, because it's a a bad game.

[diminuel]

Not to keep yapping about my thoughts, but, to throw some actual comfort into the angst. Prev post 1 Prev post 2

I don’t think Dragon could ever stop caring about Crocodile. Partly because of his guilt and shame, but also I think after a while he starts to realize he loved Crocodile for more than the escapism he offered. I don’t think he could after forget that. But he would probably resign himself to “Crocodile hates me, I’ve hurt him enough. He’s living a different life now. I can’t disturb that, I have no right to.” So just accepts he lost Crocodile and his chance at a family.

So I think Dragon would be more than willing to start a healing journey with Crocodile. But it’s all up to Crocodile whether it happens. Crocodile has a lot of pain to process and heal from. He has a lot of things he has to change his perspective on. He needs to see Dragon is willing and able to take accountability.

I truly think Marineford changed everything. I think it would have give Crocodile a new opportunity to really grow, and unpack his past. To finally truly heal instead of running away from and ignoring it. To see his baby.

I am really unsure how much Crocodile ever let himself truly feel, he probably just coped with it all through anger and shame. Never really wanted to process or understand, just push away and forget. I do also think no matter how much he shames himself for it, I can see him still admiring Dragon or at least not forgetting those cold quiet nights of them being together, loving each other.

So Crocodile has his heart-to-heart with Iva after Marineford. Iva punishes Dragon for his past choices. After sometime of them both moping, Iva suggests that it might be helpful if they both start talking. It doesn’t even have to be about any of the past. Just a simple, how are you. And if that can be good, maybe they can both finally address everything together. Iva probably has to take up the role as mediator, as he sees both sides and knows this can be good for them. Looking over Dragon’s shoulder, making sure he’s behaving.

It's definitely going to be a long, exhausting time before anything is truly better. But I can see them working it out. I’m sure Crocodile would be anxious to EVER make an intimate promise like before. So I don’t see it happening unless he can truly heal, and it’s what he wants and things will be good for him.

I don’t think Dragon would try to initiate any sort of like “hey I think we should talk again, or be partners again.” As that’s not really his call. Crocodile needs to feel he’s respected and in control here to build back trust. So I think Dragon would be pleased with anything Crocodile is wiling to give him. Whether that’s with the label “Partners” or not. I can definitely see them working something out.

(But I can def see them having long nice calls of just taking and being in each other presence. And or meeting up occasionally, and just fucking LOL!!)

Yeah, I think the perspective that distance and age brings might take some of the edge off of Crocodile's anger. He might be more understanding of what both of them got out of the relationship and he might also come to understand just how vital it to stay dedicated if you're leading an entire (sort of secret) organization. He understands how some things, even the most important and most precious things, will have to wait. Because they could wait, no matter how much it sucked to be pregnant and alone there weren't the lives of thousands at stake. (Crocodile was probably also isolated with only the midwife there to keep him infrequent, professional "company". Of course he withdraws into himself and stews in all the discomfort and loneliness and bitterness). But Dragon could not communicate that and Crocodile could not see it.

He does now. And maybe he does at times wonder how it would have been if they had overcome that. Because he did feel good with Dragon before everything crashed and burned around them.

But Marineford tore up a lot of wounds and despite it all, how is he able to cope with the choice Dragon made? A dead baby might have been a loss to put behind them and eventually move on. But a very much alive baby, that lie, the abandonment of it to the whims of Garp and Mountain Bandits?

The talking with Iva there as mediator would definitely help (especially since Iva will just be obnoxious and push and not let them sit on their resentments. He needs Dragon focused and it's in Crocodile's best interest to also figure this out.)

But yessss, phone calls and conversations and fucking. Hey, they've got a lot of pent up energy. And both of them probably haven't gotten laid in years. What's the worst that could happen?

[tobiasdrake]

Well, Daima's off to a really slow start. First episode kinda sucks, but it'll hopefully pick up now that the plot's begun.

I know Toei's gonna Toei but spending ten straight minutes watching two new characters watch the Majin Buu saga of Dragon Ball Z feels like a bit much. I sure hope Majin Buu winds up being an important character in Daima because boy howdy did we recap the shit out of who he is and how he came to arrive at this point.

Toei, you're not adapting a manga; You don't need to throw in filler to pad the runtime.

Elephant in the room, Shenron can't actually do this. The wish made at the end of the episode is beyond his power. Weird how obsessed post-Z material is with reverse-aging the characters; They've done this in GT, Super, and now Daima's entirely predicated on it.

They threw in some stuff about "The Saiyans are all using white magic and reverse de-aging them is a white magic wish instead of a black magic wish so it bypasses the established rules and will work!" It's nonsense, but it's kind of necessary nonsense to make the show's premise work so it skates by.

Trying to critique the wish too hard runs afoul of the "Look do you want a show about the cast turning into kids and exploring the Demon Realm or not?" problem.

And I do, so I won't harp on it too much.

But man, it's amazing how little happens in this episode. We get a little establishment on King Gomah and Makai. I'm guessing Degesu and Dr. Arinsu are Makaioshin, a concept that up to this point only existed in supplementals.

They're evil counterparts of the Kaioshin, which is pretty self-evident in the show proper. Especially since they're apparently East Kaioshin's siblings?

Also, I caught that bit about "Dabra's predecessor, King Abra". Well played.

I hope some of the other characters get involved with Daima's plot. "Turn everyone into children and scale back all the power levels" seems like a golden opportunity to give weaker characters their time. It'd kinda be a waste of a premise like that if it still winds up just being the Goku and Vegeta show anyway.

I dunno.

This episode left me feeling about the way I felt before I watched this episode. That is to say, "Oh boy, I can't wait until Dragon Ball Daima starts."

[devilheartsblog]

I watch World of Winx,this is what I have to say about Season 1

Before anything I’m considering WoW it’s SEPERATE CANON. No Alfea, no Dragon Flame, no Black Circle, no Earth Fairies. But I will touch on the connections to the show in a later point.

Let’s start with the things I like. The concept is alright, I was doubtful but after watching the show it made more sense. Some new characters like the talents, Ace, the Queen and Shaman were fun and I like the variety for the talents. Roxy was quite enjoyable too (until she went on a mission with Bloom and it felt like she was her apprentice again despite them seeming to be the same age). The way the Winx use their powers outside of battle was refreshing and it’s nice to see how they can read different auras, and I love Aisha using water, I just like elemental magic a lot so yea. I also quite liked Bloom arguing with ace and the build up to her getting fired, but the toupee thing was stupid.

Now the things I don’t like which there is a LOT. So brace yourselves guys. There are a lot of plot holes such as Bloom not revealing her fairy form to Jim but Naoki (the talent geek) is okay because I guess he likes comics?? Also Detective Evans and Gomez aren’t a main focus despite being important, and it’d be more interesting if they were Anabelle’s friends as her flashback shows a blonde woman and brunette guy. Some other plot points are references to Winx Club such as Bloom coming up with the name, the girls only being on Earth for months, and Roxy and Bloom having relations outside the club. Which, guys girls and nbs, makes me wonder WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE WIZARDS? Ogron get yo ass over here and capture Roxy you stupid f- It seems like the show wants to be its own thing but has to be like “hey remember they’re the Winx Club” which makes even less sense. There’s also the travelling problem with how going from Paris ro Beijin is a van drive away and Beijing to London is a 2 minute walk. And going from California to Switzerland is just around the corner. Makes you wonder how Jim got to all those places so easily.

Other than that Crocodile man was annoying past the 3rd episode, like please someone turn him into a purse. And while the Winx use their powers in unique ways outside of battle, in battle they suck hard. Flora uses the same vine spell on Crocodile Man 4 TIMES, is she stupid? And honestly a lot of the plot feels dragged out because of the battles if you ask me, especially Crocodile getting away with the watch about 3 times.

I’m dedicating Dreamix to its own section because where do I start. First off, I don’t like the designs. The outfits are too glam for battle and the wings are so over-detailed it’s gross and would be better fit for a live action effect. The transformation sequences are also pretty bad. The girls just sit around as magic dust gives them accessories, which just makes me miss season 1-4’s transformations. And the way they earn them is so…like why bother showing them earn it? Dreamix just happens out of nowhere, they didn’t do shit why should they get Dreamix? At least Mythix and Butterflix are earnt.

I think I’ll stop here otherwise the post will be a bible’s testament worth of complaints. Show’s okay. First half of season 1 was good but then someone invited a season 4 writer and now everything’s about Bloom. So yeah, see you guys on the flipside!

[explodingchantry]

hi sorry to come into your inbox for this but i just need. to gripe. every new bit of info we get about the new DA game is making me more and more preemptively tired lol. mostly the way it's looking like eeevery bit of lore that's been revealed has something to do with such and such book. or this comic over here. or this podcast from two years ago. or THIS podcast that is happening now that's a ~discord exclusive~. or this youtube series. or this random VA talk show. etc etc ad nauseam. i am so tired of videogames coming with HOMEWORK you're expected to do just to know what's going on

Please never apologise for sending messages!!

I think its honestly REALLY funny how bioware just doesn't know what it wants. On one hand they say that the new game is fine for newcomers, the way they did for dai, and use this as an excuse for how dumbed down some of the writing is - but then in the other hand the majority of the characters and plot beats have origins hidden behind pay walls.

It was already bad enough when, to understand each game properly you had to have paid for the previous one's dlc (want to know anders' past as a warden? Buy awakening! Want to know wtf is up with Morrigan and the eluvians? Buy witch hunt! Want to know who tf corypheus is and what hawke and varric even have to do with him? Buy legacy! Want to understand ANYTHING about veilguard? Play the descent AND trespasser, our epilogue that we hid behind a paywall!!!!!) and you know at least the dlcs were pretty good on their own so I could forgive it a little bit.

But there's so much extra media now omg I haven't touched a single one of the comics because I'm not rly into American comics, I've read almost all the books and some of them are genuinely fucking mid. And at least back in the day the books were more... Bonuses? You DONT need to read the stolen throne to understand anything on the games, but it's INTERESTING. it explores characters you mightve been curious about. I love that ! Or the last flight is really interesting, just, to see how the 4th blight was beaten, to get to know those legendary heroes, and know why griffons went extinct. A bit annoying because you do need to read it to also understand how the hell they're coming back - but it still feels a bit more like a bonus than a necessity.

But then we have asunder, which also in general just kinda sucks as a book, that is really really needed to understand the mage rebellion, Fiona, Cole, and the cure for tranquility. The characters will explain a lot of those things to you in game, but it leaves you with the certain feeling that you're missing something. It's a huge advertisement for asunder.

Similarly wicked eyes and wicked hearts is hollow if you haven't read the masked empire which is also my least favorite book because it's so damn fucking boring I literally never managed to finish it, but it's mostly because I hate Trick Weekes' writing lmfao. Gaider was wildly misogynistic but my god at least he was entertaining as a writer whenever he didn't butcher female characters.

That's two major plot beats in inquisition that require reading one of the books. And ofc it's major villain and another major plot beat that require having played the previous game's dlc to properly understand.

And since then we've had so much more. I don't know. It's just complicated because I *like* book characters showing up and the books having importance in the sense that, I like reading and I'm a lore nerd lol. But I think there's a lot of frustration to be had as to the sheer quantity of extra media you need to consume if you want to be invested in the story. Because you could say "well just don't buy them then" but I LIKE dragon age, it's story, and plot, but omg some of the books and comics are also so hard to find and so EXPENSIVE. I think tevinter nights costs like 20£ if you want it on paperback rather than Kindle, and don't get me started on the dozens of comics.

At least the podcasts and discord only content isn't nearly as offensive, imo, because they're free. But also there's another issue with all of this extra content - it's that it doesn't get fucking translated. Not often, anyway. Not in as many languages as the games do. That means there are many, many many many players and fans who are just not allowed to learn more about their favorite game series because they don't speak English, because theyre not rich enough to buy 10 books and 20 comics. It feels a bit wrong

[greyias]

I really don’t want swtor to shut down it’s the only eu thing that’s active we have left

I knew these asks were going to start coming in.

So for those who haven't heard, it was reported, and then later confirmed by Keith Kanneg on the forums, that EA is "selling" SWTOR to another developer, Broadsword. For those who want to read the article discussing it, you can read here: https://www.ign.com/articles/star-wars-the-old-republic-development-third-party-bioware

TL;DR -- It's not shutting down. The servers are going to stay active for a while

There's a few points to note here:

If I understand things correctly, EA actually owns Broadsword. So EA is in fact not actually offloading a property, I think what's actually happening is BioWare Austin itself is being divvied out and would not be surprised to see if that branch is shut down

At least half of the SWTOR dev team is part of this move, so the key things to keep an eye on is which members of the dev team are moving. If the narrative staff is kept intact, then we have more story ahead of us beyond what's been written, and they've confirmed we're getting 7.3, 7.3.1, and 7.4. It's important to note that their production timeline is generally a year out from things being written, so story-wise, if they have narrative staff, we'll likely still have some story drops ahead of us

SWTOR is profitable (it hit over $1 billion in profit several years ago), and I will admit I don't have the best understanding of video game finances, but my impresion it was far into the black and maybe not an enromous cash cow, but a decent consistent revenue stream. EA is a publisher that is about profits, so as long as the game is profitable, even if there's not new story drops, the game will stay online

Disney has seemingly taken a recent interest in SWTOR after mostly ignoring it after its acquisition of Star Wars, even going so far as to finally acknowledge the general KOTOR/SWTOR era in their presentations last year at Celebration. Does this ultimately mean anything? I don't know, but SWTOR is one of the longest running current properties with a stable player base. They're just as interested in profit as EA. Probably another indicator that the game will keep running for a while.

Other properties that Broadsword operates, such as Dark Age of Camelot and Ultima Online, are old games. Ultima Online was released in 1997, and the servers are still active. So like, I think regardless of what happens in regards of the story, we're not losing the ability to log in and play the game

Long term subscriptions - I remember reading, and forgive me, because I've long forgotten the source, that a key indicator if the servers are going offline is to also keep an eye on the six-month subscription option. Basically, if suddenly the only option for subs goes down to one month, that's when to worry about being able to actually play the game.

This is probably not about SWTOR, but BioWare as a whole. It seems there's a leadership issue at the main Alberta office that's causing issues. This is likely an Anthem issue all over again, but Anthem this time happens to be the Mass Effect and Dragon Age properties. Unfortunately, BioWare Austin looks like it's going to suffer the consequences of that, even though they've been running a tight ship overall compared to the rest of the branches. I feel for them. This sucks.

Now I'm not an oracle, I have no idea if this is ultimately a good or bad thing for the game itself. There's a lot of evidence for both sides of the coin, so right now the best thing is to wait and see. We at least have the promise of the next two patches. Let's focus on enjoying that, and celebrating what we love about our silly space game.

If you love the game, keep playing it. Spend money on it, and keep it profitable and it will stay around. Be kind and supportive of the devs, who regardless of how this shakes out, are going through a major transition. But immediately decrying an active game's death and going into doom and gloom is not going to help things.

Will we get more story beyond 7.4? I do not know one way or the other. I hope we do, but it's hard to say for certain on that front. But I do believe we'll still have our toons and be able to replay all of the released content for quite a while to come. Again, for now I'm just going to enjoy my favorite game, and support it as long as I have it. Even if this inevitably means it's going to change.

[kaija-rayne-author]

Dragon Age Veilguard 7th review in series

Obligatory I'm not an asshole disclaimer. You can skip to the cut if you've read it.

Something came to my attention. I need to make it crystal clear that I utterly love the diversity in DAV. It's fantastic. I'm also a heavily left leaning, non-binary, queer as fuck reviewer, editor, and author.

I'm on media blackout while I play this, so I'm only getting second-hand info on how awful it is right now in the DA Fandom. Please be safe and take care of yourselves. Arguing with incels and white supremacists is completely pointless. They sea lion worse than an actual sea lion. Your mental health is important.

Though, every single time the anti-queer brigade comes out for a new DA game, I sit there thinking 'have you bozos ever played any DA game, like, ever?' My guess is nope.

52 hours in, 50 hours playtime

Part 6.1 is here.

Massive spoilers for Veilguard

Another long one. And it's largely negative.

So. What to say. Well, the first should be I called it on Illario being the crow traitor. At least, at this point in the game. (He just broke Zara's neck to keep her from telling Lucanis his name. Presumably.) They could throw a plot twist in there and have Illario be innocent but acting squirrely to bring out the actual traitor. That would be interesting. But to be completely honest, I don't think the writers are that skilled. The plot of 'jealous younger cousin/family member seizing power and betraying everything to do it' is a classic trope.

It's also as stale as the package of crackers I keep meaning to throw away. They really went with that? I think my eyes are in danger of rolling out of my head. And digging them out from under the dresser is just so awkward and uncomfortable. Have you ever washed eyeballs? They’re squishy.

Can we mention plot holes? I took Emmerich with me for the crow mission. Why exactly didn't he do his 'corpse whispering' to get confirmation that Illario was/was not the traitor? Even if you didn't take Emmerich, they could've easily taken the corpse to him, but nooooo. That would've made sense! Especially because there's then a scene of Emmerich whispering a corpse about the hand of glory. They sooooo needed to take all that back to the drawing board and tighten it up a lot.

But I've said before that they need better editors. Honestly, even though I don't particularly want to work for Bioware given their history of firing useful, skilled people... maybe they do need me. Or someone else as exacting as me and good at editing. Cause much as I hate to critique another editor? Whoever edited this isn't very good. Whoever edited DAI wasn’t very good either. I'm a far better editor. It's a niche, nit picky sort of field. You have to care about the details and you have to dedicate yourself to it. It's a field where you need to constantly be learning. Things like, say, how locks work. You can have advanced English degrees, you can be a phenomenal writer, and still suck at editing. Because it's so very specialized if you want it done right. Whoever their editor is shouldn't be editing games professionally. There's obviously too much to keep in mind to tie everything together. (Honestly, autistic and auDHD people like me make phenomenal editors if we enjoy words/stories and get into it.)

I have no personal grudge against their editor/s. It's just my professional opinion that they need an editor with more skill.

Also, whoever drew that hand of glory probably should've looked up what one looks like. They went for an Addam's family vibe and that's just... not a hand of glory. I'm a witch and a student of witchcraft history. I should know.

So, a hand of glory is an actual thing.

This is how one was made.

"It must be cut from the hanged body of a criminal (usually a murderer) on the gibbet (usually a roadside gibbet); dried in nitre, pickled in the urine of man, woman, dog, horse and mare; smoked with herbs and hay for a month or dried under the sun during the dog-days; hung on an oak tree for three nights running, then laid at a crossroads, then hung on a church door for one night while the maker keeps watch in the porch.

The candle part had to be rendered from the fat of the same criminal you got the hand from. It’s usually the left hand, but could also be the hand that murdered. Images from the period when people believed in them vary on how the candle part worked but one of the more common is the whole hand dipped in the tallow rendered from the criminal until it was stiff like a candle. Then the tips of the fingers would be lit."

They did get what they were supposed to do correct, though.

Good idea? Yes. Bad follow through.

The name is bastardized from the French word for mandrake.

As usual, better editors needed.

Did the Weisshaupt quest. I'm not sure if that's the end of act 1 or half way. I'm leaning on end of act 1 given the way the plot is shaping up. It was a fun enough sequence. If a bit loud. I also like it when the heroes fail in stories. Because that's realistic. We fail. We pick ourselves up, and we keep trying.

I've said it before, and I can't claim authorship, I'm not even sure who used it first, but 'hope gets kicked to the floor, beaten the shit out of and still spits out blood, maybe a tooth, picks themselves up and says, 'bring it, bitch".' Hope isn't gentle. Hope is ready to throw down.

Can I just say that Zimmer was a fucking mistake on the music front? He's been phoning it in for ten years and he absolutely did for DAV. It's a shame when the soundtrack for DAI was so stirring and just... fucking epic. DAO's too, for that matter. (The OST for DAI also helped tie the world together.)

It's like someone decided to toss the collections aspect (which was a large part of the fun for me and many others, including collecting enough stuff to make fun armour) without even remotely understanding what those collections did for the story. Big mistake in my professional opinion. In any story, you need little things that tie all the big things together. DAV doesn't have the small threads tying the big bundles of yarn together. It's just... not good.

There are parts of the game I do legitimately like, but they're far outweighed by the sheer dumbassery.

I am still so utterly flabbergasted that they nerfed rogues so much. Why in the world would you take a good half of what makes playing a rogue fun and just toss it? Why even bother to have a rogue class at all? They’re just a light skirmisher in DAV.

They Legolased my elven rogue and I'm not happy about it.

Don't get me wrong, I love Legolas, and he's an elven warrior, good with his bow and dual weild, and that's basically it? (He’s a lot more in the books, but I'm thinking movie Legolas. He’s not even a rogue in the books.)

As a rogue in DAV, there's no traps to set/disarm, you can't pick locks, you can't sneak or hide in shadows, it's just ridiculous to even call them rogues. Oh, but you can hit the locks! Someone has been watching too much hollyweird. Hitting it hard works, right? Of Course the lock just breaks.

Y'Know? I'm not a locksmith, but I know a decent amount about picking locks and how they work because I'm an author and like to know how stuff works. Hitting a lock? Makes it less likely to actually open. I really really wish whoever made that decision many hours of disappointing game play in a class they love. Because that's what they gave me and other rogue lovers in DAV. It just fucking sucks. Are the rest of the classes this bad? I don't think I have the stomach to play this again as my second favourite class to find out (mage).

I think I figured out what DAV is missing/what's bothering me the most.

A lot of things are more streamlined, better designed, I do have to give them that. But they took it waaaay too far. They've streamlined it to the point of boring mediocrity.

There's very little to collect other than codex entries. Which are fine, barring the massive number of editorial issues in them. Even if they really aren't answering any of the burning Lore questions I've wanted answered since I started playing these games.

But there's nothing else to subtly tie the world and story together. I've mentioned it before, but the mounts you could collect in DAI were gifts from different peoples and cultures. That tied the world together and to Skyhold.

Same goes for the Warden memories, and all the other little collection bits. It made an intricate, beautiful tapestry of DAI. DAV is a poorly woven bedsheet. With plot holes you can stick an arm through.

DAI had issues, every game does. Some of those issues I'm glad to see fixed in DAV. And overall, they took a lot of the fun out of a Dragon Age video game with the over zealous streamlining of DAV.

And I'm not sure if I'll ever get over the 'rogue who isn't a rogue at all' issue.

I played around with the decor part, and honestly, why did they even bother? You could completely customize Skyhold to how you wanted it. That was great fun for me. In DAV? You can put mementos on shelves and change the central statue, that I've found so far.

The Lighthouse is pretty cool, but it floats unconnected from the world, and it really shows. There's just... nothing tying everything together. Not to mention the complete retcon of, 'oh, living beings can't go into the fade unless they're mages, and even then it's dangerous to the point of suicide.'

Yes, the Inquisitor went into the fade in DAI. It was either that or splatter on the ground, and they barely survived it. And you had to leave a companion behind as the price of getting out. In DAV they live in the fade (without consequences that are clearly spelled out in the Lore). People are strolling into and out of the fade like it's a shopping mall. Y'know, the fade that's supposedly chock full of blight? According to the actual game I'm playing?

It's like the different departments and different writers never once talked to each other. And man, does it show.

I think the only section where they must've communicated well is, again, backgrounds, scenery, and environments. That is literally the only thing holding this game together and making it feel even remotely like Dragon Age.

And that's just sad. They had so much material to work with from the Lore and the previous games... so much, and as far as I can see? They've ignored most of it.

And I know a video game can't do everything, but my elf has Dirthaman's vallaslin. Dirthamen is the twin soul of Falon'Din. There's a puzzle in Arlathan that is a bunch of owls, and my Rook dopily says, 'guess someone liked owls'. Oh, you mean the brother Evanuris whose mark you wear on your damned face? Really? Really really? JFC. So, yeah, they're probably not going to do shit about figuring out anything to do with the Vallaslin. Which in both my personal and professional opinion would've been a very interesting thing to write about. What happens in a culture when they find out they've been wearing slave markings. Do they all get rid of them? Do they have interesting discussions and quests about figuring out the meaning of old and new? Of old things that might’ve been bad at one time, but have a completely different meaning now?

I dunno. This game just isn't great so far.

Goddess. I hate writing negative reviews of Dragon Age stuff. I utterly love the previous games, the world, the Lore.

Y'know, the Lore they've decided isn't important and brushed under the rug? Talk about disappointing. I was so hoping for some answers to all the burning questions I've had for years about the Lore.

And I'm dreading the end of Solas and Inky. I don't think it's going to be remotely what my Romance loving heart will think is even close to a happy ending.

Weekes tweeted at me that 'there's a suggestion of a happy ending' for Solas and Inky. And that gave me some hope, because Tresspasser left a few things dangling in good star-crossed lovers fashion. But unless Inky and Solas end up, 1. Alive. 2. Together. 3. At peace or close enough to it... it's not a happy ending. I'm afraid Weekes, who isn't a Romance writer (I am) has a very different definition for 'happy ending' than me, most Sollavellans, and Romance readers in general.

A HEA (Happy Ever After) or a HEfN (Happy Enough for Now) is a staple of Romance.

Something can't be considered Romance as a genre unless it has two things. 1. Focus on the romance/relationship of the characters. 2. An HEA/HEfN. In each book/story/piece of media, not even the end of the series, in every installment, Otherwise, you can't even market it as Romance without violating stores terms of service and risking having your account taken down for misrepresentation of what you're selling.

I swear to Gods if we get some Romeo and Juliet sort of ending for Solas and Inky, I'm boycotting Bioware for life.

Romeo and Juliet is not a fucking Romance. It's a fucking tragedy. If we get a tragic ending in any fashion, for Solas and Inky? I'm just absolutely done with Dragon Age. Them being together with a chance at happiness is all I want. (Honestly, I desperately want the intimate scene we were denied in DAI too, and I don't think that's too much to ask for either.) One intimate scene and a HEA. Let them retire someplace out of the way so Solas can grow flowers and play music and paint. Inky can do stuff she loves, and they love each other. The parameters of how exactly they do that don’t matter. They could do literally anything as long as they're alive, together, and with the same chance of happiness any Romantic couple/group has.

That is the only type of ending that won't have me boycotting Bioware for life. Especially after the lackluster showing of DAV.

I saw the title of one news article (on steam, I'm trying to stay as blind to this game as possible to provide a fair review that are just my thoughts). And it said something along the lines of 'The best fantasy game released this year.'

My immediate thoughts were, 1. Had whoever written that actually played this travesty? 2. How much was the writer paid to say that, and 3... what? Is DAV the ONLY fantasy game release this year? Cause that's the only way it's the best.

8th in series here.

[daenerysstormreborn]

@cleverelaena88 hi I was the anon in the post this is from. I wanted to start a new thread instead of clogging the notes of someone else’s post. I wrote up an essay explaining it under the cut if you’re interested but it boils down to this:

1. I started thinking for myself about her place in the narrative.

2. I let go of petty feelings coming from my wounded inner child.

3. I realized I could continue to think for myself and that liking this characters doesn’t mean I’m aligning myself with objectionable things other fans of the character have said.

The way I feel about Sansa changed for a lot of reasons. I walked back on my stance that she isn’t important because I realized I wasn’t really thinking for myself and was just going along with the things often said by other fans of my favorite characters. If I remember correctly, she has as many POV chapters as Bran. The Vale plot is important to the story and it’s clearly not just relevant to Littlefinger or else… why would Sansa be involved? She didn’t need to be a POV character for the story to work but she is because she’s important. If Sansa was just supposed to be a “camera” to show the viewer what’s happening in KL and later the Vale, why did start off as a POV character in places where other POV characters were as well? She’s the only POV character in the Vale in AFfC, but if that was her only importance, why was she a POV character prior to going to the Vale?

Currently, she does feel pretty “cut off” from the main plot threads—the IT, the Others, and the dragons. At least where I’m at, halfway through AFfC. And I think that’s what makes some people think she isn’t important. But I kind of thing that’s evidence that she IS. She’s away from all of these major plot elements and is not in close proximity to other POV characters who are involved in these three elements, unlike characters like Arya, who are technically disconnected from those three elements, but are in close proximity to other POV characters (i.e., Arya encounters Sam in Braavos). Given that, why on earth would George continue to feature her POV if her story specifically was not important?

As for why she’s become one of my favorites, that’s a bit different. This is a bit personal, so forgive me for it, but I think it’s interesting insight. I had to get past this wounded inner child aspect of myself, for one. I was an ugly duckling. I grew up being mocked for being a chubby, socially awkward kid with a snaggle tooth and a lisp. I internalized the idea very early that in order to be loved and socially accepted, I must be beautiful. I have auburn hair and amber eyes. I also received this message that to be beautiful, I should be blonde and more importantly have blue/green eyes. Seeing how just about every example of beautiful women in media were blonde with light eyes, and how the vast majority of female protagonists were beautiful, I developed quite the complex about this. It started sending a message to me that these stories were not for me. The romance, the fantasy, everything these characters got was not and never would be for me because I wasn’t beautiful like them. I resented any female protagonist for which their beauty was a huge focal point because of a deep envy. I wished more than anything to be beautiful. Every birthday, every star, every dandelion. What I really wanted was love and social acceptance, but I was too young to understand that.

Then something weird happened as I grew up. I became beautiful. I don’t want to sound vain or self-congratulatory, but it’s relevant here. The vast majority of people now consider me to be extremely good-looking. This started around age 16. I got what I wished for. People started treating me differently. I got what I wished for. And it sucked. I’ll get back to that. But I did and still do feel like that little ugly duckling. I’m slowly healing, but it’s hard. I still felt this deep resentment and envy. It is starting to go away but comes up now and again. And as petty as it sounds, yes, part of me resented this character for being beautiful. Of course, I think every single female POV character is called pretty or beautiful aside from Brienne. Daenerys and Cersei are also considered to be extremely beautiful, but it’s not as relevant to Dany because the whole dragon thing takes more precedence and Cersei’s envy and vindictiveness are more prominent me (plus she’s an overt antagonist, and I don’t mind so much when the character is one of the bad guys, for some reason). But for Sansa, her beauty and grace seem to be major focal points in how other characters see her.

I said before that becoming beautiful sucked. I resented everyone around me for treating me differently because I was beautiful. And I realized that it does NOT offer me the guaranteed acceptance and love and safety that I believed it would as a child. Men will behave in different evil ways to both ugly and beautiful women. Being beautiful started to feel like this curse. It became a performance that I have to maintain because deep down I fear that beauty is all I have and/or that it’s the only reason anyone really values me. I developed an eating disorder about it. I got exactly what I wished for but not what I wanted.

Here’s how that’s relevant. I started drawing parallels and antiparallels between Sansa and Dany. I think it’s very interesting to compare the two but I seldom see that discussed unless it’s to pit them against one another. As I started to make these parallels I realized that many of the reasons I connect with Dany also apply to Sansa and started doing some self-analysis about why I didn’t connect with Sansa in the same way. I started to sort out the whole wounded inner child thing and realized it had been preventing me from acknowledging and appreciating any depth in Sansa’s character and really feeling for her. I realized that she too wished for something so very badly when she was a naive kid. Something she thought she wanted desperately. And she got it, and it was horrible. I found that I can now really emotionally connect with this character. Perhaps she too fears that her beauty and grace are the only reasons people like her. And I can definitely relate to the feeling of being sexualized and objectified by adults and peers alike. I know how it feels to have to smile and nod and lie to appease poisonous men. I really can connect with her emotionally in ways I couldn’t before because of my own personal hangups.

Finally, I just stopped caring about what other fans think. I have seen Sansa fans saying things I find objectionable, like proclaiming that Daenerys and Arya’s arcs are patriarchal or excusing the way Sansa treated Arya (although I don’t think their relationship is as cut and dry as “they simply don’t love eachother”). Plus there’s just a lot of infighting between Sansa fans and Dany and Arya fans and it made me keep my distance. I also am not a Jonsa fan and it seems many Sansa fans are in fact Jonsa fans. I used to hate the ship but was just being immature honestly. I’m neutral now and I think it’s interesting to read Jonsa metas because they present an entirely different way to interpret the story. It is fun for me to see what other people take away from the text. I was also holding myself back because I’ve seen Jonsas misconstrue the text and omit parts of passages and important context in ways that seem intentionally misleading, which really bothers me. But I realized I’m biased. We all have our own confirmation biases when reading the series and I’m sure other fans do the exact same thing. I was just noticing it more with Jonsa because it’s not a theory I subscribe to. But enjoying Sansa’s character does not mean I need to align myself with every single other Sansa fan, which seems obvious when said so plainly, but we often subconsciously develop this sense of group microidentities that we fear betraying.

This is all very specific to me as an individual of course but I had fun with all the introspection and think it’s an interesting case study about why a person may resent a specific character and why they might change their minds. Thanks for reading!

[blueskittlesart]

Sorry in advance for how long this ask is. Botw was the first zelda game I played to completion, I played a tiny bit of twilight princess when I was younger purely because you could be a dog, the first dungeon of wind waker, and I have fond memories of both loving and sucking at skyward sword on the wii but ultimately I was just too young and easily distracted by games I was actually good at, and therefore less frustrated by, to have the attention span to beat a zelda game. I think I would have beat skyward sword if not for the motion controls being very frustrating.

Anyway, I played totk and then obsessively read your big zelda doc and basically every post you've ever made about zelda and now I'm insane. Thank you. I didn't have totk spoilers blacklisted at first because I assumed I wouldn't care because I never care about spoilers and then I saw your posts when you were finishing the dragon tears questline and it made me stop just running around doing sidequests and focus down the main quest like crazy.

I'm trying to decide whether to play skyward sword remastered or hrule warriors age of calamity (which I did very much enjoy the demo of) next and was wondering what you'd recommend. I did try to play ocarina of time on 3ds and I WILL go back to it once I stop being so mad at myself about dying in the first dungeon and also maybe give in to using a guide because I don't need to get a Good Grade in Zelda, something that is both normal to want and possible to achieve.

HIII i'm so glad i could be your introduction to zelda lore!! the question of aoc vs sksw really depends on what exactly you're hoping to get out of your gameplay experience imo.

aoc has its. decent points. i will say this. but the 2 most important things to know about it going in are 1. IT IS NOT CANON and none of the events within it actually correspond to anything that happened pre-botw, and 2. its gameplay is NOT zelda gameplay, it's dynasty warriors gameplay. you've already played the demo so you have some understanding of the gameplay, but you should know that that's ALL there is to aoc, and if you don't enjoy hours upon hours of hack-and-slash large-group combat, you're not going to have a ton of fun playing aoc. there is technically a story tying aoc together, and it has its moments, but they're few and far between. mostly it just kind of sucks. if what you're looking for out of this is a well-written story similar to the experience of botw/totk, i would not recommend aoc.

the most important thing i'd tell you about sksw is that even thought this one IS canon, the gameplay is still gonna be noticeably different from botw/totk. sksw is much closer to the classic zelda formula than the games you're most familiar with, and is actually smaller and more linear than games like oot and wind waker. the gameplay is also almost entirely dungeon-based, and those dungeons are gonna be noticeably harder than the botw/totk ones. what sksw DOES really deliver on is story!! i'd say it's comparable to botw with the way in which the story is told and the subject matter it works with. like i said, it depends on what experience you're looking to get! personally i would go with sksw but. we all know how story-focused i am LMAO

[callmejudgement]

Winx Club Script

About Me

Age: 20

Height: 5’6

Appearance: Similar to my cr self but 100% yassifyed. Note: I have 40inch sister locs, not a buss down.

I also gave myself 20/20 vision because I’m sick of glasses.

Backstory: I am a changeling (like in Fate) who lives a normal human life on Earth. One day I suddenly wake up in Magix. While I was asleep, a wizard transported me through the Realm of Dreams to his residence in Magix City. Apparently, I'm the last living member of my planet's royal family (I am not naming the planet in my script bc I suck at names). The Wizard is an old friend of my mom's and has been searching for me for centuries because I'm the only one capable of saving our realm. I am to start at Alfea and learn to control my powers as one of the last surviving dream fairies. When I’m strong enough, we will reclaim my realm from the darkness overtaking it.

My powers: fairy of dreams + some secret power (like how Bloom has the dragon flame, I want to be special.)

My pixie: I'll let y'all know once I meet her. I want it to be a surprise!

Schools

The three major schools (Alfea, Cloud Tower, Red Fountain) are coed. I believe in male fairy/witch and female specialist rights! You also study for 5 years, like the show initially stated before changing it to 3! There isn't much to say here because I mostly like how the schools are canonically.

I am changing the average first-year age to 20, though. Why? Because I'm 20, and I don't want to age myself down to 18 or 16. Besides, people in the Magic Dimension live so much longer than humans, so why would their schooling ages be the same as Earth? (Not to mention that this is my dr and I can do what I want!)

I'm also making the schools less strict on curfew since we're older.

Speaking of which, I’m also scripting in inter-school weekend parties at Lake Roccaluce!

Specialists

This is oddly specific, but Helia is also a wizard (because his grandad is, so I feel like he should be, too).

Villain’s

I honestly want to nuke any canon villain post-season 4. Tritanus is on thin fucking ice, but Selena can stay. Acheron and them season 7 animal things need to go though (they get the most useless and forgettable villains award!).

The Trix

Let's get this out of the way first. Stormy is male in my dr! Why? Because!

Do I need to say more? Now, on to more important things. I love these baddies (even though they became pathetic as the seasons went on)! I plan for the plot to mostly follow seasons 1-3, but I want the Trix to get a redemption arc at some point. I'm not going to script out exactly when it happens, but it will happen after season 3 (assuming that event even follows the show after all the changes I've made).

I just really want to work with the Trix! I am a firm believer that the Trix are not pure evil. Maybe it's their ancestor's influence that is twisting their minds without them knowing? Or perhaps they were corrupted by the Shadow Phoenix through the Whipserian Crystals that they used in season 1? Idk, but it'll be something and after being cleansed with fairy dust, they return to normal and can continue at Cloud Tower.

The Shadow Pheonix

The show could have done so much more with this so I will make use of it instead. Speaking of the Shadow Pheonix is taboo throughout the Magic Dimension because of how fucking evil it is. Even witches don't fw it. The Shadow Phoenix created the Dark Circle (I don't like that the Wizards of the Dark Circle canonically made it), and the Phoenix is not a physical thing. It's more like a concept or energy that is recorded to have appeared as a Shadow of a Phoenix in history.

[chronurgy]

10 characters, 10 fandoms

Thanks for the tag @rowanisawriter!

Tagging: @weavewithshadow, @bhaalsbabe, anyone else who wants to play!

Oooo this is going to be hard because I tend to get really into multiple characters from the same thing, but let's go! In no particular order:

1. Essek Thelyss - Critical Role

He's a war criminal. He's a prodigy. He's a traitor. He's a time and gravity wizard. He's a heretic in a theocracy where his mother is a living saint. He floats everywhere instead of walking. When the gang asks if they're going to have to kill him, he laughs and says "I'd like to see you try". He crushes someone to death with gravity simply by closing his fist. "My reasons [for treason] weren't good, but they were important". He goes from not having cared about anyone in 120 years to caring so much about a bunch of weirdos in like, 6 weeks. He made his father so mad during an argument that the guy stormed off and died. What's not to love? He makes me so insane.

Honorable mention: Caleb Widogast

2. Anders - Dragon Age

My favorite chaotic bisexual disaster man. The contrast between awakening anders and da2 anders is so fascinating for me. He's this carefree guy, except he isn't really that carefree, is he? He escapes over and over and over, swimming across the lake even. He hates the circle and hates the Templars just as much, he's just funnier about it. When you start adding up the year in solitary, Karl, the fact that he must have seen all the injuries in the circle as a spirit healer, it starts becoming very clear why he is the way he is. He also sucks! He's petty, he's mean, and he's so up his own ass about how right he thinks he is about everything. But he also runs a clinic for the poorest of the poor, dodging Templars and freeing mages all the while. He does the excellent wizard hubris thing of taking the future into his own hands, even if it kills people (suck my nuts elthina). He loves a romanced Hawke so much, even as he experiences this greater calling. Plus Grey wardens are cool as hell and he loves cats.

Honorable mention: mage!Hawke

3. Merlin - BBC Merlin

This show manages to be both ridiculous and sad. Merlin is such a happy go lucky, cheerful character at the beginning, then we watch as things just keep getting worse. He cannot seem to win. By the end, that cheerfulness seems much closer to a mask he's desperately clinging to than anything else. He's an expert liar and manipulator, he's a killer, and he's so, so alone. If he ever tells anyone that he's a sorcerer, he'll be executed. And he lives in the shadow of that for years, unable to be himself even with the people he's closest to. Also characters who have their eyes change colors when using their powers my beloved.

4. Daenerys Targaryen - ASOIAF

I love her chapters - there's so much interesting and human depth to her struggles (even when her struggles are fantastical). She struggles to know how to rule, and rule well. She takes hostages but loves them too much to kill them. She struggles to create and maintain a peace for her people even as that peace asks things of her she cannot bear. She worries what it says about her that her children are monsters and she both loves and fears them. She desperately wants a simple, loving life but is also so, so doomed to never have that. She's a queen and a dragon rider and a young woman trying to understand the world. She's great. (I don't care about the tv show I'm talking books here)

Honorable mentions: Jon Snow, Cersei Lannister

5. Gale Dekarios - Baldur’s Gate

Oh yeah, another hubris wizard. He's funny and has this easy, good natured charm that makes it possible to ignore that he's an absolute FREAK. He's got one of my favorite wizard traits - a strong ends justify the means streak. He points, very genteelly, at all the ways power and knowledge drive and corrupt. He's a sweetheart but he brags all the time. Except it isn't bragging, because he can back it up. He can really, genuinely, become a god. His relationship with the dark urge also makes me insane, because I think in some ways he's both the clearest eyed about what will happen to them and the one most willing to meet them where they are and also desperately wants to believe they're a good person, even when it's clear that they aren't. His line about how their life is no longer theirs to lead, only to follow to a dark urge who embraces Bhaal is incredible. The diverging paths of who he can become over the course of the game are fascinating and there's so much depth to him. He's great. Oh, he also excuses his cat's crimes. Love that in a man.

Honorable mentions: Enver Gortash, The Dark Urge

6. Camilla Hect - The Locked Tomb

She's the most composed, controlled, meticulous batshit fucking crazy woman in the world. Unstoppable force vibes. Instead of moving on after her necromancers death she pieced together tiny fragments of his skull and then shared her body with him. She's a genius and she can't let go of her insanely codependent relationship, even when it kills her (but honestly Paul seems pretty cool and I'm excited to learn more about them)

Honorable mention: Palamedes Sextus

7. The Jovial Contrarian - Fallen London

A little more niche, this one! I sometimes find that characters in fallen london can sort of pale in interest compared to the overall lore and happenings, but the Jovial Contrarian is one of my favorites. He loves arguing and will argue with anyone about anything at any time. If you have regular debating lessons with him, people will hide behind couches rather than face you. He's part of the calendar council and hates the masters but also wants a solution that isn't the liberation of the night. Anytime his name is mentioned you know you're about to read something ridiculous. Fun guy!

Honorable mentions: Poor Edward (incredibly narsty. great villain), The Eagle, Ascendant (they have like, 3 lines of lore and they're all fantastic)

8. Midna - Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

I remember playing twilight princess for the first time and I just immediately fell in love with Midna. She's snarky, she's mean, her design is cool as hell, and I really loved her arc as she grew to really care about people over the course of the game. She remains firmly the best Zelda companion in my mind.

9. Elim Garak - Star Trek

You always knew it was going to be a great episode when Garak showed up. He always feels 30 seconds from chewing on the scenery and it is fantastic. He's an exiled spy and maybe a little bit of a monster and he never pretends otherwise. His lines to Sisko in "In the Pale Moonlight," telling him that he must have known what Garak would do, and that if the price of winning the war is Sisko's self respect then he'd call that a bargain are some of my favorite in an episode that already has a lot of really good lines. Aw man I wanna watch DS9 now.

Honorable mentions: Julian Bashir, Captain Picard, Tasha Yar (but wasn't she lame and poorly written? Yes. But young me was extremely taken with this aggressive short-haired woman for reasons I could not articulate at the time 🥴)

10. Morgan Yu - Prey (2017)

Okay so if you haven't played Prey stop reading right now and go buy it. Don't look up any spoilers or plot or anything just do it. If you liked dishonored or deathloop you'll love it. Now: who IS Morgan Yu? Who WAS Morgan Yu? Are they even the same person any more? How culpable are they? How culpable were they? Part of the reason Morgan is so endlessly fascinating to me is because we'll never know. How integral are memories to the continuity of the self? Why did you do what you did? Did you, the person standing here right now, even do it? The game just delivers gut punch after gut punch to Morgan and I love it and I love them (whoever they might have been).

Overall honorable mentions: the outsider from dishonored, garrus from mass effect, vimes and vetinari from discworld, and all my dnd characters (shout out especially to Hermès Montclair who fucked a dragon, died (unrelated to said dragon fucking), then came back wrong and fucked the dragon again! No one's doing it like you baby)

[liaragaming]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard HYPE Q&A

What was the first Dragon Age game you played?

Origins. My husband encouraged me to play it, saying that he thought I would like it. And then I loved it more than he did. lol!

2. Which Dragon Age game is your favorite so far?

Inquisition. That cast of characters just sucked me in.

3. Do you usually play as a warrior, mage, or rogue? Which class are you planning to try first this time around? Which subclass?

I tend to switch it up. Origins, I played rogue because that was recommended to me. Exodus (DA2), I played warrior because I wanted Bethany in my party. And then Inquisition, I was like, well, I haven't done mage, so I'll do it. Thinking of going full circle and going rogue again in Veilguard.

4. What does your worldstate look like going into DAV?

That's a little difficult to get into since we don't know what will be important. But:

Romanced Solas / vowed to save him

Leliana Divine

Inquisitor didn't drink from the Well

Do you typically use a preset character and name or spend hours in the character creator coming up with a custom one?

I can get overwhelmed in the character creator. I tend to start with a preset and then customize it a bit and then jump into the game. I'll make tweaks to the character overtime though as I play. I prefer coming up with a my own name though, just because I don't want my character to share the same name as other players. And I will spend hours on that.

Do you have your Rook(s) planned out to any degree? If so, would you share some details or ideas you have?

Waiting for more information, but I'm thinking elven and red head. I like the idea of a non-magic user who joined the Veil Jumpers. Just because you can't use magic, doesn't mean you can't be fascinated with it.

Which character from the previous games or other media are you most hoping will make an appearance in DAV?

FENRIS! I need, need, need Fenris!

Dorian feels like a given.

There's more, but those two are tops!

What faction are you most excited to learn more about?

Veil Jumpers!

But also, all of them, to be honest. I can't wait to learn more about each one.

Which romance, if any, do you plan to pursue first?

I was thinking Bellara because I like elves. And then I heard about Lucanis being the angst romance, and I'm a sucker for that (as long as it end happily - I'm already in hell over Solavellan). But then I heard Emmrich is a total nerd and loves learning - and like... I don't know anymore!

Which location are you most excited/hoping to explore in-game?

It was Tevinter, but now... Arlathan forest? I also really want to see Rivain and learn more about the culture there.

There's so many place we'll be visiting. I'm excited for them all!

What's one thing you'd really like to see in this next game?

Resolution to the Solas romance. I've been in hell for 10 years! Please release me from this prison!

What's one thing you're hoping we DON'T see in this next game?

Anyone dying. Please Bioware. DO NOT give me the Hawke / Warden choice again.

What's one thing you've seen confirmed so far that you're a fan of?

The theme of regret. I can't wait to dive into that.

Developing a relationship between Rook and Solas. I have no idea how that is going to work, but I am so excited.

The Lighthouse. Just... gimmie.

What's one crack theory you subscribe to (yours or someone else's)?

Solas and Ghilan'nan were a thing (mine).

Are you interested in all the lore and speculation or do you focus more on the games and stories themselves?

All of it. All the lore, all the stories, all the characters. I just eat it up.

Which aspect of fandom are you most looking forward to? (e.g. reading/writing fic, the bounty of gorgeous art, getting to know new people, etc.)

Very excited for all the companion fanart and meta that is going to come out. Also all the fanfic I'm sure I'm going to write.

Are you planning to replay any of the previous games, watch Dragon Age: Absolution, or read any of the books/comics/short stories, or are there other games you want to play in the meantime?

Reading through Tevinter Nights now. Then going through the World of Thedas books. I WISH I had time to add the comics in there as well.

Post a picture or gif that conveys your current level of excitement for Dragon Age: The Veilguard!

[arlathen]

personally i'm trying not to be a hater and definitely not trying to dunk on others opinions of the game so far, but I'm just having a really hard time looking forward to anything bioware is putting out rpg wise because it already feels so hollow of what the other dragon age games did in terms of story/characters/companions as well as the personalization of the story our characters are in. I wish I was better with words because it's not that I'm not excited, I just love these games and the world of dragon age so much and im tired of that not being reflected by those actually making the game, it's like they just ignore giant parts of it. I'm not sure if nostalgia for the first three games is just keeping me from being excited about veilguard, but idk I just wanted to get my thoughts out sorry for the word block

aw that's okay! everyone is entitled to feel a certain way. my relationship with dragon age is a little different than a lot of peoples' because i played them all at once right in a row -- so it all feels like a natural evolution. origins mechanics evolve into 2's mechanics evolve into inquisition's mechanics. and personally, i DO feel like veilguard's mechanics look like an evolution of inquisition's mechanics.

so. way back in my day (2012-2014) i was a somewhat popular gifmaker in the sherlock fandom and i *joined* that fandom right after the second season aired. the sherlock fandom was in its heyday during the gap between the second and third season and were notorious for being wacky and zany and writing a lot of in-depth meta about how the cliffhanger from the end of season 2 would be resolved. and when it was resolved, it sucked. they did it way worse than fans had imagined.

so i also have that instinct. all these very smart fans of the game have spent ten years imagining how they're going to resolve this. i've imagined hours of what my perfect resolution would look like. veilguard is inherently going to be less tailored to my tastes than what i imagined, and so i might perceive it as worse than what i was promised and feel let down. i have a strong opinion that this is what happened to cyberpunk 2077 on release -- it was so hyped for so long that everyone imagined their perfect game, and when it wasn't exactly what they imagined, that made it worse in comparison.

but then there are parts of it that are cooler than i imagined, too. even from just what we've seen.

the two games bioware has put out since inquisition are mass effect andromeda and anthem. and both of these games are, imo, special cases for different reasons. andromeda was primarily made by bioware montreal, not bioware edmonton -- different, inexperienced team. and anthem was.... i mean, it was anthem -- bioware is good at story driven single player action rpgs. anthem was a destiny clone. from what i've heard (i did not play it) the mechanics of it were fun-ish (like, flying the actual mech suits) and i've seen that the game looked beautiful. it was just tedious and repetitive and was designed to fuel microtransactions.

so the key failings in the games that have come since -- multiplayer game not in their wheelhouse and not being built by the main bioware team -- are both being averted in veilguard. it's an entirely offline experience made by the devs we know. many of the most hated parts of inquisition, in fact, they have said they cut out (big empty open worlds where you need to collect 100 silverite). i've said before and i'll say again that it really, really feels like bioware have looked at the criticism they have received and tried to course correct as best they could.

and that does inspire confidence and optimism in me, personally. it isn't going to be exactly like how you're imagining -- for good or for bad. i'm tempering my expectations in line with that, myself. i know that no matter what we're going to meet new cool companions and get to kiss 'em (this is important to me). we're gonna get a whole bunch of new lore (this is also important to me). and we're gonna put an end to my egg boyfriend's misery one way or another (this is most important to me).

[explodingchantry]

My cope about the hidden post credit scene you get with the three circle codexes - spoilers for everything, obviously

Quick rant IT SUCKS IT FUCKING SUCKS IT IS THE WORST THING BIOWARE COULD DO oh my god do NOT introduce mysterious villains which were behind every bad event in all the games and probably just all of thedosian history do NOT take away literally every villain and honestly every character's agency that would be franchise ruining and I hope bioware retcons it IMMEDIATELY

Anyway

So those mysterious villains are obviously "those across the sea" or "the executors" - very fucking niche characters that appear in One war table mission in dai, are mentioned Once in tevinter nights, and are also mentioned once in fucking hard in hightown of all things. This means I get to count it as another terrible thing inquisition did. But anyway.

So both that knowledge + the content of the codex themselves + the hints at what exists outside of thedas in both the veilguard codex and taash's last hangout after their personal quest, very openly tells us that bioware might take dragon age out of thedas

... I don't like it lol leaving thedas or exploring anything outside the very esoteric info we currently have will open way more plot holes than it will fill. Because it is a gigantic plot hole that we basically know the blight only happens in thedas and the gods only did their thing in thedas etc. The evanuris or, you know, their dragons, of all people would be able to travel to these faraway lands. It works much better to keep them very mysterious and creepy and leave it at that. The audience should be meant to suspend their disbelief and be like "Yeah it's fine we don't know anything about these lands and don't need to". Anything more would SHATTER this suspension of disbelief and cause all of these plot holes to just ruin your fucking lore honestly

ANYWAY

If bioware really... Really wants to hang on to the executor idea.... I just beg and fucking pray, okay, that the whole "we guided from the shadows" thing is them feeling self important, and that they didn't have any fucking impact whatsoever. That they just watched and learned but that the idea that they influenced basically all of thedosian history (or at least recent history) is their false, biased opinion. Please bioware. Please. Please. For me. I've been so fucking nice to you about this game but this secret scene literally sucks so much ass the only way to redeem it is to retcon it I'm begging you

[calicohyde]

Happy STS! What is the best novel you've ever read? What did you like about it, from a storytelling perspective? Has it influenced or informed your own approach?

*instantly forgets every book i've ever read in my life*

in the name of. having an answer. i will pick The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. i don't remember it well enough after so long after having read it (and i've only read it the once) to pick out specific storytelling mechanics, but i do remember being impressed and thinking it was very well done in addition to having a lot of important things to say and being engaging and entertaining. i also remember i had borrowed it, and then texted the friend i'd borrowed it from to ask if he had the next book and if i could come pick it up right then. at 3AM.

one particular thing about the TGWTDT original trilogy (the only ones i personally count as "canon" lol) that really stuck out to me as unique and special to me personally and that i've wanted to see more of since - and am planning to be the change i want to see wrt - are its quote unquote "unlikeable" protagonists.

lisbeth is autistic and point blank refuses to mask, and in addition she's acerbic and angry and tends to reach violence as a much sooner resort than many, she's not exactly arrogant but she would never even dream of not taking credit and representing her skills accurately or god forbid using upspeak, she simply does not follow rules (or conventions or etiquette) she thinks are stupid and she's vocal and unapologetic about it, she's an actual genuine punk and fucks severely and without romance (until mikael), and as far as i remember she never once says sorry to anyone for anything no matter what. i love her with every fiber of my being.

mikael is a workaholic which is not unique, except that everyone hates his guts for being so single-minded and rigid and unavailable, which is, and which i really liked. of course people would not find him fun to be around. he also is arrogant, and a hypocrite, and can be unkind. and these two are the best good guys we've got! (this is also why i discount the opinion of anyone who claims mikael is a "romanticized" self-insert on larsson's part like bruhhh.... just cuz they have the same job? this bitch is not a romanticized version of anyone or anything he's a fucking rat bastard who happens to also be a good man smdh. i mean maybe he is a self-insert but not a fucking romanticized one! he sucks! i'm passionate about this.)

i also really liked the age range of the characters and the polyamory and the queers. additionally, larsson has a really unique and fascinating writing style (which critics have attributed to his writing career starting in investigative journalism before he ever did creative writing or fiction). i think it fits absolutely perfectly with the protagonists and the subject matter, and the way those things match up and meld together makes the series so much more absorbing.

but yeah i always liked a writing style and a narrative voice that was fitted to the characters/content, and i think larsson did it particularly well - even if it's a sort of chicken or egg situation with him. we'll never know since he died of those Natural Causes before he could write anything else and all. anyway! i would have done this regardless, because literally all of my favorite authors do it to some degree, which is why they are my favorite authors. (much of what people say are benefits you can "only" get from first person narration i feel you can get just as well from a limited third person, if you uh. try.) but yeah TGWTDT is a stand-out example!

i also can't necessarily give TGWTDT/larsson credit for my life long love affair with angry and contrarian good guys, but again it's a stand-out example and an aspiration in this.

thank you for the ask, nico!! <3