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anyway this is obviously a wild shift in the topic of conversation, but I was talking about it in the group chat last night as a distraction and would like to continue the distraction if I am being honest, so, with the caveat that this is based off of Fandom Osmosis Observations and a few reads of reviews and I have at this time played neither of these games, some thoughts about BG3 vs. Veilguard and what I've seen. many thanks to @captainofthetidesbreath for actually knowing things about video games and answering my many questions.
also just putting this up front with all said caveats: if you disagree that is great, I am very open that this is an outside observation and I could be very wrong but I am going to block people who get hostile without warning, and make this nonrebloggable if too many people get hostile. You are always permitted to disagree but like, I don't really care about your opinion if you're not someone with whom I have a pre-existing rapport unless idk you're like, actually a BG3 or Veilguard official story writer who happens to be on Tumblr. If you're a player? You have all of your own biases and they are not mine. Save it for someone who wants to get in a fight about this; I am not that person.
Essentially, what I've seen in terms of criticism from Veilguard that isn't just rampant transphobia comes down to the following:
why am I not playing my previous character from Inquisition again
why am I limited to a fairly consistent through line for the story
But first, I'm going to talk about BG3. What's funny is I seem like a much more obvious candidate for playing BG3, as a longtime D&D player who has come around on Forgotten Realms as a setting. However, while I looked at it for a while, I eventually lost interest for a couple of reasons. One is that apparently all the characters are WAY too eager to romance you which is like, a fun fantasy for 10 minutes but would probably annoy me in the long run. Another is that everyone who watched early reviews and kept abreast with the game told me that there was a clear favorite companion (Astarion) and that many of the characters had most of their interesting flaws sanded down (eg: Wyll was apparently much cockier originally; Shadowheart even more petulant; and as these are perhaps the two characters I was most intrigued by, reducing them to something blander destroyed much of the appeal). But perhaps the most interesting one is that as a boring goodie two shoes sort of person, my thought back when I was like "yeah, perhaps I will play this" was "oh, I do not want to have a murderous urge within me."
It became very apparent, through watching people play through and post on my dash, that if you didn't specifically play as the Dark Urge, and didn't specifically resist that urge, the story didn't really cohere. I have to admit, I know the premise of BG3 very well (tadpoles), and I know a lot of shipping trends (put a pin in that), and I know some of the more obvious points within it (Astarion is a vampire, Gale and Karlach both have bombs in their chests somehow, Shadowheart bleaches her hair) but I don't really have a great sense of the ending, and I did not avoid spoilers.
It feels like BG3 is designed for people who have one of those massive spreadsheets of D&D characters they haven't had a chance to play that are meticulously kept and thoroughly realized...and don't really leave room for modifying to fit the campaign you will actually be playing in. It feels like an OC sandbox simulator unless you do actually pick the choice the writers actually wrote for (Durge), and while it's not technically playersexual...it kinda is. I mean, I am a big fan of the trend in video games towards making it possible to romance anyone because it conjures up the idea of a world of high-powered bisexuals running around, which is very enjoyable for me, but the criticism of the Mary Sue archetype originally was never "how dare you fantasize about being cool." It was "wow, the characterizations are all warped beyond recognition solely so that everyone is in love with this character, and that makes for a dull and unsatisfying story." If you're everyone's type, and it's for romance and not just sheer lust, then either everyone around you is boring and wants the same thing, or you are sort of bland and inoffensive, or else the story is bashing characters together without a good basis for a compelling romance. This is also compounded by the fact that the companions can't get together with each other if you're playing your own character and not an Origins character.
None of this is to say it's bad to like BG3 and again, I didn't play it; but it is why I ultimately said "you know, given the effort involved to play it for me, a person without a gaming system, it's not worth it."
Veilguard has specifically intrigued me for going against a lot of this. You have a lot of choices in your character build, but they're all fairly thematically consistent: you did something within your faction that was well-intentioned but upset higher-ups and so you need to step away for a while. This establishes a personality for you! We know why you're part of a faction but also something of a free agent at the moment. We know why you're here and why you might be a good candidate for the current mission.
I'm not going to go into detail for the choices because while I'm not avoiding spoilers I don't want to spoil a relatively new game for others, but a lot of choices are fairly parallel, not in an "illusion of choice" way - they have consequences - but in terms of hitting similar themes. You can only save one city and both are places you have seen and places your companions have connections to; while the exact details may differ you are telling a consistent story.
I also think the fact that the companions can romance each other in your absence is important too! They exist even when you're not there. They are not just here to woo you, and indeed, they might be a better match for each other. I've been informed this is true in Inquisition as well, and I think it's a much more rich world if you, as the player, as the person who can ultimately decide the fates of your companions, aren't the center of their personal life. I also think it prevents the ability to sand down companions to be more agreeable to you as a player if you have to make an NPC/NPC romance compelling (and I will freely admit that, in a move that is not at all like me, I was pretty well sold by a potential in-game NPC/NPC romance, which is usually not the thing that gets me into works of fiction).
I'm not the right person to speak to the Inquisitor not being a significant character because I did not play DA:I, and I get that 'well, this is a new game with a new protagonist, as there has been for every Dragon Age game' is still not necessarily an adequate explanation. Nor is "hey, maybe it's good to attract new players" even though as someone who is highly attracted as a new player that is my opinion. However, I want to go back to the point about Resist Durge being the strongest option in BG3 in terms of story by a long shot. When I was trying to learn more, I said "ok, so just like how you're Tav in BG3 and Rook in Veilguard, you're Lavellan in Inquisition, right?" and was told that you are not - that's just the elvish Inquisitor option. Obviously this is anecdotal, but the fact that one option was far and away the most popular and thematically resonant is an indication that perhaps bringing forth the Inquisitor is carrying over some of the limitations of that game, whatever they may be. The true argument is "they are trying to tell a specific story here, and it is about a different POV than the one you previously had."
And that's really my point. I know I'm not an expert here - in fact I'm usually quite hesitant to write meta about things in which I'm not highly steeped, and very critical of those people who do - but I think an outsider perspective is useful here. The thing that is drawing me to video games is a new way to experience a fictional narrative (the other game I have been meaning to play - and even own on Steam- is Disco Elysium). That's not what everyone wants! But it is what I want. And so I want to be put into a developed, thoughtful narrative, and I don't mind if my choices are restricted in order to support it, and if I am playing a person I did not entirely choose. In tech, there is a saying of "make it easy to make the right choice (and hard to make the wrong one)" and so if you need your protagonist to hit certain beats, you should make that the required protagonist.
I think a story is stronger if your choices matter but if there is something of a foregone conclusion because it gives the writers thematic throughlines. This might sound a little silly given that this blog is largely dedicated to Actual Play but the thing is, most actual play does have, if not a foregone conclusion, at least a strongly intended conclusion of "work towards uncovering this mystery and achieving this goal", though the success of said goal is not guaranteed. I would argue that when a campaign lacks that, it tends to suffer in all aspects. RPG video games almost always have a foregone conclusion, but that's its own liability. In actual play, lacking a forgone conclusion means you spin off in any direction and it's anyone's guess if it's coherent. In an RPG, having this conclusion but not supporting it through the rest of the game will make it feel contrived. I feel a lot of Veilguard criticism is focusing on small contrivances early on that really mostly matter to a highly specific subset of potential players that prevent much larger and less forgiveable contrivances later on.
Anyway. Again, I am an outsider here, and I'm not here to say that it's bad to have a more open-world, sandboxy game with a self-insert-y OC type; but I have to be honest, I'd rather explore that in a true sandbox of fanfiction or original fiction, which is significantly cheaper and in which I can actually tell the entire story I want to tell. I don't want to be given more choices if a lot of them will be profoundly unsatisfying as a narrative. I don't want to cut through the world like a hot knife through butter. I want to be affected by it, and that's very hard to do with a character whose only trait is "self-insert whom everyone wants to fuck" or "guy that already carries the baggage of years of personal headcanons and highly variable choices that are hard to account for for every single person who ever played the previous game."
#long post#i'm not tagging this for the games obviously in the hopes of preventing the people i mentioned in paragraph 2#but for now; you can reblog.
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What’s up with how the dunmeshi fandom just lies about this kind of stuff all the time. It is easily confirmable information that it was a monthly series, something incredibly common in the industry.
A not weekly magazine schedule is literally common !! Especially in the seinen shoujo and josei demographics, sometimes monthly, sometimes biweekly, sometimes every two months, sometimes seasonal! Please stop lying about how Dunmeshi was some special unique creation that defies all standards of manga just to hype it up because it is so clear that every single one of these comparisons is centered around Weekly Shonen Jump (and understand that SJ has many magazines under its brand that are monthly or semimonthly). Not everything is WSJ and it needs to stop being the only point of reference in conversations like this 🤧
#sorry im having a moment.#kris actually talks#I can elaborate more on this bc I’m a nerd but like#I hope this doesn’t come off as disagreeing with the idea of moving more magazines off weekly schedules#but maybe let’s not lie ??? and act like tons of series including popular ones aren’t already in monthly ones#dungeon meshi#delicious in dungeon#adding the tag also now that it’s going around anyways. hi guys.#sorry for not including alt text originally I was not expecting reblogs but I have added it now o7#blah blah check reblogs with comments for additional thoughts from me if you care etc etc
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iknow my comics are ugly please just hear me out
#So me and my friend were talking about ‘whos the most likely to’ with ratiorine#and she asked ‘whos the most likely to confess first?’#and i said Nobody. Theyre both doomed forever. Unless it happens on accident.#and this is what i imagined#★ my art#art#honkai star rail#should i tag ratio even if hes not here#hsr aventurine#ill tag ratio because his husband is here#hsr dr ratio#hsr topaz#ratiorine#aventio#Someone reblogged my post with the tag golden ratio.#golden ratio hsr????#excuse me???#why are yall making new ship names without me. How DARE you be so creative without me in the room.#GET BACK HERE#i can literally talk about these two for hours im so serious its getting bad like it already was bad but now its worse
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There's actually only one piece of ""Tumblr etiquette"" that people need to know and it's if you see a post that has thousands or tens of thousands of notes you should really check the replies to make sure ten billion other people haven't already told op the thing you're about to tell them so they don't have to spend the rest of their day trying to blow you up with their mind
#YES I KNOW YOU CAN MAKE GLASS BACK INTO SAND NOW. I TURNED REBLOGS OFF FKR A REASON#PLEASEE LEAVE ME ALONE
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First words💬
Hard to say where he got them from though idk…
#lego monkie kid#lmk#lmk mk#lmk pigsy#dadsy#lmk dadsy#lmk xiaotian#the compression bandage is bc of the long days of standing in the restaurant starting to get to him#also based off of the hc I have that not long before MK came along…Pigsys mom passed away#he’s still very much in the grieving process#okay now u can like and reblog this you didn’t see anything
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more deltarune sansnomaly cuz its feeding the ideas a lot
bonus:
#LISTEN#THERES SO LITTLE DELTARUNE SANS X READER#ITS PAINFUL#sansnomaly#PLS I HAVE SO MUCH MORE IDEAS OF DELTARUNE!ANOMALY#SO MANY COOL THEORIES#ROTTING MY BRAIN#deltarune sans#kris#deltarune#sans x reader#sans x self insert#junie art post#if you saw an edit no no you didnt thank you for not reblogging#and preserving that mistake#u can reblog now
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Remember when Klaus was queer. Remember when Luthor was an astronaut. Remember when all Lila wanted was family. Remember when Five made jokes. Remember when Klaus was a veteran. Remember when Five said damn the world, where's my family.
#the umbrella academy#okay ill stop now#but many feelings i have#my coping method is yoda yes#tua season four#netflix the umbrella academy#tua season 4#astronauts are overqualified scientists with more cardio reps than you can dream#was the marigold eating luthors brain??#holy likes and reblogs batman!#im a lurker who loves attention so much thanks
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i hate them so much
#holy shit it's late i lost track of time#bonus points to whoever translates the totally not code on the neck chain#anyways they've been on the mind i fear i won't be over this soon#they're so awful for each other i'll take 14 of them right now#also decided to try my hand at a human bill#think he looks neat#billford#bill cipher#stanford pines#ford pines#gravity falls#gravity falls fanart#s0up1tart#guys you can reblog this with fun tags don't worry this is a safe space
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Hey. Hey you.
I know it's hard to speak up about Palestine.
You may be scared, afraid to get backlash.
You may be a minor and have parents that are overprotective of you or worse, are neutral about the whole thing or is supportive of one side.
But you don't need to speak up about Palestine on your own post. You can always reblog a post with the click of a button. Reblog posts just like this one.
I know it's hard to do much and I know you're sometimes feeling like you aren't doing enough. But you can take it with little steps at a time.
Don't stop talking about Palestine. Your voices need to be heard.
#free palestine#palestine#from the river to the sea palestine will be free#palestine will be free#don't stop talking about palestine#free gaza#gaza#gaza genocide#ceasefire#rambles#🍉#edit: Take this as today's strike post instead#I've lost motivation to do art#edit 2: Look at that. This post blew up. Over 700 notes now.#Thank you so much for spreading awareness! (^^)#edit 3: Saw some of y'all in the reblogs. I'm glad I can help you guys speak up. (^^)
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Seen a lot of posts about people coming into your notifications out of nothing and liking your entire blog, but here's a shoutout to the people who do Not follow you, who appear out of nowhere, reblog One (1) post that you are Not the op of, and then you never see them again. Where did you come from girl.
#EDITED bc I think this one goes on ppls recommended pages now#HEY GUYS the question in this post is rhetorical ! i don't actually care. you can stop telling me honeys its ok#i like the mystery. i don't needta know everything#also when i say shoutout. i mean it. i love you guys i am not annoyed. you're all wonderful. keep doing you.#posts by ME#tumblr#like ... you didn't find the post thru tags because I just reblogged it#i made no addition. how did you find me#be free you majestic creatures I'm glad I got to witness you in passing#how tf tho.#did you look at my blog but only one post made the cut. amazing. i love you.
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I *need* to get pregnant by him.
[First] Prev <–-> Next
#poorly drawn mdzs#mdzs#lan wangji#wei wuxian#Ah yes. The classic MXTX 'trapped in close quarters' scene.#Two guys 1 cm apart. Trying so hard to make this as gay as possible while still saying no homo.#The sheer baby fever in this episode was bonkers. The teasing in this scene is probably the most you can physically feel LWJ shaking#WWX is right that it is very funny to watch LWJ fluster. Alas he is just digging his grave.#All this flirting is also so...so much funnier after the Lan Xichen talk. He *just* told WWX to look after LWJ's gentle heart#And now he's trying to give him repeated heart attacks.#We needed a funny goofs episode after all the emotions these comics have been going through.#Remember that 1 reblog = one prayer for LWJ. Send him strength.
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Bout to start gnawing and biting motherfuckers on here, istg. Fuck you third party voters, fuck you "I didn't vote because that would taint me", fuck you holier-than-thou moral purity fuckers. Fuck anyone who voted for Trump.
#“the country is more divided than ever” damn right it fucking is#sorry I didn't believe in voting for a convicted felon and piece of shit#the only people I'm not pissed off at right now are people who voted Harris or literally couldn't vote#damn right I'm contributing to the polarization of America#that man isnt even good for the Republican party ffs#vent#yall can reblog if you want#bout to hop off here in a bit#my post
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You!! Hey you!! Are you looking for a pair of kittens? Do you live In Or Near Oklahoma? Do you wish you could listen to purring all the time? Do you want a cat that looks like an aye-aye?
long story short, we found these two kittens at the bottom of a garbage can!! I don't like to think about how they ended up in there- but we heard them crying while on a walk, and it's very lucky they were so loud! They were scared at first, but now they NEED to be snuggled at all times. Crazy how adaptable kittens are. I'd prefer to rehome them as a pair, but I'd consider adopting them out individually if that's my only option! Please IM me if you're interested in both/either of these babies, or if you have any questions at all!!
#reblogs would of course be appreciated#kittens#cats#sergle.txt#WE'RE DOING IT AGAIN EVERYBODY LAST TIME IT WAS CHALUPA NOW IT'S TWITCH AND CHAT#please please please take these cats from me I swear to god. you will love them. something clicked in their heads and now they LOVE people.#I'm telling you right now that adopting cats as a Set is the best idea. there's no better way to have two cats that Get Along#and you get to watch them play. and bc they keep eachother company they can handle being left alone for chunks of time#Chalupa really needed all hands on deck but I actually think someone who works full-time could have these two no problem#because they keep themselves occupied if you leave them alone but are ecstatic when you're around#source: they are upstairs rn to keep them separate from our Resident Cats and I hear them galloping around all the time while they play.
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positively obsessed with how Rockstar Lestat is the exact kind of guy one of my friends would show me a picture of and swear he’s really sexy and cool and brilliant. Whole time I’m thinking “oh dear GOD” staring at a trainwreck weirdo and wondering what’s happened to everybody else that is absolutely missing me. jesus christ he’s blond
#his outfits are busted he’s cosplaying a vampire as an adult man and on top of it he’s blond#if he was a real guy who came out of nowhere I would think he was so cringe#and iwtv fans are like ‘oh we love him! we would always love him!!!’ LIES#you are on the HATER WEBSITE you are simply partially sexualising him and then rolling your eyes at Lestat/Reader band fic#while reblogging hate tweets (made by armand). don’t look in my eyes and tell me you don’t think he’s a little cringe.#does it matter how camp a man is if straight women want to fuck him. I think not. site of haters we’d be on armand’s side#and also you’d wanna fuck Daniel. as recent trends show#the x reader fic swiftie aesthetic girlies would love Lestat#they want to be a rockstar’s gf#but the gay gore amc hbo nbc bitches would take one look at Daniel crazy geriatric homosexual#who claims to be a vampire and is now touring around with another separate guy claiming to be a vampire#and they would (as they are a currently doing) posting shit like#‘hey is vampire peepaw kinda sexy. like I’d let him bite me. Lestat can die but Daniel come and get it grandpa’#lestat is nothing this is daniel’s time. in the reality where this is actually happening to us and not a tv programme#iwtv#interview with the vampire#rockstar lestat#lestat de lioncourt#the vampire lestat#daniel molloy
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Global Strike on March 2nd
shutitdown4palestine has called for a global strike on 2nd March
What to do for 2nd March
Walk out from work and/or school
Picket Israeli embassies and consulates
Picket against companies that profit from Israel’s occupation of Palestine (Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Elbit Systems)
Host speak outs
Wear kuffiyehs
Wear black armbands
The website linked has further information about this strike as well as protests that may be occurring in your area.
Aside from this, as usual, boycott, call your reps, and donate when you can.
#palestine#free palestine#ceasefire now#ceasefire#free gaza#gaza#rafah#all eyes on rafah#i only just heard about this from twitter and i didnt see any posts about it here yet so i thought to share#i know its last minute at the very least i can get the word out now#march 2nd#global strike#march 2#please reblog if you can to spread the word
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1,,,, 100 days,,,,,,,,, and 800 followers,,,,,,,,,,,,,
From the bottom of my heart, thank you everyone.........!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
#that's insane............... where did you all come from..................#isat#in stars and time#isat odile#day 100#!!!! we did it guys!!!!#Man... in no way I could've imagined that I would reach day 100 for daily odile. I mean sure I missed a lot of days but. 100 odiles...#and. almost 900 followers? Are you kidding me? What? Huh? Wow????#thank you to everyone's who's ever reblogged my art and requested stuff in the inbox#but especially to those who go wild in the tags. the tags give me life. ive collected them for power. as you can see#(tag yourself for funsies hehe)#apologies if this tag collection's a bit outdated. I actually had this prepared since 500 followers but kept getting too scared to post it#Now that we've reached 100 days it might as well be the perfect occassion to#Here's to 100 more days of unreasonable obsession to a certain old woman from a certain timeloop game!🥂#- yours truly; sketchz (casual odile enjoyer)
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