#but inquisition has it bad

[anneapocalypse]

#the whole way that dai dealt with the previous heroes was so......................#like the only reason they should want hawke is to put them on trial#and there's no reason cassandra pentaghast should care about the hero of ferelden at ALL except as leliana's girlfriend#the blight was ONE YEAR and it didn't leave ferelden people in thedas at large should not venerate the hof many shouldn't even know of them#like the inquisition is a religious organization meant to mediate between mages and templars can we please think strategically#why the fuck would you want the hof or hawke for any of that except that you need to pander to video game fans#who want to believe their pc is special#maybe we should have to reckon with the impending death of our first protagonist as the game timeline advances#maybe it's worth it to know that being a hero won't save you (@apostacism)

There's something to be said about fandom's romanticization of the wardens that I think is not quite true to what the wardens actually are. The wardens aren't freedom or a chance to start over or community when you've lacked it (and characters who are shown to imbue the wardens with this are regularly disappointed by it), the wardens are an independent quasi military organization leading short, brutal lives in pursuit of a seemingly impossible task. Bethany is not being unreasonable by her anger and disappointment at her joining - being a warden is a trap, it is a one-way street, it closes at least as many doors as it opens, if not more, and it promises only death as a reward.

[abyssal-ilk]

thinking so so hard about vivienne's defensive reactions to dorian and cassandra trying (and failing) to comfort her over bastien's passing. chewing on it. thinking about her inability to talk about bastien, even to an inquisitor when the player tries to talk to her about him.

and then her banter with blackwall, who is one of the companions she has a mostly negative dynamic with, yet it is him and not dorian or cassandra that she responds kindly to.

blackwall doesn't dance around it or try to lessen the blow of bringing it up like dorian and cassandra do, and i think she appreciates that directness. she still doesn't open herself up to him, though. she is so,,, agh

[hollytree33]

JUDGEMENT

Finally, her fourth and final card for Trespasser!!

1. The Hanged Man

2. The Chariot

3. The High Priestess

[lizzybeeee]

DATV explaining the 'Regret Prison'

A REGRET PRISON IS STUPID AND I'M TIRED OF PRETENDING THAT ITS NOT

TL;DR: a prison can serve as a metaphor but it shouldn't be entirely comprised of a metaphor.

From what I understood from what the game gave us: Solas has made a new prison to move the God's too - since bringing down the veil would free them from the Black City. This new prison is separate(?) from the fade or so far removed/contained that bringing down the veil would not compromise it...apparently. We interrupt his ritual, Solas gets sucked into the new prison he made, and the elven gods are free.

When Rook gets kicked into the fade they're physically there - which means it's a physical place in the fade, like how it was a mixture of physical/thought when we entered it in DAI. Which makes sense - the gods are real and living beings, they need to be in a place, there must be some aspect of physicality to it.

Alright, cool, it's a Black City 2.0 - I assume it's better defended to prevent people breaking in/out again?

NOPE.

We get there and it's a 'regret prison'?? It's tied to the regrets of those within it? Composed of regrets??? Solas had to wait for the right moment for Rook to be sufficiently 'full of regret' that they could switch places?

So is the prison tied to Solas's regrets? If so, how can Rook escape? The prison seems to work around the idea that it relies on the regrets of the person it's holding to work - which is how/why Rook was able to be trapped and later free themselves (along with whatever remains of the team apparently being able to do something on their end, not that we hear about it).

WHICH IS STUPID!

Are you telling me the prison intended to hold to megalomaniac elven gods was going to imprison them based on their own regrets? Is Solas assuming that Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain are as self-pitying as he is? They'd break out quicker than Rook did! He made a time out corner for the elven gods to sit in and gave them an out if they reflected on their emotions/regrets or decided that they don't regret what they did. Elgar'nan, a spirit of tyranny, is not going to 'regret' his actions - he is going to justify them by telling himself and others that he knows what's best.

We can come across some of Solas's regrets in the prison if you run around a bit and explore:

Remnant of Failure - talking about the orb from Inquisition.

Remnant of Parting - talking about Mythal

Remnant of Reflection - more vague, talking about the Titans I believe.

So maybe he altered it - maybe he intended the prison to be 'locked' with his own regrets because after a millennia of having a pity party he still can't bring himself to self-reflect and look to the future. But what if Solas died? Or if his guilt lessened - would it diminish the strength of the regret prison?

We already have pre-established lore (though DATV has shown they don't really give a crap tbh) that once the being that has claimed/altered an area of the fade is slain, it's influence diminishes both in and outside of the fade. So if the prison was tied to his regrets then it would require Solas to basically live forever to keep it stable - especially if he brought down the veil and removed the one barrier that kept the world and the fade apart.

Rook and Solas needed some assistance to exit - but it doesn't seem like it was much! Solas used his dagger and Rook just...got out through a fade tear? This is Solas's 'more secure' second prison? It has a worse track record than the Black City! If Rook - who is not an elven god - managed to escape the regret prison what is to stop anyone else from breaking in and out of the prison?

And what did Solas intend to do with the blight - the bulk of which is apparently in the black city?? If bringing down the Veil would free the gods in the black city doesn't that mean that the blight would also be released?! Did he have a plan? Why does he go fully ahead with bringing down the veil at the end if the black city is still there and filled with blight?!

I get it: the 'regret prison' is a metaphor for how Solas holds onto the past and how Rook can move past their regrets and grow. He's trapped by the past - it's a prison. Cool. But this prison is supposed to by a physical place to contain the gods - not just to solely contain Solas. The mission is literally called 'A Cage for Gods'.

The Black City is an actual place that's so far out of reach of anywhere else in the fade that no mage can ever reach it while in dreams - let alone physically, which was only done once and took tremendous effort/blood sacrifices. It made sense - it was cool to see floating in the sky in DAO!

Though it's not said specifically, it's strongly implied that Arlathan is the Black City. You can see in the concept art that floating elven city is exactly the same as the black city in DAO! It's this foreboding thing just lurking in the sky - a constant reminder of the sin that led to the horrors of the blights and darkspawn. A real place with lore and history that also serves as a metaphor for the hubris and destruction of those who call themselves gods and act as tyrants -> for both the evanuris and the magisters.

I WANT TO UNDERSTAND THIS BIOWARE!

WHAT IS THIS KINGDOM HEARTS NONSENSE???!!

[jajatoc]

Use your head, artilleryman. This railroad is my bread and butter. My veins! Blowing things up... It doesn't matter. The inquisitor will come.

Day 4, Sabotage

(You'll be the first person they hang!)

[mythalism]

hmmm. thinking about how veilguard seems to subscribe more to the more traditional "video game as personal power fulfillment fantasy of heroism" than any other dragon age game, except perhaps origins, though origins does it more artfully.

[vir-bellanaris]

Veilguard Finale Drabble (Solavellan)

Because I think it's good (for my mental health) but a missed opportunity to not have a romanced Lavellan react to the bad ending for Solas.

Lavellan paced back and forth back and forth, her feet wearing down the ruined stone within the dark corridor. Her nails were already bitten down to the quick, so she chewed her lips bloody instead. She only paused to listen, the sounds of fighting in the chamber beyond had ebbed, straining she could hear angry voices muffled by the thick obsidian walls.

She paused, her mind a war of indecision, her heart pounding in her throat. She couldn't leave him. Solas needed her. She could feel it dragging through her gut like long claws of dread.

Her feet moved almost of their own accord forward, gathering pace when she saw blue light shining beyond the grand doors left ajar.

They were atop the dais, the torn Veil shimmering and gossamer behind them.

She saw him.

His visage broken and bloodied. His hands bound by the energies emanating from the Veil, twisting tighter even as he struggled.

Rook held the real lyrium dagger.

"No!" Lavellan's cry was choked in her tight throat, panic and horror paralyzing her for two crucial heartbeats.

Then she began to run.

Her legs burned as she clambered up the seemingly endless stairs, toward the one thing that mattered. Despite all the bitterness, loneliness, and heartbreak, he had always mattered.

Rook sliced the dagger across Solas' palm. "Now the Veil is once again tied to the life force of an ancient elven god."

The words were muffled, the meaning barely registering.

"No!!" Lavellan's voice broke free, her eyes wide and starting, full of hot tears as she pushed Rook aside.

Solas' angry expression alighted on her, taking her in. His features twisted, anger transforming into shock, then terror, before settling on broken grief.

Lavellan sobbed, her fingers scrabbling uselessly against the magical binds around his wrists. "No, no, no!" She grabbed desperately at him as the Veil drew him backwards, away from her.

"Vhenan." Solas' voice was so achingly familiar, trying to soothe her even now, though his low cadence was fringed with a darker emotion.

Lavellan followed after him, grasping his arms and pulling against the inexorable draw of the Veil.

"Let me go, vhenan."

"No! I won't!" The brightest burst of emotion she had felt in ten years rocked through her body, the remnants of the anchor responding, flickering sparks of green energy lighting up the veins of her shoulder and neck. "I will not allow this!" She focused her will upon the torn Veil, commanding it to close, to release her heart.

"You must." Solas was bound still, unable to move so much as an inch closer, though he tried with every fiber of his being to close the distance to her.

Lavellan's efforts slowed the pull to a stop, both of them knew it had bought them only moments. She cupped his face, tracing a shaking touch over his haggard features.

Tears fell freely from his eyes, hot upon her fingers.

Solas shook his head. "I am sorry."

"Tell me how to save you." She whispered, drawing herself up onto her toes so she could nuzzle gently against his face.

"I have been bested. You will not share this fate." Solas drew upon the remainder of his magical energies, fighting the bonds of the Veil for a moment more.

He did not heed the pain that tore at his spirit, bending forward just enough to brush his bloodied lips against her mouth.

Then he sagged, his body ripped from her grasp, landing with heavy impact against the swirling primordial lights of the Veil.

His gaze did not leave her, even as he was slowly drawn in.

She ran for him, screaming his name, reaching for him. For all her efforts even she, once so adept at manipulating the Veil, could do nothing.

In that last moment, she saw a faint and sad smile touch his lips as he locked eyes with her.

His mouth opened, the last part of him to be swallowed up. His words echoed in the now empty air like wisps on the wind.

"Ar lath ma, vhenan."

[canisalbus]

To me, Machete kind of has the energy of a secondary villain/coldhearted side character in someone else's story that a lot of fans latch onto, moreso than the protagonist. Question is, would he be the villain in anyone's story?

Why, thank you! I'm actually glad to hear he gives off that vibe. I don't think he set out to become a villain but a lot of people certainly view him as one.

[theresa-draws]

she spent ten years trying to move on from the past, only to have it all come crashing down when his regret found her first

[flowersforthemachines]

Watching Darrah's video on the making of DAI reminded me that the devs fight battles we can't even imagine

[legionofpotatoes]

I know the discourse well is poisoned and no one hates bioware games more than bioware fans, but I am just 🫠 having so much fun with veilguard it's unreal. It is selfishly the dragon age game I always wanted. with less emphasis on cRPG, a more focused story, curated mission based design that spotlights the high fantasy stuff, slowburn structure with companions, significantly less sidequest bloat, and a fully real-time action-oriented combat system that isn't riddled with the growing pains of previous titles. when I first played origins I imagined something almost exactly like this as my ideal version of a sequel; and it was one of those dirty, selfish thoughts that I knew was disrespectful to the then-established DNA of the thing, but I can't help but feel giddy about having it here and now. like down to the shift away from the childishly dark tone and to something more inherently flexible with a baseline aspirational quality. I hate aesthetically depressing games so much. am I not alive right here and right now already

When I say "aesthetically" there though I do mean it. I'm fully on the opposite side when it comes to tone and positions expressed in the story itself. I am just not including that in my analysis because I am not done yet - so please no spoilers! I think I am where most people consider to be the second act, and I definitely have my gripes with the narrative framework and some of the optics, but I won't put the cart before the horse and will see how it wraps things up first. Above that level, in terms of how it presents itself, of how it plays, of how it balances its core pillars - it is such a bioware-ass game and I could not be any cozier in it. So grateful it exists

[shaykai]

It’s the little things

[abyssal-ilk]

getting all of the banter dialogue for dorian and bull so they can be a couple in dai is so... ugh. there is some genuinely wonderful stuff to explore in their dynamic, with iron bull abandoning the qun and dorian leaving tevinter and what it means to have done that and finding themselves as people, but. christ. the fetishization and oversexualization of the qunari in da is fucking hair tearingly painful, and it is at its most obvious with iron bull and dorian. really hoping that something changes for the taash romance, but i am,, kind of doubtful.

[vaguely-concerned]

we need a poll. what do we call dorian. a mortaboo/mooaboo (mortalitasi weeabo). a wooaboo/watchaboo (watcher weeaboo). a neeaboo/necroboo (you may start to see my design here). he knows what he is and he's not ashamed of it. he went 'while you were busy being lame I studied the skull. and got laid a bunch ¯_(ツ)_/¯. we are not the same'. after one family vacation to nevarra at like seventeen or whatever he made it his whole personality and himself insufferable enough around the house that his dad finally caved and sent him to the watchers for them to deal with for a term. where he then went on to make himself insufferable around the necropolis in general and to emmrich in particular. I love him beyond words.

[pupkinpumpkin]

Solas desperately trying to get out of the Regret Prison and I'm desperately trying to get in

[doriansbutt]

Heofon Flynn Lavellan, ~10 years apart