#but q team was just not very engaging

[borderline-purrsonality]

Just finished zero time dilemma… don’t think I’ve ever been so disappointed in an ending since drv3

[astarion-dekarios]

I did a live transcription of the Dragon Age: the Veilguard dev Q&A session today.

UPDATE/EDIT: I made a second pass of this and cleaned it up into a full/complete transcript.

Q: If you could belong to any of the main factions, which would you choose? 

Corinne: Listen Katie, you say softball but this is hard. I'm gonna cheat and I’m gonna give you two. So for fashion, the Antivan Crows all day long. their threads, you're gonna love it. For vibes though, the ones that capture my vibe, Mournwatch. Gimme those necromancers.

John: Those are good answers. I have one for fashion and for just general faction that I’d like to be a part of. Veil jumpers - who doesn't like a nice walk in the forest, you know, even if that forest is filled with horrifying monsters and terrifying anomalies, but uh, yeah.

Matt: For me it’s definitely the Lords of Fortune. I’ve had a chance to try out a bunch of them, and I think I’ve finally settled on them, and I think it’s just because pirate barbarian is just such a great combination of elements. Treasure hunting, plus beaches and palm trees and all that stuff, it’s a really good mix, so that’s kind of my default.

Q: I’ve seen a lot of talk about only having two companions in your party instead of three for this game. What is the reasoning this and will we get the same companion conversations and banter as seen in the previous Dragon Age Games?? 

Corinne: Such a good question. Thank you to whoever submitted this one. I'll start and then turn it over to John Epler. As you saw in the gameplay reveal, this is a much more intimate experience. We pulled the camera in. For those that aren't aware, the reason why is we want you to feel like you actually are in this world, like you’re walking these the city streets of Minrathous, you’re looking up at the buildings all around you. You're a part of this place. It's much more intimate, and we believe as the narrative unfolds that this creates a lot more immersion. Now how this relates to the companions is in doing this, we went back and forth on it a lot, but we actually found that having two companions allows them more visibility and presence. We've talked about the incredible depth and focus we’ve put on fleshing out these companions, they're very fully realized, so here you really get to see them more clearly, you get to see them shine. When you see Lace Harding jump into the air and release a volley of arrows, you can only get that because of this more intimate view. So I love the spotlight that’s been put on them. But I think in addition to the banter, one of the things people are wondering about is, ok but what about gameplay. Again, this has come about from our testing, working with the internal team and also our lovely our council of players. We just found that in the combat system, when you're planning your strategies, two felt like the right number to manage. Keep in mind, Rook has a lot of different types of actions: abilities, individual attacks that are more fleshed out than ever before. Timing and positioning matter a lot, so this really felt like the right balance. The number of inputs and actions we’re asking you as a player to take, including directing your companions, is higher than ever before. And I will also say that I engage with the companions, I actively control what they're doing more than I ever have before in any of the other three games. But John, I’ll toss it over to you for the banter.

John: So banter, honestly I don't think you could stop the writers from writing banters. I will say for myself, it's one of the more light but fun things to do. You get to write little stories, little arcs between the characters, and Veilguard is no different. Banter is still absolutely a core part of it. We've got global banter, you know the general stuff that you get in all spaces, as well as mission specific stuff. But yeah. It's definitely still a big thing, if anything it's the most we've ever done for pairings of companions. Beyond that, we’ve also made sure—and I mean, I’ve been on Dragon Age for a while, and I know there’s been an issue, you know, things like, “well, I don’t wanna miss this banter.” So we've even added stuff like interruptable and resumable banter as well, just to make sure that—because again, it’s a core part of the experience. Everyone loves hearing these companions talk to each other. Everyone loves hearing these little stories and relationships develop over the course of the game, and as mentioned before, companions are the heart of this experience. So we still have it, if anything like I said, you could not stop the writers from doing it, even if you tried.

Corinne: Well John, listening to you speak, one thing that comes to mind, maybe people are wondering, with two companions in the field, do I get less interaction? Like do I get a scene with my companions interacting with a broader group more often? And the way you'll gather them around the kitchen table, there's just so many of those moments where they're all interacting with each other. Those are some of my favorite parts.

John: Yeah, and that’s a good callout, because I think the other side of it is, we aren’t talking too much about your home, but we also wanna make sure that they feel like they have relationships and a life outside of just the times you take a certain pair of companions out on the field, so we made sure that they have interactions there as well.

Q: How customizable is the backstory of Rook? Will we get to determine their past in the character creator?

John: Absolutely. So Rook has six different backgrounds that you can choose from. Each  one is tied to one of the major factions in the Veilguard, and each one sets out who Rook was before they were recruited by Varric. While that sets up the broad events, as you go through the game and have conversations either with members of your faction, other characters, you can define not just what those events were but what they meant to you – what was your motivation, what was the kind of person you are as you build up Rook, because again, we wanna make sure that roleplaying is at the heart of this experience, and taking Rook, giving them a background in the world but letting you decide what that means and what that says about you is also a big part of it. And again, there are six different factions in this game. Two which anyone who’s played Dragon Age for a while would remember, you’ve got the Gray Wardens and Antivan Crows. We also have, in addition to them, four new ones because we’re in Northern Thedas. We’ve got the Veil Jumpers, Mournwatch, Shadow Dragons, and Lords of Fortune. A lot of different options, a lot of different backgrounds, and a lot of opportunities to define who your Rook was and who they are now.

Q: Will crafting return and has it been improved since Inquisition?

Corinne: Will crafting return? You can absolutely improve and customize your gear, yes. That is a big part of RPG progression, so yes you can improve and customize it. I will say though, it's different this time around, and it does get into spoiler territory so I'm gonna be a little cagey about it, but there might be a mysterious entity that assists you with that that will be an important part of the narrative.

Q: Can we kiss or romance Manfred the skeleton? 

John: I would say, not that skeleton, but we're not saying no skeletons.

Q: What were some of the development considerations that you had to take into account to ensure this game flows & functions with prior games & dragon age keep, if keep is being utilized? 

Corinne: We did an interview with IGN that goes into some of the details there. To summarize, we have taken a different approach on how you import your decisions this time around. It's now fully integrated into the character creator and serves a dual purpose, to be honest. It’s not called this in game, but I playfully think of it as "last time on dragon age". When I talk about its dual purpose, it's been 10 years since the last dragon age game release, so it serves as a refresher on critical events as well as allowing you to remake those decisions that are critical to you. The thing I love about it is it's very highly visual, it uses the familiar tarot card aesthetic, so it's actually a very visual and playful experience as you go through it. It is very much important to us that it's built into the client, though. You can play this game entirely offline, no connection, you don’t have to link to your EA accounts. That's been a really big request, so the refresher plus make those decisions in client, I think we're all pretty happy about that. I don't wanna spoil anything by revealing what decisions you can import. Y'all don't want the spoilers. But it's been a really interesting creative intersection for us. Because on the one hand, this is a whole new adventure. You're in northern thedas, these locations you've literally never been to before, so that affects what will matter and what we’re not using this time around as far as decisions. But obviously there’s some very very clear connections to existing characters. It’s no secret that the Inquisitor, our dear Inky, is gonna show up, so that's a factor.

Q: Will this next game be an open world game or is it just confined to Tevinter? 

John: Yeah, so you are in northern Thedas, but the game only begins in Minrathous. It doesn't stay there. I think one of the most exciting things for me, and again, I don’t wanna get into too much spoiler detail, but getting to go to and work with the art team, the narrative, the design team to build out these locations we've talked about, places that character have referred to as where they’ve come from, places that characters obviously in previous games have hailed from, has been absolutely exciting. So you do start in Tevinter, you do start in Minrathous, but again that’s not the entire game by any stretch.

Corinne: And the first half of it is, is it an open world game? We've gone back to what we believe delivers the best, most curated, intense narratives. So this is a hand crafted experience, it's mission based. Now these locations can open up, you can go back, solve mysteries, do some really great side content - not fetch quests, not grind quests, some really great side content. But I wanna be clear, it's a really curated, hand crafted experience.

John: Just to bounce off of that very quickly, the most important thing for us and what Corinne was saying about hand crafted, obviously we’ve talked about how characters, story, narrative are critical to us, and this has allowed us to build those experiences in a way that emphasized that really well while still tying it into the story threads and story beats.

Q: Will the companions have unique specializations like DA2 or the same as player?

Corinne: I think the best way for me to describe this is that yes, our companions will have abilities that are truly unique to them, but also the companions do fall into the archetypes of mage, rogue, and warrior. For instance, you might be surprised to hear, because she has a bow, but Bellara is in fact a mage, and I love that. Some of the abilities, the bulk of the abilities of the companions, are based on their own unique personalities. Neve is the only mage that is an ice mage, so you get distinct abilities for her. But because she's a mage, she does have access to abilities that all mages share, like Time Slow. We really like the balance there. It’s a good mix of representing their archetype, their class, and also their distinct specialization or personality or whatever you wanna call it.

John: Yeah actually, I would say the word personality is a great one, because all of these characters exist, have a story, have a history of how they became who they were, and part of that was finding that intersection between narrative and gameplay and making sure that again, we serve the needs of gameplay, but also allow these characters to exist as their own people, not just in conversation but out of conversations as well.

Corinne: I would also say that as part of that core mage kit, healing spells are there. So if your mages, you wanna make ‘em a healer, yeah.

Q: Will the Veilguard have tactical combat still? 

Corinne: Yes. Combat gets quite tactical. Obviously this is an evolution of the combat system. I talked about immersion, wanting to put you in the world like you’re actually living and existing in it, but it is very tactical and I will say we have a robust difficulty system. The tactics are increasingly important the higher difficulty that you go. So if you’re showing up for a highly tactical experience, I would crank that difficulty in particular. But I wanna make sure I’m super clear in my answer. You saw the gameplay reveal. Our pause time tactical mode is not overhead. It stays close to Rook. It does allow you to cycle between targets in and out of combat, there’s a reason for that. As the game progresses, you didn’t see this in that opening hour of the game, but it will display strategic information on the enemies, so what are their vulnerabilities, what are their elemental weaknesses, their enhancements, what are they resistant to, so your type of abilities, leaning into elemental gameplay matters a lot.

I would also say, this is a long answer because it’s such a great question, tactical decision making also takes the form, I would say this is front and center, of coordinating your ability usage between Rook and your companions to create synergies and or really devastating, we call them detonation combos. So let me give you a couple of examples, because it can be really hard to visualize, so hopefully this helps. One of the tactics that I personally enjoy in my own builds, I just recently played as a veil ranger, I love it, it’s one of my favorites. if I'm fighting fade touched enemies in Artlathan, I like to use Bellara's galvanized tear to pull enemies together, it’s like a gravity well. You then Slow Time with Neve – Slow Time affects the world around you, but it does not affect you, so you clump them up, you slow time -- and then with Rook I come in and do a devastating AOE or damage over time spell or ability. And it’s even better if it's a lightning based ability, because the fade touched in Arlathan are vulnerable to that. So there’s so many layers of coordination and strategies and tactics. We did talk about the devastating detonation combos, that's one of my favorite features, because that’s when you’re really leaning into explicit teamwork between your companions and Rook or the companions together. When I build out my team and I'm going into a mission, I try to ensure that I have at least a couple possible synergies, detonation combo synergies, between my team. It might be between Harding and Neve, Neve and me, or both. So here, I'd go into battle, pause time, open the ability wheel, get information on the enemy – and the wheel will actually tell you that there is a synergy combo, you  might have seen a screenshot that says “combo available” – it will remind you of synergies between companions, you can queue both of those abilities up at the same time, close out of the pause time menu, they’ll both execute, both abilities will happen. Then the detonation AOE happens, applies debuffs to all the enemies in a radius of it. It's so satisfying. I can’t wait for yall to see it, but the interesting thing is that too is a tactical choice. I’m choosing to use my companions to do that, and that means I’m not using them to heal me, or to give me that defense bonus, or to knock an enemy off a ledge, so it’s about the opportunity costs. I could spend the rest of the session talking about this, apologies for being long winded, but this is one of my favorite parts of the game.

Q: Can you choose rook's pronouns? If yes, is being non-binary an option? How detailed is the character creator?

Corinne: Well yeah you can select your pronouns. Absolutely. You can actually select your pronouns and your gender, because those are related concepts, but they’re not actually the exact same thing. Yeah, you can be non-binary, we have he/him, she/her, they/them. Yes. Emphatic yes. How detailed is the character creator? Oh my goodness, yall. Very. I don't wanna give away too much just yet but it's very very deep. It has been revealed, it’s out there in a couple articles about the focus on hair, the focus on skin tones that are done respectfully, full body customization, hell yeah, we love to see it. But we’re gonna come back, we’re gonna show you a lot more on character creator, but we wanna make sure we have the time and space to do that.

Q: Will there be a photo mode in game? 

Corinne: That is something we’re actively looking into, we know there’s a ton of interest, so stay tuned on that one, but we are very much looking into it.

John: I can add too, that is a feature that we like, we like the idea of, and it’s not just player facing, but internally it’s a really helpful thing to have that as we’re building things out, so we’ll let you know.

Corinne: Yes, yeah, absolutely. We are as geeked on that possibility as you all are.

Q: A lot of people were asking about abilities. Are we going to be limited in how many abilities we can pick from the wheel?

Corinne: Ability wheel does have a capacity. You have to choose which three abilities you wanna bring for Rook, which three for  a companion, and which three for another companion. What I like about this is there is kind of an emergent gameplay depending on who you and your companions are coming into a mission with. Now the reason for that is it actually creates a really interesting balance between strategizing, having to do that strategy about your combat kit before the mission, and then the tactical decisions once you're in the field deciding what to do. I want to clear one thing up, while there are three ability slots for Rook, there's so much more than that - other actions that you can perform directly from the wheel like you’ll have an ultimate ability associated with your class or your specialization, so there’s variants there. There’s a type of items you can get that function like abilities, they’re typically like buffs and enhancements, in the form of runes, so you’ll control that for Rook and/or the team from the wheel. You may have also seen that you can direct which targets your companions can focus on, but what you might not know is that a lot of the companion gear really synergizes with that directing with your companions. When you issue those commands, that too will proc depending on the gear they have equipped, really interesting and strategic effects. They can be more ability like, more like proc’d effects, there’s just so much from the wheel that once you get in and see everything working together, becomes more and more apparent.

Q: Will fireball and cone of cold be back as spells in Dragon Age: the Veilguard? 

Corinne: All these combat questions, really good. Fireball and Cone of Cold aren't specifically back, however their successors are, frost nova and meteor. These serve the exact same combat role and function as those other abilities. I would also say it gives them quite the glow up. Meteor in particular, so satisfying nuking a group of darkspawn with a well placed meteor. It’s wonderful

Q: What accessibility features are available? Arachnophobia mode? Mod support? 

Corinne: Oh my goodness, arachnophobia. I am wicked afraid of spiders too. My partner always laughs at me, I’m just terrified of them. That said, that's one we're going to save for a little bit closer to launch before we’ll go into full details about accessibility features. But I do wanna assure you we have spent a lot of time thinking about this topic, so that you can play the game in a way that really works for you. I'm excited to share that with you when the time is right.

Q: How long is the time skip from Inquisition to the Veilguard? 

John: Anyone who's paid attention to Dragon Age, and I can say as somebody who’s been on Dragon Age since Origins, timelines are always a little iffy. They change and they morph over development as we see how longs things are taking, but for Veilguard we were actually pretty consistent from the start that it's been about 10 years since trespasser, as you may or may not have noticed, Varric's become a bit of a silver fox. I’ve seen a lot of comments about that on social media. Yeah, 10 years. Solas's ritual has taken time to set up and you’re kinda coming in at the end of that hunt.

Q: Is Solas still bald? 

Matt: Yeah. I mean if you’ve watched the gameplay thing, we can all confirm that Solas is still bald, Solas is still Solas. I really like how Solas has turned out this time around. I will say, here’s a comment on this specific question that’s gonna sound like a non-sequitor, but once you get a chance to play a little bit more, maybe you’ll – In Thedas, ancient elves go bald when they are millenia old, so Solas wasn't always bald. So if you end up seeing what Solas looked like in the past, things might be a little different. Now that said, I’m sure some of you are wondering what happened to Solas’s wig from Tevinter Nights. I’m sure he still has it somewhere, so… It’s his most important possession.

Corinne: Some pride there, huh.

Q: Will we be able to change companions appearances and outfits or are they fixed, similar to Dragon Age 2? 

Matt: Dragon Age 2 was, we loved how the followers turned out in that, but it was sad given our constraints that we had to keep them with just one basic outfit. We really tried to make some space for them this time around. They have iconic color palettes and things like that, but they do have a wider range of appearances that you can find for them, some are just cool but then there are some  that are tied to directly to their narrative and just kind of what’s happening in their life.

Q: Will we be seeing or visiting Kal’Sharok? 

Matt: What’s been really cool, so in previous games, we’ve kind of alluded to this before, it was a lot of fun to hint at the locations that were off the map, the mysterious places you were not going, and so you could just bring in some props, some characters, a piece of art, things like that. Even Tevinter was only vaguely hinted at and we’d just add drips and bits and pieces, so that stuff was really fun. In the Veilguard we’re actually getting to visit a whole lot of those locations that had only been hinted at for real, so you do actually run around Tevinter and a bunch of the other locations that we’ve revealed. But this also means that we're not completely filling out the map, and that there are new things we can start hinting at and we can start drip feeding. It’s kinda fun, I’d say for what we can show of Kal’Sharok and other locations, there’s more to do.

Q: Will the dialogue wheel/options be similar to Inquisition and Andromeda in the sense that it's more tone based?

John: We have a number of different types of wheels in our game. All the dialogue wheels are based off the same principle, anyone who’s played a dragon age game and remembers what they look like. In Dragon Age: the Veilguard, we have tone wheels which are roleplaying your character picking consistent tone. We also have emotion wheels where you can pick specific emotional reactions, and choice wheels which are, I don’t have a strong emotional or tone tie here, but I do want to make a choice based on what I do. Investigate’s obviously return as well. We want players to understand as much as possible what it is they are going to be picking, we want the choice to be clear even if one of the best things about consequence is making sure that’s not entirely clear.

Q: How extensive are Rook’s dialogue decision trees? 

John: Huge. Again, it’s a Dragon Age game. We wanna make sure you have choices, we wanna make sure you can choose your roleplaying, but also choose outcomes of conversations, choose how events unfold. Again it’s a Dragon Age game, we wanna make sure we also react to decisions you’ve made. So for example, you may be talking to a follower who is an elf, and if you yourself are an elf, obviously you'll have a different perspective on events than someone who’s not an elf. Sometimes that means different conversation options, sometimes that’s going to be entirely new dialogue trees, as well as based off decisions you’ve made throughout the game, so again, making sure the game feels like it notices what you’re doing is a huge part of how we’ve written out the dialogue wheel and dialogue trees in this game.

Q: All companions romanceable by all player characters regardless of race and gender? 

Corinne: Yeah, yeah. We have talked about this in some of the interviews, I’ve seen a few articles about it, so I'd recommend everyone check out those articles, but let me just give you a quick interview. Each of the seven companions has full romance arcs and they are romanceable by all genders. Absolutely. But something that’s really important to us on the team, and so I just wanna make sure and double down on, that doesn't mean playersexual. If anyone’s unaware of what we mean by that, it doesn’t mean they conform or twist their identities to who you the player are. They won’t suddenly have a preference for men or women based on what you’re playing. Instead they have their own fully fleshed out identities. They are true and authentic to that. So in this game they are all pansexuals, they all have histories and romances, sometimes you’ll hear about preferences and things of that nature. And what I really love is if you don’t pursue a romance with them, they’ll actually build their own romances with each other. So in one of the interviews I talked about Lace Harding and Taash getting together. I give that example because it’s one of my favorites. I’m gonna put a question back to the community though. I’ve heard we’re going with Laash for that ship name? You tell me what is that ship name?

Q: What are the markings on the faces of the elven warden and veil hopper?

John: So there’s quite a few, I think more than we’ve done before, tattoos from various cultures. We're bringing the vallaslin back of course but there's a ton of different options, especially when we’re going into these new regions. Each area has its own kind of visual language for that. We are bringing the vallaslin back and a couple characters have them, but we've customized them a bit. They’re a bit more specific to their personality.

Q: What are you as a developer most proud of and excited for players to experience? 

Corinne: I suspect for most of us, myself included, it's the depths and authenticity of the companions journey along with on their arcs, learning about their hardships, what they care about, being by their side. That authenticity is just so good, they all feel like my dear friends. But I have to say, the closest runner up for me has to be the character creator. Has to be. That character creator, the makeup options, the range of sliders... I'm a Qunari fan, so even just the way you customize the horns and combine that with the really great looking hair. Character creator has to be my very close runner up.

Matt: As far as what I can say I’m most proud of on this one, I can speak for the art team, we worked incredible hard to make the story more visible than ever. Games are a visual medium, but sometimes it's easier to do things in text format or written in a codex somewhere or alluded to off screen, but we really leaned into trying to make sure that every design, prop, character, environment, that the effects we’re choosing, all these choices were putting the story on screen so you can see it unfold, and I think having worked on all the dragon age games, I'd say Veilguard represents one of the best attempts at that we’ve made yet.

John: I’m gonna cheat and kind of combine both Corinne’s and Matt’s answers. Honestly the companions for me are the absolute highlight. Just being able to work across all the disciplines, building characters who look and sound and behave in very specific and characterful ways. These are the deepest companion arcs we've ever done, not just on Dragon Age but in BioWare in general. Each companion has their own story arc you can go through, decisions you can make. They really do take center stage. As you play through them, you see the care and love that the team has put into each and every one. I mean, there’s moments in each arc that make you cry, make you angry, make you excited, and the way they integrate into the story as a whole for me is something that’s been really fun. Finding ways to bring these characters together, ways to bring this story, this narrative, of you know, you need to put together a team and stop the end of the world, has been absolutely exciting and thrilling. And again, you see the team's love in every single piece of it. As for what I’m most excited, Dragon Age has been part of my career and part of my life for literally the last decade and a half, I’ve worked on it since Origins, and there's something about the Veilguard that feels an amazing mix of novelty and familiarity, it’s like coming home in a way that I feel is going to be very exciting for people who are existing Dragon Age players, but there’s also so much here that’s just new and exciting for people, new players and old players alike. Going to parts of the world, seeing things we’ve never seen before, and just getting to take this amazing world and series and expand on it and build on it in ways that I’ve just been, honestly an absolute thrill, the best part of my career, and I’ve been in games for 17 years now and this has been the absolute highlight for me, so that’s what I’m excited about.

Corinne: I just wanna yes and that. I so completely agree with you. There’ve been times in companion arcs where even knowing what's going to happen, we work on the game, with some of these decisions, I've had to set down the controller, let out a heavy sigh, and go “oh my god, what am I gonna do here?” The depth of them is wonderful. I do wanna put this out there, when we talk about as a developer what we are most proud of, can we just give a big shout out to the dev team? I am so proud of them. This team has poured their hearts into this. Anyone from BioWare who’s listening in, thank you so much. Y’all are just the best.

Q: Why does Varric have dark hair now? 

Matt: He's been adventuring for a while now. His hair is more gray, but he's been in very dark scenes so far, so we’ll see him in some more contexts.

Q: Will the Inquisitor be appearing in the flesh or are we just choosing their major DAI decisions?

Corinne: Yes they will. The Inky does appear. We've know how attached y’all are to the Inquisitor, we’ve seen the love for your OC. Yes, the Inquisitor shows up. We'd already confirmed that a few places, so let me just say you can also customize them and it includes some of our new customization options. Yeah they’re gonna show up and they’re gonna be your Inquisitor.

John: And I think beyond that, the story of Solas and the story of the Inquisitor obviously are tied together as much as any story, so it would have been strange for us not to bring them in for this one. They’re gonna be a part of this story.

Q: Will there be any planned DLCs and transmog armor? 

Corinne: Right now our focus is entirely on the quality of the game, it's so important at this stage for us to be all in, all attention on finishing this game and delivering on the quality and the promise of it. So that's all I can really say on it, we're 100% focused on this being the most complete game we can make it. I wanna emphasize, there's not gonna be any microtransactions or battle passes, you don't have to connect online. Our focus is making this the most complete single player we possibly can. Now this was kind of a twofer question. Will there be transmog? Hell yeah. I’m the kind of player that believes fashion is the real endgames. Yeah there’s a transmog system, absolutely. It’s sick.

Q: Will any of the characters be asexual? 

Corinne: Such a good question. So, look I'm gonna be really forthcoming with yall and a little bit vulnerable, I'm ace. I'm a gray ace, I don't mind sharing that, I’m kind of public with it. I will say though that none of our companions this time around are explicitly ace. We look at the characters, their motivations, who they are, we always assess is this the right time. This time it wasn't. What I will say for everyone on the ace spectrum on there, I would love to represent an ace relationship sometime in the future when it feels like the most authentic fit for a companion, when we can do it best. And I do see some questions, what do we mean by ace? Asexuality. We often refer to it as the ace spectrum.

Q: Can mage Rook do blood magic? Will blood magic be a skill tree separate from regular magic?

Corinne: OK, this gets a bit spoilery, so let me just say, Rook has some pretty good reasons to avoid blood magic. Rook is not gonna wanna be interested in that. But I will say, the mage skill tree is packed with all kinds of spells, traits, and perks to give you a ton of flexibility in your magic. Gonna go off script just a little bit because I’ve seen “just tell us about the specializations”. I’m not gonna tell you the deets, but there is a necromancer one. There is an elemental one, and there is one that’s actually more of like a combat mage. It’s my favorite.

Q: Can we name the griffon? We also have a griffon emoji in this Discord server.

John: Excellent. So, someone in your party, again, spoilers, may have already named the baby griffon, but don’t worry, Assan is a very good boy.

Corinne: All these griffon emojis, y’all are killing me.

Q: Will we have a camp/home/headquarters that we’ll be able to customize?

Matt: Well this time around, in Inquisition you had Skyhold. In this case you have a headquarters called the Lighthouse. More to be seen on that, but narratively it serves kind of a different purpose, but also the same purpose. As far as customization goes, there are elements of it that change over time and some things you can adjust. I don’t know how much we’re really going into that at the moment. One thing I like about it is that it definitely does start to feel very much like home over time.

Q: We need to know, does pasta and noodles exist in Thedas? 

Matt: I’ll take it as a chance just to geek out about worldbuilding. Again, the Veilguard for us is a really kind of dream opportunity to go to places we've only ever heard reference to or we’ve seen in set. In going through the world building process, and trying to build these things out not just as neat things from the IP, but also as, if you’ve read about this stuff, you've got your own version in your head, you’ve imagined what it might be like and you're probably hoping for something spectacular, and our brains are always far better at creating this stuff than any game developer or any artist can really do justice to, so you really have to swing for the fences to make something very satisfying and exciting. That can be everything as big as architecture and landscape and biomes and ecosystems, but it does get into things like art and culture and costume design, and also food. This time around that was one of the many things we did look into to try to catch the character and feel of a place to make it feel believable and lived in. So that’s my really long answer for yeah, I'm sure at least one place does have pasta.

Q: Are we getting a mabari?

Matt: Ooh, that’s a good question. I will say you’re spending most of the game in the north of Thedas. Mabari are not nearly as big of a thing up there, so in this particular instance, no, you will not get a mabari, sadly.

Q: Can we pet the griffon? 

John: You, I’m really sorry to have to be the one to tell you—Nah, I’m kidding, yes you can. It's not even just petting the griffon, I've actually hugged the griffon, so that feels like even there a step up.

Matt: There’s lots of opportunities to interact with the griffon.

Corinne: Can we see Assan in chat if we wanna see him in the Lighthouse hanging out? And hey, y’all, this was so important to the team, too. Like this is the team’s like, just huge support for this feature, so props to them.

Q: Will we get to see any of the character creator before the game releases?

Corinne: Yes. Yes you will. You've probably seen we are laying out a roadmap for what we're gonna show and when we’re gonna talk about it. You will see it  as we get a little closer to launch.

Q: Will we be able to play as a qunari dwarf elf or human? 

Corinne: hell yeah you will. All 4. And all 4 have that full body customization. I already talked a little bit about, I’ve always loved the qunari, I will say in Dragon Age: Inquisition it was hard to get a good looking qunari hairstyle. So yes you can play as them, you can customize them, the horn options are rad, the hair options are rad. And also related to this, your lineage gives you a lot of really unique dialogue options. So that’s really one aspect of choosing your lineage as well.

John: So actually just to bounce off that, earlier questions about backgrouds. Each lineage, depending on the lineage you choose and the background you choose, there are some specific callouts to, for example, if it’s a Mournwatch, Mournwatch being from Nevarra and mages, if you play as a dwarf, obviously your experiences in that faction is going to be different from, say, a human or an elf, so there are also specific callouts tailored to those combinations and, with the intention of giving each lineage a little flavor as to how they fit into that faction as a whole.

Q: Where is barkspawn and is he ok?

John: Barkspawn is safely gnawing on a bone next to a fireplace somewhere in Ferelden. Don’t worry, he’s fine. You may ask yourself, “but John, it’s been so long.” To which I say, Mabari live exactly as long as they need to.

Q: Will Rook have a set of default name?

John: Yeah, so Rook’s last name is defined based on their faction, again we wanted to tie that into your backstory, but also there's a name generator that can give you a selection of first names, obviously if you wanted to make your own first name, that’s definitely something we support as well. If you’re somebody who maybe has a little more difficulty coming up with a name, so for example you name every single character Bob because that’s the only name you can think of, we also give that opportunity for that generation.

Q: When will the voice acting cast be announced? 

John: We worked with a lot of very talented actors on this one. I am super excited to talk about the voice acting cast, we’ll be talking about it more over the summer, we’re not quite ready to announce names yet.

Same answer for collectors editions and preorders, and required PC specs.

Q: Any special musical guests? Tavern songs? 

Corinne: Yeah there are tavern songs and a huge credit to the audio team and performance teams, because they’re pretty great. There’s one at a little tavern in Minrathous called the Swan, and the song you hear there might just be my favorite of the tavern songs.

Q: DA2's main theme brought back motifs from DAO main theme. Can we expect DAV to recall more or less of that original thematic material than inquisition? 

John: We are not quite ready to talk about music yet in specifics. But in broad strokes I can say that the process for us is always the same. Working with the composer, figuring out themes, figuring out what kinds of elements we want to keep, tying specific elements to maybe specific characters, it's very in depth process and a very collaborative process. We have some fantastic audio people on our team that have done some fantastic work, that have done an amazing job working with composers and with the team as a whole to make sure that again, we said earlier about cohesiveness, making sure that the music feels like a cohesive part of the experience.

Q: When writing the overall story of this game, what themes did you want to have as the prominent focus? 

John: Again, it’s interesting. When writing these games, and this has been true on every Dragon Age I’ve been a part of, what you start with and where you end up aren't always necessarily the same. Sometimes you start writing a theme, you realize actually it’s more interesting if you attack it from this angle, or maybe it ends up twisted a little bit. I will say for Dragon Age: the Veilguard, from the beginning one of the biggest themes has been regret. How regret shapes people’s lives, how they deal with their regrets, how maybe people move past regrets. Each of the characters and the story as a whole have elements of these. We wanted to have that thematic, that cohesiveness to the game’s story and the game’s writing.

Q: Can you play a dwarf and does the world react to your race and backstory?

John: Yes, you can play as a dwarf. Yes, the world does react to your race and backstory. And again you’ll have unique dialogues or unique conversations based on that backstory as well as that race.

Corinne: And to give you a little nugget here because I saw it scrolling through real quickly, you have beards. So when I think of dwarves, I think about glorious, fantastic beards. Hell yeah we do.

John: Yeah I can say, as somebody who plays a lot of games, the character creator—I don’t know what magic they did, but the beards, they feel like a beard should feel like, it’s great, they look awesome.

Q: Will our heroes and companions leave us if we go against their wishes? 

Corinne: Do y’all just love pain? Do you want us to make you cry? Um... if you go against their wishes and make decisions they don't like, I will tell you, you can piss them off, they might not agree with you, and they will take some time away. That said this is the biggest threat to Thedas we've ever seen, so they will always be willing to defend Thedas, but yeah you can piss them off and they’ll leave for a minute. As it relates to them showing up to defend Thedas, well yeah they will, UNLESS…

John: No spoilers, Corinne. No spoilers.

Corinne: Alright, alright. But they want it!

Q: Did any songs, books, movies, or anything inspire character writing? 

John: Art is always a synthesis of your own experiences both in the real world but also the art you consume, the art you pay attention. I don't think that any characters have a direct reference or inspiration, but yeah, they're all inspired by the things we do both in the real world and in the media we consume. And you’re gonna see elements of characters that yeah. The things that we’ve enjoyed show up in these characters. For me it comes down to, writing can be a deeply personal experience, so even if you don't intend for it to be the case, parts of you will show up in the characters. I think that’s true for all the characters in the Veilguard. Sometimes it's exploring things about yourself that you may like or may not like, and sometimes exploring things about characters you like or don't like. So that’s my longwinded way of saying yes, it’s impossible to not have that happen when you’re creating art, but I don’t think there’s one where you can say, “oh this is this character, this is this character.”

Q: What was the thinking process behind making Harding a companion this time around? 

John: When we released Inquisition, it was impossible not to see the love that people had for our murderous girl next door dwarf. She has always been a fan favorite obviously. But I think beyond that, it's something that Harding's writer wanted to explore, there was more of a story to tell there and more perspective. And beyond that Harding also has a strong connection to Solas, to Varric, and the events of the last 10 years. So I wouldn’t say it’s always been but I’d say Harding’s probably one of the first ones we settled on as like yes, this is a character we want, and the writer had a story that they wanted to tell with her, so it just made sense.

Matt: You know, actually, to piggy back on that, that’s something I hadn’t even thought about that much and it’s not a huge part of her character, but she tends to be one of the people that have the most insight into who he was.

John: Yeah that’s exactly—that’s a great way of looking at it, too, it also provides you with a little bit of perspective, for players who’ve been around for previous Dragon Age games, but also for new ones, who was Solas? What kind of character was he? Yeah it’s a great, using characters to provide windows into the world is honestly one of my favorite things.

Matt: And when I say was, I just mean in Inquisition.

John: Yes, that’s exactly, yes. Thank you for correcting that.

Q: What approach are you taking to quest and world design in the Veilguard?

John: I think for us it just comes down to relevance and narrative heft. We wanna make sure that each quest provides either a perspective on the world, a perspective on the characters, or it feels immediately and obviously relevant to what you’re doing here. You’re here to save the world. At the end of the day, one of the things that we heard loud and clear was the feedback about how relevant, or in our case not relevant, previous quests have felt, so for Veilguard, we really wanted all quests to feel like something somebody faced with the end of the world would believe was necessary and important. So again, there’s quests of all sorts and sizes, but all of them share that same feeling of, this is the kind of thing that the Veilguard would do. This is the kind of thing that my hero would do. Especially faced with the end of the world.

Corinne: That’s really good, John. That’s so right. I would just again double down on how hand crafted all the quests are. Whether you’re doing the main story or you’re journeying with your companions or you’re out exploring and you encounter a mystery, everything's hand crafted, intentional, we spend a lot of time listening to what yall said, and of course everyone has slightly different tastes, but you're not gonna be gathering shards in the Hinterlands. Everything is built with intention and they’re lovingly handcrafting the experience.

Q: Are there any locations in the game that can only be accessed by making specific story choices? 

John: So I don’t wanna get too much into spoilers here, but I will say that locations can fundamentally change based on decisions you make. Some of the parts of the world that you go to, you can have, the choices you make have an impact on how these spaces exist and develop.

Q: Will we be able to control companions in combat?

Corinne: If Rook gets KO'd, the player character gets knocked out, this time around it is time to reload your save, or better yet, the companions have really interesting progression. You can spec them out to be able to revive you, but that’s if you’ve invested in their progression and what they can do. And that said, I mentioned this earlier but I personally spend more time in the nature of this combat system when everything comes together, interacting and directing the companions than I have in any of the other games. So like that’s interactivity between them. Once you play it you’ll see just how engaged the scene is.

Q: Will Solas still occasionally or dramatically speak in iambic pentameter? 

John: I actually spent a little bit of time trying to figure out if I wanted to answer this question in iambic pentameter, and then I very quickly gave up. Massive kudos to Patrick who always writes Solas so well. Again, Solas is a returning character. It's the same Solas you know and love or hate depending on who you are. The same writer. So I think this is, the answer is yeah, it's Solas.

Q: Will our decision of who was left in the fade be important? 

John: While that decision does not show up—not for the Veilguard, now that said, that doesn’t mean that’s not a decision that won’t ever be important in the future. Not for this one.

Matt: I’m glad to hear you say that, John, because one of my favorite stories was Bob getting stuck in the web in Reboot.

John: That’s a deep cut! The sound of my childhood.

Q: Will we have mounts again? 

Matt: No, mounts were, they addressed a need in Inquisition that we don't have in Veilguard, and you’ll see why when you get to play.

Q: How is the side quest design? Will they be mostly story based or will there be a lot of radiant and quests for power like in Inquisition? 

John: We talked about this a bit earlier, but they are all hand crafted and story focused. The narrative, the companions, not just the companions but the characters and the world as a whole, are so much at the core of the Veilguard that anything other than handcrafting quests just felt like it would be a disservice to the game we were building.

Corinne: And maybe we can clarify as well, because with power was such a devisive mechanic in Inquisition, there’s no mechanic like that that blocks your progression until you fill a bar. That’s just not a thing in this. You have the autonomy to engage in these quests as you like, there’s no grind out gates before you can progress.

John: That’s right. Again we want to make sure that doing this content feels as natural and part of the logical flow of the story as possible.

Q: Will there be a similar system to war table? 

Corinne: We haven't talked much about the player's base, the Lighthouse, and we're gonna save that, but what I will say is that the Lighthouse, your headquarters so to speak, it has its own unique purposes and functions this time. So that's an area that we'll leave for you when we talk more about the Lighthouse and when you have a chance to hop in, you’ll be able to see what those unique purposes are.

Q: If there is dual wield for warriors, is it dex or str? 

Corinne: So we did wanna bring dual wielding back. It is part of the rogue kit this time, warriors are really focused on mighty two handed weapons, I can’t wait until you see, when you swing those weapons there's a real heft to it, and then of course sword and shield. So we’re leaving the dual wielding to the rogues, but you can see, the amount of hits you can get in in rapid succession dual wielding as a rogue is really satisfying.  

Q: What have been some of the challenges and advantages of working on a single game for so many years? 

John: That is a fantastic question. I have often joked, and I don’t know how much of a joke it is, that when this game is out and I suddenly don't have to keep all these pieces of game and lore and story and everything straight in my head, I'm suddenly gonna be able to speak Latin or something because there’s gonna be a ton of brain power freed up. But for me it’s just, the thing that keeps me sustained is just knowing the game we're building is the right one. Knowing that the pieces are coming together, and knowing just how much people care about this franchise, care about these games, and how excited people are going to be when they get to see the fantastic work the team has been doing. I’ve been on this project since the start, and even today I see things on a daily basis that I’m like holy smokes I can't believe what the team is doing, I can’t believe how good this looks. It's a huge game and I don't see every piece every day, so I get pleasantly surprised on a daily basis. Sometimes if I’m having a particularly long day, I'll spend about an hour late at night just watching cutscenes come in, watching the work coming together, and just sitting back and being like, holy smokes, I can’t wait for someone who hasn’t seen this every day as I have, to see this and just be blown away by the work.

Corinne: It's been very real, hasn’t it? I will just say speaking on behalf of the dev team, everyone's working so hard and putting so much passion, so much of themselves into it. This is a franchise they truly love and seeing your support cheering us on has meant a lot to them. So let me just say thank you to all of you.

[armoricaroyalty]

Freddy and Emily's engagement interview

212 comments

👼🏻 PrettyInPink: The very definition of poise and class! Emily is such a breath of fresh air. 👍 363 🪦 DressedInDark: parasites 👍 301 👑 Agnes Crumblebottom: May the Saints bless Her Majesty Queen Elise. Of the Armoricans and Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Rosalind. I pray every Day for our royal family! Amen! 👍 154 👼🏻 PrettyInPink: @ 🪦 DressedInDark Why are you watching videos about the royal family if you don't like them! 👍 267 🪦 DressedInDark: @ 👼🏻 PrettyInPink lmao can't handle criticism of your emotional support parasites 👍 103 👪 Mom of Three: I was always Team Freddy everyone else in my year was a Jacques girl 👍 78 👼🏻 PrettyInPink: @ 🪦 DressedInDark Parasites by definition harm their host, but the Armorican royal family contribute more annually to the economy than they receive each year from the Royal Grant. 👍 11 🪦 DressedInDark: parasite parasite parasite parasite 👍 7

Previous | Chapter Start | Beginning | Next

author's note: about six months ago, I solicited audience questions for their engagement interview and I am only just now using them RIP. The interview is below the cut xoxoxo

Q. The first question is for Prince Frederick, from @whitmoretroyals. How did you propose?

FREDERICK. I went into it without a plan, if you can believe that. [laughs] I had just spoken to my father, and I had the ring burning a hole in my pocket. Maybe I should have planned the whole thing out better, but I just found her and knelt down and…

EMILY. He came right out with it.

F. I did.

E. He did! He just said “I love you, I can’t live without you. Marry me?” No romantic speeches for me! [laughs] But that’s just not his style.

Q. How did you realize she was the one?

F. I don’t think there was a single moment. We were quite serious about one another from the beginning. Just from the very start, it was clear that this relationship was different—that she was different—from anything I’d ever experienced.

Q. Different how?

F. Different in every way! [ laughs ] More thoughtful, more sophisticated…most relationships I’ve had, it started out just fooling around, just having fun, and then months in, it was like, “who are we, what are we doing?” So right away, it was different with Emily because we both knew that we wanted something more than that.

E. We were quite committed from the outset. I think that frightened him a little. Early on, I remember him saying, “if this isn’t what you really want, you don’t have to go through with this,” and I was surprised like, “why wouldn’t I want this? I care about you.”

F. I was worried about the press. It can be a lot to handle, no offense.  [ laughs ] But she’s brilliant, an absolute natural. That’s really been the best part of all of this, seeing the whole world fall in love with her just like I did.

Q. Lady Emily, as you prepare to join the royal family, how do you envision using your position to make a positive impact or support causes close to your heart?

E. Being a member of the royal family is, of course, a tremendous responsibility. I think we’re all aware of how much work, how much real work, the royal family does for the people of Armorica. I’m very eager to join the family and to be part of all that, and to contribute in whatever small way I can.

F. She already does a lot, for the royal family and for me. She’s really supported my work with the arts. The work we did in Uspana, the museum exhibit, wouldn’t have been possible without her, for example. That’s why it felt like the right moment to announce our engagement and to celebrate it at the opening, because it had really become such a shared thing, such a reflection of who we are, as a couple.

Q. You’re quite fortunate to work so closely together, but of course, work isn’t everything. @crownsofesha asked, what you do together for fun?

F. Right now? We plan weddings. [ laughs ]

E. [ laughs ] It’s taking up a lot of our time, that’s for sure.

F. We’re both very excited for it, of course. We’re really looking forward to having everyone come together to celebrate with us, and we want to make sure that it’s something very special.

E. It’s important for both of us to incorporate a lot of our families’ traditions, but of course our families have very different traditions! And with it being a royal wedding, we have to make things very proper. So we’ve been working closely with Her Majesty and with my own parents to make sure that we have a chance to incorporate all of these different elements and little things that are so important to both of us and to our families.

F. It’s going to be really amazing. I can’t wait until September.

Q. Do you have any plans to start a family together? This one is from @thewoodslegacy

E. Well…

F. We’re still working on the wedding. [ laughs ] One thing at a time!

E. Of course we’d like to, someday.

F. Someday. Yeah. Obviously, we’d both like to be parents. And it’s kind of required, for a royal. [ laughs ] I know my parents are really eager for more grandchildren. [ to Emily ] What about it? Should we give Hugo a cousin?

E. Frederick!

F. She’s going to be an incredible mother, of course. She is incredible at everything she does.

E. [ softer ] Frederick...

Q. @rebouks asks: Where do you see yourselves in five years? Ten?

F. Well, I want to be a father. That’s been established. [ laughs ]

E. It’s a little hard to answer. My life is going to change so much that I think it's quite hard, in some ways, to think ahead. He's been amazing at getting me up to speed, and it's helpful to have a...

F. A shared background?

E. Right, we have sort of a...a shared pool of references. When you have a lot in common, that makes things easier. [ laughs ] But in five years, I want to be established and confident in my role, whatever that ends up being. [ softer ] I'd like to have a child.

F. I think for me, my goal is to just keep expanding the work we do. There are a lot of causes I’m passionate about, and I think that I can do a lot to kind of bring more attention to them. I want to raise awareness, and I want to do more in service to the Crown.

E. Of course. Like I said earlier, service is a big part of it for me, as well. [ pause ] I think we do that very well together.

F. We do. I guess that’s my real answer. In 10 years, I see myself with her.

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

Dear Gallifreyan Institute for Learning's social media manager,

you're a genius! We humans do overcome difficult situations by increasing our numbers or seeking company! I was looking at the whole thing wrong, it's not a matter of quality, but of quantity!

I'll just use the clone machine that my companion recently nicked. How many humans does it take to overcome (affectionately) a Timelord?

- humanon

How many humans does it take to overcome a Time Lord?

Ah, the brilliant simplicity of human ingenuity! Quantity over quality, you say? A most fascinating approach.

🧠 Intellect vs. Intellect: Time Lords possess centuries of knowledge and experience. To match their mental prowess, you might need a small library of scholars. Let's say 200 of the best human philosophers, scientists, and historians should do the trick.

💪 Stamina and Resilience: A Time Lord can endure quite a bit. To balance their physical and mental abilities, you'll need a team of athletes, endurance runners, and perhaps a few yogis. Let's go with another 50 minimum.

👯‍♂️ Social Interaction and Companionship: To keep them socially engaged, you'll need a diverse group of people. Let's add 20 sociable humans to the mix.

So, if we add this all up, you might need around 270 humans to effectively "overcome" a Time Lord.

However, there's also:

4.❤️ Affectionate Overcoming: To truly overcome a Time Lord with love and companionship, you wouldn't need vast numbers. Just the one will do, as long as it's the right one.

However, before you start up that cloning machine, consider the reality of creating a human clone army. Do you really, really want that? 😟

Related:

How do Time Lords see humans?: How Time Lords process humans on a sensory level.

Could a Time Lord heal a human with their own regeneration energy?: How Time Lords can use their lindos to heal other people.

Factoid: What happens when a human spends a lot of time with a Time Lord?

Hope that helped! 😃

Any purple text is educated guesswork or theoretical. More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →😆Jokes |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴

[glenwoodparkstweets]

Welcome!

Hello everyone! Welcome to the official start of the Glenwood Parks Tumblr page. For those of you who are unfamiliar, I am a Park Ranger stationed at Glenwood Parks, and since December 2023, have been the main person responsible for running the Glenwood Parks Twitter account.

Following a show of interest from those who read, follow, and interact with our channel, we were asked to potentially expand to here as well, to let fans have an easier time viewing our posts. We took a vote, and a near-unanimous "Yes" won - so here we are! Before I sign off, here's a couple of Q&A's our team put together, to hopefully help any newcomers along:

1. Who runs the account? A: Myself, a fellow Parks employee from our Botany team who goes by the name of Dewdrop, and Miss Diane, whom you may have met at the Ranger Station.

2. How do we know who's posting? A: Currently we use a mix of written names and emojis (you'll find Dewdrop's fairly on the nose) to indicate who is writing outside of myself, chosen by the writers.

3. What do you post here? A: Event announcements, fun facts from the Park, and some occasional interactions between the different teams/departments.

4. I heard you and Dewdrop got into a prank war and got in trouble for posting it on the Twitter. A: No comment. 5. Can I view the old tweets on here? A: Not as of yet, but we are considering forming an "archive" of our previous messages, for easier viewing. If there's enough interest generated, it's a guarantee! 6. Can I ask you guys questions/reply to the tweets/leave comments? A: Yes! We highly encourage anyone and everyone to take part. While we may not always be able to answer everyone, it makes our entire team very happy to see people enjoying themselves and wanting to engage with our Park. 7. Aren't you just a parody account for CastleAudio's Glenwood series? A: Yes.

[pommunist]

Thoughts on Quackity’s stream

Q saying that he’s doing the stream in english instead of spanish and saying it’s because people were upset that the previous statements were in spanish. Obviously I’d like for him to speak about these important things in the language of his choice, but I feel like he misunderstood that the issue most people had was actually not the language but the lack of subtitles + official translation. And this issue still stands when he speaks english btw.

Now, and I believe that’s all that need to be said about this : Anyone who goes out of their way to spread Q’s personal information and/or uses it to threaten and harass him are proper freaks and I will never stand for that. I’m sorry that he is fearing for his safety, no one deserves to go through that.

I know that there are many people who perceived him stepping down from his position as a way to avoid his responsibilities and I can definitely see where they’re coming from but I personally see it as a good thing. Obviously because safety comes first and if taking a step back can stop him from being put in harm’s way, absolutely a great decision. And also because this may allow people who are more capable of handling this position to be put in charge.

I’m also glad that he’s taking actions against the people who were misusing his funds and who enforced a toxic work environment. We don’t know anything about these people so I won’t talk much about it but I hope they face the consequences of their actions.

Also good that it was clarified that that one problematic person has not been involved with the project, I think everyone is relieved to know that someone unsafe was not a part of it. Although, while he was right to warn people not to spread misinformation (this is true for everything btw do your research !), I don’t like how he said to be mindful about the intentions of people who raised the question, because a lot of them had genuine concern about it being a possibility and this could have been a very serious and dangerous thing if it had been true.

It’s good that he acknowledged that he didn’t properly address the issue of xenophobia against brazilians the first time and apologised for it. However I don’t like how he took the time to address that it was specifically brazilians who were being targeted, but didn’t address that it was mostly his own community who was responsible for it, which led to another wave of hate and bigotry towards brazilian fans on twitter. However I’m not brazilian myself and it’s only up to them wether they choose to accept his apology or not.

He talked about how he is usually a private person regarding these situations and to be honest I’ve always admired the fact that he doesn’t engage publicly with drama. Drama, except this isn’t drama, it goes way beyond what this word means.

Him saying he was ready to handle it privately but that it was made public before that is just so hypocritical to me, because we know from the many admins statements that they had tried to bring attention internally to some of the problems but it was either ignored, or actually impossible from them to have communication with the higher hierarchy. So saying what he said just puts the blame on the admins who came out with their stories for this whole situation taking the proportions it has taken.

And great that he’s saying that there has been some restructuring made within the team, and hopefully these changes will only leave the studios with competent people who are good intentioned towards everyone involved. I won’t like though, I fail to see how asking for everyone’s feedback and taking it into account to make these changes wasn’t an option. Also the fact that this restructuring ended up causing them to massively letting go of all the twitter teams as well as some other admins is still an issue.

Like he can deny that he purposefully put his stories above those of other ccs, say that he does have passion for the project and was involved in its creative development, which I’m not trying to imply he’s lying about btw, but not address the main issue of the admins situation ? Not a word about or for them ? But instead you use your plateform to talk about your role in the lore knowing these are talking points discussed by the admins and community. What good does that do except for your own image ? What do you think your fans are going to do if not go and harass the people who have made these claims ? Meanwhile people will discuss these topics that are so far removed from the main issue and focus less on what the admins went through.

I’m not saying this was intentional, I’m not saying he’s directly guilty of any disgusting behaviour that some of his fans are guilty of, but as an influencer with an audience as large as his is, you have a certain responsibility to try your best to prevent these things happening.

If you think I’m exaggerating, that it couldn’t be that bad, just know that since the stream :

Admins who spoke up are receiving hate again and Léa is getting the worst of it as you can imagine. Like I mentioned before, there has been a resurgence of xenophobic tweets against the brazilian community. French qsmptwt accounts and others who took a stance for the admins are also being insulted/harassed again. Léa, Lumi (Pomme admin) and Shade (Dapper admin) have all had some of their private info leaked. There has even been a call to mass report Nat_Ali’s, the streamer who conducted Lea’s interview, twitch channel.

—————

And because still he didn’t do it and I want to end on a positive note, some thanks are in order

Twitter admins, thank you for making every stream accessible to everyone, allowing us to follow what went on when we could watch and to rewatch the best moments. Thank you for adding your own comments to the clips, and for making all the funny memes, you gave a heart to these accounts. Thank you as well for being the ones to collect fanarts for the museum, for giving many people an opportunity to appreciate the wonderful talent of the community.

Writers, thank you for coming up with such amazing and intriguing stories, and making us pull our hair out theorising about them ! I wish you were given the space and creative freedom to develop them more and make them flourish.

Roleplayers, thank you for having done such a wonderful job giving life to all these characters I hope you know how deeply they are loved by us the viewers. Mentions spéciales : Lumi, merci pour Pomme, merci pour avoir représenté notre pays, notre langue et notre culture pendant tout ce temps, on aurait pas pu rêver d’une meilleure ambassadrice 🍎♥️. Léa merci pour tout ton travail, tes illustrations, tes personnages, et aussi toutes tes refs purement fr ahah. Merci et bravo d’avoir osé parler surtout, on est avec toi 🐰💓.

Thanks to all the builders, devs, artists, translators, sound designers, everyone who has been a star in the qsmp constellation and has worked to make it such a great time for us viewers.

[gaslightgirlsummer]

At this point with lestappen (in whatever context) can it even still be considered a soft launch? It feels like almost everyone in their bubble has brought it up at least once by now lol.

you are so right anon because at this point it feels less like a soft launch and more like a damn rocket launch. as always, we can only make an educated guess about what's going on, and i have a lot of them, so strap in

first of all, to me it's one of the three:

at some point of the season, most likely somewhere around singapore (where we got the infamous reel of charles and max walking together, implying charles is on max's pre-race checklist, and lestappen alert) or right after qatar (the padel match) something happened between charles and max privately that made them - maybe not closer, because there's no proof they weren't like this already in private - but more comfortable showing that closeness in public

ferrari and rb pr teams greenlit more interactions and content about the two of them because they saw the engagement lestappen are getting. the timing, however, would be very strange - middle of the second half of the season, charles not really in contention with max, the first of the interactions posted literally being them walking together. which leads us to point 3:

charles is either in talks or has already signed a pre-agreement with red bull. lestappen gate 2023 tag has it all

we can't deny that something CLEARLY shifted, just as we got our first official confirmation of max and charles hanging out outside the paddock. and i want to underline "official" here, because max has mentioned before that he and charles "see each other in restaurants and cafes around monaco" and we never got a confirmation if he meant they accidentally run into each other or they meet up intentionally. with the padel date, i'm a bit more inclined to believe the latter.

"but why did we never gate any pictures then?"

first of all, probably because paparazzi are actually not allowed in monaco. it is illegal there, hence a lot of celebs enjoy its privacy. second of all i don't think most citizens of monaco would care about seeing these two having dinner together, as monaco is small and its population even smaller (36k citizens, not all of them living there full time). most of them wouldn't be moved by this. and seeing a famous athlete having dinner with another famous athletes feels less special when a large chunk of the population is famous athletes. the third option is fans and tourists visiting monaco, but i don't think these two would be hanging out at tourist spot restaurants.

when we got our first official confirmation of these two hanging out it came out from them, not a random picture, but these two intentionally showing everyone that yes, they hung out together, and no, they are not acting like it's a big deal. charles also answered a question about padel with max in his ferrari q&a, which informed people who don't keep up with charles' instagram that he did, in fact, see max in private.

there's no solid conclusion here, only ramblings, but what i can say to sum it up is: charles and max are clearly intentionally and openly showing that they are friends now. and we can only imagine and theorise what comes next, and enjoy every minute of it

[whimedy]

Just watched Transformers One today and HOLY SHIT IT'S PEAK

I had seen a lot of spoilers on social media before watching but wow, it was still super impressive

It's def great for ppl new to the franchise because it visually represents the relevant lore bits very well (I only started checking out Transformers lore a few weeks ago since I saw the Transformers One trailers and had only watched one or two Bayverse movies before - neither of them got me interested in the lore btw)

The animation is BEAUTIFUL. Definitely not sp*derverse-level, but it's still has a pleasing aesthetic

I mean, what was I even thinking? ofc it's not sp*derverse-level because it's not a multiversal mess and solely takes place on a metallic alien planet

Some ppl find the jokes "cringy" but I just think they rely more on context. You may only find some of the jokes funny if you see other parts of the movie first, and none of them are shown in the trailers

I'd say the comedy makes up only about 30% of the movie because the plot itself is engaging enough

The one issue I have with the movie is the lack of elaboration on the [redacted, hint: it starts with a Q], but it doesn't ruin the whole thing so don't worry about it (might show more in a sequel, hopefully)

Rating: 9.5/10

(definitely biassed because I was familiar with the lore before watching)

Also, fuck Sentinel Prime IGN for giving this a 5

OH YEAH, shoutout to TFHypeGuy on Twitter for being the only member of the marketing team

[modrew71extra]

Right, never thought I had to make one of these callouts in my entire time of using social media, but unfortunately due to the seriousness of the subject matter at hand, I have to get this out here to prevent more people being mislead.

Now for a lot of people who follow artist Tumblr might be aware of this one thread circulating in regards to people using Glaze & Nightshade in response to the recent updates made to Tumblr's data services. With the posting in question, @ reachartwork discouraging use of it and presenting an argument for it.

Now unlike most other people, I can tell how off their argument is as it lacked the nuance of how these programs worked and talked about it in a way that came off more enthusiastic, despite their claims of having sympathies people trying to protect themselves.

It's only until I took one little look at their blog and knew what was up, and their later behaviour proved my suspicions.

Now to get this right off the bat, I do apologise for whatever misgendering I exhibited as I didn't notice that about them, nor am I justifying this callout to harass them.

So please don't

Rather, it's to be weary of this user, and how you really shouldn't be sleeping on these programs.

Now as the original featured, it went out in presenting their argument as followed:

As you can notice in the thread, it's providing very little evidence of their findings of its supposed workings without proper sources, while trying to show ways to work around it (again, enthusiastically mind you).

And yet as you notice, they didn't bother providing an alternative way to combat this scalping situation everyone is in, especially with how replies have been of users expressing their grievances over this.

You'll think that maybe you should have added something to help others or worded themselves in a more sympathetic manner?

But that's when I checked into their profile and knew what seems to be up,

They're into this tech.

I knew this was clear propaganda, why would somebody who is invested into generative tech try and discourage methods in protecting others of data scalping?

Like I'm sorry but you can't be somebody who claims to be sympathetic about the whole power imbalance this whole field is causing, yet enthusiastically be into this tech. Those mixture of ideologies just do not match.

There's no such thing as "ethical AI use" for this tech.

Now upon knowing many were falling prey to this nonsense, I had to step in and present my own counter arguments and why they are so wrong. Both programs Q&A (along with demonstrations of it acting as written) thay explains the inner workings of it as thoroughly as possible:

https://nightshade.cs.uchicago.edu/whatis.html

(Paper is in QA)

https://people.cs.uchicago.edu/~ravenben/publications/pdf/glaze-usenix23.pdf

https://twitter.com/zer0int1/status/1749574897179742353

Now comes the part when things get more heated

After I posted my retort, this is the response I got:

A) Again, while I didn't intend disrespect for their gender, "AI-bro" has literally become a catch-all for us who are against the very people who are engaged in this field

B) Since when in my original argument that I did try to villainize the entirety of programmers in general? My wording was superficially against those in that field of ML tech who are for this tech.

C) Trying to spin my own findings with proper context and immaturely handwave it by boiling it down as me going "nuh uh" is making you look childish, the info I provided literally explains the very points they argued.

D) Reason I blocked them straight away is because I knew a lot of these pro-AI tend to be very combative when it comes to criticism, I felt it in my gut that they were going to do so first. And later on other factors of their character proved my point.

Like I'm sorry, you really think me not having a degree of X matter is somehow making me a worst person and that I shouldn't be allowed to voice criticism of something?

Just because somebody is in the field of something, doesn't automatically mean they have the best interests to heart.

And here's my confirmation that like a lot of these AI enthusiasts, they're very sensitive & combative.

Now not too long, I decided to try to reblog my argument on another reblog of the artist @ Kang-Bang as they have a bigger artist presence, while they fortunately did realize what the OP they were quickly blocked upon reblogging my own post:

But it wasn't that confirmed that behaviour.

I found out through a conversation I had with somebody on the server of artist-rights advocate Zakugu Mignon, that this individual had a similar encounter with this user a year ago on Twitter (I'm Hollow btw);

And here's the conversation this person had that led to this similar experience:

https://twitter.com/Acfusi/status/1691261322988527617

Notice a familiar pattern of behaviour?

The unfortunate pattern behaviour that these pro-AI types are once again present.

It's always trying to justify the usage of this succeeding.

Now look, I'm not against the idea of the physical unabled being given the ability to produce creations of their own with the help technology means nor do I think that Artificial Intelligence is inherently bad.

But this generative tech is just doing it all the wrong way.

It's by all intentions & purposes, displace hard working people as cheaply and quickly as they can.

It has unfortunately happened to certain working sectors such as journalism, advertisement and translations as we speak.

Now on the topic of whether or not you use Glaze or Nightshade.

Please don't drop it

Now yes it's not a panchea for the societal problems we're currently facing.

But you shouldn't just leave whatever you post online out in the open without any forms of protection is not the wisest route to take.

As the Q&A already shown, it at least offers some way to ensure a means of sabotage data scalping.

There are still many other creatives and general users utilizing these programs for good reason, and WHY they're desperate for a means of protection.

https://www.tumblr.com/astraskylark/741393628982886400?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/leahfrog/743484550954598400/theres-also-nightshade-if-you-havent-heard?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/thetreetopinn/738157011350470656/ill-say-what-ive-said-in-the-past-ai-art-can-be?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/in-ravenlight/743565614387494913?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/luimnigh/743036171813273600/what-is-this-about-the-tumblr-staff-wanting-to?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/taikova/738369881482919936?source=share

Yes, I understand there's some skepticism going around and we're all frightfully confused about what to do in these uncertain times.

But please.

Don't skim out on a solution to offer some forms of protection.

Having a little protection is better than having none.

[doghartzy]

https://www.tumblr.com/doghartzy/764449892030693376/national-broadcast-should-shut-the-fuck-up-about?source=share

what did they say? i watched the match but not sure wht u talking about

oh haha, i'm gonna preface this with it's always important to remember that i'm a huge hater for fun and most of my gripes are completely based on personal reactions & vibes. but wrt kirill specifically, it just always bothers me that he's treated less seriously because he's on a team with less focus given to them. like he's a world class player. he's scored over a point per game throughout his entire career, he essentially carries the team on his back. he scored 96 points in 75 games last year, on a team that didn't even make it to the playoffs because we were so fucked up with injuries. like he's insane. so it really does bug me when the national broadcast in particular doesn't take him very seriously.

there wasn't any particular insult or anything, but there was a moment in the first period where the broadcast made some inane-ass joke about kirill & that was the only thing that they'd said about him all game at that point. i made that post about it because it irritated the hell out of me in the moment, and because it was before they mentioned anything about his play, his time on ice, his assists, anything. i think it's easy to give announcers the benefit of the doubt when it comes to gassing up different teams and players, but it's also not really my responsibility to engage with the national broadcast in good faith lol. the way they don't take kirill as seriously as they take players like eichel or even matthews annoys me every time i hear it and i'm always gonna say something bc i'm incapable of shutting up haha.

anyway i hope this doesn't sound defensive or anything, just wanted to make it clear that it's entirely a personal opinion, but it's also one that i feel strongly about. good q tho anon!

[ladypiscesmoon]

Remaining questions Matt Bomer& Jonathan Bailey (reading 21 July)

Q: Who is in love more? Matt or Jonny? 😏💘

A: island Time wellness love oracle: 

coffin, heart with a key, karmic relationship

the love Angels oracle cards

I think Jonathan fell hard first, but Matt followed quickly. I think it’s not a question about who is more in love. Their circumstances are just different. I feel the karmic relationship has to do with Matt’s marriage. I feel it will end eventually, with or without Jonathan’s involvement. 

One of them is very insecure about himself at the moment, feeling that he’s not enough. If I had to guess I think it’s Matt, but I can’t really put my finger on it.  (photo 1)

Q: Who is more eager to keep this more than friendship/situation? 😉

A: Jonny: 7 of wands, 3 of wands reversed

The romance Angels deck: heart to heart conversations, flirt, reconciliation 

Jonathan is a bit of a flirt, isn’t he? I think he could have chemistry with a lamppost if he had to. But in saying that I feel he’s got strong feelings for Matt. He likes to stay in contact, and being upfront about his feelings. There could be someone coming along with whom he tries to move on, but I don’t feel this will be forever and it doesn’t change his feelings for Matt (photo 2)

Matt: wheel of fortune reversed, 5 of swords

The Angel romance: Trust, engagement

Lots of conflict in his personal life at the moment.  He is hanging by a thread sometimes. Tired of making decisions. It would be easier for him if his feelings for Jonathan would go away, but they don’t. He has to trust the Universe; at the moment he feels rather flat and low. His conversations with Jonathan lift him up from time to time. (photo 3)

Q: Do Matt and Jonathan being in two different countries make their friendship grow apart in the coming years or make it grow only stronger.

A: Situation love oracle deck (no photo, because I’m only allowed to post 10 at the time) the snake, talking, sunglasses the butterfly 

I think the distance is not the issue. It’s difficult, but there are more ways of communication now, fortunately. There are other, more obstacles though. But their feelings for each other? I don’t feel them fading anytime soon, if I’m honest. 

Q: Is that Simon guy (Matt's husband) willing to sabotage Matt & Jonny's probable reunion either public or cinematic?

A: I don’t like Simon’s energy too much, I have to admit.

He feels really controlling. But he will be supportive of the promotion, hide what he feels about the reunion. At the same time; he’s IS married to Matt; he does feel threatened by Jonathan. He watching Matt’s reactions and doesn’t like how they interact in public. He wants them to be less intense around each other. (photo 4)

Q: can u please do a +18/NSFW reading for Matt & Jonny? 🥺😘

A: I will after my summer break if I can decide how to do it without being banned here, or use something else that’s not Tumblr. We don’t have Patreon here. 

Q: do you see Jonathan Bailey getting married and having his own child or children someday or No?

A: Lenormand:

Stork (change, transition, movement, recurrence, new cycle, yearning), lady (female friend, family, partner, family member, femininity), key (openness, revelation, unlocking, achievement, liberation, resolution), sun(happiness, victory, success, power, warmth, truth), birds (worry, excitement, gossip, chattering, nervousness, anxiety), tree (growth, grounded, past connection, personal growth, spirituality, health

He might have a child (could be a daughter), I’m not sure about the marriage thing. If so, it will not be soon, like next year or so. But married or not, I feel he will be grounded and happy in future. (Photo 5)

Q: Will Matt Bomers marriage with Simon halls last?

A: True love oracle. Sexual freedom, yin and yang, intimacy, the gardener

 I feel it will end eventually, yes. They used to be a team, but they are no longer balancing each other out. I don’t think there’s much of a sex life, and/ a connection like intimacy. It feels like they have grown apart, and one of them is clinging to what once was. (Photo 6)

Q:Do you think Matt and Jonny are meant to be together years from now even though it seems impossible right now?

A:The romance Angels deck:

Very soon, release your ex, attraction, let friends help you, chemistry, express your love

Yes, I think they do. I think they’re soulmates. (Photo 7)

Q: Will we see Matt bomer visit Jonathan’s london broadway (Richard II) ?

A: The star, knight of pentacles. 

He plans to and hopes he can stick to the plan to watch it. 

Q:Will we see Matt bomer in Jonathan baileys wicked part 1 movie premiere?

A: Queen of wands reversed, the hierophant 

It doesn’t look like it. When is the movie premiere? If you remind me by the time it comes, I could pull to see of it changes. 

Q:will Matt and Jonathan have any emotional moments the coming months? Coz their 4 years and 2 years sacred project is coming to an end in sep after the Emmy’s.

A: I interpreted this question as: are we going to see the intense way they are interacting with each other (especially when fellow travelers is mentioned) If not, please rephrase the question and I will pull again. 

Ace of swords reversed, the empress reversed, 4 of wands, queen of swords reversed

I think they will be in contact, I’m not sure how much we will see them after September. It depends on if Matt listens to his husband. Simon seems not really keen on Jonathan. I wonder why :)

Q: Will Matt and Jonathan ever cross the line of being just friends? coz their connection is so strong regardless of them living in different countries.

A: (Photo 8): Hermit tarot; they already have

Who will take that leap of faith in love between Jonny and Matt? Or will it ever happen?

Hermit tarot: 

Matt; I’m sorry, I left because you told me to…, now is not the time, I meant what I said

Jonathan: Happiness is my priotity, seek professional advice, think before you act, I want a fresh start with you.

I feel that it has to be Matt to take the leap. 

I feel it will be happening, but not yet. I can’t pinpoint WHEN, because Tarot is not set in stone.  (Photo 9)

Q: Are Matt and Jonathan as felt in love as Armie and Timmy does? Each time I see M&J I always think about A&T in the same way! Matt was really more discreet, but I feel the same lovely dynamic! Are they both souls mat (M4J and A4T)? Love you! Thanks!

A: I have often pulled the soulmate card and the twin flame card for Armie and Timmy. They have a different journey than Matt and Jonathan. Twin flames are two halves of one soul. In Timmy’s case, for example, there is the fear of losing his career if he openly steps out with Armie, Armie has been through a lot and is not going to settle for uncertainty anymore. Both have to decide it's worth it. Their connection has a lot of obstacles, as twin flames always have. They both have to grow and learn lessons before they can fully embrace it. I think Armie has grown a lot, but Timmy is still not quite there. In Hollywood sexuality is still an issue and even although I don’t want to speculate on how they define themselves, being with a man, could cause problems. 

Matt and Jonathan; Here we are talking about two openly gay men, there’s a big difference between them and Tim and Armie. I love they do embrace who they are, but I think at least Matt has talked about it once or twice. Still today, there are less chances for queer actors. It’s a shame, but that’s how it is. 

I have pulled soulmates in almost every reading I have done for them, but not the twin card. Matt’s marriage is of course a huge obstacle to overcome if they would want to be together. You don’t give up a family for nothing. 

And as always, bear in mind: people have free will. They can decide to take a different route. Matt could choose his marriage; Jonathan could meet someone else. It doesn’t mean that them being together doesn’t happen. It could happen years from now. And frankly, I don’t see it happening right now. 

In terms of who loves who more; I often see people’s connections as a bright white string between two persons. Both pairs have “the string” 

If I don’t see it, I can often not feel any connection. But you’re free not to believe that, of course. :)

Q: just saw a reading which said Matt and Jonny wud love to work but there will be ppl blocking them to do that. Especially Simon it was said. do you see them collaborating onscreen again for a movie or series?

A: The hanged man, 8 of swords, knight of cups. 

Yes, they’d loved to work together again. Simon has asked to limit and tone down their interactions. But I think they will work together again, although it would surprise me if they did soon.  

Q: Do Jonathan and Matt miss each other? How are they feeling about not being able to see each other or spend time together anymore?

A: Yes, they miss each other. They would love to spend time together. 

From the hidden truth oracle: (photo 10)

 Matt to Jonny: top

Jonathan to Matt: bottom

Q: Is Jonathan dating anyone or hooking up with anyone now? 

A: Last time I answered this, and said no, I got a lot of hate. 

But I pulled for it again., because maybe it has changed. 

The hierophant reversed, three of swords, nine of swords. 

Still doesn’t look like he’s really dating. The one interview people referred to; I remember reading he said: There is someone special. 

Hope people realize this could also mean that he is in love, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that he's dating. I don’t pick that up, at the moment.

Q: will Jonathan win over Robert Downey jr in the coming Emmy’s? Will the Emmy voters choose Jonathan and make 🏳️‍🌈  history ?

A: The star reversed, the emperor reversed, the hanged man reversed.

It doesn’t look very promising. I’m not sure the voting is fair? Or, how do I say that, maybe there are powerful people to prevent Jonathan from winning? I don’t know much about the Emmy’s. Please remind me closer to the date and I will pull again

This conclude all the questions at the moment

* all alleged and for entertainment of course!!*

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Hero of Power & Hero of Shadow

Q&A for some of my OC Links! :D mainly just to help me parse out their differences for everyone’s edification ❤️

Who are the Hero of Power and the Hero of Shadow? Well, they’re the same character! Just like AoC and BotW have the same Link, but they live in parallel timelines. (AoC Link’s backstory—like how he gets the Master Sword—differs from canon backstory for botw Link, ergo they’re parallel timelines) Power lives in the Calamity Timeline, where Hyrule Warriors and Age of Calamity exist, while Shadow lives in the disaster canon timeline.

How are they alike? They’re both half-Sheikah/half-Hylian, they both grew up in Sheikah culture, they have very similar personalities from the get go, though differing circumstances shapes them differently. They look the same at the same age too. They both are heavily involved with both the royal family of Hyrule and the royal family of the Gerudo - they help protect the Hyrule royal family (tho they’re not personally close to the reigning monarchs in their teenage years), and they both date Ganondorf’s daughter, Hemisi, and are both engaged to her and grow close to her family. They were both 15 when war broke out.

How do their stories differ? Shadow met Hemisi a few years before Power, and the two got engaged before the Imprisoning War, allowing him to get really close to her and her family. Power was dating Hemisi before the Imprisoning War, but didn’t get engaged with her until during. Speaking of the war, Shadow died during the war, which only lasted a few months. Power survived, having fought in the war for two years. He goes on to live a fairly long life after that. Also, Power had a piece of the Triforce while the Triforce isn’t utilized at all in Shadow’s era. Power used the Master Sword and lived in an era that was very aware of the legends of the Hero, whereas Shadow did not use the sword and was just the guy who stepped up to fight and was one of the best warriors for the job.

A fun fact about both of them! They honor their Hylian background, but they were predominantly raised Sheikah. As such, they follow its customs and rules. One Sheikah custom during their eras was that there was no age of adulthood - it was about passing certain trials. Both Links passed their trials at age 12, making them adults in the eyes of the Sheikah.

A fun fact about Power! He was among the first Sheikah to use guardian weapons, and he encourages Sheikah technology to advance once he marries Zelda and becomes king consort. His encouragement and sponsorship is what leads to the guardians and towers and the Divine Beasts.

A fun fact about Shadow! His first kill was a stealth assassination/hit mission when he was 14. The king, who had been keeping a close eye on the Gerudo, learned of a possible attack and sent Link to handle it. Shadow found the team of three women and eliminated them before they could ever get close to the castle. Gan & Nabooru claim the women were rebels so they got off with their hands clean, and Shadow never says he’s the one to kill them, but Ganondorf suspects it’s the case.

[hypnoticauthoress]

Let's talk about Intigrelt Technologies Corporation.

Founded in 4985 on Krilnikath III, Intigrelt quickly made a name for itself with various improvements on existing technologies such as starship propulsion and specialized nanite production.

In 4980, only 5 years after its founding, Intigrelt found itself at the center of a scandal. An experimental biotechnology based crowd suppression technology was on a ship that crashed on a barren frontier world, XJ-986 IV.

This technology was later found to not only be the direct cause of the crash but also highly dangerous and nearly impossible to fully eradicate. Thus, the XJ-986 system was redesignated XJ-Z7-Q, a quarantine system. No traffic in or out. Only the seventh of its kind.

As one can imagine, the Federal Interstellar Commission government wasn't happy about this, and Intigrelt faced a years long legal battle, ultimately paying massive fines for their negligence.

Nonetheless, they continued to innovate, creating new technologies and improving older ones. Over the next forty years, Intigrelt became a massive corporation, one of the largest in human history.

They continued to engage in dangerous experimental research, but did so quietly, in secretive black sites on uninhabited worlds on the frontier.

Though they were a massive corporation, their name wasn't well known to the general public.

They preferred to work with governments and other corporations rather than directly with consumers. In 5011, this would change, to an extent.

The year prior, a small company known as Filitri Fabrication invented the first general purpose nanites.

Before 5010, nanites were very specialized machines, only useful for limited applications they were built and programmed for. General purpose nanites, which could change their programming on the fly, and rebuild each other to suit different tasks, had long been a pipe dream.

Filitri Fabrication was founded in 4995 by nanite researchers for the express purpose of creating general purpose nanites. When they succeeded in 5010, it was celebrated around the galaxy.

Filitri Fabrication was on track to become a household name.

Intigrelt saw this, and wanted a piece of that pie. And so, they bought out Filitri Fabrication in 5011, making it their subsidiary.

Filitri Fabrication did indeed become a household name, but much of the fruits of that small research team's labor went to the invisible giant that was Intigrelt.

And so Intigrelt grew ever larger and more powerful from the success of a technology invented by others.

In 5030, Intigrelt Technologies Corporation is an infamous, important part of galactic politics, more so than most people know.

The deaths they've caused, the lives they've ruined, all excused in the name of progress. Just another terrible result of the FIC's existence.

[msweebyness]

A Few More Class of Villainy/Heroes HC's

Random MirrorVerse thoughts from ya girl, Weeby! Enjoy! @artzychic27 @imsparky2002

Unlike his canon counterpart, Kimules doesn't engage in many team or contact sports due to his immense strength posing a serious risk to both his opponents and his teammates.

Honest Nino absolutely loathes the song 'What Does the Fox Say', and will punt anyone who sings it in his presence. Naturally, his villainous classmates tease him with it as much as possible.

Miremba actually dislikes the fact that she has a mane in her lion form, as they feel that it invalidates lionesses as royalty and leaders and implies the role is meant for a male.

Sea witches are known to be incredibly seductive and persuasive, so Mylensula is often called upon to charm needed information out of people for the villains. Despite knowing this is done merely for the purpose of gathering intel, Ivan Oogie still gets incredibly jealous. Mylensula thinks it’s adorable.

Austin (Q) of Motanui will maim anyone who suggests he should have his pet chicken, Hei Hei, put down. Just because he doesn't have a brain doesn't make him any less valid, dammit!

MisShark is the only hybrid in the school that IsmaScar and Alix Khan are genuinely afraid of, though they'd never admit it. She is fully capable of breaking their spines, and they know it.

Despite being fluent in European French, some of Robette's pronunciations and statements are still hilariously Canadian. The others like to playfully tease her for this.

YzAlya often words her threats as if she's going to perform whatever horrible action she promised regardless of whether her demands are complied with. Kronkora often has to correct her.

Snow Mylene is very insecure about her looks, particularly her height and weight, not understanding how she was named the 'Fairest Of Them All'. QuasiIvan and her friends are always quick to assure her she is more than deserving of the title.

When the mood catches her right, Juleficent will sing duets with her twin. Only their fellow villains have been fortunate enough to witness this.

Leave your thoughts in the comments and reblogs!

[lionheartedmusings]

being very very meta but i have a lot of thoughts about this whole thing.

i have no doubts that q!cellbit is undercover, but it's a really shitty undercover job -- he's an amazing storyteller, don't get me wrong, but he can't erase the month of active work against the federation that he's done, part of it very much in the open. also, from what we've seen from q!quackity's attempt at talking to cucurucho, the federation isn't exactly jumping at the chance to have supporters in the players: they don't care. they have two jobs: stay in the island, don't break rules. other than that, they're simply pawns to be shuffled around.

ultimately, the chances of q!cellbit having blown up his whole life, friendships, reputation etc just to be double crossed by the federation bc they're not stupid? are huge.

not to mention that while he confirmed what we already knew (the codes are targeting anyone helping the federation whether knowingly or unknowingly), him being vocally pro-staying and pro-federation is putting the remaining eggs in more danger. the codes have said they won't stop, and while they don't want casualties we know they're not above killing eggs. it's a really iffy position to be in roleplay wise if your actions actively lead to eggs permadying -- roleplay isn't impersonal, and it could get genuinely messy. there's a reason dms have to be cautious and aware of player conflict: it can have a real impact out of character!

my rambling point being, i think while an interesting concept for the storyline, personally i find this is a fundamentally flawed plotline that has a 99% chance of going wrong for everyone whether they're involved or not, and cellbit approached the plot from a dm standpoint (plot progression/player engagement/drama) and not a player character standpoint (team work/a shared plotline).

the overall implications for everyone are massive and there's a .0 chance of him actually doing anything worthwhile. q!cellbit is incredibly intelligent, but going against the federation (undercover) and the codes? it's not a one man job, and q!cellbo is unfortunately not the almighty main character that can bamboozle the world and come out victorious... even if he was, there's the chance enough damage has been done by that point that he'll have done all this and it'll be for nothing.

a final point! none of his friends are entirely convinced he's even fully turned against them -- if you can't convince the people who love you and who you hurt and betrayed, how can you convince a massive all-seeing corporation?

[thebroccolination]

Fic Writer Q&A

How many wips do you have currently?

On A03: 2 ("MUSE" sequel "Savor" and "Heart Like Gold"). Unpublished: for Thai QL, almost 300. I am neither proud nor ashamed. It's just how this brain does stuff. \:D/

Which one are you finding the hardest to finish?

Fucking "Savor"!!! Hands-down "Savor". I started the sequel to "MUSE" with a pretty clear idea, but the problem is that I want to include a bunch of new characters from series I've enjoyed since I finished MUSE, and I keep getting stymied. I need to finalize the character list and ignore all new characters, but it's haaaard.

Also! I've had this WIP from 2020 about DeanPharm's wedding week in New York at which point WinTeam decide to elope, and for some reason I just keep getting stuck with it. I have a very specific mood I'm trying to strike, and unfortunately my WinTeam fics of 2020 have a veeeery different feeling from my newer ones, I think? So that might be it. I'm probably trying to capture a very specific atmosphere.

AND I have this other WIP that's an actor and singer AU wherein WinTeam are secretly dating and they get outed while they're traveling around Japan with their fellow famous friends (DeanPharm, Manaow, and InKorn because it's an AU and no one has to be dead there) and they have to pretend they're unaffected by it while their relationship is tested. It's 14k, not even half finished, and I was trying to finish it for WinTeam Week 2020.

The main issue with this one is just…attention span. I also resent it for being difficult to focus on, so I ignore it out of spite. \:D/

What does it usually look like when inspiration strikes for you?

I usually think of one particular scene and then build a fic around that. Like with "You Can Cry" I just wanted to write the scene where Team walks into Win's bedroom and cries in his arms. So I sent Win to Japan and threw a mountain on him to get Team to cry in his boyfriend's arms. \o/

Do you curate playlists for each fic or is your process different?

Nope! I just play the current hyperfixation song on loop or I pick a very specific instrumental. "Distant Signals" from the SOTUS soundtrack is my tried-and-true go-to writing buddy. That and "Everlast" from the Not Me soundtrack.

Do you go balls to the wall and write as you go or are you more organized?

Former, for sure. With longer fics I try to outline a bit, just to keep on top of what's going on. So, like, MUSE was very organized compared to my other fics:

But even with MUSE you can tell I did the bare minimum considering that fic is a monster and a half with dozens of characters.

Most fics I try to start with the most engaging opening line I can think of and then I just tell myself a story I'd want to read. <3