#critical landscapes

[essektheylyss]

you ever start on a piece without a plan and then just roll with it? anyway I was just fucking with paint textures and somehow we have ended up here (I do not know if Ruidus is visible from any coastline okay we do not have to worry about geographical accuracy it's about the vibes)

[solasfenheral]

some bemused vg bitching below the cut

i am. very bemused by the way this game seems to pull its punches at certain moments. like its afraid to really step on your toes and get in your face thematically. which is a deeply strange experience considering i've never ever felt this way about a dragon age game before???

to be honest. I half wonder if it is a product of this game being a sequel that came out so long after it's previous title and right off the heels of two games that received cold to lukewarm reception critically and within the community. I know there would've been extreme pressure internally for this game to be a critical and commercial success and you see that in how polished it is, how there have been huge technological improvements in things like hair which bioware has always gotten some flack for. and I can't help but feel that history contributed to how. cautious of me this game feels at times.

but its just. strange. it feels so strange to get something like the push up scene at the end of taash's personal quest chain. like what are you doing, with this lukewarm defense of trans identity. have some BITE about it man, I know you care about this! it's like the game doesn't want to commit to locking you out of companion content because they wouldn't tolerate transphobia but also doesn't want to accept it, so you end up with this bizarre kind of. half ass defense of transness without really standing its ground about it.

and one hand I get it because I don't want taash's storyline to be about defending themselves from player transphobia when they're already struggling with coming to terms w their identity throughout the game, but this scene man. its so damn strange.

and like. the way this game handles religion is so damn bizarre to me! which is a critique I've again, never felt for a da game! it feels SO strange for bellara to be like. lol yeah the gods being evil actually makes it EASIER for me to let them go like ffdsjkfhjks what....? epler I am in your HOUSE, this is not how faith worksssss

in trying, it feels like, to avoid steeping on toes about what the revelation of the gods would MEAN to the elves, vg just. really fails to grapple with the importance of faith in people's lives and the pain of what losing that or it being challenged means.

i wouldn't even be as annoyed if like. at least ONE of our dalish companions had complicated feelings about their faith and it was something they could discuss between them! it would be really interesting to contrast davrin's pragmatism, his preoccupation MORE with the lived reality elves might suffer with this knowledge come to light under the current systems of oppression, his understanding of the dalish mythology as important to his culture and his sense of SELF w/o ever having really believed in them personally, with someone like bellara who DID believe and is working through an arc about grief and trying to find a new understanding of what dalish culture looks like now with such a key tenant being challenged!

how do you understand death and what comes beyond death when such a central pillar of your life has been challenged! oh my GOD the depth the funeral scene gains when u have this subtext.

there's not a single banter on how harding reconciles her understanding of the Titans to her belief in the maker!

its just. CRAZY to me that this game seems to be trying to dodge the religious and political bite of its own story fsdhfjkds aaaaaaaa

man this isn't even touching how bizarrely fast rook's regret prison does its switcheroo and goes from neve/bellara's blaming rook for losing them to rook going don't worry your death wasn't my fault to davrin/lace like my GOD lemme stew in the survivor's guilt man ur not even giving me an understanding of why rook can process this!! lace or davrin literally died like! 10 minutes ago to their understanding!!!

[wardensantoineandevka]

genuinely, I don't know why people are so worried about Caleb and Beau when we could all just be choosing to believe that they're both currently facedown in the middle of the Turst Fields or wherever

imo right now there's no reason to believe this teleport thing happened only to Bells Hells

[reagomyeggo]

‘cause it’s burning through the bloodline, it’s cutting down the family tree, growing in the landscape, darling, in between you and me

[maacbrem]

Wouldn’t that be something

Quick messy flat-colour doodle of what they deserve :’) (pose reference from @mellon_soup on Instagram)

Expression close-up:

[laurinchen-fotos]

I don't know why, but this one reminds me of death .. or of Pâté de Rolo from Critical Role

[court-jastor]

Ever wanted to see the glowing waters of Yios? How about the extraordinary Cerulean Palace? The perilous Malleus Key? Get wonderful views of these iconic sights and more at CRLand's new Marquet expansion!

Marquet as seen through the lens of an old theme park poster for CR Land for @artists-guild-of-exandria 's CRLand Project!

[hyacinthsgrimoire]

text from @ohno-myfeefees

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

The Road to Traveler Con by Kent Davis

[lmaster37]

was going to send a really snarky reply to somebody having a Bad Take on Izzy hands (obv i'm being somewhat facetious here) (like i do think their reasoning was bad but it's fine to just not like a character) (their reasoning was bad tho imo) and then decided not to do that and instead vaguepost about it here. peace and love on planet earth ❤️

[exandrianpunk]

my mom asked me a bit ago who my favorite lovm character is, and of course i said vax

i figured it was for a holiday gift or something and promptly forgot about it

but then this morning my Omi (mom's mom) sent pictures of the pumpkins she painted for Halloween...

i think it's safe to say her first fanart was a success!

[fictionadventurer]

The BBC lady blowing my mind by pointing out the parallels between the endings of North and South and Jane Eyre (man brought low after losing his fortune, woman has gained wealth and comes to his rescue so they're now on equal footing).

She also pointed out that North and South is a continuation of issues Bronte explored in Shirley (to the point that Helstone is named after a character there), so I guess I may have to read that book one day.

[artandhijinks]

The Age of Arcana

I finally got around to watching EXU Calamity and decided to draw something inspired by the age of Arcana.

Prints available on Fine Art America and Redbubble

[undead-knick-knack]

I saw Essek's new official art and immediately got the urge to put his floating ass in the woods

Artwork titles and artists below the keep reading 😁

“An Alley of Trees in a Park” (c. 1810) by Jean-Joseph-Xavier Bidauld “The Brushwood Collector” by Adolf Kaufmann “Winter Landscape with Rising Moon” by Adolf Kaufmann “Forest Creek” by Grigoriy Myasoyedov "Autumn Morning" by Adolf Kaufmann

[nicollekidman]

still wrapping my head around the fact that midnights got almost universally positive critic reviews..

the thing with midnights is that it’s ranked last and largely a miss for me but still has like. two or three of my favorite songs she’s ever written like… she’s still taylor. however i fear that midnights critical overinflation is a sign of the bubble about to pop….. the market is saturated and built on shaky foundations…. however if the tide turns and she takes a break then comes back with reputation (again) the cosmic poetry will be worth it (copium)

[little-miss-doe]

Not really into elaborating at the moment but ... I have concerns about the Mighty Nein landing as a scripted animated series in front of both a very large non-Critical Role audience and the much smaller but highly dedicated existing Mighty Nein fandom.

They eye of that needle they need to thread is a lot smaller than the one they had for Vox Machina.