#did she even age?

[tragicotps]

What age was Gillian Anderson in The X-Files? (x)

[abyssal-ilk]

i don't know the exact timeline for when ghilan'nain physically changed into what we see her as in datv, but im really attached to the idea that she didn't look like that before the veil was made. like she looked just like we saw her in solas' memory, untainted and with no extra limbs. her new form is the direct consequence of her fusing her body with anduril's blighted corpse after anduril's archdemon was slain and she died in the fade. she does not need to mourn anduril. anduril has become part of her greater whole. she would not be parted from her, even in death.

[corpocyborg]

BTW, if you've never had both Loghain and pro-templar Hawke at the same time, there is some FANTASTIC unique dialogue... I wish I could remember the exact wording because I can't find it anywhere... but it starts out with Hawke talking about all the things that Loghain has done wrong in his life and then Loghain says, "I see. Atrocities are your purview alone? You killed every mage in Kirkwall."

[finalskies]

Godzilla x Kong is a very silly movie. I kinda love it. Shimo stole my heart. She deserves all the good things now.

[foxx-queen]

so about the choice in act 3. I feel like the writers wanted to do the suicide mission from me2 AND the companion choice from me1. which clashes at its core because the whole point of the me2 mission was that if you did all the companion quests and worked for it, you could keep everyone alive. and I get wanting the shock of having one of the companions die no matter what, but at this point in the game after the obvious set up, it just feels like one of those haHA surprise! moments

then there's the fact that it's between davrin and harding. the black man and the fan favourite from dai. like it feels so stacked against davrin at that point.

I picked davrin first, and then I went back and picked harding, thinking maybe that was the right choice to keep her alive. and here's where the whole choice gets even worse for me, because harding, instead of using her stone magic, the actual thing that would give her an advantage against ghilan'nain, she climbs up to the exact same spot as davrin, and uses her bow. she tries to use arrows against a giant multi-limbed blight enhanced being. it's stupid! of course she dies!

I had expected that if you picked harding, she would use her stone magic, which would distract ghilan'nain because of the history with the titans, giving lucanis enough time to act. it would have worked really well as a continuation of her character arc, and it would tie into her personal quest in a way that would make it clear that the effort we put into doing that was what makes the difference.

but by not doing that and having her die no matter what, it instead feels like it doesn't make sense. davrin, at least, is just a man with a sword. his death here makes sense because he's against impossible odds.

which brings it back to feeling really bad that the choice was between him and harding. because for this sacrifice / loss to make sense, it feels it should be davrin. for this narrative beat to make sense, it should be davrin dying.

it feels like the writers are saying: the correct choice here is davrin. he's the only companion who should die no matter what. to signpost this at the moment you make this choice, we will have the other choice be the fan favourite from dai. because no one will want to risk her potentially dying.

it feels bad. it feels racist. davrin deserved better.

[claraoswalds]

It's racist, my dear, to be blunt. People come from outside, they think we're all witches and druids. For God's sake, child, you walked into a piece of string!

[lizzybeeee]

DATV explaining the 'Regret Prison'

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

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

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

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

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

NOPE.

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

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

WHICH IS STUPID!

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

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

Remnant of Failure - talking about the orb from Inquisition.

Remnant of Parting - talking about Mythal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I WANT TO UNDERSTAND THIS BIOWARE!

WHAT IS THIS KINGDOM HEARTS NONSENSE???!!

[edwardbonnets]

johanna hezenkoss: #1 emmrook hater

bonus:

[goddessofroyalty]

Had time this morning so figured I'd get the "genetic comparison chart" for if Isha is the final Vanco baby out of the way. See below

Where she gets that button nose and upturned eyes from I have no idea.

Of note is that way back when there was a joke that if the Jayvik baby (who takes after Viktor) and the final Vanco baby were born around the same time they'd sometimes get mixed up and well:

Yeah I'd believe that.

[abyranss]

She felt a momentary sadness.  She tapped her pinky with her thumb twice, and the embedded magnets noted the signal.  She’d recorded her own brain activity and movements when contemplating the Bonesaw clones, and it was this that she drew on, manipulating her own body much as she had manipulated Blasto’s. Her body language wasn’t her own.  Her smile, the way she walked, the gestures, all were fine tuned to match the Bonesaw of before.

Great tragedy of Riley that when she first came to comprehend that she's a bad person, or perhaps not even wholly in control of herself at all, when she found herself unable to act cheerfully the way she used to towards her atrocities, she didn't have anywhere to go or any idea of how to live in a way that isn't Bonesaw. She's been Bonesaw for so much of her life after all. So she reprogrammed her body to act that way for her and she halted her aging so she'd never be able to stop being Bonesaw, not in her actions, and not in the way she's viewed by others. Forever.

[fieiram]

[waspgrave]

Solas and Mythal’s relationship is that perfect blend of fucked up and tragic I have been wanting from them for a decade. The mother and her child, the two lovers, a queen and a general, the dog and its master, the servant and the lord. Love it. I knew I sensed fuckery with the way solas talked about her despite ‘burning her off his face’. Then to see him shrinking up in front of her, how he groaned ‘mythal’ in dread and even began to hold the dagger out towards her to take bc he knows he’ll do anything for her if she asks. man needs therapy for his absolutely disastrous and problematic situationship thank you for letting me watch your traumas unfold like that king

[birb--birb]

me, starting up da2 again: man idk if I'm still as emotionally attached to this game as I was back when I did my first playthrough, I mean I was going through it TM when I first played da2 so maybe it's not as important to me anymore also me, 5 minutes later: *in tears over the backstab sound effect*

[myokk]

soft🥹

[ilikedetectives]

Random Neve x Bellara headcanons

The reason Neve hasn't had scurvy despite not having veggies for gods know how long is because Bel starts making sneaky veggies recipes. Neve can tell it's veggies (~50-60% accuracy) but eats it anyway (who can resist those big puppy eyes?). Probably threatens anyone on the team who dares telling Bel about the fact that she knows the bread dip has veggies in it.

Bel accidentally invents new poisoning methods while trying to find ways to sneak more veggies into Neve's meals. She doesn't realize she is now on both house Dellamorte and house de Riva' persons of interest list (Neve notices, but can't decipher why, yet).

Bel learns to triple the ingredients whenever they cook together, because while Bel is busy putting an extra kachapuri in an insulated container for Neve's desk, a certain cook assistant takes "a few" bites when the cheese bread is fresh out of the oven.

Bel documents the cases they solve together in a dedicated journal, probably writes it in the style of the serials she likes to read.

Neve starts inviting Bel on Shadow Dragon missions, in which Bel often hides behind Neve because of social anxiety (Dock Town is too crowded).

Bel invites Neve on her field experiments, to which Neve immediately joins because this hyper elf girl might bring the Lighthouse down (there have been close calls).

Neve begins to be more aware of how crazy her sleep schedule is, because Bel gets tired more easily, but still insists on helping. "Alright Bel we need to take a break", which will be met with Bel's high pitch groan about how close they are to solving the case (they are not). Now ironically Neve is the one keeping track of rest schedule and enforcing it.

Neve accidentally finds how hyper Bel gets with coffee after leaving her cup unattended (Bel is so focused on her research she doesn't see what cup she grabs and eventually crashes on Neve's desk.)

The first time Neve hears Bel swears, followed with an angry growl, gritted teeth, and murder stare is when the detective trips mid battle and almost loses her staff (don't worry Bel retrieves it).

The wisps "misplace" Bel's smut with Neve's spicy doodles and both awkwardly pretend they didn't see a thing.

[wardensantoineandevka]

one of my favorite parts of speculating ahead of the Veilguard is the number of people talking themselves around and around in the loop of "Illario is extremely suspicious and the most obvious choice for who betrayed Lucanis → However, Illario seems like he genuinely cares for Lucanis and seemed sincerely distraught in The Wake → I know in my heart it must be Illario: there is no one else with means and motive → If Illario did it, I understand why given how Caterina has treated him and them, and he has arguably earned a bit of a villain era → The situation is ultimately caused by Caterina and Crow politics and, again, Caterina → I don't want it to be Illario because I want he and Lucanis to have a good relationship given all they've suffered together → However, there is already an existing bitterness between them because of the succession question and in Illario generally because he's seen as lesser → Illario is the most obvious choice"