#doomed by the narrative or doomed by yourself?

[flame2ashes]

Actually I left Hawke in the Fade because what better way to have agency as a player than being able to create a character with a specific kind of story arc that results in them being doomed by the narrative, and then actually being able to choose when they get doomed by the narrative. The real reward for your choices is the story you created for yourself along the way, and beyond

the thing that really makes me mad honestly is the people who are like "well, I should be rewarded for all the Correct Choices I made in dao/2/i by having the south survive because of who I put on the throne or if I supported Merrill" or whatever. it really drives home the idea that dragon age "fans" just want a pat on the back for making the Right Choices. a lot of people are very attached to the world states they made where they made shit choices. people shouldn't get rewarded because they made the choice that you specifically think is correct.

I'm very attached to my dwarf warden, Maesha. Maesha desperately, desperately tried to get Alistair to agree to the dark ritual and he simply would not do it (hardened + crowned, that makes him very unlikely to agree!) should I be punished for playing her in character since Kieran doesn't exist, even though she tried her best? should I be punished for the fact that she chose to sacrifice herself, which btw, is the most common ending? I'm a fan of my inq Mhasi, who exiled the Wardens because she believed that they couldn't be trusted after they panicked and started summoning demons. should I be punished for playing her arc in character? I'm a fan of my Hawkes who had Isabela leave after act 2 or ones who tried to deter Merrill from her work with the eluvian (don't ask how many Hawkes I have). should I be punished because they didn't comply with the Most Ideal Worldstate? I like my Wardens who crowned Anora, I'm attached to my inquisitors who sided with the templars, I have Hawkes who ended up viscount because they went along with the templars.

Sure. I get it. You're frustrated that they "destroyed the south," as though southern thedas hasn't been through this kind of shit multiple times in the past 20 yrs. This is reading unnecessary malice into a bit that's intended to show how wide reaching the conflict is, not to tell you "your work was for nothing!," but whatever. Fine. The solution to that is not to have One Correct World state that makes the south invincible. what you are saying is that you want bioware to wind back on the entire concept of dragon age as a series where you can make whatever choices you want. what you are saying is, "but I did all the RIGHT things! I should be rewarded for doing all the CORRECT THINGS!"

(this isn't even MENTIONING how one reason datv has so little past world state stuff is because it was intended to also appeal to people who have never touched the series, lol, but that's not relevant to my wider point, which is:)

I made a post months ago speculating that a lot of people were unhappy with veilguard because they wanted to be rewarded for making the Right Decision and this is where so much arguing about Treviso and Minrathous came from. frankly I've only been more convinced of this take since, as I saw people arguing that specific character choices were "obvious bad endings" and anybody who chose them made the Wrong Decision -- even though maybe your elf Rook wants the elves to make their own identity instead of clinging to the propaganda computer of an ancient fascist, or maybe your mourn watch Rook understands that Manfred is still intact back in the fade, his original home, or maybe your Rook thinks anger is a justifiable emotion for Harding to have in the wake of what was done to the dwarves, and that it can be forged into a weapon. there's no bad endings or wrong choices. but the fandom desperately wants there to be, so they can call people names for picking the wrong city or attempt to frame anyone who made different decisions than them as not only Wrong, but also Bad.

one of the themes of dragon age is that the world is complicated, that the choices you make are shaped by the world you come from and the information you have. and also, that those choices will ripple outward in ways you can't anticipate. what point is there to having a Correct Canon Good Worldstate besides to assuage the players who are too attached to the decisions they made being Correct? it would go against the themes of the series in general, but especially the themes of veilguard, a game about how you have to stop having regrets about what you did or didn't do and stop dwelling in the world of could-have-been. or you will be trapped in that false, illusory world forever.

[forsaken-headcanons]

Dry bones anon with incorrect quotes

"Doomed by the narrative all by yourself handsome" -Azure

"*Reveals traits that foils yours* not for long"- Two Times

"Haunt the narrative"

"Me, my friend and her 3ft tall demon form me plushie" -Guest 666

"About to teach a child about friendship and eternal existence of death pwn AMA" -Shedlestky in the admin group chat

"GUYS I THINK I FUCKED UP" - an hour later

"You can't "I am just a little guy" your way out of this one" -Guest 1337 after blocking an attack

"If your arm got cut off, would it hurt?"

"....yes fool" -Dusekkar

"Where tho?"

"In your...arm....."

"Exactly bro"

"How you gonna feel pain in your arm if your arm is gone!?"

"AUGH" - you can guess what happened to him

"She was a tornado, and to his horror, she could throw cows around just as much" -Builderman talking about Jane doe

"To his horror!? Weakshit. Get out of my way gayboy am about to get it" -Chance...

*a picture of the Earth taken from space*

"All of our trouble seems so small from up here..."

"Thanks Spawn I escaped this time, I can keep these penies to myself now"

*Stomping noises can be heard*

"What the-"

"We SmeLL PENies" -Azure, a douzen of cult member rushes in to like animals, some running on all 4s shorty after

"AAAAAAHHHHHH"

The last 2 are inspired by the Limbus Company april fools event for this year, aka bodyswap for every character, aswell as the reaction from players.

These are not in order.

Only Noob isn't swapped

"Noobie~" -Taph(?) with a unnatural smile on his(?) face and...WAIT DID TAPH JUST SPEAK!?

"AAAHHHhh..."

"...Man, these skinwalkers aren't even trying anymore"

"..." "..."

<Elliot(?) and I looked at eachother, I think I know who this is based on their expression>

"007n7?"

"Yes, its me..."

"WHY YOU!!??" This expression screams "YOU MOTHERFUCKER"

<this the most expression I have seen out of 007n7(?)'s body>

"THE PIZZERIA, HELL, AND NOW THIS!!???"

<yep, thats Elliot>

"I am sorry you have to see me like this..." -looks like 007n7 is worried about his image

This reminded me of the time I was really into incorrect quotes generators back then holy shit I’d spend HOURS on those sites

Now time to,,, slowly go tag all these characters,,, /lighthearted /silly

[buttered-milky]

sauron becoming the melkor parallel in his relationship with celebrimbor. Sauron becoming the devil of a Faust-and-the-devil pair.

When he’s hurting Celebrimbor he’s hurting a parallel of himself. He’s seeing himself and going “I have to fucking kill that. I have to kill that brutally”

[pinknnight]

my poor girl trapped in a cage :(

[deepdwellingsteamboat]

Daniel Brühl as Ernst Schmidt THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX 2018・dir. Julius Onah

[mmmrat]

Did you guys see? the sun fell out of the sky last November 30

Scar calls Grian the light of the server once and i fixate on it forever

"YOU WERE ONLY SUPPOSED TO WATCH"

[jtt-033-1613]

you’re serving cunt scully? you’re doomed by the narrative and your serving cunt?

[kingofmyborrowedheart]

I love Matt and Wilson’s dynamic so much. Like I have so much rage toward you. Somehow you keep getting in my way. No matter how hard we try to stay apart and exist in our own separate worlds, we always end up back together. I want to destroy you. I would take a bullet for you. I have to hold you accountable even if that means destroying my world. I can’t put our past behind us.

[dread-full]

Jeanette Winterson, 'Why be happy when you could be normal?'

[ghostdrinkssoup]

I had an epiphany about doomed by the narrative vs cosmically linked ship dynamics so now this venn diagram exists. please add more if you think of any I feel genuinely insane

to clarify: cosmically linked means there has to be some force in-universe that ties the characters together, such as time travel, soulmate indicators, AUs, cosmic nonsense, etc. this has to be literal, not metaphorical. fantasy/sci-fi settings also don’t automatically mean the characters are cosmically linked. these tropes often coalesce with doomed by the narrative but not always!

doomed by the narrative means that the characters are inescapably and inevitably tragic. they usually have the same energy as ancient greek myths or shakespearean drama. as such, they cannot have a happy ending together — it’s either downright tragic or ambiguous. there also doesn’t have to be any cosmic nonsense involved for the ship to be doomed

[lovelyrottingcrows]

Doomed by the narrative together... platonically (I can talk about them for hours but nobody has the patience including me so I'll settle on 'besties')

They're actually so silly it's carving out my insides and causing me excruciating pain that my mortal body is not capable of processing

idea or inspiration ig??

I love nagitos hair and skinny ass legs and how chiaki is leaning to him they're adorbs

[jmej]

i dont think anyone was ever as doomed by the narrative as ford pines was

[thefawnfallacy]

if I wasn’t meant to be romanticising the relationship between Cain and Abel to the point of blasphemy, then why are they the perfect example of doomed siblings meant to see each other in everything?

[redstringredeye]

Sorry Sam, coffee theory law states that Celia cannot legally drink coffee while actively investigating the Magnus Institute. I don’t make the rules

[vinyls-and-valentines]

I hate how hard it is to come up with character names because how am I supposed to make character playlists that make me even more insane about my own OCs WITHOUT BEING ABLE TO PUT THEIR GOTDAMN NAMES IN THE PLAYLIST TITLE??!

[natequarter]

[narvin voice] exercises my free will cutely to do exactly what i just burnt down the world to avoid