#dragon ahe the Veilguard spoiler

[pimsri]

EVERYONE CHEER AND CLAP; MY ROOK, CYGNUS ALDWIR!!!

[goonchef]

ohhhyhhhmygod oghmygod ohmyfod

[riverbase]

That wall lean though.

[hubbaslubba]

the ‘lords of fortune make sure we dont take artefacts of cultural importance’ is wild for many reasons but IDK if youve studied even a little bit of a humanities subject like history or archaeology or anthropology (or just thought about it rly) it is easily argued that EVERYTHING they could feasibly be taking is of cultural value

its such a wishy washy statement that appears to flirt with this vague notion that colonialism is bad but doesnt actually decide to engage with this in any deep way. really just salt in the wound given how staggeringly orientalist the depiction of the rivaini and qunari are

i would love if the lords of fortune were presented as a group of people who do plunder things of important cultural value and then actually made the player engage with this idea. it could be a really confronting thing given how ‘looting’ is such a core mechanic of so many games including this one. not saying to get didactic about it but make the player think about something thats v much taken for granted

[vaguely-concerned]

little detail I've picked up on: lucanis seems to like it when rook is smart. not in an academically minded way, necessarily, but when they're clever/analytical and clear-eyed about the practical realities of a matter and able to sort out the bullshit. most immediate example that comes to mind is of course when rook points out to illario that zara physically can't have made it back to vyrantium yet by conventional means in the café scene (where they're also backing what lucanis is trying to say, so the approval there makes extra sense), but it pops up in several other places too where rook cuts through to the heart of a problem with that kind of thinking. his and davrin's approval often overlap, but davrin seems to like it when rook is resolute and practical (and kind but don't tell anyone that sssh <3 ilu davrin), where I get the sense that lucanis gets that extra little thrill when they're also clever. in another contrast emmrich likes it when you're curious and openminded and kind (a lot like solas in da:i really) -- more like a life-long earnest academic *would* think about and value learning and knowledge in terms of a process and way of thinking rather than the results that come out of it -- while i think lucanis kind of likes it (and possibly gets a little ah frisson out of it depending on your relationship with him lol) when your mind is a knife. which I think is really neat. also tracks perfectly with him liking both viago and neve too haha. he clearly enjoys the Thinkers of the world.

[mourn-and-watch]

you know what. i actually love that trying to talk to solas was the last thing varric did and it ended in complete failure. especially if you put it in the context of his feelings about anders. varric was so bitter every time he mentioned him because he could not stop him. he didn't even realize that anders was up to something and when it was too late he started to think of him as of someone who destroyed that fragile peace in kirkwall that actually never existed.

it adds layers to the way he felt about solas. he believed that time he could stop a friend who simply lost his way. because varric tethras can talk anyone out of anything, can't he? anders was just too dodgy and self-centred and cut everyone off just like solas did but this time varric is completely prepared. surely. absolutely.

he could have never talked anders out of it even if he had known what was coming. he could have never talked solas out of it either. anders was a desperate person standing against (as varric himself put it) forces he couldn't possibly defeat. solas was a god standing against a couple of mortals and his own conscience buried under his guilt and regrets. being a good friend would not stop meredith's oppression. being a good friend would not stop someone who fears so much that all of the atrocities he committed were for nothing and would mean nothing at the end. varric died because he didn't realize it. he died and left his second in command with an immense guilt because they believed he knew solas enough to pull that off and there's something tragic about it

[ruushes]

have to imagine viago isn’t thrilled about the rook de riva/lucanis relationship or at least isn’t in my worldstate primarily because it would be very funny to me but also because 1) he disapproves of everything my rook does on principle 2) proximity to any first talon is dangerous enough generally and specifically he’d put lucanis’s life expectancy as first talon at around five years tops if he’s feeling generous and 3) lucanis threatened to kill him once by “gifting” him a knife of overtly intimidating high quality

[timethehobo]

Had to doodle it. Inquisitor really out here swapping out those skintight beige inquisition pjs for skintight tevinter pjs… 😂

[fenharel]

He'll never ask for help, but that doesn't mean we can't offer it anyway. But do you think he can be helped?

[housederiva]

🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️

[rederiswrites]

The room at the top of the stairs had changed.

Lace didn't notice until one day she went there after Bianca. The Inquisitor wanted to know if she could be repaired. And Bianca was still there, on the stand where she'd put it. Tears streaming down her face here where no one would see her, carefully putting everything as near right as she could remember.

But the room around it was different. The cot on which Varric's coat lay folded was a bed now. A fairly nice one, actually, with the seal of Kirkwall carved at the head. The room has grown a bookshelf and a small writing desk. Several of Varric's works and some of the Randy Dowager's favorites filled a shelf. A chess board was set up, ready to play except for the white rook, set in the middle.

All of the companions' rooms had been changing. The Lighthouse gave a certain amount of stability within the Fade, but whether it was the Caretaker or the place itself, it seemed to respond to the needs and desires of the people in it. Lace had found wildflowers from the Fereldan highlands growing in her room.

But this room was responding as though Varric was there.

She'd seen a lot of loss these last years. Sometimes, grief took strange forms. She wondered who's grief it was creating a shrine to Varric, there at the top of the stairs. Hers? Or Rook's?

[blightdaddy]

"Close your eyes. Take a breath. Slow, deep." - EMMRICH VOLKARIN

[gautiersylvain]

nonbinary Rook talking with Taash and Neve about gender identity

[trainerdelaney]

I'm really enjoying Veilguard so far, here is how I think Varric's thought process went when Rook came back with Lucanis

Denial

Anger

Bargaining

Depression

Acceptance

Welcome to the club, edgelord Anders

[wardensantoineandevka]

there is something in that like, and some of this has been noted by many others so it isn't new, that Isseya is elven, and she made it so that the griffon's re-discovery could only be done by an elven mage, as Valya is, and then Davrin is also elven, and it's been further noted by others how the griffons can go to Arlathan, with the elves—but that pattern does continue even if they go to the Wardens, given that it appears the Warden primarily overseeing their care and training is Antoine, who is elven

I don't know what there is to say about it, surely others will say or have already, but given that I haven't seen the Wardens choice mentioned as much regarding this pattern, it's interesting to me that even then, the griffons seem still in the primary care of someone elven

[vaguely-concerned]

the hossberg questline has me shaking solas by the shoulders like a ragdoll like 'for pity's sake the flowers are here the flowers ARE growing again tender shoots are finding their way back into even this dark and broken world if you would just pause for a moment and look and sTOP FUCKING STEPPING ON THEM FOR FIVE FUCKING MINUTES oh my GOD does the phrase 'self-fulfilling prophecy' mean anything to you or did you not have those back in the day. trick question bitch I know and you know you did open your eyes hope is here already hope is here if you could bear to let it in. I'm sorry it's not the saplings you loved once but they deserve the chance to live and try and thrive or fail too'

*merrill voice of keeping it so incredibly real* I think he's broken the thing he wanted to save. (*incredulous fenris noises of you pity him??*) *merrill being so incredibly valid and on point cont.* breaking the thing you love the most is not restricted to semi-gods but it sure means you can do it the worst anyone's ever done it little guy and then keep doing that for thousands of years

all jokes aside I do love this metaphor that winds through the whole game in both imagery and dialogue, right down to rook and their LI being depicted as intertwining flowers in the ending slides