#fuck john epler

[slut-strut-satan]

I think it’s really dumb that there being wolf statues all around Thedas is somehow attributed to Solas having an ego when he’s not the one who put them there.

It also shows you just how little they know about Thedas itself, because most of those statues are found on lands that were once held by Elves, such as The Dales, because wolves were a culturally significant animal to them. You also find them outside Dalish camps acting as wards against evil, sort of like gargoyles. They’re meant to scare off the dangers of the world.

Also, have they considered that Solas just kind of…likes wolves? He clearly loves wolves and has strong feelings about them. They symbolized the rebellion itself. Not every depiction of a wolf is necessarily a depiction of him. Wolves are a symbol in elven culture, likely dating back to Elvhenan itself. One which has come to represent different things over time and changing circumstances.

Claiming this as somehow being evident of Solas—mister ‘I hate myself more than anyone has ever hated themselves’—having an ego is the literal definition of bad faith.

Read a damn book.

[slut-strut-satan]

It’s ironic. In sanitizing Mythal and mixing her whole revenge plot, they made her into an infinitely more despicable character. If always assumed she was genuinely better once, that she and Solas had actually been equals in a healthy relationship—whatever that relationship might have been. I’d assumed it was being betrayed by her family that corrupted her.

Nope. She was always horrible. She was always a self-aggrandizing manipulator. She never respected Solas (why does she still call him Pride even when he was Wisdom???) and always intended to use him. She used his own compassion and loyalty to coerce him into doing things that repulsed him, and it fucked him up so profoundly that he’s still broken millennia later.

She summoned that demon. She tortured it. She made it kill.

I why is that so hard for the devs to acknowledge? It’s based on the lore THEY wrote.

After having spoken to Mythal myself, finally… yeah that woman is worthy of every drop of hatred. If it takes MILLENNIA to figure out how to be a real person??? Don’t give me “oh but spirits” no no no. If Solas and Cole could be who they were, then Mythal could’ve been better too.

She liked being a god. She enjoyed it.

And then we see a snapshot of who she was before? She was imperious, self-gratifying, apathetic and cruel. Just like the rest of the Evanuris.

Solad loved her, that’s why he believed her to be capable of being better… but she never loved Solas. She used him. Pure and simple. The spite she speaks of him with is palpable. A tree twisting to try and reach light. Because she planted him where he didn’t stand a chance. It’s not because he killed Flemeth. That shard is with Morrigan and that shard has learned how real people are. And it took MILLENNIAAAAAA!!

(Given this time frame, the fact that it took Solas the two years with the Inquisition, and ten years after to be changed… my God the man was SPEEDRUNNING compared to her.)

The Mythal who I loathe is the one coerced Solas from his home, into war, and then just. Abandoned him because she was more interested in being a god and ruling than her precious “children” that she talks so much about. The Mythal who allowed said children to be enslaved and tortured. The Mythal who allowed them to be Blighted and experimented on and treated like cattle.

Some Mother.

And all the while Solas begged her to stop. At every turn, he begged her not to go further, but no! The rest of her family was so far gone by the time that she did listen that she didn’t even know the full extent until she had a dagger in her back.

This doesn’t make everything Solas did okay, not at all, but the blame for his grief-stricken actions and the state of pure corruption that the Evanuris dissolved into, the Tranquilization of the Titans, all of it, sits on Mythal FIRST and I’ll stand by that.

My Rook told her what she wanted to hear. The Nadas Dirthallen was practice enough. But after all the regrets and the murals… she’s on Solas’ side. Varric is going to stagger her pretty badly but she’s a wise kid. And she’s also merciful. And she likes the Inquisitor. She wants that lady to get her man. Her screwed up, traumatized, very in need of Fade therapy man. But that’s beside the point.

Point is: Mythal can rot. That’s it.

[spitedemon]

i really don’t think it’s “typical dragon age fandom nonsense” for people to be genuinely upset about the world state choices. combat, level design, art direction, gameplay gimmicks, those have all varied across each dragon age game. the one thing that’s remained constant are nods to our previous choices.

i wasn’t expecting my HoF to come riding in on a griffon, but i can’t find a monument dedicated to warden tabris somewhere around the anderfels? lucanis couldn’t have some lines about the time that one arainai boy was stirring up trouble in antiva city? you’re gonna tell me that making a mage the new divine wouldn’t have some impact on nevarra and antiva? on the anderfels, the supposed most devout militant andrastian nation in thedas? you’re saying nobody in the north is paying attention to who rules orlais or ferelden? come on.

[veilkeeper]

husband valiantly waded into the cesspool that is twitter to show me some of the Discourse because i am a curious beast by nature and the amount of s*lavellans who are salty about the very existence of the outsmart ending is wild

[strawberry-halla]

oh my fucking god somebody please take dragon age away from john epler

[slut-strut-satan]

Mythal has a Vallaslin. Solas once wore her Vallaslin. It was in the shape of the form she demanded he forsake in service to her own goals. She used him, broke him, and then abandoned him.

If he speaks highly of her, it’s for the same reason any victim speaks highly of their abuser. It’s the same reason I defended my own abuser for so long. It only goes to show just how desperately isolated he became. No one was there to help him break free of his abuser. Not even the people who supposedly cared about him, stood beside him, and fought in his rebellion. They all flocked to Solas the Wolf so he could break their chains for them. And yet not single one of them cared enough about Solas the man to help him break free from the person who’d been hurting him the most.

That is not only profoundly sad, it makes it all the more distasteful that the devs bent over backward to sanitize Mythal (who continued to own slaves even after her ‘death’) and frame her as a saint, right down to retconning one of the most important scenes in the previous game as well as a subplot that’s been brewing since Origins. It’s repugnant and was easily one of the number one reasons I couldn’t finish the game.

I just don’t know how anyone misses the mark so disastrously. Grown adults allegedly wrote this. Is this how they see abuse? It’s not real if the one doing the abuse is smiling while they do it? I suppose coercion, manipulation, and grooming don’t count either? That’s a genuinely harmful message to send and I don’t know how it ever made it past the writing room. How do you fuck up that badly?

Is it just me or does it seem like every bit of praise that Solas seems to have for Mythal is only kind of true about her but definitely true about HIMSELF? That she was "the best of them" and protected her people - but she didn't always, did she? Mythal has a vallaslin, after all. And she was going to let the others fuck with the Blight of Solas hadn't nagged her about it. Her efforts at tempering Elgar'nan before then weren't strong enough to keep him from doing everything that he did up to that point, and her method of doing that tempering always coincides with her getting more power and adulation for herself

I do think on some level, Solas knows that Mythal was the best of a bad bunch, and that "best" is not ideal. How many of the differences between Mythal and the other Evanuris were because of Solas's efforts and counsel? How many of the Dread Wolf's actions to look after the elves were attributed to Mythal's protection? Solas becomes extremely aware of just how dangerous and willing to override the free will of thinking creatures Mythal is if you drink from the Well of Sorrows.

I need to chew on the "Mythal has a vallaslin" thing a bit longer and decide how I want to interpret that if I ever write fic

[nadas-dirthalen]

.

[ayrennaranaaldmeri]

Deeply sorry (not really though) to say this but there is no way in hell EA told Bioware to put all the stupid shit they put into their stupid game or interfered to the extent that the game has all these aggressive flaws because EA.

[slut-strut-satan]

Please excuse me I need to curl up and do some breathing exercises to cope with my all consuming desire to tar and feather John Epler for his crimes

[malevolententity]

re last post. getting out of the way LAY OFFS BAD LAY OFFS BAD LAY OFFS SUCK THEY ARE HORRIBLE TO GO THRU ITS A BLINDSIDE I HATE ANYONE TO GO THROUGH EVEN IF I PERSONALLY DISLIKE THEM.

anyways i think its a good thing that DA:V is more than likely the last dragon age game ever. this is a good thing. DA:I was a bad game from a game design standpoint. and a very bad dragon age game. and was subject to corporate greed that ruined any chance it had at being decent.

DA:V is a decent fantasy game. a very fun game to mechanically play. and its an okay dragon age story. it ended CLEANLY the story it started to tell is OVER it accomplished its goal and did it very well! i highly enjoyed it! it set up the idea of a future antagonist that we could maybe see in 10 years BUT its so vague that if we never get it it doesnt leave many major questions of whats happening in x place or with y group that was cliffhangered.

i think veilguard is an absolute highnote to end the series on esp when (in my opinion) a lot of the writers who i had faith in were laid off in or before 2023. or QUIT bioware in november 2024 right after the game came out. it is infact a very good thing that we will never get another dragon age game because i think with dai they were already trying to milk it.

im glad that we will probably never see this world again. you have the imagination to make it whatever you want in ur brain for forever and ever

[sha-brytols]

i'm sorry but the "da fandom is a little racist BUT veilguard holds most of the blame for making davrin so irrelevent in the game" excuse is the weakest shit i've ever heard. no actually i genuinely think this is almost exclusively a fandom issue. like i won't argue that the "davrin vs harding choice is reliant on assan" shit john epler pushed was unbelievably racist and i won't argue that there's merit to the fact that it was tone deaf at Best to have the black man's character arc so reliant on his animal companion but i'm sorry you cannot fucking convince me that the "knight in shining armor with a gentle heart and a cute animal companion that takes you out on picnic dates and carves you little wooden trinkets" character is not almost Perfectly Engineered to be the most popular romance option in any game ever and yes i fully believe the only reason he isn't is entirely hinged on the fact that he's black and no amount of whataboutism towards the devs can convince me otherwise

[watcherintheweyr]

I can't believe I'm writing this

To open up with: IT IS ABSOLUTELY OKAY AND VALID TO BE DISAPPOINTED BY THE LACK OF WORLDSTATE CUSTOMIZATION IN DRAGON AGE THE VEILGUARD. I have my own disappointments about it!

Ok? We have that covered? We good?

Cool, moving on.

To people who are genuinely, hatefully angry, saying we will now be 'forced into Bioware's worldstate' (when this year alone they've stated there is no 'canon' worldstate more than once), or saying that none of our prior dragon age choices matter, I need you to take a step back and walk with me for a second, okay?

For starters: John Epler stated that one of the reasons they narrowed the choices is because they DO NOT want to invalidate the worldstates of their longtime players. However they also don't want to alienate newer players who don't have the history and lore of the past choices. It's a narrow line to walk.

Secondly, I want you to really look at the choices made by your Hero, Champion, and Inquisitor. Which of those choices genuinely affected NORTHERN Thedas, not Southern Thedas, to the point it would linger for years afterwards? Which of those choices weren't things that specifically affected or altered the sociopolitical Southern Thedas climate and landscape in lasting ways?

The Well? Kieran?

That only leaves that if your Inquisitor drank, they now have knowledge from ages long past... that Rook doesn't need. Rook has a direct line into Solas' history and a possible Veiljumper background, unlocking those very secrets on their own.

It's entirely likely and probable that the Well's fears and threats were a red herring. Think about it. We as a gandom have spent TEN YEARS worrying about the Well, about Solas, about Mythal.

Come June 2024, we're slapped in the face by the big bads of Ghilan'nain and Elgar'nan.

Morrigan likely isn't going to be close and friendly with Rook- so there's likely not much reason for her to tell us about her child or husband if she has them.

The rulers of Southern Thedas aren't going to affect us. We aren't tackling the current world ending crisis from the position of a leader of armies like the Warden and Inquisitor, but as leader of a small task force. The Southern Divine doesn't much affect us either- nor do Southern mage politics or templar politics.

Because Rook is an entirely new perspective.

Because Rook is in an ENTIRELY different sociopolitical climate/landscape.

I DO think there should've been ways implemented to specify your Inquisitor's bonds and personality. I'm HOPING maybe there still are that we haven't seen. But otherwise?

My Warden is free. I can say she's cured her Calling and is wandering the world with Zevran.

My Champion can retire into total obscurity with his husband or be quietly helping said husband destroy the slave trade. Either way.

Your history and choices in Thedas still matter. Your heroes still matter.

They just aren't Rook's focus.

Take a breath please. And stop sending death threats to the devs bc what the **fuck.**

EDIT:

further context from the devs on Bluesky

[disasterdrvid]

HEY WAIT A FUCKING SECOND THERE JOHN EPLER

I'm finally watching the Game Informer video for Veilguard and John Epler just fucking casually dropped the biggest bomb on my DA-pilled brain.

Around 14:50 he says "magic has become more and more present [and] part of that is because Solas has been slowly preparing this ritual for longer than anyone... was really aware of."

So uh random Kirkwall guy saying there's more mages now than when he was a kid was right. There really is more mages and magic. And part of that is Solas doing his shit. Holy shit Epler you can't just say that in a marketing video without preparing me

[v-arbellanaris]

also. by the way. basic etiquette - when you see a positive post about a character from someone's blog, you should check yourself before you open your big fucking mouth to talk about how much you HATE that character and want them dead. like ouuuu you want my fav character dead. should we tell everyone??? should we throw a party?? should we invite john epler

[slut-strut-satan]

THANK YOU

When people new to DA say things like "I didn't play any of the previous games before I played Veilguard" that's fine, but to then turn around and say "well, because Veilguard says [lore thing] that means everything in the previous games is false" makes you look willfully ignorant at best and [redacted] at worst. Veilguard did not do a good job with three games of established lore. New players apparently came out of datv not knowing what a Circle is, for crying out loud???

People who wanted to see the Veil removed have a basis for the belief that it might usher in a new age for Thedas that could ultimately make things better for elves, mages, and spirits. Or at least change the world in an interesting, exciting way. That basis was given to us by the first three games. For example:

Flemeth

"We stand upon the precipice of change. The world fears the inevitable plummet into the abyss. Watch for that moment . . . and when it comes, do not hesitate to leap. It is only when you fall that you learn whether you can fly." (DA2)

PC: "Why did Mythal come to you?"

Flemeth: "For a reckoning that will shake the very heavens."

Morrigan: "And you follow her whims? Do you even know what she truly is?"

Flemeth: "You seek to preserve the powers that were, but to what end? It is because I taught you, girl, because things happened that were never meant to happen. She was betrayed as I was betrayed--as the world was betrayed! Mythal clawed and crawled her way through the ages to me, and I will see her avenged!" (DAI)

Sandal's Prophecy

"One day the magic will come back, all of it. Everyone will be just like they were. The shadows will part and the skies will open wide. When he rises, everyone will see." (DA2)

Cole

"The Veil isn’t real. It’s false, fake, fabricated to forbid. Isn’t it wonderful?"

"Cole: Is there a way to save more spirits, Solas?

Solas: Not until the Veil is healed. The rifts draw spirits through, and the shock makes demons of them.

Cole: Pushing through makes you be yourself. You can hold onto the you.

Cole: Being pulled through means you don't have enough you. You become what batters you, bruises your being.

Solas: Yes, exactly. Deliberately crossing the Veil requires that a spirit form will, personality.

Solas: That concept of self gives a spirit the chance to maintain its nature.

Solas: Wrenched into this world unwillingly by the rifts, spirits suffer the same fate as my friend.

Cole: Then we will help them." (DAI)

Morrigan

"Change is coming to the world. Many fear chance and will fight it with every fiber of their being. But sometimes change is what they need most. Sometimes change is what sets them free." (DAO: Witch Hunt)

"Mankind blunders through this world, crushing what it does not understand: elves, dragons, magic . . . the list is endless. We must stem the tide, or be left with nothing more than the mundane. This I know to be true." (DAI)

I haven't even touched on what Solas says, due to his bias/the way some people refuse to consider his insight at all, even though he knows the most about the Veil of any character in the series ever. For obvious reasons.

Due to the above evidence, I completely agree that the Veil coming down would probably be catastrophic to some degree. I disagree that it would have "destroyed the world" or "drowned [it] in demons" as Veilguard loves to repeat over and over, mostly from characters like Varric who don't know jack about the Veil, magic, or spirits. And I disagree that people who wanted to see what would happen if the Veil came down are wrong or misguided--they obviously just paid better attention to what the overarching narrative than some. It isn't their fault that this more interesting and dynamic narrative was retconned to shreds and buried in the backyard.

[ayrennaranaaldmeri]

things they fought to keep in: the fucking hall of valor and the hauntings

you didn't. it was bad.

LOL, LMAO EVEN.