#hollow but also sad

[short666bread]

2days journal (8/3/23)

[bylrndgm]

MIKE WHEELER IN EVERY EPISODE [25/42] 3.08 The Battle of Starcourt

[probablyanalienindisguise]

Blows them up

[raviollies]

I had a lot of things to say but I've seen the same points re-iterated so I don't see the need to throw my hat into that ring BUT a point I haven't seen talked about that profoundly bugs me! Spoilers ahoy

The Varric reveal and how it's a symptom of the writings, in my opinion, greatest flaw.

The writing of Veilguard expects you to care about characters without giving the CHARACTER a reason to care. The game assumes you the player care, which is usually the case, so they just skip the necessary build up for it to work in character.

Varric and Rook have no introduction to each other. We start the game, launched into "they're friends". Rook cares about Varric but I don't know why. I didn't get to see them be friends. It's like i got launched into Inquisition at Skyhold, with my character already knowing these characters and having developed a relationship with them.

I love RP, you guys know this, so I engage with the RP elements to the best of my ability, making a character and trying to approach from different angles. I just didn't feel like I got that opportunity. Rook was already there, they already have a task, an end goal. They're already part of the greater plot without me. Other characters remark on their personality and deeds.

Other games in the series have done this but at least you got a little grace period to get to know them or shortcuts regarding establishing their relationship like them being a sibling ; and the game didn't hinge so much on them. DAO didn't hinge on Shani. DA2 didn't hinge on the lost sibling. They were aspects of the story but they are a small fragment of the plot as a hole. Varric ends up being a MAJOR cog in the story that our character grapples with and it rings hollow because I never saw them show why they care for one another.

If anyone should be mad it should be the inquisitor! Or Isabella! Or Dorian! They KNEW varric, we were THERE for that. We SAW that! But none acknowledge it. No one says anything about how this impacted them. Varric and Dorian have LETTERS back and forth. MAEVARIS IS HIS COUSIN.

Characters that SHOULD care don't. Characters that should care less, care a lot. It feels like the game assumes that the player loves Varric, and moves on. And it does this with a lot of Characters. You don't get to talk to the characters as much in this game, ask their opinion, get to know them, become friends. It's implied this all happened off screen. The characters are nice to you at the start and they're nice to you at the end. I barely saw any disapproval. Rook is one of 3 flavors of nice, and thus the characters are never challenged. I know people are quite critical of DAI but you could get to know the characters views - you could ask everyone on how they view the circles, the templars etc. I feel like I don't know this about Veilguard characters. I don't know where they stand on really anything, outside of being "good people". My Inquisitor didn't end up being friends with everyone but the game left room for that. Some companions did NOT like each other at all and the game accepted that, every game did - the conflict was PART of it. But in Veilguard, everyone is holding hands by the power of friendship.

The game just assumes you all care for one another without earning it, and it feels sad to me, as an RPer. After everything is done I can't even go talk to them and ask what they're going to do now. How they're faring. It's fade to black, and once again, the development is off screen and I am not part of it.

[jorvikzelda]

it’s them… The Sillies

(”what are the lore implications of there being bandaids in hallownest” i dunno. ghost put it there)

[letsmakethenaughtylistt]

ever just feel so hollow and dejected? like somehow everything you have to offer isn’t anything someone wants?

[abyssalmermaiden]

✧ But if I can't let go Will you carry me home? Can we celebrate the end? I'm asking for a friend ✧

(with beloved Odette of @ahollowgrave)

closeup/alternate shot:

[fantasma-de-la-cueva]

Gente, me llamaron loca, pero con @raiberryz concluimos que en esta escena Axel no tiene 22 años, si es que parece un crío. Posiblemente sea el mismo caso que Vlad (parecer adolescentes teniendo 18), pues hasta 2022 la mayoría de edad en Japón era a los 20. En resumen: es muy probable que Axel se uniese al Sector Quinto siendo menor de edad o nada más cumplir los 20 años.

Eng: People, they called me crazy, but along @raiberryz we concluded that in this scene Gouenji doesn’t have 22 years, he still looks like a kid. Probably same case as Yuuichi (look like teens but they are in their 18’s) and this is because until 2022 legal adulthood in Japan was when someone turned 20 years old. Summarizing: its very likely that Gouenji joined Fifth Sector while still being legally a minor or as soon as he reached his 20’s

[littlebittyhollowbugs]

I had a dream where everyone's nails began mysteriously disappearing, and Ghost was especially upset about this and enlisted Hornet and Quirrel and Hollow to help search for everyone's missing weapons and eventually Hollow was the only one who's nail wasn't taken (because of Hollow's extreme paranoia about losing it and never letting it go.)

They ended up finding out what happened because a strange little bug attempted and failed to steal Hollow's nail and they forced him to explain and he takes them to this secret place where a giant bug, like an actual giant (like the temple sized bug) lives and is building a home for itself and it's little friend has been bringing it nails that it's been using to build it's home. You know like actual nails, with a hammer.

I woke up before they confronted the giant unfortunately

But it was funny.

[jalo-parker]

Drew space and then made it gay (and sad for me at least)

[vimbry-moved]

I want something to hit as well as the songs after completing portals 1 & 2 again. valve. please.

[kelsh]

TOH Spoilers (Is this still needed?)

Ghosts of Your Past - Caleb's Final Goodbye

Continuation from this post and Gus' participation in the Belos fight I would have loved to see

[spooksier]

What is gayboring? I'd never hear this term before

Also, I really empathise with not wanting to advertise yourself as a black queer artist because of the way it's become kind of a marketing thingy strategy, I imagined that'd happen back in 2020 when the "put your ethnicity in your bio" thing started and from them on in certain spaces I've felt like being advertised as a marginalised creator or artist has almost become a synonymous to ethical consumerism. And I say that as a black artist myself.

"gayboring" is from a post and it's the idea of 'reverse queerbaiting' where queerness is being used as a selling point but there's no story to back it up and thus...gayboring!

and you're right! i used to advertise myself as a black artist/queer artist, then 2020 happened (and a lot of people figured out racism still exists) and i got Tokenized To Shit (and i mean it, ive never had so much attention on my work while getting Nothing from it. like people messaging me to collab then never messaging me again once the protests stopped or people asking for forgiveness for being racist????? like girl. leave me alone.) so i stopped!

there's def black artists out there who do benefit from advertising their blackness so i don't wanna say that it's always bad but for me as an artist (and especially as an artist who makes a lot of work in majority-white fandom spaces) i got rlly tired of my work being used as something to make white people feel better about themselves lol

[probablyanalienindisguise]

Fym it's only a creature that shows up in like two boss fights and never gets mentioned again??

[all-too-unwell-13]

i just finished reading lockwood & co - hollow boy

and oh. my. god. (ik i said it for the last book too, but....) but i was not expecting that ending.

lucy leaving lockwood & co???? omg??? i can see why she did it (i probably would've if i was in her situation tbh), but still!! she actually needs the biggest hug ever after this whole book omg.

the locklyle crumbs we got in chapter 24; the "oh, come off it. you know i'd die for you." IM SCREAMING. lockwood is so ajfhakfhsjdhs

they're so cute :(

and the whole book how lucy was so jealous of holly because holly was just so perfect - everything that lucy didn't think she was.

ugh i loved the whole book, i think it was my favourite of the series so far!!!

[joshuamj]

5. No Will to Break

No cost too great,

So endure this crushing weight,

For the end justifies this means,

No matter how cruel it may seem,

After all, there's no need to mourn a mindless machine.