#i did notttt expect this game to be written like THAT

[minnieposting]

i really love penacony so much

[divorcedwife]

Oh pls tell more about your opinions on Eight Little Talons!! I really really hated that story personally and I was shocked to learn it's many peoples favourite (overall Tevinter Nights was a very mid book, most stories were forgettable to me). But yeah I was just sooooo mad about the crows in eight little talons like youre telling me those lame ass idiots are THE BEST the crows have to offer??? I did not stop to analyze sexism much but I am definitely interested in your view, for me Teia and Viago were mostly cringy for how shitty they seemed as assassins. For most game characters reading tevinter nights made me like them more (Antoine and Evka, Myrna, even Neve) but I kinda just want to erase Teia and Viago from my mind so I can headcanon them a) older (Teia especially) b) more competent.

oh, is it a fan favorite? it did have some things i liked, like viago's poison obsession and his backstory is interesting, i just found lots of issues with this story

i found a lot of it clumsy and too hurried to get to the exciting parts to have any suspense or tension. most talons in this story barely have a character trait between them all to share, and i felt it was pretty obvious who the murderer was on account of how he otherwise had nothing to do. and i am the #1 red herring believer! if i could tell, i consider the situation dire as hell. i feel like borrowing an agatha christie format set up expectations that were not fulfilled. the set up mostly felt to me like a way to have teia wear ball gowns and dramatic murders, but it felt like the writer skipped all the mystery building parts that weren't interesting to her lol. part of why it felt like bad fanfic at times to me, like the kind i read on deviantart in 2010. like most characters are going to die, so let's not bother giving them any traits or anything, let's skip to the Good Parts. but if they don't have traits, it makes it obvious they're just here to die, so i don't care when it happens, im not surprised

but still that's pretty minor to me compared to my issue of how sexist i found the writing. it's not a murder mystery, it's a story about viago and teia flirting and i found their dynamic painful as hell. and i did notttt come in as a hater, i found their banter cute in game! this story, though... the story is mostly told through the eyes of viago, who has feelings for teia he refuses to act on, and teia constantly flirts with him and looks for excuses to be near him. it's truly a both of worst worlds situation for me, and i felt both behaved in ways that reflected poorly on their character. teia's flirting felt too pushy - i, the reader, know he's into her, but he's rejecting her at every turn, so it feels weird that she's pushing herself onto him so hardcore. and viago's gaze on her felt creepy as fuck... he wants her, but he pushes her away, but he's bitterly jealous when she's around other men. it straight up reminded me of like, frollo. move on, man... pick a path... good lord, what a disaster

i also didn't like how teia was written in general. she's someone who worked hard to be a talon and got that rank very young, but she's written like she's a teenager! all she gets to talk about are how much she loves clothes, and flirting, and wanting everyone to get along and act like a family. almost all she gets to do is flirt with viago, and also flirt with that other guy, and interrogate that other guy (through flirting, of course). i feel like her writing would have been dated in 2009, and that this was written in 2020 boggles my mind. im sure it's possible to write an assassin lady who charms her targets and make it good, but teia felt like a bad fanfic version of herself to me. i really disliked that story viscerallyyyyy