#i know dragon age is about Choices and you should have still been able to choose between killing or sparing castillon.
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more on why I think isabela's fade betrayal should have been different:
isabela's arc is about moving past selfish materialism and realising that there are more important things in life. love and loyalty are worth it-- and when it comes down to it isabela is incredibly loyal. that's why she returns at the end of act2. that's why she sticks by hawke while kirkwall is crashing and burning around them rather than skipping town and avoiding problems like she always has.
I just think that her fade betrayal was presented in a very superficial way. I don't think she'd betray a 100% friendship Hawke so easily, especially romanced, if some random person offered her a ship. All the other fade betrayals clearly represent profound internal struggles the characters are going through. Aveline's moral beliefs about the law and mages, as well as her guilt over wesley's death, are warring with her trauma bond/loyalty to Hawke. Varric was deeply affected by his brothers' betrayal, it haunts him because he loved his brother despite everything. Merrill has given all of herself, everything precious to her, over to restoring the history and lost glory of the elves. Fenris is consumed by hatred and a desire for revenge. the demons tap into this and really hit them where it hurts. So what about Isabela? Her story is much more than "haha i'm a sexy pirate i like ship lol"
Even adding a few lines from Miss Demon would have solved this. "you'll finally be free from Castillon. Nobody will ever chain you again. You'll be the one in control." SORTED. it's definitely in the subtext of her fade betrayal but I would have made this more explicit.
similarly, I think that in terms of narrative and character development, it's a bit unsatisfying that she accepts castillon's deal so readily in act3. I usually let her do it because my Hawke has a very laissez faire attitude to life and I'm fine with it I guess but imo it's a better outcome for her to kill him. (which iirc she does admit if u make her kill him) like sometimes you have to stand and make a choice to fix your problems instead of always running away. it would have been cool to have her come to this conclusion herself tho
#isabela dragon age#dragon age#isabela#dragon age talks#uhh i love her so much i adore her id die for her#i know dragon age is about Choices and you should have still been able to choose between killing or sparing castillon.#but isabela should have been more conflicted about it#also trauma bond aveline and hawke is my fav my absolute fav#the fact that her character is I Love The Law and she was married to a templar#but over 10 years she doesnt report 3 apostates when before lothering she wouldnt have hesitated#dragon age 2
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Dragon Age: Origins is still great today, and you should give it a try
I want to preface this post with an important disclaimer: I am not about gatekeeping, and I think that ultimately, you should play or skip whatever Dragon Age games you want. If even after this post you feel like Dragon Age: Origins just isn’t for you, that’s fine! That doesn’t mean you can’t still enjoy the Dragon Age media you do want to consume, and it certainly doesn’t mean you’re any less valid a fan. But I personally adore Dragon Age: Origins to this day, and I would love to see more modern gamers give it a chance, despite it being from 2009.
It’s a great introduction to the world of Thedas
Dragon Age: Origins had the tall order of being the first in a potential franchise, yet it climbed those heights and beyond. It perfectly balances the need to explain the world setting and tell a story within that world at the same time, by organizing the plot into puzzle pieces. You, the protagonist, have to recruit different factions into your cause to save the kingdom of Ferelden, so each piece of the game has a different focus on those factions. It spoon-feeds the player information at an easy to understand and absorb pace.
Dragon Age: Origins also makes good use of codex entries for those of you who are big lore buffs and want even more information. Yet at the same time, it does not overly rely on the codex; all the most crucial parts of the lore that you need to know are included in your interactions with characters and plot.
The player gets to shape the story
The nature of those puzzle pieces also means that you have huge control over the story from start to finish, because the puzzle itself is shaped by you! The outcomes of each piece form the blueprint of the climax. The end of the game is reactive to the choices you make in the story throughout. (Mind you, a lot of those choices have been retconned in later games, but still, within the confines of Dragon Age: Origins itself, it’s still fun to see the outcomes of your decisions.)
The story itself is great
I would consider Dragon Age: Origins to have the most straightforward premise of all the Dragon Age games released thus far, with a strong identity linking the different main quests all together. You are a newly recruited Grey Warden, left to unite Ferelden against the big bad Blight after 99% of the Order within the nation is wiped out in a catastrophic battle. You may get caught up in dwarven politics, ancient curses, demonic possession, and plenty more along the way, but no matter where you find yourself, your motivation always falls back to that ultimate responsibility.
The characters are also great
Almost all the companions you’re able to collect along the way are very easy to love, or at least appreciate them for what they are.
Alistair is also a new grey warden. He is struggling with grief over the loss of his mentor, and the weight of having no control over his identity his whole life.
Morrigan is a witch who grew up isolated in the woods with no one but her abusive mother for company. Now she must learn to interact with others, and dependant on the player, perhaps even make a friend, lover… or enemy.
Leliana is a bard from Orlais, whose faith told her to assist the grey warden plight. But beneath the demure outward appearance, she has a much darker past she’s running away from.
Sten is a Qunari warrior who was taught that outside his culture, everything is backwards and nonsense, but he cannot return home until he has restored his soul by recovering his lost sword. Along the way, he may learn to appreciate or despise Ferelden.
Zevran was enslaved by the Antivan Crows as a child and made into an assassin. If the player can chip away at his nonchalant mask, they will find his past has left a lot more scars on him than he thought it safe to admit.
Wynne is a mage from the Circle who is struggling to deal with the nature of age, death, and life purpose.
Shale is a golem who was once under complete and total control by her former master, now learning what it’s like to be free, and wanting to uncover her forgotten past before losing that freedom.
Oghren is there too, unfortunately.
And the player character really feels like they are of your own creation. The choices you make, little and small, offer a lot to shape whatever kind of protagonist you want. Additionally, the benefit of starting the game with a different origin, and playing out that origin before getting recruited into the grey wardens, offers a lot of prompting to get into the roleplay!
The datedness can be easily upgraded with modding anyway
Do you find the combat clunky? There’s mods for that. Do you find the graphics too bland? There’s mods for that. Do you wish you could kiss Alistair as a man or Morrigan as a woman? There’s mods for that, too. Dragon Age: Origins is very easy to mod; most of them you just drop the files into your override folder and start playing. Otherwise, you use the DA Modder app for DAZIP files, which is also not that complicated.
A lot of people consider Skyrim to be dated without mods, too. I personally don’t think there’s anything wrong with appreciating the ability to mod a game, as a positive point.
If you want to play, make sure you use LAA though!
Large Address Aware is a must-have on PC for Dragon Age: Origins.
For GoG or EA App/Origin users: You can just run LAA like normal!
For Steam users: You need THIS first
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Solavellan ending and why I hate it
Major Veilguard endgame spoilers under the cut.
I beat the game two days ago and I haven't been able to stop thinking about that ending. I'm not going to get into the rest of the game's flaws. They've been covered at length. But all of those issues aside, the one perfect, untouchable thing I thought I had left as the game drew to a close was the Solavellan ending. After all, Trick wrote the original Solavellan romance and the incredible continuation of it in Trespasser. As lead writer, they were directly responsible for making it happen. I thought we had this in the bag.
So on one hand, my favorite Dragon Age romance finally reunited and disintegrated off into the sunset.
On the other hand, he did not choose her.
This is what ruined it for me. I know a lot of people have issues with her sacrificing her life to join him in the Fade, but that was really a secondary issue for me.
What was the point of their entire relationship if, in the end, when it REALLY counted, he was never going to choose Lavellan over tearing down the Veil? Why did it take Mythal, who he actually killed in the last game in order to take her power, to convince him? Where's the romance in that?
This literally just turned into the story of Lavellan and the elven god who did not love her enough.
Okay, yes, the gamified reason it takes Mythal to convince him is because Lavellan was tacked onto an existing avenue of dealing with Solas rather than being given her own separate option, right? At the end of the game you have the choice to either fight him, trick him, or (if the Mythal-related criteria is met) invoke the essence of Mythal contained in the statue. No Bring Out The Big Guns, Lavellan option.
In my opinion, she should have been the fourth option, only available to players that have an Inquisitor that romanced Solas and encouraged Lavellan to reunite with him mid-game. It would have required about as much effort to do this as it did to have him turn her down once again (which, I maintain defeats the entire purpose of the story being told here). That would have been the absolute easiest fix to this fucking mess.
I understand why Lavellan wasn't counted among his regrets and therefore wasn't in the Lighthouse murals (because he doesn't actually regret falling in love with her) and I acknowledge that getting real closure from Mythal is important to Solas's story, and that it did have its place in that ending scene. Whether she was a lover or a mother to him isn't really the issue here -- it's the fact that she holds sway over him where Lavellan apparently does not. Despite the fact that, again, he killed Mythal in the previous game, despite the fact that he couldn't bring himself to kill the Inquisitor for the anchor, despite the fact that Lavellan was the one single thing in the world that made him really want to walk away from his plans.
(Why wasn't the "I release you from my service" a conversation had between him and Flemythal back in Inquisition? And why is that essence of Flemythal (who now exists in Morrigan) suddenly so chill and pro-Veil? Do we not remember the reckoning that will shake the very heavens? The She was betrayed as I was betrayed, as the world was betrayed? I will see her avenged? No payoff? None? There's so much wrong and bad writing to unpack there, but this is still a Solavellan post.)
Back to him wanting to turn away from his grand plan. The fundamental difference between Mythal and Lavellan, in my opinion, is the way each of them saw him. Mythal asked him to change for her, to leave the Fade, to commit atrocities with her out of love and service. Lavellan only ever loved him as a man, never once asking him to change for her, never asking him to be anything other than himself. In the time they were together, he was able to be the person he wanted to be. It took a very specific set of circumstances and a very specific person that had to fall into place for that romance to happen, which is arguably what made her so special, and what made their time together even more so. It followed, especially with what we know now, that he would want to drop his grand plan to be with her.
In comes Veilguard, which introduced a parallel between Solas/Mythal and Solavellan. In the second memory, we discover that Mythal never once chose Solas over her duty to elvhenan (even when he begged her to lay it down and run away with him) and dragged him along with her to commit unspeakable atrocities (in her words, she broke him). Solas (at that point in the game, when we were witnessing the memories) had yet to choose Lavellan over his crusade, but quite literally loved her too much to bring her along with him. He would not let her do that to herself, he would not do to her what Mythal did to him.
Here's where I feel like I'm losing my mind, because I thought the point of that mural was to foreshadow him eventually choosing Lavellan, as he is very much not Mythal, and is very much looking for a reason to lay it down, to be proven wrong. I also thought the blurb in the Inquisitor character creation menu (who did you romance) was foreshadowing it, as well as the mid-game choice Rook can make to encourage her to reunite with him and change his heart.
So why didn't it happen? I can only assume because they didn't actually want to have any of our choices carry over, let alone the Solavellan option (which they should have realized from the start was a bad call and also fucking impossible to manage given that the game is a direct sequel to Inquisition). The fact that Lavellan is tacked onto an already existing scene rather than being given her own is evidence of this. However, even if she had to be tacked onto the Mythal scene and not given her own, a simple reordering of the events would have fixed the fucking ending. So it could have gone two (very easily manageable and not too much extra) ways:
Remove the part where he turns her down. Remove the entire thing. Morrimythal could have flown up to him before the Inquisitor even arrived on scene, we could have had our statue moment, and just when he thinks he's going to be all alone behind the Veil, Lavellan shows up, they reunite, and she goes with him. (Easiest way for Bioware to fix it imo)
Lav acts as the ace up our sleeve, a fourth option (and a second option to make him lay it down) instead of using the statue to redeem him. Mythal releases him from her service AFTER he chooses Lavellan, thereby releasing him from his guilt over her. I prefer this one. It should have been this. They could have walked away, they could have tied themselves to the Veil, either way works.
Now, I am among those that think the Veil should have come down, which would have rendered this entire thing moot, had it happened. But since Bioware is dead-set on maintaining the status quo in Thedas, it should have been this instead.
In writing this I wonder if I've been completely delusional over their relationship, but going by the reactions to this ending, it seems that what we got was not at all expected.
#veilguard spoilers#solavellan#solas#inquisitor lavellan#lavellan#dav spoilers#datv spoilers#bioware critical#dragon age#dragon age critical
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Ok, even I can't defend the three choices bs explained with a "Southern Thedas is an entirely different region and it's not relevant to what we want to show in the game."
Like. Ok, fine, there was a timeskip, you can either kill or not recruit half of the characters, they realistically wouldn't have been able to flesh out every choice since Origins, even though they kinda have to account for it still at least with Morrigan and maybe Alistair, etc etc.
Inquisition being this irrelevant though? The most recent one Veilguard is supposed to be a sequel to? The foundation of its plot? I know they're trying to appeal to new players, but that's a shitty decision to begin with, and would you look at that, so far it appeals to no one other than old players who love these games for the world and the story already. Honestly, they should've just called it Dragon Age 4 and sticked to making it a proper sequel where at the very least Inquisition matters as much as it was presented in Trespasser, or, alternatively, stick to "Dreadwolf" and stop pretending that this game isn't exclusively for new people and solavellan fans with everybody else being an afterthought in Bioware's very expensive fanfic.
Whatever these 100 gigs of the game even are have to be amazing now, new companions, quests and characters from the books should be godlike to make up for basically discarding 10 years of world states of the players who sticked around to even care about Veilguard, because clearly no one else does.
#dragon age the veilguard#datv spoilers#datv#dav#bioware critical#dragon age#I'm a huge veilguard apologist but this particular decision is just pure bullshit#i can get behind a lot of things in these games in general too#this here just feels bad
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I just find it strange that the developers chose to rewrite Wyll. I love new Wyll I think he's fantastic and I don't necessarily want the previous version. But I find it bizarre that there was somehow so much negative feedback about old Wyll that they risked completely rewriting him.
Now I love all the companions. This is not Dragon Age Orgins where I debate recruiting Ogrun every time. But I just find it strange that the reason given was Wyll's negative feedback when most of the other characters have been unpopular too. Like Lae'zel is infamously unlikable to a great many people.
People love to bully Gale and there's even lines in game that call him pathetic. The DEV's in the IGN interview even agreed that Gale killing himself can be a good ending, " I really liked Gale setting off the bomb with the brain, and actually that felt like the right ending to me.
AS: In many ways it is, yeah." Which feels problematic to say the least, like I get supporting player choices but suicide is never the "right" way to do things.
Or even I'm pretty sure I remember Neil Newbon talking about how he was sure a lot of players had killed Astarion permanently in their playthroughs.
Then there are people being absolute freaks on the internet about Halsin all because he's polyamorous.
Like these characters are wildly popular too but they certainly have their haters. So why did they lack such confidence with Wyll? The best source I could find on early access Wyll is this article https://gamerant.com/baldurs-gate-3-wyll-early-access-story-change-karlach-explained/. It says that this change was made to make his story stronger, make him more unique, and give him more complicated emotional ties. Unless he was really basic before they did not accomplish this. He has less content so his story lacks the depth the other's do. It's also inconsistent, with you being able to put him off being a duke by telling him he'll be too power hungry which he has never been. His emotional ties are rushed. He never really confronts his father, having the tadpole do most of the work and never hashing out his feelings beyond that he's fine.
It wasn't supposed to be this way. According to the article he was meant to have a dark side like Shadowheart "According to the panel, depending on whether players allow him to go through with killing Karlach, he will become a radically different companion instead of if she is recruited." Which would have been cool but if they didn't have enough time to do that maybe they should have tweaked what they had.
Plus, according to the article in early access he was "a straightforward hero who develops a violent side regarding his patron or goblins." This article too show's that his early approval matches current Wyll pretty well except for dealing with Aunty Ethel and more goblin hate https://fextralife.com/baldurs-gate-3-early-access-companions-guide-wyll/.
I just don't know I just find it so frustrating that it was the black main character they chose to tweak and ran out of time to complete his story and still haven't fixed it with a patch. And in the IGN interview the devs kind of sounded like there wouldn't be anymore patches and it's just frustrating. Wyll deserves just as much content as any one else.
#dnd#bg3#balders gate 3#baldurs gate#bg3 wyll#wyll#wyll ravengard#myanalysis#larian pls#larian critical#larian why#bg3 meta
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Not to keep yapping about my thoughts, but, to throw some actual comfort into the angst. Prev post 1 Prev post 2
I don’t think Dragon could ever stop caring about Crocodile. Partly because of his guilt and shame, but also I think after a while he starts to realize he loved Crocodile for more than the escapism he offered. I don’t think he could after forget that. But he would probably resign himself to “Crocodile hates me, I’ve hurt him enough. He’s living a different life now. I can’t disturb that, I have no right to.” So just accepts he lost Crocodile and his chance at a family.
So I think Dragon would be more than willing to start a healing journey with Crocodile. But it’s all up to Crocodile whether it happens. Crocodile has a lot of pain to process and heal from. He has a lot of things he has to change his perspective on. He needs to see Dragon is willing and able to take accountability.
I truly think Marineford changed everything. I think it would have give Crocodile a new opportunity to really grow, and unpack his past. To finally truly heal instead of running away from and ignoring it. To see his baby.
I am really unsure how much Crocodile ever let himself truly feel, he probably just coped with it all through anger and shame. Never really wanted to process or understand, just push away and forget. I do also think no matter how much he shames himself for it, I can see him still admiring Dragon or at least not forgetting those cold quiet nights of them being together, loving each other.
So Crocodile has his heart-to-heart with Iva after Marineford. Iva punishes Dragon for his past choices. After sometime of them both moping, Iva suggests that it might be helpful if they both start talking. It doesn’t even have to be about any of the past. Just a simple, how are you. And if that can be good, maybe they can both finally address everything together. Iva probably has to take up the role as mediator, as he sees both sides and knows this can be good for them. Looking over Dragon’s shoulder, making sure he’s behaving.
It's definitely going to be a long, exhausting time before anything is truly better. But I can see them working it out. I’m sure Crocodile would be anxious to EVER make an intimate promise like before. So I don’t see it happening unless he can truly heal, and it’s what he wants and things will be good for him.
I don’t think Dragon would try to initiate any sort of like “hey I think we should talk again, or be partners again.” As that’s not really his call. Crocodile needs to feel he’s respected and in control here to build back trust. So I think Dragon would be pleased with anything Crocodile is wiling to give him. Whether that’s with the label “Partners” or not. I can definitely see them working something out.
(But I can def see them having long nice calls of just taking and being in each other presence. And or meeting up occasionally, and just fucking LOL!!)
Yeah, I think the perspective that distance and age brings might take some of the edge off of Crocodile's anger. He might be more understanding of what both of them got out of the relationship and he might also come to understand just how vital it to stay dedicated if you're leading an entire (sort of secret) organization. He understands how some things, even the most important and most precious things, will have to wait. Because they could wait, no matter how much it sucked to be pregnant and alone there weren't the lives of thousands at stake. (Crocodile was probably also isolated with only the midwife there to keep him infrequent, professional "company". Of course he withdraws into himself and stews in all the discomfort and loneliness and bitterness). But Dragon could not communicate that and Crocodile could not see it.
He does now. And maybe he does at times wonder how it would have been if they had overcome that. Because he did feel good with Dragon before everything crashed and burned around them.
But Marineford tore up a lot of wounds and despite it all, how is he able to cope with the choice Dragon made? A dead baby might have been a loss to put behind them and eventually move on. But a very much alive baby, that lie, the abandonment of it to the whims of Garp and Mountain Bandits?
The talking with Iva there as mediator would definitely help (especially since Iva will just be obnoxious and push and not let them sit on their resentments. He needs Dragon focused and it's in Crocodile's best interest to also figure this out.)
But yessss, phone calls and conversations and fucking. Hey, they've got a lot of pent up energy. And both of them probably haven't gotten laid in years. What's the worst that could happen?
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talkn bout my opinions on rook and varric and roleplay and feeling disconnected (roleplay in a game sense not the freaky sense. sorry) - SPOILERS FOR ENTIRE GAME, BEWARE. this post is WAY too long. sorry about that too.
it's very evident that bioware/EA wanted an action/adventure game first and an RPG second, but let me type at you.
i hate to say that i didn't feel particularly sad about varric's fate, due to the structure of the game. it is, in hindsight, completely obvious that he was not alive! i just hadn't been thinking about varric much at all the entire game because you have limited opportunity to talk to him in the infirmary or when he plops around barefoot when everyone decides to sit at a table and talk about how fucked we are. i genuinely forgot he was there otherwise.
he barely feels like a guy himself. because there's no personalized worldstate, any specific mentions to events or characters might be jarring to the player who may have made a different choice along the way.
no one talks about how sorry they are about varric because they CAN'T or the twist is completely revealed. even with another DA2 character in the game (who my hawke romanced. who is now dead in the fade. glad to see you're LIVING IT UP ISABELA!!! (I'm jk. a little.))
there's no response rook can say to condolences outside of "oh, thanks" without the game fully revealing its Twist, because "I'll tell him you said hi" and "he'll be up and walking in no time!" are only reasonable responses from a Mourn Watcher, and even then, should still cause your companions to be a little alarmed. the closest we get to this is the inquisitor making reference to lost friends, and rook visually registers it, but its swept under the rug and moved on from immediately.
(i know we're all mentally unwell in this lighthouse repressing our feelings but jesus christ)
despite spending two games with him and enjoying him as a character, I struggle with feeling much for his loss AS my rook, because i found there to be no meaningful connection between him and rook. i was only told i was supposed to have one.
the game wanted so badly get the ball rolling with an immediate threat, its at the expense of roleplay. you could argue that da2 and inq also started with Immediate Threats but you are also very limited in the choosing of your backstory in those games.
rook was deliberately designed to be more open-ended, with more similarity to origins, but still gave you a prequel where you felt what your life was before The World Began To End.
there's this conversation you can walk in on with lucanis and davrin, where they're talking about their worst jobs. there are three dialogue for rook I think and i can only remember two but they were "I don't want to talk about it" or "man I have the dreadwolf in my head". (I... honestly think the third option was very similar to the second one but I have a very bad memory. sorry)
i played a mourn watcher mage. i had to have done some messed up spirit stuff. some bone shenanigans. not able to mention my Down With Nobles rebellion at all. i halfway expected it to be revealed that my rook was just like a shitty pawn (haha) and actually all her memories are fake and not real. but obviously you meet people from your shared backstory and they do know OF you but they don't really know you
in mass effect 1, there were some unique missions related to both the backstory and psychological profile you picked for shepard. they were short, and nothing happens like that in 2+3 that i remember, but they are unique to your character and are something at least.
no one really asks you much more about yourself! mourn watcher rook is literally Found In The Crypts as an Infant, an incredible mystery that you have to fill in the blanks yourself, which could be something someone wants-- but i personally like my characters a little more predefined in a game such as dragon age. vague history worked for me in games like skyrim and fallout new vegas, even baldurs gate! but makes me feel wholly disconnected from the story and group here.
there was a fair amount of dialogue choices for mourn watcher, especially with Emmrich-- talking with emmrich was one of the few times my rook felt like A Person-- but there were other times that my companions seemed to think emmrich was the only necromancer/watcher on the team. (i even specialized in death caller!)
by containing all the dialogue with companions to ! markers and outings, it's weird to be unable to have any conversations without being able to provide personal insight, whereas some NPCs in inquisition actively asked you about your past.
its particularly noticeable because of lucanis, whom my rook romanced. the dude has a lot to say about nevarran culture and the necropolis and such, and we can have zero conversations on the matter lol.
maybe this is like, really a mourn watcher thing? maybe it feels better as a crow or a warden. but if you offer me the choice to be a freak crawling around in a tomb. i am going to be.
TLDR: i really feel that a prequel mission, a recruitment by varric then a timeskip, a personal quest tied to the consequences of your backstory, something, anything, to make rook feel like an actual part of the world, was a necessity and sincerely a missed opportunity. if you actually read this far, thanks!
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HLC ROMANCE — WHAT WE DESERVED
Ominis Gaunt — Head Empty, Thoughts
This has been requested by the lovely @tinaexe and obviously NEEDED! Like the Sebastian one, I feel like as a fellow BioWare fanatic — romance is my forte, in games! Ominis is a little harder as most will be based on what if’s, as unlike Seb, we don’t fully get a developed relationship with him in the game. (We kind of are friends at the end?) So because of this, we only truly see him expanded through Seb’s quest line.
So, let us begin at the beginning:
If you decide to be in Slytherin, you meet Ominis in the Common Room. I actually really love this interaction! I think it’s a nice way to set him up as a character, but would have loved more dialogue options — a big thing the game failed on. I understand it wasn’t their aim, but more dialogue, more choice, would make relationships develop more and make your own character feel more real. I think the only bad thing about this interaction, is that he is too sweet straight away (HERE ME OUT LOL) Ominis comes off as someone who is very picky with his friends, I would have loved to have him more indifferent here — just for a lovely enemies to lovers type thing. Think Morrigan from DAO but more tame…way more tame lmao. (This is just me, tbh it fits his character that he’s kind. I also like the idea that he’s extra kind because of how he grew up — but easily snaps if upset) If you aren’t meeting him here, it would also be DADA! I like the idea that he would make fun of Sebastian losing here, perfect opportunity for romance points — the curiosity of you beating Sebastian would win points with him for sure. Flirty-ish dialogue could be added here!
Now, I’ll do gifts first this time — mainly because we don’t really spend any time with Ominis lmao, so from here, apart from some quests like the scriptorium etc will be my interpretation! With gifts for Ominis! I like the idea of him being a sweet tooth, so the idea of being able to buy sweets from Honeydukes would have been so neat for this. (This would the small relationship point add on.) for bigger gifts, I like the idea of him being into more refined artefacts! Like interesting things you find on your journeys. Think:
Sculptures/art type stuff: x20 romance points
Flowers: x10 romance points
just for fun lmao — dark magic artefacts: -30x romance points
Unlike Seb, Ominis should be harder to romance! I stand by the idea, that he is hesitant and feels more complicated when it comes to love. Considering his upbringing, bringing down the walls is the first step! This is where more dialogue plays into part, remembering things that are brought up later — a big bonus to romance points!
Now interesting idea, re-meeting Ominis in Hogsmeade! I think with an Ominis romance for it to work alongside the plot — it would be mostly through Sebastian. (Drama for all those that love both — me everyday battling my inner demon of wishing to romance anyone else, but Alistair in DAO!) I like the idea of him interrupting your visit with Sebastian and perhaps helping alongside you and Sebastian with the troll! Would have been really neat to see more action from him. Flirty dialogue could be added, but it would be met with a flustered/confused Ominis.
This is where we linger from the quest line a bit, because well let’s be honest, Sebastian would never let Ominis know he’s taking you to the restricted section. So, this is where I kind of make it up. I think a small quest would work here with Ominis OR simply another one on one conversation. This could be where you learn a little more about him, if you picked the right dialogue OR you could upset him. I think a big part of this game would have benefited with a main character that had more choice. Even in Mass Effect you get two options, sometimes three — same with Dragon Age Inquisition, but the main character still feels more real, simply because of the choices! A quest for Ominis here, could be anything really, maybe he’s in the library and needs help with something or you find him in the DADA tower needing help etc.
Undercroft, baby! Here is the thing, I love the idea of Sebastian still taking you here — but like Sebastian’s one, Ominis should have caught you in the act! I would have loved to have him pissed off and you have to work your way out, but actually getting the chance, rather than him automatically not believing you or giving a shit. This would be the first instance of where romance points matter, if you have enough he apologises and takes it out on Sebastian, if you don’t, he takes it out on the both of you and is grumpy.
Scriptorium. This is the quest. I would feel like this is the major quest to determine whether you are locked into a romance arc with Ominis and I could even agree that this would be where you’d lock in either of the boys! I’d like to think that this quest should have had more chances to side with either boy, depending on who you wanted and what you believed. It needed more banter, comforting dialogue where you could commend Ominis for helping you both and it would have been perfect for flirty dialogue — making him all flushed and shy. This would also be where he starts to see you as something more, if you pick the right dialogue. Perfect opportunity for Ominis to take care of you when Sebastian crucio’s your ass.
Relic moment. OKAY! Here would have been so perfect to show that your romance points mattered. Imagine that depending on how you’ve interacted so far, it would determine if he would trust you or not. He was too trusting at this point, TBH. He knows how Sebastian is, not you and so this felt a little strange to me. So the idea, that at this point your romance points mattered, to determine if you had to curse him would be HUGE. Because if you had to curse him, I’d love to see it be a huge factor that he can’t be end goal. By this point, I think you also have to be completely against dark magic and Sebastian using it. This would be big points for Ominis’ romance.
Conversation about Sebastian it’s Ominis! Worried! You express what is going on, the mine situation etc. This would be where Ominis is more shy and clear with his feelings without actually telling you, if your romance points are high enough. A gift from him? A ROSE?
Solomon quest, rip. Ominis would need you to be fully on his side here. You would need to have the opportunity to support him in this and with dialogue omg I hate it. Still agree with being able to stop Sebastian, having enough romance points with Sebastian, to the point of stopping him before he does anything — would tie into if you could complete Ominis’ romance. I like the idea that they tie in together here and you had to have thought about both throughout. Ominis and Sebastian are practically brothers, so it makes sense.
THE ENDING: You could only get a good ending IF you save Sebastian, I just think it’s very fitting. If you can stop Sebastian, I feel like Ominis can really open up. If you don’t I think he would be toooo heartbroken for a romance. If you succeed, you get the kiss and hug scene and he shows his appreciation for you — thanking you for being there for him RIPP
Bonus: Winter Ball like Sebastian — only agreeing to go with you if romance points are high enough. ALSO, I like the idea of a moment to stick up for him or he sticks up for you. BECAUSE CUTE.
I might have missed stuff and more definitely could be added, but this is the basic romance plot line — that could have worked. We just needed more dialogue, more options and more quests for him!
#hogwarts legacy#ominis gaunt#hogwarts#ominis x reader#ominis gaunt x y/n#ominis x you#ominis x mc#ominis hogwarts legacy#hogwarts legacy ominis#ominis imagine#ominis#hogwarts legacy mc#ominis gaunt x you#ominis gaunt x mc#ominis gaunt headcanon#ominis gaunt x reader
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You know a TMNT Character I wanna see again who hasn't appeared in a LONG time?
Robyn O'Neil, April O'Neil's older sister!
And oh boy does ya girl have IDEAS!!
Appearance
Since April's color is yellow (with green at times) in most of her appearances, I think Robyn's color should be Cherry Blossom Pink (maybe with a bluish green?). That way both sisters can wear light colors.
Hairstyles, only two opinions for now (if you wanna go with Irish-American or African-American). I am opened to more ideas.
Clothes, a couple of casual and formal styles.
Personality
Her original on is "She's an outgoing but somewhat unorganized and irresponsible woman"
Of course I'm changing that!
She's over protective, but it comes across as bossy. She's still out going, but this encourages her to work harder than she needs to.
She's also incredibly brave and daring when she need to get stuff done.
Interests
She has many hobbies. Drawing/Painting, Fashion Designing, Sewing, Cooking, Dancing, Origami, Parkour, Doing Gymnastics, and Martial Arts.
Ninja Weapon of Choice
I can totally see Robyn's weapon being the Su Yari
Story (Warning: ANGST!)
Robyn is April's 16 year old sister (April's 14). It's been just the two of them when Mr and Mrs. O'Neil died when Robyn was 14 and April was 12 after Purple Dragon thugs broke into their home.
Ever since then, Robyn's been taking small job to support the two of them.
Since the Landlord of the Apartment they lived in is good friends with the O'Neil family, they let the two girls stay there, so they won't be separated through foster care.
The Landlord didn't want Robyn to pay rent, but she insisted and hasn't missed a payment yet.
A year after losing their parents, Robyn would go to work after school, unaware that April was making utterly interesting friends.
Of course Robyn would know of April's new friends because she always talks about the five teens and their father.
Not bringing up that that the four boys are mutant turtles, Mr. Hamato's a mutant, and Karai's the only one who is human.
Robyn doesn't meet the Turtles and Karai until she's leaving her job at the local Pizzeria. When Purple Dragon thugs try to mug her.
She able to hold her own again two of them, but that's when the other three try to jump her.
Robyn's shocked when a girl who looks like she could be April's age comes to her aid by jump from the sky and kicking the thug behind her to the ground.
An even bigger surprise came when a human sized turtle with a blue mask also jumps from the sky and takes out the the remaining two.
Robyn can't help but react with shock.
"Oh my god, those sightings of large turtles is actually true!"
"This is my brother Leonardo. And I'm Karai. April's gonna be so glad that you're okay, Robyn."
"You're April's friends?!"
"Well I ruined the surprise. Got anything to say Leo or are you just gonna stare at girl-"
"IT'SNICETOOFFICIALLYMEETYOU!"
Realizing he said that quite loudly, Leo quickly recovered his composure, almost as if he's trying to ask cool.
"We should regroup with the others."
"Are you trying to make your voice sound deeper-"
"Let’s go Karai!"
Robyn manages to stop the two 14 year olds from leaving.
"I'm going with you. My sister's got alot of explaining to do."
"Oh! Okay!"
"They're not that far from us actually."
As the three of them walked, Robyn has been questioning the two.
"So you've known my sister for over a year and this wasn't the first time you've stepped in to help me?"
"Yeah, every night when we go to play basketball, April asks two of us make sure you get home safe."
Robyn couldn't help but sigh.
"Of course she would..."
"Yeah, this was just the first time you've caught us. I'm honestly shocked that I jumped in before Leo considering-"
"Oh look! The others are up ahead!"
After five minutes Robyn, Karai and Leonardo got to April and the other mutant turtles.
"April O'Neil, explain now!"
"I will, but first I see you've met Karai and Leonardo!"
"H-hi..."
"Really Leo? That's all you could come up with?"
"These three are Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo,"
"It’s nice to meet you all. Karai told me how you made sure I left work safely, thank you."
"Nice to meet ya."
"I can wait to show you my comic books!"
"Calm down Mikey, don't overwhelm her."
"Well Robyn O'Neil, it is nice to officially meet you."
"Good work Leo, you got a sentence out!"
"Shut up Raph!"
And that's when Robyn O'Neil became a friend and allie of the TMNT along with April.
She often considers it to be better than dealing with High School drama.
Especially when it comes to dealing with her ex boyfriend Colin and the three Dalindas; Akane, Kendra and Taylor.
But she has her friends Angel and Irma there to make it more bearable.
Relationships
Family
April
Robyn loves her little sister very much and is very protective of her. She goes out of her way to work hard and make sure April's able to life comfortably.
April often has to remind Robyn that she has to take care of herself as well.
When April decides to become a Kunoichi, Robyn insists on becoming on too, to be sure she can have April's back no matter the situation.
When April shows interest in journalism, Robyn's of course incredibly supportive.
Friends
Irma and Angel
Irma and Angel have been friends with Robyn ever since the three were little kids.
The two were even there to comfort Robyn and April when they lost their parents.
She couldn't keep the fact that she met the Turtles a secret from the two, especially since it was Irma's sighting photos that made her aware of them in the first place.
Karai
Robyn and Karai are quite close. Karai will often ask Robyn for older sister advice.
When Robyn becomes a Kunoichi, Karai makes sure she's the first to spare with her.
Karai loves it when Robyn makes her outfits.
Karai is often invited to the girls only sleepovers at Robyn and April's place.
Leonardo (Leo)
Leo has a not so secret crush on Robyn. While Robyn is the only person unaware of his feelings, she does respect Leo as a Ninja.
Because of Leo being April's age (two years younger than Robyn), she's very protective of him and the others.
Leo's also quite protective of Robyn as well. Even after she becomes a Kunoichi. She has to call him out when he goes easy on her during sparing sessions.
As a young teen (14-15) Leo's really shy about his crush on Robyn, but as he gets abit older (16-17) he begins to playfully flirt with her.
Some of the many things Leo likes about Robyn are her determination, bravery, kindness, and understanding.
Raphael (Raph)
Robyn and Raph become quite close. When she finds out he's secretly great at knitting, she gets him supplies whenever she can.
Raph is quite a fan of Robyn's artwork. When she finds this out, she draws some pictures for him and encourages him to ask for more if he wants
Raph often vents to Robyn whenever his brothers tease him.
When Raph decides to become Nightwatcher, Robyn's the only one he tells about it.
Donatello (Donnie)
Donnie and Robyn become fast friends quickly due to them both being very hard working.
The two are excited when finding out they have favorite Anime in common.
Robyn often sneaks Donnie into her High School, just cause he wanted to see it.
When Donnie creates the Turtle Tank, he gets Robyn (when she gets her driver's license) to save it, to make sure it isn't crashed. Donnie even makes sure he's the first one Robyn teaches how to drive.
Michelangelo (Mikey)
Robyn gets along quite well with Mikey. When she's stressed, he tries his hardest to make her laugh (and is often successful).
When Mikey loves her cooking, she happily teaches him how to make the dishes himself.
Mikey loves it when Robyn plays video games and reads comic books with him.
The two absolutely adore each other's artwork.
Master Splinter
Robyn respects Splinter very much, he respects her as well for not only taking care of April for as long as she has been, but also becoming a sorta older sister figure to his sons.
When Robyn decides to become a Kunoichi, she encourages Splinter to train her harder than the others because she's older, buy he refuses.
The two often share tea recipes whenever they can.
They even like to make origami flowers together.
Jason (Jase)
Even though Jase's older sister is Kendra (one of the three Dalindas), Robyn has no ill will towards the 14 year old.
When Donnie and Jase develop feelings for each other, she's so supportive and tries to set the two up on little dates they'd be comfortable with.
Mona Lisa
After their first encounter, Robyn and Mona Lisa don't like each other at first due to a fight they had when Mona Lisa came to earth.
Later on Robyn becomes friends with the alien Warrior Princess.
She's quick to notice Mona Lisa and Raph developing crushes on each other.
Renet
When Renet comes from a portal with no way back to her home, Robyn takes her in without a second thought.
Robyn becomes quite close with Renet very quickly.
When Renet comes really close with Mikey, Robyn's over the moon.
Shinigami
When a 14 year old Shinigami was one of Shredder's minions, Robyn aided the Turtles, Karai and April in some of their fights against her. Robyn was quite hesitant to find her at first.
After Shinigami finds out that Shredder was just using her for her magical abilities, she leaves and finds her way to Robyn's place of work and begs her for help.
Robyn quickly takes the young girl in of course.
When Karai and Shinigami begin to develop crushes on each other, Robyn's shipping them so hard!
Casey
Like Shinigami, a then 15 year old Casey was a minion of Shredder's who was often sent out to fight the turtles, Karai, April and Robyn.
When he finds out that Shredder was actually the one who had the Purple Dragons kill his mother and little sister, he obviously betrayed him and left.
Robyn tries find Casey a please to leave, but he refuses her help. While it does like a while to trust him, but when he earns her trust, the two become friends.
When April starts to develop a crush on Casey, Robyn teases her a little, but is also very supportive.
Venus (Vee) & Jennika (Jenn)
Vee and Jenn are mutant turtles of The Shredder's creation. When Robyn sees that Shredder went as far as to create child soldiers, her heart arches for the two small girls.
When the TMNT Team save the twins, Robyn wants to take them in, but knew the two would be better off leaving with the Hamato family.
Enemies
Colin
Despite not dating for that long (2 and a half month during Freshman Year) Robyn and Colin didn't break up on the best terms.
The Shredder
While Robyn is terrified of The Shredder, she will help the TMNT Team fight him whenever she can.
The Purple Dragons
Robyn wanted to avenge her parents by going after the group on her own. Of course, the team manages to talk her outta of it, promising that they will all bring the Purple Dragons to justice.
The Three Dalindas
Due to the Three Dalindas being spoiled with the money the Purple Dragons take from hardworking people, Robyn doesn't like trio very much.
Akane
When there’s a fight involving the Team and Shredder's minions, Robyn often ends up fighting against Akane. Robyn is disgusted by how much Akane worships The Shredder. Every time Robyn bests her in battle, Akane makes sure to glare at her during school hours.
Kendra
Kendra purposefully tries to antagonize Robyn by pretending not to know her name (they've been classmates since middle school), but Robyn does stick around long enough to care, which infuriates Kendra.
Taylor
Robyn hates how much Taylor flaunts her (purple dragon crime) money. While Robyn doesn't wanna deal with Taylor at all, Taylor is an envy-seeker and is annoyed when Robyn doesn't react the way she wants her to.
What do you guys think? I'm open to more ideas.
#Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles#TMNT#Robyn O'Neil#Series Ideas#Leonardo Hamato#Leo Hamato#Raphael Hamato#Raph Hamato#Donatello Hamato#Donnie Hamato#Michelangelo Hamato#Mikey Hamato#Master Splinter#April O'Neil
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Phoenixeclipse Pirate AU - Mk's Adventure Chapter 5 - Ao Mei Joins The Brotherhood
Ao Mei won’t loose her best friend so she convinces The Captians of the Brotherhood to allow her to join the crew with MK.
Mk had just jumped in front of his brand-new Captain so he was staring Mei in the eyes. Her gaze was filled with anger, with pure fury at the mere thought of him abandoning her for these two. Her teeth were gritting together in a way that irritated Mk’s ears as she glared at both him and the two behind him, more so the two behind him.
“Okay, there is no need for such hostility,” MK tried to calm her down with a grin.
This was a very delicate situation; his idols were here as well as his family. He didn’t want them to fight especially knowing that Mei wouldn’t be able to stand a candle to either of them. The two Monkey Kings had years of training, and experience ahead of her by a long shot. Hell, they were probably around his own mother’s age if not older.
“They are trying to kidnap you!” Mei yelled her eyes flashing green as she lifted her sword, pointing it towards the monkey kings.
“MEI!” Mk shouted fearfully as he jumped between the blade and the monkey kings.
“Who do you think you are little girl?” Macaque asked slowly, his gaze flickering between the boy and girl in front of him. ‘She has spunk and she seems close with him.’ A smirk threatened to form on his face.
“Kidnap me!? They gave me a choice!” Mk shouted back, hoping to convince his friend to put her sword down.
Mei stared at the monkey trio in front of her. Her eyes still glowing dangerously as she gritted her teeth, her best friend was about to leave, her brother was about to leave. No, she was not going to let him leave without her.
“Take me too,” Her words caused MK to freeze up, his eyes widening.
“WHAT!?” Pigsy shouted in shock.
“MEI!?” Tang yelled, unsurprised but wishing everything that was going on was wrong.
“Take you too? And why should we do that?” Wukong asked, his eyes narrowing as he crossed his arms over his chest.
“MK is my best friend, I won’t let him go on some awesome adventure without me,” She responded confidently fully aware that the six eared monkey demon was looking her up and down as if assessing her.
“What do you think? Should we allow this dragon girl to join our crew?” Wukong asked a smirk soon playing across his face.
Macaque allowed his smirk to cover his face. She was a brave young woman or possibly just stupid but the loyalty she showed to Mk made him think about what to do. If most people pointed their sword towards the monkey kings, they would have been dead by now. However, MK was standing right there and clearly cared for the girl so that wouldn’t work well at all.
His ears fluttered for a second when suddenly he took a step to the side. In a mere few seconds, a flash of blue landed onto the ship. Azure Lion had chosen to join the conversation it seems. The lion stood to his full height with a bored look on his face. Everyone on the ship quickly turned to the large demon who had joined in uninvited. He turned to the Monkey Kings and opened his mouth to speak. Before he was able to speak Mei interrupted with a loud and confident tone.
“Let me join your crew. Me and MK are a pair! We stay together and there is no way I am going to let you take him if you don’t take me too,” She growled, the sword in her hand not moving from being pointed at the monkey demons.
“How dare you point your blade at The Captain of The Brotherhood!” Azure growled angrily.
“Stay out of this pussy cat,” Mei growled back just as angrily.
“PUSSY CAT!?” Azure shouted in shock. His eyes went wide, the dark purple shimmering in shock at the audacity of the young dragon. Her attitude reminded him so much of… Peng.
“MEI!” MK shouted at her clearly upset by the rudeness of her tone.
Howling laughter filled the air. Everyone turned to Sun Wukong who had fallen onto his back in a fit of laughter. His mate joined his laughter, clutching his stomach as he laughed. The anger and the irritation of her initial interruption had calmed down and laughter was the only thing that was heard from the two monkey demons.
MK couldn’t have been more mortified, his best friend just called Azure Lion a member of the Monkey King’s crew a pussy cat. He honestly couldn’t believe that she did, or well he could but he didn’t want to. He chanced a glance at the lion demon to see his face a dark rosy red from either embarrassment or rage he wasn’t quite sure. His lack of movement to attack made him think it was the former.
“You know what? I think I like you,” Captain Wukong said only as his laughter calmed down.
“She had wit that’s for sure,” Macaque nodded approvingly with a finger to his chin as he thought.
“You can’t possibly be thinking to allow this mortal to-,” Wukong waved Azure’s clear concerns away as he jumped to his feet and walked towards the girl, only to be blocked by her monkey demon brother.
“What are you going to do?” He asked, his golden eyes flashing dangerously but there was an underlying fear behind them.
The very thought of MK being afraid of him, had him frowning slightly. They didn’t have a plan on what they were going to do with this cub, but they wanted him to trust them. There was no reason to be afraid of them, at least he had no reason to be. MK was a monkey demon, he was safe with them. As he glanced at the dragon girl behind him, a soft smile covered his face. Oh, he was protecting his friend, of course how could he not have noticed.
“May I have both of your names?” He asked casually, dismissing the cub’s concerns.
“What?” Mei asked confused, didn’t they already know by now?
“MK, and Ao Mei,” MK responded without missing a beat. He wasn’t going to tell them his real name, or Mei’s. Not yet.
“Mei, I have a single test for you if you wish to join our crew,” Wukong smirked, it would be simple but he wasn’t going to allow someone who would only slow them down to join his crew.
He watched his mate from the side of his eye and seeing the nod of approval he turned his full attention to the Mei and MK. He made sure to keep MK in his sights, he could tell he wouldn’t leave but it was never too bad to keep him in sight. They were going to leave with the cub no matter what, if he had refused then they would have had to be a little more drastic, but since he agreed they could keep things civil.
“What do I have to do?” Mei asked, and for the first time she looked nervous doing the best she could to cover it up with her confidence.
“Hit me,” He smirked at the shocked look that spread across her face.
“Captain, what is the meaning of all of this?” Azure spoke up clearly not understanding.
He however shut up when Wukong turned to look at him with a gleam in his eye. It should have been obvious; he couldn’t kill her and she was just a child so how else was he supposed to test her? At least a test that was quick. He wanted to go back to his own ship, he wanted MK where he belonged.
“Azure please keep your mouth-,” A flash of green filled his vision as Mei slammed a fist into his shoulder, barely able to make it move.
“What the MEI!?” MK shouted in shock, stumbling from being run past so quickly.
Slowly Wukong turned his head to look at her. She attacked while he wasn’t looking, she fought dirty. Her face held a shimmer of fear in it clearly shocked that he didn’t even budge. Slowly he turned his head to look at her, their eyes met, and she jumped back in fear.
“BAHAHAHA!” Macaque’s laughter was almost worse than Wukong’s, kneeling on the ground his laughter bubbling out of his mouth.
MK jumped up and ran in between Mei and Sun Wukong again to protect her. However, to his relief the pirate captain didn’t attack like he was worried he would. Instead, a face splitting grin covered his face ear to ear. His eyes glittered with approval, rolling his shoulder to test if he felt the impact and it appeared that he did.
“You have a lot of potential girl. A sabotage was not what I expected but~ Good enough! Welcome Mei and MK to The Brotherhood Crew! Come on, let’s return to the ship,” Captain Wukong grinned joyfully, reaching his hand out for MK specifically to take.
The Monkey demon looked down at the captain’s hand and with a grin he accepted it. He was terrified of his family getting involved with this, but there was an excitement that he could never dare to deny. He couldn’t wait to start this new adventure, and it was with his best friend too. With a single glance over his shoulder, he looked at Pigsy and gave him a short nod before the shadows enveloped the teens, Azure and the two immortal monkey demons.
“NO MK! MEI!” The shouts of the merchant group were barely heard as they disappeared into the darkness, a calming warmth wrapping around the crew.
#phoenixeclipse#sun wukong x oc#dead dove do not eat#sun wukong x macaque#macaque x oc#yandere sun wukong#yandere macaque#Phoenixeclipse pirate au#lmk pirate au#lmk fanfic#lmk fanfiction#lmk Mei#Lmk Mk#Mei and MK are like siblings
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I'm having some rambly thoughts about Isgarren and Commander because I feel so many certain kinds of ways over this dialogue
Isgarren: You brought the world to the brink of ruin. Do you realize, if you hadn't killed Zhaitan... <Character name>: Do you not see what the Elder Dragons destroyed with every cycle? The lives they ruined. <Character name>: You didn't witness the terror they wrought firsthand. You hid.
Because of this dialogue.
Mabon: Isgarren is fearful of intervening with the dragons. When Sidony stopped him that night... Mabon: Mm. I remember that morning, I think. Flickers of sunrise... The carnage, revealed. Zhaitan's call. Mabon: Thankful that I don't remember the loss. I feel it, but I don't remember their faces... Should I? Mabon: Isgarren possesses an...urgency that I can't place yet. We are too weak to fight a dragon, he says, yet we fortify... Mabon: It's as if he's both wounded and killing time... Maybe I'm projecting.
And the dialogue when you talk to Isgarren himself:
"We didn't age well. And we lived a very difficult experience... Of all my thousands of years of self-reflection, I barely spent my adolescence among them. I parted from the horde after..." >...After? "We once tried to fell the dragons. The Elder Races of Tyria. The Seer doyen, Sidony, cried for war. But...just before we were to aid the mursaat in their attack on Zhaitan... Sidony decided against." "The mursaat never forgave us, and I empathized with that. They were turned to bone scraps and bile... But they would hunt us for thousands of years after. A few hundred of them, for all of us."
Just... the Commander is right to feel like Isgarren was just allowing the world below to rot and suffer at the hands of the Elder Dragons; but the Commander also doesn't know Isgarren's history. And Isgarren very much has seen the terror the dragons brought.
Isgarren wanted to go after the Mursaat and Forgotten, to help them when they faced Zhaitan. And he was made to stand down. His dialogue implies that he left the Seers not long after Zhaitan completely destroyed those who actually went to face him.
He must have known. He must have seen, because he describes it in a visceral way when he needn't have to. He knew the aftermath of this dragon tearing apart two powerful races, culling them to fractions of what they were.
And it scared him.
The fact that Mabon uses the word 'wounded' to describe what he thinks Isgarren comes across as, makes me think Isgarren was carrying a lot of guilt. Maybe not for himself, per-se, but in a vein similar to Mabon's own thoughts of Sidony:
Mabon: I was reading about Sidony in the archive—leader of the Seers during the rise against the dragons. Mabon: When he decided to pull back from the assault on Zhaitan... I wonder if he knew the consequences that would evoke? Mabon: Even if that choice was likely the wiser one... We still feel the ripples of that decision. Mabon: Most likely, we'd be dead. Maybe the mursaat wouldn't have fled, though. The Seers wouldn't have declared war.
It could have been Isgarren was feeling wounded over the fact that, perhaps, if the Seers had gone through with it, the outcome could have been different. Maybe less would have died. Maybe Zhaitan would have been killed. It wasn't likely, but it was a possibility.
And instead what they have at that point is every mursaat still alive thirsty for his blood, and likely Mabon's too, for betrayal. What they still have is an Elder Dragon that's shown them what happens when you try to fight back.
And at some point, he must have learned that the Elder Dragons were necessary to be kept alive for the magical balance of Tyria. And I think, like the Commander did, like everyone else did, it took a lot to digest and grasp.
So then they're at a point where, yeah, maybe the Ward and the Wizards might have been able to taken down the Elder Dragons... but they couldn't. They shouldn't.
And Isgarren is so old, thousands of years, that of course it was going to affect his perception of life. Mortal life, in particular. The world below could be torn apart by the dragons, but it would shape into something new. That had to be the way of things, and they had to accept that. As long as the world kept on going, that's what matters.
Focus on the outside threats, while the world remakes itself from the inside. It's the lot they have, no choice but pragmatism. Saving the world from the Elder Dragons would mean ripping it apart at the seams. The world had to suffer in order for itself to continue to exist.
So, while the Commander is justified in finding this mentality horrific, in being upset and outraged that someone so powerful never intervened in the suffering of those below, they are fundamentally wrong that Isgarren has never seen what the dragons have done to the people of Tyria.
Because, ironically, if Isgarren never had, then none of this would have existed.
If the elder races had not chosen to confront Zhaitan, the Mursaat would not have been nearly wiped out. The tensions with the Seers would not have built. The war would have never happened. Isgarren wouldn't have left the Seers. He wouldn't have met Mabon, or at least their relationship would never have been what it became in reality. He likely wouldn't have had the drive to conceptualise the Wizards and the Astral Ward.
Zhaitan's destruction, as it always would throughout history, molded so much of the world. And its impact on Isgarren led him to where he is now.
So I think, this is a time when the Commander is, albeit not without reason, the unfair party. Assuming that Isgarren does not comprehend the suffering of those below. But that's because that's what would make sense to them; they can't fathom leaving people to hurt, especially if they understand the pain themselves. And if Isgarren is supposed to be a hero, is supposed to care for Tyria and want to protect it, but ignores the biggest threat it has looming over them, then he must not actually understand the gravity of the situation.
When really, Isgarren's life has been shaped by their destruction, learned that it was a necessary evil, and has had thousands of years to come to terms with it.
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currently kinda chomping at the bit a little over two lines I found while re-reading my old Dragon Age fic notes that never ended up seeing the light of day-
"It is better to die thinking you were right, than to be faced with the wrongness of your actions."
and
"Andraste's Herald, Andraste's punishment."
and I hope against all hope that I didn't fucking doom myself to needing to make a fucked up decision in Veilguard the moment I decided that my (overall good, but impulsive, passionate, and somewhat naive) Inquisitor (who had just learned that he was used, lied to, and stabbed in the back by one he thought a good and respected friend)(and was a Reaver hopped up on a bucket of adrenaline) would stumble through that last Eluvian more or less blinded by pain, fear, and a murderous rage
like.... I'm sure he's calmed down quite a bit since then. he was barely 25 during Trespasser and will be like 33-34-ish during Veilguard, he's a whole-ass different person. he's been through the mental health ringer, a year(s?)-long obsessive chase, and an additional 5-6 years of mutual domesticity with the love of his life. surely what he once said in anger isn't reflective of his feelings now, and it isn't going to come back to bite him square in the ass.
like, he's a good, forgiving man. his judgements (all of which Solas was there to see) are evidence that he has an endless supply of second chances he isn't frugal with handing out. but for that, he needs to be able to think about it, and in that moment... oh, boy, in that moment, he was not thinking about it.
"I'm coming to stop you", in that moment, is such a perfectly Ray thing to say, I can't even bring myself to change it in my headcanon, but the closer release draws, the more anxious I get, and the more I hope that that moment's slip won't cost him his life.
(maybe I'll just headcanon in that it haunts him, too, that moment. not just in the "I should have ran him through while I still could" sense, but also in the "I shouldn't have said that- I don't know what would have been the right thing to say, but I shouldn't have said that" sense.)
(maybe he sometimes still lies awake at night, listening to Dorian's soft breathing beside him, and replays that moment over and over in his mind- but every time, he stops before he could say those words. as if to hope that if he thinks hard enough, if he's just clever enough, he can retroactively will into existence a line that'll stop all this madness before it would have ever began. as if coming up with the right words in the right sequence then and there could have convinced Solas to stop, step back, and let it all rot where it stands.)
(It's wishful thinking, but despite knowing that if it comes down to a choice, I know very well what he'll pick, god, do I hope he makes it through this alive.)
me @ my already-darling Rook right now-
#squirrel plays datv#oc: raymond trevelyan#like *fuck* yknow#he's your COUSIN (of sorts) Ver; you better fucking save him from himself#having watched Michael Bryan's stream of his first playthrough has me feeling all kinds of ways about Ray#and how different a person he's going to be; come 9:52#and how i hope he'll live to see 9:60#(oh he'd be so jazzed to see 9:69; even though he'll be like in his sixties by then and not so limber anymore)#but the more i think about it.... the less sure i am honestly#i don't wanna metagame but... shit; yknow????
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I know a lot of you aren't going to read this or care but I needed to get my thoughts about Veilguard out of my head so I can go back to just indulging with it's content without caring anymore so: Veilguard review.
Gonna keep it non-spoilery until it's not then I'll put a big ol warning there for you to swerve outta there if needed.
(warning for 4000+ words) TL;DR:
I think this may become my favorite Dragon Age game to play and I love these characters so much
This is by far one of the worst Bioware games I've ever played
Firstly and to be completely transparent, at the time of writing this I have STILL not been able to get past Lothering in Origins (my computer got worse while i was running a playthrough.). DAII was my first Dragon Age game and is my favorite of the series. Inquisition is pretty good, much better imo after some DLCs were added and it feels more like the full on epic it deserved to be I think. At the end of the day, I am a Mass Effect fan first and a Dragon Age fan sometimes. I'm also not terribly versed in every single development problem Veilguard has gone through except for the unfortunate canning of important developers and some notes from articles I spied.
So, you know, keep that in mind.
I!! wanted to start this by talking about the things I loved in the game. Because I do in fact love this game. It's just that the love gets tangled up in the things that are disappointing because I can see the big picture and see how much better it could have been and it gets wrapped up in one big ball of-not to be overly dramatic-kind of hurt? Thus me needing to talk about it so I can get back to just loving the thing and hopefully not being haunted by my regrets like it's Christmas Eve and I'm a wealthy businessman with questionable practices.
The story is pretty great and fun if you don't think about it too much but Dragon Age fans think about these sort of things a lot and if you put a little scrutiny on some of these things it's gets kinda ???? Funky.
It feels like a lot of the heavy lifting for why anybody is willing to work with you is done by Varric in whatever he was doing the past 10 years which you aren't really told. Except in half a dozen comics and books I frankly don't have the money for and should be bonus material instead of things-you-need-in-order-to-know-what's-up. Kind of spiel.
I also think a major pain point is the neigh absolute lack of contention in most areas of the game outside the bad-vs-good guy shit (and Solas) and the lack of any meaningful choice really did shoot the game in the foot. Now I do understand that choice in particular was a thing that was eventually going to get hit. There were just too many big world wide decisions you've made in the past couple of games and that shit gets kind of hard to keep track of. However, there were choices made in Veilguard that is made for the longevity of the series while also salting the earth and it severely undercut the narrative.
I think one of the things people love and adore about the series is the choices you make. Many of these aren't even about having a hold over the narrative but having a place in it. It's been a minute since I've played it, but I think even DAII has several choices that literally have no baring on anything but netting gains or loses on companions and just choose what kind of menace you're going to be. It's fun! I don't need them to be big. Maybe just if I refuse the reward or push for bigger rewards or yadda yadda yadda. It's the little things! You cannot get rid of these things entirely but boy howdy did they ever try.
I also have gripes about the choices they make you make but I can't bitch about that without spoilers so... LATER.
I wanted to talk about the lack of contention first but realistically it combos in with the choice thing so here we are talking about it after but there is just no political or social nuance in this game at all except for maybe exactly only Solas. After playing the first three games (or playing the last two and reading about Origins like me) you kinda get the impression that Northern Thedas is actually mostly fine except a little inequality and the Venatori and maaaybe the Antaam but mostly everyone's friendly and the South is just REALLY fucking violent about everything for no reason.
With the reputation grind and the narrative's insistence that you hAVE to strengthen your allies and friends this would have been kind of a great time to have quests about winning them more strength by actually kind of doing important shit? Like maybe having to make decisions about whether or not to convince factions to accept help from shady persons or forgo it knowing you'll be weaker but maintaining the faction's ethos. Maybe some negotiations between greater nevarran Mortalitasi politics and why they should let the Mourn Watch concern themselves with shit outside the Necropolis? In fighting between in-faction groups that feel one way or another about choices you've made. It all ends with them helping you in the end, just maybe not as strong or stronger but what we get is kind of some bare bones sidequests that don't always feel connected to the faction you're helping or... important?
Which I don't think I'd have a problem with if there were more of them that gave greater scope to the world but that's also not really a thing. Tbf, there's no reason to have them. You're only grinding to 50 and faction reputation and you probably wouldn't want to do all the sidquests in Inquisition to get there. I just want to have ones that matter, give more shape to the world and aren't hunt-monsters-that-aren't-even-in-this-faction's-jurisdiction. (game that simultaneously made me fall in love with Nevarra while giving me fuck all about it outside Emmrich's quests)
I think it should be noted that this is the first time we are seeing some of these people as not enemies or illusive factions from abroad.
I need you to know this is my third draft of this document and I keep having to leave and come back because I just have a lot of thoughts. So to start off with, I have to reiterate that I am a Mass Effect fan first and a Dragon Age fan sometimes. I can see Mass Effect's influence all over the game and as a Mass Effect fan I have to say: I am... upset. Which is a thing I have been planning to write about since the beginning of trying to write this document but today's dev AMA confirmed that this was supposed to be a "Love letter to Mass Effect 2" and I am no longer upset! I am LIVID.
To recap for those of you who don't care about Mass Effect but are reading this for some reason: Mass Effect 2 has one of the worst main stories in the entire series. Nothing you do actually matters in the long run because ME3 undoes all your work and everything set up for you at the beginning of ME2 you destroy yourself by the end.
Most people regard it as one of the better if not the best game in the series.
This is because the characters are fucking phenomenal and make up 90% of the game so you know this journey is about THEM who gives a shit if your mission is whatever, it's about the satisfaction of winning their loyalty, making sure they're a team so you can focus on being Big Goddamn Heroes at the end (or fucking it up and watching a few or all of them die).
This is the game that made me paranoid about doing all sidequests as soon as I got them because *I* managed to get all my companions to live BUT at the cost of my ship crew dying which I did not know was a thing that could happen and your medic's traumatized lines "I watched them die. they were processed ─ rendered down into some kind of raw genetic paste ─ and pumped through these tubes." haunts me forever. (partly because I listen to the death whispers from ME3 to feel something but nevertheless, the delivery? raw)
This may sound familiar to you if you've played Veilguard because they... tried but there's just a fundamental misunderstanding of how ME2 impacted it's players and how players impacted the world in ME2 that made it feel the way you were supposed to despite the plot being silly.
This brings me back to the lack of conflict which especially fucks over your companions and your relation to them. Yes there's like one kind of weird conflict between Davrin and Lucanis while they're going through shit and yeah Taash and Emmrich have a situation briefly but there's nowhere near the heat there has been in past games. One of your crew in DA2 will straight up tell another one that he is sad her mother died for her not because it's sad but because she's not worth dying for. And that's the game regarded as having the best found family dynamic in DA and probably a better comparison to ME2 in the regard of fighting to keep your crew together.
In ME2, what you do matters and the order you do things matter. Mass Effect has a Paragon/Renegade system which are ways you can change a scene IF you've accrued enough points in being more diplomatic or more points in being a complete asshole. Some of your companions are diametrically opposed to one another and the minute you complete both their loyalty they WILL come into confrontation and if you don't have a sufficient enough paragon or renegade score to get the appropriate response either then or after you WILL lose one of them. If you dedicate yourself to Paragon or Renegade or the other it's easy enough to get the points but if you're trying to get an optimal playthrough, doing solely paragon or renegade isn't always the best way to go.
I'm not saying I want some of your companions to hate each other. I enjoy the friendships they've developed but the moment Rook said something like "We're a family" I cringed because I realized what was happening because they just weren't putting the work in to make that believable to me. People are messy and the stakes in DAV are the biggest they've ever been so our crew should be at their worst and there is material for contention THERE but what we get the Disney Channel version of it where they almost immediately makeup and you're really not apart of it.
One of the confrontations in ME2 pits an Alien girl who's people were forced off their home planet by the own synthetic life they created and have suffered severe biological and cultural degradation because of it and one of said creations who's rebellion for autonomy caused that. The next game, they come back and if you don't (or can't which is an important distinction in it's possibility) use their work as a catalyst for peace but choose one people over the other they both express regret for the loss of the other's people despite the contention between them and stringent desire to save their own people. The kind of orchestration required to pull off peace and this dynamic feels earned and heart wrenching and that is the level of story telling old fans of Bioware expect from it's games.
The 3rd Mass Effect game was largely disliked despite the complexity of choices that intertwined and character dynamics. It was very obvious the ending didn't match up with the narrative spun by the rest of the game and was changed last minute from another which probably would have been liked less but the choice was too big and landed the series in hot water which lead them to try and do a complete divorce from the series with Andromeda which was also largely disliked because it was just a weird jump with a very weak story. I didn't actually mind it. It had no lasting impression on me so I can't tell you exactly what happens in that game but I didn't mind the leap conceptually because I understood they did back themselves into a corner with the last decision made in ME3.
So I sit here looking at Veilguard NOT disgruntled by the prospect of change. Change is usually good and made in order for the greater prosperity of the series. The problems in Veilguard isn't simple change but the lack of care that resulted in a lesser product over all. DA2 suffered in a similar respect with it's over use of previous assets in a repeated and monotonous level design and the fact some fans felt that it didn't successfully break away from feeling like a glorified DLC to Origins. But the storytelling is still done in a way that it lives rent free in many people's minds. It's not an epic, it is a story about some shlub and their crew of messy nobodies who try vainly to protect the city they all live from increasing social pressures of the world which boils over and consumes all of them no matter what you do.
ME2 is about a soldier who is forced to work with a human supremacy agency because they are the only ones that are taking a new threat seriously so without support from the usual greater forces, you seek out specialists and old friends to go on what is quite literally called a suicide mission.
Veilguard is a direct continuance of Inquisition where some random agent is made the herald of a revived religious movement that leaps up around them after an accident only to find out that one of your friends is directly responsible for that and going off to put the world in even greater danger.
Veilguard wants the found family in DA2 to fight a threat even greater than Inquisitions while honoring ME2 (badly) but also there are a bunch of disjointed small focused factions that are helping you and while I think this could have worked and been quite possibly one of the best Bioware games of all time, the ghost of its would be greatness haunts the narrative buried under the bones of development issues and missteps which just makes it hurt in a very not good way.
I don't think old fans who complain about Veilguard are upset it's not the same as what they were expecting but, to go back to my scrooge analogy, we're haunted by ghosts of Bioware past that laid the groundwork for what to expect, and the ghost of Bioware present which is incomplete and the future which can only really get worse under the capitalistic pressures that have long run the video game industry in the ground in the name of greater profits over quality. The only people producing good games at a reasonable price are indie developers who aren't really trying to produce a game with the scope that Bioware games have typically provided.
I'm sitting here and thinking my main take away from this is that I simply don't care about the new Mass Effect game Veilguard is getting abandoned for to produce. If this was supposed to be a love letter to ME2 then it just showed a fundamental inability to create Mass Effect games that would honor it's predecessors while bringing it into the new age and if it somehow manages to be good it's just another slight to Dragon Age fans and the fumbled production of Veilguard. I don't want to see Ryder or Shepard or another N7 specter at this point. I want to see Rook and their crew in a game where I feel okay leaving them in there because DA has a very specific need to abandon it's old protags and I'm not okay with that this time! I don't feel good about where any of them were left and the state of the world!
SPOILER WARNING! I'M NOT HOLDING BACK ANYMORE. GOING ON HERE'S YOU'RE WARNING.
(don't ask me about the image, it was there. it's big, has the vibes. She was iconic for that.)
POV: You are me. Your controller has some slight drift so the little laser beam managed to slip from the target and you're trying to figure out how the fuck you messed up the puzzle because there's no way to get to an island and this is how you accidentally spoil yourself that there's a secret ending and you're about to get a part of it.
Then like the genius I am I googled it again to try and figure out how to get it, skim read something that makes you think they based this off of ME2's model and go oh! Okay. I should look up optimal assignments so nobody dies.
Then I find out Davrin or Harding dies no matter what depending on you choose to lead the distraction team and you just have to stare at a wall for awhile because that is NOT Mass Effect 2 where everyone can absolutely live if you do everything right. That is Mass Effect 1, Virmire come to haunt me again.
I need you to know when I got to Mythal it's almost the earliest you could get to her give or take a side mission because I'm bad at combat and those fuckin' ogres were kicking my ass. So when Rook drops the "We're a family" line while taking to Mythal I had to once again stare at a wall because I already spoiled this for me and I was going "what the fuck are you serious? This is what we're doing?"
I'm telling this to you because I need you to know after I figured all this out I was turning over the plot while going through it looking for one specific thing and that's the narrative that would have supported the kind of storytelling that would have gained the right to kill off one of your companions. (the wording on that was labored but I really needed to say all of that like that because I meant it like that.) It just is not there. Or at least not in a way where it feels like the inclusion of that actually added ANYTHING to the narrative and honestly reading interviews under headlines that say shit like "Devs know that you had no problem leaving stroud in the fade 🤭 and made sure they were gonna hurt you this time" feels like it was literally just thrown in for shock factor rather than a conscious effort to create a compelling story and I'm just not here for that kind of garbage.
Like, I need you to understand I straight up had to save mid mission to kill Ghilan'nain and leave in order to leave and watch the last part of Arcane. I came back and immediately rolled into the fight with her and the bit where you're trapped in the fade and yeah I cried but I was feeling ever so fucking JARRED by the difference of satisfying tragedy I felt at the end of Arcane to that stupid ass bullshit in Veilguard.
And the fact this is a wind up to reveal Varric is dead is just further insulting to all three of these characters. Two returning characters and one new character who, and I hate to be this guy but I haven't seen ppl point this out and as guy who's played a lot of Bioware games, is black. Which, Bioware has historically been REALLY FUCKING WEIRD with it's black companions. (No, I have not forgiven for the shit they pulled on Jacob Taylor and I shan't ever I don't think considering they pulled this.)
I don't mind that they killed Varric. That one I picked up on almost immediately from the hints they were putting down and I was waiting for more hints and shit but the longer it went on I realized the game wasn't even interested in setting up a pretense of giving him and his fans a satisfying ending and goodbye. This man has been here since DAII. There's not enough lingering around his memory because he's competing with whoever else died.
Frankly Rook's connection to him has to be kind of made up by the player because they don't really set up anything for you except you've been traveling with him for almost a year and he's just an amicable guy which also just kind of has to lay on the laurels of having to have known him. I love the cold opening into Minrathus, it's very cool but I feel like THIS would have been the game to go back to it's roots and have a personalized opening to each Rook's origin to establish both a connection to Rook, Rook's place in the world and their connection to Varric and Harding and just had you kind of live with Varric as a leader for a hot goddamn minute making the transition of power feel more natural and not forced. It's weird.
But then the player just doesn't feel like they mattered to the greater story actually. Not as Rook and not as Inquisitor. Not that Rook is a bad character, just weirdly hooked into the plot. Gods forbid your Inquisitor wasn't romantically involved with baldie then they're only role is to tell you every choice you've ever made doesn't matter anymore because Southern Thedas got wiped the fuck out.
I know everyone and their mothers have been kinda leering at Taash's companion quests and like yeah they're not great. Neither is like the Rivain. Like not the map tbc, I love that map and all the maps actually. Down with empty open worlds, long live intentional map design with fun puzzles makes my brain go brrr. Kissing guy who made those on the mouth. At least I think the maps are built around the needs of the script and not the other way around unless problems arise in making the stage (which happens) because that'd be kinda silly. It's just our glimpse of Rivain is around a Grey Warden keep with some chasind stuff and Antaam. All of Rivain is kind of just not about Rivain and it annoys me deeply like where the fuck is the people who aren't Lords of Fortune. I don't even know what the culture is supposed to be inspired by besides like orientalism I guess.
ALSO I need everyone to know I had JUST got done ranting about one reoccurring trope with biracial/bicultured people in another game only to turn around and run directly into Taash's dumbass choice about making them pick between their cultures.
THAT IS NOT HOW ANY OF THIS WORKS.
I'm a Filipino German American and I look Asian so I have to fight to be German American because that's what I fucking am no matter what anybody expects from me from my face. Meanwhile my Pinoy roots were stolen from me by a woman who came to the states with the idea that her kids would be American but that just ain't the way the world works when you're not white passing. You cannot run and "choose" the other culture. You will forever be expected to be what you aren't because you look and there's not a lot to do about that brokeness inside you but try and come to terms with it and embrace all that you are anyway.
I also just find using modern day identity labels to be boring and lazy world building for a fantasy world. Even modern day LGBTQIA+ folks can't agree on what to call our shit and we're so very messy about everything and we have been here for so very goddamn long and have had many different names. That's just a bit of a pet peeve, I'll admit.
I think the crowning moment of Taash's quest their mother's moment when she declared Taash's strengths before sacrificing herself for her and Taash's grieving over her passing but I'm also gonna attribute that last bit more to Taash's VA doing good work.
Think the weakest quests for me otherwise were actually Bellara's? Not that it's bad conceptually. Just that it feels like duct taped together oddly where I kind of lost track of the emotions and logic in any given scene. Like over all I got yeah turning people into demons bad but we go from 0 to 100 real goddamn quick and I just felt left behind. Just confusing. Like it's fine, but confusing.
Kal-Sharok should have been it's own faction and I will die on that hill. Dwarves have gotten the short end of the stick for SO long and they finally have a fairly comparable moment in the story and it's just nothin'. BYULLLShit
You know I haven't really cared for Solas. I think I was on copium for a bit during Inquisition because my friends liked him so I was like "yeah I like this guy" but nah, I've kind of considered him a poor man's Ascian after playing Shadowbringers (sorry) but they really leaned into making him kind of a fucked up dude in Veilguard and I do enjoy him a lot more. But also the Rook/Solas dynamic is so much more messier than Lavellan/Solas dynamic. I feel like it was a loss to not have a meaner romance path there if you weren't a Solavellan. Guys who are dragging each other down to hold the other accountable by the throat.
NGL I think I kinda hate endings where it's like "and the bad guys lost and everyone who lived were happy :)" endings like man I wanna know what they're all up to now so I can be sure they're good. That's probably a me thing but it does put me on Copium that they'll drag Rook and co back out to do more with them but I know I'm asking for too much. I am in pain.
I'm descending into less concentrated rambling now I think I just!! Love the game but like I want it to be good and it's not and that hurts me a lot and I'm afraid what corporate will take from this because it's never the lesson they should because everything is all numbers.
EDIT: oml I forgot the line I tied to complaints I'd have later about choices they make you make. Like it was largely about Taash but also like Neve where the Thread guy is like "yeah we're gonna help you for this" like isn't that why we're here? Why am I getting a say in this? Why is this the place I'm suddenly putting my foot down? Why don't I get to ask Neve for her opinion before I just become the most annoying person in the world about this like ayo? WEIRD
Lucanis, Davrin and Bellara at least straight up ask you for your opinion and Harding, Emmrich and Taash obvs need some help even if they don't explicitely ask for it and this one for Neve isn't even the BIG choice it's just a dialogue choice that can lock you out of being able to make the choice which is kind of cool because it's about the only way to shoot yourself in the foot with any of the companions which I'd like if it just didn't just kind of come from nowhere. It's like Rook suddenly remembered they're a person who has opinions in the middle of a conversation and it's just OK. anyway
#Entropic Veilguard Review#tag specifically if I want to find this again for some reason lmao#ignore me I just want to sleep thinking about Veilguard without spinning myself into a further tizzy about it all
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Okay here are my thoughts on the new dragon age game thus far! I love to talk about my opinions!! There’ll be some spoilers:
My main gripe thus far (and it’s possible this will be addressed somewhat later in the gameplay, but probably not to my satisfaction lmao) is that it does NOT feel like a sequel to dragon age: inquisition, which is what I personally wanted. I can understand why this is. It’s been like a decade since DAI came out, and making this game strictly sequential might alienate new players. I wanted it to be more like the original mass effect trilogy, whose games really do connect up, keep more or less the same cast, and lead into one another, but I guess that just isn’t dragon age’s style. I mean, in part this is probably because you’ve been able to make so MANY choices at this point that it would be nigh-on impossible to write voice lines and storylines that accommodate all of them. So I get it. But it’s FRUSTRATING.
Instead, there are SOME familiar characters, but they are bizarrely detached from previous events - they acknowledge they know each other from previous encounters, and have name-dropped the inquisition MAYBE one time, but that’s it. That’s IT. At one point the protagonist asks Varric if he knows anyone who can help in fighting evil ancient mages, and he’s like “no I can’t think of anyone, so you’ll have to recruit people yourself,” which is like, WHAT THE FUCK. Extremely fucking aggravating!!! What are you talking about!!!!! We were just IN Tevinter, contact Dorian! Contact Vivienne! Contact Leliana and Josephine!!! Hawke!!! Merrill!!!! You know SO MANY PEOPLE who could help, Varric, AT LEAST you could be like “yeh I do but they’re all busy fighting fires elsewhere… so you’ll have to recruit people yourself”.
It’s a bad sign that you do not have to connect this game to the events of previous ones. At the start of DAI you had the option to either connect the game to save files of the previous games, or to manually go through a website and choose what happened in those games, and these things had some influence on what happened in DAI. For this game, you create and name your inquisitor in a character creator so they’ll presumably show up at some point, but that is IT. (And they don’t look the same because I can’t remember exactly what they looked like lmao). I HAVE a save file on my console from DAI - I can’t import it or relate it in any way to DAV.
Events, both major world-reaching ones and smaller personal ones, are irrelevant, I guess. What happened to your warden? Who took the throne in ferelden? Did Anders live? Did you support the chantry? Did you recruit the mages or the templars? Who did you arrange to be the next divine? I bought the DLC for DAI (so I could finish the unfinished story) where I decided to dissolve or persist with the inquisition - did that matter? Nope. Did I tell Solas I was gonna persuade him, or that I was gonna fight him? Who cares?? Varric was viscount of Kirkwall last time I checked, but it hasn’t been mentioned ONCE - what’s up with that, has he resigned? Wouldn’t it be useful if he still was, and could provide resources and connections that way?? Or, like, doesn’t it matter that he’s sitting in the fade instead of running his city??? Nahhh, don’t worry about it, you don’t need to know aaaaaany of this stuff! Who did the inquisitor romance? Doesn’t matter. What if I romanced Solas, isn’t that sort of important? Apparently not!
Given all of that… it’s a little hard to get fully invested in this game. Because this Thedas is only very superficially the same one I’ve played in before, so how can I be that invested in it? And if I know my choices don’t really matter in the long-term narrative, why should I care that much about choices I’ll be making now??
You also can’t have a casual chat with anyone anymore. So far I have been unable to have a conversation with someone where I find out where they’re from, what their experiences are, what they think about uhhhh fuckin ANYTHING, etc. You can only converse with them when the game decides they have something to say, and these conversations last less than two minutes, and are ONLY about things that have JUST happened. This is making it hard to connect with them, and I do feel it’s another way the game is shielding itself from having to acknowledge the previous games in any meaningful way. Mage circles? Templars? The tevinter imperium? Dalish elves? Who the fuck is Varric and why was he in charge? Ehhhhh don’t WORRY about it!
AND FINALLY (and this is really driving me insane): so far, it appears that the writing direction for Solas has taken a sharp left turn, with no warning. It turns out that he WASN’T the bad guy trying to destroy the world, he was keeping some REALLY bad guys locked up, and YOU blew that for him, you IDIOT!!! Like, the game did SAY at the beginning that you all thought he was trying to tear down the veil and that’s why you were stopping him, but then it turned out that wasn’t what was happening, and after that point it hasn’t been acknowledged again. It isn’t explained so far why we thought that, or why it might have turned out not to be the case. You’d think Solas would have mentioned it to Varric during their off-screen conversation, but I guess he didn’t. Like. I thought this game was gonna be about opposing Solas and either persuading him to stop, or killing him, while making use of the inquisition’s reach. And, see, the reason I thought that is because that’s what the previous game SAID was happening. But actually that ISN’T what’s happening. And Solas smugly tells you off for thinking otherwise, and your protagonist is like, “yeah I guess I blew it :/“
So I was given information and facts and character arcs to act upon, and I acted upon them (and had no CHOICE but to act upon them, that is the GAMEPLAY), and then the game has pulled the rug out from under my feet, and while I’m lying stunned on the floor it’s turned around like, “oh that’s what you thought, huh? You fucking idiot? You god damn stupid son of a bitch?? WRONG!!!!”
Like, unless much later in the game Solas is gonna be like, “okay thanks for resolving all that. I was on a side mission before tearing down the veil, and you ruined my side mission, but now you fixed it, so back to my overall plan: tearing down the veil”… what is HAPPENING here. No one in-game is TALKING ABOUT IT. You talk to Solas occasionally and you can’t bring it up. You can’t talk about it to your companions (since you can’t really talk to them about Anything). Is Solas still going to be a problem? If he’s not… WHY THE FUCK NOT? What happened?? WHAT’S HAPPENING
And those are my main gripes. 😘
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Dav spoilers below the cut!! (Up to just before leaving for the anderfels)
Okay I've gotten off for today so I wanna ramble a little bit about my playthrough so far!!
I am geniuenly adoring it so far! Alot of the problems I have with inquisition are non-existent, the combat is fun, the characters are likeable. Sadly the purple rook options aren't as much of an asshole as I would like (purple Hawke you will be missed) but they are nice! The writing so far has been solid imo.
I really like that the cameo characters aren't taking up too much space. While I do get excited to see them, I don't want them overshadowing the new characters, like they kinda did in previous games. The cameos are also way sooner than I was expecting!!
So far I've only had one instance of "that is NOT what I meant to say" with the dialogue wheel which I count as a win (when I recruited lucanis I said 'ill keep an eye on you' thinking it was out of concern 😭 that may have just been a skill issue on my end tho. I reloaded that save so fast). I also really like the romance dialogue options so far. They aren't so overwhelming cringe that it makes me wanna curl up and die inside (I am staring directly at you Hawke who SAYS THAT to a man who's BOYFRIEND JUST DIED). They all feel very nice and flirty in a way that isn't in your face. I am also really REALLY liking the companion writing so far. All of the characters are charming and I'm already more invested in them than I was in the inquisiton cast sorry 😭
While Rook does talk a lot on their own, so far it all feels very in line with what Revari would say. While I do miss being able to control everything the PC says, ik logically we'll never get a dragon age game like that again so it's not something I was expecting. Very happy nothing feels glaringly "they would not fucking say that"
I I thought the lack of worldstate choice was going to be more glareingly obvious but tbh i kinda forget about it for most the playthrough. It still sucks that there isn't more worldstate options, but yk I can't change that
Lucanis is already really growing on me!!! He's just a silly little guy and I am a SUCKER for them. Born to be a chef forced to be an assassin frfr...
Neve gallus obviously has my whole heart if you didn't know. The longer she's on screen the more I love her. She hasn't left my party since Bellaras recruitment quest.
Very interested in Bellara. For a hot second I thought her brother was going to be Felassan so I was mildly disappointed that it wasn't 😭 although ultimately making it a new character is a better narrative choice.
I LOVE that you can encourage Lace's abilities!!! I have a feeling that how you tell her to channel her abilities (whether through joy or through fear) is going to affect the outcome of her story... Also love that if you show optimism about her abilities she also shows excitement about them
Varric and Rooks relationship is so sweet to me!!! I mean he calls them kid you guys should know I was gonna be a sucker for it. While I know that's probably annoying for older Rooks, it works for Revari. I'm also very glad he has a distinct different relationship with Rook than he did with Hawke and The Inquisitor. He's clearly very fond of them and it makes me happy idk. Also the sheer fucking difference between the way he acts towards the Inquisitor (even one he's friendly with!!) and rook is so funny. Inky really is just his ex boss huh 😭
I've only talked to Solas twice so far but I'm already more invested in his and Rooks dynamic than I was with him in the Inquisitor sorry 😭 I didn't romance him so he didn't really do it for me in Inquistion, but I'm low-key looking forward to seeing him again. His little jabs in the second talk after you "exchange verbal spars" is so fun, and I think it really hammers in the "Solas reflects back the people he interacted with". He did it with the Inquisitor, and is doing it again with Rook, but it's SO much more interesting to me in this game so far idk. Maybe it's because he's responding to specific comments? Idk Revari is a bit of a shithead so. I don't think Revari hates Solas, but they are a bit wary of him.
The voice acting has been very solid so far as well!! Nothing that's glarely bad to me at least. I also really like some of the facial animations; while some of them can feel a bit flat in general conversation, some of them are REALLY good. There was a bit where Dorian started snarking and he curled his lip. And another where Rook opened their mouth like they were going to talk but didn't. Idk the facial animations are REALLY standing out to me. This is so much better than the previous games I am not even over exaggerating. Dragon age "Every character wears an ugly sneer all the time" Inquisiton you will not be missed... Obviously it's because the technology is better but it is really really obvious how much attention went into the faces I am here for it
The combat is so fucking fun. Ik it won't be everyones cup of tea but I am having a BLAST. It didn't take me very long to get the hang of and it's very satisfying to play with.
I am also fucking LOVING how relevant your backstory is!!! Like yes!!! I am a shadow dragon!!!! There's so many additional dialogue about it even just in casual conversations! I never felt like the game forgot about it. Rooks connection to their faction is great and I love the fact that they know people and people know them. Shadow dragon rook ily 🫶
I really like how much it feels like this game remembers what you've done. From Lucanis remembering your preferred drinks (Revari likes their coffee STRONG) to Varric feeling like he let you down after you encouraged him, so far it really feels like what I'm doing is sticking and that makes me SO fucking happy.
Final thing!!! This game looks absolutely fucking gorgeous I keep getting blown away by the views. I do wish I could zoom my camera out a bit more just to take everything in bc it's SO big I love it!!! So far it is geniuenly meeting my expectations and I am SO FUCKING RELIEVED. I have been so worried it was gonna be dogshit for WEEKS
#dragon age#dav spoilers#oc: revari mercar-surana#worldstate: mage rights#take a shot everytime i complain about inquisiton#i swear i dont hate dai its just my least favorite#and its glaringly obvious#my ocs
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There was so much in these first WoT episodes that my head couldn’t deal with it until I had written down at least my basic thoughts about them. So here is what my brain made me scream into the keyboard before being able to watch on (ep1&2) - for obvious reasons it’s 75% Moiraine, but I mean have you looked at her??
Where is the dark friend social? Because they have the aes Sedai symbol in stone on the ground outside.
Love the phrasing „The one who walks the world, the one who was and will be, but is not yet the dragon“. Because Rand is but is not yet the dragon!
Obviously the „we are in the middle of a meeting, a quite important one, really“ is great and hilarious. Also I said it before and I will say it again I love Ishamaeals nihilism and I think it wasn’t used as good as it could have been in the books, the ending about what good and evil and grey even means couldn’t have played more with him, I hope the show goes there. And his speech is great. But I really thought he would feed that girl to the trollocs for a second.
Also he says „monster“ not trollocs, which strikes me as AoL -speech? Children in the 3rd age know what trollocs are, in his childhood, they wouldn’t have known, they didnt have „monsters“ outside of stories…
Also i noticed for the first time „father of lies“ is an interesting name for the forsaken, who in his own mind is simply saying the truth, „Life is an endless, pointless repetition“. He doesn’t really lie, does he? Here at least he does not towards the girl, while many people probably would have.
Obviously the first Moiraine scene is devastating, what else can be said? I mean except for the fact that she es so beautiful still, that i may have stopped breathing. Her movements are so precise. She has a task and she does it and no matter what’s going on inside here, she is determined to fulfill the selfmade task without delay.
Also her outfit- the hair-thingies that are of the Lady Moiraine Damodred and look expensive and the physical work clothes she wears, show so nicely the different aspects of her character.
Light, how many buckets this bath must need. And why does she need this big bath? She does, because she is her and she would never take a smaller one, just to have less work but, Light, Moiraine!
Also what is that necklace that she doesn’t take off during the bath?
It is good to see her focused on herself and not in daes daem‘er mode.
I can‘t with the way she looks at her hands. Those slow movements as she stretches them, holds them. It is more than devastating. You can feel her loss through these movements. So precise still, and such controlled movements! The looking at her hands, because feeling them is not enough, doesn’t work, because they do not feel right, are not working as they should, but they are, they are doing her bodies movement so precisely. And yet not enough. And her eyes. The way she looks at them. So present and absent at the same time. Such horror and resignation at the same time. And then the hand sinks in the water and — and her eyes again, drawing upwards in that last sequence, its so devastating.
Ahhhhh she is so pretty! Love Moiraine surrounded by books! Ahhh her voice! I mean, her voice in general, but how she sharpens it and how it is her voice and the same but its different from how it was before. Especially towards Lan. And she doesn’t look at him.
„Everyone has a choice. And every choice as a consequence.“!!! That is such in important sentence for life in general. I want to print it on a tshirt (and give it to my sister). Also Moiraine is so pretty. Also „Door.“ The hurt. Uh, she is hurting so bad and hurting him so bad because she doesn’t know what else to do.
Egewene in the Amyrlin‘s study 👀. Interesting. But where is siuan? Love the White tower optics.
Omg Alanna. she is even more than she is in fanfics and that says something.
It’s so great that they adapted the „novices watching the wardens train“ from New Spring. Just because of the sillyness and New spring-ness. And also shows that Egwene is not that much in with the other novices.
Obviously the Nyn/Egwene convo is great, Dont smile, I have enough character, etc. It’s Them!! And they introduce more aes Sedai lore. „Even the amyrlin“ haha, they dont know Siuan Sanche at all do they?
Love serious Alanna. Good to see she’s more than sex and snacks again. Why isn’t Egwene using her hands? As a challenge to herself? because of her her cultural exchange later? Did she hurt them?
Who is that bald grey sister? She is intriguing me.
„Who’s ever been hurt by a little talk (BY AN AES SEDAI!!!)? Hmmmmm.
OMG How is Moiraine this pretty? Poem in blood! In old tongue! Omg Moiraine‘s hands. Her nod ahhhh. Her smugness, ahhh I love her.
THE WHEEL WEAVES AS THE WHEEL WILLS!!!!! + LIGHT BE WITH YOU
I really like show Nyneave more than book Nyneave! She is as headstrong but at the same time more reflective and less caricature.
I do get the disappointment that its not Siuan who throws Nyn at the wall but I think its so interesting that it‘s Liandrin! Does she do it with the same intention? This Liandrin is so much more than a dark sister! She might be evil and she is unlikable but she cares. I think? Because we dont really know if it‘s an act so we? But it feels as if she really cares about other aes Sedai, including Nyneave as she is a woman who can channel. And that fits but is also messy and interesting. And the thing about wanting Nyneave to reach that power, that no one, not even her can take from her is great. And the thing about not everyone accessing Saidar the same way, that anger can be a way and that the teachings of the White Tower are not always the only way.
The talk Perrin has with Ingtar is great too, because it gives actual substance to the whole violence thing. Anger is scary! Anger can make you use violence, that makes so much more sense than the „i am a big guy“ thing from the books. Also good that they mentioned Laila again. And it takes away the whol Nyneave = anger personified away. Other characters obviously deal with this too! I really like this non-caricature version of her better.
Moiraine!!! + Lan!! Also the little eyebrow movement she does when he walks out. saying „its fine. It’s not fine but i deserve this. I am too stubborn to cry. I am distancing myself from him and from myself and i will not even think about it. I will work now.“ Her little eyebrow movement that says „I hurt but i wont show it“.
I love that it‘s Bel Tine again. I love their lanterns and lights and it all. Also interesting that Egwene remembered and Nyn didn‘t. Because as much as Nyneave is about community and protecting her wards, so is Egwene, Egwene is about glueing together old traditions and new ways of life, here as she is building a Two River lantern in the White Tower, and later when she is wielding a trident.
Question: is that Aldieb? Also Dagger Moiraine!! Is she for real fighting two *fades* alone with nothing but a knife? And getting him by staying calm and observant.
When she says „Lan.“ And you can har that she has not said it in months. It is her voice, the voice that has interviewed Boyle Damon and the other 19 people but this is *her* voice saying „Lan.“ Adressing *him*. Getting his attention. And this voice is hoarse (ok maybe also because she cant really use her breathing muscles with her sliced abdomen, but) because she hasn’t talked to him in months, not really, not to *him*, and now she is saying his name.
This is the most brutal thing ever. It’s simply brutal. Her face. The power, she feels it and then it isn’t hers and i mean good that they live but this is the most brutal thing ever. What aren’t you telling me? Everything. That it’s impossible but it mustn’t be impossible. This is brutal.
2)
Rand having acoustic hallucinations while working in the mental health asylum has very strong me-during-my-psychiatry-rotation-vibes (the difference being he went and got a job there and me deciding not to stay, no, nope lets stay with my lovely lymphomas)
But it fits his character very well! He is good at that!! And I also love how we are getting introduced to the sword forms this way! It’s a good way do put them in words.
That asshole reminded me of the girl internet anxiety disorder lecture mocking how you could be afraid of these things, with people with this disorder sitting there and having to listen. People suck.
I miss the intro!
Ok Moiraine in this outfit is killing me. How am i supposed to follow any dialogue when she is sitting there looking like that? But Light! Not only Lan (her responsibility! But she couldn’t! She couldn’t protect him, heal him, she could do nothing!) but also herself must have been healed with the One Power, and yes she has had that done before and wouldn’t have been able to heal herself either way, the situation is so different. That must have been such an awful situation. Feeling the power, knowing it touches you, but you cant touch it. Not only having someone use it in your presence but *on* you. Oh Moiraine. Oh Moiraine.
She has been exiled from the White Tower!!!!!!! And Verin knows!! I cant continue watching this show. The difference between her „I“ now and her „we“ in season 1 and Lan’s continued „we“! And how she doesn’t manage to block the tenderness out of her voice, when she says „you are still weak from the healing“, and then noticed her slip up and voice slightly changed but not too much for it to be obvious adds that little quip to drive him away. Oh Moiraine.
I don‘t really like what they are doing with Perrin‘s senses, why is it visions suddenly? Not only to portray on screen but also him thinking it is happening now, and Elayas calling it visions? I like him and Hurin merged though, it makes sense.
Liandrin bringing Nyneave to the Yellows!! She gets her, and she knows what it takes and she really wants Nyn to break the block! And Nyn‘s awe!!! She found the thing Ivon and Maskim asked about last episode! It’s great to see this this early on, and not just later as in the books where her blind rage over Moiraine takes up most her motivation so long. But, Liandrin saying healing is a response to symptoms and disease… hmm. I mean sure it can be, and honestly its super important because easing symptoms is important?! But you can also treat causally as they did right there, that was not a symptomatic treatment on the girl. Plus prevention is a thing. Sorry Liandrin, I do see why the yellows wouldn’t have wanted you. The way she says „I am allowed to teach Accepted“ hahaha Liandrin trying so hard being cool.
Some of the greatest pairings in the history of the world were formed between novices in adjacent rooms!!! Yay for the pillowfriends?!?!! Who is Elana Katab though, do we know her?? But really this is so cute, her wanting to be close to Egwene immediately and proposing it like this and talking about a shared future (seconds after meeting *cough* seconds after introducing herself as daughter heir *cough cough*)
Ouhhhh the foreshadowing in the convo between Alanna and Sheriam!! Ouhhhlaa this show is too much for me.
Omg Verin talking about oath loopholes!?!?!?!?!
P.S. Why is Moiraine so pretty?
The pond!!!! The pond story and they tell them!! And they are smiling.
So much foreshadowing!! Mat!!
She didn‘t! Did she really say „When i am with you, I can pretend i am with him,“?? Ouhh she‘s bad. „Pretend I am whole again,“ you mean pretend you never bored that freaking hole in the dimension or what?! Also yeppp she is hot. Shit.
„I knew when the time came, you‘d be able to survive on your own.“ Thats what she wasn’t telling you, Lan. For 20 years and she never planned to survive this with you. She knew you‘d survive on your own. (But doesn’t this contradict the Myrelle plot?)
*Her loyalty is with the dragon reborn.* Thats Moiraine. Always and *always* will the dragon, will the world, will fate itself come before anything.
And then she says his name „al‘Lan Mandargoran“ and rides away. Oh my heart. Oh Light.
Fuck, the suldam and Damane are creepy. I mean, they should be and they are creepy-creepy-creepy in the books too, so… but unexpectedly seeing them on screen? Yeah mission accomplished they are creepy.
Also creepy: Rand’s little smile at the end. I guess things are going to happen.
#this is very spamy#but I had to get it out of the system and now thought why not put it here#now I might be able to watch episode 4#(well saturday because sleep and work and did I mention that I never have time and life sucks a little at the moment?)#seriously I am in no condition to watch WoT#these episodes overwhelmed me so much that I had to take breaks every 20 min#and didnt manage more than one per day even though I had a free weekend#anyway I love moiraine and her reaction seemed very logical and on point. it was good and I get it#wheel of time#moiraine damodred#egwene al'vere#wot s2 spoilers#I don't think this is#wot book spoilers#but anyway. and good night
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