#i think he's my favorite LI from any dragon age game

[corpocyborg]

my inquisitor just asked solas if he even cares about anything other than the fade and solas said "i care deeply for many things beyond the fade. just not you." FUCKING BRUTAL 😂

[zeevoidlight]

Vegeta and Nappa, why did Vegeta killed him.

One of my favorite characters of all time since i was a child is without a doubt Vegeta.

I've seen this question being asked constantly so i'll give my take one it now. I know many people don't like the "because Saiyans" type of explanation but one cannot ignore that their nature is much different from humans and is a great part of who they are and why they do the things they do. So my approach is usually try to see what of all that is actually because of their nature and what is just being used as a cultural shield, specially when it comes to both Vegeta and Goku. More Vegeta because he lies a lot as well, and despite being Saiyan his status as royalty changes the usual dynamic a bit compared to others of his own species. (note that i watched the latin version so my interpretation of the character might be different from that of the english one)

So regarding the topic:

Realistically and sadly, as much as I like this alternate reality people usually like to portray of Nappa being Vegeta's assigned babysitter, taking care of Raditz as well, the three of them being like a small family unit given that they only had each other as survivors of their people's extinction... I think the reality is a lot more complicated.

Being a Saiyan, and more than that the strongest Saiyan by far in their recent history, even stronger than the King himself, Vegeta was capable of taking care of himself better than Nappa. He never saw Nappa as a protector because Vegeta was leagues ahead of Nappa in terms of strength and rank. We see that on the first Bardock movie where he treats Nappa as a servant, and even asks Frieza to let him go alone to a more challenging planet to conquer where he ends up killing everyone, sitting on a rock in the middle of a pile of corpses of his own making and eating twinkies or something as he was getting news of his Planet's destruction, thinking already what was going to be his next move and hiding his concern from Frieza's informant. All of that at the age of 5.

He never saw Nappa as akin to family because for as young as he was Vegeta was still his superior. Plus Vegeta considered himself smarter than him too, and he actually was even as a child. Vegeta was, on the contrary, protecting Nappa and Raditz, and consequently himself, against Frieza and his men by playing the long game while those two probably constantly screwed up and tried to engage in an unwinnable battle. This kid didn't had the opportunity to be a kid since he was born. Always on a minefield.

As how I see it, the reason why Vegeta killed Nappa then wasn't only because Goku broke Nappa's spine and paralyzed him leaving him quadriplegic and unable to fight rendering him as dead weight, but because he was years long fed up with Nappa as well. Maybe even with what he represented as the last remains of the Saiyan kingdom and the past since he was perfectly comfortable being the last Saiyan alive as representation of what a true Saiyan was in his own understanding and values of it, considering himself the peak of that and the example for everyone else to see, which being a prince he was kinda always pressured into being that and thinking of himself as such anyways. And Nappa's embarrassing fight was the last drop and the perfect excuse to get rid of him. Dude couldn't fathom something so disgraceful that he preferred to kill him than keep enduring his presence any longer while pretending he cared (and the emotions were kinda running high).

Even after in GT when he sees Nappa again there's nothing but contempt against him. And you could say anything about GT but what I appreciate greatly of it is the character consistency.

Note: I've been watching DB and Z and it's very clear from the moment they arrive to Earth that Vegeta can't with Nappa's recklessness. When Nappa destroys East city Vegeta is like 'dude, has it ever occur to you that the dragon balls could have been here? You idiot! Don't destroy the planet, we could sell it, don't be a stupid, think, fight better, concentrate, his not fighting intelligent... Lol, by the time of Nappa asking Vegeta for help I can totally imagine Vegeta was thinking 'you know what Nappa... FUCK YOU' *yeet!

[maythedreadwolftakeyou]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Spread the self-love ❤️

<3 Ooohhh ok hm... honestly i do not post much fic (checked AO3 and only 18), for the amount that i start writing and then leave in various stages of completion in drafts on my computer, oops. Unfortunately at least 1 favorite is in that category, but here we go!

Fallout from the Fade (Dragon Age: Inquisition): Hawke is left in the fade during the events of DAI's Here Lies The Abyss, but manages to fight her way back out. However she's left to recover from the severe side effects and trauma that come along. Ok my confession here is while i have not updated this fic since 2020, i have in fact written more of it. But since i kept going so long (months... and then years...) between chapters I decided it'd be better if i just finish writing the rest myself (at least roughly) so i know how much more there is to go and can update it on a more regular schedule in the future when i start posting again. Alas i am very slow at this bc of grad school and also bc i get distracted easily and... have less motivation to work on it when not actually getting feedback as i go. So i may change my mind about this approach eventually but it's where the fic stands now.

Like Teeth Against His Heart (Dragon Age: Inquisition): After Solas wakes up from uthenera, he has many conversations with a variety of spirits over the course of DAI. Sometimes they tell him what he wants to hear, and sometimes they don't. I typically like the recent things I've written the most and this is that. It's a prose-poem style that plays with formatting, aka its kind of Weird, and weird is my favorite. I wrote it for a charity zine which also meant i had to have a Final Version rather than endlessly tweak it forever which was irritating at the time but also good for me.

Unposted, No-Finalized-Title fic, with the file jokingly named 'Sam I Am' (Mass Effect: Andromeda): pre-Andromeda and game timeline but from the perspective of your ship's AI, who also lives inside your character's brain, and in the game admits to altering your brain/body, and hello??? the game did NOT let me respond to that to the degree I desired? One of my literary obsessions is the combination of AI (the sci fi kind not... generative art etc) plus human augmentation... what that does to both parties sense of self, their relationships, how they view and function in the world, etc. In the vein of Silently And Very Fast by Cat Valente, Imperial Radch by Ann Lecke, Murderbot by Martha Wells... and I spent soooo much time wishing Andromeda had gone deeper into that angle/thinking about it myself I wrote. Quite a long fic about it. But i only played the game once and there wasn't much fan love/fanworks for it so I never posted it or any other Andromeda stuff I wrote, it was more just for myself. I'd like to go back and finish this fic but I estimate it'd be in the 40-70k word range and i'd need to replay the game to refresh my memory so it's like, a project for when i have a bunch of free time at some point in the future, since it's mostly just for Me.

the people you love become ghosts inside of you, and like this, you keep them alive (Mass Effect trilogy): Snippets of a variety of Garrus' thoughts and memories of Shepard, and a growing realization about the nature of love like theirs. I don't expect anyone to love this one but me, because it's just a self-indulgent thing I wrote specifically to figure out the flavor of grief involved in the relationship between my personal Shepard and Garrus. It's not as poem-formatted as my Solavellan one but the prose leans hard in that direction, and they came from the same place for me. I wrote it after finishing the trilogy because I (unlike a lot of fans, i know) felt very adamant that the correct ending for my Shepard is that she is dead now, and not coming back, and needed to cry some more about that.

like the leaves after a long winter (Dragon Age II): It's the first Christmas/Satinalia since Leandra's death, and Hawke is not in the mood for festivities -- until she realizes that everyone else will be spending it alone and finds herself hosting a party without even meaning to. I'll be honest #5 spot was kind of a toss up between this one, Less A Man Than A Wild Cat, and Grief. But I've decided on this one because 1. it covers my favorite thing to write about aka grief, but is actually written as a story/proper narrative unlike others i've already put on this list. With fanfic the most important thing to me before anything else is self-indulgence. While I love writing for prompts (like this one was!), my specific joy in that is taking an idea from someone else and figuring out how to cram all the things I care about into someone else's plot summary. Fanfic for me is like... it feels weird to call it 'writing exercises' because that implies i don't care about the final project when i very much do. Writing challenges? Maybe? Idk i just really enjoy having limitations to work within. Having NO boundaries is where I do my original content writing, so writing within the bounds of an existing franchise already means there's some limits (like keeping to characterizations, plot, etc) and then adding more on top makes it a fun experience and keeps me engaged.

While these are my top 5, I definitely don't think most of them are what other people would pick as a favorite from my (admittedly very limited) amount of posted writing, Fallout from the Fade being the exception. I think my friends probably like the one where I turned Fenris into a cat best (and that was VERY fun it's just also more lighthearted which i struggle to write sooooo bad), and then every one else is in my inbox about the single Solas x F!Travelyan fic I wrote largely as an experiment in writing sex scenes. sorry to everyone who read that and then tried to read my other fics and discovered its mostly blood and loss and Yearning...

[cryptidswitch]

Get To Know Me Tag!

LI was tagged on my old blog by the ever gracious @salemssimblr​

So now I’ll answer it here :P

Show your wallpaper and the last song you listened to

Currently I have a wallpaper from Wallpaper Engine (so the rain and the leaves move!) which is the Mystery Shack from Gravity Falls! This is the night version and then there is a sunny version for the day time it automatically switches to!

The last song I listened to was Anything You Want by JAWNY!

Currently reading?

Right now I’m about to hop back into listening to Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir! My boyfriend read through Gideon and I told him when he started listening to Harrow I’d go back and listen to the rest of it so we could talk about it.

Last movie?

Ponyo! Watched it with the kiddo (not that she paid any attention to it haha)

Last show?

Guys Grocery Games! We finally got access to Food Network on streaming again (thank you MAX) and my mom, Matt, and I binged like half a season today lmao

Craving?

Currently craving these microwaveable shepherd’s pies things that I’m not even sure if they make anymore but the brand was called Crikey’s lmao. I know that’s weirdly specific but cut me some slack, it’s shark week

What are you wearing right now?

Ohhh, are you so curious ask game? ~eyebrow waggle~ God I need to go to bed lol. Currently in a pair of super soft grey jogger pj pants and an olive green crop top cami

How tall are you?

For the longest time I measured in at like 5′4″ and some change but that’s because they always told me to put my back against the wall and I couldn’t do that and stand straight apparently so I’m actually 5′6″ and some change!

Piercings?

Just two lobe ear piercings!

Tattoos?

Currently none, I’ve got several I want but the money and time never seem to line up x.x

Glasses or Contacts?

I have glasses that I need to wear more! I don’t think I’ll ever do contacts tbh

Last thing you ate?

Right now I’m eating Skittles :P

Favorite Color?

Emerald green, any shade of purples, and black!

Current Obsession?

So, I’m an absolute slut for stationary and back to school/college season is coming up and I’m practically frothing at the mouth for all the new stationary coming out! Otherwise I’ve been really into stuff from the Edwardian era lately!

Any Pets?

I’ve got two cats that hate each other lol. One is a one eyed, black and white, manx cat named Ciel (after the anime character) and Smudge who is a teeny tiny tortoiseshell cat

Favorite fictional character?

This is such an evil question lmao. I have fallen deeply in love with Gideon and Harrow from the Ninth House series. Jude Duarte from The Folk of the Air series made me obsessed with the name Jude and I just adore her. Charlie from The Book of Night is a complete and total badass! Kaz Brekker and Inej from Six of Crows, Delilah Greene from Delilah Greene Doesn’t Care, Booker and Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite, Iron Bull and Blackwall and Cullen and Josephine from Dragon Age Inquisition, Arthur and John from Malevolent, Jon and Martin and Bashira from The Magnus Archives, Caduceus Clay from Critical Role campaign 2, and many MANY more! I can’t pick favorites lol

Last place you traveled?

Last place we went to beyond our usual haunts was the mall down in Cincinnati to attempt to go to the Squishables store for Mother’s Day (it hadn’t actually opened yet in spite of what google said)

I will tag anyone who would like to do this!

[translationandbetrayals]

My experience with anime

Since I was very young I had a very close approach to anime because my parents and mainly my dad watched the anime that were shown in his time on open TV. The ones I remember that my parents watched were Marco, Heidi, The Adventures of Fly (my dad called him the brave Fly, I guess because of the opening xd), Robotech, Mazinger Z, Captain Future, Candy (my mom had a profile picture of Candy on her Facebook, that's why my best friend called her “the original otaku” haha). In my case, the first anime I remember watching, or at least the one that marked me the most, like many children of my generation, was Dragon Ball. I remember watching it when we still lived at my grandparents' house (we left when I was about 5 years old) and I also watched my cousin play Dragon Ball Final Boult on the Playstation (I liked that game too much), the bad thing is that he almost didn't let us play the damn bastard hahaha.

The animes I watched were the ones that were broadcasted on TV, Dragon Ball as I said, Los Caballeros del Zodiaco (with its opening in Spanish from Spain webong), Ranma ½, Sailor Moon (although now that I think about it I watched it very little since I don't remember it very well), Detective Conan, Digimon (I saw the first 4), Pokemon (although I saw this one through the cable that we were ‘’sharing’’ from my neighbors network hahaha), Doraemon, Los super Campeones, Zoids, Gundam Wing and one of my favorite anime of life, Slam Dunk (I love you very much Takehiko Inoue) and others that I do not remember.... Anyway, I think I basically watched almost every anime they showed on TV haha.

Then in my early teenage years, came the stage of the cd/dvd where I watched the most anime in my life, mainly for two reasons, one of them is that I had a lot of free time because I was a high school student without obligations, and another because at that time I made a new friend who lent me the cd/dvd of anime once he already saw them, and his dad was the owner of a cyber cafe, who was a lover of nerdy things, who had internet access, pc with dvd recorder, ... I mean, he had the resources to buy original anime dvd's (“wink, wink”). Here I will only name the ones I remember the most so I don't extend myself any longer: Naruto, One Piece, Bleach, Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, Basilisk, Afro Samurai, Gantz (he liked Gonzo's anime haha), Claymore, Elfen Lied, Full Metal Alchemist, Death Note, Eyeshield 21, among others.

And before I finish, I would like to share the next thought. At the time when I watched anime, let's say that it was not very well seen amongst others, most of the time I hid it for fear of being called a nerd or  a loser because of that, especially during school years and even more if you studied in public school. Luckily, I think because I was tall I didn't get picked on as much, but I do remember being embarrassed that my classmates knew I watched a lot of anime (“don't tell them how I live” hahaha). Now looking back I regret a little bit that I was embarrassed of it, as it was something I really enjoyed and it was great, anime is a very beautiful, entertaining and deep art form and I'm glad to see that it is now more socially accepted. Just because they are “cartoons” doesn't mean they are childish or not enjoyable by people of any age, and as I always tell my nephew who also watches anime, never feel embarrassed about the things you like.

Written by

Gerald Reyes C.

[code-sumeragi]

As for my thoughts on DA Veilguard

First off it's a solid 7 out of 10 game. And everyone needs to apologize to Inquisition because Inquisition is a good game with flaws and Veilguard is an okay game with this weird bloat to it that's hard to describe but once you play it, you'll understand.

It suffers from too many cooks and too much time in the kitchen. You can also tell it was made by Mass Effect people and not by Dragon Age people and I feel that it makes it a weaker game because of it. Because when I play Dragon Age, I want Dragon Age not Mass Effect.

With that out of the way, all the people bitching about the inclusion and 'dei' shit can stuff it. It was fine. Dragon Age has always been like that and it didn't take away anything. Though there were some dialogue bits that we weird and cringe inducing in that regard; they tended to be the minority so it was whatever. You don't notice it if you aren't looking for it and they only place it sticks out is Taash. And just don't do their quests. Simple.

I feel like some of the lore was fucked up. The crows for one thing. Felt too happy and less one murder cult thing that was implied in Origins.

And it also kinda felt like they just took fan theories and added that into the story. But I genuinely have no idea how far in advance they had plotted any of this out because the threads are there but it feels too much like a coincidence. That or someone from the team was actual sharing what they were planning on doing as meta, which, jerk.

Varric. I actually figured that he was dead from the beginning. From the marketing pretty much. It was suspicious how no one talked to him and he was just in the infirmary the whole time, so I just done knew. Didn't figure for the blood magic though. I know some people are pretty mad about Varric, but I didn't hate it.

Morrigan. I don't like what they did with her. I thought the well of sorrows was multiple elves and not just mythal. Not to mention that she rejected mythal in Inquisition. It makes it weird for her to suddenly have her memories. And be okay with everything. I also hate her top. Keep thinking she has four boobs.

Isabela. Not who I expected to come back. She seems in character for what I remember. Of course, some people's Isabela betrayed them, so I can see how they might not be happy with her.

Kept hoping that we'd seen another warden we once knew. Nathaniel, Sigrun, Oghrun, Blackwall. That was a bummer and a missed opportunity.

Velanna and Merill could have shown up with the Veil jumpers. Shale could have gone to Kal Sharok or shown up near the titan. Zevran could have been with the Crows. Fenris could have been fighting Venatori in Minrathous. Iron Bull could have been with the Lords of Fortune. Sera could have been with the Shadow Dragons.

And I don't mean that they would have to be their physically. Ambiant dialogue or a note would have been cool too. The others got a mention or even appeared. I know they want limited contact so they don't contradict each other, but a single line won't damage that.

Feels like they play favorites a little.

Marketing for the game sucked. Seriously. Following the marketing it seemed like Ghilanan and Elgarnan weren't going to be the only big bads, but they were???? Like, I felt like there was an implication there was going to be a switch like a 1/3 of the way through the game and it never happened and I was like, what is going on and it was just those two the whole time. Which, quite frankly, is on me, I should know better than to listen to marketing. Marketing fucking lies and doesn't market products correctly. Hell, they were showing actual fucking spoilers for pivotal moments through halfway through the game!! What the fuck is wrong with marketing departments???

I usually don't follow marketing, but I guess I was just so excited that I didn't listen to my better judgement and ignore it so I could have a better and clean start.

I don't like how one character /had/ to die for the best ending. And it was a character I wanted to romance on my next playthrough. It wasn't satisfying. It was shocking and somewhat disappointing. That character was one of the only characters I got attached to in the group. The companions are okay for the most part, but I just don't vibe with them as much.

It feels like the work you do for the personal quests don't matter if the character dies anyway.

In some ways I get it. But in other ways, fuck the writers.

For as much dialogue there is in this game, it sure is annoying to get it. I don't know why it annoys me. It just does? I feel like they were trying too hard to mimic the Normandy with the Lighthouse, but the Lighthouse just doesn't have the same vibe as the Normandy. And maybe it's the size of the place too.

The linear-ness of the game is both a positive and a negative. I appreciate Knowing where I need to go, but at the same time, having very little to explore sucks. I enjoy being rewarded for going off the path and finding an optional boss or puzzle that isn't literally right there. I also like the ability to see an enemy levels above you in an area, try to fight it, say fuck no, then leave. There were only a few bosses like that, but no common enemies and I think that was to the games detriment.

Oh and the lack of side quests tied directly to the story and factions was disappointing. Felt like there was very little levity to the game. There were moments with the companions, but in the overall game, it always felt uncomfortably tense. And if the devs/writers were going for that, they certainly got it, but it started to get exhausting at the end.

Combat. At first I really disliked the combat. It was way faster than Inquisition and the spaces you fought in were way too fucking small. I got used to it over time, but I miss being able to access more abilities in the ring menu. Having three skills is just so limiting and while I found a good build, the combat really stresses that you use the detonation system or you're going to have a bad time. Which, isn't great if you're forced to use a system. A good combat system is one you should be able to use without any of the extra's built into it. I should be able to use magic or attacks to kill the majority of enemies without issue and detonation and status' should be a bonus and not an absolutely must for every encounter.

The ending. And by ending I mean that shitty slide show. I know all Bioware games do fucking slide shows but . . . what if they didn't for just one game. I'm begging you Bioware. Have like a clean up scene. A party like in Origins. Any fucking thing.

The epilogue. I like how they left it open. I was wondering about a few things. But also, I'm worried that they may do the same thing they did with Andromeda and cancel the fucking DLC when I REALLY WANT THE FUCKING DLC. I want to know what the hell the gathering storm across the fucking sea is. WHAT THE HELL DID THE ORIGINAL QUNARI RUN FROM. WHY DOES NO ONE GO ACROSS THE SEA. WHO WAS THE VOICE I CONTINOUSLY RAN INTO. WHY DID THEY SHAPE EVENTS THIS WAY??? WHAT IS HAPPENING.

There's probably other things I had criticisms about. I've just got a lot of thoughts in my head right now about this game that I'm still taking the time to process through it all.

Listen. This is still a decent game for all of my bitching. Not worth the $90 for the deluxe edition. But a decent game nonetheless. Probably get it on sale. It had some misses and it had some hits but you'll probably have a good time with it if you don't go in with too high of expectations.

Ugh. I need to catch up on stuff and decompress some more.

Edit: Also, just remembered. I don't like that you're forced into a quest that makes a huge choice after gaining a companion. That's really fucked up. There should be a marker on that quest so you know to do everything before then. I didn't and thought I could just pick up a new friend and missed out on some quests because of it because I wanted to get started with friends. The way you get companions dished out to you in this game is very much like mass effect 2 and it is very annoying.

[felassan]

Dragon Age development insights and highlights from Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

Some really tasty factoids here.

Cut for length.

Dragon Age: Origins

The continent of Thedas was at one point going to be named Pelledia, a name initially floated by James Ohlen

“Qunari” was a temporary name that ended up unintentionally sticking, much like “Thedas”

Mary Kirby wrote the Landsmeet. To this day, nobody understands how it works, except possibly her. If she’s “really really drunk” she can explain how it works. There’s as many words in it as Sten’s entire conversations put together

Concept art for Thedosian art - as in in-world art - draws heavily on Renaissance-era portraiture, the Art Nouveau movement, religious styles and media like stained glass, and favorite pieces from the golden age of illustrations in the early 20th century

Andrastianism in-world (art-wise) is depicted in wildly different methods depending on who in-world made the art in question. “One religion, 3 different lenses”. There’s the Chantry take, the Orlesian take and the Fereldan take; each with its own different interpretations, different mediums and different stories

The stained glass images were drawn by Nick Thornborrow for DAI, to decorate religious spaces in that game “and beyond”

irl Viking art influenced Ferelden

Greek and Italian art influenced Orlais

The book also had other insights into and anecdotes from the development of DAO, but I’ve transcribed them recently as they’re essentially the stories DG has recently been relating on the awesome Summerfall Studios DAO playthrough Twitch streams. (On those streams he provides dev commentary while Liam Esler plays through DA. The ones with DG are currently once every two weeks. Check them out! Here’s a calendar where you can check when the next one is) Instead of repeating myself I’ll just provide the link to the first transcript. From there you can navigate to the subsequent parts. Note these streams are ongoing. At this point I will also point you to a related post which is cliff notes of the Dragon Age chapter in Jason Schreier’s book Blood Sweat and Pixels.

Dragon Age II

DAO had the longest development period in BioWare history. In contrast DA2 had the shortest

Initially DA2 was going to be an expansion to DAO. A few months in EA said “Yeah, expansions like these don’t sell very well, so let’s make it a sequel.” So it suddenly became DA2 and they had to make it even bigger, although they still only had 1.5 years of time in which to do this

Production of DA2 officially lasted only 9 months, and at the time the team was still supporting live content for DAO! They finished development that January after the design team crunched all the way through the holiday period that year. Then it went to cert 9 times

The limited time they had is why the story takes place mostly in and around 1 city, and over 7 years (so it was temporal, rather than over physical distance, because a more expansive world would have taken more irl time to make)

They had no time to review even the main plot. Mike Laidlaw pitched the idea of 3 stories taking place at different points in the PC’s life, tied together by Varric’s recollections of events. DG rolled with this and made 1 presentation on the idea. This presentation was then approved and off they went

As they were writing DG realized that there was going to be no oversight and that everything was going to be a ‘first draft’. “Because nobody had time.” He sat down with the writers and said “Look, here’s the conditions we’re working under. A lot of what we’re putting out is gonna be raw. We’re not going to get the editing we need. We’re not going to get the kind of iteration we need. So I’m going to trust you all to do your best work.”

Looking back, DG has mixed feelings on DA2. “A lot of corners were cut. The public perception was that it was smaller than DAO. That’s a sin on its own.”

Despite this he thinks DA2 has some of the best writing in the series, especially character-wise. The DA2 chars are his favorite

The pace with which production progressed may in some ways have helped. “When we do a lot of revision, we often file away [as in buff off] some of the good writing as well. Somehow DA2′s whirlwind process resulted in some really good writing”

The pace meant chars landed on the writers in various stages of completion. For example Isabela was fairly defined due to appearing in DAO. In contrast Varric at the start was just that single piece of widely-shown concept art

Varric was conceived as a storyteller not a fighter. His skills are talking and bullshitting. Hence the question became, so what does this guy do in combat? The direction was to make him as different as possible to Oghren, so not a warrior. He couldn’t be a dual-wielding rogue in order to differentiate him from Bela. But you can’t really picture this guy with a bow. “For a dwarf, it would probably be a crossbow. We didn’t have crossbows, or we only had crossbows for the darkspawn. And they were part of the models. We didn’t have a separate crossbow that was equip-able by the chars. They had to like, crop one off a darkspawn and remodel it. And that became Bianca” (quote: Mary Kirby)

“Dwarven mages are exceedingly rare.” [???]

If DAO was a classic fantasy painting, DA2 was a screenshot from a Kurosawa film or a northern Renaissance painting. (Here Matt Rhodes was commenting on art style)

John Epler: “In any one of our games, there’s a 95% chance that if you turn the camera away from what it’s looking at, you’ll see all kinds of janky stuff. The moment we know the camera is no longer facing someone, we no longer care what happens to them. We will teleport people around. We will jump people around. We will literally have someone walk off screen and then we will shift them 1000 meters down, because we’re fixing some bug.” John also talked about this camera stuff in a recent charity Twitch stream for Gamers For Groceries. There’s a writeup of that stream here

Designing Kirkwall pushed concept artists to the limits of visual storytelling, because it has a long history that they wanted to be present. It was once the hub of Tevinter’s slave empire, so it needed to look brutal and harsh, but it also then needed to feel reclaimed, evolved, and with elements of contemporary Free Marches culture

The initial plan was for DA titles to be distinguished by subtitles not numbers, so that each experience could stand on its own rather than feel like a sequel or continuation. (My note: New PCs in each entry make sense then when you consider this and other factoids we know like how DA is the story of the world not of any one PC). Later, DA2′s name was made DA2 in a bid to more clearly connect the game to its predecessor. For DAI they returned to the original naming convention. (My note: so I’d reckon they’d be continuing the subtitle naming convention for DA4)

DA2 was initially code-named “Nug Storm”, strictly internally

The Cancelled DA2 Expansion - Exalted March

This was a precursor to DAI

It was meant to bridge the gap between DA2 and DAI

It focused on the fallout from Kirkwall’s explosion, with Cory serving as the villain

Meredith’s red lyrium statue was basically going to infest Kirkwall and it would end up [with what would end up] the red templars taking over Kirkwall and essentially being Cory’s army

To stop him Hawke would have recruited various factions, including Bela’s Felicisima Armada and the Qunari at Estwatch, forcing Hawke to split loyalties and risk relationships in the process

It was meant to bring DA2′s story to an end and end in Varric’s death. DG was very happy with this because all of DA2 is Varric’s tale. The expansion was supposed to start at the moment Cassandra’s interrogation of him ended in the present. “And we finished off the story with Varric having this heroic death.” It tied things up and would have broken many fan hearts, something BioWare writers notoriously enjoy. But between a transition to the new Frostbite engine and the scope of DAI, the decision was made to cancel EM, work any hard-to-lose concepts into DAI, and in the process save Varric’s life. DG has talked about the Varric dying thing before

Concept art for EM explored new areas previously not depicted in the DA universe, with costumes that reflected next steps for familiar chars. Varric was going to war, what would he have worn? With Anders, if he survived DA2, the plan was to present a redeemed Warden

A char that vaguely resembled Sera in DAI was first concepted for EM. This fact was mentioned near this concept art (see the female elf) and this concept art of Bethany with the blond bob

The writers sketched out plans to end it with Hawke having the option to marry their LI. This included alternate ceremonies for party members like Bethany and Sebastian if the player opted not to wed. There was even a wedding dress made for Hawke. This asset made it into DAI (Sera and Cullen’s weddings in Trespasser). The dress can also be seen in DAI during an ambient NPC wedding after completing a chain of war table missions

The destruction of a Chantry was explored in concept art as it might have happened in EM. This idea ended up carrying over to the beginning of DAI. (My note: Lol, the idea that DA2 could have had 2 Chantries being destroyed in it 😆)

World of Thedas

Sheryl Chee and Mary Kirby started with “a disgusting little dish called fluffy mackerel pudding”. In the middle of DAO’s busy dev period one of them (they can’t remember who) found a recipe online for this, scanned in from a 70s cookbook. “I don’t understand why it was fluffy. Why would you want fluffy mackerel pudding?” MK says. “We loved it so much we included it in a DAO codex.”

This led them to create more food for Thedas, full recipes included, like a Fereldan turnip and barley stew from MK and SC’s Starkhaven fish and egg pie. The fish pie became Sebastian’s favorite. “To me it made sense for it to be fish pie because a lot of the Free Marches are on the coast”, SC says, “It was something that was popular in medieval times, so I thought, let’s make a fish pie! I looked at medieval recipes and I concocted a fish pie which I fed to my partner, and he was like ‘This is not terrible’”

For WoT the whole studio was asked to contribute family recipes which might have a place in Thedas. SC adapted these to fit in one Thedosian culture or another, including a beloved banana bread that localization producer Melanie Fleming would regularly bake to keep the DA team motivated. “Melanie’s banana bread got us through Inquisition”

DAI

It says part of DAI takes place in or near the border with Nevarra [???]

This game was aimed to be bigger than DA2 and even DAO in every conceivable way

The first hour had to do a lot of heavy lifting, tying together the events of DAO and DA2 while introducing a new PC, new followers etc in the aftermath of the big attack. DG rewrote it 7 times then Lukas Kristjanson did 2 more passes

DG: “Our problem is always that our endings are so important, but we leave them to last, when we have no time. I kept pushing on DAI: ‘Can we work on the ending now? Can we work on the ending now? Can we do it early on?’ Because I knew exactly what it was going to be. But despite the fact that it kept getting scheduled, whenever the schedule started falling behind, it kept getting pushed back... so, of course, it got left til last again.”

“The reveal of the story’s real antagonist, Solas, a follower until the end, when he betrayed the player”. “Solas’ story remains a main thread in Inquisition’s long-awaited follow-up” [these aren’t DG quotes, just bits of general text]

Over the course of development they had 8 full-time writers and 4 editors working on it. Other writers joined later to help wrangle what ended up being close to 1 million words of dialogue and unspoken text. While many teams moved to a more open concept style of work for DAI, the writers remained tucked away in their own room, a choice DG says was necessary, given how much they talked. All the talking had a purpose ofc as if someone hit a bump or wall in their writing they would open the problem up to the room

As writing on a project like DAI progresses, the writers grow punchier and weirder things make it into the game. This is especially the case towards the end of a project (they get tired, burned out)

Banter and codexes require less ‘buy-in’ (DG has talked about this concept a few times on the Twitch streams) from other designers. DG liked to leave banter for last as a reward because it was fun. Banter begins as lists of topics for 2 followers to discuss. These may progress over time or be one off exchanges. One banter script can balloon to well over 10k words. “The banter was always huge because we were always like, laughing, and really at that point, our fields of fucks were rather barren, so we would just do whatever”

The bog unicorn happened pretty much by accident. It was designed by Matt Rhodes and was one of his fav things to design. They needed horse variations and he had already designed an undead variant which was a bog mummy [bog body]. irl these are preserved in a much different way to traditional mummies. When someone dies in a bog their skin turns black and raisin-like. The examples we know of tend to have bright red hair for whatever reason. It’s a very striking look and MR wanted to do a horse version of this as he thought it’d be neat. 5 mins before the review meeting for it he had a big ‘Aha!’ moment, quickly looked up a rusty old Viking sword, and photoshopped it through its skull like that was how it died. “And I was like, ‘I just made a unicorn. Alright, in it goes!’” It got approved. “So we built the thing. It fit. It told a little story”

With the irl Inquisition longsword, one of the objects they tested its cleaving ability on was a plush version of Leliana’s nug Schmooples

The concept art team explored a wide variety of visuals for the Inquisitor’s signature mark. It needed to look powerful and raw but couldn’t look like a horrific wound. In some cases, as cool as the idea looked on paper, they just weren’t technically feasible, especially as they had to be able to fit on any number of different bodies

Bug report: “Endlessly spawning mounts! At one point during development, Inquisitors could summon a new horse every time they whistled, allowing them to amass a near infinite number of eager steeds that faithfully followed them across Thedas. “You could go charging across levels and they’d all gallop behind you,” Jen Cheverie says, “It was beautiful.” Trotting into town became an epic horse siege as a tidal wave of mounts enveloped the streets. Jen called it her Army of Ponies”

The giants came from DA Week, an internal period when devs can pursue different individual creative projects that in some way benefit DA. They also had a board game from one of these that they were going to put in but they didn’t have time. It’s referenced though. It was dwarven chess

Josie’s outfit is made of gold silk and patterned velvet, with leather at her waist. She carries “an ornate ledger” and she has “an ornamented collar sitting around her neck, finished by a brilliant red ruby, like a drop of Antivan wine in a sunbeam”

Iron Bull’s armor is leather. His loose pantaloons and leather boots give him agility to charge

On DAI in particular, concept artists took special care to make sure costumes would be realistic, at least in a practical ‘this obeys the laws of physics and textiles’ sense. “While on Inquisition, we thought about cosplay from a concept art perspective. Given how incredible a lot of [cosplays] are, I now am not worried about them. In fact in some cases in the future I want to throw them curveballs like, ‘All right, you clever bastards. Let’s see if you can do this!’”

2 geese that nested on the office building and had chicks were named Ganders and Arishonk (it wasn’t known who was the mom or the dad). Other possible names were Carver Honke, Bethany Honke, Urdnot Pecks, Quackwall, Cassandra Pentagoose, the Iron Bill, Shepbird, Garroose, Admiral Quackett, Scout Honking, HChick-47 and Darth Malgoose

Bug report: “The surprising adventures of Ser Noodles!” DAI was the first time the series had a mount feature, meaning this had a lot of bugs. A lot of the teams’ favorite bugs were to do with the mounts. There was a period of time where the Inquisitor’s horse seemed to lose all bone and muscle in its legs. They had a week or so where all quadruped legs were broken. It was a bit noticeable in things like nugs and other small beasties but the horse was insanely obvious. “The first time we summoned the horse [for this] and started running around, the entire QA exploration room just exploded with laughter.” Its legs flapped around like cooked fettucine, leading testers to lovingly nickname it Ser Noodles. At galloping speeds the legs almost looked like helicopter blades, especially when footage was set to classic pieces such as Wagner’s Flight of the Valkyries

For DAI the artists were asked questions like “What would Morrigan wear to a formal ball? Can Cassandra pull off a jaunty hat?”

On DAI storyboarding became the norm. John Epler: “Cinematic design for the longest time was the Wild West. It was ‘here’s a bunch of content, now do it however you want’, which resulted in some successes and some failures.” Storyboarding gave designers a consistent visual blueprint based on ideas from designers, writers and concept artists

Quote from a storyboard by Nick Thornborrow (the Inquisitor going into the party at the end of basegame sequence): “Until Corypheus revealed himself they could not see the single hand behind the chaos. A magister and a darkspawn combined. The ultimate evil. So evil. Eviler than puppy-killers and egg farts combined.”

A general note on concept art:

In the early stages of any project, before the concept artists are aware of any writing, they like to just draw what they think cool story moments could be. It’s not unusual for the team to then be inspired by these and fold them into the game as the project progresses

– From Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

[emblemxeno]

JP vs. Localization in Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation

(Okay, for real this time lol)

Again, here’s a link to my sources post.

Fortunately, this route follows suit in terms of good localization quality after Conquest. It’s the shortest out of all the posts, since I don’t really have a lot to talk about. Mostly subtle line changes, references and a few key points of information that were cut out. I also went through Hidden Truths and Heirs of Fate to see if I could add stuff from those on here, but there were no big problems that I found.

Once again, the main part of this post will all be put under the cut. If a chapter isn’t covered, it means I didn’t think there were any differences worth talking about.

I’ll use localized names for characters and locations, unless I feel the need to do otherwise.

I’ll be using she/her when referring to Corrin in this post. (I flipped a coin to decide the gender lol)

Also, note that after Chapter 14, the translation of this route on Fateswartable ends, so I mostly relied on the English patch done by Serenes at that point forward. (I also used PegasusKnight.com as a reference to fall back on if I needed it)

Chapter 7

-A minor gripe I have with localization. The JP version compares Touma (Valla) to hell constantly. To jump ahead a bit, I believe in the JP versions of the End of All Sky/Land/Below tracks are even called The End of All Roads Heaven/Earth/Hell. The Vallites are also often called demons in the JP version, and Anankos himself is known as the ‘Invisible Demon Dragon’.

Another cool thing I just thought of too, is a connection to a popular Japanese short story. Zelda fans might be familiar with the story, “The Spider’s Thread”, which inspired the Ancient Cistern dungeon in Skyward Sword.

The beginning of the story has Buddha walking through paradise (heaven), before coming across a pond. The pond is filled with crystal clear water, and covered with water lilies/lotuses. As Buddha gazes further into the pond, he begins to see the depths of hell.

Sound familiar? “Azura is walking through Hoshido, before coming across a lake. The lake is filled with crystal clear water, and when she gazes into the lake she sees the fallen kingdom of her birth. Valla, the kingdom associated with water lilies/lotuses in the game, has been turned into hell itself.”

This association loses its meaning a bit when the comparisons to hell are a bit toned down, as well as when the Buddhist inspirations were kind of supplanted in favor of Greek renames. It’s not supremely important to the plot as a whole, but it’s something interesting I wanted to bring up.

-In the JP version, while explaining what happened in Valla, Azura eventually says “Using the art of manipulating people’s souls, he (Hydra/Anankos) made the people kill each other.” This bit of the people killing each other was cut in localization.

Chapter 12

-In the JP version, when Corrin asks Flora if she knows anything about dragons, Flora says “Sorry, I don’t know…The ancestral dragon of the Ice Clan has already perished and isn’t part of the legend. I don’t know what role it plays, sorry…” Localization makes her response “I'm sorry, but I can't think of anything... They've been gone so long that we don't even have tales of dragons in the Ice Tribe. I'm sorry I couldn't be of more assistance...”

So, the JP version explicitly says the Ice Dragon is dead (I believe Fates’ second artbook mentioned this as well), whereas the localization only says the First Dragons have been gone for a long time.

Chapter 16

-There’s not really much of a problem that I have with what Ryoma says about Corrin “having leadership qualities at a young age” but I wanted to do comparisons regardless cuz the word choice might lead one to different conclusions. In localization, Ryoma says this:

Ryoma: Huh... So she told us the same thing... I don't think it's in Corrin's nature to lie. And there's a leadership quality about her that just attracts followers. I remember being jealous of her as a child, in fact. Even at such a young age, she displayed the characteristics of a ruler. Silly to be jealous of her, right?

In the JP version, Ryoma says this:

Ryoma: Oh... So, she told you the same thing. …Corrin isn’t one to tell lies. She’s been like that since childhood. She’s always genuine and honest... She has this mysterious appeal that draws people to her. Seeing my younger sister with the qualities of being a ruler... Honestly, it makes me feel envious. …What a ridiculous thing to say, right?

Again, I don’t necessarily have a problem with how it was localized, but some might. The localization version might have people think that Corrin somehow was a fantastic leader at such a young age, but JP is more clear that it was about the qualities she had at a young age that would be valuable as a leader.

Chapter 19

-A minor gripe. In the localization, Azura says that Anankos uses his magic to send Vallites to Nohr and Hoshido to stir up conflict. In the JP version, she says he uses magic, along with the help of a body of water. That’s why whenever you fight Vallites outside of Valla proper, there’s a body of water nearby; Hoshido’s lake (and the ponds shown in Hinoka’s CQ battle which are in the capital) for Chapter 5, the sea for BR chapter 11, the burning falls for BR chapter 21, and the city for Rev chapter 13. Similarly, the consequences of being a victim to the curse are described as “turning into sea foam” in the JP version. Localization as a whole kind of toned down how much water has an influence on the story.

Chapter 23

-Probably the pettiest gripe I have lol. As Arete is fading away from Azura’s arms, Azura has a different reaction in localization and Japanese. In localization, Azura says “Mother? Mother!” while a voice clip of her in-battle pain cries plays. In the JP, she says  “*Sob... Sob*…! Mother... Mother...!”, while a voice clip of her crying plays. Her crying voice clip I don’t recall hearing anywhere else.

This is one of the few times in the you get to see Azura express a heavy and heartfelt emotion, since her rough childhood caused her to remain guarded and stoic around everyone. The equivalents to this scene in other routes is her death scene in Birthright, and her crying with Corrin over Ryoma’s death in Conquest; a normally unflinching and aloof character breaking down is a rarity, and indicates that the cause of it is something to take note of for the character as a whole. Localization softened this aspect, and I take issue with it, despite it probably seeming trivial to most other people.

Chapter 24

-When Corrin is questioning the phantom Mikoto, an exchange happens. In localization, part of it goes like this:

Corrin: But this can't be... Are you truly my mother?

Mikoto: I am. Even as a puppet of Anankos, my spirit at least remains my own.

Corrin: I... I believe you.

In the JP version, it goes like this:

Corrin: It can’t be... …Are you really my mother?

Mikoto: Yes... I became an Invisible servant, controlled by the Invisible King... Even so, I am your mother.

Corrin:  …………

Again, a minor thing that I don’t personally have issue with, but replacing Corrin’s silence with an admittance of belief could make some believe she has “reverted” back to being too naïve.

Chapter 26

-While Gunter is relaying his past, an exchange happens. In localization, it goes like this:

Gunter: I ask myself that, every day. I cannot understand the minds of royals. To you all, we commoners are little more than pawns in your schemes... Or weeds to be killed on a whim.

Corrin: That's not true...

Xander: Is that how people view the royalty?

Ryoma: Such an impression would easily breed powerful resentment...

In the JP version, Corrin, Xander and Ryoma don’t say anything. They just remain silent.

Endgame

-Not a major problem so much as a general thing about the game, but I can think of like... at least three memes that Treehouse inserted into the localization. Now I like memes, but there is no better way to date your media nowadays. One of them was Kana’s “That’s dragon for I love you” which tbh, is kind of cute and isn’t the most well known meme so I guess I can let it slide. Another is Felicia saying “I had one job!” when she messes up in the dining hall, which isn’t that big of a deal since the dining hall is very optional.

The last one I can think of is why I put this specific grievance here, and it’s during Corrin’s speech before facing Anankos.

Corrin: We won't back down! This is my... This is our destiny! Ready your weapons! Fight for your friends! With the Seal of Flames... With the Fire Emblem on our side! We fight for our world!!

Yeah, she says “Fight for your friends” which is everyone’s favorite Ike line from Brawl. Now, this isn’t even a totally inaccurate translation either, but it kind of just... makes the moment funny for the player when it’s supposed to be commanding and serious I guess.

But yeah, not the most important issue by far, but something I’d thought to mention. Hell, it’s not even that bad compared to how they made Peri’s, Effie’s and Hisame’s quirks into exaggerated and tired jokes. And the Beruka-Saizo support. Never forget.

-When Azura and Corrin are by the lake and discuss the latter’s plans to rule, Corrin says this in localization:

Corrin: I'm going to make Valla a wonderful place! In honor of the true last king and for Queen Arete. And everyone who fought... I promise to make them all proud.

In the JP version, she says this:

Corrin: I’ll make the Invisible Kingdom (Valla) into a great land. For the previous monarch, Queen Shenmei (Arete)… And for all of my allies who fought beside me. I promise.

So, JP version only mentions Arete as the reigning monarch of Valla. Which makes sense, cuz unless there was some wild “keeping the bloodline pure” shenanigans in Valla, Arete being the Queen keeps in line with what we know about the rest of Valla’s history. Arete was royalty from birth, as was her sister Mikoto. Arete is the one who passed down Lost in Thoughts and the pendant to Azura.  

[thesleepiesthufflepuff]

My Favorite Fics 2020

Alrighty. I read a decent amount of fanfiction this year (mostly thanks to Wizards Hearts/Game of Drarry), and I’m here to list out some of my very favorites. Thank you to all of the creators out there who put so much time, effort, and energy into creating beautiful stories, and here’s to lots of reading in the new year 💜 also, this is in no particular order and all rec notes are from my personal fic tracker spreadsheet (if anyone wants details on how I set up my spreadsheet, etc. please feel free to send an ask!) 💕

1) Change on the Horizon by Static_abyss / @static-abyss [Explicit, 118.6k,]

When things settle down after the war, Harry has trouble figuring out who he’s supposed to be and what’s expected of him. At the same time, Draco finds himself having to decide between what his parents want and what he wants for himself. Together, Harry and Draco embark on a journey to figure out who they are as individuals and what that means for their future together.

A canon AU drarry fic based on the relationship between Mickey and Ian from Shameless.

Hands down one of the best fics I've ever read. Ana did the most amazing job at translating Micky and Ian's relationship to Harry and Draco, although it’s definitely not necessary to know Shameless in order to enjoy the story. The writing is stunning, and I loved every single bit of this

2) I’ll Play Your Game by JayseHasNoGrace [Mature, 52.2k]

After quitting the Auror department at the ripe old age of twenty two, Harry Potter finds a nice, uneventful job in an apothecary. At least, it's uneventful until his old rival Draco Malfoy comes into the shop.

They strike up an unlikely friendship, which evolves into an increasingly convoluted scheme, which then snowballs spectacularly out of control into a tangle of lies and blurred lines.

They'd agreed to a fake relationship — in Harry's case, to get the wizarding world to take him off his 'perfect saviour' pedestal, and in Draco's case, just to be given a chance in wizarding society at all — but neither of them expected just how difficult that might really turn out to be. Especially when the stakes grow ever higher, and they both start falling for each other. Just a little bit.

FAKE DATING!!! Ugh, this was so good. I love the media aspect of it, and the way that everything comes together is just brilliant. A must-read for anyone who loves fake dating!!

3) I Can be Your Lighthouse by orpheous87 / @orpheous87 [Teen, 4k]

When Harry gets called to investigate reports of Dark magic, the last thing he expects to find is an almost unconscious Draco Malfoy. After multiple instances, he resolves to find out what's going on.

inspired by the song The Lighthouse by The Used.

So, so sweet. I love Harry's determination to figure out what's going on. This is such a lovely fic, and I enjoyed every minute of it

4) Freedom to be by Quicksilvermaid / @quicksilvermaid [Explicit, 169.5k]

Harry Potter is the Boy Who Lived.

12 years after the war, he's become the Boy Who Lived For Everyone Else. He has the perfect wife. The perfect house. The perfect job. The perfect friends.

Only nothing feels perfect.

Until one day he stumbles across a club called Release and begins a journey of self-discovery that takes him to a very different place.

This left such an impact on me, and it’s a fic I think about often. I can't even begin to explain how incredible everything about this is.

5) Dear Diary by AWickedMemory (TeddyLaCroix) [Teen, 20.4k]

// This can’t possibly go worse than the last time I kept a diary. //

After the war, Harry picks up a journal to write in… and it writes back. Luckily, it’s not a Horcrux on the other end this time.

Absolutely amazing. The relationship that develops between Harry and Draco as they write to each other was so soft and wonderful, and I would easily read 100k of this!

6) Grounds for Divorce by Tepre [Explicit, 122.2k]

Malfoy finds a coin. Harry finds a letter.

A story about histories, a story about families. A story about a lemon tree somewhere in Upper Egypt.

I loved this. It was so angsty at times, but well worth it. An absolute classic that I’m so pleased to be able to say I’ve read.

7) Nero Su Bianco by Zuzallove [Explicit, 40.5k]

September 1997. Hogwarts is under the regime of Voldemort and the Carrows. Finding himself alienated by both his friends and his supposed enemies, Draco puts quill to parchment, and writes letters. He addresses them to the only person he can think of, as Hogwarts rapidly falls into chaos and ruin: Harry Potter. He goes to great lengths to ensure the letters are never discovered, and he’s pretty certain he’s done a great job.

Until the day of his trial.

The letters were so much fun to read, even though they were heartbreaking at times. I loved Draco’s characterization in this, as well as how his relationship develops with Harry.

8) Thunder by Keyflight790 [Explicit, 21.5k]

The storm will disappear; the rain will subside; but what's left in its wake will last forever. A story of love and loss, redemption and thunder

I really loved how well Draco's addiction was written. I'm not a huge fan of past relationships, but this was done in such a beautiful way. Plus, talking to dragons!!!

9) dirtynumbangelboy by magpie_fngrl [Explicit, 39.4k]

After Harry’s unfortunate encounter with his ex, Draco Malfoy makes him a proposition. Draco wants his parents to stop matchmaking him and Harry wants to make his ex jealous. All they need to do is simply pretend they’re in love. Problem is… Draco already is.

Amazing. This has absolutely sucked me into the world of fake dating. I could ramble about this forever, to be honest. Simply incredible, and I love how snarky their relationship was. It was the epitome of a good Drarry fic.

10) just tell me when it’s alright by M0stlyVoid / @bonesliketambourines [Explicit, 23k]

Harry’s been fighting tooth and nail for any bit of normalcy he can get his hands on. He’s sick of feeling like something’s wrong with him, tired of feeling different. He thinks he’s finally gotten to the root of it, and has settled into a routine that makes him happy. Naturally, that’s when Draco Malfoy walks back into his life and upends it once again. Has Harry bitten off more than he can chew with his former rival?

YES!! I genuinely loved Harry’s clinginess. This fic was absolutely amazing, and the secret dating was lovely. Plus, bi awakening!!

11) When Hippogriffs and Pygmy Puffs Collide by oldenuf2nb [Mature, 32.7k]

Harry Potter bakes cakes, brilliantly. Draco Malfoy inks tattoos, brilliantly. Owls deliver post, including messages from clients, with an occasional lack of brilliance.

I was really surprised at how much I loved this, especially since I’ve not really read many fics with odd jobs. I absolutely adored the fact that Harry was a baker and Draco was a tattoo artist, and the characterizations were absolute perfection

12) You Send Me (Honest You Do) by firethesound [Explicit, 37k]

As far as potion accidents go in general, and deaging incidents go in particular, Draco knew this could have been so much worse. Harry only lost about ten years, and all his memories are still intact. But the sight of him looking as if he’s stepped straight out of Draco’s Hogwarts memories has dredged up a whole mess of complicated feelings Draco thought he’d buried years ago, and Draco really doesn’t know what to do with any of it.

I absolutely adored this, and I thought the de-aging aspect was done is such a tasteful way. Such a good read.

13) Highly (in)Compatible by daisymondays [Teen, 36.8k]

Draco’s been shagging The Prat Who Lived on and off for a few months when his soul mark starts to change. Draco’s had to accept a lot of adjustments to his life, but accepting that Harry Potter could be his soulmate is one step too far. It can’t be true? Can it?

I LOVED THIS! Oh man, that ending!  Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant

14) Kiss the Joy (Until the Sun Rise) by ICMezzo [Mature, 37.8k]

The Room of Requirement was severely damaged in the war, but not so much that it could not provide for one lost student and another young hero—especially when they needed each other most of all.

An amazing, beautiful, tender fic! The ROR has given them the gift of each other, and I honestly love that it's just the two of them and no other characters. An incredible and soft read

15) December Never Felt So Wrong by MaesterChill / @maesterchill [Explicit, 50k]

'Twas the month before Christmas and sixteen year old Draco Malfoy had never felt worse. His attempts to kill Dumbledore were failing and, as usual, Harry Fucking Potter was a constant thorn in his side.

All that suddenly changed when Draco woke up 15 years in the future and discovered that not only was he allegedly shagging Harry Fucking Potter, he also had thinning hair and a five year old son, and no fucking clue how he got there.

Truly brilliant, and I was laughing from the start. The combination of the aging up, Harry’s off-tune singing to Muggle songs, and soft parenthood were all things I immediately fell in love with. Will be reading again and again

16) Catch Me If I Fall by keeli_marie [Explicit, 38.2k]

When Draco Malfoy collides with Harry Potter one morning while dropping the kids off at school, things don’t go quite the way either of them would have expected.

Another absolute gem, and I'm still reeling from how amazing it was. I'm always a bit hesitant with kid fics, but this is one of the best depictions of love between Harry and Draco that I've read. I love how supportive Astoria is. Such a lovely fic  

16) Love Found by Peachpety / @peachpety [Explicit, 7.5k]

During Harry’s sixth year, Draco Malfoy joins the Order as a double-agent and continues with his task to get the Death Eaters into the castle as assigned by Voldemort. Draco succeeds with his mission the evening Harry returns from the caves with Dumbledore. The boys reunite on the Astronomy Tower and, with the Death Eater’s arrival, are forced to engage in a fight, driving Harry to come to terms with his feelings about true friendship and romantic love.

SUCH a good rewrite of the astronomy tower scene. I can’t describe how much I love the pre-existing relationship, which is a trope I typically steer clear from. And the snark!!! Such a good fucking fic

17) Taro Milk Tea with a side of Depression by Veelawings / @veelawings [Mature, 1k]

Draco sat through twenty grievous minutes of Ministry-mandated group therapy for Newly Registered Magical Beings & Creatures — then promptly stormed out.

Okay, I loved this. The play format was so cool and fit the narration so well. Absolute perfection and SO. GOOD.

18) The Dragon At The Bottom Of The Garden by Zopno [Explicit, 52.3k]

At 25 Harry Potter's life was simple; he flew, sculpted, and had the vault in the back of his mind to keep all unpleasant business. It was stable, but when Draco Malfoy literally hit him with a giant rock; all that changed.

I loved the storyline, especially Animagus bird Harry!! This was such a unique take on an Animagus and post-war fic, and I loved reading it so much   

19) Exposure by GallaPlacidia [Mature, 26.9k]

When Seamus uncovers Draco Malfoy's camboy profile, he, Harry and Ron decide to anonymously book a private show so as to humiliate him later. Fascinated by Draco's confidence, Harry keeps booking private shows under the disguise...

Self prompt: Draco is a camboy. Harry betrays him.

I can't give this enough praise. The hurt of it all was so brilliant. A new favorite for sure

20) you've got the antidote for me by Kandakicksass [Mature, 20.7k]

When Harry Potter unintentionally severs their soulbond before it can fully form, Draco Malfoy resigns himself to a slow death and decides not to burden Harry with a soulmate he's made it very clear he doesn't want.

He's never been selfless before, but for Harry, he can try.

Fuck. Like...fuck. This was so sad and angsty and perfect in all the right ways. Watching everything unfold was so painful but so worth it. Another new favorite

21) A Room Up There (And You In It) by thestarryknight [Teen, 59.2k]

When Preservationist Draco Malfoy was assigned to work on Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, he was excited to delve into the gorgeous Black family antiques. His excitement quickly ended when something in the House decided it did not like his presence one bit. Featuring a grumpy antiques lover who most certainly did not sign up for this, encounters with a vengeful apparition, and a healthy application of Christmas spirit.

Absolutely fucking fantastic. This fic reads intimacy all over, despite there being no sex. I love preservationist Draco and the way in which information about Harry unfolds. I can’t say enough how much I loved this advent fic, and Starry did such a great job

And now for three fics that I have yet to read/need to emotionally prepare myself for:

1) Modern Love by Tackytiger / @tackytigerfic [Explicit, 61.2k]

Harry Potter, of all people, knows that life isn’t always fair. And no one gets to be happy all of the time. But surely there’s something more—something better—than a rubbish Ministry job, and a lonely old house, and that feeling that everyone out there is doing a better job of living than Harry is.

And it really doesn’t seem fair that Draco Malfoy is back in Harry’s life, all of a sudden, and even though he’s wandless, and living with Muggles, and making his mother cry with his lifestyle choices, he’s happy. So what's he doing right, that Harry isn’t?

Because things don’t really change, do they? And if Harry can’t be happy, he’ll settle for a good night’s sleep, some posh antiques, and the opportunity to find out what Malfoy has been up to for all these years.

And that’s what starts it all.

2) Dragons Don't Know Paradise by  tainara_black / @teacup-tai [Explicit, 50.9k]

In 2004, when Remus spends two scary weeks in the ITU due to complications of pneumonia and his HIV condition, Sirius walks around the house like a ghost and Harry finds comfort and strength in Draco through a chat in an online LGBT forum. Harry falls for him, but Draco has a lot of secrets and, before long, will need to come clean—even if he believes that no one is able to understand a dragon.

This is a story about falling in love online and about facing the reality of death, but above all, this is a story about hope, finding love and acceptance. (Non-magical / bookshop AU, written for the 25 days of Drarry 2020)

3) Aeternus Solem by onbeinganangel / @onbeinganangel [Explicit, 36.9k]

On December 1st, Harry Potter gets sent halfway across the world to attempt to break a possibly fatal curse on an unnamed British Unspeakable — except said Unspeakable is not unnamed at all and Harry has been in love with him for over four years.

{If anyone spots any mistakes in this list, PLEASE let me know! I hope you all have a lovely New Year’s, and may 2021 be less of a dumpster on fire than its predecessor 💜}

[szlolla]

Dear My Candy Love...

19/03/2012 (d/m/y) I created my first and only account in my candy love (amor doce), when I was eleven years old. Now, nine years later, the series is about to end and I have mixed feelings about it. It's bittersweet to see something you love become "weird", as if it is not for you anymore, but I realize the game was not meant to grow with us.

When I played it for the first time, I could see myself in Candy even though I was not in High School. And that is what the game is about. Most of the things she said, did or even suffered I could relate, but now as a college student I can't say the same. Not only because it is too fictional, but how the game limits us and it becomes less something about choices and more about simply dating... And it is okay, because this is what the teens expect about life.

In HSL, me and Candy had the same struggles: making friends; dealing with bullying and some serious, yet not extreme, topics; understanding our own feelings; and even school projects were a little similar. All the boys were somehow interesting for us, in their own ways, personalities and hobbys. It was a little stereotypical, yes, and yet so fun! When all friends gathered together at Iris' house I felt that so deep and cool and in real life I was doing the same thing!

In 2018 University Life launched and with it the worst choice by beemov: change the AP system. Also, the second worst choice came and I was shook: change 3/5 of the LIs. The most popular ones, Nath and Cass, stayed and it is no surprise, but Armin, Lysandre and Kentin just went poof. Do not get me wrong, I know things like that happen all the time, but some people literally paid so they could have clothes, images and even action figures of their favorite LIs. I consider this the start of the downfall, and I know many people do too.

I did not play UL until 2019, when I got accepted in College, and... well, it is bad. Here on tumblr the community created their own OCs from the game, and seeing so many personalities and choices I knew UL would not live up to this. It is hard for a game to have this many possibilities, but after years and years of HSL I really think it was just beemoov's laziness. UL is a money maker, LL as well, and I am not afraid to say that. The game did not stepped up on anything, the writing did not grow and the extreme slow pacing (if you don't buy APs) makes UL and LL "experience" something close to watch a slice of bread mold.

The new LIs aren't a problem to me, except Hyun 'cause that outfit is just horrendous and he wears it 24/7 (just imagine a Mc Donalds worker using the uniform always). I just can't relate anymore to Candy, and her story is not thrilling. I am in episode 14 and basically nothing relevant happened, except finally kissing my LI. Priya and Hyun are so boring as just friends, while Nath has a truly dramatic plot and Cassy, well, he is even more charming as a true rockstar. Candy, Rosa and Armin became a friendship painful to watch, as they just text to talk about study and even if it is something more than that it is forgettable (ik Rosa suffered, I am talking about before that, and by the way it is a crime they did not give us any image of the three together at Rosa's apartment lol). A total of one image (the one from ep 9, so it is just.... well, a dream) feature Chani, and she is basically an angel and the best girl for helping Candy since day one. To summarize, nothing really matters except our crush... and for a old game with a strong playerbase, it could be more than just a dating simulator.

I did not play LL, but.... damn, I kinda don't want to so I cannot say much to be honest.

So, just to wrap it up: personally, I think the game didn't really grow to pace with us, older players, but if the player is still young it is very enjoyable - specially HSL. I might cry enough to fill up a bucket when it is officially over hahaha (even tho I will truly play the final episode next year due this stupid ap system djsdjsd)

Just to add: I am truly grateful for all the love I received here, from followers to drawings and asks! Thank you! I will not delete this Tumblr, probably just make it something more personal (I slowly am by reposting things from other games lol)

I feel I cannot express myself enough in my second language, so I will cut here and everything else is in Portuguese.

DESGRAÇA de empresa fudida ruim do caralho estragou o jogo que eu amei desde os meus onze anos INFERNOOOOOOOO

O HSL é lindo do jeito que é, mesmo com seus defeitos. Jogar o UL é comparável a comer um tijolo, nem consigo imaginar o LL e talvez a cria de 6 cabeças que vai ser o próximo jogo da beemoov. Todo o orçamento do UL/LL foi pro Eldarya e ngm vai me provar o contrário.......

O UL dá um sentimento de fanfic escrita por uma menina de 14 anos: nenhum personagem secundário importa, nenhum evento é relevante para a história e tudo ronda em um relacionamento rushado.

Mas a real é que o jogo já não é mais pras pré-históricas como eu que esperam um plot coerente em tudo... Mas que o HSL é mais bem elaborado que o UL e LL juntos é inegável.

Chani foi injustiçada para um caralho qnd a beemoov nao botou a lenda em nenhuma imagem real no UL. Carregou a do7 nas costas desde o ep 1 junto com a outra lenda Yeleen.

A Ambre, a garota do saco de batatas, amadureceu mais que a docete... outra lenda, mas essa ao menos apareceu em algumas imagens.

Kim não ser um LI nao faz sentido com a minha fantasia....

Acho que é isso....... Estou em estado catatônico e só um novo Dragon Age pra me reviver.

[lochnessies]

I mean to be fair to edelgard, if I found out the popes/president were actually one guy who lived basically forever, I'd probably at the very least question thus popeident's leadership skills. Especially if I found out that a good portions of this hypothetical popes religion was fake and that also this pope was basically jesus. Granted, that'd mostly because of a lack of context since this hypothetical immortal popes motives are largely unknown.

Like without the context of her motives, Rhea CAN seen in a pretty negative light. She suddenly goes from a mother/grandmother/wife/daughter who's got issues and is trying to protect her relatives and fodlann with her position while trying to turn some homuncili into her mom, to a dragon lady who's been in head of a major religion that she made up for centuries who actively stiffled/slowed down fodlann's scientific/academic growth for unknown reasons.

Like if you didn't know about Rhea's whole deal, she'd look pretty suspiscious. This isn't me saying "edelgard completely right church bad! Rhea is evil!".

I'm more trying to say Edelgard was SORT of right in being suspiscious of everyones favorite lizard pope, but jumped to WAY too fast onto the conclusion of "The church is definitely evil, because crest=bad and crest=blessings of the goddess, therefore church=bad!"

Rhea WORST 'crime' at most as leader of the church is that she was pretty passive as leader of the church. Like, apart from trying to keep the peace as a whole and hiding technology for a while until she decided (maybe arbitrarily maybe not) that humanity was ready for it, she seemed *largely* content with the state of things as a whole. Granted, that strikes me less as her not giving a shit and more just her not knowing about some if the bad shit going on behind the scenes in Fodlann, and her going "Okay yeah thats bad. Buuuut when mom's back she'll be a way better leader and she'll make everything way better than I ever could. Back to studying and researching homunculi children so I can maybe shove my moms soul into one."

That's my take anyway. Basically if Rhea and the lords had a group therapy session a lot of tragedy could have been avoided. Alas therapists don't exist in fire emblem, just look at the various characters with underlying trauma that they havent dealt with.

I mean to be fair to edelgard, if I found out the popes/president were actually one guy who lived basically forever, I'd probably at the very least question thus popeident's leadership skills.

why? wouldn’t their longevity make them better leaders? they have much more experience and know how the world works. i mean, agree with the woman or not, rhea’s results are hard to argue with. 1000 years is an extremely long time to help mitigate peace. our world can’t seem to avoid conflict every half decade it would seem. so it’s not like rhea is doing a bad job of it.

Especially if I found out that a good portions of this hypothetical popes religion was fake and that also this pope was basically jesus. Granted, that'd mostly because of a lack of context since this hypothetical immortal popes motives are largely unknown.

that’s when you have a nice little sit down and have a chat. and also, rhea didn’t make up the religion. it already existed before the war of heroes. all she did was change a couple of details to hide the fact that nabeteans existed and the fact that the elites were mad murderers to keep their descendants safe.

Like without the context of her motives, Rhea CAN seen in a pretty negative light. She suddenly goes from a mother/grandmother/wife/daughter who's got issues and is trying to protect her relatives and fodlann with her position while trying to turn some homuncili into her mom, to a dragon lady who's been in head of a major religion that she made up for centuries who actively stiffled/slowed down fodlann's scientific/academic growth for unknown reasons.

as for the tech thing, i mean, we see most of the tech inside garreg mach itself and nobody acknowledges any bans so it clearly was an extremely long time ago that they were taken down. also, edelgard never mentions these things as her reasons for war (or at all) so i don’t even think she’s aware of them so how could they color her view? like edel canonically doesn’t know about the homunculi so why would she find it sus?

Like if you didn't know about Rhea's whole deal, she'd look pretty suspiscious. This isn't me saying "edelgard completely right church bad! Rhea is evil!".

like i said above, all of rhea’s more suspicious behavior is never mentioned by edelgard. and everybody else in the game seems to like rhea well enough and not find her suspicious and all the crimes edelgard espouses are lies so what even is there that would turn her off from the archbishop other than the ‘beasts hiding in human skin’ thing.

the only character that has real legitimate reasons to not trust rhea due to personal experience and rhea’s extremely suspicious behavior is jeralt which he talks about in his journal. but that’s noting war worthy.

I'm more trying to say Edelgard was SORT of right in being suspiscious of everyones favorite lizard pope, but jumped to WAY too fast onto the conclusion of "The church is definitely evil, because crest=bad and crest=blessings of the goddess, therefore church=bad!"

i’m sure ionius had a hand in this since edel talks about how she has information about the church from him that’s been passed down from emperor to emperor (basically a centuries old game of telephone). what was told? who fucking know. she never says.

Rhea WORST 'crime' at most as leader of the church is that she was pretty passive as leader of the church.

is that the worst crime though? i mean, it’s a damned if you do and a damned if you don’t situation. rhea isn’t a queen, she isn’t an emperor, she’s a spiritual leader. she can’t force people to do anything outside of her staff at garreg mach. hell, she has no presence in adrestia, the western church hates her, and the eastern tries to help in the alliance but the nobles don’t listen to them.

the alternative is for her to grab actual political power and involve herself in the politics of the other nations and make laws that you have to follow the church’s teachings which is… uh… bad. thank goodness she doesn’t bc i wouldn’t be able to defend that lol

Like, apart from trying to keep the peace as a whole and hiding technology for a while until she decided (maybe arbitrarily maybe not) that humanity was ready for it, she seemed *largely* content with the state of things as a whole.

but she isn’t though. that’s why she’s trying to revive sothis in the first place. she isn’t satisfied with how things are and she’s actively trying to being back fodlan’s golden age through sothis.

Granted, that strikes me less as her not giving a shit and more just her not knowing about some if the bad shit going on behind the scenes in Fodlann, and her going "Okay yeah thats bad. Buuuut when mom's back she'll be a way better leader and she'll make everything way better than I ever could. Back to studying and researching homunculi children so I can maybe shove my moms soul into one."

yeah. when it comes to twsitd and them fucking shit up in the background she isn’t aware that it’s them. after the war of heroes the church had tried to uncover who helped nemesis since the church is suspicious of the fact that a simple bandit was able to commit so much horror on his own. they believed that he had accomplices who helped him, and with good reason. however, no matter how hard they looked they never discovered the puppet masters behind everything since twsitd covered their tracks and nobody knows they exist. the church eventually gave up the search in favor of helping the people and tried their best to put the incident behind them. and by the time of the game it’s been over a thousand years so i’m pretty sure that rhea believes them to be dead lol

then like you said at some point rhea starts her plan to fix fodlan through sothis again.

That's my take anyway. Basically if Rhea and the lords had a group therapy session a lot of tragedy could have been avoided. Alas therapists don't exist in fire emblem, just look at the various characters with underlying trauma that they havent dealt with.

very true.

[maleficarum-and-mythal]

Any (or all) of the main DA2 LIs for the character asks?

Oooh ok

Anders:

I'll be honest, I didn't play Awakening before DA2, and I'd heard about a character who pretended to be a Grey Warden (Blackwall). So up until I actually met Anders, I though he was going to be the 'valor-stealing bastard' type of character.

Now though, I think he's a really interesting character! I find him to be one of the more intriguing companions from a thematic standpoint, especially the shift of justice to vengeance.

Favorite moment may be him blowing up the Chantry. Its the culmination of his whole arc through the game, and a really good climax to the whole story.

I've been sitting on making a fic about Anders and my Mage!Hawke, Valorie for a while about their relationship and the moments that built to act 3. Maybe one day I'll sit down and finish it...

Without touching the argument about whether or not Anders was in the right, my most unpopular opinion would probably be that he was kinda obnoxious in Awakening. Like, he was fine mostly, but he had a couple of moments of just being downright annoying or uncomfortable.

My favorite relationship, if it wasn't already obvious, is his relationship with Justice. They just have a really interesting dynamic that you don't get to see very often.

I don't really have any interesting headcanons about Anders. Other than the the Hero of Ferelden is taking care of Ser Pounce-a-Lot for him :)

Fenris:

I think Fenris was the first DA2 companion I heard of. My first impression was something like 'Shonen Protagonist elf with a tragic backstory.' I think I pretty much hit the nail on the head with that one.

Now he's probably one of my favorite companions in Dragon Age in general. I don't really have a good reason for it, I just think hes neat.

Favorite moment is probably his introduction where he rips out the slavers heart. Or maybe his romance scene in Act 3.

Unpopular opinion that Anders and Fenris don't get along, not because of their opinions on the mages, but because Fenris just thinks Anders is obnoxious. (Evidence: "Maybe not all mages are evil, but one in particular is extremely annoying."

A story idea I've had, but not really put much into is Fenris meeting Cole at some point during his travels? It mostly stemmed from the idea of Cole just being like "This bad boy can fit so much fucking TRAUMA" And I've not done much with it other than that.

My favorite relationship is his one with Isabella. I feel like out of all the companions, not only do they get along well, but their banter is just the height of comedy.

My headcanon is that Fenris is dead serious with his insults to Anders, but Anders has just kind of assumed they're jokes.

Merrill:

First impression was just "🥺 Shes so cute!" I was really tempted to jump from Anders romance to hers.

I still absolutely adore her, and still wanna do her romance at some point. But now, I think shes just a really interesting and tragic character. But also going back to origins and doing the dalish origin was just me going "you're not merrill :("

Favorite moment is, and will probably continue to be her quest in Act 3, specifically confronting the clan. Just the absolute sorrow in her voice, and knowing that if the Keeper hadn't sacrificed herself, that could have been Merrill you killed, it hits me so hard every time.

Unpopular opinion that Merrill is actually very capable? I don't really know if this one is unpopular or not, but like, just because Merrill doesn't know human society doesn't make her nayve or stupid.

I've posted a little about this before, but INQUISITOR!MERRILL! I really think this would make for some interesting party dynamics and story beats.

My favorite relationship is, surprise, her relationship with the Keeper. They're just both so stubborn and prideful to the point its almost frustrating to watch at times, but I think the writers did a really good job with them both.

Headcanon that Merrill is just super kind to the whole party (but specifically Anders and Fenris) in spite of how horrible they are to her. Like, she'll bake and leave it on Fenris' doorstep because she doesn't know if he has anything to eat in the mansion. Just. Merrill doing little acts of kindness.

Isabella:

First impression was that I knew she was gonna betray me, but I thought she was cool, so I gave her a pass.

Impression now is that I still think she's cool, but I wish that I could have made my Hawke go with her :(

Favorite moment is her Act 3 friendship scene where she admits that feels shitty for betraying you, and that she wants to be better. We love to see growth.

Unpopular opinion is that I wish Bioware would stop making "sexy" bisexuals/pansexuals (Isabella, Bull, Zevran, etc.) who betray you. Like, this is not a good trope to be continually relying on, not to mention we know they can do better.

I would love to write a story thats just Pirate Isabella shenanagins.

My favorite relationship is hers with a friend/romanced Hawke. Just, seeing how she grows as a person, and really learns to be accountable for her actions is *chef kiss*

Headcanon that Isabella writes regularly to the other party members, even Aveline, because every bisexual needs a found family they would die for.

[thepastelpeach]

Oooo, do you have any hot Dragon Age discourse? For example: They could replace Cullen with a cardboard cutout in every game and it would be an improvement, Zevran wasn’t in DA2 what do you mean, and Hawke and Varric were together the whole time, he just lied to Cassandra to protect them. Discourse is my favorite part of DA because the fandom sort of collectively acknowledges that we love the games but the writers make...questionable choices.

1) i think Cullen is a COWARD cause you cant romance him as a Qunari and only WIMPS would turn away the love from a giant lady(did i romance him anyway despite him lookin like a piece of wet bread? yes, yes i did)

2) idk if this is necessarily discourse but every game that varric isnt a romanceable option in is a game with opportunity WASTED(hot elves n mages with dark pasts? get that SHIT outta here all i need is my short king)

and 3) plz tell me more DA discourse i am so far out of the know but i love these games(specifically DA2)

[juseki-taisen]

Questions about OC’s people make

I’m answering this by a separate post instead of your ask, since not everyone online is friendly, and I would never want to even have a smidge of risk fall onto anyone

Don’t worry, skip to TLDR for a summery 

That kind of idea has been around for a long time. People like making OC’s so they can interact with canon characters, it’s part of the fun! It’s also not unusual for people to try and make their character the star of a series (you see this a lot with characters that tend to be labeled mary/gary stu).

Now I am a BIG LOVER of OC’s and fan characters, and I’ve seen a lot of good/bad/ugly/awesome ones. (I’m also gonna age myself a lot here, so excuse me for that)

This gonna be a long ride, I apologize

Lemme age myself for a moment

Fandoms have had a lot of self insert/or ocs that change the main story line for a long, long, time. A really good example of this is the Naruto fandom (the toxic beast, would not recommend time traveling to join this fandom in the early days they can and will hurt you, but they are better now from what  understand). The biggest example of this is when the original series ended BEFORE the age up arc/shippuuden

A lot of people didn’t like that Sasuke (person A) left the village and never came back in the main series. So, a lot of people (a lot of people who had a crush on person A mainly) made their oc’s alter the timeline to where he stayed.

It doesn’t even have to be this extreme, it can be as easy as wanting to participate in an event that happened in canon and changing it so OC solves the problem and alters the timelines (say to keep a character they really enjoy from dying).

A lot of time this happens because an event happens in canon people don’t like when a character dies, storyline takes a turn no one cares for (LOOKING AT YOU BEASTARS!)). So their OC’s/Self Inserts adjust it to a storyline that the reader/creator enjoys.

Now the problem with this in most fandoms is that there is ONE main storyline.

Example again, Naruto (this fandom wont let me go HELP)

This series is very linear, and there’s not wiggle room implicating there could be more universes/aus.

An example of the opposite is BOTH Voltron (Netflix adaptation) and Dragon Ball

Both series have messing with alternate universes, and timelines. Dragon ball goes a bit extreme and implies in the Xenoverse games there can be infinite alternate realities whereas Voltron implied a butt ton (scientific measurement LOL) of alternate universes.

This is important because adding in big events NOT canon to the timeline is easier since there’s a lot of different universes this COULD have taken place, which leaves the main canon storyline alone and safe.

So if they added say...a sibling of person X or Y, there is the possibility in one of the MANY timelines/realities they could have existed.

This is a problem for MOST series because a lot of fandoms don’t have this, and so adding a character in can become a problem. So most of the times people have to imply it’s an AU character OR add them in anyway for the sake of a story/fanfic and just accept canon is dead and we have killed it (for good, better, or worse.).  

NOW - To the Juuni Taisen

This series ALSO has a series to paths/alternate timelines people could work in for fan characters. The problem lies in the fact that it implies that despite there being multiple paths, Nezumi destroys those realities by not choosing those routes as his primary.

It’s actually a great tie in to the fact he loves video games.

If going down path A doesn’t work, he reloads the save and tries path B and so on. But if he decides that path J is the one he wants to continue playing on, then he can not both play J and A, B, C, D ect. He can only canonically play path J, since that is the canon path he has chosen.

When people make oc’s usually they want to be a part of the series or have a character interact with certain characters. Sometimes it’s to change the story line, and sometimes it’s to alter (intentional or not) the main storyline. To be honest, in this case, unless the character doesn’t interfere with the Juni Taisen it leaves a LOT of limited wiggle room for ocs in the series. Why? Well they all DIE, so if you do want to interact with the characters with an oc, it has to be before and not after, unless you have Nezumi. Everyone dies but him, so if you wanna smooch Usagi’s cute face or have your OC take Tora to therapy, you gotta have all it take place before or in an AU, OR alter the canon storyline.

Now back to the different paths, why not choose them? Again, it’s because of Nezumi (this boy is both blessed and cursed). He loads path J, making Au’s possible and other paths canon, but they canonically never actually happened because he CHOSE one path before the others.  

So if you do want to say ‘my character was part of X path’ that’s great! But I think a lot of people may realize that those alternate paths got erased from existence when Nezumi chose a different path. Since he did that, there are specific ways around it, but it makes it hella hard.

Ways around it

1) Alter canon timeline via Nezumi, and have him bring them back

2) Have ocs before canon

3) Time travel (I use this for my own oc, which I would be happy to go in depth with should anyone ask)

4) Alter canon timeline

I’m really not surprised OC’s are made to interact with  the canon story in this fandom, or the fact they drastically change it. No one really enjoys seeing a favorite die and stay dead, especially when there was a chance they could have come back (not that they should, I love you Usagi but ya need therapy).

AND that’s just part of it

Another big part is wish fulfillment.

If OC was part of series then when X happened oc would have been there to help. That changes the storyline, but it makes the person who created the OC happy.

Example:

Ending of Beastars (I’d recommend the series for older audiences but the ending sucks nuggets) was REALLY unsatisfying for me. I had already been doing a fan comic based on it, but since I didn’t like the ending I’m going to actually redo my comic and change the ending (I will put an AU disclaimer because, obviously) but it will fulfill MY WISH for an ending that is satisfying to me

But again, Beastars doesn’t have multiple timelines, so I have to change canon for my series to make sense within it.

Another subset of this is people who want to be part of the series due to escapism. They want a happy ending for a series they enjoy, and they want to be part of it (this gets in to more self insert territory). Sometimes life is shitting on them hardcore and so to have a little power back by their fan stories, it makes real life just a smidge more bearable. 

LONG STORY SHORT

Any OC’s added to series is somewhat altering canon. Juuni Taisen is unique in that it has a lot of alternate timelines, but the problem is the timelines get cleared from existence the moment  Nezumi chooses a different path.

Personally, I think it can be fun to work around the constraints of the series, but if you’re going to go in depth with OC’s in this fandom, you do have to alter a lot of the series in a lot of ways. It’s valid to ask ‘Why not just choose a different path? Or do an AU?’ but a lot of people want to be part of the series themselves or have an OC to make the series ok.

I used to be a stickler about the believability of OC’s when I was younger (I was especially critical when I was taking college level English courses in high school) but I’m not like that anymore. This is in part to, again, the Naruto fandom.

I’ve loved OC’s forever, but when I made one for that series people were awful. People would send me anons telling me to kill myself, how much my writing and art sucked, ect. At the time I was a really sensitive bean. I stopped writing, I stopped doing a lot of artwork, and I stopped creating. I took a lot of it super personally (thanks anxiety and depression). BUT then something terrible happened.

I don’t know if anyone here would remember when the series ended completely, but when it did the fandom went nuts. I don’t mean just whining Destial level, I mean NUTS. They threatened to kill the creator if he didn’t change the ending, they sent threats to his family, they got violent as HELL.

They went way to far. It was really kind of scary?  

But it made me realize something. There will always be someone who doesn’t like what you create, and there will be always someone who will criticize the way you write, draw, express yourself creatively.

Don’t let it stop you

TLDR; 

People make OC’s and alter storylines for a variety of reasons. That’s okay. No, you don’t have to enjoy all the content people make, and YES you can have your opinions about it. I don’t like every OC or fanfic I come across. Some OC’s are wonderful, and some I don’t like. It’s my opinion. It’s okay to have an opinion. You are allowed not to enjoy things. You are allowed to think critically. 

However, I do think people have a right to enjoy themselves. They’re making content for them, not for me, and that’s okay. I don’t have to read it, I don’t have to look at it, and I don’t have to spend time going through content I don’t enjoy. If they wanna make a character who supermans and saves the everyone in the Juni Taisen and flies off to mars, I may not like it but I will 100% support their creativity and right to do it.  

Take that cringe culture and throw it away. Do what makes you happy. It wont always makes sense in canon, or it may not be the most clever way to do something, but do it anyway. Life is hard, fandoms are meant to be fun. As long as you’re not hurting or attacking anyone, you can be be as cringe as you’d like.

You all can make OC’s however you want, anyway you want. We all deserve a little serotonin.

Either way, I am here to support you and all your creations. 

[thisblogisalsoboundforglory]

WHAT I HAVE BEEN READING LATELY

Kage Baker’s Company Series

In the Garden of Iden

Sky Coyote

Mendoza in Hollywood

The Graveyard Game

The Life of the World to Come

The Children of the Company

The Machine's Child

The Sons of Heaven

The Empress of Mars

Not Less than Gods

Nell Gwynne's On Land and At Sea

Black Projects, White Knights: The Company Dossiers

Gods and Pawns

In the Company of Thieves

Ø  Science Fiction written by a woman with Asperger’s. Wildly uneven. Main protagonist is female, but there are lots of POV characters, male and female.

Ø  Big ideas.

Ø  Lots of adventure, some action.

Ø   Small doses of humor.

 Neil Gaiman

Good Omens (with Sir Terry Pratchett)

Neverwhere

Stardust

American Gods

Anansi Boys

The Graveyard Book

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Ø  Neil’s books are a road trip with Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell and a baggie full of sativa.

Ø  Ideas are incidental. The Milieu’s in charge.

Ø  Adventure happens whether you like it or not.

Ø   Cosmic humor. The joke’s on us.

 Connie Willis’s Oxford Time Travel Series

Firewatch

Doomsday Book

To Say Nothing of the Dog (and the novel that inspired it – Jerome K. Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat)

Blackout/All Clear

Assorted:

The Last of the Winnebagos

Ø  Connie loves her historical research. Blackout/All Clear actually lasts as long as the Blitz, but anything in the Oxford Time Travel series is worth reading. Doomsday Book reads like prophecy in retrospect.

Ø  One idea: Hi! This is the human condition! How fucking amazing is that?!?

Ø  Gut-punch adventure with extra consequences. Background action.

Ø   I’d have to say that Doomsday Book is the funniest book about the black death I’ve ever read, which isn’t saying much. To Say Nothing of the Dog is classic farce, though. Girl’s got range.

Neal Stephenson

Snow Crash (After the apocalypse, the world will be ruled by Home-Owners Associations. Be afraid.)

Cryptonomicon

Anathem

Seveneves

Ø  Neal writes big, undisciplined, unfocused books that keep unfolding in your mind for months after you’ve read them. He’s a very guy-type writer, in spite of a female protagonist or two. Seveneves, be warned, starts out brilliant and devolves into extreme meh.

Ø  Big. Fucking. Ideas.

Ø  Battles, crashes, fistfights, parachute jumps, nuclear powered motorcycles and extreme gardening action. Is there an MPAA acronym for that?

Ø   Humor dry enough to be garnished with two green olives on a stick.

  Christopher Moore

Pine Cove Series:

Practical Demonkeeping

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove

The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror (Okay, yeah, Christmas. But Christmas with zombies, so that’s all right.)

Fluke (Not strictly Pine Cove, but in the same universe. Ever wonder why whales sing? They’re ordering Pastrami sandwiches. I’m not kidding.)

Death Merchant Chronicles:

A Dirty Job

Secondhand Souls (Best literary dogs this side of Jack London)

Coyote Blue (Kind of an outlier. Overlapping characters)

Shakespeare Series:

Fool

The Serpent of Venice

Shakespeare for Squirrels

Assorted:

Island of the Sequined Love Nun (Cargo cults with Pine Cove crossovers. I have a theory that the characters in this book are direct descendants of certain characters in Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon.)

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal (So I have a favorite first-century wonder rabbi. Who doesn’t?)

Sacre Bleu

Noir

Ø  Not for the squeamish, the easily offended, or those who can’t lovingly embrace the fact that the human species is pretty much a bunch of idiots snatching at moments of grace.

Ø  No big ideas whatever. Barely any half-baked notions.

Ø  Enthusiastic geek adventure. Action as a last resort.

Ø   Nonstop funny from beginning to end.

 Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London Series

Rivers of London

Moon Over Soho

Whispers Under Ground

Broken Homes

Foxglove Summer

The Hanging Tree

The Furthest Station

Lies Sleeping

The October Man

False Value

Tales From the Folly

Ø  Lean, self-deprecating police procedurals disguised as fantasy novels. Excellent writing.

Ø  These will not expand your mind. They might expand your Latin vocabulary.

Ø  Crisply described action, judiciously used. Whodunnit adventure. It’s all about good storytelling.

Ø  Generous servings of sly humor. Aaronovitch is a geek culture blueblood who drops so many inside jokes, there are websites devoted to indexing them.

  John Scalzi

Old Man’s War Series:

Old Man’s War

Questions for a Soldier

The Ghost Brigades

The Sagan Diary

The Last Colony

Zoe’s Tale

After the Coup

The Human Division

The End of All Things

Ø  Star Trek with realpolitik instead of optimism.

Ø  The Big Idea is that there’s nothing new under the sun. Nor over it.

Ø  Action-adventure final frontier saga with high stakes.

Ø  It’s funny when the characters are being funny, and precisely to the same degree that the character is funny.

Assorted:

The Dispatcher

Murder by Other Means

Redshirts (Star Trek, sideways, with occasional optimism)

Ø  Scalzi abandons (or skewers) his space-opera tendencies with these three little gems of speculative fiction. Scalzi’s gift is patience. He lets the scenario unfold like a striptease.

Ø  What-if thought experiments that jolt the brain like espresso shots.

Ø  Action/misadventure as necessary to accomplish the psychological special effects.

Ø  Redshirts is satire, so the humor is built-in, but it’s buried in the mix.

  David Wong/Jason Pargin

John Dies at the End

This Book is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don’t Touch It

What the Hell Did I Just Read?

Ø  Pargin clearly starts his novels with a handful of arresting scenes and images, then looses the characters on an unsuspecting world to wander wither they will.

Ø  Ideas aren’t as big or obvious as Heinlein, but they are there to challenge all your assumptions in the same way that Heinlein’s were.

Ø  Classic action/adventure for anyone raised on Scooby-Doo.

Ø  Occasional gusts of humor in a climate that’s predominantly tongue-in-cheek.

 Jodi Taylor’s Chronicles of St. Mary’s Series

Just One Damned Thing After Another

The Very First Damned Thing

A Symphony of Echoes

When a Child is Born*

A Second Chance

Roman Holiday*

A Trail Through Time

Christmas Present*

No Time Like the Past

What Could Possible Go Wrong?

Ships and Stings and Wedding Rings*

Lies, Damned Lies and History

The Great St Mary’s Day Out*

My Name is Markham*

And the Rest is History

A Perfect Storm*

Christmas Past*

An Argumentation of Historians

The Battersea Barricades*

The Steam Pump Jump*

And Now for Something Completely Different*

Hope for the Best

When Did You Last See Your Father?*

Why Is Nothing Ever Simple*

Plan For The Worst

The Ordeal of the Haunted Room

Ø  The * denotes a short story or novella. Okay, try to imagine Indiana Jones as a smartassed redheaded woman with a time machine and a merry band of full contact historians. I love history, and I especially love history narrated by a woman who can kick T. Rex ass.

Ø  The ideas are toys, not themes. Soapy in spots.

Ø  Action! Adventure! More action! More adventure! Tea break. Action again!

Ø  Big, squishy dollops of snort-worthy stuff.

 Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell Series

The Beekeeper's Apprentice

A Monstrous Regiment of Women

A Letter of Mary

The Moor

Jerusalem

Justice Hall

The Game

Locked Rooms

The Language of Bees

The God of the Hive

Beekeeping for Beginners

Pirate King

Garment of Shadows

Dreaming Spies

The Marriage of Mary Russell

The Murder of Mary Russell

Mary Russell's War And Other Stories of Suspense

Island of the Mad

Riviera Gold

The Art of Detection (Strictly speaking, this is in the action!lesbian Detective Kate Martinelli series, but it crosses over to the Sherlock Holmes genre. If you’ve ever wondered how Holmes would deal with the transgendered, this is the book.)

Ø  Sherlock Holmes retires to Sussex, keeps bees, marries a nice Jewish girl who is smarter than he is and less than half his age and he’s mentored since she was fifteen in an extremely problematic power dynamic relationship that should repulse me but doesn’t, somehow, because this is the best Sherlock Holmes pastiche out there. Mary should have been a rabbi, but it is 1920, so she learns martial arts and becomes an international detective instead. Guest appearances by Conan Doyle, Kimball O’Hara, T.E. Lawrence, Cole Porter, and the Oxford Comma.

Ø  Nothing mind-expanding here, unless the levels of meta present in a fictional world that is about how the fictional world might not be as fictional as you thought come as a surprise to anyone in the era of tie-in books, films, tv, interactive social media and RPGs.

Ø  If these two geniuses can’t catch the bad guys with their dazzling brilliance, they will happily kick some ass. Adventure takes center stage and the action sequences are especially creative.

Ø  Amusement is afoot.

 Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next Series

The Eyre Affair

Lost in a Good Book

The Well of Lost Plots

Something Rotten

First Among Sequels

One of Our Thursdays is Missing

The Woman Who Died a Lot

Ø  In a world where Librarians are revered and Shakespeare is more popular than the Beatles, someone has to facilitate the weekly anger-management sessions for the characters of Wuthering Heights, if only to keep them from killing each other before the novel actually ends. That someone is Thursday Next – Literature Cop.

Ø  Mind-bending enough to give Noam Chomsky material for another hundred years.

Ø  Adventure aplenty. Action? Even the punctuation will try to kill you.

Ø  This is a frolicsome look at humorous situations filled with funny people. Pretty much a full house in the laugh department.

 Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Series/City Watch Arc

Guards! Guards!

Men at Arms

Feet of Clay

Jingo

The Fifth Elephant

Night Watch

Thud!

Snuff

Raising Steam

Ø  If this were a game of CLUE, the answer would be Niccolo Machiavelli in Narnia with a Monty Python. Everything you think you know about books with dragons and trolls and dwarves and wizards is expertly ripped to shreds and reassembled as social satire that can save your soul, even if it turns out you don’t really have one. Do not be fooled by the Tolkien chassis – there’s a Vonnegut-class engine at work.

Ø  Caution: Ideas in the Mirror Universe May be Larger Than They Appear

Ø  The City Watch arc has plenty of thrilling action sequences. Some other of the fifty-million Discworld novels have less. Every one of them is nonstop adventure. Most of the adventure, however, takes the form of characters desperately trying to avoid thrilling action sequences.

Ø  Funny? Even though I’ve read every book in the series at least ten times, I still have to make sure I have cold packs on hand in case I laugh so hard I rupture something.

[entering--hyperspace]

Game questions or smthn

Tagged by @mimabeann

Rules: Fill in your answers below and tag some buddies!

Games

First game you ever played: Okay not counting my educational games on the V-Smile.. Pokemon red! the original! 

Favorite game:hhhhhhhh Fallout New Vegas really solidified my dream of becoming a game dev. God I love that game SO MUCH. Also Journey...and Destiny. but FNV is the #1

Game you’ve played through multiple times: I replay a lot of games (mostly my favorites) multiple times so there's too many to list. However, I do play Fallout: New Vegas every year because its my favorite video game of all time and I CANNOT shut up abt it. I also really enjoy playing Pokémon soul silver. I’m currently in the process of replaying the entire DA trilogy, and Pokémon white.

Game you hated at first but now love: Apex! God I did not enjoy apex when I first started playing it bc yknow battle royals were new and do have a bit of a learning curve to ‘em. I fucking love Apex now though

Game you used to love but now hate: I may joke abt hating games but I rlly don't have any I used to love but hate now. wait I lied. I remember really liking DA2 but now I'm dragging my feet along replaying it. I don't HATE it, but its certainly not one of my favorites.

Your favorite game atmosphere/setting(s): Journey. hands down. That game captures it’s atmosphere absolutely perfectly. I do want to give special shoutout to these games for this question ;Never Alone, Abzu, what remains of edith finch, Oxenfree

Game with the best group/companion(s): Dragon age: Origins had the best cast of companions hands down. They all had incredibly interesting motives and created such interesting group dynamics. DAO remaster when

A game with your favorite ending: Subnautica. GOD. SUBNAUTICA. CHEFS FUCKING KISS. I haven’t gotten emotional over a new game in a fucking WHILE. 

A game with the WORST ending: HMMMM. Hm. hmmm. Fallout 4 hands down lmao. I won’t get INTO it but man I did not like that game’s story. 

Best character customization?: The newest monster hunter game. I dont even own it but I’ve watched its cc. puts my hand against the glass wall.

Hero and Companions

Your favorite playable character: HMMM protagonists. oh protagonists. I’m gonna go with Arthur Morgan from RDR2 on this one. ALSO. Clem (TWD2/4) Javier (TWD3) Lee (TWD) The Inquisitor (DAI) Delsin (Infamous: SS) Shepard (ME tril) The Commander (GW2) The courier (FNV)

Your favorite companion(s): CRACKS KNUCKLES. Dorian Pavus, love of my life, (DAI) Theron Shan, Lana beniko, Tau Idair, Blizz, Mako (SWTOR), Alistair, Wynne, Zevran, Leliana, Shale, Sten (DAO) Anders, Sigrun (DA:A) Cole, Varric (DAI) Varric (DA2) Wrex, Liara, Tali, Grunt, Garrus, (ME tril) Vetra, Jaal, Liam, Drak (ME:A) Veronica, Arcade, Rex, Lily, (F:NV) Mccready, Preston, Cait, Piper(F:4)

Relationships

Favorite game friendship(s) (im excluding pc/char just to make it shorter): Alistair/Wynne. yknow what? Wynne and anyone, she adopted the whole group. Charles/Arthur (RDR2) Freya and Kratos (rip) (GOW) Mirage/wraith(Apex)  Theron/lana, Tau/Braga, (SWTOR) Varric/Merril, Isabela/Merril (DA2) Varric/Cassandra, Cole/Varric, Leliana/Josie, Bull/krem (DAI)

 Favorite game relationship(s): The inquisitor/Dorian bc im very very gay. anyway.... Achilles/Patroclus, Zagreus/Thanatos, Orpheus/Eurydice (Hades) Theron Shan/pc Lana beniko/pc, UHHH I cant think of more rn

Favorite companion banter: Wynne/Alistair, Sten/Shale, Leliana/Wynne, Alistair/Zevran (DA:O) Varric and anyone (DA2) Cassandra/Varric, Varric/Cole, Dorian/Sera, Bull/Solas, Dorian/Varric (DAI) When I think abt companion banter I think out in the world walking/talking so not a lot comes to mind.

A relationship you weren’t sure of but loved: 

A character you wish you COULD romance: RATTLES MY HANDS AGAINST THE BARS. Varric. Do you think a Straight Man would walk around with his tiddes out in the open like that? NO. if he was romanceble in da2 it would’ve made the game significantly better. ALSO GARRUS FOR M!SHEP??? HELLO???? ALISTAIR FOR M!WARDEN...ALSO HELLO? I’ll stop now but a lot of these is just God I Wish MLM Got More Options In Video Games

Fun

Shoutout to a random NPC: BLIZZ I FUCKING LOVE U. 

A game you love watching playthroughs for and want to play: I dont like watching playthroughs unless (next question)

Love watching playthroughs but won’t ever play: I legit only watch a Single lets players and he does horror vr. its increadibly funny and the only way I can play/watch any type of horror shit

Why do you play video games?: For a lot of reasons! I play them to have fun, I play them to be competitive, I play them to relax, I play them to challenge myself. I play them to learn a story. As someone who is majoring in game design and has made games before, Video games are like a stained glass window. They provide unique glimpses into various worlds, they allow us to live our wildest dreams, and give us the platform to spread awareness of social issues to the masses. They Allow us to have fun and connect with other people.  I play video games because I love them.

Tagging: @sentinelapologist @kornyo @remnantofahero @axperjan