#i think most of the time spent there was the first playthrough and getting used to it again as clappy

[4giorno]

my personal #1 wish for daniils campaign is that they will make us actually want to choose his ending

[pika-blur]

does anyone know what the fuck i did in april to have my playtime so low

[khywren]

it's time for some more astarion analysis~

making this a separate post in case people wanted to reblog just the gifs on their own and don't care about the extra fluff. i'm certain this scene has been analyzed to the hells and back by this point, but when i was making this set something really stuck out to me and i wanted to throw my two cents in anyway.

this is the tail end of the mirror scene from act 1, where you catch astarion looking in the mirror and lamenting about not being able to see his reflection or knowing what he looks like anymore. and while that alone is sad enough, it gets SO MUCH WORSE.

if you express genuine interest in his predicament (i.e. asking him if he misses his reflection and what color his eyes were before he was turned), you get to see the mask slip. it's one of the first times in the game that he's not hiding behind his quick wit and silver tongue.

if you tell him you'll be his mirror, you can see the change in his demeanor immediately. his face softens, the cadence of his voice changes; you can literally hear the vulnerability in every word he says. huge props to neil and the rest of larian for making the distinction between these dialogue options, of course. it's the little details that really make moments like these shine.

but there was something else i noticed in the footage i recorded as well that i hadn't picked up on any of my other playthroughs. i've spent a lot of time staring at this man's face, especially while capturing idle animations for gifs and wallpapers, and most of the time it's what you'd expect, with minimal face movement, expressions changing, etc. most companions i record seem to behave the same way, with similar expressions/blinking/eye movement.

but just look at astarion's face here. this feels deliberately unique. he is SO anxious, so worried how you'll perceive him. the rapid blinking, the nervous darting of his eyes… it genuinely breaks my heart.

(tumblr will only let me upload one video per post, but just look at any other idle footage of him and you'll see the difference)

and the second you tell him what he thinks he wants to hear? that he's very attractive? he slips right back into his suave, flirtatious persona, and even praises you for complimenting his looks. even if you eventually ask him if all he wants is shallow praise, he still deflects and isn't completely honest with you.

note that if you choose to take the less compassionate route and simply tell them that he has a "very good face," he will still prompt you to tell him what you see when you look at him, and the delivery of the line is subtly but noticeably different and more guarded. similarly, if you poke a little too much fun at him by calling him old and draw too much attention to his mole, he gets very flustered and ends the conversation immediately. understandable, since he's relied on his appearance for so long, and hearing (even jokingly) that even that might not be something he can use anymore must be at least a little terrifying for him.

so naturally, you might think that by being truthful with him would perhaps net you a better result -- after all, you're telling him what he asked for, what you really see, that you see him as more than just someone to lust after -- but it doesn't. he actually seems a little upset if you choose those dialogue options. in that moment, he wants to know that you find him attractive, because he thinks that's all he's good for. because if you find him attractive, there's a chance that he could seduce you and use you for protection against cazador. i do think he also genuinely wants to know that there's so much more to him than just a pretty face, since that's a big theme of his entire story/romance arc, but that's not at the top of his priority list this early in the game. he's relying purely on instinct. he knows how to respond to people telling him he's attractive. accepting genuine compliments about the person beneath the mask? that's probably not something he's had much (if any) experience with in close to two centuries. he didn't have the luxury of being able to let anyone see who he really was.

all that to say that this interaction is really heartbreaking. he wants to be seen, wants to be understood and possibly loved, but at the same time he still thinks he needs to put on a front to ensure he can keep himself safe. watching him slowly start to unlearn those habits during the course of the game has been one of my favorite things about bg3 and a huge part of what's really endeared astarion to me as a character.

[kiivg]

Your Rook is ridiculously good looking. Like, I’m actually blushing and it’s all your fault

.The initial idea for him was Grave Robbing Pirate and honestly the beard options came through for me like nothing else. Guaranteed I was going to go for muttonchops/sideburns before I even knew what the CC looked like, but idk they looked a little patchy sometimes and that is NOT what Farid is about 👏 The whatever it is he has now is iconic for him, I tried making him as an elf but it was Cursed and Never-to-Be-Seen-Again. Also the balding ponytail? I saw it, and I was like yeah that’s it, that’s him, that’s exactly what I’m about.

.Also it is absolutely insane to me that he’s the first draft, I got him in one go with a little fine tuning once I figured out how the CC works. Especially considering how ugly Goddard turned out as the Inquisitor 😭😭 but now I HC he just sends somebody over in his place to act as a go between, ain’t no way he’s traipsing around with Morrigan lmao. I did make a crummy Blackwall Inq so I could get Dorian to call him Amatus 👹 Pavwall Canon UNLOCKED. (I wonder if you could make the Iron Bull tho?? Sans wide horns ofc.)

.Also, girlie, tysm!!!!!! I am ALSO very 👀😳🥴🤫🫡 about him, I’ve just started my third playthrough of him, I’m still tweaking little bits here and there as I go along. Which means ofc I’m going to be screenshotting him in every cutscene 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️.

.Edit tho I’ve changed his name to Farid now 😘.

.Some facts about my Rook, Farid Thorne, and his story below 💕🫡.

.His mother is Therasia Thorne, a Rivaini Dalish elf who left her clan for the calling of the sea, and he is an absolute mama’s boy. Will do absolutely anything she asks with very little, if any, questioning. He doesn’t know (and most likely never will) who his father is, as the man bought Therasia’s silence over their affair with two galleons and a frigate. On a side note, Therasia was known for seducing very rich men and getting pregnant in order to blackmail them. Most of the time the fathers would pay up, and there has only been one instance of the father agreeing to take the baby off her hands, her bluff was called and she regretfully left her son behind.

.He adores expensive textures, silk, dragon scales, gold, fine lace, alamarri sheep wool, phoenix feathers. If he wasn’t a career criminal turned conscript he would have been a tailor. He owns (or used to own) several dresses/robes that he would just lounge about in naked to feel the fabric against his skin. Doesn’t really think too much of leather though, it can be stiff and often chafes the skin, which is strange because he’s very much a rope man.

.He waxes most of his body hair off, and keeps everything nice and tidy. He also puts coloured powder in his open wounds to preserve the shape of them as they heal, true to his mother’s traditions.

.Has kept his face completely bare of tattoos (apart from the fish he got when he was fourteen) in an honour to his Dalish heritage; he knows he won’t ever get valaslin because he’s only a half-elf, but the prospect of it keeps his face bare.

.Is fascinated by machinery and spent a great deal of time perfecting his own tools. His own frigate was equipped with self made trident ballistas, each one would fire three harpoons (individually or all at once) secured with thick chains, crafted to hunt and bring down large game, dragons, and smaller fleeing ships.

.In tune with his love for crafting, he follows June, and not the Maker. Though he does keep this to himself and those he considers family. If asked he just says he doesn’t believe in the Maker, and refuses to elaborate.

.Absolutely fucks, big family kind of guy. He is one of nineteen children, and has nine of his own by five different women, though he assumes there’s more because he was very much a leave before the sunrise kind of guy. Now he’s matured with being in the Wardens and has been less of a dick about it all. Whether or not he’s got any chance of knowing those kids who knows 🤷‍♂️.

.Never told anyone about his past when he became a Warden, the only people who know are those who were privy to his conscription, and the higher up Wardens upon receiving his arrest and conscription reports. Most people know he’s a conscript however, he doesn’t shy away from that, and he’s had a dozen or more rumours spread about him within the order. Evka was the first person to say he was a good Warden and back him up, and I think that solidified him as a third wheel to her and Antoine.

.He was actually conscripted by order of my HoF Andrastopher Cousland, as a favour returned. Andrastopher wanted aboard his ship when the Inquisition was seeking out a new leader,(there was no way he was becoming a religious figurehead lmao) and he stayed there for a good six months or so before Zevran joined them, and another two months before returning back to Thedas. They… uh… yeah 🥴🤫.

.If he was a companion his questline would probably follow trying to kill his older brother Galo after receiving a plea for help from his sister in law Aadiyah. Turns out Galo is either a) helping the Antaam navigate the seas uncontested or b) capturing and selling slaves to the Venatori. The big question at the end would be whether to tell their daughter that he’s her dad or to let her believe Galo was her father considering he HAS just murdered him, and she has several siblings that Galo fathered too.

.His gift would be an ornamental smoking pipe or a hookah, his room would be an observatory, full of navigational maps and constellations, there would be a small tailors work bench on one side of the room complete with mannequin and a sewn outfit that would slowly complete over his personal questline. His bed would be a row boat full of pillows.

.His almost kiss scene would be him explaining that he’s no good, his past actions are very much coming to bite him in the ass, and that you should really stop flirting with him. Does he want you to stop? No. Is he going to lean in to try and kiss you? Yes. Is he going to remember that everything is playing out as it does before and pull away because he knows he’s not good enough for you? Yes.

.His romance lock in scene would be stargazing on the beach in Rivain, he’d point out a couple constellations, talk about his time seafaring (minus all the murdering and pillaging). You’d get the option to ask about a few different ones (leading to locking out of the romance) or a secret fourth one and he’d absolutely bullshit some made up romantic story that parallels him and you, and you’d call bullshit because YES it is bullshit, and he’d say something awfully sappy about making it “our constellation” and then 💋💋💋.

.The actual romance scene would be that he turns up completely naked in your room, he’ll ask if you want the Captain or the Warden, and you uh choose and uh ye a hh haha ahaaaaa 😳🥴.

[thinkingotherwise]

Requested by: @chubypotato Heyy ! I hope you are doing okay! Sooo I saw you were doing some x talkative how do u think about doing the same for kiryu +the S/O being an absolute gamer. I'm dying for more kiryu since we didn't see him that much on the anime I can't wait for him to be popular cause he is such a cutie 😭

Ah yes, I'm always up to write for characters that need more recognition. I focused more on the gamer part, hope it's okay 🤞😉

Ps. I just want to say, chapter 146 left me in tears - what the heck was that friendship is magic moment.

Also, Hiiragi looks pretty cool in the last few chapters - I just had to acknowledge it. 🤩

Mitsuki Kiryu x Talkative! Gamer! reader

You were a talkative gamer, a helpful talkative gamer, who was well-known across the whole server in the MMO game you played. You loved the game and spent a lot of time reading about it, getting to know the mechanics, item drop rates, and side missions that were the most useful. With all the knowledge you might as well be referred to as an encyclopedia.

Honestly, it was all because of Mitsuki. It was he who introduced you to the title and the one who spent his free time going through some tactics and game designs with you. His enthusiastic self made you invested in his favourite game, at first, wanting to spend more time with him, until you installed it, and in the next few hours, it became your favourite as well.

During your low-level playtime, Mitsuki made it his mission to guide you in his own special way. You would talk with him on Discord about the plot and missions you had to do and this man, being higher level than you, knew exactly what you were supposed to do but gave it his best to mislead you. Stealing your kills, leading you who knew where. Whenever he did deceive you, he giggled playfully and you heard it all on your headphones. In retaliation, you talked his ears off about how he could do something like that to you.

After yet another time you were so over it, you started reading whatever info on the internet you could find, just so you knew if he was teasing you or not. Through your frustrations and time-consuming playthrough, you started helping out others, knowing how much time you spent on some missions. If they didn't know something and asked you were usually the first one to answer, sometimes right after Mitsuki who kept being mischievous little shit and leading everyone astray.

You became a really well-known pair, as you almost always played together and grouped together for missions. Mitsuki was the mischievous one who you couldn't be sure if he wanted to help you or get you killed by monsters, while you were the "guardian angel", the true helper. Needless to say, your friend slots were quickly full and everyone added you on discord, you felt almost like a star on the server.

Your chatty attitude and random conversations usually didn't stray away from the topic of games and Mitsuki was one of the few people that let you endlessly rant. Of course, you had a lot of playful arguments about your, self-proclaimed, best classes and build of characters, but otherwise, Mitsuki carefully listened to you talking, sharing your likes and dislikes about the characters, missions, and even game series.

There were some times those arguments were a little more heated, and other times they were led on the discord group call with other people from the server, who quietly listened to your passionate arguments on why you preferred to skill up these certain attributes for your character.

Mitsuki heard you talking, listening in on the little guiding session you gave some of the users on the discord call, while you were getting ready to kill one of the bosses. He was sitting in the same room playing on his phone, and waiting for you to finish.

Mitsuki was so proud of you, of the little crowd you gathered around yourself to listen to you talk, of the happy smiles that appeared on your face whenever someone thanked you, of the possibility of sharing the same passion as you. He was very supportive in your search for knowledge and sharing it with others, even if it didn't show once in a time.

He didn't mind when you showed off your relationship in front of the server and other players, rather he liked it.

You heard a familiar ding letting you know another person joined the call while you were in the middle of telling the rest of your party about the boss' attacks and skills.

"Well hello there." The voice said as soon as you took a short breather asking if the guys understood what you said.

"Hi there, are you joining us for a boss battle?" You asked joyfully.

It was always better to get more people even if the loot might not be that great.

"Why don't we go for a little private session?" They continued in this false seductive voice that made your head tilt and eyebrows furrow.

"No thank you, we can talk here if you want."

"I'd prefer a date, babe." They replied right after you and everyone could hear the big sight you let out when you understood why they joined.

"Ugh.. please stop, it's embarrassing." One of your party members commented followed by others.

"Second-hand embarrassment."

"Cringe."

You thanked them all in your mind for saying out loud what you thought.

"Before you say anything else, be aware I've got a boyfriend." Your voice echoed in the call but they were not getting the hint.

"Yeah sure, you do."

At that moment, you were almost sure he was new on the game serve, and certainly new on the discord server, because the fact that you dated Mitsuki, known under his nickname, was a fact everyone knew.

"Mistuki, can you come here for a moment." You said turning to your boyfriend lying on your bed. When he came close enough you went to the discord call and turned on your camera. Giving it a knowing look you looked at Mitsuki and your hand moved to his neck bringing him closer to you.

He smirked knowing well enough what you were doing and before your lips touched he grinned joyfully.

You kissed him straight on the lips, a firm and casual kiss. Your headphones fell to your lap but before that, you still heard the gasps of everyone else.

When you pulled away a smile appeared on your and Mitsuki's faces. You grabbed your headphones placing them around your neck.

Mitsuki knew you had a way with words and your chatty personality could bring attention to you. He was also aware that you knew how to get yourself out of every situation and he would readily help you if you wanted to use him in your shenanigans.

"Now, do you-" You started but when your eyes scanned the call, you didn't see the newcomer anymore. "Oh, he left."

"What a shame." Mitsuki said placing a quick peck on your lips before going back to his place on your bed.

You laughed at his words before turning the cam off.

"Well, let's quickly kill the boss." You said and continued to guide your party to the boss.

[thebaldursmouthgazette]

Sorry for barging into your evil playthrough post. I just want to add that I think the game very heavily thematizes what it means to lead and what it means to be a hero. A lot of the Solas - Rook dynamic hinges on these ideas too. I feel like the game would lose a ton of thematic depth with an evil protagonist. Even just with an uncaring rook, who has the same understanding of leadership as Solas.

Absolutely. The reason the game is so strong is that it contrasts rook with solas. And rook is just the bare minimum of trying their best, and their heroism puts solas to shame. It’s part of that complete deconstruction of Solas tortured hero self image that constitutes honestly about 90% of the game. Solas comes out of this whole thing looking absolutely terrible compared to rook who is, once again, literally just trying their best and not being a complete asshole. Thats one of the most important aspects of who rook is as a person.

This game would completely fall apart if rook were a bad person. And I think ANY game fitting in this place in the narrative would fail if the protagonist was a bad person. It’s a fundamental part of defeating solas that first we have to completely obliterate any sense that anything he is done is justified, justifiable, or in any way good. There is no game that could have a satisfying conclusion to Solas’ arc while having a protagonist that is not fundamentally a better person than Solas. Even if you like the guy, you need to address the harm he’s done and how he didn’t need to do any of it before you can push him to move forward.

And I think they set up why rook is a good person really well. Because by having rook recruited for a selfless act of good, and then spending a year devoted to the cause before we meet them, we have a game where it makes complete sense for our protagonist to be a good person, and not much sense at all for them to not be.

Rook is not the only other grey warden left alive in the whole country. They’re not the only person in the friend group who everyone gets along with, and later the person with the biggest and easiest to hang out in house (and also a dog). They’re not the guy who stumbled into the right room at the right time to end up with the only tool that can be used to save the world and also leads them to be mistaken for a religious prophet so now everyone’s kinda stuck with them even if they’re a bit of a dick.

They’re a person Varric chose, because of the good deeds they had already done, and who has spent a year already trying to save the world. They would not be here if they were not a good person.

[thefirstknife]

The Infinite Forest

Sighs. This post has been on my mind since we saw the trailer for Echoes, because they showed us the gate to the Infinite Forest and I thought: how many people even recognise that? Let alone have been there? Or know stuff about it? It's not been in the game for over 4 years, outside of a few pvp maps.

The Infinite Forest was a victim of the yoinkening of planets at the end of Arrivals. Unlike Mars and Titan that have since returned, Mercury has not (and neither has Io) so there was really no reason to think about it until they decided to do something with that. And it appears they've decided, something I hoped they might do in Echoes, given that we've speculated from the start that it would be a Vex season.

But now that we did get the proof that we'll be dealing with it somehow, I want to get into it, and mostly because they gave us zero explanation about how is it even possible for us to consider the Forest. I'm going to have a normal time with this one. I know we'll get at least some answers in a few days, but I need to cook in the meantime so I don't descend into madness (too late). Obviously spoilers for this week under the cut, and also a long post:

What is the Infinite Forest?

How does it all work and why?

What happened to it?

Echoes

What is the Infinite Forest?

The best, and arguably only, source for this is unfortunately a vaulted campaign, Curse of Osiris. Here's a link to the campaign from Destiny Lore Vault, but there are also playthroughs around from the time it launched. It's not needed to watch the whole thing, although it is fairly short, but this is where most of the information about it comes from.

There's also the Osiris comics that accompanied the DLC; first two are available on Bungie's site. The third is only in the physical book, helpfully scanned here.

Probably the most concise explanations are from the campaign:

Reflection of Osiris: Behold — the Infinite Forest! A planet sized prediction engine, simulating trillions of realities in parallel, all geared towards a single Vex purpose. Keep going, and you'll see. Sagira: The Vex are simulating reality in here. Brute forcing the future. And before you ask: everything in here IS real enough to kill you.

And this entire lore tab:

Physically, I am beneath the surface of Mercury. That is what Sagira's sensors say. The Vex hollowed out the planet, replaced its molten heart with cold right angles. But that is not what I see. I see infinity. An infinity of possible worlds, so perfectly simulated as to be indistinguishable from the experiences I once called "reality." I can touch them, taste them, pass lifetimes in them! They grow within this machine like fruit upon a tree—no, a forest of trees, its fractal expansion nigh unmeasurable.

Essentially, the Infinite Forest is a simulation engine that the Vex use to make predictions and find possibilities that suit their goals. It's physically located inside of Mercury; the Vex dug into the planet and replaced its insides with the engine. So far it has only been accessible from Mercury, from a single gate. Putting my 7 year old screenshots here like grabbing pictures of loved ones from a photo album:

Ikora noted that Osiris spent a long time studying that gate back in the day, believing it's the entrance. And he was correct.

There is a Vex gateway near your location. Osiris spent years studying it. He was convinced it was the door to the infinite Forest. If it is still possible to find Osiris, we need to open that door.

Osiris, or rather, his reflection, also said:

First, I will show you where it all began. Mercury, untold centuries ago, before the Vex arrived. Here, the Vex planted the seed that became the Infinite Forest, and its Mind, Panoptes. Panoptes has a single purpose — reshape reality for the Vex.

To keep things simple, the campaign revolved around us stopping Panoptes from achieving the Vex' goals by using the Infinite Forest. We ended up killing it, of course. We did so by hopping around through the Forest, going to simulated pasts and futures.

But the Forest largely consists of a really weird constantly shifting space that looks like this:

Thank you past me for this really helpful screenshot. It looks like it's an open sky, but it's not; the ceiling is a solid flat surface. That is the surface of Mercury, seen from the inside of the planet. On the edges of the picture, there's two tall structures; one looks worn down and destroyed, the other looks newly built. These are the gates leading to the actual simulations. The left one leads to a simulated future and the right to a simulated past.

These structures are called "trees" and are the reason why this place is called the Infinite Forest. Each of these "trees" generates a simulation and leads there, but you have to go through this shifting reality with ever-changing platforms to reach them. This is the physical space needed to essentially "run" the Forest.

You can still see this on pvp maps Fragment and Convergence:

A lot of the stuff about how the Vex actually made this was not entirely confirmed at the time; the stuff about Mercury being converted back during the Collapse was something that's been in the lore since literally D1, but not much was known about how true any of that was or how it started and how it was done. This was somewhat cleared up later, in the first page of Trials and Tribulations (from Worthy). I say "somewhat" because like. Reading this page is an exercise for sanity:

Chrome-hooked appendages |breached sky, counted in triplets| stretched for miles through sun-soaked atmosphere. They bored |with deepest intentions| into the marigold sands. From the great temporal chasms |wailing mouths of creation| flowed an ocean |a second conception| of radiolarian fluid. Across the horizon |of definitive sprawl| the scene was |super-imposed design| resonant and |uniquely| multiplicative. Each injection site |form mirrored in the hundreds of thousands| fostered a new lineage in stone and steel and fluid. |They would live| the new age in sub-routine |sleep| and observation. They would foster the |metallic| seeds of a generation in |twilight| time. From the sites bubbled pools |progeny| of |endless possibility| that murmured chaotic, |lullabies of change| and wrung the Traveler's Light from Mercury. The Light coalesced |imbibed| within the pools. The planet transformed |reborn| into a |sleepless dream| machine of prediction.

Yeah. What this whole thing seems to be implying is a confirmation of Mercury being converted by the Vex during the Collapse. The Vex flooded the planet with radiolaria and drilled into it, changing its terraformed environment into a Vex world. Some of this is shown in Curse when we first visit the simulated past. The Vex appeared and started raising the spires and transforming the surface of Mercury into what we know it as. Its core was eventually fully replaced by the Infinite Forest.

After we killed Panoptes, Osiris essentially claimed the Forest for himself and returned there sort of indefinitely. He would leave years later, when he contacted us in Season of Dawn, though we know that he was periodically leaving anyway, since he was building the Sundial. It's not really been used for anything else, outside of various adventures and the quest for saving Saint which I went into in this post.

How does it all work and why?

It's always been kinda weird that the Forest was not a bigger deal, though it makes sense if we consider the out-of-game factors and the fans' general dislike of Mercury as a whole (which I personally think is a skill issue). The Forest was also difficult to work with so it was difficult to make new content for it which is probably why it was never really done, even though realistically, setting-wise, it should've.

It's mentioned in lore here and there, and Osiris spent his time there a lot up until Dawn. The Infinite Forest also alerted him that our actions drastically changed the Vex predictions which was serious and important enough for him to finally leave. So for all intents and purposes, the Forest was always a big deal, just difficult to implement into gameplay. This is quite unfortunate because it should've reasonably been something to use more, including explaining its danger a bit more in-depth over time. While Osiris did have a major influence over it post-Panoptes, the place was still largely Vex-controlled and they still had access to it.

So why is that dangerous in the first place? After all, it's just a simulation engine. That's true, but the danger is in how the Vex were using those simulations. By having access to a place that generates trillions of situations and possibilities, it allowed them to explore options that would normally be almost impossible to explore in-person, physically. Even the Vex, who can exist outside of time, would need to spend... well... time and resources to explore these options by simply time travelling. With the Forest, they could just generate them all at once, instantly, with no time passing outside of the Forest.

They could use this to simulate anything and then explore what would happen if they followed that possibility, which allowed them to predict more accurately. It allowed them to essentially run a certain scenario through every single possible iteration and see the outcome of all of them, then pick the option that suits them best and act accordingly. It could also let them study their enemies; by simulating many situations and observing how the enemies react in those situations, they could learn about the strategies their enemies use.

This is incredibly powerful and dangerous. But are there limitations to their simulations? Sort of... As we know, the Vex can't simulate Light or any other paracausality, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they can't try. This is where things get complicated because we lack a lot of the details about how this all works.

From what we can tell, the Forest can include simulations that feature paracausality and Guardians; it's seen in the intro cutscene for Curse where Osiris casually wanders into the Guardians raiding the Vault of Glass. It was also briefly mentioned in Lightfall's CE (page 28), where Elsie explores different timelines. In one of them, she finds Osiris wielding Stasis who tells her that he saw her wielding it:

"I saw glimpses of you wielding this power during my time in the Infinite Forest."

This is where things get complicated because we don't truly know if there are meaningful differences between normal simulations and simulations produced by a planet-size machine. The Vex, for all intents and purposes, can't really simulate Light and Guardians, but could they create simulations based on what they've personally experienced? After all, the Vex from the Vault of Glass experienced the Guardians raiding them; can they load up their memories and simply replay it? Would that even count as a simulation or is that simply just a recording that you can access within the Forest?

Is it accessible in other Vex spaces or is the Infinite Forest unique in some way? After all, there is also the Vex network as well as corridors of time. There's also some sort of overlap between them, according to Osiris:

...Vex security measures where the network intersects with the corridors of time.

There's even the implication that a simulation from the Forest could potentially escape the engine and enter the real world.

Sagira: Hey, team! Copies of the Cabal invasion are trapped inside the Infinite Forest. On the, uh, off chance one of them escapes, possibly armed with world-breaking Vex tech… Ghost: Wouldn’t be the first time. We’ll handle this.

There is also the whole question about timelines and realities and how that works in the Forest. Can you use the Forest to look into real timelines and realities, those that might be happening somewhere, or are they just projections and simulations of possibilities? Could you interact with them, and affect other timelines? This is an interesting question now that Echoes is going on with all the stuff about the Conductor and what's happening to Saint, but we currently don't know the answers.

What I think is the most likely is that the Infinite Forest is somehow unique and can offer a lot more than the normal Vex network; its simulation options are so well-developed and so powerful that it can genuinely simulate a lot more than the Vex usually would be able to, including showing glimpses of paracausality, especially glimpses that the Vex have themselves recorded in their interactions with Guardians. Then, they can use the Forest to try and build on that, essentially train the engine by feeding it trillions of data points to attempt to make accurate simulations that lead to good predictions.

And these seem to be the key words: accurate and prediction. The point of simulations is not just to look at things, it's to use them to be able to predict things, giving the Vex an advantage. This is directly referenced and discussed in the lore:

There's just one thing: if Osiris used the Infinite Forest to develop his prophecies, and the Infinite Forest cannot accurately simulate Light, how did Osiris predict the Traveler would wake? The Forest's very inability to predict this very thing is what prevented Panoptes from breaking ground with its apocalyptic calculations.

So what exactly is the Forest capable of? It can definitely show the past even if it involves paracausality. It can also show the future, though the accuracy of any future predictions may be in question, depending on the amount of paracausality involved. It's very much implied that it can also show other timelines and/or realities. And of course, it can simulate future possibilities, as well as show simulations of anything from the past; events or places alike. For example, Osiris simulated the Fundament, apparently:

Ghost: The Forest can generate so many Hive - it might as well be their homeworld. Sagira: We've thought about that. Ghost: Have you simulated the Hive homeworld? Sagira: Didn't go well.

If there are specific limitations, we're not sure what they may be. There probably are, but they're most likely deliberately not spelled out to prevent any kind of conflict with stuff they might want to add to the Forest later; like for example now, with Echoes. Because there's a lot of questions right now about the Forest now that Ikora has so casually told us we're going to be going back in there. So...

What happened to it?

As has been established, the Forest is physically located on Mercury. Or rather, in Mercury. Its one and only entrance is on Mercury as well. And Mercury has been eaten by the Witness over 4 years ago. So that's it then? Well no. Not only is the Forest on an inaccessible planet, it has actually been sealed, from the inside, before the planet was taken.

He struggled with his pack as a tempest beat on his eardrums. He withdrew his Infinite Simulacrum, impossibly small in this immense space, and with trembling fingers synchronized it to the frequency of the crack in the Forest. It ticked like a metronome and then… Silence. The Forest was sealed.

Instead of evacuating, Brother Vance decided to stay on Mercury, go into the Forest, and seal it. I go about it for a long time in this post, but basically he believed that it would be really bad if the Pyramids gained access to the Forest. He also believed that the Sundial did something to the timelines and that the Pyramids could exploit that, as well as the Infinite Forest being somehow "the key to all of this."

He also wanted to use the Forest to... spread hope. Through the timelines?

"I will walk into the Infinite Forest and spread hope, Guardian."

He essentially wanted to do something and prove that even Lightless people can still help. He appeared to be willing to die for this, which is quite strange mostly because this whole idea and endeavour wasn't in the name of Osiris. Hell, in a way, it was about doing something to fix the unknown consequences of Osiris' meddling with the timelines.

You notice Vance's hands are balled tightly at his sides. "The Pyramids draw close. Through this system and beyond, the Lightless are filled with fear. I am no Osiris, true, but in my small way, I will bring light to their darkness." There is clarity in his voice. "I will tell them they must believe."

Since I've gone into it in the other post in a lot more details, I won't go into it here again, although I could. But the point that I want to get across is that the sealing of the Infinite Forest was quite a significant part of Arrivals and the whole plot of the evacuation of Mercury (or rather the non-evacuation of Mercury; the sole reason for Vance staying was to seal the Forest).

In another post (you'll have to scroll through the back-and-forth insanity) I also mentioned how much of Vance's story in Arrivals seemed to be connected to him losing his mind about the effects of the Sundial on the timelines. It also directly links to the Perfect Paradox. All of these things have been quite prominently connected to this episode, especially the stuff with the Sundial and what Osiris has done with it and how it may or may not have affected the timelines and, most of all, Saint and the whole ordeal of saving him.

It's fairly unclear how many characters know what happened to the Forest though. The YW knows obviously because Vance told us directly. I do believe that Zavala would also know as we reported back to him, which also most likely extends to Ikora as well. Another issue is that we don't really have any specific proof that the sealing was successful or permanent. It seems like it was, but a lot of stuff could've happened in the past 4 years of Mercury being in an anomaly.

As I've mentioned many times before, Mercury is the last unsolved plot from Arrivals; as in, we genuinely don't know anything about it. Mars has returned in WQ and Ana's side of the story was concluded in Seraph. While Io is still gone, Asher's story was concluded in Defiance through Avalon. Titan returned in Deep, which solved the story of the planet and also Sloane. We know why these planets were taken (with the exception of Io, though it's fair to assume it had something to do with the Pyramidion because of Asher's story being tied to it), and we know what happened to all of the vendors. Except Mercury and Vance; two things inherently connected to the Infinite Forest.

We don't truly know why Mercury was yoinked, though it's once again fair to assume it was most likely for the Forest. But you know. It got sealed so the Witness couldn't do anything with it and we have no idea what it was doing with Mercury all this time. We also don't know what the hell was Vance on about when he talked about the "anchored timelines" and how the Forest is incredibly important to everything. Due to how unreliable he is, it could just be his usual cringefail. After all, Osiris himself did not have any plans for the Forest himself; he was upset that he'd lose it, but he didn't think anything more about it, even if during Dawn he insisted that the Forest cannot be sealed or destroyed yet.

But also I think dismissing it all is an easy mistake to make, and possibly a deliberate one. Everything with Vance is written to be as easy to dismiss as possible, but he did know certain things that were absolutely correct and real. Not to go on about the tones again, but. Yeah. And given the current situation...

Echoes

Failsafe has come up with a plan for which she needs data from the Vex. She specifically needs data that can be compared to the altered Vex on Nessus, so we need large amounts of information that hasn't been changed or messed with. She concluded that the best source of that data would be Saint's dead body. It exists in a specific space (and time) and would have this information; information that has not been altered or influenced by anything else because that Saint is dead and preserved as is.

Failsafe explained this to Ikora and Ikora agreed that this is the best source, she's just worried about how this will affect Osiris and Saint. She doesn't want us to tell them. So next reset, we're going to the Infinite Forest to find Saint's tomb again. Yay!

But like. How?

They presented this so casually, with Ikora even saying that the best "accessible" source of this data is the Forest and Saint's tomb. And I know that they know that we know that Mercury is gone and that the Forest was sealed. But they've already showed us the gate to the Forest on Nessus, twice: in the mini showcase and then in the intro to the season in-game:

The first picture is showing the gate when it's open. And yes, this specific portal effect has only ever been used for the Forest. The second image shows the gate when it's closed with that impenetrable barrier. The structure itself is different from the original; it's worn down, coloured differently and doesn't have the same tip - instead there's the weird orb and the statue. It looks far more Nessus-like, and closer to present-day Vex, or maybe future Vex. But it's guarded by Precursors, so I don't know. It definitely doesn't look like the original however.

We clearly aren't going to Mercury. And even if we were, how would we enter? Neither Failsafe nor Ikora have mentioned this little problem and it seems as if they already know that the gate is on Nessus; I assume they'll discuss the details of this in the Act 2 finale next week. But the problem is that without all of this context, how do they even explain the issue with the Forest? They can always shorten this to some reasonable quick explanation, but they still have to explain how are we entering the Forest. There's a few key problems.

Obviously, number 1 is that the Forest is on Mercury and as of now Mercury is still in the anomaly.

The Forest itself is sealed from the inside.

So far it has not been possible (or at least not known to us) to enter the Forest from any other location. As we've seen, Osiris spent years looking for the entrance and back in Arrivals he was quite upset about losing the Forest. If he simply had the ability to enter it without being physically on Mercury, then why bother or lament Mercury's loss?

It is, to our knowledge, one of a kind. It took quite a tremendous effort to build it and it requires a lot of power to run; a whole planet.

Possible solutions:

Mercury is back and Ikora hasn't told anyone yet because she doesn't want anyone to go there yet; perhaps it's in quarantine. I don't think this is very likely, but it's possible.

Opening a gate to the Forest from another location IS possible and we just didn't know about it.

Opening a gate to the Forest from another location is possible only because of the situation with the Echo; a powerful source of paracausal power can maybe help us do this remotely. So this simply wasn't an option before the Echo's existence.

The Vex and the Conductor have built or are still building a new Forest inside of Nessus this time. The Vex lost access to the original, either simply because of the anomaly or because it was sealed or both, so now with the Echo they're just doing it again, and better. So the Forest we're going into is not the original, but a new one; the assumption being that the data from the old Forest is accessible to the Vex so the new Forest can essentially run the same code as the old one, allowing us access to Saint's tomb.

The Vex and the Conductor only have to build a new gate that can lead us to the old Forest, despite it being in an anomaly and despite it being sealed. It essentially just brute forced another door.

And the possibilities in regards to it being sealed:

As I mentioned before, maybe the sealing wasn't as successful as we (or Vance) thought.

Vance is somehow still alive and he will open it for us from the inside, essentially concluding his role from Arrivals.

Maybe the sealing wasn't permanent; either the Vex could eventually counteract this, or Vance couldn't hold it closed for very long. He's a Lightless man and it's quite dubious how long he could survive inside. Maybe the seal automatically broke when (if?) he died.

If we're going with the option that this is a new gate to the old Forest, then as I said before, this may simply be able to counteract the seal.

If we're dealing with a completely new Forest, the seal may simply not even be in effect. The old Forest is sealed, but we're not going to the old one so it doesn't matter.

What I'm assuming is that Osiris could open the gate if he saw one again, so if the gate is simply now on Nessus (either to a new Forest or connecting to the old one), Osiris can just use his cubes as he did before and open it again, counteracting the seal. Vance's device used to seal it was made from Osiris' notes anyway, so I'm assuming it's something similar to the cubes. In that case it can just be opened with the same thing.

Ikora will just blast it open like she did back in Curse. Seal or no seal, new or old Forest, she doesn't give a shit,

There's an option for all of these that's basically just they don't mention it all. I don't think this is very likely, but hey. It's possible!

I've been running these scenarios in my head for days. Actually, I've been running them ever since the showcase for Echoes showed us the gate to the Forest, but this significantly increased when this week confirmed that we are indeed heading in there. And it was delivered so matter-of-factly as if there aren't any of these problems and scenarios I listed above. This is baffling me. I know there will be some explanations offered, but the setup completely blindsided me with how it was delivered. Ikora with the simple "Oh yeah the best place to grab data from is the Infinite Forest. Pack it up boys." And I'm standing there with a 8 hours long presentation asking her to explain how. She blocks my number on vannet.

Perhaps the situation is far simpler than I'm making it out to be. It would be really easy to just write the old Forest and Mercury away as being permanently lost. That way you don't have to explain or deal with any of the stuff with the anomaly or the yoinkening or Vance's shenanigans. I will obviously remain forever unhinged about it if that's the case because I simply need to know what happened, but it's the easiest way to deal with this. The Echo allowed the Vex to make a new Forest, they're using massive amounts of radiolaria and the core of Nessus to just recreate it all, then they copied all the data from the old one into it, booted it up and that's it.

But what if the seal is in effect? Or what if we're dealing with the old Forest on Mercury that's still in the anomaly? How do they plan to deal with that in a single mission? Well... We have no clue.

Bungie article lore time, but back last year in the State of the Game article, they said this about the pvp map Multiplex:

Although many of us had been thinking about a lo-fi Vex map for the Crucible, the challenge of this palette was the possible lack of player orientation in the play space. We thought bringing the Mars palette into the Vex Network realm would be a great way to mitigate this while adding an evocative look. Narratively, the space is in the middle of compiling the Infinite Forest, so this is what you’ll see in action.

Yes, while everyone was losing their mind about this article, I was looking for lore about the Infinite Forest. But yeah. It seems like they have information about it in the network and they were using it to compile that information; perhaps preparing to make a new one? Or simply using it for data.

So essentially, the Vex could have enough information about the Forest to recreate it, and better now with the Echo, which would allow us to simply bypass the anomaly and the Forest being locked, while allowing us to enter and still find Saint's tomb. This is by far the easiest solution.

But I want a conclusion on Mercury and Vance. I feel like this episode is the only time to really do that and they've been giving us so many Mercury things already, clearly showing that it was a big inspiration for it all. The music, the assets, the enemies. This includes the stuff about Saint and his grave, as well as the whole thing with the Perfect Paradox. There's still Act 3 of course and some still unknown exotic mission, but I feel like the quest that has us literally going into the Infinite Forest to revisit a place not even from Dawn, but from Curse, is the best spot to also deal with this.

I just have no idea how that's going to happen and I wanted to list out the stuff that would have to be somehow addressed and solved, even if the solution ends up being the simplest one. I also wanted to try and list some information about the Forest itself since this thing has not been in the game for years. I hope this was useful and that it explains things well.

Anyway, I've spent the whole week pacing around my room like a wild animal. Help.

In conclusion:

[ffaelix]

obsessed with the batfam and skyrim, so here’s who they’d play as and how that would go:

bruce – imperial bruce is 100% picking imperial. he’s got some elaborate backstory about being a noble general or strategist trying to bring balance to skyrim. the civil war questline? yeah, he’s leading the imperials to victory. also, he’s spending way too much time perfecting his alchemy and enchanting. his playthrough is methodical, overthought, and probably takes six real-world months.

dick – wood elf (bosmer) dick’s going bosmer because he loves sneaking through forests, sniping enemies with a bow, and avoiding heavy armor—but he’s also leaning into being a bard. he’s probably charming every npc he meets, playing instruments, and giving his dragonborn a whole backstory as a traveling storyteller. he’s siding with the stormcloaks, not for any deep reason, but because he likes the blue costume. also, you know he’s adopting every random npc follower he finds and pretending they’re part of his merry band.

jason – orc jason's going orc because he thinks they look the coolest and because he knows orc is the most overpowered race to play as. with two-handed weapons, heavy armor, and berserker rage, he’s unstoppable. his approach? smash first, ask questions never. he’s storming into bandit hideouts, wiping everyone out, and looting like a maniac. also, he’s destroying the dark brotherhood instead of joining it, just because he can.

cass – khajiit cass picks khajiit for stealth perks and becomes a sneaky assassin queen. she’s all daggers and silent takedowns, probably speedrunning the dark brotherhood questline without getting caught once. she skips dialogue, avoids side quests, and somehow finishes the main quest in record time.

tim – high elf (altmer) tim’s not just playing skyrim—he’s modding it to make it even harder. master difficulty, absurd enchantments, and hours spent in menus. he’s doing every quest, collecting every book, and building a lore-perfect house in solitude. his playthrough is less of a game and more of a research project.

damian – imperial damian picks imperial like bruce because he idolizes his dad but would never admit it. he’s siding with the imperials because "ulfric is an incompetent brute" and would lecture everyone about how their character builds are inferior. unlike bruce, though, he’s dual-wielding swords and charging headfirst into everything. also, he’s doing every daedric quest because power = perfection.

how they’d play:

jason: so i killed the jarl of whiterun because i was bored. bruce: what? why? jason: he called me a milk-drinker. not letting that slide. tim: you just broke your entire game. you can’t progress now. jason: whatever, i’ll just join the dark brotherhood and kill everyone else too. cass: jarl balgruuf doesn’t even say ‘milk-drinker.’ jason: i modded the game so he did. i wanted a reason.

.

tim: if i side with the imperials, am i enabling systemic oppression? but if i side with the stormcloaks, i’m supporting racism. there’s no winning. dick: tim, it’s a game. just pick one. tim: no, i need to read every book in skyrim first to understand the full context. bruce: [nods approvingly.] jason: or you could just shout people off cliffs. that’s what i do. tim: that’s morally irresponsible. cass: i like fus ro dah. tim: not helping.

.

damian: why are you wasting points on archery, grayson? it’s inefficient. dick: because it’s fun? damian: this isn’t about fun. it’s about building the optimal dragonborn. you’ve already failed. jason: says the guy who ran face-first into a dragon and died five times. damian: that was a tactical experiment. tim: no, you refused to use potions because you said they were ‘beneath you.’ damian: father agrees. right, father? bruce: …i always carry potions. damian: [offended silence.]

.

cass: done. bruce: what? cass: main quest. finished. tim: you started two hours ago. cass: skip dialogue. sneak everywhere. no distractions.

.

jason: ugh, i accidentally fus-ro-dah’d a chicken again, now the entire town is trying to kill me. tim: why do you keep doing that? jason: it’s instinct at this point. cass: sneak past guards. jason: why sneak when i can punch my way out? (ten minutes later, jason’s running naked through whiterun because he refused to pay his bounty.)

.

damian: dick, why are you using an orcish bow when you have access to elven weapons? dick: because it looks cooler? damian: you’re an embarrassment to this game. jason: you know he’s got, like, 3000 pieces of cheese in his inventory, right? damian: excuse me? dick: cheese heals health. don’t knock my tactics.

.

dick: this is my new best friend, sven. damian: that bard in riverwood? he’s useless. dick: he’s got dreams, damian. i’m helping him live them. (later, sven dies in a dragon attack, and dick spends real-world hours reloading saves to keep him alive.)

[andarans]

a love letter to dragon age.

i’ve been trying to cope with the news that all the dragon age devs have been laid off or reassigned these past two days, and i just…. it’s hard. it might sound silly to say but i’ve barely been able to do anything because i feel as if i’ve lost a family member. took today to have a good cry. dragon age was such a formative series for me. i joke all the time i got into it for the romances and stayed for the lore but really everything about it i love, dearly. i love that each companion and side character had stories that moved me and made me cry, stories i could relate to even in a world with magic and dragons. i love how the lore is presented, including the brilliance that is the codex—that you’re never quite sure who to believe, that discovering the truth requires you to be an archaeologist. i love how my choices always mattered, that decision i made in origins affected my playthrough in inquisition. i loved the message dragon age as a series sent, about corruption, about power, about propaganda. dragon age influenced so much of my fantasy tastes and own writing and art. it left such a huge mark on my artistic inspirations and work. hell, my first ever dnd character was a tiefling that pretty much looks like a qunari with having a backstory that affected the world she was in, reminiscent of the depiction of elves in dragon age (still one of my favorite and nuanced takes on elves in fantasy, btw). even with the dnd campaign and world i’m writing now, i see dragon age in nooks and crannies. i wrote so much fanfic and drew so much fanart and made so many theories and anxiously followed every bit of news for the development cycle of veilguard. i’d watch the game awards every year with my friend hoping for dragon age news. speaking of friends, god i made so many friends because of dragon age. that common interest sparked so many fun conversations and ideas. i even was a writer for an anders focused dragon age charity zine.

above all i loved the community around dragon age. sure, fandoms all have its moments and toxicity, but by and large my experience with the DA community was wonderful. i love getting to see people’s OCs and world states because i also obsess over my DA OCs and world states. i love getting to see people write theses about dragon age’s themes and masters worthy character studies. the communal love for this world and its characters is so, so profoundly inspiring.

i’ve spent so much time moping but i do want to highlight what i loved about each game and my favorite characters.

DAO: my first intro to the series. by god the gameplay was so slow but the story and characters and lore and writing made it SO worth it. made me appreciate CRPGs too. alistair ended up becoming my favorite character, i remember actually gasping and blushing at the rose moment in his romance. the landsmeet is still one of my favorite quests, i love fantasy political intrigue. morrigan also was my best friend, when she called my warden a sister i cried.

DA2: one of the most underrated games by far. i loved the smaller scale, i loved how personal hawke’s story felt, i loved every single companion and this found family. fenris was my first romance and one of my favorites, he is so complex and misunderstood and secretly has the best sense of humor. i think anders ended up becoming my favorite though—god, anders. i could speak about him for hours but i appreciate the DA devs for what they did for him and letting us romance him. anders made me appreciate his character archetype so much; he is such a tragic man transformed by bitterness and vengeance and rage. “ten years from now, a hundred years from now, someone like me will love someone like you, and there will be no templars to tear them apart.” i love you anders.

DAI: i love the inquisitor. i love how tragic of a character the inquisitor is, ripped from their life and forced to become an idol for a movement they might not even believe in. a lot of people criticize DAI for being “the chosen one” cliché, but it’s not. it’s a critique of that very trope and how it destroys a person. the inquisitor is forced to become an idea, and it does not matter who they actually are; they have all autonomy taken from them, and that is horrifying. cullen ended up ruining my life for a good amount of time, his romance is my favorite in all the series and god he got such a good redemption and ending. (i even bought cullen themed soap from a local convention, lol. i’m telling you i was obsessed). and in my replay solas’ romance absolutely destroyed me, turning him from my dearly detested to my dearly beloved. god trick weekes i will miss you so much, thank you for writing solas.

DAV: i know how contentious veilguard is. believe me i have many of my own criticisms. but i still love it anyway. i love the companions, all of them, i love how act 3 absolutely fucking gutted me and made me cry twice. i loved the amazing visuals and character creator and ost and environments. i love the QOL improvements. i loved seeing the cameos and my inquisitor again. there’s so much to love in veilguard and i’d rather talk about how much i love it than what i didn’t. lucanis was my first romance and while there wasn’t as much content as i was hoping for, i sincerely appreciate what we did get. i love how ride or die he is, how his love language is acts of service, how he’s afraid to hurt rook. i love his facial animations in his romance, i love zach mendez’s performance. i’m hoping to play emmrich and davrin’s next, and i’m sure i’ll love them too.

it’s hard to accept the fact that dragon age is probably over. it makes me sad knowing we’ll never find out about certain lore questions or know what DA5 could’ve looked like. and i’m still so angry for the developers and how they’re so callously treated and thrown away by EA/bioware. sometimes i wonder if the same thing would’ve happened if veilguard sold more. but it’s not helpful to dwell on these what-ifs, because we’ve seen how the industry treats both successful games and what they deem as failures: layoffs and no remorse. i hope the team finds work soon. i hope they realize how loved their work is. i hope someday the game industry is completely, wholly unionized. i’m glad at least we got veilguard to answer the biggest questions we’ve had.

thank you, DA devs, for everything. thank you for answering our silly questions about your characters favorite coffee flavors and perfect date nights. thank you for bringing them to life. i won’t stop playing the games or making art or fic. i won’t stop being inspired. dragon age lives on in my creations, in my dnd characters, in everything. i hope to be back in thedas soon, one day. dareth shiral.

[sundogsandrainbows]

Hi, I'm sorry to write to you out of the blue, but Of Elves and Humans was the first DA longfic that got me hooked back in 2011 when I, as a dumb teen, happened to pick up DAO. Ever since then, the DA universe has been a constant fixation of mine and my admiration for you as a writer as well as someone who isn’t afraid to call out the franchise's flaws has never wavered. Now that Bioware decided to take a massive shit on everything pre-DAV and their oldest fans specifically, I'm really devastated and feel like a fool for having been so invested in DA and its lore for those past 13 years. It’s incredibly encouraging, however, to see you keep on keeping on. "So since they spat in my face like this I ignore this atrocity of a game even exists" is where I hope to be at soon, too. Thank you.

(First of all apologies for the late reply, I put it in my drafts when i was too tired to complete it, and then my adhd brain forgot it existed due to being distracted by new shinies 😂☠)

But aww omg i cannot believe i was the gateway drug into dragon age, or rather the old version of my story on FFN was. I am so very honored <3 And nonnie, I feel you. I am invested in DA as a series since DA:O's release in 2009, like I bought it on a whim for XBox because I liked Mass Effect 1 sm. So that is 15 yrs of my life i spent loving and discussing a thing while still being critical of the thing, but now i feel so very protective of the world, lore and its characters that "New Bioware" has decided to take a massive dump of shit on, and not only the games but the old fans I feel are treated with disdain too and do not matter to them any longer.

Long, subjective rant about current bioware aka the shambling corpse of its former self and talent incoming. Spoilers for Veilguard bc i don't give a fuck to avoid them :D You (general you, not you in particular dearest nonny <3) should use your time better than to play this shit anyhow 😂

It feels like calculated malice of new Bioware to apply the scorched earth tactics to offscreen destroy everything that old fans and fans of the other games in general held dear, and was supposed to suck out the enjoyment of DAO, DA2 and DAI. Like it is obvious they plan to create a sequel on DA's scorched bones, but jfc, you can do so story-wise without spitting everyone loving what old bioware has built in the face after dropkicking them. But to me that is part of the problem, since if i remember correctly and i wish i could find the bit... they praised Veilguard as "The best Dragon Age game ever", with the most interesting companions and best most improved combat system, comparing it to the other three games in a near smug fashion. There is marketing and there is putting the other games down to prop up your most favorite and only child mattering and they were definitely doing the latter. And don't get me started on the whole "Who is Zevran" debacle or we are gonna here all day.

Bottom line is new/current devs and writer do not give a shit about and very possibly have never played any other game than Inquisition, and you cannot tell me otherwise. And since a lot of devs/writer have left since the start of this project that would become this abysmal game, I also have the impression that there is a lot of underlying resentment toward what these former colleagues have created and so they piss on it in order to make it fully theirs now. Like dogs marking their territory, and well that did not work out, imo. At all.

Ever since they announced respecting our past choices by ignoring them (????) it was clear to me that I would not play Veilguard but just watch a playthrough and all spoilers and then move on. And everything i saw before release was shocking... like i was flabbergasted at how baaaad the dialogue was, which as a writer myself is super important to me in my story. There was no subtext, characters just blurt out everything they think and feel, like a lifeless doll you squeeze and words tumbling out and just as natural. It is stilted, awkward and 80% of it exists for info dump or info dumb rather as they keep repeating the same shit they just told you a few seconds ago as if you as the player are braindead. Here is a good example of what i mean.

Jfc, who edited this crap? There is so much superfluous dialogue that adds nothing to a scene but annoyance for the player and says nothing at all. Just pure senseless yapping in the most cringy way. Why was no one there to trim this nonsense as you should as a writer/editor? Hell, they really disregarded every simple and basic writing rule (everything is told never SHOWN for example especially in dialogue) which really made me question their competence in what they were doing and thus the quality of the upcoming game but i still held out hope for it to not be that bad.

Well shit, it was even worse. In all regards. Especially the writing that cringed this writer into a new dimension with its incoherent incompetence. Jfc. they got paid for that? I'm convinced the majority of fandom writer can do much better, even unpaid. Hell my cat just by walking over the keyboard can manage a better draft and script...💀

But I digress. That is a rant for another time. Point is, nonny, despite my defiant words, I struggled too for days after i got to know the full extent of Bioware's spiteful fuckery to even look at anything da related, in my case my Alistair/Mahariel longfic. I was really down for a few days, ngl. Then again, there is nothing better than spite fueling my creativity to prove "i can write better" soooo in the end and with the help of the much better first version of DA4 in the artbook, I was able to exorcise the demons and feverdream-mindfuck of mediocrity sold to me as a turd with gold-glitter that is this game.

I have successfully now rejected its existence, filled the void with the version that should have been from the artbook and vowed to give no fucks what bioware is doing or saying and infinitely more fucks when writing my own version of thedas and the version of DA4 that should be. REWRITES BBY hell yeah. So OEAH:R is just the beginning of a verse-wise rewrite. But if you need a pick me up, nonny, you are very much welcome to take a trip down memory lane to Dragon 9:30 and see how much this iteration of the story differs from my first one back in the days. Because in this house of mine, we grow and learn as writers, unlike bioware where writer ego reigns surpreme (oh boy and does it ever show in VG) aka eating their own turds and tell themselves it is the finest chocolate 💀

There is still a lot of good about DA out there, but we have to accept it does not come from Bioware any longer. Instead it came, comes and will come from the fans and creators of art and texts and words defying their bullshit with their love and respect for the world, its lore and characters. Also very unlike Bioware.

As we should <3

[thesims4blogger]

The Sims Shares Details About Collab with SixamCC

You Make The Sims Featuring SixamCC

The Sims community is a place of big ideas, storytellers, content-makers, and creators of all kinds. Our players inspire us to keep looking for new ways to tell universal stories, and to continue to invite collaboration and creativity from all kinds of Simmers to help shape the game we all love. For this edition of You Make the Sims we’re sitting down with SixamCC to take a look at what inspired the Storybook Nursery Kit and how he and The Sims team brought it to life!

SixamCC (also known as Alex) is well-known in The Sims community as a custom content creator and 3D Digital artist. A lover of both video games and Japanese fluffy pancakes–a winning combination, tbh–SixamCC works in the creative field and spends his free time creating CC for the community he loves..

Like many players, SixamCC was introduced to the game by a family member, and knew from that first playthrough it was going to be one of his favorite games.

THE SIMS TEAM: Tell us about how you were first introduced to The Sims and what inspired you to start making custom content.

SIXAMCC: My cousin was a big fan of The Sims at the time, and she told me about The Sims 2 and how fun it was. She told me all about the endless possibilities and opportunities to tell every imaginable story with the game, which sounded fascinating to me. One day, she brought the Deluxe CD to my house and got me to install it. Ever since then, I knew it was one of my favorite games.

I’ve always wanted to make my own custom content for my Sims, but I never had the time to get into it. During the 2020 lockdown, I finally decided to try it out, and I found the process so fascinating and fun.

THE SIMS TEAM: Kit collaborations are some of our favorite things to work on, because of amazing creators like you who pitch a concept to The Sims team. As a creator, how do you approach creating a new concept from scratch?

SIXAMCC: I always ask myself what kind of stories I want to tell with the concepts I design. I like to go beyond just decorating a room. I think the game allows you to create your own stories without needing specific new gameplay, which is why I aim for my ideas to have something unique and interesting to explore.

THE SIMS TEAM: How did the idea of ‘legacy’ play into what you wanted to create?

SIXAMCC: I truly believe our most iconic Sims characters have set the perfect example of legacy; Bella and Mortimer have shared a story that has stood the test of time and distance, we’ve seen them in different life stages throughout the games. This is what inspired me to create this Kit—a space, or in this case a nursery room, where every legacy story can take place.

THE SIMS TEAM: What kinds of stories do you hope to see Simmers tell with this pack?

SIXAMCC: I want players to have the chance to expand their legacy storytelling in any way they dream of. I've seen some truly amazing family trees from players who’ve spent years crafting the perfect legacy family, and I think that’s just fantastic. This kit is perfect for kicking off a new generation and keeping it going strong.

For those who’ve never tried it before, I invite you to start with this kit . I know it can be tough to say goodbye to our favorite Sims, but sometimes that’s part of the fun of creating new stories. (And hey, you can always bring them back to life!)

THE SIMS TEAM: You've created so many wonderful items for children and infants in the past; what interests you the most about designing and making objects for younger Sims?

SIXAMCC: Making content for younger Sims is just fun. You can experiment with different silhouettes and bright colors, and still provide swatches and options for more serious players. I feel like my creativity flows more freely when I work on content for kids. I also love to hear from my community and they’ve been pretty clear about loving children's items.

THE SIMS TEAM: This kit has a real air of elegance to it; is there a particular object you knew you had to include to make this feel like an elevated nursery?

SIXAMCC: Oh what a difficult question, the truth is that each of the elements that make up this kit are perfect and I can't imagine any of them being left out. But if I had to choose I think it would be the canopy, I'm sure the players will use it to give that extra bit of elegance to their little ones rooms.

The canopy taking center stage in this pink and white colorway of the Storybook Nursery kit.

THE SIMS TEAM: Do you have a favorite detail or easter egg you’d be willing to share?

SIXAMCC: I love all the easter eggs in this Kit, I would like to mention them all! I won’t spoil them! but I think one of my favorites without a doubt is the hanging mobile where, if you zoom in close enough, we can actually see Bella in the hot air balloon. It certainly brings back a lot of nostalgic feelings from The Sims 2.

THE SIMS TEAM: You’ve collaborated with other Sims community members in the past; are there any creators you’d really love to work with some day?

SIXAMCC: I could start listing all the people that come to mind, and we’d probably run out of time for the interview, haha. There are so many talented Simmers I admire, both as individuals and as content creators, modders, and other CC creators. I’d absolutely love to work with all of them, but the truth is, I’m super shy and I always hesitate when I think of asking. (Some people are going to laugh when they read this, but I promise it’s true!)

For now I can say that I would love to collaborate with Juno Birch and Trixie Mattel; I love their style and I think something extremely cool and unique would come out of it.

THE SIMS TEAM: For anyone who’d like to start creating their own digital art, is there any advice you’d give them?

SIXAMCC: (Looks at the camera) You, yes, you, don’t overthink it, just do it.

Honestly, it can seem scary, but the most important thing is to just dive in and give it a shot. There are so many places out there now where you can get help and learn whatever you need. And as they say, practice makes perfect, right? It doesn’t have to be perfect on the first try.

THE SIMS TEAM: You answers have been so great, so let’s end on a truly tricky question:

You can only pick ONE!

SIXAMCC: This is a tough one because Jenni, from The Sims team, made me love the possum that we made for this kit, but I think I'll probably choose a sloth one because it's my absolute favorite animal.

The council of the eight plushies awaits your decision: If you can only choose one, who are you choosing?

Thank you to SixamCC for his time, thoughtful answers, and for all the work he did to bring the beautiful Storybook Nursery Kit to life with The Sims 4 team! Choose your very own favorite stuffed animal friend and level up your legacy with this kit when it releases later this month.

The Sims 4 Storybook Nursery Kit will be available for purchase beginning September 19 in The Sims 4 on PC and Mac® via EA app, Epic Games Store, Steam®, PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One systems.

[lampochkaart]

7,8,25 for the ask game! For Kokichi agian.

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

Hard to answer, because there are so many different interpretations of his character. But I think what I like most is that a lot of people look into his character, trying to understand him, analyze his behaviour, recognise that he's multidimensional person. Even though there are people who just fall for his facade, a lot of people don't. And they look harder to get a better understanding of him

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

Well... There's something I noticed that's been bothering me for some time now. And it's not just about Kokichi. I'm not sure if I'll be able to clearly explain it. Just, I noticed that male characters who are charismatic, cheeky, often flamboyant and usually queer-coded (or interpreted by a lot of fans as queer) are sometimes portrayed in a more exaggerated manner. Like, in some fandom interpretations these characters make far too much dirty jokes and suggestive comments, use a lot of crude language, their mannerisms and body language also become more sexual... And a lot of times that's not how the character usually acts in canon.

With Kokichi specifically, I already pointed it out once before, but he doesn't make dirty jokes *that* often. And when he does 90% of time it's directed at Miu (and the other 10% are a couple of jokes about whether Kiibo has a dick). Kokichi's just mirroring her own behaviour. Most of the time he plays that act of either like a super villain, or like a bratty child (or both). He doesn't really act that flirty and seductive a lot. He can do it *occasionally*, but not that often. But sometimes I come across works where Kokichi acts more like Miu than like himself.

It's not something that happens too much, but I've seen it and not only with Kokichi but with other similar characters enough times to notice this pattern.

Of course, I don't want to offend anyone and I'm not saying that no one should ever portray characters in that way. Everyone is allowed to have their own interpretations of characters. After all, fan creations are made for fun. And it usually doesn't happen *too* often, but it's just my personal pet peeve.

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

I don't really remember, but a while ago, before my obsession with DR started, I think I've seen some fanarts of him and thought he was cool? Then some time passed and I've watched some animations with Kokichi and though "you know what, I'm very interested in this guy!" I spent some time thinking about him and by the time when I watched a (no commentary) DRV3 playthrough I was already obsessed with him.

Now I'm not as utterly obsessed with him as I was at first, but he's still my most favorite character right now and I'm still thinking about him pretty much all the time

Thank you for the ask!!

[thegreatyin]

How did you manage to handle not one, but FOUR separate accounts in fl? I recently made the account for my HD little guy but having to do the tutorial again just seems miserable

there's... weirdly several answers to that question, actually??

a HUGE part of it is due to the way FL is structured. the 10-minute action timer is a core part of the game on a fundamental level, and the fact that i can very easily run out of stuff to do on one character and thus have an excuse to quickly and easily swap to another is just... convenient? satisfying? i'm not entirely sure how to explain it. the fact that i can make progress even while i am fundamentally simultaneously Not Making Progress is like pure dopamine for my freak insane awful little brain. there's just something really pleasing about spending all of my actions pursuing The Goal Of The Day™ on one account before casually swapping to another and doing the same without feeling like i'm wasting time or acting to the first account's explicit detriment. the downtime helps! the recharge time helps! the structure really really works!!

i'm technically only actively playing three, maybe two accounts minimum. the only reason the fourth (the one that'll be my future BaL playthrough) currently exists at all is so i can get his earlygame completely out of the way now and not have to waste time running through it all later, when what i actually want to do is play the ambition i've made myself wait a full year to play. and also getting free goodies as seasonal stuff happens,, something something surprise tools to help us later. the only two accounts i'd say i'm really "actively playing" at the moment are caeru and lark- and of the two, lark takes the most priority, since his ambition is the one i'm currently pursuing in earnest. for a couple months now- despite being My Main FL Character- the scoundrel has actually been pretty inactive on a gameplay front outside of the occasional progression in TLC and discordance content. purely by virtue of having Very little left to do outside of Very long-term grinds and vanities. they're in their "now what?" "now you can start playing the game" era. they've graduated to previous protagonist background cameo in a sequel anime series. they're like the yin FLPC equivalent of red at the top of mount silver. they're Literally just vibing rn. i only keep posting about them regardless because i'm insane and i will never ever ever ever ever let that bat go. but yeah, big TLDR, outside of doing the bare minimum to keep making waves/notability up every week, i'm not actually spending that much time on accounts i'm not currently actively interested in playing. and that accounts for way more gaming spoons than you might think.

i have a virtually lifelong history of playing MMOs, especially and specifically world of warcraft. i was born in the endless grind for useless video game pixel vanities and/or bragging rights. molded by it. you all have merely adapted to doing the same piece of content a pointlessly excessive amount of times for literally no reason besides whimsy and folly. me? i've done my time. i've served my sentence. i've spent weeks doing the original burning crusade netherwing dailies. i've devoted days to running praetorium over and over and over again, back-to-back, nonstop, long before square enix cut it in half and made it NOT take at minimum an hour and a half per run. i've perfected my silverwastes + auric basin goldfarming strategies. i've (almost) crafted dragonwrath tarecgosa's rest. i've killed the sha of anger so many times its dying scream of agony is embedded into the very fabric of my being. ""only"" doing making your name content four times over? that is nothing to me. it means nothing to me. it is so infinitesimal i can do the persuasive seduction quests in my sleep. it's not a matter of handling misery, or having the capacity, or even sighing as i remember the brass embassy raid segment of the watchful questline seriously i don't know why i keep forgetting that exists or what even is my problem with it i just am so consistently mildly inconvenienced by it and its highly specific resource requirements and it is the worst thing ever. maybe i'm just so used to the scoundrel's near-infinite money and troves of disposable items that i've completely forgotten what being poor is like. despite having done that step 3 fucking times now. ahem. anyway. i have transcended the feeble mortal bindings of my resistant-to-grinding flesh and ascended to a higher plane of enlightenment, they may call me insane but they will be the ones left laughing when they see what that "insanity" has wrought, i've usurped them, i've usurped them all-

hacks and coughs and awkwardly clears my throat. i mean. uh. um. Ahem.

the empress' court artistry + tales of the university nerfs helped too.

[what-even-is-thiss]

I’m thinking about starfield again because I haven’t had the desire to redownload it and try another playthrough. And that’s weird. Because I replay games to death. That’s basically how I consume video games. I only play a few and I replay them until I know them inside and out and then put them down until I pick them up again a few weeks or months later. It’s very rare that I don’t want to replay a game that I’ve spent a lot of time with.

I think reflecting on it if they ever make a sequel to starfield they need to commit to one thing. Just any one thing. Just pick a thing to commit to. Commit to something.

It’s like starfield doesn’t want to commit and go all the way with any one thing. Starfield isn’t saying anything. Like even more so than usual with Bethesda games.

Like why am I collecting all of these artifacts? Why am I going to the next universe? Why am I helping any of these people in this city with very few named NPCs? Why am I cataloguing all of these plants and animals? Why are these gigantic procedurally generated environments here if there’s nothing to do in them?

Bethesda was trying to make it no man’s sky and a Bethesda game and not be weird or controversial in any way. What? This is the same studio that made giant radioactive bipedal alligators native only to one amusement park.

You know the terror of coming across Swan emerging from the lake for the first time in Fallout 4? You know that oh crap moment when you realize you can kill Astrid in Skyrim? I had zero moments like that playing starfield.

They should’ve done way more with the faction they created that was a bunch of murderous zealots worshiping a giant snake. Freaky fictional cults are Bethesda’s bread and butter. They’re very good at making comically evil cults and parodies of religious extremists.

Where’s the famous lines everyone is quoting from starfield? I’ve found none. No “I used to be an adventurer like you then I took an arrow in the knee” no “I’ve fought mudcrabs more fearsome than you” no “war never changes”

Perhaps the most memorable NPC interaction in Starfield is a) optional based on a box you check at the beginning of the game and b) Is a freaking reference to Oblivion. A game from 2006 with better writing. I’m of course talking about the adoring fan. That entire thing is a tribute to and almost carbon copy of the oblivion character and it’s the only fun NPC interaction I can remember from Starfield.

Like starfield doesn’t say anything. It doesn’t add anything. It’s not even uniquely bad. It’s just there. It’s not even an exploration game. Everywhere you go has already been settled. There’s random abandoned research stations and pirate outposts everywhere. Constellation aren’t explorers. The cataloguing you do with your scanner means nothing.

Starfield needs a direction. It needs to commit. It needs something on par with deathclaws. It needs to establish an antagonist that’s worth revisiting or being a major world event in the history of this world. The star born are just stupid to me. Just people trying to collect a bunch of rocks and go to another universe again and again and again so they can get dragon shouts or something. They’re lame. They’re disorganized. Picking sides between their different philosophies has no tangible impact on the world.

[majorasnightmare]

STAYING ON MY ISOBEL BULLSHIT now with Dark Urge flavoring

i think possibly the best variation of Isobel and the Urge is the one where Minthara is present to grill you about it, because it really brings a LOT of context to the forefront of that scene that otherwise would go unquestioned

like firstly minthara has zero qualms about the Actual Killing so the killing of isobel is just like, a Non Thing, but what minthara does is question the CIRCUMSTANCES and force you to explain yourself for them, when otherwise thats something that just doesnt get discussed! you focus so much on the fact of the killing that you barely notice the scene surrounding it, which is so utterly fascinating regarding how the Urge works.

Minthara questions "why here? why now? in the middle of the shadow curse, trying to fight a powerful enemy, when allies are beneficial, if at the very least to put warm bodies between us and them?" all of which are valid points! minthara questions what the benefit is to turning all of last light into zombies *now* is, especially when you have to fight you way through them, and doesnt understand what the point is in indulging it *now* of all times. Which is certainly something to consider when you examine HOW the isobel urge scene goes down

The earliest possible scene is sceleritas visiting you in camp to give you a target for the Urge, a first in the playthrough, which happens BEFORE you go to last light but while youve spent some time in the shadow cursed lands. He provides you an image of her to recognize her, and informs you that itd be really great to kill the shit out of her, but reasons WHY are sparse. Up until that point, the Urges were random, sudden, things youd resist or indulge in the moment. Kicking a squirrel suddenly, resisting tearing off the wings of a bird, welcoming a bard into your camp or being rude but having not a single hint of bloodthirst until you wake up covered in gore. durge even says as much in an optional dialogue in the underdark, when spaw tries to scare you off before you find their village

"The Urges don't give warnings" is a rule that durge has intuited through their interactions with the Urge, where their understanding is that the Urge is sudden, seemingly random, without prior signs or warnings of any kind, least of all verbal. And here Sceleritas is giving you basically an assassination target. And true to form, when you actually MEET isobel, the Urge is the worst its ever been, requiring several boxes of dialogue to go through before its able to be successfully resisted, a struggle visible enough in your expression that Isobel can tell when you've succeeded. This is FAR from the usual Urge experience for a post lobotomy durge, this is premediated and *intense*, your Urge dialogue being short clipped maddened ramblings of ripping and maiming, completely different from your fantasies of cutting of Gale's hand (which bears durges typical macarbe prose)

Succumbing to this Urge also rewards you with the Slayer form, a first for Bhaal as durge didnt have the Slayer beforehand, despite being Bhaals chosen. Killing Isobel is so important to Bhaal that he gives you what he considers his greatest gift and most powerful expression of his domain (though it can also be used as punishment, as seen in the Orin cutscene where she learns her heritage)

Why does Bhaal want Isobel Thorm, of all people, dead SO badly? He isnt even this bad about GORTASH, chosen of his sworn enemy Bane and one of the reasons why his Dark Urge chosen falls from grace in the first place? The Urge compels you, overwhelmingly, to kill Isobel as soon as you see her. It goads when you fight Marcus, saying he shouldnt kidnap her because you need to kill her *now*. You cant have any dialogue with Isobel without one of the first things the Narrator says to you is that your Urge wants to kill her SO badly. If you mention it to her, you get MULTIPLE dialogues where your only options are succumb to the Urge or resist it, with the succumb options being things like "stab you! kill you! maul you!", essentially just barking out murderous nonsense as the Urge overtakes you, and its physically sickening to boot. Resisting THIS Urge over all others FEELS godawful, its nauseating and painful and even though there isnt a check to resist it, the description emphasizes just how hard it is for you to commit to resisting this Urge. The Urge doesnt act like that at any point in act 1, or even the rest of act 2 for instance. Talking to Steelclaw and forcing yourself to remember essentially triggers another squirrel incident, this time offscreen. And resisting the Isobel Urge means any long rest after has the chance to trigger the Companion Urge scene, which Sceleritas claims to be your Urge trying to cope with the lack of bloodshed but which overall feels like a punishment. As far as ive gotten into Act 3, so far this is the ONLY Urge that behaves like this. Theres SOMETHING about Isobel SPECIFICALLY. The reward is the greatest its ever been for Durge, and the punishment is uniquely bitter, and theres no room for gray areas, even as Minthara concisely points out all the reasons attacking Isobel is a Logically Bad Idea.

To kill Isobel, your Urge makes you unto an animal, disregarding your own safety and well being, and even your own long term goals (you have to kill ketheric no matter what ending your after! you have to kill ketheric even if you want to please bhaal! to become his chosen and slay the world in his name!) and it doesnt make a lick of sense. Sceleritas asks if you arent fond of piles of corpses anymore but it doesnt even matter if you tell him your waiting for a better timeframe to slaughter everyone, the fact you didnt do it as soon as the Urge demanded it is worthy enough of punishment to try and kill your closest companion.

Overwhelmingly it feels less like the typical instinctive Dark Urge borne into your blood and more like a Divine Mandate that you are punished for rejecting. Blessed with the purest expression of Bhaals power, losing yourself to an animalistic frenzy, forgoing common sense or strategic thinking or even *plans on long term appeasing Bhaals goals*, putting EVERYTHING at risk because theres a strong chance the shadow curse will just PERMAKILL YOU as per the curses lore, all for a SINGLE kill. Bhaal wants Isobel Thorm, specifically, dead by YOUR hands, and her death is worth more to him than the slaughter of Myrkuls Chosen, and worth risking the completion of the worlds death to him. The entire situation casts doubt on the nature of the Urge (up until then a randomly occuring "instinct" that could be embraced or resisted but ran the risk of striking when you werent prepared leading you to act on it, but overall something that did not overwrite who you were as a person or your decision making abilities, as durge remained macabre-ly poetic as per usual and could balance it against perceived pros and cons strategically) which in turn casts doubt on your entire HISTORY as the Dark Urge prior to your tadpoling. Combined with the knowledge that Bhaal blesses his killers with murderous euphoria better than any drug high, and the description of Orins slayer punishment as "No more Orin", the Urge to kill Isobel makes one wonder just exactly how much control Durge had over themselves beforehand and if the Urge is truly as innate as Sceleritas (and the Absolute in the optional wall crack dialogue) seems to indicate

After all, if the Dark Urge is you, and you are the Dark Urge, why would Sceleritas go to the trouble of informing you beforehand? Why would the Urge pick your closest companion when you dont kill a stranger whos keeping you alive long enough to slaughter the world? Why would you lose yourself and start babbling madly when you talk about the killing Urge? Why does the Urge sicken within you so similarly whenever your kind or compassionate?

What the fuck is UP with Isobel Thorm?

[nrdmssgs]

Activision doesn't understand, how Russian language works

Spoilers to CoD MW3 below the cut.

@sofasoap @siilvan @cumikering @stag-beetle-wastaken @gamergirlbonestaskforce141riot be my guests.

First and most important: this rant is not aimed to 'make Russian culture great again'. I am not offended as a representative of some cultural or linguistic group. But as a member of gaming community, I feel, as if Activision... kinda didn't give a flying f about the gaming experience, that they are trying to sell me for 60 Euros. And I can't say, I like this feeling.

Second: I will be criticizing some approaches to language, that I will never criticize in fanfiction. Because you guys are doing it for free, for the sake of having fun. So I will be ok with you just straight using Google translate to write e.g. Nikolais lines in Russian. Because you never ask me to pay 60 Euros for the right to read your works. With that being mentioned, lets roll!

Activision doesn't pay attention to their own script, when it comes to Russian lines

Ok, this is a major issue. Because Activision sometimes gives completely different information in character line and in the subtitles. And it is not some minor information, we are talking about major plot details!

Let's just watch 20 seconds of a playthrough (time code 8:44)

Pay attention closely to how Makarov starts his monologue after Nolan says "Its an honor, commander". Makarovs subtitles say 'four years', when Makarov says something like 'shest let'. "four" in Russian is "chetyre", "six" is "shest`". These words sound nothing alike! And to check this, you literally need 5 seconds on google translate! Here, Activision, I did your work for you and I don't even ask for 60 freaking Euros! You learn these numbers on your second-third lesson of Russian 101!

There are ways to fix this scene. There are even ways to do it without reshooting Julian (because ok, I get it, maybe he costs so much, that all our 60 Euros purchases would never help Activision to economically recover...). All you need is to ask him to record TWO WORDS!

Activision doesn't care for wording even in the simplest proverbs

You remember a saying "enemy of my enemy is my friend"? I mean, of course you do, even John Price remembers it! And you know, who forgot this saying? Activision did! Because honest to god, I was very happy with our new Yuri, until he produced this ominous linguistic construction... (time code 56:10)

And if you think, it sounds just a tad off in English... Well, in Russian this sounds, as if a Colonel, a man, who spent tenths of years constantly communicating with soldiers, superiors, officials, started learning Russian... a month ago.

This is an international proverb, it exists in many languages! Now this is a safe case to use an automatic translator! It gives you a very simple answer.

But for some mysterious reason, Activision writes their strange line, translate to russian and find a poor-working synonym so that Yuri doesn't say 'opponent' twice... And in the end it kinda still makes sense, but this whole phrase sounds so off!! You never choose this sick long, overloaded wording for a proverb, that you literally learn at school. They just make it look like zarin is already there and it affects Yuri heavily.

This is just one example, but in reality, almost every Makarovs monologue sounds very strangely formulated. I just got you one example, but believe me, this is a systematic issue here. And the strangest thing is that all their errors are so easy to fix, but they never bothered!

Activision doesn't care for how Russian sounds

Ok, this is not a rant against Julian Kostov. The guy does his wor absolutely gorgeous! He steals every scene, where he appears, and I have nothing, but respect for him. However... Russian is a complicated language. For real. It is full of long words, with many unfamiliar for European ear sounds. It is not only difficult to understand it - it is complicated even to imitate it.

Now apparently Julian knows Russian to some extent just because of his origin and age. But that doesn't save him from swallowing some letters, syllables, sometimes even big parts of words. And when it happens in almost every line of his character - it becomes an issue. An issue, when even Russian-speaker has to read subtitles to understand, what is going on in a scene with two Russian characters!

This whole scene is a nightmare (time code 1:42:54). Replaced letters, disappearance of parts of words, strange accents - they collected a bingo on this one.

And I dont blame actors here! Because on every shooting there is a director - a guy, who is responsible for how overall scene will look and sound in the end. There is always a possibility to find someone, who actually speaks the language and make them sit and listen! And if there are many issues with pronunciation revealed - you just come to your actors and say 'guys, you did amazing jobs, we are so happy to work with you. Now can we please do another shot and pay attention to these lines of yours?'.

And believe me, it is ok to have multiple shots for ingame cutscenes! Actors are ok with that! I don't ask for a perfect pronunciation, I just ask Activision to make sure, their characters don't sound as if they are speaking gibberish!

The most strange part here is that there are super-clean lines in game as well! Milena spoke with accent too, but she sounded clear! Some NPCs sounded perfect!

So Im sorry, but at the end of the day - this your most accurate Russian character by Activision. Because he chose to speak English.