#i think this is the prettiest graphic i've done so far

[beautyinsteadofashes]

imagine being loved by me - chapter one: the butterfly effect (mafia au)

Her fingers unwound reluctantly from her tight grip on her black sleeves, and she reached out her finger and thumb to lift his chin and make him look at her. He swallowed thickly as her voice dipped to a low private whisper, a flicker of fear buried deep beneath the warm intimacy that shone in her brown eyes. "Am I safe with you?" Her stomach tensed, bracing for his response but he answered without hesitation. "Always" “You weren’t mugged, were you?”

[crossdressingdeath]

Just wanna say I really enjoy reading about your progress through Inquisition and reading your complaints about it. People so rarely speak badly about this game, it's a shame. Anyway, thank you for sharing your progress. :)

Honestly the thing is that... despite all evidence to the contrary, I really do like Inquisition. I've played it all the way through to completion (although never 100%) many times. Where it gets things right it gets them really, really right! In terms of visuals it is unarguably the prettiest Dragon Age thus far by miles (DA4 will probably blow it out of the water, 2014 graphics will not stand up all that well to 2023 graphics, but the point still stands that DAI is a very pretty game)! The characters that work are lovable and engaging and you really feel for them and their struggles! The romances that are handled well are incredibly touching! The main quests are at least in the abstract and out of context from the series as a whole well-written!

The trouble is that all the places where it shines just make the places where it really doesn't stand out all the more jarringly. Some of my favourite characters come from Inquisition, but that just makes the characters that are poorly written or unpleasant to interact with stand out that much more. The well-written romances make the ones that are uncomfortable or outright abusive all the more unpleasant to sit through. The good quests make the bad quests worse in comparison. And of course at its core Inquisition represents a lot of very ugly retcons about the Chantry and its victims all done in the name of making the Christianity allegory look better after two whole games dedicated to showing that unless you're a wealthy human Orlesian non-mage the institution as a whole wants you either dead or crushed beneath the boots of the Orlesian nobility. And it mostly does this by refusing to let you engage with anything set up in the previous games. You can't bring Cullen to trial for his part in Meredith's atrocities! The mage quest is flung out of the timeline of the game entirely so you can't actually talk to the mages and get to know their struggles! The Dalish gods are revealed to be slavers when there was absolutely fuck all to even suggest that in the previous games! Bioware took a series about oppressed people slowly gathering themselves to strike a blow against their oppressors... and then three games in tried to argue that the oppressors actually had a point. Hell, characters like Cullen and Sera would be a lot less unpleasant to deal with if you were ever allowed to call them out on the way they treat oppressed people who need support rather than more cruelty. And all that stuff is still there! It's just sitting there right in front of you! If you're playing a mage or a non-human (and especially an elf) it will be shoved in your face basically any time you talk to anyone, including some of your companions! But you're not allowed to touch it, and that... takes a game that otherwise would likely have been really good and brings it down a lot.

The best way I can think to put it is... Dragon Age Inquisition is a story with a lot of really horrible stuff just below the surface. A lot of Inquisitors are being forced into the position against their will, many of them being told they can't even worship their own gods because the dominant religion that persecutes them has decided, without their input and frequently despite their repeated denials to everyone who asks, that they're the herald of this religion's prophet. Your military commander was one of the faces of one of the worst atrocities committed against mages in the last century and you're not allowed to do shit about it, even if you yourself are a mage. Lavellan at least (can't speak to any of the others) can openly tell Josie that they are getting whispers and sideways looks just for being an elf despite the fact that by this point they've already sealed the fucking Breach at great risk to their own life, and in that same conversation say that their clan has had to defend themselves from people trying to kill them multiple times. You'll get shit for being a mage even if every hero of the current age has been one. All the "respect" you get comes from being the Inquisition's good little pet figurehead and playing the part of the Herald of Andraste. You are addressed as "Your Worship" even if you make it clear that you do not in any way want to be considered an Andrastian religious figure, and many of your own companions, your closest friends in the story, will treat you like Andraste's herald even if you explicitly tell them that you don't believe that and aren't okay with it. If you have the Jaws of Hakkon DLC you learn that the previous Inquisitor was a Dalish mage and the Chantry covered that up to fit their agenda, meaning they're likely to do that to you, too. And Bioware just... slaps a coat of paint over all of that and calls it good. If you're going to put in all this shit, you have to fucking do something with it! We could've had an incredible story about just how much damage unchecked organized religion backed by the military arm of an empire does to everyone who doesn't fit into its box of "good people"! But the Inquisitor isn't even allowed to be relieved when the nations of Thedas start calling for the Inquisition to be disbanded in Trespasser. If Inquisition had really committed to the story that the last two games had set up instead of backing out at the last minute in favour of a "both sides" story that just feels like a weak and frankly slightly disgusting copout it may well have been my favourite game, but as it is... well, there's a lot to complain about.