#i was lately playing a lot of day and da2

[zuutiomi]

Some doodles I made

[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

[notebooks-and-laptops]

Hi!! I absolutely love your analysis on Veilguard, and I also love Sten, so how do you think he would fit in the game? What would his presence change? Like you said, it could give us a sympathetic point of view on the Qun (and maybe some Taash and Sten interactions?)

HELLO its been a while since you sent this but please know I've been thinking about it near constantly and have finally pulled my thoughts together into something coherent. I have a couple of 'options'; one involves the game basically maintaining the same quality but being a tad better rounded for the qunari, the other is if they actually took Sten and all he represents seriously.

Option one: Faction Leader

Look so here is the thing. There is no reason why the game, as is, could not incorporate a 'Qun' faction. It would actually be really fun; I've wanted to play as a member of the Qun since DA2 and I know so many of us have Qun headcanons for our Adaar or their parents. Unlike the other backgrounds that seem to be more suited to particular races, the Qun is literally a state/religion/philosophy and thus any race could be a member (we know for certain plenty of elves defect to the qun and I'm sure humans and dwarfs do as well). (I do think this faction would need to seriously consider whether or not it allows for a 'mage' class, because it would be a lot of work to explain why a Saraabas is allowed to just be walking about. They could pose it as their mage came into their powers late and when they were found out immediately left with Varric, but thats the only way I could see it not being a potential pressure point)

Sten thus slots into the game here as a faction leader; he is the Arishock. We see a different side to the Qun; those antam who did not leave it behind. We get to hang out with some Ben'Hassrath as well. In my ideally world the other faction leader in this scenrio would be Tallis, who has regained her place within the Qun (but I'm biased because I'm in love with Tallis). But you could also have Gatt because I think he's quite an interesting character, would call Neve out on being Tevinter, wouldn't let you easily look away from slavery AND I feel his bitterness, anger...its so fun, I wish we'd gotten more of him, I want him back.

The thing is....this game wants to treat the qun better, I think. But in doing so they ignore parts of the qun that genuinely were interesting culturally (Saarabas - god that one da2 quest kills me every time) and also...we don't MEET anyone who is really representaitve of the qun. Taash is there, but her questline of 'I can accept non-binary but I draw the line at multicultural' is...questionable to say the least, and from the stats it seems most people push her towards Rivan anyway. Shathann is from the qun and still holds it as important, but she feels more of a plot device to tell Taash's story than anything else. We've got the Qunari on the beach who tells the weather, but again, its not the Qun as a whole.

And to replace the 'evil' Qun we just get the 'evil' Antam. Who are now equipped with growling and turning into horrible beasts so. That's uh. something.

So actually having a qun faction, maybe letting us see Par Vollon, letting us interact with people there who actually live under the qun, letting us see Sten...it would be really interesting. And further, Sten being involved in this game makes perfect sense. Who is the Qunari going to send when it realises that they have a double blight on their hands? Probably the guy who actually fought in the fifth blight and helped finish it. You can also easily retcon any Sten death by saying he somehow got out of the cage and made his way on his own - its not perfect but it'll do considering the same is done with Isabela for DA2.

And Sten links us to DAO. In da2 we had Anders, Lothering, Flemeth, Merrill, Isabella...a lot linked us back to Fereden and DAO. In Dai we had Varric and Cassandra back from DA2 (as well as Hawke) and we had Leliana and Morrigan and potentially Loghain/Alistair back from DAO. Morrigan IS in DATV as a kinda link back to dao but she's not really around in that capacity here. Sten could talk about Ferelden, the blight, all of that stuff.

AND are the qun really just...standing by and letting the antam do whatever? they haven't sent ANYONE after them? Haven't tried to stop them in any way? There's no Antam who didn't defect? I don't know man, I really dislike the way the Antam are portrayed in this game. It really just feels it was done the way it is so the writers could pull a 'well we aren't saying ALL qunari are like this, just these ones'.

So just. Give us a qun faction. Let me play it out. I'm sure they'd handle it about as well as any other faction, but it would at least I think allow them to explore the Qun better than the Lords of Fortune do.

I also think this would mean Taash has a qun presense that isn't demonised and isn't their mother, which would really help them. They could go talk to the shadow dragons AND they could go talk to Sten. Bonus points if Sten assumes their a man to start with because they fight. BONUS BONUS points if we can get more on the qunari and gender.

The Better Option: Butcher, the Dragon King, The Qunari, and The Blight

OKAY SO the Butcher. I want Sten to be the Butchers like, narrative foil.

Because here me out, the Butcher should be SO MUCH MORE INVOLVED IN DATV. Other than Ghilian'han and Isseya (and maaaaybe Illario) he's the interesting villian this game gives us and he's just GONE SO QUICKLY. He's the opposite of the Arishock; he came to this city and instead of dispising it he FELL IN LOVE WITH IT. How fun!

Meanwhile, the Dragon King SUCKS. I wrote a whole post on that which you can find here but basically bleh, he's poorly written and poorly thought out. So lets just get rid of the Dragon King, and have the Butcher be our main Qunari/antam antagonist. Then lets have Sten here as someone who ALSO fell in love with a different place (Ferelden) but went home anyway, who went back to duty, who worries in the privacy of his own mind, about what it would mean if Ferelden fell to the Qun.

But also....as the Butcher is becoming less and less a follower of the Qun while believing hes doing right by the anatam...have sten ACTUALLY follow the Qun. I want to know more about Kosslon the prohet I really thought this game would give us that and it never did. I want to know about the Qun from someone who yeah has been travelling but who never really left it like Bull does.

I think this would also allow the crows to breathe a bit more because we could get some questioning around if the crows really ARE a good option for Treviso. Is the qun? Are both bad? Maybe both are bad? Annnnddddd now I'm thinking about how nicely this could dove-tail into a Zev cameo with Sten bringing him in.

I think Sten would also be really important for the blight as detailed above, but equally...I think having Sten react to the blight being basically the fault of a bunch of powerful mages? Thats an important perspective here! God, DAI goes out of its way to be like 'can mages be trusted' and even makes the alternative future of a pro mage character become anti-mage (leliana from the alternaitve future my beloved). But in DATV there is absolutely NOBODY who says mages are fucking things up - not even Varric who canonically is absolutely sick of mages and templars.

So Sten can do that for us because Qunari don't trust magic. And Sten can also play of Davrin for blight stuff (I think Davrin would have so many questions).

And like most legacy characters, if taken seriously...Sten offers us a chance to get rid of all this sanitisation because Sten is a complex character who has complex opinions on mages, who literally killed a whole family, who loves his homeland and the qun but has a soft spot for ferelden. Sten who will encourage you to get rid of all the mages in the mage tower, and who will see a lot of your do-goodery as a waste of time against the larger goal, but who also likes order and will defer to you as the leader.

Anyway thank you for the ask! Sorry for the long response. I love Sten though and think he should have been here.

[astravires]

Tag Game - Non-sims interests

thanks for the tag @crazy-hazy-sims (i also got tagged by @aching-joints in the five non-sims interests game, so consider this a double up for both (and a little more than five)

i think everyone has put music as an interest, and while i wouldn't really consider myself a music enthusiast i do enjoy a good tune. i'm currently reliving my early years because my other half is listening to Green Day's American Idiot lately, so I'm on a New Found Glory kick. i'm also tone deaf and can't carry a tune, but i'm almost always listening to music.

as for gaming, I am a forever easy-mode player. The foundations for my entire personality was built on Kingdom Hearts. i played when it was first released on PS2 because it had Square Enix on the box and I was just getting into Final Fantasy. i love it, and it's stupidly convoluted story. More recent games I'm big on Baldur's Gate 3 and Vampire Survivors. i'm also in deep in genshin impact (f2p all the way baaaybeee). i've been a massive Dragon Age fan since DA2. I own the official Dorian Inquisition hoodie, the Leliana coat, and the limited edition Varric shadowbox....And FADE KNIFE. i heavily tailor my tumblr fandom experience so i avoid A LOT of drama, but srsly, DA:V got me back into fanfic writing after not doing it since my twenties. DA2 is still my fave, but I just love how i can pick up and play DA:V for a bit (usually until Emmrich calls me dearest and i have to go use a fainting couch)

It's rare i get to indluge it, because adults never have time to actually hang out in friend groups without advanced warning, but I absolutely love playing HeroQuest when I can convince folks to play with me. I have fond memories of my dad playing it with his friends when I was a kid, so being able to GM it now is such a nostalgic feeling. Its a good TTRPG without the extra work like D&D.

OK, so, I'm going to be very honest here; i am an outlier and should not be counted, but Financial Instruments are like, a special interest of mine. Some are entirely made-up, have value only because the market (also made up) says they have value. I will talk about onion futures at the drop of a hat, and while they're awful, i get what crypto is "trying" to do. the products are wild, i will sink into a rabbit hole for the more absurd (weather futures my beloved) types of products, and it is all, realistically utterly pointless and just for "number go up". it's a good thing my job is "report this madness to regulators" ain't it? it's wrong, and the fact that lives are tied to people playing make-believe with numbers is awful, but, ooooohh do i love learning about when they make stupid mistakes.

ART!!! this kind of pulls from above - i love art in theory; people playing make the number go up with some good lightning and a humidifier. i have a degree in fine art; i'm always interested in outlandish, dada-ish mayhem. no, ma'am, your five year old could not make that - the that is the idea, the why, the where, the when - not so much the what. it's why i like financial instruments; why do you need to hedge that commodity with a thirty year interest rate derivative???? I WARNED YOU I WAS WEIRD. in terms of my own art, i do dabble from time to time. i was a teenage furry artist (if you ask nicely, i can show you), and i like drawing and just smooshing paint about. i love sculpture; my degree practice was using papemache and poster paint. i made a giant tentacle monster in uni, it was awesome.

so i'm not very good, but there's something relaxing about knitting that i do enjoy. i don't do anything fancy - my skill set is scarf. but its just so soothing to knit. i'd love to learn to crochet, but my brain can't seem to remember the hand motions once i set it down.

i haven't had time recently, so everything has died, but i both love and hate gardening. i'm not big on fancy gardens with pretty plants, but i was working on getting a kitchen garden going a few years ago before i really had to split my time between home and london. also, my dog ate all my strawberries

i don't care if one would class it as an interest, but i love him and his dumb face:

his name is alan turing and he's a whole three years old.

i think nearly everyone has done this, so ignore me if i tag you and you have - i'm not sure if @ryttu3k if you did???

@notasimblr @gloomiegalaxie @wolkentage

[mynameisalanwake]

my thoughts after finishing my Dragon Age playthrough, pt. 4 - The Veilguard

i'm writing this one as i finish playing through, so it may be a little longer than the Inquisition post, but i have so many feelings i need to get out!!! right off the bat, though - i thoroughly enjoyed this game as a stand-alone action RPG AND as an installment in the Dragon Age franchise, for different reasons. this is my second favorite in the whole series, DA2 is first and it was VERY close to DA:O for the second place spot. i think everyone who has an iffy feeling about DATV might need to play through the whole series again and revisit the universe.

3 days later and after finishing DATV for this playthrough: this is 100% my longest post because i had so many feelings so i'm sorry and thank you for reading!!! i'll be back with my thoughts on playing as a mage and elf (mostly)!

Dragon Age: The Veilguard major decisions made: - warrior (Slayer) human, non-binary Rook (Dany Mercar) - Shadow Dragons - brought Harding with me to stop the ritual - saved the mayor in D'Meta's Crossing - romanced Neve - encouraged Neve to be a protector for Dock Town, side with Threads - encouraged Harding to embrace her calm side - encouraged Taash to embrace Rivaini culture - saved Minrathous - Lucanis imprisoned Illario (i didn't get to make that choice technically) - Manfred LIVES - Bellara destroyed the Archive - griffons live with the Dalish - Dorian is Archon - mostly stoic/sarcastic responses, angry/fist when available, nice answers when talking to sweeties like Evka/Antoine - whatever it takes (again, not really a choice) - sacrificed Harding :( - Bellara blighted because i wanted my romance scene - everyone else ok tho - TRICKED THAT UGLY EGG HEAD MOTHERFUCKER

ok so first things first. playing as a trans Shadow Dragon romancing Neve is canon 100%. i have gotten so many amazing, interesting, and engaging dialogue options that i missed out on in my first playthrough as a Qunari Grey Warden (which still had a LOTTTT of bonus dialogue and a direct tie-in to the story). i'll indicate specific points where i felt much more immersed as i continue - i initially only picked the Shadow Dragon faction to feel connected to Dorian, as a lot of my choices for previous games were based on who has the most involvement as the series progresses, but i didn't realize just how tightly Rook themselves would be woven into the story. this is also my self-insert character, which is why they're non-binary, which gave me bonus dialogue with multiple characters, not just Taash! even passing conversations with Maevaris and Tarquin mentioned it. for both faction and gender choices, even my base dialogue choices have little additional bits on it - for example, at the end of Neve's personal quest, i had both a romance and Shadow Dragon dialogue option, but when i selected the romance option, it was a combination of "of course i was here for you! we're both Shadow Dragons!..... and also i love you!" this is my second time romancing Neve, but it felt like an entirely different experience this time around. just two young idealists in love tryna save their city and stop ancient elven gods, no biggie <3 (i was initially going to romance Emmrich on this playthrough, but even though IRL i'm almost 30, my Rook still felt incredibly young and when i finally picked him up, i looked like a baby next to him. overall it came down to 1. the writing that made Rook young, 2. my character having a baby face, and 3. the dialogue options i had chosen up to that point just made me feel a little too immature/brash for Emmrich. i picked him up a little too late i think because the chemistry with Neve as a Shadow Dragon was UNDENIABLE. i'll revisit on my mage playthrough i think). also, Neve becoming Threads crime boss was incredibly sexy as much as i love the detective agency with Rana

HOWEVER. i don't think your experience with immersion and engagement with the game should be determined by your faction, race, class, gender identity, or who you romance. i wish they had dedicated just as much time to giving good background dialogue options and connections to NPCs to every other path a player might take. this was an overarching issue i ran into throughout the game with other choices, like Solavellan v non-Solavellan.

the combat peaked in this game, hands down. as a console player, having all of my relevant combat buttons (dodge, light attack, heavy attack, and jump) as my four right thumb buttons was a game-changer. this one still doesn't have the talent/ability wheel, but i don't mind that too much because most of your skills are passive, anyway. there are multiple mechanics, like the gear looting and specialization themes, that feel like they could've been updated to reflect the flip to single player. i also missed having 3 companions in my party, but now that they're invincible, i guess i don't have to worry about being as well-rounded as before. even though i wasn't a huge fan of the controllable party, it was a jarring change from what i was used to! it's good to have both mages AND rogues with healing abilities, though. i don't really like how the specializations are faction-themed - as a warrior, it also didn't make sense that the Reaver specialization (which was in ALL the other games) was replaced with the Reaper/Mourn Watch themed spec. it would've made more sense to have Lords of Fortune as the Reaver (since they do dragon stuff) and give the Crows or Dragons the Slayer spec.

i very much appreciated not just being given busy work, like in Inquisition. even though it doesn't feel like i make quite as many world-state changing choices, i do feel like every quest i do is meaningful regardless - just the fact that i'm doing it at all is improving someone's life, which feels good. sure, Arlathan has some really annoying puzzles, but they really paid off because they would open up shortcuts or were actually integral to progression in the story. every faction quest, companion quest, and side quest had intention! one side quest i think about in particular is a shared concept between Arlathan and Dock Town - you run into a spirit who wants you to help them investigate deaths around the map. they're early quests, so i'm sure they're meant to help you explore and open up the map, but it didn't feel like a chore to do. instead, you get bits of lore relevant to the faction on this part of the map and feel more connected to the community you're trying to ally with and assist. my first playthrough as a Qunari Grey Warden had a really pleasant surprise with the quest on the Rivain coast & the first Qunari Warden! i'm pretty sure i had special dialogue (not selected, just banter/one-off) when i found the first journal page, especially since i had Davrin and Taash in my party. companion quests also weren't just fetch quests - they're deeply entrenched in their faction and their personality, which makes them feel like they make an overall difference instead of just improving your relationship with said companion.

companions. i have feelings about these companions. i love them just as much as my Inquisition, but again, i feel like their writing suffered from the scaling between multi-player to single player. Neve is perfect, 10/10 no notes - very clearly a play on old school, film noire detectives. is it heavy-handed? sometimes. is she perfect? yes. the narration as we pan in on a rainy Dock Town is everything to me. she is my chance to romance Nick Valentine. i also really enjoy Emmrich's story arc - helping him grapple with his mortality (and bringing 'Fred back every time) is incredibly satisfying, and he is just so sweet and you can tell he cares so much about every member of your party. Davrin is a fantastic character and i feel so bad that Epler boiled the end-game decision down to "Harding or Assan?" it really does a disservice to Davrin and the growth he has over the course of the story, especially since he didn't die killing the archdemon at Weisshaupt. yeah, Assan is cute, but you gave me such a complex character and almost a foil to Emmrich. lean into it! give me a conversation between the two where they discuss their feelings on life and death. there was so much content missing there (and also i feel like Epler was a little racist about it but.........). also, Davrin is really hot for absolutely no reason at all, put ur titties away. i would romance you my next playthrough but i really have to sacrifice you instead of Harding at some point. these guys are my top three, i think. to the next few...

i feel like they worked really hard to differentiate Bellara from Merrill, and it worked 100%. she was distinct and her backstory/companion quest was heartbreaking. i know, i know, people mention they should have had Merrill instead of Bellara or Emmrich, but i like that our companions were all new travel partners. Bellara was a fresh pair of eyes and a new source of elven history (especially since i've never played as an elf in this series), and it was interesting to help her grapple with her side of the religious crisis that results from the whole elven-gods-attacking thing AND her brother being a pawn for someone on Solas's level. i also loved that she plays as a rogue while being a mage! having her staff be her "bow" was such a creative choice and it really tied her visual and character design together nicely.

Harding was such a sweet character in Inquisition, and of course i flirted with her as Inky, but i felt like the Titan storyline was a little weird for her. maybe if we had gotten a little more interaction with the Deep Roads (i know!! i don't want to go down there, either!!!) or Orzammar or Stalgard or something earlier on, i think it would've tightened it up, but it seems like this story would've better fit Dagna AS IS. they definitely didn't bring Sandal back because he's a harmful stereotype (love the guy, but a little cringe to think it's funny to have an "idiot savant" trope in 2024). instead, we were just immediately thrown into her internal conflict and then the external conflict. her companion questline wraps up so quickly! i loved having her in Veilguard and would've liked more with her. i know they were trying to keep world-state decisions fairly vague, but bring Dagna to the Lighthouse so we can workshop this whole dwarf magic thing. my girl would've been SO hype!! BUT! Harding's romance with Taash is absolutely adorable, the unsent letter she writes to her ma in the beginning makes me ugly cry every time, and while i HATE that end-game decision, i really feel like it wraps up her (and the Titans') storyline really well to send her back to the stone. if anything, she's "missing in action" - i don't think she's gone, as that whole Titan reveal was too big to just let go like that. it's not a decision i'm happy to make, but unfortunately, it just fits my canon. Taash's reaction was :(

speaking of - i absolutely loved Taash as a character and helping them explore their gender as a non-binary player AND character. it was genuine and raw. i know a lot of people have problems with the modern handling of sexuality and gender, especially since the Qunari characters throughout the series have given us language for this and other queer characters have danced around their identity, but that's kind of the whole point of Taash's character - they don't fit with the Qunari, just as they don't fit into a gender binary. coming out to your family isn't some pretty candlelit dinner where you wax poetic and talk in circles about your gender identity, it's an extremely vulnerable moment where sometimes you have to be straightforward. Dorian and Krem never outwardly discussed their labels because they came from a world where the labels were the main problem. however, my main gripe with Taash's character is they're literally non-binary, but i'm forced to make a binary decision over their cultural identity, either Rivaini or Qun. when you choose the Rivaini option, i guess it does discuss bringing both cultures together, but that's not how it's presented to you or how Shathann reacts to it. it's just happening by default because Taash is Qunari but they want to be Rivaini. there's very little nuance for Taash's character and storyline, which you could argue is part of their characterization, but at least let me show understanding to their mother during the coming out scene! they were also one of my other planned romances for my canon playthrough, for the direct tie to Isabela, but they just give off sibling vibes that are amplified by our gender convos. i love my lil dragon sib so much!!! we'll see what happens when i play a non-trans character, i guess!

.....to what may be my most unpopular opinion. i love Lucanis, don't get me wrong. he is a sweet cinnamon roll and while i've never romanced him, i know he's incredibly loved in the fandom. BUT. he's literally an Antivan Crow. it's not like we've never had a Crow in our party who gave us all the Crow lore about buying child slaves and killing them if they're not good at assassinations. i know he's supposed to be THE nepo-baby of the Crows, and he was locked in the Ossuary for a year, but he's just a little.........too squishy. i don't want to discuss how he handles the grief of Treviso being blighted, as that's all dependent on player choice, or the lackluster romance i've heard so much about, because it's clear there was just a lot of cut content there. my problem is truly more with the Crows as a whole than with Lucanis, since there are story reasons why he acts the way he does. i just think the writers did a lot of "telling" us about the changes with the Crows instead of "showing" us. Caterina was literally JUST in a DA book being incredibly evil and abusive - why is she a cool grandma now? what changed her mind? i want abrasive dialogue. i want Lucanis to hear what the others think about Crows and try to defend it, or to hear him stand up to Caterina. this is the one character that could have been bitchy based on the lore!! and they chose to completely declaw the First Talon. the Crows in general are the biggest break from the lore of the series, which is why i understand why fans feel like this was "written with HR in the room." hardened Lucanis should kill Illario, not throw him in jail. Illario was banging your biggest nemesis and almost ruined your city!!!! fucking KILL HIM!!!! also, Spite was a letdown after meeting Anders/Justice - again, completely declawed. i know possession is different for a non-mage, but it seems like the writers just cherry-picked where it would be funny to have the demon chime in and didn't want to lean into any tension, like with Davrin at the beginning. Anders literally blew up a chantry!!!! give Lucanis that same edge!!!! i honestly don't care that he was a sweetheart, but give me a good reason other than "the Crows have changed *shrug*." (if i'm missing anything from the books or other non-game media, please let me know!! but also they should make that lore more accessible to just game players) Zevran would've called Lucanis a little bitch too and i'm sorry to be the one to tell you that (he also would have flirted with him like CRAZY).

this would've been a great game to bring the rivalry mechanic back instead of the straight up "neutral -> friends" pipeline. let me romance hardened Lucanis or Neve as a rival! as a Qunari - let me push back on Taash's love of Rivaini culture! let me question Lucanis about the Crows' recruitment methods, ESPECIALLY as a Shadow Dragon!!! we get a fantastic codex entry of Dorian at a Magisterium meeting throwing DOWN with Bataris over slavery - let my character be just as passionate! i think it would've made more sense with the friend group dynamic, which i felt was closer to DA2 than any of the other games - a found family who ends up working together to solve everyone else's problems and eventually save the world. the writing is there, just not in my character's dialogue or companions' conversations. the stakes are a little higher in DATV, and Rook is positioned to be a sort of therapist character, which could explain the general "good vibes" of the gang, but i really wouldn't have minded some internal conflict outside of the Minrathous/Treviso decision. the biggest change was being required to recruit all companions AND they're stuck with you til the end, which i guess makes sense story-wise - i have always recruited and tried to keep all of my companions, so this wasn't a big problem for me, but it made the companions' stakes seem a little lower as they were almost forced to hang out with me and like me.

now. the Minrathous/Treviso decision. arguably the only big world state decision in the game. i think fans have gotten a little too attached to Lucanis as a character to think normally about this. there IS no right answer, which is why this decision is so hard. yes, Treviso is covered in blight and we have to mercy kill some Crows we were introduced to, but Dock Town (which is the part of Minrathous that gets attacked!! reminder!!!) is a poor area of Minrathous mostly protected by vigilantes, same as the Crows defending Treviso. the Archon's Palace isn't going to do shit, especially since the Archon was assassinated during the chaos of the dragon. saving Treviso gives the Venatori basically free reign over Dock Town, where people are already being abducted for blood magic rituals on the daily. it isn't supposed to be a mindless, easy decision!!! i was so sad the first time i saved Treviso and went back to Dock Town! it is literally covered with lynched bodies hanging from rafters. the fact that i get judged in FB groups and reddit threads for choosing Minrathous over Treviso, to the point where people say they can "tell everything about my character" based on that decision, is absolutely insane. i heard the same thing about whether you choose Dorian or Maevaris as Archon (a decision you DON'T GET TO MAKE if you save Treviso!!!!), which, again, is absolutely insane. that decision doesn't even have any impact on the world, at all. these are supposed to be incredibly nuanced, difficult decisions that you make either based on what you've learned throughout the series as a whole, just this game (with codex entries and NPC convos), or... your intentions to romance Lucanis. LAME. y'all are too horny for big world state decisions. also, everyone complains about Neve/Shadow Dragons blaming you for Minrathous getting fucked over.....yes, and the Crows/Lucanis do the exact same thing! i stopped randomly talking to NPCs in Treviso after that decision because they literally only wanted to bitch me out. i'm a Shadow Dragon! of course i'm going to go save my city! i got so much bonus Shadow Dragon dialogue but not a single "...but we get it, Rook, gotta save your peeps." i didn't even get any "understanding" dialogue except from Teia/Viago, who, as the de facto leaders of this faction for the game's purposes, should have been even angrier. it's nonstop until the very end of the game, it's the driving force behind the governor working with the Antaam so he just rubs it in, and even in the end slide, there's a slight dig at the fact Treviso is still blighted. i can tell most people who are doing multiple playthroughs aren't saving Minrathous at all solely based on their reactions to people who do - why replay if you're not even going to try to choose the other city?

this is already so much longer than any of the other reviews i've written so far - maybe because i'm actively playing through it?

to address the lore problem: i think that VG IS faithful to the lore, but the problem is the writers relied very heavily on codex entries from THROUGHOUT the series & the external material instead of what we actually saw, heard, and experienced during our journies through Thedas. it reminds me a lot of Fallout 4: it IS faithful to the lore, but it's missing the teeth and grit and the nuance that made it interesting. Northern Thedas is a whole new region for players and we've only ever heard rumors about it! Neve does address the issues with rumors of Tevinter (Taash asked if she was wealthy and Harding will usually have plenty of banter questions about what we heard during our time in Ferelden), but that's about all. it's also been a decade since the last installment - lean into it! what happened with Solas's army? he didn't just "decide he's not management material" - this guy's head is so far up his ass, he would've just been pretending he's NOT a manager while still bossing everyone around. we actually get to see Dorian come back to Tevinter and he's actively trying to make a change, which is where we left him in Trespasser after his father passed. he FEELS like he's grown and changed over the past decade, especially when i'm thinking about my inky and the conversations we had together, where the rest of the world has just stayed stagnant until someone tells us it's changed. Dorian's writing shows that change is possible to implement and explain well. they had plenty of opportunities to not retcon, but update the lore, and i feel like they missed their shot. as a poli sci & writing student, i can come up with eighty different geopolitical situations that would cause these areas to change within a decade with very little effort and without bringing in any of my world state choices from the previous three games (or, at least, keep them vague enough that it doesn't make a difference). i read every single codex entry i found on this playthrough and it made a HUGE difference - i've never read the codex entries in the past games, LOL.

the dark fantasy issue - i think people who critique DATV as not "dark" just sprint through the map and don't take the time to absorb the environmental storytelling, which is crazy because all of the other games have relied just as much on their environments. the Halla sacrifice at the Venatori gathering? gut-wrenching. if you don't save Minrathous? there are literally lynched Shadow Dragons in the streets. whoever you sacrifice for the distraction gets gored by Ghila'nain's tentacles!! i think the problem is in the last decade, random violence has become so normalized and accepted that we're not as appalled by it when it pops up in media. also, some of the stuff in Origins specifically that's called "dark" is just sexual assault and racism, which i'm fine with not having in a fantasy game in 2024.

onto the Solas of it all. i am not a Solavellan. i got along with him well enough in Inquistion, but after playing DATV and going BACK to DAI, i was PISSED. the writing for Solas between DAI -> Trespasser -> DATV is so consistent and well done that i felt every ounce of betrayal my characters did. do i think DATV was geared toward Solavellans once the game pivoted to single player? absolutely. was it disappointing? yes. did it add an extra layer to my anger/betrayal? yes. Solavellans get their own ending!! that's crazy!! my Inky DESERVED to get a punch in, at the very least. all of the other DAI players were just left in the dust, some only getting the stupid letter!! i get that due to eliminating most world state choices that they couldn't bring too many characters back, and Inky had to be as bland as possible, but like i ended up specifically romancing Dorian because i knew it would give me the tightest connection to DATV and it did pay off, but i was literally just licking up crumbs.

playing through this game the second time all the way through, Solas's dialogue is absolutely infuriating. i was sitting there flipping off my TV and shouting at him because you can see RIGHT through him once you know what's happening.

good lord. i finished the game finally after taking three days to write this and i am INCREDIBLY sore emotionally. that final act is just nonstop hit after hit to my heart. i cried from the moment i picked Harding to lead the distraction up until the very end. hearing Dorian breathlessly make sure his amatus is alright had me GONE - his voice actor is so talented. i'm literally doing a fem!inky playthrough for DAI to force myself not to romance him again. i think he's officially won out as my favorite character in the Dragon Age franchise after wrapping up Dock Town/picking him as Archon/act 3.

i know that they couldn't give inky any personality, but it really fucking sucked to hear him ask if Solas could be reasoned with. after everything you've been through, Aedan? absolutely the fuck not. leave that whiny bullshit to Lavellan, you're a goddamn Trevelyan and your husband is the Archon! we are going to beat the shit out of the egg and you're going to like it! i do wish he and Morrigan could've shown up to watch me fuck him over - i did the "reason" ending my first playthrough, but my first inky was friends with Solas and i never made it to the end of DAI so it really wasn't very satisfying at all.

the trick ending feels 100% correct in this playthrough - there's something so poetic about this angry, sarcastic abolitionist in love with the crime boss protector of their shared city pulling a fast one on an ancient elven mage (THE TRICKSTER GOD) who used blood magic to trick them into thinking their best friend (yes Varric is our best friend) is still alive when they were killed MONTHS ago. it felt right for my inky, for my Hawke, even for everything my HoF worked toward.

all in all, this game ranks second in my Dragon Age rankings, but it is a VERY slim win over Origins. this game improved upon a lot of mechanics i struggled with in Origins, which made up for spots where writing was weak in VG. i think DATV needed to: - fix the companions as a whole - throw some cut romance content back in PLEASE. i romanced Isabela in DA2, which is probably the most nothing burger of a romance in that game, but she and i still kissed more than Neve and i kissed!!! we are literally in a Fade castle with our romanceable companions for MONTHS at a time and we only kiss like twice?? absolutely insane. let me go to Neve's office and kiss her you cowards. give me the exposition dialogue options for my companions at the Lighthouse in general. let me chat to them about their factions or their side romances. let me ask Lucanis if he's a virgin like i could with Alistair. - get rid of specialization themes - not a gamebreaker, just an annoying and pointless mechanic. - give Inky their soul back - there were three choices for Inky: romance, Inquisition, and Solas. while i would've loved my Inky to talk about his romance, we don't need lines recorded for each specific one (and i technically did get some crumbs), but i would've loved to see my disbanded Inquisition/stopping Solas choices be more prominent in the dialogue. that would've been, what, four different sets of lines? it's not like Inky talks very much at all. if you're whittling my (in-universe) 15 years of choices over 3 different games down to just 3 choices that i made in one single game, make them actually carry weight in the narrative. i was foaming at the mouth to get Solas by the end of Trespasser, but Inky wasn't anymore, and i imagine after a decade of waiting that was a HUGE letdown for people who played DAI the way i did.

for my next playthrough, i'll be doing (primarily) elf mage - fem HoF, male Hawke, Lavellan (i have to Solavellan at least once i guess), and probably a transmasc Rook because i CAN

[echthr0s]

evaluating my game progress (emotional and technical) of late and I may have to put Veilguard on the back burner for a while. here's the thing. I am not a smart man (and that's fine with me, I have other strengths). I don't do "media analysis", I read other people's and then go "oh my god yes! you explained why xyz feels bad/good to me!" and, you know, that's pretty cool, that other people can do that. but I think people assume that's the perspective everyone is coming from, and let me be clear.

I don't enjoy VG because it doesn't make my blood fizz in my veins and my synapses light up. is it good? is it bad? I don't know! who fucking cares! am I excited when I think about it? does it keep me up at night? DA:O did. DA2 did. DA:I did not, but I was being carried on the momentum of the previous games and I didn't really care. unfortunately, that momentum could not carry me through VG's hellish development cycle.

in the time since I finally obtained VG and started playing it, I have played one and a half playthroughs of Rogue Trader and have only stopped playing it because I am waiting for the new expansion. my blood is continually fizzing and my synapses are continually firing in response to this game. I still can't believe it's only a 60-hour-on-average game (maybe closer to 75 if you actually do the combat unlike me BUT), it is so packed with incredible character stuff and fascinating sidequests and fun diversions and, and, and! anyway, we know I love RT, let's move on.

I started playing Wrath of the Righteous about a week ago (apparently I have a new favourite gamedev company, huh) and I thought "eh, this is okay" and then I met Sosiel. and now I am fucking losing my mind every hour of every day about him. sigh, it's true, I am eminently baitable. just put a Can Calah in a game and I'll eat the game up and lick the plate and then eat the plate.

(and before that there's also been CP2077 which got my attention FROM THE GATE, without even trying. that game continually amazes me. there's been FFXIV which I have played most of multiple times, but I keep playing it and I keep loving the experience of playing it. I even started playing Infinity Nikki and I don't much care for gacha games at all but you know what. at least it's cute.)

yes, VG has a few companions I enjoy, but I don't feel like I'm getting to know them in a way that... feels satisfying. I'm not dying on tenterhooks to spend time with Emmrich or Taash. I like them! a lot, even. but they're not keeping me up at night.

does this mean they're "written badly"? fuck if I know, man. I'm not here to figure that out, I'm here to follow my heart and my dick, and neither one of them seem to be getting it up for whatever is going on in this game. meanwhile, I am playing eight (shh) other games at this time that are definitely tugging at my organs, without even trying, so... why keep struggling with this one? because I said I would?

I'll finish it eventually, I'm sure. it's an RPG game and I play RPG games, it's what I do. also I hear the ending is interesting. but also every time I update my graphics card driver, VG has to compile shaders all over again, and that takes a literal hour. it would take a real amazing game indeed to make me put up with that bull-ass-shit every couple of weeks.

[thedragonagelesbian]

13, 24, & 30 for rook? 👀🥺 (for rook!cyrus or one of your other rooks...or all of them 🫶)

Rook Questions! yay ily these are such good ones tyty <33

13. Did Rook bring any trinkets/sentimental items to The Lighthouse?

Cyrus: Cyrus still has the sword and shield he had with him when he was left in the Fade-- Glandivalis, Shartan's sword (mentioned in Veilguard as one of the Dock Town neighborhoods!!! I gasped when I saw it & the codex entry explaining it), and Dirthamen's Wisdom, which Yiseeril gifted to him during Inquisition. They're too precious to him now to use in every day combat.

Theneneria: Theneneria has an ironbark amulet in the shape of a halla that her mother, Dahlian Lavellan, crafted for her. The last time they saw each other was after Theneneria had joined the Wardens and Dahlian visited her to give her the amulet as a parting gift. The reunion itself was very stiff and labored. What had once been a very close mother-daughter relationship had vanished as they now treated each other much as they treated the rest of the world: with coldness. But Theneneria carries the amulet with her constantly anyway, and being apart from it causes her a lot of distress. She knows she still loves her mother. She knows that her mother probably still loves her too. It just feels too big and too late to try to fix that relationship now (or, it did, until they were both suddenly saddled with saving the world...)

Raas: Sentimental stuff gets stolen; whether as an initiate or a full-fledged Crow, everyone is looking for that weakness that they might need to use to get ahead of you, so Raas is very, very sparse in their trinkets: a frayed piece of rope from their tamassran, an Orlesian mask from one of their first contracted jobs, and a worn gold coin, the last from a sizable coin purse given to them by a certain vengeful elven crow who killed their original abusive magic instructor in House Arainai.

24. Does Rook have any nightly rituals before bed?

(Theneneria & Raas aren't fleshed out enough yet to this one is just Cyrus...)

Cyrus: He unwinds with a nightcap of fortified Dalish wine which he drinks while listening to whoever he can find talk about whatever they want. That used to be Varric, but now he needs to find someone else to fill the Big Yapper void in his life to help him relax. Then it's bath + application of a topical pain reliever for his joints, shoulders, and back + finally his evening prayers to the Creators.

I think for Cyrus the question of whether the Evanuris reveal & their immense, literal, painful impact on the world, both present and past, has any bearing on his faith is... irrelevant? His faith is for him, cultivated in order to survive everything that this world has thrown at him and grounding him in his heritage and his people such that he simply won't entertain giving it up. He prays to Sylaise & Mythal most, for healing & peace & protection, but even Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain still make it into his prayers, in a very 'Ember praying for Nocticula' way. He has no reason to hope that they might be anything other than the tyrants they've proven themselves to be time and time again, so it's as much a threat as it is a supplication: humble yourselves, or I will smite you down.

30. What is Rook’s class? Did they choose it?

Cyrus: Still warrior-ing! In another system, he might've switched classes over the course of the games, like how [a version of] bg3!Cyrus went from paladin to ranger, but for Dragon Age, he's sword & board til the day he dies (and, given his track record, potentially several days after that). So far (~level 40) he has heavy investments in Survival, Grey Warden, and Mourn Watch, and his specialization is Reaper! It feels like a very appropriate evolution from his Reaver specc in DA2, no longer quite as agonizingly self-sacrificial and drawing more on the play of the Veil and the boundary between life and death, which he got plenty of experience with in his years in the Fade.

Theneneria: Two-handed warrior. Women should get to smash things with hammers, and I've been wanting to do a kind of Loony Toons spinning top with a massive weapon kind of fighting vibe for soooo long.

In Clan Lavellan, Theneneria was being trained as protector moreso than a hunter, but that was as a sword-and-shield warrior. It wasn't until she came to Skyhold and saw Iron Bull training with Krem that she decided no, she needs to be wielding the biggest thing possible on the battlefield.

Her spec is gonna be Slayer, pure DPS baby we're here to Fuck Shit Up

Raas: Dagger-and-orb mage. Idk why I'm so deadset on playing melee in Veilguard but here we are. I don't know if it's something they so much chose for themself as much as it was expected of them, since the Spellblade tradition originates with the Antivan Crows. Which kind of sums up their character lmao they have no idea what their life could look like or what they might want for themself, let alone what their magic could look like if they were able to use it for something other than lying and hurting.

(Which is why I'm soooooooooooooooooooooo looking forward to them & Emmrich... in my heart I think with enough time & recovery & growth [and lots of tutoring sessions with Emmrich] their spell blading ends up closer to southern knight enchanting, complete with a relationship to a spirit & healing abilities)

[ourlastbastion]

Started playing Veilguard today, have just reached the Lighthouse so not far in (because it’s past midnight and I work in the morning so I can’t keep gaming), but some initial thoughts:

First off; GORGEOUS graphics. Just chefs kiss, it’s so beautiful.

the character creation. I do love just how extensive it is. Giving me serious BG3 vibes with how far you can customize, and I love how detailed I made my Rook, he is a handsome man. While I do feel like it gave you *too* much contorl (in that I spent more time in CC than playing the game so far), I acknowledge that a lot of people do like being able to control the exact size of their nose and height of their cheekbones so I won’t fault BioWare for it.

Im playing an (rogue) Elf, and I do like the different factions you get. Reminds me of Origins. Idk how much impact those backgrounds will actually have, but the Mourn Watch sounds really cool and I’m in a serious necromancy fixation lately so it was a perfect match.

I LOVE how fluid the movement is. So far my favorite thing of the game. I love games where I can run and jump and it’s all smooth, especially the fast paced combat. It makes me feel like I’m playing as Hawke again when I fight and everything is so fast. That was an issue I had with Inquisition: the fighting felt so slow compared to DA2, and DAV has brought back that fast paced feel. I especially like the agility tricks when I go from sprinting to attacking and how Rook just weaves around the field.

Harding!!! She needs no explanation but I’m just happy we see her immediately!! I was worried we would have to wait, but we get her right away!

Now things I’m so far not vibing with

Combat wise I’m not too happy that I can’t control my companions in a fight. Part of the fun of Dragon Age was that I could switch control to any of my party members in a fight, and if Warden/Hawke died I’d just take control of a companion and finish the fight. Can’t do that here it went the Mass Effect route. So negative points for that.

Varrics design. I’m sorry I know a lot of people love how he looks, but I hate it. He looks nothing like Varric from DA2 and DAI, and not a different graphics thing or a “he’s older” thing. Guy looks like an entirely different person!!

[rivaindaisies]

some dragon age music headcanons bc it’s fucking late and i feel extra neurodivergent today

origins

morrigan is such a fucking edge lord in this game, she absolutely gatekeeps what she listens to but it’s pretty basic alternative stuff. arctic monkeys but only am and fsvorite worst nightmare, mindless self indulgence, a lot of joy division (she absolutely is the type of person to go up to someone in an unknown pleasures shirt and ask them to name three songs), some nirvana, pixies, etc. her favorite songs are arabella by arctic monkeys, back to the old house by the smiths, and probably mascara by deftones. she doesn’t listen to metal a lot but has a few deftones and lamb of god songs on her playlists.

leliana is trying to recreate her life in this game. she’s running from a lot of things, but also beginning to reflect. since she hasn’t been through as much as she has in inquisition, her music taste is much more relaxed here. i think she’d love dreamy shit, like the cocteau twins and the sundays especially. she listens to some lana del rey as well, mostly just nfr/lust for life. there’s a band called another sunny day i feel like she’d fuck with a lot too. her favorite songs are goodbye by the sundays and white mustang by lana del rey.

alistair listens to top 40 and nothing else

origins is my least favorite so i can’t think of much else for companions, i have the lowest time played as well so 🤷‍♂️

da2

varric has the most dad music taste you could imagine. all classic rock, nothing else. i can very clearly imagine him cruising around blasting ac/dc and kiss.

fenris doesn’t listen to music, he just sort of goes along with what the others are playing. he likes slower songs, they help calm him down. if romanced, he ends up listening to the songs hawke likes and developing the same music taste as them and i think it would be a connection for them

isabela has some rare genuine self awareness in the music she listens to. she listens to lana del rey and marina and the diamonds, and that’s about it. her favorite albums from lana are born to die, paradise, and ultraviolence. her favorite marina albums are electra heart and froot. her favorite songs are i’m a ruin/rootless by marina, ride by ldr, and the other woman by ldr as well. hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have is the only later lana song she like LOVES. basically 2014 tumblr taste but oh well

merrill listens to mainly instrumental music, either classical guitar or orchestral music. it helps her focus and calms her down quite a bit. she also really enjoys folk music. some of her favorite albums are shaken by a low sound by crooked still, someday we will foresee obstacles by syd matters, and dear wormwood by the oh hellos.

anders is also an angst fest. he listens to a lot of the smiths, mother mother (and hes very particular about being a “real fan” and knowing them before they blew up) and some nu metal as well. his favorite songs are this charming man by the smiths, 7 words by deftones, and you should all be murdered by another sunny day. calm me down by mother mother as well.

aveline listens to ed sheeran and coldplay exclusively. i don’t know why i feel this way but i do and im gonna leave it at that

inquisition

leliana has been through so much over the last ten years, and the music she listens to reflects that. she doesn’t listen to music much anymore, but has a couple songs that she listens to. her taste is a lot heavier now- deftones, lamb of god, and some death metal as well. no specific bands, just whatever is the loudest and heaviest. i hc that morrigan showed her a few smiths songs during origins, and the one that stuck with her most is that joke isn’t funny anymore. she listens to it a lot, and relates to it a lot. it’s her favorite song. a few honorable mentions to that are sextape by deftones, and blood of the scribe by lamb of god. sometimes, she listens to the songs she loved back in dao times and gets lost in the memories of that time. her favorite song for that is the greatest by lana del rey.

josephine is mainly a classical/opera listener. i cannot picture her listening to anything else. maybe sometimes she gets angry, or exhausted/fed up with her job, and listens to the things she considers to be “heavy” but it’s something like acdc which she considers to be basically death metal because it has an audible electric guitar.

the chargers just blast dad music 24/7, along with varric/sera/blackwell.

cassandra absolutely listens to love songs all the time. she falls asleep listening to a playlist filled with songs like video games/love song/without you/lucky ones by lana. i feel like she was absolutely a tumblr girl and never grew out of that music taste despite presenting as an absolute hardass.

dorian adores artists like kylie minogue, lady gaga, etc. his favorite songs are shampain by marina, aura by lady gaga, and 911 also by gaga lmao. he also for SURE owns a justice for artpop shirt.

i have a lot more but don’t want to type any more out if this gets any attention i’ll add more tho- if you’ve somehow read this far into my adhd rambles thank you 🙏🙏 and comment ur thoughts/ideas of what characters would listen to

[fallingdowntherathole]

Okay I'm a little late to the party but here's some reasons why I like Anders in Da2

(Don't worry I don't see this post as offensive or argumentative lmao the comments were insane)

First, I do actually agree with your reasons why you don't like him. He's very changed from Awakening because he's possessed by Justice(later Vengeance) now. But I think this was the devs intention when writing him in this game. He's supposed to be changed(not only because the game was so rushed and they had to make a point of two extremist political and religious views in Kirkwall and Thedas) but because all of his represented feeling now surface as hatred with Justice.

But that's one of the reasons I like him!! He changed. He grew into a very defined version of the rebel persona, with a strong view on magic and mages rights. Is he right in his views? Debatable. Does he go too far? Definitely. But in my opinion this is such a wonderful way to put how the world shapes us through life, even if it's bad.

The second reason is because he's still trying to be Anders, not Justice, at least in act 1 and the beginning of act 2. He acknowledged he changed,that Justice changed him, he knows he's not the same person still. But he still tries to take control over his actions in the beginning.

Again, the game was rushed a lot and the character"growth " from act 1 to act 3 was shit(not only his but we're talking about him). I'm the kind of person who pays a lot of attention to details in game and there's subtle change in his demantor and action throughout the acts. I even missed the changes in my first play through of the game.

Anyways, this was a rant, so I'm sorry, I'll add a conclusion now so you can actually see my point of view on him:

I'm not defending him. He's bad. He can be cruel, obsessed, extremist. And human(as in a person).

I like him because he feels real. He went through shit, he got possessed. He changed. He understands that. He knows what he has become and accepts it. This is as real as a morally grey(or bad) character can become. He feels more real than Solas in Dai anyways. He has both good qualities ( still choosing to heal people, not only mages if I'm correct) and bad qualities (do I need to list them? Lol) and he's still an asshole in the end but he's not just doing bad stuff. And surprise surprise, that's how people work. We do good stuff and bad stuff. We might think evil and do good, we might think good and do evil. Nobody is truly good or evil. And in my opinion he was wonderfully written as a morally grey person in the end and his character made a good point of view on the problem at hand: the magic and how Thedas treats it.

Anyways,thank you if you read this, and thank you for sharing your thoughts on him. It's hard to find people who are genuinely curious about others opinions in this fandom.

Can someone explain why they like DA2 Anders?

Not why he’s interesting characters wise, which I would argue he’s not really, and including the canon vitriolic hatred he has for Fenris?

You can call it bad writing, and it is, you can call it an obvious gaff (it should have been Velena) and maybe that’s true, but at the end of the day, BioWare wrote him LIKE THAT, which makes it, regrettable canon.

Can someone explain why they like him? He just really makes my skin crawl, his obsessive nature when it comes to Hawke and all the truly awful vicious unprovoked things he says about Fenris, along with his penchant for co-opting other mage’s pain as his own.

Plus it’s CANON that he approves of sending Fenris back with Danarius.

I’m not trying to say you shouldn’t like him, that’s entirely your prerogative, but could you explain why?

And I’m talking DA2 Anders, I would argue awakening Anders was dead the moment he let Justice in.

[stinkrascal]

anyways i beat dragon age inquisition yesterday and im really sad about it my life feels so empty now 

[felassan]

Some DA facts collected together, from recent tweets -

GhilDirthalen: "the frostbite engine didn’t do ending slides, so the slides you see in DAI are actually paintings that quickly spawn in your bed room. You can zoom out during the end with fly cam" John Epler: "i remember when we were trying to do these and we're like 'hey can we display still images' and the answer was 'uhh it's a lot more complicated than you think' so this was the solution. i set up all the cameras, and I THINK level design handled all the scripting logic" JE: "anyways videogames are basically held together by magic and hope and it's a legitimate miracle anytime one gets finished"

JE: "When you 'sprint' on a horse in DAI it doesn't really do much because frostbite couldn't stream in levels fast enough, so we just added speed lines and changed the camera so it felt faster. JE: "i've carried the guilt of this for years. guilt is an ocean, and i'm tired of drowning." "feels like I just murdered Santa Claus in front of many of you" [source], "feels like i just declassified Area 51" [source]. "i'm just glad the truth is finally out there" [source] Seb Hanlon: "ME1 did it first" JE: "just to be SUPER clear, riding a horse is faster than being on-foot, but the difference between normal horse run and horse 'sprint' is non-existent except for making it look faster". "the base horse speed is faster than unhorsed run speed, but horse sprint doesn’t move you faster than normal horse speed" [source] JE: "there were three days on that project where my entire job was ‘try to make horse sprint feel faster’" User: "I swear to god John I knew it, I fucking knew it, none of the mounts have different speeds, either?" JE: "i actually don't know the answer to that one, i just set up the gameplay cameras and did what what i was told." Seb: "but they have different sounds /screams in Red Hart" JE: "no one believed that's what a Red Hart really sounds like but they are fucked up animals."

Seb: "The save system in DAI loads with all doors in the area closed. This is a problem if there’s a door between you and a party member when the save happens, because they can’t open doors. If they can’t path to you, they get teleported to join you before the fade-up from black." Seb: "This “system” was rigged entirely in Frostbite Schematic logic quite late in development once we realized it was a problem." JE: "i vaguely remember that the first time we really saw this problem was when we were putting together the Redcliffe demo for... whatever event we showed Redcliffe at." Seb: "Yeah I think that was the map I tested the teleport-fallback in. Dorian was there in those saves for sure?" JE: "yeah 100%. it was when you first end up in the future and you're fighting your way to the locked-up followers. i think we were playing it in Hanged Man or Neverwinter and we discovered 'oh shit our followers can't get to you'"

Seb: "Zither’s first-pass ability icons originally echoed a broad swath of iconic album art. The UI art team made me so happy. Why didn’t it ship? Ain’t nobody chasing down those IP clearances for an April Fools DLC."

JE: "in DA2 Mark of the Assassin, if you let Baron Arlange live after the first encounter with him, he shows up very deep in the background of several scenes, creeping on Hawke and the party around stalagmites and around corners." "no one asked for this but i put it in as a little treat because i thought it was very funny. i still do. oh the scene where you get captured in the vault by Prosper and his guards, that's the same 5 (6?) guards just cycled through multiple times." [source, two]

JE: "i've told this story before but the reason Iron Bull's romance scene takes place in a separate tower is because the mocap for everyone walking in on you assumed that there was a doorway, and the player's bedroom ended up having stairs. so we moved the scene to the Sex Tower"

Seb: "DAI: To enable party followers’ AI to use their defensive abilities (dodge/block/parries), enemies spawn a “telegraph volume” as part of their ability wind-ups. This tells the party AI what kind of reaction it can use to counter (if it’s not on cooldown and it can branch in time)." "“Parry” telegraphs are the ‘weakest’ (can activate block, dodge, or parry abilities); “dodge” telegraphs are the ‘strongest’ (dodge or get fucked). There’s an all-abilities AI cooldown on these responses; before this was added, I saw Cass perfect block for minutes at a time." [source]

Seb: "the Qunari Ashaad in Trespasser is the only combat creature I personally implemented; and the only one intentionally plays both ranged and melee. and it was great fun watching play-testers climb a ladder to close and shut down his range attack—and get kicked off by the sweep"

Seb: "I’m still personally pleased that the Red Templar faction in DAI has such a strong overarching principle: “power corrupts”. The more elite the creature, the less human they are."

Seb: "Both the Children in DAO Awakening and the Harvester in DAO hide their extra body parts *inside* their torso mesh before they appear."

Seb: "Varric in DA2 is the most specialest snowflake; he’s not like any other dwarf because his rig includes all the Bianca animation bones."

Seb: "DAI’s Emerald Graves was the map where we hammered out the conceptual balance of using abilities based on the enemy composition and position."

Seb: "There’s an animation-driven movement mode in DAI that’s only used by a handful of large creatures; the dragon and the Red Templar Behemoth are the ones I remember."

Seb: "“making two combat creatures at melee range face, and not slide past, each other when they’re playing attack animations” took a surprising amount of problem solving on DAI; most of the basic-attack animations have both moving and standing variations for this reason."

Seb: "30 seconds of good combat gameplay takes more-or-less the same development effort as 10 minutes of good combat gameplay. Which is more than you’d think. IYKYK."

Seb: "The original concept for the Grand Fear Demon at the end of DAI’s Fade was a “level boss” - instead of a single big combat creature (like a dragon), the idea was it was so big it would attack out of the darkness with “limbs” (creatures) that shared a health pool. Cut for scope."

Seb: "The core combat ability animation/effects/branching system in DAI is called “CSM”, for “combat state machine”. It’s the third generation spiritual successor to the first system called CSM that I worked on, built for a project called Revolver…"

Seb: "The “impassable” purple fire zones in Trespasser were a tremendous pain in the ass, because both: - making them do enough damage fast enough to be a lock-and-key for invincibility powers as intended - keeping party members from following you in and getting bug-zappered" User: "I hate to tell you this but my first time through, I was determined to get through and I did not know that invincibility powers were literally down the stairs so I spent 10 minutes and eventually managed to get through with some mage shenanigans" Seb: "by the time we got to trespasser there were so many abilities you MIGHT have that MIGHT JUST get you through that we gave it our best shot and said “good enough”" User: "I died at that thing SO MANY TIMES until I realized there was an invincibility boost, lol" Seb: "clearly signaling “THIS IS A THING YOU WILL DO LATER” without saying it, especially if it’s a mechanical systems thing, can be surprisingly difficult"

Seb: "during development on DAI someone made a staff that, when used (hit the ground with the butt animation) spawned a bunch of nugs that ran off in all directions. for checking pathmesh bounds, obvs"

[justcallmecappy]

When you first finished DA2, were you surprised by Anders's endgame actions? Before finishing the game, I felt that he's going to do something drastic at the chantry and remembering so many NPCs who was killed there, I was actually worried that he was going to be next. During the Justice quest, he was such a bad liar and even I was starting to doubt about what the ingridients are for, then after telling me it was a lie and I need to distract Elthina at the Chantry, I became afraid for him. I was like, "if he dies, I'll just redo this quest because I can't live w/o my only healer". Then there's the pillow giving scene and I was like, "oh no". I already assumed that Anders was written to be a mentally ill character by then because of his behavior during Dissent (questioning himself whether or not he's just being paranoid about the Tranquil Solution, wanting to isolate himself because he felt like's a danger to everyone, and the "trash, trash, keep" scene made him look like he's about to fall apart from distress). I was just worried for my companion's welfare even if he's not my romance back then. At the end, I was waiting for another chantry scene but I didn't expect for the building to explode. I always figured out Meredith was unreasonable so her declaring an annullment wasn't a surprise but I was kind of expecting that she'll kill Anders on the spot and I have to fight her to defend him. All of a sudden, I have the choice of whether to execute him or not. Obviously, I spared him because he's my only healer and I always felt like the chantry was a corrupt institution ever since Origins. Then after 2 and was fixing was my keep save for DAI, I searched Anders online and to my surprise, the game's narrative is actually against him and a lot of players hate him. I thought people love an underdog fighting against opression. I guess that doesn't apply in this series. So in the end, I was kind of right that he's going to do something at the chantry and someone will die there. I just didn't expect the explosion and that I have to be his executioner. 😭

Hi anon, thank you for the ask, and sorry for my late reply! 😅

Thanks so much for sharing your excellent perspectives on Anders' character and DA2! 💖 I really, really wish more players had your level of compassion and understanding when playing these games. I think a bit of empathy would have given many players more a more nuanced appreciation for these games, and especially Anders' character.

You are right in pointing out Meredith's hypocrisy in walking right past Anders (who literally just confessed to being the sole person responsible for the destruction of the Kirkwall Chantry), to slaughter all the mages in the Gallows, who had nothing to do with it. Anders was willingly submitting himself to retribution. Why didn't Meredith try to execute Anders herself, if she truly believed in delivering justice? I think it's in that moment that we see the hypocrisy of the Chantry and the templar order: Meredith was never interested in justice, she only wanted to kill mages.

And your insight: "I thought people love an underdog fighting against opression. I guess that doesn't apply in this series" is so, so apt! 👏👏👏 To me, Anders is like Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games, or Luke Skywalker from Star Wars: the protagonist character who is fighting against great injustice and oppression, a champion for the downtrodden, a force of positive change.

Usually in stories like this, these characters are the heroes, and for good reason. Sometimes, people need stories that give them hope that they can overcome insurmountable odds (“Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.” ― G.K. Chesterton). BioWare trying to force a "grey morality" narrative by villainizing Anders, I think, was a bad call. There are many great ways to push a morally grey narrative. However, making someone who was trying his best to improve conditions for a marginalized people (something that resonates so strongly with people in the real world) into a villain and de-legitimatizing his cause his is not.

Thanks again for sharing your insights, friend! 🥰💖 I do love hearing about appreciation for Anders' character, because all the flak he gets from haters online can get exhausting and disheartening, sometimes! I'm happy and grateful for perspectives like yours. 🥰

I'll talk about my own experience with DA2 and Anders' character behind the cut (in case anyone is interested, lol!):

I have to confess: I got into DA only very recently (I only started playing the games in 2020), so when I started DA2, I was pretty much spoiled on Anders' actions in destroying the Kirkwall Chantry, so it didn't exactly come as a surprise when it happened, unfortunately! 😅 I guess this happens when you join years-old fandoms, haha~

My first DA2 playthrough was a Fenrismance. And I also confess, I was rushing through that playthrough (I was creating my first World State and wanted to get to DAI as fast as possible lol), so I didn't pay much attention to other characters outside of the romance and Hawke's family.

However, in that first pt, my relationship with Anders was pretty good: he saved Bethany's life in the Deep Roads, I brought him around a lot because he was my healer, I got him to full 100 Friendship, and even though I couldn't totally understand his motives at the time, I spared his life in Act 3 and we fought to save the mages against Meredith's templars.

When I replayed DA2 for my second World State, I decided to romance Anders, and pay more attention to the world and the characters this time around.

And let me tell you, friendship romancing Anders was — no exaggeration — life-changing. It was like a switch flipped in my head and a bright light came on, haha~ 😆 In my first casual pt, the hardships that mages face in Southern Thedas weren't immediately obvious. However, in my second World State, I happened to roll a Warden Surana in DAO, and in DA2 I romanced Anders as a Mage!Hawke ... and it opened my eyes, lol~ Mages have it tough. They're dehumanized, othered, stripped of equal rights by the Chantry. As someone who has been 'othered' before, and as a minority in the industry I work in, the narrative quickly became important to me.

And now that I was romancing Anders and paying more attention to him, all the wonderful things about his character I overlooked previously now became crystal clear to me. He's so, so devoted to romanced!Hawke, and he doesn't take their love for granted for a second. He loves so carefully and deliberately, with all his heart, despite all his struggles, and the world demanding so much from him.

I never thought it was possible to love a fictional character with as much enthusiasm and ardor as I do now, but here we are, haha 😂❤️

Anders' cause became just as important to me when I saw how noble and necessary it was. My Hawke supported him, fully and wholeheartedly, with zero inhibitions. I would say my Hawke "forgave" him for his actions in Act 3, but honestly, there was nothing to forgive. When you spare Anders in Act 3, the surprise and relief he shows when being shown mercy and understanding is so heartbreakingly palpable. He never expected to be treated with empathy; never expected to be worthy of being listened to with compassion. When you reach your hand out to him, it's a rare kindness he's hardly ever been shown.

(Playing the Andersmance was also pivotal to me shipping Fenders, and realizing how perfect Fenris and Anders are for each other, but that's a story for another time, haha! 😂❤️)

Thank you for reading this far, I hadn't expected this reply to turn into an essay, lol! 😂

[sarasa-cat]

Thinking more and more that:

ONE: Cyberpunk's entire canon (all of the prior RPG sourcebooks plus the game plus extra new media) *SPEAKS* to me for cathartic reasons. Mostly for writing fanfic, but also for maybe maybe for minor experiments in virtual photography other for other kinds of visual fun (fanart? moodboards? gif sets? idk?) in my "copious free time" because that whole world inspires me visually. Also, VP tools in CP77 look like a it could provide lot of good escapist fun.

TWO: I really think I would enjoy Veilguard more if I just went back to my Merrillquisition and slowly worked my way through it. Inquisition has its problems as a game (too big, toooooo biiiigggg) but there is a lot in that I do indeed like and it is still wintery and horrid here so hiking in Thedas is actually a therapeutic thing to do. I'm also more likely to think about fandom things for Thedas if I remain in the DAO-DA2-DAI space, at least for now.

Since neither of those games are new to me (although there is a lot of new-to-me content in both of those games), I think it is easy enough for me to play both of them and switch back and forth as mood strikes.

Indie games are for more for extended-coffee break play. ;)

SDV still very much wants to be the subject of a bunch of fanfic prompts for 2025 prompt challenges.

...

And that means I'm probably putting off Veilguard until late 2025 or even until 2026. And that's okay. I'm reasonably spoiled and I'm fine with that. The game is fun but it isn't scratching the correct itch for me right now. If I decide to pick it back up sooner rather than later, I'll probably make another rook for Emmrich and go from there. tbd.

I don't have a lot of time for playing video games even though it is now February so I finally have *some* time.

Feeling undecided.

I could start plowing through my backlog of indie games. That would be a good idea for many reasons.

I'm feeling very conflicted about my current Veilguard run. I don't like a choice/option that was cut off from my Elven mage Shadow Dragon who is situated inside my primary canon world. Actually, I just ... idk. So I haven't felt compelled to pick it back up after 30-odd hours of slowly collecting all of the companions (but not much more).

So, for big budget games, trying to decide if I want to:

CP77: Do a full playthrough of CP77 with my preferred/canon V but now with all of the (no longer) new stuff that dropped ages ago. Also, my initial run of CP77 was less than completionist and there is a lot I still want to do in that world but very much starting from the beginning.

DAI: Finally play all of the DLCs and take more time to explore things I never touched 10 years ago. And do it with my Merrillquisition because I feel I need to see the Solasmance disaster before going any further in Veilguard.

DAVG: Ignore choice above and back up my Shadow Dragon by, idk, about 12 hours of play? By a bunch. Make different choices, then go forward, yada yada.

DAVG: Restart game entirely and mentally attach it to one of my other world states that I am interested in but less attached to. Create a Mournwatch rook for Emmrich. And then slam through it ONCE without too much concern over the key choices in game.

BG3: Return to my long ignored BG3 playthrough? I didn't get very far -- probably 20 hours in for the character who made it the furthest?

Something else? There are so many BIG games in my pile of shame.

[foxx-queen]

I feel like I've been criticizing dai a lot lately and probably will again as I replay the games so I thought I'd make a list of things I really enjoy about it. this is obvs my opinion and probs not a comprehensive list.

with one or two exceptions, I think they did a really good job making each area feel very unique. regardless of the quests or people within those areas, the design for most of them was really pretty and interesting to explore. the vivid and lush green of the emerald graves is such a contrast to the hissing wastes, which has its own beauty despite how stark and bare it is. the western approach having all these signs of the blight, like the griffon wing keep perched right on the edge of the blighted lands. the visual of the rift in the lake in crestwood.

the unique designs of each high dragon! I wanna see more unique dragons that we don't have to kill and whether there's a pattern at all to their appearance

the fade. it was so different from what we've seen in the other games and wasn't a strain on my eyes either and I really liked that fears of the dreamers side quest. it was just overall a really good bit for me

archery is actually fun - the little thwick noise each time you fire and being able to move while you shoot was a great change. also the lil draw/put away animation

each companion having a different outfit style while also being able to give them armour was a really nice blend of dao and da2 even though I wanted to dress like Vivienne

being able to play as a qunari!! this better be in da4 pls with better hair options

in the same vein, the concept of the vitaar and some of the designs were really cool

iron bull and the chargers. I wanted more with them. I would die for krem. I wanted to be a charger

skyhold. like yeah I would've liked to customize it more and repair it completely but overall I love it. the little areas especially scattered throughout (the little mage study library thingy beneath the castle is a fav). seras little room and viviennes balcony area are some of the better areas I think just because they feel v lived in.

most of in hushed whispers. I mainly like the whole going to the future and seeing the Worst future though I wish we'd been able to talk to our companions about it and as an intro to dorian it's really good even if fiona pledging the mage rebellion to tevinter was stupid

wicked eyes and wicked hearts. I guess I mainly like the idea of it? it's a very different quest to anything we've really done before (maybe the landsmeet is the closest?) and honestly running around climbing the trellises right in front of the nobles was a lot of fun imo

some of the main quest cutscenes were really good!! emerging from the chantry to see the breach for the first time, corypheus appearing through the fire at haven, clarel blasting the red lyrium dragon and causing the pc to fall into the fade, mythals (?) image rising from the well of sorrows to stop corypheus from following the pc through the eluvian though why she was human I'll never know, taming mythals guardian (who survived we now have a dragon friend 😌) um. I'm sure there's others but I'm blanking

the music

honestly I like the combat. never use the tactical view or w/e it's called but I generally have fun during the fights. I like the lil animation effects some of the abilities have.

the reaver specialisation is super fun

also the knight enchanter

vivienne. she gives you a friendship ring!

introducing someone from tevinter who knows it's messed up and wants to change it though wish dorians attitude on slavery wasn't so. u know, bad

tavern songs

josephine's romance quest where u duel for her hand I still can't believe I've only just discovered how cute her romance is

there's a couple of like mini map / dungeon areas that I feel like show how much better the writers do with like a smaller scale rather than the giant open world they tried to give us. like the lost temple dirthamen, the haunted mansion in the emerald graves, the cradle of sulvein, I think there's a couple more I'm blanking on but yeah I think because they were smaller they felt more packed with stuff i guess?

tarot cards!

repeatable kisses for romances. also being able to have roof time with sera. I think they should've given us repeatable friendship scenes like that for all the companions actually because it was a fun touch

okay that's all I can think of for now maybe I'll add more later. basically I do love the game it's just hard when you start to become aware of it's like. issues

[squirrelwithatophat]

The dark side of being Hawke’s best friend...

Time for a late-night drunken Dragon Age ramble!

I played and then imported the most dementedly evil DA2 playthrough into DAI - killing Merrill, Merrill’s entire clan, Bethany, Anders, Keran, and any other NPC the game allowed me to turn the murder knife on; sending Fenris back into slavery; handing Isabela to the Arishok; siding with Petrice and Varnell and killing the Qunari captives; turning Feynriel tranquil; slaughtering every mage in the Circle - then talked to Varric about it.

And Varric just... didn’t seem to care very much?  At Haven, when asked about Hawke’s friends, he didn’t even mention anyone besides Sebastian (romanced but returned to Starkhaven) and Aveline (single), and when asked about the Arishok, he vaguely referred to the Arishok leaving with the thief (not even calling Isabela by her name - wow) and immediately moved on.  Weren’t all these people supposed to be his friends?  Here Hawke was a homicidal maniac who betrayed everyone closest to her at the first opportunity, including cheering on the senseless murder of her own sister, and Varric is still defending her for some reason, including risking his life to protect her from Cassandra (at least during the interrogation featured in DA2)?  But why?  This is literally the most untrustworthy person ever.

At least some of the other companions had the excuse of being to some extent dependent on Hawke - Merrill as an exile; Fenris as a fugitive slave still living in hiding (until after Alone in Act 3); Anders as a rebel only avoiding arrest (by late in Act 2, judging by a lot of the dialogue) due to Hawke’s protection - and the siblings are obviously tied by family loyalties, but Varric has plenty of outside connections and could easily just leave at any time?  What makes Hawke worth siding with over the rest of the Kirkwall crew?  

After trying a pro-Templar run, I thought it was pretty disturbing that Varric was reluctant to help save the mages during The Last Straw but totally relieved and happy to help the Templars kill them all (he even called it “saving the city” and protecting “innocents” or something along those lines - what the actual fuck).  Now, reflecting on his reactions in DAI, I’m not sure if I seriously misread Varric during my earlier playthroughs or if he was just very poorly written in certain respects...