#if anything happens to her I will kill everyone and then myself

[zombolouge]

The thing is, it's not about the Therapy Speak. It's not that everyone who disliked DAV hates healthy communication as a dynamic in fiction. It's not even about only being allowed to be a good guy, really, because most of us did do that anyways (though the option not being there is a loss I grieve even if I never chose it myself, but that's another rant for another day).

It's that DAV does all that stuff at the expense of being believable. At the expense of characters being permitted to have personalities. At the expense of emotions behaving the way emotions actually work for people. At the expense of letting the plot build tension through the stakes we're forced to grapple with.

Half the fics out there take the conflicts between the characters in the previous games and resolve them. I do it myself ALL THE TIME because I like to find a path to resolution through just about any conflict, that's what fascinates me about telling these stories. But the higher the stakes, the harder a conflict is to resolve. You CAN resolve any conflict, you CAN communicate healthily through any emotion, but you can't skip the time it takes to process it all to even be able to communicate it. As someone whose got CPTSD and recovered from many Traumas, I can tell you that the TIME it takes to work through it is not something you can fast track, and the ups and downs of your emotions on that journey can't be skipped. It doesn't matter if you know exactly how to do it, exactly how it's going to feel, or exactly what the end state will be, you CAN'T speedrun it.

DAV has stakes that are astronomical, but nobody treats them that way. Nobody experiences denial - a common psychological reaction to being presented with information that shatters your worldview. Nobody expresses any distrust in the establishments handing out this information - something common among cultures that have at times been at war, even if those wars are "resolved" in the present. Nobody really ever breaks down - something that any person is capable of under extreme circumstances, especially when facing multiple crises of faith that challenge everything they thought they knew about themselves. Nobody blows their lid because they've been repressing the hell out of everything. Nobody grieves for southern Thedas, the entire thing dying off screen and giving you, the player, NO way to engage with it in any way.

Not to mention there are barely any inter-party conflicts, when there should be a lot more. Why is everyone (except Spite) fine with it if Emmrich sacrifices Manfred to become a lich? Why is everyone fine with Illario potentially being set free if he was working with the venatori and Elgar'nan, two sources that have actively attacked everyone in the party? Why doesn't Neve resent Lucanis if Treviso is picked? Why doesn't Harding get pissed off at Nevarra for having a secret society of liches that never helped during the Inquisition's war against the breach and corypheus? Why doesn't Harding feel ANYTHING about Ferelden and the rest of the south? Shouldn't Harding resent the fact that she's stuck in the north while her home dies?

All of these conflicts ARE resolvable, but not easily. And it's not believable that they're never brought up. It's not believable that these characters skip through everything that happens with like, barely a frowny face most of the time. In DAO, Alistair leaves if you don't treat his conflicts with respect. In DA2, your party members try to kill each other if you don't pay attention to their conflicts/emotional needs. In DAI, people can leave or betray you, Cassandra throws a chair at Varric and tries to body him out a window. ALL of these can be resolved but it takes effort, and the characters get to SHOW that they're bothered by them and struggling the way a person would when faced with those emotions.

The problem isn't the therapy speak, or that everyone is loyal and won't leave, or that they aren't mean to each other enough. It's that it's toxic positivity. It's toxic as fuck to imply that anger or grief should be smiled over or else you're giving up, and it's damaging to people to avoid engaging with their own negative emotional responses to extremely negative stimuli. It's pasting optimism over very real, very weighty issues, sweeping it all under the rug, and you keep waiting for the lid to blow off the pressure cooker that creates, but it never does. It never becomes anything that emulates real emotions, which is why the whole damn thing feels hollow. Everything's dying and nobody cares, not even about themselves, and that's NOT healthy communication.

It's bullshit, half-assed storytelling that didn't tell us the actual story, just the vague idea of what it could have been.

[porrimina]

We love Gangle in this goddamn household. She’s so cutesy! Very demure, very mindful! And yes I fucking cried because these goofy looking depressed little characters make me feel better, get off my d*ck!

[gaybugsdoart]

How to care for ScratchDisk

[clangrogu]

Batcher is a good girl who takes her job as Crosshair’s emotional support dog very seriously.

That is all.

[spinnertop]

I’ve been compulsively rewatching the tadc pilot and I have one thing to say about Jax. I want this man to hurt! He’s my favorite, I hate him, I want him to be better, I want him to he worse. I need more angst for the purple rabbit man, I must have!

[xxtoxictearzxx]

A redesign of Celestia from mlp. This is my first time actually posting art and this is one I'm proud of. I'm already working on Luna so I might post her next.

For Celestia I wanted to make her a queen since being a princess doesn't make sense for her. She clearly runs things. I also gave her a few scars from her battle with Nightmare Moon because I can. I can't draw feathers well so have mercy on me please. Anyways I'll post Luna when I finish her and yap more then.

Sketch:

[fluffypotatey]

yesterday was my babygirl’s gotcha day so here’s a before and after one year apart

before: Rat™️

after: fluffy baby 🥰

[pipochan]

Who can say no to this adorable red hugging lady :) And I like my Tav, can't even take my gaze away from her :P

I HAVE TO MAKE A FANART FOR THEM. ONLY FOR THEMMM

[masquerain-with-a-mask]

we love tepaste in this house

[filthytheodeckerkinnie]

alice dyer my beloved <3

[potheteletubby-4]

Guys I walked in my house and my dog is staring at me like this

[solarsleepless]

bea's so cute i love her so much

[septemberlikeastorm]

we've seen qimir/the stranger get disarmed TWICE & be about to get cut down by sol TWICE, & each time he shows NO fear or strong emotion, just "it's been real my dudes. make sure somebody goes back to the cave to turn off my crockpot"

but when osha cries out with the helmet on?? can we talk about his soft, plaintive "Osha???"

how he THROWS HIMSELF to his knees & how his sudden TERROR over losing her wrenches a distraught "No!!!!!!!" from him???

[im-yotsu]

Fast sketch because I just had to draw her

[idliketobeatree]

you know who is THE character ever? Niko Sasaki.

she's 16. she rents a single room above a butcher shop in Townwhoknowswhere, half a globe away from home. she hasn't spoken to her mum back in Tokio in years. she has no friends. everyone in the gang would wrestle demons in knee-deep mud for her. nobody truly gets her. she's an outstanding listener. she stands up for her boundaries, mantaining an inquisitive spirit. she keeps the parasites who wanted to explode through every orifice in her body in a little mason jar; they are nothing but explicitly mean to her. she tries to reason with them everytime. she shows the ghost boy from the 1900s Scooby Doo and bonds with him over mutual Kindness and Autism. being in her proximity makes people inherently better and more understanding. she arrives at the scene of the crime 45 minutes late banging pots and pans. she's a fashion colour-coding icon. she loves love. she's never kissed anyone. she's the wingwoman. the date she sets up for Jenny and Maxine ends in the serial killer woman getting her head split in half. she outtricks the Night Nurse with the power of excellent media comprehension trained on yaoi mangas, and saves the day. she acquired a small bear charm before she died and now she will live forever. nobody, nobody does it like her

[judgement-marshmallow]