#if i was going to pick one dao character i really didn't want to see it'd be her for sure

[crossdressingdeath]

Morrigan as the self-proclaimed "elven lore expert" doesn't even work with a human Inquisitor because she doesn't really know what she's doing. She brings to mind someone who discovers some ancient room, and the mere discovery of it makes her think she's special. Bonus points if she also found some trinkets, and by finding them, she considers herself the rightful owner and "expert" on all things about them. Like, no real knowledge, just a desire to preserve ancient stuff that she has no idea what it does. A human Inquisitor should be able to question her knowledge like any Dalish elf, but no one is allowed to, so.. she gets to flaunt her non-existent knowledge and it is irritating.

It's an annoying thing that applies to a lot of DAI's writing, where... Morrigan being so full of herself and thinking that stealing one book from the Dalish made her smarter than them could've been fine as a character flaw! Hell, the game even gently nudges at that with the moment where if Quiz has the arcane knowledge perk—which has the description "A detailed study of magic and the places and creatures that interact with it"—their training allows them to immediately clock that the Well has a magical geas on it, something Morrigan is completely flabbergasted by because she had no idea. There's also a moment earlier where Morrigan is confused by the presence of wolf statues outside the temple; Lavellan and Solas aren't, but if Lavellan explains why the Dalish do that Morrigan completely dismisses it as silly Dalish superstition and so meaningless even though "okay this is the reasoning that has been passed down to me, so it's the best guess I've got for why my ancestors did it" is in fact way better than anything Morrigan can figure out (which is... nothing), a solid line of reasoning to follow, and a decent guess in general. We haven't heard the full reasoning at this point but based on what we know about Solas and Mythal and the Evanuris the Dalish story probably isn't far off the mark! But instead of any acknowledgement of that Morrigan's complete dismissal of Lavellan's explanation as worthless superstition that has nothing to do with the decisions of Lavellan's ancestors is allowed to stand unchallenged.

And it really drives me nuts that the game just lets Morrigan's claim that she's a real expert stand, because it could have been really interesting if they'd done something similar to what they do with Solas's spirit friend where Lavellan can understand the dialogue but no one else can because it's in elven. It makes sense for a human, dwarf or Qunari to take Morrigan at her word; they're told she's an expert, and elven religion and magic aren't things they likely would've studied. But Lavellan should absolutely be able to recognize she's full of shit. Especially mage Lavellan, I will never be over the fact that Dalish mages are priests but mage Lavellan has nothing exclusive to them to say about visiting the temples of their gods (not that Lavellan in general gets to say much about visiting Evanuris temples but y'know). I made a post a while ago about how great it would be if Solas and Lavellan could fuck with Morrigan by lying outright about what the writing in the temple says and watching her go along with everything they say because she absolutely cannot read more of it than the ancient elf or the Dalish elf who seems unusually fluent in the language (and unusually fluent for a Dalish elf is insanely fluent for anyone else) and doesn't want to admit that she can't tell what it says.

At the end of the day Morrigan is an "expert" just because very few people know anything about the eluvians. I don't know how active the Veil Jumpers are at this point in the timeline, so the only people I can say with confidence understand anything about them (discounting ancient elves like Solas and Mythal) are Merrill and Briala. And I mean... Merrill repaired and purified a Blighted eluvian on her own (Morrigan, for context since The Last Court was taken down and not everyone played it, required the help of the incredible Serault glassworks and her eluvian wasn't even Blighted as far as we know) and Briala from what I understand (still haven't read TME, I keep meaning to) controlled a decent chunk of the network for at least a while. Both of them make Morrigan look at best unimpressive in comparison; look at them, and then remember that Morrigan's claim to knowing more about the eluvians than the Dalish is that she found one and fixed it... using a book... that she stole... from the Dalish. It's a combination of the bad vibes of this human woman claiming she knows more than the elves about their own history, the fact that the only knowledge we've seen her collect on the subject is one book that she stole from the Dalish, and the way Quiz can show her up with basically zero effort and the game just brushes past that without acknowledging that it's a massive blow to her credentials. If they'd acknowledged that she clearly doesn't know as much as she thinks she does or had her admit that to some extent she's figuring it out as she goes (and fucking listen to the people around her who know more than her, the way she belittles the Dalish when Lavellan offers an explanation for why there are Fen'Harel statues at the temple—which is more explanation than Morrigan offers, by the way—really makes me want to punch her) it would've been fine! Either acknowledge that her being so sure she knows best is a flaw in her character instead of trying to pretend she's right or have her admit she doesn't know what's best but does know more than a lot of people and wants to help as best she can; the way they handled it is just incredibly messy and really put me off ever seeing her in a game again.

[felassan]

David Gaider on Flemeth, under a cut for length:

"I have a type. I admit it. There are certain wells I can return to repeatedly and always find something new to explore. One of them is older female characters. Mike used to rib me about it. Consider Wynne. Meredith. Genevieve. And, of course, the biggie: Flemeth. Why are they a type? I... don't know, honestly. I guess I have a feeling that older men fade, they strive to regain their youth or establish a legacy and we've seen that story a thousand times, but older women? They become free to become something new. I guess I see so many possibilities in that. I had a conception of who Flemeth was, and why, right from the very start. Her creation went hand in hand with Morrigan, as a being whose thirst for retribution hundreds of years ago attracted an entity (slight confession: I didn't know Mythal specifically, at the time, "an elven god" was enough). I also knew where Morrigan was right and very wrong about her. Misconceptions of the truth are built into DA's foundation, and they were fundamental to this mother-daughter relationship I was building. Like many seeds I'd put in the world, however, I had no idea whether I'd ever get to explore it. Knowing that she was a character of possible future importance, if not a major player in DAO, I wasn't much surprised when she was one of the first cuts the art team made in terms of getting a unique appearance. Thus the "batty old woman" players met in DAO. Not as hard a cut as the Qunari, though."

"Going into DA2, I wanted both Morrigan and Flemeth, but we could only have one. So I picked Flemeth. This was the game where she really got to come into her own. I remember the art team coming and asking if it was OK if she got a new model, as it'd be a retcon of sorts. I didn't care. I wanted it. I honestly don't remember whether Kate Mulgrew was cast before or after Claudia. After, I think? All I recall is that Cab came into my office one day and asked if Kate might be a good fit. Asked me, the dyed-in-the-wool Trekkie who had stuck with Voyager even through the admittedly lean years? The squeal I made was un-manly. Cab took that as a "yes". 😅 I didn't get to talk to Kate until DA2, however. Schedules being what they were, we had a tight window to record Flemeth... so I had to write all her scenes before almost anything else in DA2 was written, before I even had a team! Ack! It was OK, though, for the most part. I knew where I wanted to take her, and a big part of it was going to explain her transition - to set her up for the future. So I whipped up a script in, like, two days and off we went. Kate was a marvel in the booth. She adored Flemeth and you could really tell. I didn't get to meet Kate in person, however, until DAI. This came pretty late in its development, compared to when we recorded her for DA2, and we flew down to Virginia (to accommodate her schedule - she was writing her memoir at the time, I think) for a single session. It was going to be *tight*."

"I was a mess. I was finally going to meet Captain Janeway... and yes yes, I know she's also more than that. But come ON. When we sat down, I figured I'd have to talk her through the character all over again. It'd been years since that one session at the start of DA2, right? And even more since DAO. But, no. Kate remembered Flemeth perfectly. I remember sitting there as she told me how much she loved the character, how rare it was to get one with so much texture and possibility. She called out my writing - my writing! - and waxed poetic about how she viewed Flemeth's arc. I... I was floored. 🫠 Then we began recording. One issue that quickly reared its head was how Caroline had to speed through the lines if we hoped to finish. Kate was a trooper, and most takes she'd get it in one (which is rare), but I was alarmed because we weren't giving Kate time to read the VO comments on each line. I brought it up, as there were some lines (so much sarcasm) that required nuance - Kate was getting them, oddly, but I was worried. "Oh, it's fine," Kate said. "I read the comments as we go." "How could you? We're going so fast!" "I'm a speed reader." Oh. OK, then. That certainly explained it. 😁 We got to the confrontation scene with Morrigan and she nailed it. Over and over. More than once, Caroline would make a call and, before I could even interject and say "no, Kate had it right, actually" Kate would explain exactly why she did it that way and why it worked for Flemeth. I was in love. She did the "I will see her avenged!" section all in one go. I got chills. Then we got to the final scene. You know the one. With Solas. It was this beautiful moment. She took it somewhere quiet and sad... and when she got to that last line, we all felt it: Flemeth was dead. Everyone was in tears. I suppose I could talk more about the process. How she started off aligned with Morrigan's original Delirium inspiration, but I didn't pull back her loopy way of talking as much (bet you wondered). I still don't know why it was so easy to slip into her voice, but I'm grateful I got the chance. ❤️"

[source thread]

[justanotherflemethstan]

this is not a drill, this is a thread on the creation of Flemeth from David Gaider!! as kind of the self professed Flemeth stan blog around here, I had to reshare

(alt text and full text transcript of the images included)

Link to the original post

Full text from the images below the cut:

CHARACTERS - DAY THREE: Flemeth

I have a type. I admit it. There are certain wells I can return to repeatedly and always find something new to explore.

One of them is older female characters. Mike used to rib me about it. Consider Wynne. Meredith. Genevieve. And, of course, the biggie: Flemeth.

Why are they a type? I... don't know, honestly.

I guess I have a feeling that older men fade, they strive to regain their youth or establish a legacy and we've seen that story a thousand times, but older women? They become free to become something new. I guess I see so many possibilities in that.

I had a conception of who Flemeth was, and why, right from the very start. Her creation went hand in hand with Morrigan, as a being whose thirst for retribution hundreds of years ago attracted an entity (slight confession: I didn't know Mythal specifically, at the time, "an elven god" was enough).

I also knew where Morrigan was right and very wrong about her. Misconceptions of the truth are built into DA's foundation, and they were fundamental to this mother-daughter relationship I was building.

Like many seeds I'd put in the world, however, I had no idea whether I'd ever get to explore it.

Knowing that she was a character of possible future importance, if not a major player in DAO, I wasn't much surprised when she was one of the first cuts the art team made in terms of getting a unique appearance. Thus the "batty old woman" players met in DAO. Not as hard a cut as the Qunari, though.

Going into DA2, I wanted both Morrigan and Flemeth, but we could only have one. So I picked Flemeth. This was the game where she really got to come into her own.

I remember the art team coming and asking if it was OK if she got a new model, as it'd be a retcon of sorts. I didn't care. I wanted it.

I honestly don't remember whether Kate Mulgrew was cast before or after Claudia. After, I think? All I recall is that Cab came into my office one day and asked if Kate might be a good fit

The squeal I made was un-manly. Cab took that as a "yes". 😅

I didn't get to talk to Kate until DA2, however. Schedules being what they were, we had a tight window to record Flemeth... so I had to write all her scenes before almost anything else in DA2 was written, before I even had a team! Ack!

It was OK, though, for the most part. I knew where I wanted to take her, and a big part of it was going to explain her transition - to set her up for the future. So I whipped up a script in, like, two days and off we went. Kate was a marvel in the booth. She adored Flemeth and you could really tell.

I didn't get to meet Kate in person, however, until DAI. This came pretty late in its development, compared to when we recorded her for DA2, and we flew down to Virginia (to accommodate her schedule - she was writing her memoir at the time, I think) for a single session. It was going to be *tight*.

I was a mess. I was finally going to meet Captain Janeway... and yes yes, I know she's also more than that. But come ON.

When we sat down, I figured I'd have to talk her through the character all over again. It'd been years since that one session at the start of DA2, right? And even more since DAO.

But, no. Kate remembered Flemeth perfectly.

I remember sitting there as she told me how much she loved the character, how rare it was to get one with so much texture and possibility. She called out my writing - my writing! - and waxed poetic about how she viewed Flemeth's arc. I... I was floored. 🫠

Then we began recording. One issue that quickly reared its head was how Caroline had to speed through the lines if we hoped to finish. Kate was a trooper, and most takes she'd get it in one (which is rare), but I was alarmed because we weren't giving Kate time to read the VO comments on each line.

I brought it up, as there were some lines (so much sarcasm) that required nuance - Kate was getting them, oddly, but I was worried.

"Oh, it's fine," Kate said. "I read the comments as we go."

"How could you? We're going so fast!"

"I'm a speed reader."

Oh. OK, then. That certainly explained it. 😁

We got to the confrontation scene with Morrigan and she nailed it. Over and over. More than once, Caroline would make a call and, before I could even interject and say "no, Kate had it right, actually" Kate would explain exactly why she did it that way and why it worked for Flemeth. I was in love.

She did the "I will see her avenged!" section all in one go. I got chills. Then we got to the final scene.

You know the one. With Solas.

It was this beautiful moment. She took it somewhere quiet and sad... and when she got to that last line, we all felt it: Flemeth was dead. Everyone was in tears.

I suppose I could talk more about the process. How she started off aligned with Morrigan's original Delirium inspiration, but I didn't pull back her loopy way of talking as much (bet you wondered).

I still don't know why it was so easy to slip into her voice, but I'm grateful I got the chance. ❤️

[notebooks-and-laptops]

No one asked for it, but I'm gonna do a: Notes Plays Bg3 with all my thoughts! I'll be tagging it as Bg3 spoilers, tho I'll try and keep any big ones out and also Notes plays Bg3 so you can blacklist if needed!

Notes plays Bg3: first thoughts:

I'm a TAD disappointed in the CC because I knew it was super realistic so expected to be able to edit more and pick my nose/eyes/mouth/jaw/cheeks/lips shapes etc. And not being able to do that made me a little sad cos it's one of my fav parts of dao dai and da2 to actually customise my character and make them how I want. However, do enjoy all the hair options and being able to give my dwarf girl a beard so ups and downs.

Also speaking of the CC I made my girl before I realised subrace was a thing and then had to remake her and that was deeply deeply annoying

I also sorta wish their was more guidance in the cc about what being a disciple of a particular god might look like/mean

The animation in the cut scenes is INSANE holy fucking SHIT they put their ENTIRE pussy into it and it shows that opening god DAMN

Love those creepy brain guys I want one as a pet I love the way they scuttle and their creepy child voice

Mean lady? She is my WIFE and I LOVE HER and you will NOT be taking her from me

I freaked out for a while not knowing how to get Shadow heart out like I fully was like IM GONNA FUCK IT UP SHES GONNA DIE but thankfully she has not

Vampire Bois entrance didn't really do anything for me tbh altho I do see the Dorian in him that people have been talking about he's even got the same inflections in his voice sometimes

I LOVE gale and his entrance what a charismatic funky dude

Not met anyone else yet but going looking for them now!!

I do not enjoy the mechanics of moving my character and really wish I could just move them rather than clicking. I'll get used to it but I think that'll be the barrier between me and replays.

I do like the combat tho and am excited to get into the swing of that cos it's more technical and limiting than some of the more basic dragon age combat and so there's more skill to it I think

[lotuslia]

2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 20 for Dragon Age: Veilguard Questions! :3

Thanks!! Under cut because it's a looooot of text :D

2. Which Dragon Age game is your favorite so far?

I love them all but I'd probably pick DAO for the variety of origin options. DA2 is fun but only picking my class is a bit sad, haha. If it wasn't part of a series with extensive backstory options I would have no problem though, it's a good game and Hawke is interesting.

DAI is where I've put most of my energy for OC creation, so it's dear to me as a story, but replaying the game can be a bit of a drag sometimes, mostly for the stick-limbs and movement animation reasons xD

3. Do you usually play as a warrior, mage, or rogue? Which class are you planning to try first this time around? Which subclass?

I've got oc's of all classes pretty equally, but I usually play mages or warriors, haha. This time I'm planning to try rogue since I have a Rook idea already, but I will probably play a mage soon after too! Subclass idk yet. Maybe Saboteur?

6. Do you have your Rook(s) planned out to any degree? If so, would you share some details or ideas you have?

Yep! I talked about her a bit here! Fiora is my human Crow rogue that I made for an old very short ttrpg game (you might remember her early stabby-auntie draft from there xD) where she was an ex-crow Grey Warden, but after that I dropped the Warden part and kept building her design so I could use her as my Rook or in another ttrpg or something!

(unfinished portrait and picrews is all I have rn lol) She has a dorky and occasionally dark sense of humor but a very good poker face, so she gives off a pretty distinguished impression.

Backstory stuff outside DATV: Being pretty and charismatic Fiora often took jobs for the Crows to seduce targets for information. She had some reoccurring targets that she thought were very charming and fun, and some careless moments led to her going 'oh shit' in her apartment a month or two later.

She didn't want Tobia to grow up a crow so she made a deal with a trusted contact to help her, used an injury as a cover story to go out of the crows' view, and left Tobia with said contact before returning to the Crows. Now she wears semi-permanent knee&wrist braces and sometimes a cane that absolutely has a blade within. She tries to be a parental figure to the crow kids she mentors when others can't see, but takes her role seriously and thinks avoiding the crow's ways of teaching entirely would leave the guild weak. She respects the crows and doesn't wish to leave, she just wants Tobia to have a choice in what he becomes when he grows.

I also toyed briefly with the idea of playing as Nava (my Lavellan's daughter) since in 9:53 she'll be 18, but I think that's still too young and also too much emotional damage ahah

7. Which character from the previous games or other media are you most hoping will make an appearance in DAV?

Honestly, so many. Inquisitor's been confirmed and I'm over the moon about that! Other than that... Dorian, Maevaris, Zevran, Merrill, Sera, Josephine! From other medias I'm hoping for the crows Teia & Viago + Illario, my fav Grey Wardens Evka & Antoine, and of course the classic one, Felassan. I don't need my Warden to appear personally but it'd be fun to get a letter or something like in DAI.

8. What faction are you most excited to learn more about?

I've been intrigued by the Crows for years now, but the trailers really got me excited about the Grey Wardens again too! Veil jumpers and Shadow Dragons seem cool but I think I need to know more before I properly get excited.

9. Which romance, if any, do you plan to pursue first?

For Fiora I think I'll go with Lucanis, he seems fun and fitting for her and it'd be fun to hear the dialogue with their shared faction. But I'll probably start a second playthrough alongside the main one so I can also romance Davrin, he seemed like a delight.

Irl I'm definitely a bit *eyes emoji* at the ladies but I'm too much of an oc-hoarder and lore nerd to play as myself hahah

11. What's one thing you'd really like to see in this next game?

Hmmm I'm kind of just going in and seeing what's up, I don't have specific expectations. But I guess my main hope is that we get a proper conclusion to ongoing plot hooks & character stories, and answers to at least some ongoing questions. Opening new mysteries is a lot more interesting if old ones get closed in the meantime and there's SO MUCH in Thedas.

I guess I would like to see some flashback etc. to get a glimpse of what the ancient elvhenan and dwarven lands actually looked like? Since we've heard about it for so long.

I'm also hoping this game will make me cry like a baby, I live for big emotions in fiction and it takes quite a lot to make me react out loud :'')

20. Post a picture or gif that conveys your current level of excitement for Dragon Age: The Veilguard!

Excitement level: Very.

[anneapocalypse]

Elaborating on my feelings about this post a little, particularly in the context of video of games with high replay value like Dragon Age (which may not have been what the op was talking about at all, but that's what was on my mind when I saw it)!

I definitely think a good game of this type should give you a complete and narratively satisfying experience if you play it through one way and never return to it. (I mean there are also games like Zero Escape where discovering every ending is part of the "complete" experience but that's not the kind of game we're talking about here.) You should be able to play a Dragon Age game once and enjoy it without feeling like you got an incomplete story, just like (in my opinion) you should be able to pick up the game and enjoy it without having seen other canon material that is by definition supplemental. (Whether these particular games succeed at the latter is another discussion for another post).

I love a book that rewards a re-read--Tamsyn Muir's Locked Tomb series really does this for me and I'm looking forward to re-reading them again before Alecto comes out, and I went back and checked and the OP even tagged Locked Tomb on that post which doesn't surprise me one bit. Because it's true! Going back and reading Gideon after you've read Harrow and understand more about both characters and know more about the world and have starting to pick up on the hints about the true nature of certain characters... it's a thrill! Not because the story was incomplete the first time or incomprehensible, but because now you have the additional context to see all the breadcrumbs the author was dropping in a new light and it's just so, so rewarding and so much fun.

And I also love games that give me high replay value not just because they're fun to play (and let's be real I am not starting my ninth run of DAO because I'm obsessed with the combat mechanics) but because every time I get to experience a slightly different story and see the world and the characters from different angles. There is so much more to experience that way than you can possibly get on one playthrough. (And that's good in this type of game! We want our choices to change the story.) In DA2 there are sides of characters you won't see if you've only taken the friendship route and never rivaled them. I've written before about the templar ending of DA2 and how it reveals things that the mage ending doesn't and yeah, it's a "bad" ending and not everyone wants to play it but it's still another story that has things to tell us about the world. (And I'd venture to say that sometimes, we don't necessarily realize we are talking from the basis of experiencing slightly different stories.)

I don't think a story should set out to confuse its audience (in general--there are instances where intentional misdirection serves a narrative purpose but that's a digression here) but I also enjoy the experience of playing a new game unspoiled and without walkthroughs the first time and letting the chips fall where they may, and maybe getting a "bad" outcome because I didn't fully get what a quest was about, because you only really get one shot at the Chaotic First Playthrough. Being confused because you're in a funhouse labyrinth but it's definitely leading you somewhere is different than being confused because the story doesn't make sense, you know? And that first playthrough isn't an incomplete story, it's just one of many different ways you can experience the game. There will be plenty of time after that to replay with more knowledge and build the perfect world state, or make it Worse, or just choose something different.

So yeah, a story should work on that first level, that single read or playthrough, in order to be successful, but my favorite ones are the ones that do give me a reason to come back, and either offer me a new experience or deepen the one I had before.

[reileinaxiu]

Guysssss! I just finished reading this in two days and its soooo GOOD 🤩🤩🤩 9.5 out of 10 definitely recommend! Now I want a published release with illustrations 😂.

Some one tell me their ship name cause I literally picked this up two days ago. WenYin? JiangWu? BTW who in the Bloody Hell's the top/bottom? Because I can see this going either way 🤭

Some spoilers maybe ahead! ⚠️

The pacing was excellent. The character growth impeccable. The personalities of the cast a riot! The premise felt like something out of a fix-it fanfic but really well executed.

The start might be intimidating or frustrating if there wasn't much focus on the main couple but every main couple interaction is worth catching. The author is also a great writer and storyteller, the very beginning scene was an Easter egg used for a callback to a future conflict. I can't get over how all these fictional characters make me feel dumb 😅. Cause there's a mystery element with all the scheming and backstabbing. It's similar to MXTX's work were everyone and the reader just feels blase with very uncomfortable topics like mind control, body horror, obsession, parasitic cultivation etc. but because of how comedic it's been written it doesn't feel very heavy except maybe 🤔 Yin Hanjiang's pining (now that was painful to read 😖) so if you like her works this story has some MDZS and SVSSS sort elements to it. Maybe less cringe overall😅

As for the main couple, Wenren È reminds me of Wei Wuxian from MDZS except if WWX was a lot less restrained (by a lot I mean completely unrestrained) and didn't give a f*** about the rest of the cultivation world's opinion. They're both very principled men with taboos they won't tolerate. But unlike WWX who tried to play politics by keeping out of it, WRE completely ignored it and did as he pleased according to his dao which ironically also got him under a smear campaign as well that mobilized the righteous sects against him. His dao is also really interesting and the world building around different paths makes me want to know more about them. Path of Slaughter sounds really up there with the Demonic Cultivation you'd expect but like WWX it's how he used it that determines the act as good or evil. WRE is also just really interesting a protagonist by himself, he's the supreme leader of all the demonic disciplines in XuanYuan sect yet he keeps his frankly, very morally bankrupt Altar Masters, Protectors and disciples from harassing mortals unprovoked, but doesn't stop them from being their scheming backstabbing selves and even approves when they try to be opportunistic about. He's completely ruthless in battle because his cultivation depends on fighting strong opponents, he doesn't go out of his way to be helpful to anyone but he does remember and take debts of karma seriously. Another impression I got from him as the XuanYuan Sect Master is that he reminds me of Ainz from Overlord. He's not one for details but as a leader he is very excellent at delegating tasks according to his subordinates' strengths, but the funny thing is, that even he himself doesn't fully see the scope of his decisions and just gives a rough estimate of the odds in his favor. Like in the earlier chapters he tasks someone to watch over this person and help them grow in strength and that subordinate just assumes that he wants to take a new disciple for fun or train up a new opponent for him to fight and raise his cultivation level, when in fact he just went with the flow or that time he just wanted to keep an eye on this target and that lead to them thinking WRE wanted to destroy the sect from within. He thinks that his subordinates really knew how to fill in the details so he doesn't bother to explain himself anymore and its hilarious 😂.

Yin Hanjiang is also really interesting and by the end of the book you'll be surprised to find your initial impression of him has gotten really far. He's still devoted to WRE but he goes through some character growth and show more of his true self. If you thought this was regular black and white red and blue pairing then you're only half right. You would assume that YHJ is the steady devoted white to compliment WRE's black but no! They are both black as can be with WRE teetering on the white role with YHJ embracing blackened persona with his heart only having room for WRE and devoted to nothing else. I guess LWJ and YHJ are similar as they are very petty when someone attacks or insults their beloved but unlike LWJ, YHJ doesn't have the unfortunate benefit of being raised in a righteous sect so he acts viciously, violently, and vindictively for any slight against his Venerable.

The supporting characters are also great. They are mostly irreverent and straightforward (morally bankrupt demonic cultivators) and the only likeable righteous cultivators ZhongLi Qian and later when she gets enlightenment Baili QingMiao who are just exasperated so done with their unorthodox acquaintances 😂

The star fortune telling theme is also a really cool reoccurring symbolism throughout the book. Polis and his Alkaid 😆😆😆. I'm not into astrology but this was a really nice touch.

Please try this novel out and see how you like it! This is my review until I reread through again. Thank you for staying with me dearies on this long rant of mine ☺️

Yin Hanjiang and Wenren E official arts from the Thai Edition of Mozun Ye Xiang Zhidao (The Devil Venerable Also Wants To Know)

[jazzmckay]

today, i finished playing dragon age: origins for the very first time :> it turns out, ive played this series completely in reverse! i did try dao years ago before i picked up dai, but it kept crashing my computer and i gave up. and now, finally... all this time later... i got to play it!

my warden: yenna tabris

she's a rogue, and i did archery more than 2-handed, but dabbled plenty in both. had a good time with the combat style. i romanced zevran. i already loved him based on other game appearances, fanfic etc. but i fell even more in love with him. my main party was alistair, zevran, and wynne, or shale, zevran, and wynne. i really enjoyed getting to know all the companions properly, though, and wish i could have switched it up more. i simply cannot survive without wynne's heals and have a hard time keeping my warriors on their feet, other than shale. ah well

i'm officially on team loghain as a problematic fave. a BUNCH of characters really surprised me with how much i got into them. anora i did expect to enjoy, but not get feral over. i understand morrigan a lot better now. i liked wynne more than i expected to. and oghren stole the damn show. oghren defense squad. this series has so many fascinating, complex characters.

summary of my choices

killed that prick vaughan. city elf origin is brutal and set a whole tone for yenna being perfectly prepared to solve problems with violence when she thinks the situation calls for it

went to redcliffe first, post-lothering. i let jowan use isolde's blood to save connor. if i'd known there wasn't an invisible time limit, i would have gone to the circle so no one had to die, but it seemed like a situation better resolved fast. in my defense, i've played the first two fallout games, which have time-based game overs and i got my whole crew killed in my first mass effect 2 playthrough because i didn't go into the endgame fast enough. i have video game trauma around hidden time limits, okay? that said, i don't regret my choice. i got to play as morrigan confronting the demon in the fade, and it created interesting tension with alistair

circle tower next. sided with the mages, if it can really be called that. it didn't feel like much of a big, dichotomous decision to me, just doing the best that can be done for everyone. zevran's nightmare made me want to hug him. i am one of those weird fade-enjoyers, for the record. i liked it the first time around, as this was the only post-lothering main quest i got to, and i liked it even more on round two

the dalish! very interesting area and storyline. i got lost and confused a lot during this part but i still had a good time, even when it felt like i was running back and forth and in circles sometimes. i got the "best" ending of curse lifted, everyone else alive. it was a really lovely, bittersweet story. the lady of the forest is hot. would

orzammar was also a very cool area. it felt so big. i sided with bhelen while feeling like i didnt know nearly enough about either king candidates to be making such a huge decision. he's a character i expected to not like based on what i've heard though and ended up liking him just fine. we'll see if that changes when i try the dwarf noble origin. i destroyed the anvil of the void. branka is a really fascinating character; i might end up writing meta about her if i can gather the spoons

everything in denerim once you gather for the landsmeet is SO FUN. sometimes fucked up, but that's all good with me. rescue mission for anora while not knowing if she can be trusted yet... getting tossed in a cell with alistair, both of us in only our underwear, smh. zevran and wynne to the rescue! i plan to reload a save and go over more of the combos for who can rescue you, theyre so good. and then everything in the alienage... as if the origin isn't bad enough. when will the denerim alienage catch a damn break? this was one of the points of the game when yenna was at her angriest. her temper has a short fuse normally, and on that day, it had no fuse at all

and the landsmeet. i admit i had to make the choice to reload after my first try. i was trying to make choices my character would make, even if they have consequences, and enjoy whichever story i got, but the first time around, my impulse decision-making led to the worst ending for alistair which i find way too tragic and upsetting. couldn't let that stand. original choices were: yenna 1v1'd loghain -> yenna accepted loghain's surrender and agreed to making him a warden -> alistair, who wasn't hardened, refused to stay with the wardens or marry anora -> yenna chose solo queen anora over solo king alistair -> alistair had to leave. ouch! second time around, i did execute loghain, so alistair and anora married, even if he was Not happy about it

i have soooo many feelings about all the possible outcomes and how it impacts the relationship between the warden, alistair, anora, and loghain. i couldn't go with alistair's life being ruined but so many of the other options are incredibly full of angsty tension and interesting dynamics

i had morrigan and alistair make a god baby. at this point, yenna is feeling pretty fucking bad about asking SO much of alistair

the ending of the game is actually incredible. getting to have pre-battle moments with all the companions, getting at least one section of the WHOLE party fighting side by side, amazing. this is something i find lacking in dai. both dao and da2 reward you for recruiting everyone, keeping everyone, and making additional allies for the final fight, and i adore that. i wish i could have had a full-party moment in dai too. the whole battle was intense and fun, and satisfying. great build up and payoff. its hard to stick a good landing in video games like this, and dao has one of the best, i think! on par with mass effect 2, which i think had the best final fight of that trilogy. oghren's pre-battle "goodbye" made me tear up

alistair made yenna chancellor which i was not expecting! it's fun to imagine her, alistair, and anora trying to get along in discussions :3 ultimately, though, yenna said she would focus on driving the darkspawn back entirely. she didn't choose this life, and didn't appreciate it for a good while, but she managed to do what it takes, and she did not go through all that just for pockets of darkspawn to keep being trouble. but zevran will be with her the whole way :D

i had a rly good time with it! faced some crashes and instability at first, but it seemed to stop entirely after a certain point, possibly when i turned the settings down, so it wasn't too bad. im so happy i got to play this, and im looking forward to the awakening dlc! <3

bonus, from liveblogging to friends on discord, re: oghren:

[icharchivist]

If I wanted to play the new DA game, do I have to have played all the previous entries as well?

Because I think I've played through the opening of Inquisition when I was a tiny child and that was about it

well that depends on the experience you want to have with the game

Technically every DA games more or less stand on their own. You make a new hero every games, and every bits of lore is going to be given to you in due time, the games will always hold your hand and explain to you everything you need to know so you can genuinely get into any of the games even without feeling any major pressure to play the whole thing. So like, if you really can't stand the play styles of DAO and DA2 in particular, you technically can.

I personally wouldn't recommend it on two fronts:

First, your decisions taken into one game will carry on to the next. Stuff in DAI will have drastically different plotline depending of how you played some stuff in DAO. your DA2 character comes back in DAI, they're planning to have your DAI character come back in DA4 as well. All the games have set worldset that you can even customize yourself on the Tapestry website (you need it for DAI and DA4), if you don't want to play everything, but i think losing the fun of how much you know this world is a bit sad. (like the character i romanced in DAO is present in DAI and seeing her talk about her beloved and how much she aches to be by her side just makes me want to cry everytime.)

Second: DAI especially puts the whole plot of the saga back into question, and DA4 is the direct sequel to the reason why, and it may be.... idk you're going to be thrown out by a lot of things.

DAO works a lot like a prelude, it gives you all the keys you need to learn about this world. DA2 then gives you a turmoil that is going to change things on a political level... and DAI is downright a catastrophe that specifically feeds of said turmoil and put back every single keys you learnt to accept for two games into question. DAI ends on a reveal that really recontextualize the whole lore of the saga so far, and DA4 is directly picking up on it and will introduce you right away to the reveal because it's what the stakes of the game are going to be about.

It's kinda like the idea of picking up a TV show when the show is starting to boil to its finale in a sense. Like, yeah, technically you COULD, but isn't it a bit sad not to have the full context?

not to mention how many characters from previous games keep coming back, especially Varric who has appeared in every games since DA2 and is still there in DA4. there's definitely characters who come with bagage and history. But like anyone meeting new people, you're still going to know their current personalities regardless of what they unveilled before.

Personally, especially because i can't forget the pure euphoria that the recontextualization gave me and how it genuinely enhanced the way i approached the saga, i can only recommend playing all the games in order, including the DLCs.

But i know it's a tall order especially when the oldest game is from 2009 and has some janky mechanisms modern gamers don't really have the patience for anymore. I can't begrudge anyone who wants to just go in and discover for themselves, and i've met people who started the saga midway (by da2 or by dai) who had a lot of funs and didn't feel the need to go back to the old games to get this fun.

so like. you do whichever you prefer in the end, the games will hold your hand this way.

but if you have the curiosity to play all the games, give them a shot in order. It will make the experience much more special for sure.

[gonewiddershins]

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My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Book Rec Ask Meme (Part 3 of 7)

18. your least favorite book ever

One of the effects of being a shameless DNF-er is how I don't really have least favorite books. Because they can't be my least fave if I drop them halfway through and go and happily read something else instead. Least favorite book (singular) ever is even worse- why on earth would I read a book I loathe that much? The only answer is "Buddy Reads" and even for that I have drawn lines I will Not Cross. And even if those lines were crossed, I feel uncomfortable rating that book as "the worst" because making me read something I don't like makes me very, very mad and that naturally spills over to my feelings about the actual book.

So I skimmed through Goodreads and randomly picked a book that made me mad enough that I remembered being mad to this day. This actually means the book had potential, because I tend to forget books which had no redeeming features whatsoever. But this is also the third draft of this answer so it's what you're getting. (There is actually book I dislike more than this one, but that's getting saved for the un-recommend question.)

Tangled by Emma Chase is an office romcom. And it would probably be pretty entertaining (my tastes they are so low) if (a) the author did not decide that swearing was an inherently funny action and used it to indicate idk- something positive about the male lead, (b) it weren't for the unquestioned gender essentialism - you know the thing, men are like this women are like that and god forbid anyone deviates even slightly from the norm, and (c) I didn't keep getting smacked in the face with constant workplace sexual harassment.

The harassment was bad enough to have my oblivious self feel mildly uncomfortable when I first read it. When I skimmed through it again to remember why I hated it so much it almost made me want to puke. If any guy thought about me the way the ML thought about the FL I would knee him in the balls. Also, I HATE it when romances end with a "grand gesture" that magically solves everything. Especially in this case. FL, you were so fucking bland that I don't remember a goddamned thing about you but you should have kneed him in the balls. For fuck's sake.

QUOTE: (slime. slime all over my face and my arms.)

Doe Eyes may be telling me no…but her body? Her body’s screaming, Yes, yes, fuck me on the bar. In the span of three minutes, she’s told me why she’s here, what she does for a living, and allowed me to fondle her hand. Those are not the actions of a woman who is not interested—those are the actions of a woman who does not want to be interested. And I can definitely work with that.

23. a book that is currently on your TBR

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3 notes - Posted July 7, 2022

#4

1, 9 10 13 15 16 18 23 52 53 55 60 63 71 80 86 107 121 127 134 135 for ur ask meme

wheeeee~

okay so there's are enough of these questions that I'm gonna answer this in parts because otherwise (a) I'll never finish and (b) tumblr WILL end up earing my drafts and I wince just thinking about that. So here we go-

1. a book that is close to your heart

The Beginning by K.A. Applegate. Anyone who's spent some time on my tumblr knows about my obsession with this series. It drilled into my ear and took over all higher life form function way back when I was an impressionable pre-teen. And then after sometime, when I thought I'd found other things to obsess about, I found copies of the final arc and it decided to permanently take up residence in my brain.

The Beginning is the final installment of the Animorphs series, which famously feature kids turning into animals to fight brain stealing alien puppeteers. It's not a climax- it's a extended denouement, because the books have always been about how children people are affected by war as much as as it was about the actual war. Animorphs also ended on a very bittersweet note, something unthinkable to baby me who had never seen a story end this way before. It was a learning experience.

Quote:

"Jake, you can't . . ." She took a deep breath. "You can't equate the victim and the perpetrator."

"So as long as you're playing defense it's not possible to commit a war crime?" I asked. "That's pretty close to just saying that the winner makes the rules because it's the winner who writes the history."

She grabbed my arm and searched for my eyes, forcing me to look at her. "No, Jake, it isn't. There are a lot of close calls in history, lots of wars where the blame is evenly split between the sides. This isn't one of them. Before they came to Earth no human ever attacked a Yeerk. No human ever harmed a Yeerk. This one is clear: We are the victims. They made war on us."

"That's good," I said softly. "All of that is good. We have justification. We're the good guys."

Marco said, "That's right, Big Jake, we are."

I nodded. "That's good for the big picture. See, my problem is a little more personal."

Ax asked.

"Well, Ax-man, you're right, you did call my attention to the possibilities on the Pool ship. And when you did that I guess I should have thought, Well, Jake, it's a harsh, terrible thing to do, but you're justified because, after all, you're the victim here. But that's not what I thought. You know what I thought?"

Cassie released her grip on me. But Marco just took a step up close, right in my face.

"I know what you thought, Jake. You thought Die, you filthy worms. Feel the fear, Yeerks. Feel the pain. Feel the helplessness. You wanted them to suffer and the idea of them suffering and dying made you happy. You were thrilled. You were high."

Cassie winced. She looked away.

I said, "Yeah, Marco. That was about it: word for word."

9. your favourite book of 2020 2022

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3 notes - Posted July 4, 2022

#3

Book Rec Ask Meme (Part 2 of 7)

13. your favorite romance novel

You should know by now that I don't actually have favorites. I have a list of things I like and how much I like them varies with time, emotions, circumstances, and also maybe the phases of the moon. But The Duke in Disguise by Cat Sabastian was the first book I thought of when I saw this question, so it's the answer by default.

A Duke in Disguise is a standalone (technically it's part of a series, but books in romance novels series are often functionally standalones with cameos) romance story about two childhood friends- a prickly left-leaning publisher trying to keep her business afloat and an illustrator (engraver, to be precise) who turns out to be the long-lost heir to a dukedom. It's filled with class rage and ideas about what independence means and wonderful friend and family characters. The heroine is bi and filled with rage goes to her ex-girlfriend when she wants to yell about stuff. It's great.

QUOTE:

How one was meant to feed all these people on a couple of mutton chops Verity did not know. Supper was supposed to serve four: herself, Nate, Ash, and Charlie. But Nate had come home with three friends he met at the pub, which would have been bad enough even if he hadn’t evidently also invited Amelia Allenby, the half-grown daughter of Verity’s friend. At half past seven, a carriage pulled up in front of the house and disgorged a girl in pearl earbobs and a white muslin frock, dressed as if she were going to dine with the great and good of the land, rather than pick at too few mutton chops and be an eyewitness to sedition. Amelia was seventeen and looked upon Nate with a degree of hero worship that nobody who brought three hungry radicals home to dinner deserved.

15. a book rec you really enjoyed

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4 notes - Posted July 6, 2022

#2

1, 19, 27

1. a book that is close to your heart

The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold. I mean, I love almost everything this author writes but I'd only read her space opera series before this, and space opera was (at least back then) not as much my genre as Fantasy is.

It was also a very different type of fantasy from what I'd experienced. I'd mostly read grand sweeping fantasy epics before CoC, with a dash of Tamora Pierce to even things out. But I think this was the first time I'd seen adult fantasy which was less about world domination and more about people just trying to get by in the face of curses and life in general etc. Caz is a wonderful protagonist because he's so tired and so traumatized and he juxtaposes beautifully with Iselle (who is the /thematic/ protagonist) who's vibrant and a beacon of hope. The divinity-based magic system is wonderful. The way of breaking the curse is wonderfully clever. This book made me actually weep more than once. I just- //flails

It also made me be more active about searching for adult fantasy I was actually interested in, because till that point I really thought all we could have were chosen one quest narratives.

Quote:

“Any man can be kind when he is comfortable. I'd always thought kindness a trivial virtue, therefore. But when we were hungry, thirsty, sick, frightened, with our deaths shouting at us, in the heart of horror, you were still as unfailingly courteous as a gentleman at ease before his own hearth.”

19. a book that put you in a reading slump

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5 notes - Posted July 4, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

It just struck me how the MCU is milking the hell out of a nearly manufactured out of whole cloth mentor-mentee/dad-son relationship between a billionaire superhero and a socially disadvantaged kid superhero while the dc cinematic universe, which has multiple canon relationships like that, ignored them COMPLETELY in favor of more serial killer showcases.

7 notes - Posted April 14, 2022

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