#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.

[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.

[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.

[mahariel-theirin]

I haven't even finished a single playthrough but I see all of this in the game and I agree.

About the companion quests stopping the plot: I literally laughed out loud when the characters tell you (the player) via Rook that you need to do the companion quests first to do this big mission successfully. Because, yes obviously, that's the game mechanic. If you've played DA or even ME before, you'd understand that's just part of the game. It's been that way since DAO and ME1, and we didn't have to be told blatantly by the characters that this is how it works. The narrative didn't have to go, "hang on, let's do this first." That was just in the background, something the players can intuitively pick up from looking at the quest list.

I don't know if they did this for new da players, but even then, it's a clunky and 4th wall breaking way to do it. It breaks immersion, it doesn't make sense narratively for the baddies to wait until the companions finished therapy, it makes the characters a mouthpiece for

An article on the site (gamer something) mentioned the game being condescending, and i think this is one instance of that.

I actually have not gone past doing the couldron quest yet, but at the end of that, i had my suspicions. And I really said, "no, they did NOT". But apparently, they did, and y'all are right. It doesn't make sense. It feels like they wanted the excuse to do a cameo for Isseya just to the game feels more like a dragon age game.

Showing not telling:

After getting Lucanis back and they're transported to the casino, Lucanis makes this surprised "what happened here line" and the characters tell you there was an attack, it was bad, the first talon died. And Lucanis understandably gets angry and then we leave. Except....we don't see any of that?? Where's the blood? Where's the sign of fighting? To this moment i feel like I missed a cutscene of the casino being shown in disarray, crowd injured, etc. Did i miss something or did the game just tell and not showed 😭

Regarding Isseya:

It does not. Not even the magic feels the same. It does feel more sci-fi. Even the music sounds more sci-fi.

A friend said it's a fun game, but not a good dragon age game, and yeah. It doesn't have what makes a dragon age game, a dragon age game.

I can’t stop being upset about Veilguard’s writing, and apparently the only way I can get it out of my thoughts is to put it down in words, so here we go…

I’m frustrated, I’m upset, and the longer I think about the way this game was written, the more problems present themselves… and I bloody hate that. It feels like a first draft writing effort, and every time I’m reminded that this game was in development for so many years, I cannot fathom this being the end result. Dragon Age 2 had 16 months of development, and it feels more cohesive and put together writing-wise. I can see the years of polish in the visuals, but the spectacle of the game doesn’t blind me to all the problems in the writing.

Naturally, these are personal opinions, I am genuinely thrilled for people who have played the game and enjoyed it – I wish I could be there enjoying it with you – but clearly these things get under my skin more and spoil the experience for me when they aren’t problems for you. And I also acknowledge there are genuine good parts of the game which I enjoy, but those moments aren’t enough to overshadow the negative experiences that irk me.

And because this post has apparently gotten away from me… I’m gonna put some headings to summarise the problems I’m having, because otherwise this is just a massive rant with no structure.

Show me things, stop just telling it to me.

So much of the game feels like writer’s notes where they put “what the player should take away from this scene” and instead of being creative with how they do that, they just say it verbatim. My immersion in this game was being broken by the game reminding me it’s a video game – which yes, I know it is, but I want to be invested in this world and feel like I’m part of it.

Varric and the game’s own pop-up system is the main problem that’s consistent through the whole game – constantly dropping narration or mission summary where they have zero problem dropping exposition on us and/or spoiling future content. Forget letting me explore these things and reach my own conclusions, the game is going to make sure I know exactly the interpretation I’m meant to have for every moment.

And it’s so damn frequent, I feel like they don’t think I’m paying attention and therefore need to constantly poke me with reminders instead of trusting me to reach my own conclusions. Do they not trust me to have an attention span long enough to go on a walk with Davrin without reminding me at the end of the walk that I did that?

To add to that problem, I absolutely hate how the writing just has people know things – they shouldn’t know this, they shouldn’t be talking to us about this, all evidence points to them not being able to know or be ok discussing this, but for some reason they do.

The Veil Jumpers suddenly just know how to translate and interact with ancient elven artifacts, ignore how the Dalish have been trying to do that since the fall of the Dales (and realistically, even before that) and their efforts over those hundreds of years were a scrap, a pittance of what could be known. But I guess the Veil Jumpers are just better than those hundreds of years in the few years they’ve been active.

Oh, and the scary reputation of the Dalish is just gone? These people just go to the elves they have deemed “savages” because they simply know these ones have good intentions? This world has been established as very untrusting of the intentions of other groups, but that’s simply gone now for this one – I wish I was shown how this started in some way instead of just being told it’s chill now.

And don’t get me started on Strife and Irelin and their seemingly endless knowledge that they shouldn’t have. I read the comics, I get that they’d probably know about the Dreadwolf and have a vested interest in learning more once that particular bit of information was revealed to them – but they somehow also just know about the mask Cyrian is wearing? They know it will influence him but not control his will? Why do you know this with no doubt whatsoever?

Why can’t these things just be presented as theories? Or give us something to find and reference where that information comes from? I want to learn things without just having characters tell me things they know.

And overall, I hate how this game decides to just exposition dump information on us, then we sit around and talk about the exposition dump – it’s overwhelming in magnitude. It feels like such a passive way to have us engage with everything, and this is supposed to be an interactive experience. Instead of being force-fed exposition in big chunks, drip feed details, let us put the puzzle together, let us gather and discuss what we learn with multiple interpretations like the RPG this is meant to be.

And this exposition problem also ruins the stakes in the game for me. Personal interpretation, probably, but the stakes in this game feel artificially inflated to me via having characters constantly tell Rook they are going up against the biggest threat ever. We bring in past heroes of the series to reiterate that, how they think we’re up against worse things than they faced… and I don’t feel that. Telling me constantly how hopeless things are, but every obstacle ends up being overcome relatively easily and without great losses… no, I don’t feel the stakes are real.

Oh, and hearing the talk of how all of Thedas is in trouble, there is so much destruction and only Rook can save them… why don’t you find a way to show me that? Because I’m not feeling that, I’m not seeing it, and I’m starting to think the Inquisitor is making stuff up so Rook doesn’t ask them to get involved again when they’re so busy.

This is a lore problem in the series…

Plot holes and wonky lore can happen, it’s not surprising… especially when there are three games prior to this as well as several books, comics, and other branches of the universe. There have been inconsistencies since the start, and a lot of it doesn’t matter – I don’t care if the second moon is forgotten about, the moon not being there isn’t going to make a problem with the way the story is told since that moon is never something elaborated upon in the plot.

This game though… it has problem that are both related to information in this game not being consistent with previous games, and information within its own contained plot contradicting itself.

I’m not going to beat the dead horse of “this isn’t how the previous games did it/explained it”, people who played the previous games are aware, I don’t see a point of elaborating in detail all the instances of this. Just take some dot points of the one’s I noticed:

The Crows are a horrifying organisation that are suddenly presented wholesome

The Qun offering to rehabilitate Karash is horrifying and it’s presented wholesome

Slaves are meant to be everywhere in Tevinter, but we don’t see that

Racism is supposed to be rampant in Tevinter (and other nations, but particularly here for any non-human), and we also don’t see that

Handling pure lyrium is fine now (unless you’re Harding)

Adult Dalish without vallaslin (Elgar’nan’s captives)

Fenharel’s agents are just gone now – as are all signs of mass elven exodus from cities

Solas’ opinion on blood magic is suddenly negative instead of neutral

Spirits dying is given the same weight as people dying

Flemeth…….just everything about Flemeth and Morrigan

Re-write of the after credits scene in Inquisition to recontextualise the Flemeth and Solas interaction

Isabela’s attitude towards Shathann sending Taash away without their knowledge (the comics make me doubt she’d be cool with this)

Non-Dalish elves knowing things about ancient elves and elven language

Blight sickness and how darkspawn are “born” (some leeway for this one since the blight is overall just different in this one, but it does feel less interesting this way)

Morrigan naming the Crossroads in lieu of the true name being lost to time, but everyone uses the term now

Crossroads looking different through elven eyes

You can’t just make people be magic/not magic (me side-eyeing Illario and his random ability to do magic now)

This is a contained problem in this game…

What troubles me more is the inconsistencies within the same game… that isn’t just deciding “this is how it works now in this iteration”, this is a problem that they wrote into existing, then either didn’t notice or didn’t resolve appropriately. And granted, some of these things aren’t inherently plot holes, but when you put certain aspects under inspection, it doesn’t make things look good.

For starters… I have to talk about Varric. Or more accurately, not-Varric.

I’m under the impression that not-Varric is simply Rook’s memory of Varric being projected for them. I personally don’t think there’s some extra level of Solas interference in what Rook is seeing moment to moment… and I feel the need to state that because Rook’s memory cannot conjure up information that Rook doesn’t know.

So why does not-Varric point out that the ritual dagger is the dagger from DA2?

Rook could not recognise it, there is absolutely no reason for Rook to even theorise that – so not-Varric should not be able to impart this knowledge to Rook. And what makes this worse for me, aside from being an impossible situation as the plot presents it, is that this observation doesn’t matter in the slightest. They put this backstory to the McGuffin Dagger and I don’t know why since all it does is create a plot hole. The only purpose I can see for this moment existing at all is to bolster the illusion that not-Varric is real and trying to help with the cause in whatever way possible.

Then there are other issues with Varric not being alive which makes other character’s lack of talking about him feel awful. Like, it’s not natural the way people avoid mentioning him when it would be very appropriate to do so – and I understand that to an extent, the game’s gotta game – they want to surprise us and therefore the characters aren’t going to blatantly give the surprise away early. But the Inquisitor doesn’t ask after him at all? Doesn’t mention how Kirkwall is coping now that the viscount is dead? Dorian doesn’t say anything after learning Varric found Solas in his city and then died? Isabela has nothing to say about Varric until after the illusion is broken for Rook?

It makes it feel like Varric’s friends (aside from Harding, the only person who seems to actively mourn him at the start of the game) don’t give two shits that he’s gone.

That’s not even accounting for how characters don’t bother to check in with Rook who is constantly talking with the companions about their various issues of mourning, hearing voices or apparitions, and just checking in with them overall – but none of that is seemingly reciprocated.

Frankly, this makes me feel awful. I feel awful for Varric being seen as so disposable that his friends don’t mention him or his absence. I feel awful for Rook who is apparently not worth the direct effort that they offer others.

And I try to think of how a new player to this series would feel about all of this – because Varric was just some guy who walked us through a tutorial in this game. Most of our time with him is fake, any connection I saw form between Rook and Varric in this game isn’t real – but then Rook mourns Varric more than he mourns the companions we have spent most of the game with.

I don’t like it.

And I don’t like the utilisation of returning characters. Morrigan, or as she’s utilised in this game deus-ex-Morrigan, has a new view of Flemeth and therefore she will take on Mythal’s soul fragment so she can again swoop in and save the day by handing us the means to get a reconciliation type ending… it couldn’t be something that characters in this game figure out, just have a returning character provide us with the magic solution. Also ignore how the whole reason Morrigan was afraid of her mother in the DAO and DAI was that her body would get taken over by her spirit… but I guess that doesn’t happen now. We can just create new rules for this iteration because it’s easier to tell the story this way.

Solas is also just… I’m so upset by what was done with him. He was a character in DAI who told half-truths or lied by omission, leaving others to assume false information without him actually saying it – it was never just blatant lies to take advantage of others. And his motivations were about restoration of something he felt he had robbed the world, it was about righting what he viewed as a mistake which lead to such a cascade of problems that he needed to somehow rectify it. Whether you agree with his point of view or his desires doesn’t matter, his principles remain the same in terms of what motivates him.

Then this game happens and he’s just a liar constantly, and not even a clever one if you can apparently just trick him up with a “woopsie, this isn’t the real dagger”, and he also apparently has no insight into the idea that Rook would anticipate that.

They make him act like the worst interpretation someone could have of him, the thing he actively was trying to tell us was a false interpretation in DAI and the comics. But history was written and remembered by those who experienced the negative outcomes of his choices, and they remembered that as the greatest evil in comparison to what else could have been. But apparently in this game, that’s the truth now. His motivation is about his desires and he cares nothing for the people who has hurt or will be hurt. But it’s ok, because just as easily as his motivation changed between DAI and Veilguard, it will be changed again at end game if you listen to deus-ex-Morrigan.

Then there are smaller things, but things that really would have been caught if someone was just paying a little bit of attention…

Like Harding and Emmrich going camping in Fereldan… which if we’re to believe the things the Inquisitor was saying about Southern Thedas, I don’t think you’re going to have a fun trip. But I’m glad they’re able to find some time for a vacation while the refugees are getting blighted all over.

Or Rook actively saying “I should talk to Varric” directly in front of characters in the lead up to end-game, and those characters choosing to completely ignore that.

Or in Neve’s companion story, Aelia deciding to interrogate the witness to the red lyrium deal right next to where it happened. She didn’t need to be in the area, she was puppetting the smuggler, and she clearly has insight into what the person is seeing and doing while puppetting them. So I guess she’s just there so we can figure out she was involved.

Or the game telling us that Anaris need Cyrian to perform rituals for him since Anaris doesn’t have a physical body to do them himself… except he apparently doesn’t because he can kill Cyrian when he disobeys. I still would like to know if Cyrian ever died originally, by the way, and if so how he’s back and seemingly normal – this game likes to answer big lore questions like it’s nothing, but they just gloss over details like this.

Or how in Emmrich’s missions, Manfred’s spirit dies and can just be brought back to life… so I guess spirits dying means nothing if they can be brought back with their memory and personality intact. So that Solas flashback where we were supposed to be appalled that spirits died? Apparently there was nothing lost there, someone just needs to revive them and they can carry on as normal.

Or how the rewrite of DAI’s ending cutscene implies that Solas killed Flemeth/Mythal… before he had the power to do so since the whole reason he has been able to do anything in this game is because he absorbed her amassed power. So Flemeth/Mythal would have to let her power go willingly since Solas should not be able to forcibly take it, but clearly, she didn’t since the dialogue we’re given is her being reluctant. Solas apparently has the power he needs to do things when the plot demands it, but also no power when the plot demands it (aka, when Rook needs to prove they’re better than him).

Or the crew making a fake Ritual dagger near end game. For no reason whatsoever. They just decided to do that knowing it would only be a prop, but they had no plans that even involved a prop at that point – so they just did this because the plot told them they had to.

And speaking of that Ritual dagger… all the old elves want that dagger for one reason of another, but they never seem to try to get it when they can, or they don’t seem too concerned when it’s not in their grip anymore. Solas doesn’t try to hold onto it after Varric gets stabbed. Elgar’nan doesn’t try to pick it up after it kills Ghilan’nain, in spite of him knowing it’s the one thing that can kill him… nope, just leave it there and peace out.

Or my personal most hated thing – Isseya and her stupid motivation making no sense.

I cannot fathom the logic of having Isseya, a warden who was forced to blight griffons, who came to resent this order as she watched the griffons go mad, made it her mission to safeguard a clutch of eggs, takes the blight from the eggs into herself while using magic to put the eggs into status, then goes off to her calling which doesn’t actually end in her death… and somehow, 400 years later, she’s decided that since those eggs have hatched and the griffons are healthy and unblighted, the thing she wanted, but they’re in the hands of wardens which she doesn’t really like, so now she’s gonna go get those griffons to blight them.

Literally doing the thing that made her so mad at the wardens. Because she wants to save the griffons from the wardens and their cruelty… by repeating it… I just… this is nonsense.

If she’s capable of articulating that she’s mad at the wardens for their cruelty to the griffons, then she shouldn’t be repeating it thinking she’s saving the griffons. If she was just keeping the griffons captive to keep them away from the wardens, then I could buy that, but adding the element of her wanting to blight them just makes this nonsensical.

Oh and never talk the First Warden down – it will make the final scenes with Isseya even worse if he tells you about the feather from her griffon and show it to her. Because I don’t even think Isseya dies in that variant of the cutscene, she just says sorry and rolls on the floor while I guess Rook and Davrin let the griffons out…

Who is Rook?

Usually, in a game like this, choices are what make us feel like an active participant in the world. It helps us build up our own character and determine how/why they behave the way they do, and also how the world around them is shaped by the consequences of those moments.

But this game feels so stripped of choice, especially choice which is any way related to morality or priorities that aren’t standard ‘Hero traits’. Rook will always do the right thing, they can’t be motivated by personal desires, excitement, monetary gain, fame, etc…. and when Rook is forced to make a choice, there is no option which would be looked at as unreasonable by companions. They might give us an approval/disapproval pop up, but it never really feels like Rook is capable of being incompatible with anyone, they will always be seen as justified in companion’s eyes. And to me, this makes Rook as the game presents them incredibly bland.

Most of Rook’s unique characterisation happens in the character creator – the game gives us minimal chances to expand or form a personality for Rook that is significantly different from any other person who plays the game. We do the heavy lifting here, we transpose qualities on Rook because the game won’t give us meaningful opportunities to do that.

And not only do I feel like the game lacks choices that would help us define Rook, it lacks decisions that make me feel like I’m having any impact on the world overall. I can defend Minrathous or I can defend Treviso… this is the one choice we make which seems to actually shape the world we play in.

And it doesn’t even come up as something Rook can regret in the sequence about regrets… Rook apparently is faced with only regrets that are the result of other people’s decisions to volunteer to do something. But the one thing where Rook actually has to actively choose something, something they are actually responsible for the suffering on the side they don’t defend… that isn’t something they can regret.

What the hell is that supposed to mean? Surely, if Rook should regret anything it should be the thing they feel direct responsibility for, no? But Rook doesn’t. Because Rook doesn’t regret anything they do, because they aren’t written with choices that they can regret since they aren’t seen as responsible for negative outcomes.

Honestly, that sequence might as well have been about mourning or sadness rather than regret, because Rook has to be upset at the loss of companions, we don’t get to influence that. But Rook isn’t regretful – that’s how they get out – but I can’t help but wonder why they didn’t then make us able to actively regret the legitimate choices we make, rather than feeling regret for our companions deciding to risk themselves.

Rook feels like an outside observer to everything that happens around them. They are the mediator, the sounding board, the magic-8-ball for decision making when companions need a push because they’re stuck. Sure, they do things, but for an RPG the way they go about things feels so linear.

And on another note… why is Rook seen as important? They start championing Varric’s cause in his absence, they want to stop the veil coming down and that starts with stopping Solas, then stopping Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain. But to the outside observer, Rook is just some guy who says they are on an important missions, and they really need to speak with all these important leaders of factions – just trust them, I’m sure the First Warden is happy to make time for a meeting. And also the First Talon of the Crows, I’m sure they are fine with just some foreign person saying they need to meet your leader.

What I’m trying to get at is that Rook has no title, your group isn’t given any proper title or status which these people can look at and assume Rook is being truthful, trustworthy, or even worth their time. No one has any reason to hear Rook out, but in this game, they either just do, or they don’t and it’s because they’re actually a bad guy.

But Rook is no one special. They realistically shouldn’t be trusted like they are, they should absolutely be struggling to be taken seriously by others but it’s portrayed as unfair when that does happen. But they’re the protagonist, and it’s like everyone in the world simply knows that. I want Rook to struggle, I want them to grow and prove themselves, but it feels like we skip passed that to get straight to the fantasy of being in charge and considered fit for that role. 

Pacing and feeling like something was missing…

The start and ending throw a lot at us and expect us to keep on running – but then the middle portion of the game suffers due to the companions putting a stop sign on the plot so you can do their companion quests. And they aren’t shy about telling you “you need to stop and do our quests or we’ll be distracted at end game”… and again, thank you game for explaining game mechanics to me.

I was going to complete character quests, because if I care about the characters of course I’m going to do that. Having to actually pause the plot and have the characters explain to you that you have to care… I don’t know how to explain this, but it immediately took me out of the fragile immersion I was trying to get into. It makes me upset with the companions for reasons I can’t put into words. Maybe it’s because in one fell swoop it made me see them as checklists to be completed instead of people I wanted to know? I’m not sure, if someone had a similar reaction to this moment and has a better explanation, I would love to be enlightened on what it is that makes me so uncomfortable about this.

But I digress, the problem here is that the plot grinds to a halt. We stop doing things which feel like we’re advancing our plan of stopping the big baddies, we just kind of patter around and make sure our companions feel ok. And most of those missions to help our companions aren’t connected to the enemy we’re facing… Aelia, Anaris, Hezenkoss, Illario, The Dragon King, Isseya – they aren’t agents of the big baddies, they are just enemies that pop up at the same time as the big baddies are around, and are therefore making the situation worse.

So yes, we’re still doing stuff, but it feels like fluff. It feels like a detour while we just hope the world doesn’t burn while we stop to go on another picnic.

This is something that happens in a lot of games, the urgency isn’t real because you can stop progressing plot to go for a long walk if you want to – but in none of the other games did it feel so blatant to me. I still felt like most of the little tasks in the interim of plot advancement were at least advancing the cause in little ways… I don’t feel that with a lot of the things that happen in the middle of the game. It just becomes about companion missions; the bad guys will wait until we sort that out, the blight will stop advancing so we can have family dinners and go for walks.

And I really don’t know how to explain this, but it feels like something is missing in how the story progresses. Like extra things were meant to be happening and they are just not there. Maybe this is another part of how the game often just tells me things that happen in scene transitions, or it’s me really wishing there were more actual plot advancing missions in the middle of the game.

This problem I think also is most evident in the romances. Veilguard seems to take its romance pacing more from the Mass Effect games than the previous Dragon Age games – and while it was acceptable in Mass Effect to have very few romance scenes, and predominantly only having one big scene which culminates at end game, but suddenly introducing it in this series makes it feel like a huge downgrade from previous instalments.

It feels like we’re missing things, we’re given banters by companions commenting on the progress of our relationship and our partner can talk about how close they feel to our Rook – we’re given the impression our relationship is strong and established midway through the game. But with how strong the characters talk, it feels like we should have experienced so many more interactions with our partner to substantiate that.

For comparisons sake, in DAI if you enter a romance prior to going to the Winter Palace, you get romantic dialogue with your partner if they’re present, you get a dance, you get to feel like you’re in a relationship as it’s developing into something deeper. You get more interactions as the game goes on, moving from spoken interest, kisses, and intimacy (in most cases). It’s a slow build, and let’s you feel the build up by giving you glimpses of each step as the relationship develops, and then letting you just experience being in the relationship.

This game feels like it gives us the bare minimum in actual content, but has characters talk about how established the relationship is. The heavy lifting is again left to us to interpret all these blank spaces and fill in how this relationship is developing. The problem isn’t inherently with what the game gives us, it's what it doesn’t.

It lets us choose a relationship in the middle of the game, then it doesn’t give us all the progression – rather it gives us the minimal amount of snippets to meet the checklist of “they express interest, they mutually agree to be in a relationship, the relationship is consummated physically”. Sure, we can continue to pick flirt/love based dialogues, but it doesn’t feel nearly as strong as the banters seem to be telling us it is. And over all, we can go a very long time between each progression point.

I love this franchise, and I so desperately wanted to like this instalment… and instead I feel hollow.

[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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