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fatherentropy · 24 days ago

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I know a lot of you aren't going to read this or care but I needed to get my thoughts about Veilguard out of my head so I can go back to just indulging with it's content without caring anymore so: Veilguard review.

Gonna keep it non-spoilery until it's not then I'll put a big ol warning there for you to swerve outta there if needed.

(warning for 4000+ words) TL;DR:

I think this may become my favorite Dragon Age game to play and I love these characters so much

This is by far one of the worst Bioware games I've ever played

Firstly and to be completely transparent, at the time of writing this I have STILL not been able to get past Lothering in Origins (my computer got worse while i was running a playthrough.). DAII was my first Dragon Age game and is my favorite of the series. Inquisition is pretty good, much better imo after some DLCs were added and it feels more like the full on epic it deserved to be I think. At the end of the day, I am a Mass Effect fan first and a Dragon Age fan sometimes. I'm also not terribly versed in every single development problem Veilguard has gone through except for the unfortunate canning of important developers and some notes from articles I spied.

So, you know, keep that in mind.

I!! wanted to start this by talking about the things I loved in the game. Because I do in fact love this game. It's just that the love gets tangled up in the things that are disappointing because I can see the big picture and see how much better it could have been and it gets wrapped up in one big ball of-not to be overly dramatic-kind of hurt? Thus me needing to talk about it so I can get back to just loving the thing and hopefully not being haunted by my regrets like it's Christmas Eve and I'm a wealthy businessman with questionable practices.

The story is pretty great and fun if you don't think about it too much but Dragon Age fans think about these sort of things a lot and if you put a little scrutiny on some of these things it's gets kinda ???? Funky.

It feels like a lot of the heavy lifting for why anybody is willing to work with you is done by Varric in whatever he was doing the past 10 years which you aren't really told. Except in half a dozen comics and books I frankly don't have the money for and should be bonus material instead of things-you-need-in-order-to-know-what's-up. Kind of spiel.

I also think a major pain point is the neigh absolute lack of contention in most areas of the game outside the bad-vs-good guy shit (and Solas) and the lack of any meaningful choice really did shoot the game in the foot. Now I do understand that choice in particular was a thing that was eventually going to get hit. There were just too many big world wide decisions you've made in the past couple of games and that shit gets kind of hard to keep track of. However, there were choices made in Veilguard that is made for the longevity of the series while also salting the earth and it severely undercut the narrative.

I think one of the things people love and adore about the series is the choices you make. Many of these aren't even about having a hold over the narrative but having a place in it. It's been a minute since I've played it, but I think even DAII has several choices that literally have no baring on anything but netting gains or loses on companions and just choose what kind of menace you're going to be. It's fun! I don't need them to be big. Maybe just if I refuse the reward or push for bigger rewards or yadda yadda yadda. It's the little things! You cannot get rid of these things entirely but boy howdy did they ever try.

I also have gripes about the choices they make you make but I can't bitch about that without spoilers so... LATER.

I wanted to talk about the lack of contention first but realistically it combos in with the choice thing so here we are talking about it after but there is just no political or social nuance in this game at all except for maybe exactly only Solas. After playing the first three games (or playing the last two and reading about Origins like me) you kinda get the impression that Northern Thedas is actually mostly fine except a little inequality and the Venatori and maaaybe the Antaam but mostly everyone's friendly and the South is just REALLY fucking violent about everything for no reason.

With the reputation grind and the narrative's insistence that you hAVE to strengthen your allies and friends this would have been kind of a great time to have quests about winning them more strength by actually kind of doing important shit? Like maybe having to make decisions about whether or not to convince factions to accept help from shady persons or forgo it knowing you'll be weaker but maintaining the faction's ethos. Maybe some negotiations between greater nevarran Mortalitasi politics and why they should let the Mourn Watch concern themselves with shit outside the Necropolis? In fighting between in-faction groups that feel one way or another about choices you've made. It all ends with them helping you in the end, just maybe not as strong or stronger but what we get is kind of some bare bones sidequests that don't always feel connected to the faction you're helping or... important?

Which I don't think I'd have a problem with if there were more of them that gave greater scope to the world but that's also not really a thing. Tbf, there's no reason to have them. You're only grinding to 50 and faction reputation and you probably wouldn't want to do all the sidquests in Inquisition to get there. I just want to have ones that matter, give more shape to the world and aren't hunt-monsters-that-aren't-even-in-this-faction's-jurisdiction. (game that simultaneously made me fall in love with Nevarra while giving me fuck all about it outside Emmrich's quests)

I think it should be noted that this is the first time we are seeing some of these people as not enemies or illusive factions from abroad.

I need you to know this is my third draft of this document and I keep having to leave and come back because I just have a lot of thoughts. So to start off with, I have to reiterate that I am a Mass Effect fan first and a Dragon Age fan sometimes. I can see Mass Effect's influence all over the game and as a Mass Effect fan I have to say: I am... upset. Which is a thing I have been planning to write about since the beginning of trying to write this document but today's dev AMA confirmed that this was supposed to be a "Love letter to Mass Effect 2" and I am no longer upset! I am LIVID.

To recap for those of you who don't care about Mass Effect but are reading this for some reason: Mass Effect 2 has one of the worst main stories in the entire series. Nothing you do actually matters in the long run because ME3 undoes all your work and everything set up for you at the beginning of ME2 you destroy yourself by the end.

Most people regard it as one of the better if not the best game in the series.

This is because the characters are fucking phenomenal and make up 90% of the game so you know this journey is about THEM who gives a shit if your mission is whatever, it's about the satisfaction of winning their loyalty, making sure they're a team so you can focus on being Big Goddamn Heroes at the end (or fucking it up and watching a few or all of them die).

This is the game that made me paranoid about doing all sidequests as soon as I got them because *I* managed to get all my companions to live BUT at the cost of my ship crew dying which I did not know was a thing that could happen and your medic's traumatized lines "I watched them die. they were processed ─ rendered down into some kind of raw genetic paste ─ and pumped through these tubes." haunts me forever. (partly because I listen to the death whispers from ME3 to feel something but nevertheless, the delivery? raw)

This may sound familiar to you if you've played Veilguard because they... tried but there's just a fundamental misunderstanding of how ME2 impacted it's players and how players impacted the world in ME2 that made it feel the way you were supposed to despite the plot being silly.

This brings me back to the lack of conflict which especially fucks over your companions and your relation to them. Yes there's like one kind of weird conflict between Davrin and Lucanis while they're going through shit and yeah Taash and Emmrich have a situation briefly but there's nowhere near the heat there has been in past games. One of your crew in DA2 will straight up tell another one that he is sad her mother died for her not because it's sad but because she's not worth dying for. And that's the game regarded as having the best found family dynamic in DA and probably a better comparison to ME2 in the regard of fighting to keep your crew together.

In ME2, what you do matters and the order you do things matter. Mass Effect has a Paragon/Renegade system which are ways you can change a scene IF you've accrued enough points in being more diplomatic or more points in being a complete asshole. Some of your companions are diametrically opposed to one another and the minute you complete both their loyalty they WILL come into confrontation and if you don't have a sufficient enough paragon or renegade score to get the appropriate response either then or after you WILL lose one of them. If you dedicate yourself to Paragon or Renegade or the other it's easy enough to get the points but if you're trying to get an optimal playthrough, doing solely paragon or renegade isn't always the best way to go.

I'm not saying I want some of your companions to hate each other. I enjoy the friendships they've developed but the moment Rook said something like "We're a family" I cringed because I realized what was happening because they just weren't putting the work in to make that believable to me. People are messy and the stakes in DAV are the biggest they've ever been so our crew should be at their worst and there is material for contention THERE but what we get the Disney Channel version of it where they almost immediately makeup and you're really not apart of it.

One of the confrontations in ME2 pits an Alien girl who's people were forced off their home planet by the own synthetic life they created and have suffered severe biological and cultural degradation because of it and one of said creations who's rebellion for autonomy caused that. The next game, they come back and if you don't (or can't which is an important distinction in it's possibility) use their work as a catalyst for peace but choose one people over the other they both express regret for the loss of the other's people despite the contention between them and stringent desire to save their own people. The kind of orchestration required to pull off peace and this dynamic feels earned and heart wrenching and that is the level of story telling old fans of Bioware expect from it's games.

The 3rd Mass Effect game was largely disliked despite the complexity of choices that intertwined and character dynamics. It was very obvious the ending didn't match up with the narrative spun by the rest of the game and was changed last minute from another which probably would have been liked less but the choice was too big and landed the series in hot water which lead them to try and do a complete divorce from the series with Andromeda which was also largely disliked because it was just a weird jump with a very weak story. I didn't actually mind it. It had no lasting impression on me so I can't tell you exactly what happens in that game but I didn't mind the leap conceptually because I understood they did back themselves into a corner with the last decision made in ME3.

So I sit here looking at Veilguard NOT disgruntled by the prospect of change. Change is usually good and made in order for the greater prosperity of the series. The problems in Veilguard isn't simple change but the lack of care that resulted in a lesser product over all. DA2 suffered in a similar respect with it's over use of previous assets in a repeated and monotonous level design and the fact some fans felt that it didn't successfully break away from feeling like a glorified DLC to Origins. But the storytelling is still done in a way that it lives rent free in many people's minds. It's not an epic, it is a story about some shlub and their crew of messy nobodies who try vainly to protect the city they all live from increasing social pressures of the world which boils over and consumes all of them no matter what you do.

ME2 is about a soldier who is forced to work with a human supremacy agency because they are the only ones that are taking a new threat seriously so without support from the usual greater forces, you seek out specialists and old friends to go on what is quite literally called a suicide mission.

Veilguard is a direct continuance of Inquisition where some random agent is made the herald of a revived religious movement that leaps up around them after an accident only to find out that one of your friends is directly responsible for that and going off to put the world in even greater danger.

Veilguard wants the found family in DA2 to fight a threat even greater than Inquisitions while honoring ME2 (badly) but also there are a bunch of disjointed small focused factions that are helping you and while I think this could have worked and been quite possibly one of the best Bioware games of all time, the ghost of its would be greatness haunts the narrative buried under the bones of development issues and missteps which just makes it hurt in a very not good way.

I don't think old fans who complain about Veilguard are upset it's not the same as what they were expecting but, to go back to my scrooge analogy, we're haunted by ghosts of Bioware past that laid the groundwork for what to expect, and the ghost of Bioware present which is incomplete and the future which can only really get worse under the capitalistic pressures that have long run the video game industry in the ground in the name of greater profits over quality. The only people producing good games at a reasonable price are indie developers who aren't really trying to produce a game with the scope that Bioware games have typically provided.

I'm sitting here and thinking my main take away from this is that I simply don't care about the new Mass Effect game Veilguard is getting abandoned for to produce. If this was supposed to be a love letter to ME2 then it just showed a fundamental inability to create Mass Effect games that would honor it's predecessors while bringing it into the new age and if it somehow manages to be good it's just another slight to Dragon Age fans and the fumbled production of Veilguard. I don't want to see Ryder or Shepard or another N7 specter at this point. I want to see Rook and their crew in a game where I feel okay leaving them in there because DA has a very specific need to abandon it's old protags and I'm not okay with that this time! I don't feel good about where any of them were left and the state of the world!

SPOILER WARNING! I'M NOT HOLDING BACK ANYMORE. GOING ON HERE'S YOU'RE WARNING.

(don't ask me about the image, it was there. it's big, has the vibes. She was iconic for that.)

POV: You are me. Your controller has some slight drift so the little laser beam managed to slip from the target and you're trying to figure out how the fuck you messed up the puzzle because there's no way to get to an island and this is how you accidentally spoil yourself that there's a secret ending and you're about to get a part of it.

Then like the genius I am I googled it again to try and figure out how to get it, skim read something that makes you think they based this off of ME2's model and go oh! Okay. I should look up optimal assignments so nobody dies.

Then I find out Davrin or Harding dies no matter what depending on you choose to lead the distraction team and you just have to stare at a wall for awhile because that is NOT Mass Effect 2 where everyone can absolutely live if you do everything right. That is Mass Effect 1, Virmire come to haunt me again.

I need you to know when I got to Mythal it's almost the earliest you could get to her give or take a side mission because I'm bad at combat and those fuckin' ogres were kicking my ass. So when Rook drops the "We're a family" line while taking to Mythal I had to once again stare at a wall because I already spoiled this for me and I was going "what the fuck are you serious? This is what we're doing?"

I'm telling this to you because I need you to know after I figured all this out I was turning over the plot while going through it looking for one specific thing and that's the narrative that would have supported the kind of storytelling that would have gained the right to kill off one of your companions. (the wording on that was labored but I really needed to say all of that like that because I meant it like that.) It just is not there. Or at least not in a way where it feels like the inclusion of that actually added ANYTHING to the narrative and honestly reading interviews under headlines that say shit like "Devs know that you had no problem leaving stroud in the fade 🤭 and made sure they were gonna hurt you this time" feels like it was literally just thrown in for shock factor rather than a conscious effort to create a compelling story and I'm just not here for that kind of garbage.

Like, I need you to understand I straight up had to save mid mission to kill Ghilan'nain and leave in order to leave and watch the last part of Arcane. I came back and immediately rolled into the fight with her and the bit where you're trapped in the fade and yeah I cried but I was feeling ever so fucking JARRED by the difference of satisfying tragedy I felt at the end of Arcane to that stupid ass bullshit in Veilguard.

And the fact this is a wind up to reveal Varric is dead is just further insulting to all three of these characters. Two returning characters and one new character who, and I hate to be this guy but I haven't seen ppl point this out and as guy who's played a lot of Bioware games, is black. Which, Bioware has historically been REALLY FUCKING WEIRD with it's black companions. (No, I have not forgiven for the shit they pulled on Jacob Taylor and I shan't ever I don't think considering they pulled this.)

I don't mind that they killed Varric. That one I picked up on almost immediately from the hints they were putting down and I was waiting for more hints and shit but the longer it went on I realized the game wasn't even interested in setting up a pretense of giving him and his fans a satisfying ending and goodbye. This man has been here since DAII. There's not enough lingering around his memory because he's competing with whoever else died.

Frankly Rook's connection to him has to be kind of made up by the player because they don't really set up anything for you except you've been traveling with him for almost a year and he's just an amicable guy which also just kind of has to lay on the laurels of having to have known him. I love the cold opening into Minrathus, it's very cool but I feel like THIS would have been the game to go back to it's roots and have a personalized opening to each Rook's origin to establish both a connection to Rook, Rook's place in the world and their connection to Varric and Harding and just had you kind of live with Varric as a leader for a hot goddamn minute making the transition of power feel more natural and not forced. It's weird.

But then the player just doesn't feel like they mattered to the greater story actually. Not as Rook and not as Inquisitor. Not that Rook is a bad character, just weirdly hooked into the plot. Gods forbid your Inquisitor wasn't romantically involved with baldie then they're only role is to tell you every choice you've ever made doesn't matter anymore because Southern Thedas got wiped the fuck out.

I know everyone and their mothers have been kinda leering at Taash's companion quests and like yeah they're not great. Neither is like the Rivain. Like not the map tbc, I love that map and all the maps actually. Down with empty open worlds, long live intentional map design with fun puzzles makes my brain go brrr. Kissing guy who made those on the mouth. At least I think the maps are built around the needs of the script and not the other way around unless problems arise in making the stage (which happens) because that'd be kinda silly. It's just our glimpse of Rivain is around a Grey Warden keep with some chasind stuff and Antaam. All of Rivain is kind of just not about Rivain and it annoys me deeply like where the fuck is the people who aren't Lords of Fortune. I don't even know what the culture is supposed to be inspired by besides like orientalism I guess.

ALSO I need everyone to know I had JUST got done ranting about one reoccurring trope with biracial/bicultured people in another game only to turn around and run directly into Taash's dumbass choice about making them pick between their cultures.

THAT IS NOT HOW ANY OF THIS WORKS.

I'm a Filipino German American and I look Asian so I have to fight to be German American because that's what I fucking am no matter what anybody expects from me from my face. Meanwhile my Pinoy roots were stolen from me by a woman who came to the states with the idea that her kids would be American but that just ain't the way the world works when you're not white passing. You cannot run and "choose" the other culture. You will forever be expected to be what you aren't because you look and there's not a lot to do about that brokeness inside you but try and come to terms with it and embrace all that you are anyway.

I also just find using modern day identity labels to be boring and lazy world building for a fantasy world. Even modern day LGBTQIA+ folks can't agree on what to call our shit and we're so very messy about everything and we have been here for so very goddamn long and have had many different names. That's just a bit of a pet peeve, I'll admit.

I think the crowning moment of Taash's quest their mother's moment when she declared Taash's strengths before sacrificing herself for her and Taash's grieving over her passing but I'm also gonna attribute that last bit more to Taash's VA doing good work.

Think the weakest quests for me otherwise were actually Bellara's? Not that it's bad conceptually. Just that it feels like duct taped together oddly where I kind of lost track of the emotions and logic in any given scene. Like over all I got yeah turning people into demons bad but we go from 0 to 100 real goddamn quick and I just felt left behind. Just confusing. Like it's fine, but confusing.

Kal-Sharok should have been it's own faction and I will die on that hill. Dwarves have gotten the short end of the stick for SO long and they finally have a fairly comparable moment in the story and it's just nothin'. BYULLLShit

You know I haven't really cared for Solas. I think I was on copium for a bit during Inquisition because my friends liked him so I was like "yeah I like this guy" but nah, I've kind of considered him a poor man's Ascian after playing Shadowbringers (sorry) but they really leaned into making him kind of a fucked up dude in Veilguard and I do enjoy him a lot more. But also the Rook/Solas dynamic is so much more messier than Lavellan/Solas dynamic. I feel like it was a loss to not have a meaner romance path there if you weren't a Solavellan. Guys who are dragging each other down to hold the other accountable by the throat.

NGL I think I kinda hate endings where it's like "and the bad guys lost and everyone who lived were happy :)" endings like man I wanna know what they're all up to now so I can be sure they're good. That's probably a me thing but it does put me on Copium that they'll drag Rook and co back out to do more with them but I know I'm asking for too much. I am in pain.

I'm descending into less concentrated rambling now I think I just!! Love the game but like I want it to be good and it's not and that hurts me a lot and I'm afraid what corporate will take from this because it's never the lesson they should because everything is all numbers.

EDIT: oml I forgot the line I tied to complaints I'd have later about choices they make you make. Like it was largely about Taash but also like Neve where the Thread guy is like "yeah we're gonna help you for this" like isn't that why we're here? Why am I getting a say in this? Why is this the place I'm suddenly putting my foot down? Why don't I get to ask Neve for her opinion before I just become the most annoying person in the world about this like ayo? WEIRD

Lucanis, Davrin and Bellara at least straight up ask you for your opinion and Harding, Emmrich and Taash obvs need some help even if they don't explicitely ask for it and this one for Neve isn't even the BIG choice it's just a dialogue choice that can lock you out of being able to make the choice which is kind of cool because it's about the only way to shoot yourself in the foot with any of the companions which I'd like if it just didn't just kind of come from nowhere. It's like Rook suddenly remembered they're a person who has opinions in the middle of a conversation and it's just OK. anyway

#Entropic Veilguard Review #tag specifically if I want to find this again for some reason lmao #ignore me I just want to sleep thinking about Veilguard without spinning myself into a further tizzy about it all

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diinferi · 1 year ago

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TIME AND PLACE

[HOGSMEADE, MAY 16, 1970.] This is a year before the Marauders, Lily, and Severus begin their school years at Hogwarts. This should give you plenty of time to acclimate to your new surrounds, derail some plots, and prepare for the first war against Voldemort.

ORIGIN

[SINGLE PARENT] You were raised in a single parent household, how that happened is up to you, but at least you've got someone to help you adjust.

HIDDEN MAGIC

[METAMORPHMAGUS] You've somehow inherited a rare magical trait allowing you to look like anyone and even change small features into more animalistic ones such as your human nose into a pig's snout, or slit your eyes like a cat, make funny faces with pointy ears, and creep people out with sharp teeth and a forked tongue. Want tattoos but hate needles? Or piercings without seeing a professional? Just morph them directly on your skin, no pain necessary.

[PARSELTONGUE] An equally rare magic as a multi-animagus is the ability to talk to serpents and it is one you possess now. But this version has been upgraded to allow you to talk to anything with scales as easily as you speak your native language. Share gossip with a mermaid, sit down to tea with a dragon, and listen to the nattering of fish at the local aquarium, you are now a friend to all things scaley.

[PSYCHONAUT] Your mind has always been more fortified than others and your magic has followed this pattern. Your mind is shut tighter than a clam, with a formidable occlumency shield to protect it, and within the structure of your thoughts is an organised and efficient psyche more well regulated than a modern military. You learn things at double the rate and can recall them faster, able to link ideas with breathtaking speed, have greater mental stamina as well as capacity, forming an inner sanctum inside your head is simple, and you know how to defend your thoughts from anyone who steps on your turf. With this achieving Legilimency will be a snap, it just takes a little practice, and when you do your skill in the mind arts doubles in potency. You're able to read surface thoughts, speak telepathically through eye contact, plant suggestions, and that's if you're just casual about it. Delving deeper lets you scan memories, put a damaged mind back together or restructure a healthy one, even blast an opponent back with psychic power. Just make sure you check for face tentacles, you don't want to get in the habit of eating brains do you?

PERKS

[SERE TRAINING] Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape. You are intimate with each and every one, Jumper. You can eke out a living roughing it in the wilderness, establish safe houses and caches in any city, and easily gather supplies from both to live out your days wandering a post apocalyptic future. You also know all the tricks for avoiding your antagonists from the classic 'lose them in crowds' to covering your tracks in a forest, laying false trails, and hiding in plain sight. Spotting when you're being followed is a simple affair and distracting or obstructing the one in pursuit as easy as a Sunday stroll. For times when you've been backed in a corner you can set up your defenses with the best of them and hold out for days if you need to before help arrives, but should you find yourself in the hands of the enemy you can withstand their interrogation to a point as you plan out how to resist them in other ways, giving out information that's of no use, being clumsy and slow if they make you work, among many other things. While you resist the villains, your mind is also hard at work on escape. If there is a tiny mistake on their part when they grab you, you can spot it and take advantage to enact your plan, break out of holds, use every dirty tactic in the book, and leave trails for someone to find you. You can also plan your escape in the event of long term scenarios with little to no chance of rescue, if your enemies keep you that long.

[FORTUNE SMILES] Luck is a wonderful thing to have but so is success and you have an interesting relationship with both. On one hand, whatever you set your mind to you will be successful at so long as it is within human limits and capabilities. On the other hand, you tend to be very lucky to where it's not unusual for you to come across small change and bills on the street, or for enemies to miss hitting you a little more often, and even to be in the right place at the right time to capitalize on some opportunity. It's not exactly plot armor but a nice bit of security nonetheless.

[WORK ETHIC] Good things will come to those who wait but the best things in life come when you work for them and you work especially hard because you have nothing. Whether it's bookwork or physically demanding you get more gains out of the work you do than others who go at it twice as hard and the longer you stay at it the better those gains get. You can get up to a professional level in academics or from physical training within a few months and keep improving from there. Your mind is good at remembering what you need but it can be better, for an extra 100CP you can retain all you learn perfectly.

[SAFE HAVEN] Sometimes it's hard to find places of safety when you've been tossed into dangerous areas or situations but you have an easier time than others at it. You have a knack for finding safe hidey-holes around the world and in large buildings to sleep in as well as generous and kind people who are willing to feed you and put you up for a night. You won't be found for a whole night regardless of the resources or abilities geared to look for you and so long as you leave the next day no one will trace you to the place you previously stayed. However this only lasts so long as you don't visit the same place twice in one week exactly, if you do your adversaries will be able to track you down within hours without further protections. When the Curiosity drawback is in play you get an hour per day since your last visit before your enemies zero in on your location. Go carefully into the night, Jumper.

ITEMS

[WAND] A wand perfectly tailored for you, if you selected Drop-in it may even be made of some rather unusual materials making it many times more resistant to breakage.

[WALKING STORAGE TRUNK] Remember that Skyrim mod of the walking trunk? This is basically that. A loyal companion with infinite space to carry your things, guard them and you when the occasion calls for it, and enchanted to hell and back against thieves and especially elements that could destroy it and what it carries. You need not worry about losing your faithful wooden friend as it is spelled to appear by your side or nearest vicinity when you call its name and it can disguise itself as an ordinary trunk, wheels included, or turn invisible if necessary. It is also self-repairing, can be shrunk for ease of transport, and the space inside will be perfectly preserved with nothing lost even if the trunk is smashed to bits, with a dragon's resistance to most destructive spells included. It comes with multiple compartments for all your needs including a housing compartment with a three story home within the expanded space with all the necessary enchantments to maintain it, providing fresh air even underwater, utilities, food, etc.

[CLOAK OF THE SNEAK] A cloak that hides your presence completely from detection spells, devices, and even sharper noses. Also makes you camouflaged against any backdrop if you desire, muffles all sound from you so long as you wear it, and casts your face in shadow while distorting your voice. The cloak is tear and piercing resistant, proofed against the elements, and can resize itself to fit the person using it. It also won't snag on anything or get in the way nor block your hearing or vision. Truly a cloak of wonder.

[MARAUDER'S MAP] A self-updating, password protected GPS, to-scale-map of Hogwarts on parchment paper that shows anyone with a soul, as well as their name. This souped up version pierces through all illusion based magics, potions, and whatever people can come up with to hide their identity. It's highly resistant to damage from destructive elements and won't tear. When your jump concludes this will be updated to a full blown planetary map for any world you visit and include loads of useful map features such as height and depth. You'll never be lost again with this work of art!

[BLACK CAULDRON] No not that one, just a standard black cauldron for all your common potion brewing needs. Comes with a mid quality potions kit that has all the average and a few not so average ingredients and preparation tools to get you started as well as a potions index full of useful things like the properties and common reactions of the ingredients in your kit. Tools will remain sharp and in good condition, the ingredients also replenish over time. A set of fifteen unbreakable empty vials are included which when filled with a potion of your choice will continue to produce that potion ex nihilo, so pick your choices with care.

[ETCHING PEN] A specialized etching tool that can carve stone, wood, metal, or other hardened surfaces like a hot knife through butter or switch to a regular pen that can write on any softer surfaces such as rice paper. The tool is capable of erasing any damages it causes, reversing inked mistakes, and even absorbing certain fluids like blood, acid, ink, or venom to write with. The tool will always be sharp and never run out of whatever fluid it has currently absorbed.

DRAWBACKS

[LOCKED] No warehouse access for you until this jump is finished. If you take this any companions you have from previous jumps won't be able to enter the world with you even with a teleporter but you can still talk to them if you have those options.

[GUARDIAN OF THE YEAR] It turns out your new guardian units aren't the best of people even downright creepy at times. Maybe the orphanage matron is a hag who eats children, your single parent works for the mafia, or your little family unit has a gambling problem and practices muggle baiting. Or maybe they're just neglectful, you can't tell, either way they are really sketchy. You might want to find out why before it works to your detriment. The Agape perk will not function with this drawback.

END

[PROCEED TO YOUR NEXT ADVENTURE]

#harry potter #jumpchain #cyoa #harry potter oc #file: information #file: jumpchain #file: build #file: text #file: abiectiō

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generalluxun · 6 months ago

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Okay *cracks knuckles* I may go on a bit :) Firstly though- I'm definitely not going to bash the show in this post. I may say why I prefer things from the movie, but in this case it is not 'Show Bad'(mostly, let's be honest on Show!Gabe..) just 'I like this more'.

One thing I absolutely love about the film is how the characters each get their own story, all woven together, and we get a lot MORE independence by various actors while still keeping the focus very tightly on Marinette. Even more than the show, this movie is about *Marinette's* journey, and it nails it so hard. The moral this movie teaches through her is one that is just slightly different than normal movies of this genre, but that slight difference makes ALL the difference, and elevates the movie above others of its kind. I can go on about this more if you'd like :) Marinette's arc, and the way the movie expresses is it SO GOOD. 🥰 It's something I've noticed some people miss because it isn't as 'in your face' about it as the show is. (the show is expressive, the movie understated, different approaches)

As for the Dragons. I'm going to address this in two ways. First the 'meta' level, then an 'in universe' justification as well.

Before even that though: The movie universe is not 1 to 1 with the show universe. If you've spent any time in comic books you have been through this before. Reboots happen, and while similar notes will always be the same, details change with each iteration. None is 'wrong' or 'right' as long as they agree in broad strokes and are internally consistent. So 'The Movie got the show's lore wrong' doesn't work when we're looking at details. There's no 5 minute timers, no lucky charm, and the Miraculous Ladybugs took growth and effort on Marinette's part to unlock. I could go into details about the relative benefits of each, but I wanted to stress the 'just different' aspect.

So The Dragons(honest this time!)

1)On a Meta level- You could very well be right they are not perfectly accurate. I would say however that ML has a track record of being very fast and loose with mythology and cultural references in general. It's something you need to let slide for the show, and therefor the movie. You point out the really bad ones (The Rising Sun flag had to go) and you always press for a betterment of their representation, but to hold that the movie specifically is bad vs the show on this way, is a touch biased.

2) For an in universe justification- The box doesn't have to be culturally accurate. We've seen the box change in the show to Marinette's Ladybug/pincushion box. That's definitely not 'culturally accurate' Perhaps the last proper Guardian(who reshaped the box) just *really* liked dragons? So, their box had dragon motifs all running through it. Because 'dragons cool'. So it's not a cultural statement, just one Guardian's preferences way back when.

Now on to Adrien- and I've seen your riff on this before from others. 'Adrien isn't the same' and no, he's not exactly, but 'Adrien is a jerk' is a big leap from that. Let's examine Movie!Adrien a little more, right?

He's grieving, openly, obviously. This is something he shares with his father, and he too has to learn to let go just as much as his father does. Show!Adrien really doesn't seem even remotely affected by his mother's death, except in certain episodes. This is okay, the show is more episodic, and Adrien being sad all the time would be a downer, but we do need to admit his behavior is not really of someone grieving, it's of someone who has finished the grieving process. Movie!Adrien has not, his whole family is still stuck, and that's a powerful narrative theme. I love the little touches for this- He's almost always wearing those earbuds, shutting out the world, hiding in the library. Nino tries to pry him out and he barely reacts to his friend. Yet- He took his earbuds out for Marinette. He came out of his shell *for Marinette* He didn't gush or moon, but that's not where his character is. He reached out to her... literally. Which for someone in his position is a huge thing, and it reflects also on Marinette. Even at her low points, there's something that draws him to her.

He thinks she's weird, and that's awesome! She is! Marinette is weird, we've watched the same show right? She hits people with flying tackles, she flails, she is all over the place. Was it S4 or S5 where Adrien says something similar while watching Marinette? How he just figures all her clowning is just how she is, and he likes it. I love this idea, because movie!Adrien says it with a fond smile on his face. It says you don't need to be perfect or amazing, you can be weird, and good people will still like you for you. It's *cute* They're *cute*. I love them your honor. 🥰

movie!Adrien is a theater brat. The whole Agreste family is a theater family, and it's SUCH a great shift. Emilie was an actress. Gabriel is a ham, and Adrien is a ham. You can see the impact Emilie had on them. Where did Show!Cat Noir get his wacky over the top persona? Who knows! It doesn't really matter, we love it anyway. Movie!Adrien though, it's really easy to see how he could draw on the live theater to construct his over-the-top heroic self. Rewatch his intro and imagine him on stage in a play. The energy is all there.

And now the most contentious part- That he's a 'jerk' and the 'watermelon'. This one is funny, because so many people who get so mad at it completely overlook what happens right before.

Movie!Adrien is hamming it up. He's corny as heck. It's funny, but he's not deriding her at all. He's *performing* for her(theater kid) and we get this.

CN: I'm the new hero in town. Here... to save the world...(So dramatic!)

LB: Ha! With what? Furballs?

CN: And what are you supposed to be? A Watermelon?

Notice something? Ladybug started the sniping. I'm not dragging her for it, she's nervous, it's *banter*. It's fun, it's funny. He jabs back, meeting her on the level she has set. Then resuming his goofiness. So many people want to forget that Ladybug started the banter though and just villainize him for playing along. The Movie even showns how it's banter, as later we get the ice cream scene and they're still bantering the same way even though their emotions have both clearly shifted.

Two things really SHOW how much Cat Noir is still paying attention to her, despite the slightly different dynamic. After their first meeting with Fu, He correctly pegs Marinette's problem/arc.

CN:I understand, you're afraid. Failure is not your enemy, your fears are.'

And Later on, during that iconic Wall Scene. You want to know what real respect is? When he whispers 'don't' like he's begging for his next breath, he's already moving his arm aside to let her go. He's expressing his heart, not making demands on her. It's beautiful Ladynoir. (This is what I mean by the movie being understated. The timing/motion of his arm to create a path for her to leave, even as he asks for her to stay, is so easy to miss)

I know I said I would expand on this in another post, but it's actually important here too. (so much is tied together in just 90 minutes) Cat Noir being less instantly subservient/supportive on the surface is also actually vital to Marinette's arc. Show!Marinette's arc is the pretty normal thing 'believe in yourself, don't be afraid, be a hero!' Cat Noir instantly fluffing her up on first blush is what she needs.

Movie!Marinette doesn't need that.

We *see* Movie!Marinette doesn't need that.

Alya gives her unconditional support in the montage -and Marinette still flubs. Tikki gives her a whole pep talk and song! and still Marinette rejects the Miraculous after the fact. She finished that whole encounter curled up in her chair, afraid.

What Marinette needs is to make the choice, as Tikki says the second time. (I LOVE the three-part arc of Marinette's transformations)

'You must face your fears, to save those you love'

It's 'Do it scared.' not 'Don't be scared.' and that's SUCH a great and more applicable lesson for kids. There will be so many times in live you'll be scared. It's okay to be scared, but you can't let the fear stop you.

Hence for Marinette's arc ->

1)Tikki has to transform her.

2)She hesitates, looks to Tikki for reassurance, but ultimately chooses to Transform.

3)She is at an incredibly low point. Her self-doubt has never been stronger, but she chooses to transform without looking to Tikki.

(Yes I know she transforms many times in the montage, but these are the specific story beat ones)

And this message for Marinette caries through. During the climax she chooses to act, without even the protection of the Miraculous. She's afraid and with good reason, but she needs to protect someone she loves. Even in the final scene, after everything, when she's holding that Mask in her hand she needs to take a deep breath before she says the words to Adrien. She's still afraid, but she does it scared.

Her journey just wouldn't work with a partner who was simply fluffing her up all the time.

I've seen some people grumbling about Adrien saying no about being invited to the dance, and ... the boy'd just had his heart broken. He wasn't mean, he was crushed. He'd retreated from the world (the earbuds are back) If he just accepted happily people would be complaining he was using Marinette as a rebound, or never really loved Ladybug or something. 😂

As for Careless Whisper... I thought it was funny, cringe, but funny. Who wasn't Cringe at 14? Seriously. The show probably didn't have the budget for Licensed music, but you *KNOW* if they did Marinette would have worn out T. Swift's 'You belong with Me' when Show!Adrien started dating Kagami. Cringy humor is another ML staple, so I can't hold it against them at all.

Lastly: It's worth it to look up the seven stages of grief when examining Adrien's character arc in the movie.

FWIW I absolutely ADORE the ML movie and could gush positively about it for hours without let up :)

Oh my gosh, it's good to know you enjoy the movie that much because it's incredible to me to see people talking about things they love! <3 🥺🥺🥺 ... B-but it's also, uh kinda unfortunate because I... nnnnngg how to say this... <I am so sorry in advance I put it away in case it is too long and it ruins your mood, but yes TLDR; The movie is cute, enjoyed the artistic elements, but hate the plot dev...>

. . .

I'm actually on the opposite side of this matter, and have a quite strong opinion while being over there, and oh boy oh boy, I think "that" opinion will hurt some poor soul and I swear I won't mean to and pleaseee hear me out... 🥹🥹🥹

I enjoy the music, the aesthetics, the camera angle, the actions, Ladynoir obv, some scenes that are executed stronger than the series (eg: Marinette saves Master Fu; Sabrina's kindness toward the new girl; how they express Marinette's anxiety and the opening and initial character behaviors make sense with the overall settings) and GOOD MUSIC! (I think I said it twice)) But yeah, I tried my hardest to watch it with a blank mind, no judgment, no comparison, and in the end the plot and character devs are not for me...

However, I do think they will be an excellent stand-alone movie for any kind of audience and simply enjoy some action and cute romantic moments. Some scenes are not good for kids like did you see the way Adrien treated Marinette?? He did try to change but yeah I need 30 more minutes for that also did I mention Zag got the Chinese legend wrong with his version of intro-

For what it's worth I think the movie is wasted potential, I truly was so sad, but I do understand why many like it tho I still think the series is superior as of now, I love seeing good things inspired by it hehe but again, I won't jump on the hate train toward the series. If you decided to read this, you are a wonderful and tolerant person; I am so blessed to get such respect from you, I would never hate you for this. Sorry and thank you!!

#miraculous ladybug #ml movie #ml movie spoilers

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