#it's why he's so interesting

[cybershock24601]

Feel like you completely missed the point I was making here. Veilguard isn't saying the problems are eternal, it's saying that if you keep looking to the past you will never be able to make a better future. Veilguard has it's writing flaws but it is consistent in delivering it's points about regret, grief, and being unable to return to the past so you must keep moving forward.

It's not saying that its okay that things are the way they are, over half of the companion quest lines are about deciding how to forge a new future while grappling with the sins of the past. It's trying to say that you can't change the past but you can make new decisions in the present to make a brighter future. It's a game about hope as much as it is about regret.

I too am a Solas enjoyer but I enjoy him explicitly because he is a super flawed character blind to his own hubris. He cannot admit that he is wrong because that would mean what he has done has all been for nothing. The guy is stuck in a sunk cost fallacy and just keeps digging himself deeper and deeper with every new mistake he makes because this time it will be different!

Do you really think if Solas takes down the Veil and sees the amount of death and destruction it will cause that he won't end up painting another giant regret mural? He can justify it all he wants by saying this new world will be better but will it? How does he know? The world has adapted to the Veil and destroying it will destroy the world and with it all the evil currently in it but all the good too.

There are so many things that Solas with all his wisdom and might could have done to help the people of Thedas but the thing is that he doesn't see them as people. He is so consumed with trying to put thing back to the way they were before he fucked up that he can't accept the world for how it is and try to move forward from there.

Solas can't see the good that exists in the world and can only focus on how wrong it is compared to how he remembered it thousands upon thousands of years ago. He has to tear it all down so he can do it right this time because in his pride Solas sees himself as the only person that can possibly come up with a solution to the problems he created.

Sometimes people make mistakes they can't fix and the only thing they can do is deal with the consequences. Solas can't accept that he can't undo his mistake so isn't willing to engage with the consequences, meaning modern Thedas. Solas cannot bring down the Veil without making everything worse than it already is.

At no point is Veilguard saying that if you can't accept what's wrong in the world "it's because there's something wrong and narcissistic about you" as there are plenty of characters pushing to make things better, the difference is that they're not willing to sacrifice thousands of people to do it. If anything most of those character (Neve, the Viper, Davrin, Antoine & Evka for just a small sample size) would sacrifice themselves first even if it would save just one person. Solas would never put himself on the line like that because he sees himself and his plans for a "better world" as too important to do that.

Veilguard is condemning Solas for the fact that he isn't trying to make the world better for everyone else, he's trying to make himself feel better. For all his talk of a better world, who will it be a better world for? Certainly doesn't seem like it will be one for all the people living in it currently, but they're not real people so it's okay if Solas sacrifices them to achieve his goal.

The way Solas talks about all the people that will have to die to make his perfect world is so jarring for someone who claims to care. He talks about them like their livestock destined for the slaughterhouse so let them have a few good years frolicking in the pasture before he comes to kill them all en masse.

Never once in all of Solas' talks about a world without the Veil does it seem like anything will be different except that the Veil will be gone but I guess with everyone dead Solas can just step in to benevolently lead them all into a better future because he is the only one wise enough to do so, because he is so prideful to think that he can do everything right so long as it is his guiding hand leading whoever is left alive.

I also find it really weird that you're calling the spirits an oppressed group and acting like its okay for everyone else to suffer because it would help them. The elves and dwarves get the short end of the stick all the time too but it's okay for them to suffer and likely die if it would uplift another group of people? Solas' solution is not the only one there is. There are so many other things Solas could do to try alleviate the situation the spirits face that don't involve fucking over everyone including the spirits themselves but he won't even consider them because he's already decided his solution is the right one.

You are right that one day the Veil may come down and that day will be a truly apocalyptic one, so I don't see how anyone could justify bringing about the end of the world early as a good decision unless they've completely blinded themselves to the true cost of the lives it would take. The people of Thedas don't want to die to see a world that they have no connection to, so why is right that Solas gets to make the decision to kill them all just so he can undo a mistake he can't move past?

theres something very sinister about the way datv views solas and his redemption.

when i imagined a happy ending for him (in my wildest dreams) there was always something for him to //do// to begin the process of healing the blight and helping the spirits beyond the veil. i, too, view inaction under such circumstances as unbecoming, even if he makes things worse in the process. the alternative is worse. it has to be worse.

but it very much isnt. time and time again solas is portrayed as evil for doing anything. his regrets are all about choosing action over inaction. it's kind of insane that the game doesnt punish rook in a similar way.

when my character foil lets blight loose upon the world that's just a heroic quest for them to go on, but when i, solas dragonage...

and in the end it all comes down to forgiving him for attempting to fix his mistakes without offering any alternatives, and it's about his moral and ethical failings, not the actions themselves.

and through revealing that it was solas all along, with him gone we are blissfully free from asking questions such as why was there slavery in a society with abundant magic?

because the world has been saved. or minrathous, i guess.

[allagashed]

whenever i say “screaming crying throwing up” this is what i mean

[cozylittleartblog]

"content creator" is a corporate word.

we are artists.

[time-woods]

guy doesnt know what pins n needles are

( part1-2/? ?)

(start) (<next part>)

[hinamie]

*catboys ur shounen protag*

[emiko-matsui]

Ragh Barkrock to Gorgug Thistlespring in Freshman Year VS. Gorgug Thistlespring to Mary-Ann Skuttle in Junior Year

[perplexingly]

They’re red flags to you, fortunately I’m colorblind

[lotus-pear]

free will is drawing ur two favorite characters together and making them gay

[anbaisai]

local octopus shot on sight

Bonus of said prefect:

[abyssal-ilk]

cannot think too hard about the fact that vivienne was young when she first originally met bastien, the head of the council of heralds, and he took an interest in her when he was likely well into his forties. cannot think about how the moment he set eyes on her during the wintersend ball she was made a target of the rest of the orlesian court. can't think about how she was forced into becoming a player of the game and that she NEEDED to become good at it and have bastien's support or she would of been killed. having a very normal one about vivienne today, clearly

[turtleblogatlast]

One of my favorite headcanons is that Leo grew up watching telenovelas with Splinter.

It just works so well - his bits of Spanish that he spouts randomly, his showy way of apologizing, and, of course, his love for dramatic betrayals all point to this being a very real possibility.

Plus, it’s very cute to imagine a tiny Leo at his father’s side as they both gasp in shock when the show’s eighth plot twist in just as many episodes happens.

[bastardlybonkers]

feetman

[sapphorror]

The Narrator's perspective only gets more horrifying the longer you think about it. Like, imagine being an Echo of yourself—one of many, all made to serve a very particular purpose and knowingly living on borrowed time, if 'living' is even the right word for your current state of pseudo-existence.

You've inherited the mission of a dead man—it's literally the only thing left that you can do before fading, so you sure as hell better believe in it; the alternative would be unbearable. Only you keep failing. With every loop that you don't remember, your lack of agency in this situation becomes starker—you can influence small things, sure, but it becomes increasingly clear that you have no real power, no matter how personally invested you are in the events unfolding in front of you. You are, after all, only an Echo. You've forfeited the right to meaningfully engage with the world.

Worse—every loop you're made aware of is another time you've failed, with unimaginable consequences, though you had no control over these previous iterations of yourself and can't even learn from their mistakes. Everyone around you is operating on a shared perception of reality that you are not part of, will never be part of. After a few repetitions, you are, ironically, the least informed person in the room. All you have left to go on is an evidently outdated script. At the same time, everyone else is experiencing a contiguous version of you, comprised of parts that are, in some sense, also you, while at the same time existing at a complete remove from your current perception of self. Whatever you don't know you did—that's you now. You are, after all, only an Echo. You've forfeited the right to define your own identity, never mind know what it is.

Even worse—this has trapped you within a stagnant hell of your own creation. Nothing you say or do really matters in terms of your own self (the rest of the world is a separate issue entirely). Anything you've come to believe—say, for totally hypothetical example, that you were wrong actually and your envisioned paradise is really a hell beyond any you had the capacity to envision—has about as much permanence as a drawing in the sand. 'You' will continue, exactly as you were, no matter how much you might like to change your behavior. Every possible future has already been set in stone. You are, after all, only an Echo. You've forfeited the right to say anything you haven't already said.

For some reason, no part of any of this has made you feel more comfortable and at peace with the general concept of finality.

The really, truly absolute worst part, though?

There is no one for you to blame but yourself. And that's exactly what turns your story into such a tragedy.

[swiggity-swexual-i-am-asexual]

As per usual, it’s DP crossover with (probably) DC, although you could probably adjust it for other fandoms

ANYWAYS

A little kid and his mother are trick or treating in another city, perhaps at some kind of event rather than knocking on doors, and the kid is dressed as Phantom. It’s very adorable, with his little ghost-shaped bucket and clearly homemade and already stained costume—listen, white only works if you can just fly over street grime or phase it out of your clothes—and his slightly I’ll fitting wig. The kid is SO happy to be out and about dressed as his favorite, and maybe even showed it off to Phantom back in Amity Park before his family left.

The hero, insert whoever you wish here, is probably in civvies and just enjoying the event. The kid, meanwhile, is so glad when people ask who he is so he can explain, and so- the hero gets to hear ALL ABOUT the local town hero who is probably pretty small time despite the kid’s clearly exaggerated stories. The hero certainly never heard of him, but the kid’s mom confirms that Phantom really was the town hero, despite some mixed reviews of the poor guy.

“Did you manage to show him your costume?” the hero asks.

“Yeah! We went down to the cemetery to leave flowers and I got to show him my costume.”

Wait. Cemetery? Maybe it was part of theme, because Phantom had to be named that for a reason, but… it sounded like…

The kid ignores the suddenly VERY still hero and instead turns to his mom. “Momma, do you think we should bring him candy? He doesn’t get to trick or treat like we do, and I can work super hard to get him a bunch!”

The kid’s mom just smiles. “We could, but maybe we should bring him something homemade. I bet he’d like something more filling, teen boys like him have a hollow leg.”

The kid wrinkles his nose. “Like Vernie with the pizza bagels?”

“Like your cousin, yes. We can make some cinnamon rolls and take them to his memorial, maybe bring some of the apples from your grandpa’s garden…”

The hero is pretty much forgotten as the two-part family wanders off, not quite intentionally forgetting the hero is there so much as the hero somewhat accidentally ended the conversation when they just froze and didn’t ask anything further.

Not that the hero didn’t want to. But they’d learn something very serious.

One—there was a small town hero they’d never heard of. Two—that hero was apparently a teen. Third—most pressingly, the teen hero was both beloved enough to have kids dressing up as him and dead enough to have a grave.

This… might require some phone calls.

[weaverofink]

My Adventures with Superboy

[hellspawnmotel]

epsilons