#me vs da2

[ruushes]

i love introducing a little conflict to any fictional relationship but getting rivalry points from merrill is like

[weshouldstabcaesar]

I think the thing in some fanfic, where Fenris reacts to healing magic with anger or rejection is incredibly baffling. Like, it makes no sense to me? If it was someone from southern Thedas who was scared of magic, then yes, that reaction makes perfect sense. In southern Thedas, fear of magic is, nine times out of ten, a fear of the unknown.

But Fenris is from Tevinter, it stands to reason that he probably knows a lot more about magic than the average person just from being around Danarius 24/7 (probably more than Fenris is comfortable with). He has no reason to reject healing magic because there is no way he doesn't know what it does, or hasn't had it used on him before (Danarius wouldn't want permanent damage to a valuable after all). He's also just very pragmatic, he doesn't have to like it but he'll do it without complaint, likely with gratitude for the healing. I mean, I know for a fact it's been pointed out before, but he has literal combat dialogue asking for healing.

Fenris isn't scared of magic because he doesn't understand it, he's scared of magic because he understands it. The knowledge sources the fear.

[stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage]

I'm not ready to shut up about Aveline and Carver--so, when you go see Aveline in Act 1, you can catch up with her a little bit and that's where this conversation can happen:

Aveline: "It's just one more change, though. The real end for me was Ostagar. What about you, Carver? You were there. Do you feel something similar?" Carver: No. Aveline: All right, then. Bit of a tit, your brother.

I wanted to see what she would say if Carver isn't in the party. Instead, she says this:

Aveline: Carver was there. I imagine he feels something similar. If he allows it.

......well, at least she didn't call him a tit?

[apostaterevolutionary]

So I touched on this a little in my veilguard review, but this is one of the topics I wanted to talk about separately. And it’s that I think I've figured out what really makes an rpg great vs just not bad for me. This is really a preference thing, cause I know there's people who are the exact opposite on this. But for me, it's about the amount of personal involvement the player character has

Like why are you, as the main character, here? Why do we care about the plot that's unfolding? Is it just cause 'well, world needs saving and I'm here', that's not very interesting to me. It's too replaceable - any sufficiently valiant person could do this (even in a chosen one narrative, this is typically true). 'Wrong place, wrong time' can be fun if done right, but it's still eh to me. I like it best when the player character has some tie to the overarching plot. I want it to be personal because that opens up so many more interesting emotions

Dragon age has examples of both of these. Origins, despite the Warden canonically being replaceable, as we know all the origins happened, it's just only one actually survived, does have this personal element imo because it has Ostagar. Different Wardens might see this differently, of course, but you arrive after just barely being saved by Duncan. Everything seems fine until the big moment and then everything goes wrong - you're betrayed, from your pov, Duncan is killed, and you wouldn't survive this third near-death experience in a row were it not for Flemeth's interference. This, in the moment, feels pretty damn personal. No matter who your warden is, Loghain acts as a personal antagonist right up until right before the end, whereas while the blight situation is mostly a 'wrong place, wrong time' situation, that personal element plus the little moments you get that reference the origin events really make it work for me. It could have more, but it has just enough to make it really good imo

Of course, DA2 is so strong on the personal motive front that arguably the personal story is actually the overarching plot and it's just occasionally a wider-impact event creeps into it lmao but that's why it's my favourite game. Inquisition, on the other hand, while yes, you have the mark and are the only one who can close the breaches, that is the only tie you have to events. The inquisitor has no motive beyond 'well, world needs saving'. If the anchor had somehow been transferable, Cassandra quite frankly would've made a more compelling protagonist because of her devotion to the Divine. She had a reason to be there beyond just 'gotta save the world'. The inquisitor doesn't, they’re really just there because they have to be (and that’s also why I think their appearance in veilguard is pretty weak imo, but people with different views of their inquisitor will disagree there)

And I'm not comparing, rather just using an example, but bg3 I think has both options. For me, durge is much more interesting than tav cause, once again, tav is just some guy (gender neutral) who happened to stumble by at the wrong time and oops, brain worm. Even the emperor would've happily discarded them for another if it served his purpose. They're just there because they're convenient. That's not as fun to me as durge, who has an actual personal reason to be involved in this, even if they don't know it at first. It starts out as the same, generic motivation of 'get rid of the brain worm, try to save world if we can' (assuming a relatively "good" playthrough lmao, but for comparison's sake) but it later becomes something that is personal. You have a VERY direct involvement in the plot and it really adds something to it for me. That's the kind of flavour I seek 🤌 🤌 🤌

And veilguard is definitely more on the inquisition side where literally any heroic person could fill in for the protagonist (and tbf, I liked it more than inquisition), when I think what really would’ve brought it over the top for me would’ve been some act 2 Personalized Horror event to happen. Easiest option would be something related to the faction, like maybe one of the recurring NPCs ends up dying in some really hardcore way. It wouldn’t be that hard to implement imo because it could be roughly the same quest, just with tweaks to fit the chosen faction. Giving Rook a personal motivation would’ve really spice things up and give the factions more depth too. If you play as a warden, I think weisshaupt may have that affect (which is why my second run will be a warden lmao), but it would be nice to have something really devastating for the character regardless of faction

(And to be perfectly honest, if we were going to lose a companion anyway, having that happen in the middle of the game might have actually been spicier and really cemented Rook’s conviction while still having the regret prison concept work imo. It would mean missing out on a companion arc, but it’s another option at least)

This would also give an opportunity to really boost the companion relationships. Like the Bad Thing happens and then you get maybe a little scene with the current love interest, or even just some dialogue with each of the companions. Something with them being the ones to comfort Rook for a change. Cause all that remains is devastating, and the bg3 act 2 redemptive durge scene is wonderful, but it’s also the aftermath that’s really tasty. And having some sort of Personalized Horror for Rook would’ve given us an opportunity to have that moment of them being vulnerable, and the companions stepping up to help them. That really would’ve made the team feel good and cemented, like they really were a strong team

And again, I know this is a personal preference thing. I have a friend who struggles whenever a game has any kind of established background at all and thinks that bg3’s tav is the absolute perfect kind of rpg protagonist and I’m sure there’s plenty of people who agree and prefer the fully blank slate. Some people do prefer to just headcanon all of this rather than have it directly in the game. And that’s fine. But for me, that personal involvement and motive is the real special sauce for rpgs and I think that’s why DA2 specifically is the one that made me insane lmao. And I think if veilguard had’ve had that bit of personalized angst, I would’ve put it an entire bracket higher than I did. It would’ve fit really well imo and idk if it was something bioware ever planned for the game, but I, for one, really would’ve loved it

[salsedinepicta]

WIP Wednesday

On an actual Wednesday, wow. Thank you @greypetrel for the tag 💙!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1 and 2: ink sketches for the 'OC and symbolism' thingy. Am I making everything more complex than it needs to be? Probably :>

3: old-ish Gwydion (m!Hawke) sketch that I'm trying to paint with a new method. I'm cautiously hopeful about the whole thing. The blue highlights are not a random choice *wink*

4: I had a lot of blue gouache so I randomly painted Isabela - I'm not convinced so I'll probably repaint the whole thing, but I really like that ink sketch in the corner... so I'm showing that instead.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Tag time! Maybe @pinkfadespirit or @pyritefes2? As usual, no pressure whatsoever! 🌼

[ayrennaranaaldmeri]

Weisshaupt mission definitively proving that da is at its sexiest when it's wardens and yet here I am feeling an unbearable amount of salt because we walk through a FUCKING WARDEN LIBRARY and they could've put in a fucking NOTE about the HERO OF FUCKING FERELDEN IN THERE. SO GLAD THE FUCKING JOINING CHALICE WAS RECOVERED FROM FUCKING OSTAGAR THOUGH.

[ohsweetflips]

on the one hand i love harping and moaning over missed opportunities for previous dragon age companion cameos bc sometimes bioware really whiffs it (i long for the world where merrill is the eluvian expert instead of morrigan) but. on the other hand. sometimes it’s like. why would that character show up. answer quickly. the answer can’t be that it’s because you like them. it feels very reminiscent of having to accept that our wardens will never make another appearance.

[yappacadaver]

also still on my hawke / raymond mommy parallel bullshit i can not stop thinking about corpse moms

[lizzybeeee]

This would not leave my head

Dragon Age 2 AU -> where everything is the same but Ser Pounce-A-Lot gets the zoomies right before Anders and Justice join, resulting in Justice getting stuck in the body of a tiny, orange cat.

[death-rebirth-senshi]

Kamal would say some shit like "I will be your shield" but he clearly falters and hesitates which is why Anders feels the need to lie and manipulate in act 3 and it's partially a punishment thing, a bit of a standoff between the two of them, he wants to make Hawke sweat and perhaps even yell and call everything between them off

[chadsuke]

while im waiting for baten kaitos to come im gonna take a giant leap back into dragon age. i have no answers as to why.

[mosswiind]

i've seen posts talking about leliana origins vs leliana inquisition

i've seen posts talking about harding inquisition vs harding veilguard

i've seen a lot of posts about a lot of dragon age women and how fundamentally different they are between their respective appearances in different games and i just...i wish there was a way to articulate how i feel about this beyond "being 20 and being 30, especially after significant trauma, is like being an entirely different person."

leliana goes from being a bubbly, joyful, enthusiastic spitfire to being a quiet, reserved spymaster who has a hard time being any kind of vulnerable with other people. this makes sense - she had already been through the wringer, but the events between da2 and inquisition kicked her ass. she is still capable of joy, bubbliness, enthusiasm, but she is much more reserved in the ways she shows it.

this isn't subtext. this is text.

we spend a very large amount of time with her between origins and inquisition - there is a lot of text to draw from.

harding goes from a sweet, hyper-competent scout who says exactly what she's thinking. we don't spend a lot of time with her - just Jaws of Hakkon and the introductory cutscene for each new location on the map. almost ten years later, she is a people pleaser, still hyper-competent but much more visibly invested in avoiding conflict in her relationships. except she doesn't. she openly threatens lucanis because of his abomination status. she openly judges emmrich for dating a younger rook. she is a people pleaser in a lot of ways, but she will still speak her mind, she is just more mindful about when she does it.

to me, that doesn't speak to mischaracterization - that speaks to her growth into a much adultier adult. she has spent the better part of the last decade working directly with the inquisitor, and the inquisition's advisors, learning from leliana and josephine about how to best deploy her words for maximum effect.

harding is 30% older than she was when she joined the inquisition. she was fundamentally changed by that experience. she is a different person than she was eight years ago.

anyway, aging is weird and hard to conceptualize when you haven't done it yet

[momochanners]

After a good night's sleep, I think I can better solidify my thoughts in regards to the Dragon Age trailer.

First, let's start with the positives:

- Companion diversity: This has always been part of the series' DNA that has been clearly depicted with every iteration, so those who cry foul over "Asian & Black elves", prosthethics, etc etc...I really don't get that, because values and sensibilities evolve over time. Even the series itself has course corrected when needed, eg. Player character creation influencing the family ethnicity of the Couslands in DA:O vs the Hawkes in DA2.

- Unlocked romances: Letting players choose whoever they want to romance regardless of their sexuality and race has always been a positive for me. Allowing everyone to enjoy the experience equally is great (and I'm sure the nuances of player race & gender will be addressed through dialogue and banter). Moreover, CRPGs are long and time-consuming, so to be locked out of character romances mid-way through is never going to be a good time (from personal experience and observing fandom in the past).

Now the negatives:

- Maybe it's me being on the older side of the Bioware fandom (15 years in Dragon Age, 20 years if you count older games like KotOR and Jade Empire), but I cringed very hard watching the trailer. If you followed the development of this game in the past decade, the cancelled live service element that was to be DA4 in one of its iterations was so all over the way the companions were introduced that it brought out a visceral reaction in me. The tonal whiplash from how foreboding Dreadwolf was presented in the past to the patronising happy quippy MEET OUR LITTLE GUYS YOU'RE SURE TO LOVE also did not help as a first concrete look of what to expect after all this time (also poor anachronistic choice of soundtrack when you already have Trevor Morris' compositions right there). I was so dismayed when they went with a looter-shooter-esque lighthearted vibe when they could've leaned hard on the foreboding established mood and momentum they've already got going with Dreadwolf. 

- The branding switch this late in the game that comes with it, especially one as drastic as this will always come with questions and ambivalence. I feel that mitigating uncertainty from announced changes (party number, combat mechanics, setting and environment, etc) should've have been prioritised to reassure existing and lapsed fans before appealing to new ones in such a jarring way.

-  I'm simply baffled at the marketing suit who signed off on whatever this is to be their "best foot forward" at reintroducing the final form of this game? If only there were confident with the world they've already built instead of relying on trendy gimmicks, the amount of damage control I'm seeing prior to the gameplay reveal tonight was so avoidable. Controlling the narrative from the get go is so very important especially now as opinions can easily snowball overnight into behemoth-like proportions especially from bad faith actors. You would think that lessons were learned from DA:O's "THIS IS THE NEW SHIT" and DA2's "Press a button, something AWESOME happens" debacles.

(The thing is, despite it being my least favourite DA out of the three, imho Inquisition has the best marketing campaign in the franchise despite the developmental troubles going on in the background. So it has been pulled off successfully before!)

- I think the Bioware layoffs, especially the recent extensive gutting of senior staff in September 2023, significantly depleted my goodwill as a fan. To see Varric being paraded as a mascot in the trailer, game promotion and supplementary media while having his creator unceremoniously let go after years of building the franchise we love left me so very cold. And it's a me problem, but seeing many other fans barely acknowledging that save for few hollow words before getting back into the fun frustrated me so much. I get being excited to finally get something solid after years of false starts, but with what was lost along the way...I personally don't feel right to approach this installment without cynicism.

Idk, I'm just a bundle of conflicted feelings over this series I guess? When it's so good, it's really good and stays with you as memorable gaming experiences that stays with you for life, but when it stumbles and fumbles the bag...it hurts to see.

[vaguely-concerned]

To the ‘themes I am picking up on in Veilguard’ list, let's go ahead and add what I have a sneaking suspicion will actually turn out to be The theme:

— the world has changed and can never be as it was again.

— I have been changed and can never be who I was again.

— in this simple unavoidable truth there is endless grief and endless hope.

And I… may be getting a bit emotional about it haha. Let me show my work a bit: 

if da:o is a game about people who are already dead or half ghosts in some form (through societal forces, psychologically, functionally, literally, in body, through the joining etc.) coming together anyway to save the world from being swallowed by total nihilism and despair (symbolized by the blight) through the power of love and friendship and also this sword/potential heroic sacrifice that I found, da2 is a game about people who have lost their homes and been set adrift finding and building new homes in each other (while completely failing to save the world. also through the power of love and friendship. as well as years of petty bickering <3 we must imagine kirkwall if not happy then worth having been because the love was there the love was there and that's the only sanctifying force we can ever have in this doomed world and city of ours), and da:i is a game about old stabilizing-but-unjust comfortable lies vs. disruptive but potentially liberating uncomfortable truths, and the power of friendship to help us distinguish the one from the other and navigate through them...

folks… I'm starting to think that veilguard might be a game specifically about moving towards recovery and acceptance after trauma — about how even in this flawed, severed, scarred state, what is here right now is worth loving and worth caring for. even in an imperfect and impermanent world and self, there is worth and joy. and of course the first real tragedy — and threat — of Solas is that he just cannot find it in himself to accept this and move on, to let go of what was, the regret won’t let him go or he won’t let go of it. which means that even though on the surface it’s Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain (and the will to subjugate and violate they represent) who are the main villains, the real antagonistic force in this story beneath that is the Dread Wolf’s despair. A despair Rook must make an answer to by the end of the game, one way or another, compassionately or with righteous fury, triumphant or pyrrhic.

The world will change again and again and so will you — BUT the crucial element is that so will everyone else who exists along with you, you are fundamentally not alone in this existential truth. all we’ll ever have is each other and my god that is plenty, my god that is enough!!! Which is the second thing Solas just can’t accept, he keeps himself separate and completely alone out of an awful mix of fear and pride and feeling himself unworthy of anything else. Rook and the player want to save the world of Thedas because it’s where everyone we love lives, Solas wants to go back to the past because that’s the only neighbourhood where he can still visit those he loved — and the person he himself was, before. A very sympathetic and human instinct/trap to fall into when touched by trauma, I think, if only it wasn’t backed by godlike power, a fundamentally oppositional personality, and a catastrophic lack of therapy to make it literally everyone else’s problem too lol. It’s varric and solas’ banter about the man on the island and where meaning in a life comes from all over again, writ large and with detail work — and the added idea of ‘what if there are also other islands out there, though. With other people on them that you could find if you reach for each other’. Rook with the best of intentions has to make choices to which there are no perfect outcomes and live with what happens — and not cut themselves off from everyone else around them even when there is regret or shame. You get back up every day and you make a life with other people doing the same and you do your best, and that’s the only victory this world will give you. In the end, that is more than enough, that is essential. And I um. I love that. So much. It’s why some of the writing clumsiness on top can’t hurt me because this thematic spine is so solid and so beautiful to me. It’s DA2 all over again that way for me personally — I forgive this story for what it isn’t and couldn’t be, and I love it with my whole stupid open heart for what it actually is. Thank you for coming to my TED-talk and goodbye etc.      

(For my fellow TLT heads out there — you know what this story is reminding me of most of all, actually? It has some big Nona the Ninth vibes down there in the deep. It’s about… the horror and unspeakable beauty that can only be found in liminality, and the role of love in making that basic fact of existence bearable. And also even more unbearable at the same time. I'm so sorry.)

[notebooks-and-laptops]

Why The Veilguard Handles Grey Wardens Better than Dragon Age Inquisition: The horrors of the Blight, the Calling and the Cauldron

Grey wardens are by far my favourite part of Dragon Age Lore. On the surface; knights in shining armor who protect the world against an unstoppable nightmare. Underneath; a messed up and dubious order who recruit from the criminals of Thedas and who are doomed to die the moment they sign on with the Wardens.

And while I have a problem with a lot of the factions in DAtV, I think the Grey Wardens are handled excellently, because they're far less sanatised than their counterparts.

Grey wardens are a dodgy organisation filled with dodgy people who the people of Thedas have to tolerate because they are the only people who can protect it from an unwise unstoppable evil force. We're shown this as early as the first act in DAO where Duncan casually stabs a man because he doesn't want to die via the joining. To save the world they make unthinkable decisions and then because those decisions are so unthinkable, they keep all those decisions secret. You, as the Warden in DAO, can do some truly horrific things in the name of stopping the blight.

And Dragon age the Veilguard gets this so right. Davrin is a hero, a monster hunter who wants to do right. And yet he is confronted with the horror of the grey wardens time and time again in his personal quests. He is made to see how the order hides even from its own members the horrific things they do in order to create an illusion that the sacred oath is valient and worth upholding.

The Cauldron was by far one of my favourite parts of DAtV. The fact that all the griffin bones are just unceremoniously thrown in there with absolutely no regard for the sacrifice; the fact that the griffins of old went crazy after they were blighted on purpose to oppose the blight...its horrific and horrible and maybe it was the only way to save the world but surely there was another way?

Similarly, we reach the end of Davrins quest and the blighted Wessinhaupt...this isn't some horrible devious plan, Issya has been driven mad by what she was ordered to do to the griffins, and she can't stand it. She's blighted by the blood in her veins, just like she blighted her griffins. And the idea that some who fall pray to the calling end up there in this fact Wessinhaupt, their minds so twisted that they can't tell whats real anymore...it's so messed up I love it.

And yet we still have good grey warden characters just like we always have! Antone and Evka were my favourite side characters in any faction in this game. Do I wish the Grey Warden Commander had a little more nuance to him? Yes. But that's literally the only thing I have a big issue with. It's so interesting as well that with Antone and Evka in charge they start to allow people to take the joining without signing up. We know some who have joined before no longer associate with the order (Anders) but this is on a whole new level. It makes sense that they'd make that decision, but the implications about what characters who don't know what to do if they start hearing the calling...its delicious.

But I promised you some juicy DAI vs DAtV on this one, so let me explain. I think DAI's grey warden lore is interesting, but the fact that they're just mindless puppets of an evil Tevinter magister takes the bite out of it. I long for a game where the Grey Wardens are working with Corphyesus of their own violition because it highlights how fucked up they can get. And there's president for it both in The Decent in Da2 AND you as a protagonist might have made that decision to support the archetech in DAI.

In DAtV the wardens aren't morally dubious because they're working with Elganan or being mind controlled or tricked. The wardens are morally dubious because that's what they've always been. They're also heros because that's what they've always been. It's such a wonderful faction and I think they've done incredibly well with it.

In DAI all wardens are hearing the calling but we never really feel the horror of that properly, perhaps because we don't see wardens going down into the deep roads or perhaps because we don't have a (real) warden companion. In DAtV because we go into the deep roads and see these messed up wardens who have been on their calling, it's made more apparent just how terrifying the calling is, how individuals lose their minds and become more and more ghoul like if they don't die first.

And on top of that the Aesthetics! I love the blight boils coming back from DAO, I always found them so creepy and really giving you the full idea that the land is blighted as well as the people, so no crops can grow.

I really loved this part of the game and I'm glad we got it!

[broodwoof]

ooh saw a good post, queued it as i am the queue mutual, but it got me thinking about a lot of things

but very simply put: what we as dragon age players know has no relationship to what the characters know, and this is explicitly intentional

as players we gain access to a wealth of specific knowledge. but even we, as players, are not given hard truth all the time - the codices throughout all the games are written with a deliberate in-world bias

like the one codex that states that sexism does not exist in thedas, and then ppl getting upset because it obviously does? well.... gestures at our world.... bet you anything you could find countless modern articles saying that sexism does not exist/does not exist anymore/does not exist here, wherever 'here' is to the writer

have your feelings about it! but i'm just saying that the codices are deliberately written with bias. DAO literally gives you different codices depending on your race. treating them as Absolute Truth is going to lead to personal frustration when they are inevitably revealed to be limited, biased, and sometimes entirely wrong

the way the crows are written and talked about through the series vs. what we hear from one single character (zevran my beloved) who remains loyal to the crows while also trying to leave them while ALSO not wanting to display vulnerability vs. what we see from (one) particular house in veilguard so many in-game years after DAO... the way qunari are written about and how variable it is ("they're monsters" vs. "they have a real culture")... the way the grey warden order is discussed... the way that knowledge and opinion of magic varies wildly... the way that certain cultures handle their mages and magic being better, but other cultures not knowing or even deliberately suppressing that knowledge...

again, ppl will have their feelings about all of this and that's fine. but using a codex or something we as players learn from a prior game/dlc to point out a seeming "retcon" is not really engaging with some of the underlying themes of these games. the biases have been confirmed repeatedly. this was a real intent right from the inception of this series

and hey, it's natural! we literally play as the warden, as hawke, as the inquisitor, and now as rook. it's hard to set aside our knowledge from prior games. but in-game, within the narrative itself, those characters don't have deep knowledge of what the other characters do/have done. hawke certainly knows of the warden, but cannot recount every battle, every codex, every conversation the warden had with people. thus, hawke cannot make use of every bit of knowledge the warden - and we as players - gained through that game. further, hawke's understanding of what the warden did is colored by biased recountings and an emphasis on certain story beats over others

in DAI, in early conversation with cassandra, she tells the inquisitor about the time she "single-handedly" slayed a dragon... and how twisted that story had become over its retellings. and, i mean, solas' everything. the evanuris. but i like referencing cassandra in this because this is something that happened in a single lifetime, yet has already grown into a fanciful tale that discounts a huge amount of what actually happened

she knows that mages helped save the day and protect the divine. we know that, too. but the world of thedas? the vast majority of those who know the story do not know that mages helped. and, again, this was within one lifetime. many who know the story were alive when the real event took place. but it doesn't matter! because they weren't there, and they're hearing about it from other people, who heard about it from other people, and so on, and at various points things were dropped or added

and, hell, the entirety of DA2 is a story told by varric to cassandra. i know some people get frustrated with considering that aspects of it may have been falsified because that makes it hard to figure out the truth (and that's fair!), but i think it's worth acknowledging that this narrative direction was not only intentional, but utterly explicit. we literally see varric telling cassandra the story of DA2