#meta tag;

[keikakudori]

I'm very interested in how Aizen would have reacted right after his loss to Ichigo to questions from Central 46 or other people (yk rangiku, izuru, shunsui maybe) who would like to talk to him about Gin Ichimaru, asking him why he killed his follower. Will he be honest at least in the fact that he knows that Gin betrayed him? How will he feel hearing their questions?

Well, the short answer to this is fairly simple: Aizen wouldn't be saying shit to anyone, especially not if they're asking him about Gin and what happened during Deicide. It's not their place to know anything about that.

The longer answer is much, much more complicated. Time for a read more. This answer's going to be fairly extensive.

Aizen is, and always has been, an extremely private individual. He's allowed very few people to get close to him and no one's gotten as close to him as Ichimaru Gin has managed to do. Kaname and Momo put Aizen on a pedestal, with Kaname going so far as to all but worship him whilst Momo truly believed he was nothing more than her gentle, kindhearted captain. The point here is that neither of them truly saw Aizen as a person; they only projected onto him their ideal image of him. Kaname venerated Aizen like unto a god and Momo's emotions over Aizen were colored by her affection and love over his kindness and warmth. Even his Espada idolized him, even though Aizen already warned them not to trust him; he very clearly stated that that wasn't anything that he remained interested in. It's actually quite intriguing that, for a man who wanted to fill the vacant throne in the heavens, he actually never has enjoyed being worshiped like a genuine god. There's something that could be said about that.

None of them actually beheld Aizen properly and the Espada followed him out of fear, respect of his strength, or because they genuinely did believe in him.

Gin, on the other hand? Gin actually perceived Aizen, saw him, right from the first time that they met. @godkilller and I have built a very massive dynamic for them, and we're ever discovering new facets of how they are, how they feel, and how they behave with one another. So when I say that Gin saw Aizen, it has to come with the caveat that for the first time in over a century, Aizen found himself not only seen but perceived on a level no one else had given him since he'd been a young boy. All it took was that first meeting on that night when Aizen watched him kill the old man Third Seat and the resultant way that inspired Aizen to take Gin underneath his wing.

And, above anything else, it has to be remembered that Aizen's character has always been one defined by loneliness. He was around others, but Aizen never truly belonged with others. Did he ever really feel accepted into the Division? No, not entirely, and a major factor of that was Shinji who kept him at arm's length, especially emotionally, but remained willing to fuck his lieutenant after some years had passed. Meanwhile, Aizen was, at that time, deeply in love with him. And we all saw how that went; eventually, Aizen's anger and growing hate for him burst the dam and Aizen decided to commit murder for a number of reasons.

But before that happened, Gin showed up in his life and genuinely changed the trajectory that Aizen was on. In a very real way, Gin saved Aizen from himself and the path he was heading down. He managed to pull Aizen from that brink of total despair and despondency. There is no way I can possibly overstate how important Gin became to Aizen, but it can be seen in canon; Aizen's behavior in the Blood War after Deicide is far, far different from how he had been prior to that point after he revealed his ambitions to all of Soul Society. He's withdrawn. He doesn't want to engage in conversation. He's downright apathetic to everything going on and, for that matter, he's become something of a death seeker.

And it's so very obvious when you think about the biggest factor of why that is: Gin isn't there to engage with him, or to make sure that Aizen doesn't hold onto that malaise for an extended period of time. Aizen is very literally full of depression and given his behavior in the final act, there's no way you can convince me that he isn't trying to get himself killed.

The point of stating all of this is because I always have to find ways to convey and emphasize just how profound Aizen's attachment to Gin became; even platonic, it's a genuinely massive loss for Aizen. Throw emotions into that mix and it becomes much, much more painful.

But even without the emotions or anything romantic thrown in, it's still clear that Gin appealed to Aizen in several ways. There was, of course, Gin's raw potential, even at such a young age which excited Aizen to no end, but there's also the fact that he challenged Aizen and was unpredictable to a greater extent than anyone else ever has been. Even Urahara Kisuke couldn't make Aizen guess what he'd do the way Gin can and Kisuke is, as we all know, a very prepared man for any fight. But he's still predictable to Aizen who can come up with countermoves if he really wished to.

Gin, though? Gin kept him guessing and that was a genuinely large part of why he became so important, and that isn't even touching on the fact that Gin was able to become a viable death-threat. That alone captivated Aizen's attention, due to the fact that not only did Gin manage to consistently be unpredictable to him, but he also managed to force Aizen to acknowledge that out of everyone he knew, Gin remained a genuine source of providing even faint flickers of fear and kept Aizen on his toes.

There's also the fact that Gin never idolized Aizen, never put him on any sort of pedestal, and never once tried to be obsequious towards him. In fact, Gin's been downright bratty and sharp-tongued towards Aizen in many ways and instead of being an irritating factor? It was only once again a reason why Aizen found his relationship with Gin to be so appealing to him. Gin's willingness to challenge him, call him out on his actions and behavior and words, and carrying a genuine threat of being able to not only actually harm Aizen but to possibly kill him?

How could Aizen have resisted that kind of appeal?

The fact that Gin was able to perceive him and see through those careful illusions of himself he'd built up in the public eye was absolutely one of the strongest factors for why Aizen took Gin under his wing and soon trusted him above even Kaname was absolutely one of those facets of their relationship that is always important to remember, too. It was that, more than anything, which really made Aizen decide that he wanted to keep Gin close - but the other factors are equally important. Aizen had no one to challenge him for years and given that no doubt brought a profound ennui to his life, Gin was an open breath of fresh air.

I did say the longer answer would be more complicated, didn't I?

Aizen's dealings with the Central 46 are always going to be the same; contemptuous needling or a lack of a response at all. I'm pretty sure if he hadn't been restrained the way he was on the day of his trial in that kangaroo court, he probably would've killed all the replacements to the original slaughter that he, Gin, and Kaname undertook when they were setting their plans into motion. He would never answer their questions, at all, even if they didn't pertain to Gin. He just generally holds that body of bureaucrats in constant disdain. The most they'd get out of him is his mouthing off which is what led to that sentence of 20, 000 years. He has no reason nor desire to ever be polite to those individuals and I imagine that won't ever change. He knows the secrets of the Seireitei and he knows how much those old men will prefer to focus on his actual crimes rather than ever ask him about what happened with Gin as it is. If they ever did ask a question about that, it'd probably be only in passing. The result would be the same, however; Aizen just would not answer them and never plans on doing so. He might, however, be thinking of how nice it'd be to drop a full-chant Kurohitsugi on them all.

But, as for those others...

I don't think Rangiku or Izuru would technically be allowed to speak to Aizen, given what I've read between the lines of what was being done to him leading up to his trial, but if they were? The answer wouldn't change at all.

Aizen is, as I said before, an extremely private man. He wouldn't even be able to begin processing his own emotions over such a profound loss, let alone be able to answer the questions that others posed to him; not very easily, I should say. So if Rangiku and Izuru came to him to ask those questions, Aizen would probably use all manner of ambiguity, bending of the truth, and generally talking circles around them until he managed to make them leave him be -- that is, if he even answered them at all at that point in time when he's beginning to process what happened, or at least to begin realizing that what occurred was his own fault.

He knows, of course, that Gin had an attachment to both Rangiku and Izuru; Rangiku was his Academy classmate and someone who obviously holds Gin in high regard and Izuru was his lieutenant and with him since the day that Aizen decided the most competent of the recruits would become second-in-command to Gin, which is a factor I think some people forget about. But also, Aizen thought of Izuru as the most competent out of all the potential lieutenants that he was considering for Gin and Kaname and therefore picked out Izuru for him. Kind of like a present, you could say. A very weird present, but a present nonetheless, because he wanted Gin to have the advantage there.

So, if they were allowed to see him, they wouldn't get very far with him. If Aizen doesn't want to answer a question, he is quite good at simply closing his mouth and staring the person in question down. I think that'd be how he'd handle it if Izuru and Rangiku were trying to get answers out of him. To him, what passed between himself and Gin is theirs and he isn't willing or interested to let anyone on the outside of that dynamic behold the nuances and complexities therein, especially if he and Gin were involved with one another. It's, quite simply, not their place to know and it isn't information that will be useful to them.

Out of all of the three people listed, I think only Shunsui would be able to get any kind of response that might remotely come close to being an answer to such questions, if you tilted your head upside down and squinted. But only remotely as Aizen wouldn't give him very much information either and anything that he possibly would say would only be surface level at best, nothing that can be confirmed easily or, alternatively, the information would be only what everyone already knew. I do think that Shunsui and Ukitake would be the first (and, perhaps, only) people who'd recognize it if Aizen and Gin wound up in a relationship together and I also think that Shunsui would be able to know that there wouldn't be any good answers, even if Aizen and Gin weren't involved. But it wouldn't stop him from asking until Aizen decided enough was enough and simply chose to remain close-mouthed and make it clear that he was done.

Pertaining to the emotional aspect? Oh, he wouldn't be enjoying any of those experiences. Aizen came out of Deicide wounded by what had happened, deeply so. Their asking questions of him when his emotions are already a tumult within him, trying to find out any information on why he did what he did, wouldn't be something that he'd show. But if capable, he'd absolutely do his best to shut them down and shut them out. Asking questions that pry into the privacy of a man emotionally devastated won't do any good and instead of getting angry with them and shouting? Aizen's much more likely to just, simply, shut down and do nothing, say nothing, until they leave, especially since those questions would be pertaining to Gin. It's an awful mess and Aizen really isn't a man who's good at handling his emotions in a good fashion.

So, in sum, I don't think that he'd ever give anyone a comprehensive answer, if he even answered any questions about Gin in the first place. It's a subject that's both too personal and too painful for him to ever speak on to anyone else and it'll remain that way for years, even decades, perhaps even centuries. He's a mess, especially once everything really starts to sink in for him, and there's nowhere for him to turn for support or help, especially not when he's locked up in Muken.

[mycroftrh]

Far worse, in my opinion, than the famous “he wouldn’t fucking say that” is “he WOULD fucking say that, as part of his facade, but you seem to think he would mean it genuinely”

[chaichai-draws]

Personally I think that Telemachus permanently and irreversibly changed Athena for the better, more on that at twelve

[gammija]

nothing personal but this kind of comment rlly exemplifies to me a disconnect between canon and popular fanon jmart characterization because they almost literally had this conversation in canon - except, their lines are swapped!

jon, for all his scared grouchiness, is a secret romantic, while martin, for all his forced optimism, is at his core a pragmatist

[hickeygender]

tragedy enjoyers when a character perpetuates the cycle of violence they themselves were a victim of

[hexhomos]

isnt it wild how jayce is the most heavily misunderstood arcane character..everytime i see takes about him being upper-class and rich or mean and condescending or not caring about viktor in s1 or whatever other garbage ppl say about him i lose a year of my life

It's crazy to me that I've been saying jayce is working class for years and this got confirmed in the draft 1 board for arcane christian linke posted on twitter sometime ago lol

house Talis is a MINOR HOUSE of toolmakers whose most prominent contribution is the 'collapsible pocket wrench'. They're literally blacksmiths. This is a service and labor position. Jayce can't even afford to use gold in his inventions in act1 because he relies on the Kiramman money for everything. This is not the life of a rich guy in Piltover this is middle class at best lol his drive to finish up hextech and succeed academically is him trying to build a better life for himself!

Blacksmithing is historically a very intensive work position. The work wears you down & eventually disables you very early in life (jayce's injury in act3 seems to be a metaphorical speedrun of that, in some ways) we're never told how jayce's dad died but it is very fair to imagine it was a work related. he's fucking aware of this, its true In Real Life and it brings such an interesting context to his interactions with Viktor and how they want to create things that help common laborers and make the work better if it wasn't for the council. (in s1 act2 their progress day showcase to heimerdinger BEGINS with jayce complaining that they've been stuck fulfilling the council's demands these past 10 years and now, finally, *finally* it's their time to decide what to do with hextech. and they're not even allowed that.)

Also, the perfected hexgems in s1 are kept in Kiramman-crest boxes. I noticed this just the other day. JAYCE AND VIKTOR DON'T OWN SHITTTTTTTTTTT they're getting exploited big time while all that 'investor' money is charged back with deep dividends

just like real life academics they probably spent most of their life writing up grant proposals like dogs and begging for funding that will wring them dry later on. Where the hell is all my jayce and viktor class solidarity 'getting drunk off their mugs and complaining about their dipshit bosses' content?

[related post]

[consultingfujoshi]

inconsolable over irving in this episode. no nuance here, irving is straight up suicidal in this episode. essentially placing him in the same circumstances in which mark chose to become severed - suffering unimaginable heartbreak and seeing switching his brain off as the only viable option for coping with it - and giving him that same choice at surface level to be relieved of it - except it's NOT the same at all, because innies don't get to compartmentalise, they ARE the compartmentalisation, if they choose to switch themselves off, they DIE. the illusion of choice here. irving can either suffer mindless torture of monotony every day with the knowledge that the man he loves is dead and never coming back, or he can fucking DIE. and he genuinely sees that as a viable option. as his only way out of this pain. because even if he did make it out, if he somehow against all odds gained his freedom in the outside world, he'd still have nothing. burt would not be waiting for him.

"I should be happy he's happy" and the way he doesn't even feel entitled to his grief?? like he has no right to be feeling the pain he's feeling right now? innie indoctrination goes so hard he's incapable of seeing that the very fact he's grieving innie burt, a hypothetical life they could have had together, is proof that he's just as real as his outie counterpart! he has just as much right to that life as anyone! like, NO, irv! you have been wronged, you have been so deeply wronged, they made you capable of feeling these things and forming this relationship and falling in love and then systematically removed every tool you could have had to pursue it, and then effectively handed you a length of rope and made you feel like the only empowerment you can find is in the act of hanging yourself with it.

"if he's gone and I'm gone, then somehow, we'll be together" broke me because he really has been so beaten down by this point at the hopelessness of it all, realising that there is no scenario in which he can be with the man he loves, that his only hope at finding any triumph or meaning in this is to die along with burt. at least in chasing him into oblivion, he will have made the one choice he could have to follow his heart. and that as a queer-centric narrative specifically is actually devastating.

SUCH an insane and heavy thing to come straight out of the gate with in the season premier. immediately cementing irving as one of the most masterfully complex characters I've ever seen - i can only hope his arc this season is in finding strength in the act of defiance at last and making good on his promise to burn lumon to the ground for what they've put him through. to carry that grief and channel it into bringing the system that has wronged you down. I believe in the power of queer rage and vengeance!!!!

[descendant-of-truth]

Shipping is fun and all but I swear every single time someone makes a comment, whether as a joke or in a legitimate analysis, about there being "no other explanation" for a pair's interactions, I lose just a bit more of my sanity

Like, no, you guys don't get it. Romance is not about the Amount of devotion, it's about the COLOR. the FLAVOR of it all. a character can be just as devoted to their platonic friend as they are to their romantic partner, and they don't love either of them more, just differently.

But because the majority of people still have it stuck in their minds that romance exists on the highest tier of love, I'm stuck seeing endless takes that boil down to "these two care about each other too much for it to NOT be romantic" as if that's the core determining factor to how literally any of this works

In conclusion: stop telling me that I don't understand the story if I don't interpret the leads as romantic, I am TIRED

[galedekarios]

while i did a gifset to showcase an armour set, i was also intrigued by just how different the animation is for the wizard class vs gale's unique animation:

wizard class animation

gale's unique animation

it's amazing to see not only just how quickly gale performs the somatic component of the spell, but also his efficiency of movement compared to the standard wizard animation.

there's a world of difference here, the difference between a wizard vs a prodigy, an archwizard and chosen.

[isagaiia]

you are the wolf

[elsaclack]

Yeah okay so like I said in the tags of the last post I’m rising from my tumblr grave to say that the ban on TikTok is symptomatic of a MUCH larger and more terrifying problem. Because yes, on its surface it’s silly dances and asmr and cooking videos and whatever, but in truth and at its core, TikTok single-handedly revolutionized the way 170 million Americans communicated with each other AND the rest of the world. Non-Americans love to point out how America-centric Americans are, but fail to realize that we are purposefully raised in an isolated, insulated environment where we are told from basically day 1 that America Is The Best and not to even bother taking a look around because it’s all downhill from outside of here. TikTok has, for MANY Americans, single-handedly destroyed that notion and allowed them (us!!) to broaden our world-view and realize that actually, things are better in other countries, and it did so in a kind, empathetic, and compassionate way.

And yeah most people wake up to the truth of that on their own as they get older, but holy shit!! The VAST majority of the Americans on TikTok are millennials and gen z (and even some older gen alpha)!! People who are becoming disillusioned with “The American Dream” (said with the HEAVIEST sarcasm) while they’re still school-aged or are just entering young-adulthood!! People who are entering - or TRYING to enter - the American workforce who suddenly have an unfiltered window into non-American lives and are wondering why tf we’re struggling and penny-pinching and toeing the line of poverty while our rich elected officials sit around and fight and argue over everything that actually matters to the citizens they supposedly represent and get richer all the while. THAT is why they’re banning the app, and that fact alone should terrify every single American citizen.

Not to mention the precedent it sets for other social media platforms!! You think some nebulous, unproven, and unfounded “threat to national security” will stop with TikTok?? They’ve already censored Adult Material on tumblr, who’s gonna stop them from coming back and doing it again or getting rid of it altogether for the exact same reason? It’s a blatant act of censorship and a direct attack on the American first amendment right to free speech.

NOTHING radicalized me the way tiktok did. I watched people in my life who were STAUNCH Trump supporters in 2016 AND 2020 wake up to the truth and vote blue for the first time in their lives BECAUSE OF TIKTOK, and did so with al the nuanced understanding that even Democrats are severely failing this country, but are at least better than the alternative. That level of awareness and presence in the average US citizen scares American politicians.

The fact that the vast majority of them - including the ones loudly opposing the ban!! - bought stock in Meta BEFORE the ban was legalized/upheld by the Supreme Court?? That Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk were legally allowed to lobby congress to ban TikTok when BOTH stood to DIRECTLY financially gain from their biggest competitor being banned in the US and are guilty of unethically gathering data and selling it to MULTIPLE third parties?? The fact that Trump is now teasing that he may or may not intervene to save TikTok when he was the one who talked about banning it in the first place AND ALSO OWNS HIS OWN COMPETING SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM??

It’s the burning of Alexandria. It’s the loss of a significant chunk of culture. It’s the sharp and sudden loss of contact with the rest of the world for more than half of all American citizens. It’s the loss of $240 BILLION dollars in the GDP when the country is already TRILLIONS of dollars in debt. And on an individualistic level, it’s the loss of millions of small businesses and primary income streams for so many individuals and families who found their primary audience on TikTok. Is the app perfect? HELL no. Are there significant changes needed to make it a safe environment for all users? ABSOLUTELY. But that can also be said of ANY social media platform. TikTok openly fostered connection and communication and creativity and compassion that is completely unique to that platform! It made so many people - myself included!! - feel less alone. I get the feeling I know what the general consensus is about TikTok on this site, but the ban on this app should scare the shit out of everyone.

[keikakudori]

okay so i know i've established the origin of a lot of aizen's actions as being rooted because he wanted to change things for the better for the rukongai, especially the children. but i don't think that aizen's ever seen himself as a hero. i don't think he'd ever allow himself to think of what he's doing as heroic, not when he knows what's going into the hogyoku, nevermind everything he's done. like, was he going to murder shinji that night? yeah, he was. he was absolutely ready and willing to kill him. don't let all of his thoughts on shinji and his emotional rumination over him fool you; aizen is absolutely ready and willing to murder people. he doesn't believe in murder as his first choice, but if he thinks that killing someone will smooth things over for him down the line? then he'll commit that murder. so that's why he's never thought of himself as a hero. i think he might see himself as a revolutionary to an extent, but he doesn't fool himself. he doesn't think of himself as a hero and he never will. but i will name him as an idealist, to a degree, even naïve. you wouldn't think that he'd be that, but he kind of is.

[500-moths-in-a-trenchcoat]

i'm expecting a tiktok exodus since this seems to be the bomb shelter of the internet. have another update/repost. NOW WITH HIGHLIGHTED MAJOR HOLIDAYS!

IT JUST HAPPENS

DAY 15 GIVE IT UP FOR DAY 15

Thursday the 20th

The Fifth of Wednesday

Second Week of May: Eurovision

Sometime in June: That One Halloween Post Starts Circulating

Sometime in July: Dancing Pumpkin Man Video/Gif

First Monday In September: Todaybor Day Is Labor Day

WEEKLY EVENTS (at least the ones i celebrate)

Every Monday: Garfield Hates Mondays

Every Tuesday: Tuck Him In Tuesday

Every Wednesday: It Is Wednesday My Dudes

Every Thursday: Out of Touch Thursday

Every Friday: Thank Gnome It's Friday

Every Saturday: Caturday

Every Sunday: Energy Sword Sunday

YEARLY EVENTS

January 1: Copyright Expiration Day

January 2: New Years, New Tears

January 8: Spiders Georg Day

January 16: Appreciate a Dragon Day

January 18: Bug Race

January 29: Threshold Day

All of February: Funguary

ALSO All of February: Femslash February

February 3: WOE, VANILLA EXTRACT BE UPON YE

February 8: King Taejong Fell Off His Horse

February 13: Galentines Day

February 14: Aromantic/Asexual Day

February 15: Annoy Squidward Day

February 18: Perserverance Rover's Birthday

March 9: Miku Day

March 10: Mario Day

March 14: Pi Day

March 15: Ides of March

March 23: Ever Given Got Stuck Today

April 1: Mishapocalypse

ALSO April 1: Staff Does Something Fun On The Dashboard

April 2: Dashcon Announcement Anniversary

April 3: Dannypocalypse

April 5: First Contact Day

April 8: Rex Manning Day

ALSO April 8: MARGARET THATCHER IS DEAD

April 13: Neil Banging Out The Tunes

ALSO April 13: Homestuck Day

April 19: Some Roman Made Bread Today

April 20: haha 420 blaze it

April 24: Josh Fight

April 25: The Perfect Date

April 28: Ed Balls Day

April 29: 94 Meetings Day

April 30: It's Gonna Be May

All of May: Mermay

May 3: Beginning of Dracula Daily

May 4: May the 4th Be With You

May 5: Revenge of the Fifth

May 6: Revenge Of The Sixth

May 7: World Language Day

May 25: The Glorious 25th of May

ALSO May 25: Towel Day

All of June: Pride Month

ALSO All of June: IT'S HALLOWEEN TIME TO GET SPOOKY

June 5: Barricade Day

ALSO June 5: RONALD REAGAN IS DEAD

June 12: Another Homestuck Day

June 16: Let Papyrus Say Fuck

June 22: Summerween

June 23: FUCK This Post And Happy Birthday Sonic

All of July: Disability Pride Month

July 11-13: Dashcon Anniversary

July 20: Moon Landing

August 5: Curiosity Rover's Birthday

August 30: Frankenstein Day

September 8: The Queen Is Dead and Sans Undertale Killed Her

September 11: Mole Interest Monday

September 19: Talk Like A Pirate Day

September 21: DO YOU REMEMBER-

All of October: SKELETON WAR

ALSO All of October: People Draw A Lot Month? (so many names)

October 3: Mean Girls Day

ALSO October 3: Fullmetal Alchemist Day

October 13: Treat Yo' Self

October 18: None Pizza Left Beef

October 20: Unnecessary Feelings Day

October 25: Homestuck Day The Third??

October 31: HALLOWEEN

November 5: Destiel Nevada Putin Elec'tion Covid Way

ALSO November 5: Doc Brown Invents Time Travel

November 19: Goncharov

November 29: HENRY KISSINGER IS DEAD

All of December: Will the Gävle Goat Get Destroyed Again?

ALSO All of December: WHY WEREN'T YOU AT ELF PRACTICE

ALSO All of December: Season's Greason's

December 4: Deny Defend Depose Day

December 10: Please, It's Christmas

December 12: Hawaii Part 2

December 23: Christmas Adam

ALSO December 23: Festivus

December 24: ALMOST CHRISTMAS MEANS IT WASN'T CHRISTMAS

ALSO December 24: Cabinet Man Day

December 25: happy chrismum

December 27: Porn Ban Effective Today

[essayofthoughts]

Genuinely, I think one of the most fun and crunchy things about any character is

How far they will go for things they want

What they will do to get things they want

Things they won't do, no matter how much they want what they'd get in exchange

Because these things tell you some very important things about the character, namely their limits, their price, and their absolute No's. (And it lets you create some really REALLY crunchy conflict)

[das-a-kirby-blog]

kirby test print

[dalishious]

The Sanitized Lore of Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Tevinter is the heart of slavery in Thedas. This lore has been established in every game, novel, comic, and other extended material in the Dragon Age franchise to date that so much as mentions the nation. But in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, when we are finally able to actually visit this location for the first time… this rampant slavery we’ve heard so much about is nowhere to be found. It’s talked about here and there; Neve mentions The Viper has a history of freeing slaves, as does Rook themselves if they choose the Shadow Dragon faction as their origin, for example. But walking down the streets of Minrathous, you’d never know. Because Dragon Age: The Veilguard, for all its enjoyment otherwise, has one glaring issue: It’s too clean.

The world of Thedas is full of injustices. Humans persecute elves, fear qunari, and belittle dwarves. Mages of any race are treated like caged animals in most places. The nobility is corrupt. Although, Dragon Age has not always handled these injustices well, mind you. Many, many times I’ve found myself frustrated with moments that just feel like a Racism Simulator. But what makes it worth it, is when you can actually do something about it. These injustices are things that a good-aligned character strives to fight back against, maybe even for very personal reasons. Part of the power-fantasy for many minorities is that this fight feels tangible. I cannot arrange the assassination of a corrupt politician in real life, but I sure can get Celene Valmont stabbed to death in Dragon Age: Inquisition, for example. Additionally, these fictional injustices can be used to make statements on real life parallels, like any source of media. For example, no, the Chant of Light is not real, but acting as a stand-in for Catholicism, through a media analysis lens we can explore what the Chant of Light communicates on a figurative level.

When starting Dragon Age: The Veilguard and selecting to play as an elf – this should be unsurprising to anyone who is familiar with my bias towards them – I was fully prepared to enter the streets of Minrathous and immediately get called “knife-ear” or “rabbit”. But this did not happen. I thought perhaps it was just a prologue thing, but returning to Minrathous once again, there was not a single shred of disapproval from any NPC I encountered that wasn’t a generic enemy to fight. And even the generic enemies, the Tevinter Nationalist cult of the Venatori, didn’t seem to care at all that I was a lineage they deemed inferior before now. This is a stark difference from entering the Winter Palace in Dragon Age: Inquisition and immediately getting hit with court disapproval and insults. Are we now to believe that Tevinter has somehow solved its astronomical racism and classism problems in the ten years since the past game? Or perhaps are we to believe all the characters who have demonstrated Tevinter’s systemic discriminatory views were just lying or outliers? Because it makes absolutely no sense at all for this horribly corrupt nation to not have a shred of reactivity to an elven or qunari Rook prancing around. But here were are, and not a single NPC even recognizes my character’s lineage. And because this is so different from every single past game, it feels weird.

As an elf, you have the option to make a comment about how “too many humans look down on us” in one scene early in the game. You can also talk to Bellara and Davrin, the elven companions, about concerns that people won’t trust elves after finding out about the big bad Ancient Evanuris… but this is presented as if elves don’t already face persecution. It’s all so limited in scope that it could be all too easily missed if you are not paying very close attention, and coming into the game with pre-existing lore knowledge.

All this made it easy to first assume that the developers simply over-corrected an attempt to address the Racism Simulator moments. And if that was the case, than I would at least give credit to effort; they did not find the right balance, but they at least tried. However, the sudden lack of discrimination against different lineages in Dragon Age: The Veilguard is not the only sanitized example of lore present.

In Dragon Age: Origins, Zevran Arainai is a companion who is from the Antivan Crows; a group of assassins. He discusses in detail how the Crows buy children and raise them into murder machines through all kinds of torture. The World of Thedas books also describe how the Antivan Crows work, echoing what Zevran says and expanding that of the recruitment, only a select handful of those taken by the Crows even survive. When you start Dragon Age: The Veilguard as an Antivan Crow, you immediately unlock a re-used codex entry from the past, “The Crows and Queen Madrigal”, that says the following:

“His guild has a reputation to uphold. They are ruthless, efficient, and discreet. How would they maintain such notoriety if agents routinely revealed the names of employers with something as "banal" as torture.”

Ruthless, efficient, and discreet. Torture is banal. This is what the Crows were before Dragon Age: The Veilguard decided to take them in a very different direction. The Antivan Crows in this latest game are painted as freedom fighters against the Antaam occupation of Treviso. Teia calls the Crows “patriots”. And while I can certainly believe that the Crows would have enough motivation to fight back against the Antaam, given that it is in direct opposition to their own goals, I cannot understand why they are suddenly suggested to be morally good. They are assassins. They treat their people like tools and murder for money. Even as recent as the Tevinter Nights story Eight Little Talons, it is addressed that the Antivan Crows are in it for the coin and power, with characters like Teia being outliers for wanting to change that. It makes the use of the older codex all the more confusing, as it sets the Antivan Crows up as something they are no longer portrayed as.

I personally think it would have been really interesting to explore a morally corrupt faction in comparison to say, the Shadow Dragons. Perhaps even as a protagonist, address things like the enslavement of “recruits” to make the faction at least somewhat better. (They are still assassins, after all.) Instead, we’re just supposed to ignore everything unsavory about them, I suppose…

We could discuss even further examples. Like how the Lords of Fortune pillage ruins but it’s okay, because they never sell artifacts of cultural importance, supposedly. Or how the only problem with the Templar Order in Tevinter is just the “bad apples” that work with Venatori. I could go on, but I don’t think I have to.

It is because of all this sanitization, that I cannot believe this was simply over-correction on a developmental part. Especially when there is still racism in the game, in other forms. The impression I’m left with feels far deeper than that; it feels corporate. As if a computer ran through the game’s script and got rid of anything with “too much” political substance. The strongest statements are hidden in codex entries, and I almost suspect they had to be snuck in.

Between a Racism Simulator and just ignoring anything bad whatsoever, I believe a balance is achievable; that sweet spot that actually has something to say about what it is presenting. I know it is achievable, because there are a few bright spots of this that I’ve encountered in Dragon Age: The Veilguard too. For example, some of the codex entries like I mentioned, and almost all the content with the Grey Wardens thus far. It is a shame there is not more content on this level.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is overall still a fun game, in my opinion. But it’s hard to argue that it isn’t missing the grit of its predecessors. The sharp edges have been smoothed. The claws have been removed. The house has been baby-proofed. And for what purpose?

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