#my late grandfather was working in the gdańsk shipyard when solidarność was started

[niofo]

i think veilguard's refusement to engage with the tevinter slavery plotline has this one unfortunate consequence for the shadow dragons - we have this rebellious anti-slavery organization and yet the leadership that we're seeing is still a bunch of magisters. the good ones, yes, and it makes sense that they're using their power in connections for the good of the cause, but even well meaning, they lack the personal experience of how is it to be the person they are fighting for. had there been more openness to the discussion of the slavery in the game, there could be a freed slave or a liberati shown as one of the leaders, treated equally to ashur, mae or dorian - to show that they mean in when they fight with slavery. we should have had a fenris character in there, who is keeping all those magisters in check from white knighting and making a mess of everything - but the game is not really ready for it. in the end there's this awkward situation when my lord of fortune rook has a more personal experiences with the slavery than this anti-slavery organization. you can even have a very uncharitable watsonian explanation the the whole movement is deep down just another power grab and squabble between the nobility under a nice pretense of a social justice movement. i don't think that was the intention, but it could be a bad faith reading of this situation.

(and i don't think the solution is as easy as just making tarquin an ex slave. yes, he's the voice of pragmatism in there, but also his personal arc heavily rely on having to perform bullshit gender stereotypes to be granted his gender identity - it's a different kind of story, and from taash we know bw is not great at handling two social causes at once)