#no i havent finished the questline

[sunlitsighs]

feeling sooooooooo fucking unwell about this game right now im going to BED

[butchvamp]

i finished Harding's quest... whew... i don't like Harding. or i should say i don't like how nice the game treats her. she gets all of the emotional beats around the lore revelations while the elves are left to go kick rocks.

i pointed this out previously in another post, but the dwarves (and Harding specifically, and thus by extension Andrastians, too) get so much more sympathy from the game than any of the elves. you can clearly see it just in these two screenshots-- compare dialogue choices when comforting Harding after the reveal about the Golden City (and also important to note that the game assumes my elf is Dalish multiple times before this choice, but for some reason i can suddenly make her Andrastian):

versus the first real discussion you get to have with Bellara about the truth of the elven gods:

Bellara implies that everyone is right not to trust the elves, actually, because the elven gods (the same ones that enslaved her people btw) are bad and we should all feel bad about it.

and Davrin is unfortunately distanced from the Dalish, remarking that they're too traditional and stuck in the past (a racist trope that Dragon Age really loves for the elves), and only seems to care about how the elven gods make elves "look bad." we do get to see Davrin reconnect with one of the members of his clan later, which is a sweet moment that shows us a new side of him, but it exists more so to push along the griffon storyline than anything to do with Davrin (a problem i find quite annoying when it comes to Davrin's writing... they care more about Assan and "turlum" than him or his feelings. but that's a different post)

when we finally get to Heart of Stone, Harding has her big, emotional confrontation with a titan, and gets granted the memory of the titan's loss and all of their pain. she says some Choice lines, here.

who is thriving? the elves that were enslaved en masse by the Evanuris? the elves that are still enslaved and live in alienages? that are wholly, systemically oppressed throughout Thedas? then to follow it up with both of these lines, spoken to an elven Rook:

and i understand that this is the titan speaking through Harding, and we can be generous and say that they are addressing the Evanuris, and not elf Rook personally. but. uh. why doesn't my elf get to Say Anything. it's repeatedly insinuated that everything is the elves' fault, that the elves should feel guilty and that they should be held responsible for what happened to the dwarves (and by extension, the blight and everything bad that's ever happened including what's happening right now), and that they deserve to suffer because of what "they" did to the titans.... and there's no option to challenge this line of thinking at all.

and it's really frustrating that none of the elven companions are allowed this kind of emotional catharsis with the Evanuris. up until that one (bad) dialogue with Bellara, all of Bellara's comments/her reactions to the gods are treated as comic relief. none of them get to grieve their gods like Harding is allowed to grieve the titans-- they're not even allowed to be as angry with Solas as Harding is in some scenes. even Andrastians, in that one single dialogue choice, were afforded more sympathy and grief than the elves in this game.

it's a baffling choice, considering the plot, that elves are given so little grace or consideration. and i do think part of it has to do with the way this game has tried to distance itself from previously established lore as well as scrub itself clean of anything morally dubious-- it's all black and white and the game needs someone to blame, so the elves are bad because the Evanuris are bad, nevermind all that other stuff, because see, the elves actually deserved it all along! i don’t even think it’s unreasonable that Harding may have these feelings (even if they’re racist lol) but the fact you just have to accept Blame and the narrative never challenges her or Bellara’s guilt or Davrin’s apathy and instead just agrees with all of them and forces Rook to agree as well is shitty and takes it from “this character feels this way” to “the game is implying that everyone feels this way, and also that they’re right.”

it's really unfortunate because i do think this reveal about the titans and why the dwarves can't dream or use magic is exciting, it could cause some compelling conflict between the companions (but that's not allowed in this game at all unfortunately and you especially Cannot be even slightly rude to Harding, ever). and i do like the idea of her quest and what they're trying to convey here-- confronting this old, repressed trauma, and finding a way to reconcile with it and move forward.... but not at the expense of the elves, who also suffered massively at the hands of the Evanuris (and continue to suffer. right now)

bioware has been criticized repeatedly about their depiction of the Dalish, their indigenous coding, and even the mages, too, and i really do not understand what they were thinking with this, because it's just racist (and exactly what people have repeatedly criticized them for). this is why a lot of "fantasy racism" fails. you can't write a marginalized group as being responsible and deserving of their own oppression, that's not how it works!

[friendharel]

Regrets of the Dread Wolf questline

[julijbee]

i would give him everything

[leonleonhart]

hi question,

is this yuri

[languor-em]

I HATE ASTEL!!! I HATE THEM SO MUCH!!!

[anomalouscutie]

bold theory but im like 80% sure that the spiderman 2 story was a little lackluster because the dlc is going to be doing a lot more of the heavy lifting this time around

[chrismcshell]

update on my first-ever playthrough of oblivion! i finished the main story questline :)

[devotedlystrangewizard]

remember when i said my biggest wish for veilguard was reactivity to your chosen origin. like special dialogue with your companions. like a crow & lucanis, shadow dragon & neve etc etc

yeah so i expected maybe 2 or 3 lines per quest.

[perilegs]

ok i FINALLY got around to grinding the skull caverns for some pepper rex and got the protector of the valley achievement - now i'm only missing six >:)

[aro4aro-t4t-gabv1el]

well! thanks, odile

i wonder if odile or euphrasie is gonna be the one to interrupt isabeau again. or if it will be mirabelle or bonnie like last time

[dekarios]

what is your onion of the taash questline if you are comfortable sharing?

ok so ive found out i actually havent finished the ENTIRE questline. just the main part of it, i think ? i finished up to taash's mother dying .

so... i

i rate it poorly. i need like more time.. to digest it . i also.. have a very hard time with this because while i am nonbinary i am just a white british person . i dont have a mixed heritage or culture . i am just white british and not even a cool british like gaelic i am English ...... as plain boring white bread as u can get.

so commentin on the heritage vs culture choice u are given is hard for me beyond that it makes me feel uncomfortable to have to pick for someone. that is not my place. it feels very wrong of me to have this power over someone . when i first was given a choice i said embrace being multicultural. cuz like that feels.. obvious. its beautiful to come from multiple cultures and being pieces of them . thats so cool and awesome to me. and then being forced to pick was so not cool and very not awesome.

in terms of the nonbinary stuff ... the more it got mentioned and brought up the more i disliked it. i don't know how much people will agree with me here so bare with me. it felt very on the nose, unnatural, even the word nonbinary didnt seem like it fit. i feel like they were lazy. i feel like they should have made a new word , maybe even a new concept , to work within the dragon age setting. that maybe was specific to rivaini culture that taash heard from another lord of fortune and it felt right . idk. they could have integrated it better to the world of thedas. i felt.. pandered to . i felt like they were saying hey look, hey. hey thats you right. doesnt this make u feel seen and happy . please ignore the weird racism and focus on this

i could have loved taash i think. but i don't. i barely like taash. i feel like taash is a scapegoat. a mouthpiece. that sometimes taash says and does things that don't feel natural to the character cuz taash isnt talking, bioware is. this gets even worse when you take into account lord of fortune things like selling back cultural artifacts to the people they belong to and bioware going "dw its ethical and ok! trust us!" but they have taash say it and it feels wrong, off and weird. like.. out of character? idk it's strange.

taash is a strange character. i dont think bioware actually respected them as much ... i think they used bioware to push this weird anti qunari narrative and to pander to queer people while being weird and racist and idk. idkdidkdikdksoldfgjzsdlff

i need someone who isnt white and who is smarter than me and better at articulating than me to write a think piece on this. while i am the right person for the nonbinary stuff. theres pieces here i am not the right person for. and i dont wanna speak over anyone. or be the voice for anyone when i shouldnt be. but i will say ...

if i can see how gross this shit comes across , how on earth are the people of colour who are actually effected by this bullshit feeling? they shouldnt be exposed to this bullshit . bioware should do better. hire some diverse writers man . get ur shit checked and looked over by poc before u push it out. ur game shouldnt be hurting minorities . they deserve better than this shit STILL happening . ive got too many friends and mutuals pained over taashs story and angry about it. that aint right. it just aint right man

and yeah like i said i havent 100% finished it, it seems, but i dont see the majority of this changing or any of it . i am uhh "burnt" as it were, i do not think bioware can fix this feeling inside of me

this got rambly i hope it makes sense

[butchvamp]

i already said it but it does really frustrate me how little agency Taash has and the more i think about it the more insidious it gets. again their entire story revolves around Rook making choices for them, and they're also consistently talked down to by other characters, even if those characters are depicted as being friendly or nice. Isabela treats them like a child despite Taash being a very accomplished dragon hunter with the lords (which we see, repeatedly, when fighting the blighted dragons! Taash is not a child), and of course there's their mother (at least this is intentional) and both her and Isabela go behind Taash's back to throw them in with Rook, without asking for their input. Isabela just assumes without even trying to discuss it with Taash separate from their mother, despite seemingly being aware of the two's strained relationship... and from there Isabela continues to make unnecessary comments to Taash whenever you visit the hall of valor with them.

even Flynn, the nonbinary grey warden you meet in the wetlands, condescends to them about the Qun when discussing their gender, and Taash isn't allowed to disagree with them (apparently they give Flynn a Look but ultimately don't press the issue) and Flynn is depicted as being helpful in this discussion. Rook lectures them about gender and their own culture; their entire narrative revolves around Other People telling them what to do and how to feel-- it's obviously meant to be Bad when Taash's mother does it, because she (the Qun) is oppressive, but otherwise the game seems to be fine when it's Rook or literally anyone else doing it, because we're the enlightened Good Guys, and Taash is just helpless and confused and so oppressed. of course, i don't think it's bad for Rook to discuss these things with Taash or give them gentle suggestions, and i don't even hate the potential gender discussion you can have with a trans Rook; and for the record, their mother does treat them poorly. but we can't ignore the way Taash's repeated infantilization culminates in the player being the one to choose their culture for them in the end, because..?

well, the game clearly doesn't think Taash is capable of doing it themselves. at one point Taash links the ropes they wear for the Qun to the ones the antaam used to tie down a dragon and "blight" them. even if i'm feeling gracious and say that Weekes really meant that womanhood & their mother's expectations are restricting, they actively chose to use the ropes of the Qun to make this comparison, and so are also implying here that their mother teaching them the Qun has tied them down and "blighted" them-- that the Qun has "infected" their thinking and is as bad as the blight (this is also implied in the previous discussion with Flynn). this is.... really racist. it takes Rook and their, again, "enlightened" (white) ideas about gender to get through to Taash, nevermind that the Qun has its own ideas around gender that just get shouted down or completely ignored. the racism here results in the narrative contradicting itself, considering one of the first things Taash says is "you don't get to tell me who i am" but... Rook does, in the end, because intentional or not the game is clearly convinced that a person like Taash needs someone from outside of their and their mother's culture (aka free of "blight") to come tell them what's best for them.... 🤔 hm! and while it's true you can choose for them to align with the qunari in the end, that doesn't mitigate all of the heinous and racist writing that leads up to that choice (and that the choice itself is racist. and you have to make it twice!)

of course we can say that Rook makes choices for all of the companions, this is true, but it's obvious that none of the other companions' choices are in the same ballpark, we aren't directly deciding something about their identity, and none of them lack agency to the same extent as Taash. we can even argue that they need Rook to explain gender to them, no one else ever has-- well, sure. the thing with Taash is that some parts of their story, when removed from context, are perfectly fine. i'm not criticizing the way Taash talks or acts or "does gender," all of which are things some people may connect to for various reasons (all of our experiences are different) but unfortunately we cannot discuss any of this without addressing the racism that is so thoroughly baked into every aspect of their character.

i criticized Taash for being "childlike" previously and that really wasn't the right phrasing-- i don't think that Taash themselves is childlike, it has nothing to do with them-- it's the way the narrative treats them, the way other characters talk down to them, how it takes away their autonomy & forces us to go along with it, and ultimately educate them and "save" them, and i think it's worth interrogating why Taash, of all the companions, is specifically depicted this way (it's racism).

[lucknight]

i know bioware is not going at all in this direction (i havent finished veilguard tho so i might be wrong) but… i really think rook should be a complete foil to solas. i hate this trend of putting another character in a rpg’s protag head (we have waaaay too many of those) but in this case i would accept if…

there was a twist where the memories we see from sola’s arent from him at all. they are actually from rook. and they themselves are a kind of new god/evanuris whatever. they were sola’s second in command, and now the same thing is happening again.

it would tie in with how every background we have rebellion as a common denominator, rook was the creativity that led to the veil. they were the ones that had the ideia. reckless enough to doom the world!

this might be too much power fantasy but i dont care this game sets up some interesting things but rook so far is just a dry wall. the dialogue is very meh, i know they cant deliver a disco elysium, nor was dialogue ever bioware’s strong suit but even if i think complaints about wokeness are very much displaced i do feel people can tell when dialogue is bland. the banters are better but the options you select as rook are very much bad. purple isn’t good most of the time which is just another nail in the coffin.

why did they ‘create’ factions? and no i did not read tevinter nights nor do i want to. i shouldnt have to. why do ‘veil jumpers’ exist when you could just have called them a group of dalish? this is the type of stuff that comes across fake and very corporate, star wars outlaws maybe could have gotten away with it since it was already in canon but here its just jarring.

is it that hard to just make playable origins again? like actual honest to god play the origin ourselves, one of the most beloved aspect from… origins? is that truly such a hit in the budget? planning?

do all the games have to one up the saving the world bit? cant we have a protag that is just a slave in tevinter trying to survive? to see a continuation of the mage/templar conflict in the south? an origin as a circle mage where you are in power almost a mirror to origins to show how the dream of the opressed is to become the opressor?

even then, sure. tresspasser. whole game should have been about that and not us dropped in what should have been the game’s climax, creating two deux ex machina villains. but i like that so whatever. i dig it. i like solas as a character.

and. sure game show me the letter of dorian fighting to free slaves while i walk about minrathos and everything seems fine! no questline where we see slavers, or kill them, or do anything. its just… wild.

much to think about. i’m happy for the new dragon age just wish i could enjoy it more.

[skyrimgeolocator]

opinions on oblivion or morrowind? (or arena / daggerfall if u like those)

arena i tried out but i couldnt get a handle on the combat very well :(. 6 minutes playtime

i havent played daggerfall tho i do have it. 0 minutes playtime

morrowind i really need to play more of, cause it looks really interesting and I love Morrowind as a place, but I struggle w directions a Lot and it doesn't have map markers of any kind. 3.9 hours playtime

oblivion i rly rly enjoy, its goofy and intuitive and I don't know nearly as much abt the game as I do skyrim so I get to experience new things. 38.6 hours playtime

and even tho u didnt ask:

skyrim is nostalgic but i mostly have it downloaded for this blog at this point, I don't like to repeat things in games a lot and at this point I've done the majority of the stuff it has to offer. i am trying a locked tomb rp run tho! 10 hours combined playtime (basegame and special edition. i also have vr edition but I don't have a vr headset. this is on steam, ive played significantly more on console but I no longer have access to that console)

eso is really fun for me, but its one of those games where I get really focused on it for a little bit and then don't touch it for months. often ill get rly annoyed while playing cause ill find smth that doesn't quite make sense in the lore (reachmen in the rift & the companions being based out of the rift? ig i could see it being a splinter cell of the companions, but i don't see how they could properly justify the reachmen being there. i didn't finish that questline tho) and the combat can get repetitive (hit it a bunch of times. if i die use one of the hundreds of soul gems i bought of the player market, which incidentally i can use to resurrect myself. try fighting again if its a boss, or just walk to the end of the cell while I'm a ghost), and some of the balancing is fucked (that one quest in black marsh where you have to do the trials, and you have to take poison and then win a fight. googled how to beat it. "wait for another player"). 23.9 hours playtime

blades is also rly fun for me but I keep forgetting to charge my switch :(

legends was interesting but i find card games confusing a lot. 20 minutes playtime

haven't played redguard, tho i do have it

havent played battlespire, tho i do have it

trying to get an emulator to try out the travels games

hoping to play castles if/when it comes out

thank you!! im doing decently well, im visiting my partner right now :3. I hope you're doing well too!!

[gemstone-gynoid]

in Nikke i unlocked another daily dungeon. the others are the standard basic increasing tower, and arena. but this one is called the Lost Sector.

in the setting, basically all of humanity is sequestered in a giant underground complex called the arc that i've posted about before. it's got simulated skies, 3 companies controlling all industries, an outer ring slum, and its main defense and scout force are these nikke that are super powered robots that have the form of cute/hot girls for some reason. they crave human conveniences and go ballistic if they are reminded they are robots. and most commanders dont treat them well. the player character is considered odd for doing what i think is the bare minimum, and lets them drink our soda from our fridge and stuff like that.

the Lost Sectors are failed arcs that were not able to be completed in time due to the swarm of faceless robots assaulting all mankind. some of the lost sectors could be entire arcs that are basically finished but are overrun. so that's a waste of resources right there. so now nikke squads are sent to scout these sectors to claim materials that can be used. multiple questlines in the game are about how materials are running out and further resource gathering is increasingly dangerous due to the dangers of the surface.

the tutorial had one of your nikke go berserk and fight on the side of the faceless robots, and later its discovered she started showing signs of turning from inside the arc. so the faceless robot horde is probably originating from mistreated nikke i'm guessing. i havent gotten far in the mainline yet.