#not really a spoiler fortunately...

[fake-married-my-dead-fiance]

Fangs of Fortune Text Posts (1/4) (2 here, 3 here, four)

[crescentfool]

the great seal <3

[bunabi]

Actually I'll talk about it now to clear my mind before bedtime:

I think I've played enough now to say definitively that I don't like Rook. I wish I could choose not to have Natalene smirk and quip so much. I wish the tone options made a difference.

I wish whenever I chose an 'I distrust Solas' option Rook didn't fire off what sounds and feels like a tumblr post. I wish Those Lore Drops weren't delivered via murals and then peer reviewed in the Veilguardian group chat.

And maybe more than any of those things: I wish Rivain was more than a coast and an arenaaaaa. 🫂

[vigilskeep]

ignoring that isabela wouldnt say any of that whenever she says something i want to hear

[flowersforthemachines]

Remembered I talked about it under one post but never actually posted this here.

Here's a (rough) visualisation of how many times Rook's faction is referenced in conversations. Based on the pics, from most to least referenced it goes like this:

Grey Wardens > Mourn Watch > Antivan Crows > Shadow Dragons > Veil Jumpers > Lords of Fortune

[aikawa-kazuki]

[i-cast-zone-of-truth]

also the way Zhao Yuanzhou IMMEDIATELY starts teasing Zhuo Yichen once he’s got him on the hook. He Cannot Resist. Like he has spent a lot of time alone thinking his heart is dead, but isolation doesn’t test that. A righteous and slightly naive young man who gets 300% flustered at the slightest tease, now that’s a vitals check!

[morweneledhwen]

Hou Minghao as the great demon Yinglong

[hollowsart]

Spider-Man: Octopus-Girl updated again and I--

[rubensmuse]

having meditated on it, the issue with the lords of fortune isn't that they're doing repatriation now, it's how it's being handled as a piece of storytelling. and the way it's being handled is fucking BORING.

the thing about returning looted artifacts to their cultures of origin is that, in real life, it's an extremely dicey issue. and when i say that, i'm not saying "and that's why we should not do it in real life nor depict it in fiction", because obviously we should do both of those to the best of our ability. but it isn't straightforward.

in real life, arguments made by museums in looter countries against repatriation often bring up how there isn't always a solid record of which pieces of art and culture were stolen or parted with via coercion, and which were traded for willingly; or refuse to recognize the sovereignty of a nation of people who claim ownership of an item and prefer to return it to a modern-day government that does not represent them; or, alternatively, bring up the fact that the modern-day country requesting the artifact "back" was not the same country that created it, and use that as evidence that they don't have any claim to it at all. there are political considerations, there are diplomatic considerations, there are military considerations. it's a whole thing.

in the setting of dragon age, you don't have all of these exact problems. but in a scenario where we're to understand that this semi-decentralized guild of treasure hunters has recently shifted gears toward repatriation, we don't have zero problems. the principle one is that thedas as a continent and the states within it don't actually function the same way our world does, meaning "repatriation" might not even be a consideration for anyone who isn't an elf, but i don't wanna get into that. there are far more granular issues instead.

for example, one story in tevinter nights follows a band of lords pulling off a heist. does this mean stealing from the living is above board, but robbing the dead is frowned upon unless you give some of it back to the descendants? how old does an artifact have to be before it stops being fair game? how culturally significant does it have to be, and how do you even measure that?

what if you're a long-time member just in this for the plunder, and now that your guildmates are advocating all this scholarly and/or culturally respectful stuff, you're just pretending to go along with it and palming smaller relics for resale? what responsibility does the lords of fortune as a guild have to penalize you? what ability?

what if you proudly present a dalish clan with a burial urn you found outside of its context, and then their keeper gets fucking pissed at you because that was supposed to stay in the ground, you idiot, and now you and your guildmates are suspected of defiling a grave? on the flip side, what if you DO defile that grave, and return the relics inside for a finder's fee alongside the lie that you got it from the real graverobber, because offering a bounty for returned cultural artifacts creates a demand for them?

what if your opinion of what counts as "sacred" is different from someone else's, on a cultural in addition to an individual basis?

what if two dalish clans who hate each other place a claim on the same relic?

what if, perhaps, you have a kossith contact in your guild, living the qun outside of a qunari community. and you've been giving her all of your qunari artifacts to study, in the spirit of goodwill and cultural exchange. and then one day on your way to her house a ben-hassrath steps out of the shadows and politely requests the tablet you're holding, and also directions to your contact's residence, because as far as the ariqun is concerned, you've been giving vital pieces of qunari culture and history to someone who isn't a qunari?

what interesting scenarios! what rich stories we could get out of them! even the barest reference to some of these issues would suggest a more multifaceted view of a faction, and entice players into selecting it for their character.

and at time of writing, i'm still waiting to see anything like them in the game.

[fake-married-my-dead-fiance]

Li Lun bought little Zhu Yan his umbrella and Zhu Yan bought Li Lun his drum which they both now use as their primary weapon? I did not think this drama could get any less heterosexual but here we are

[antivancastle]

all of you who are playing a zevwarden kid rook who’s a crow are so mean to zevran 😂 it’s such good angst though so i can definitely see the appeal

[incandescentflower]

There's lots of reasons I really enjoyed Fangs of Fortune. It has the makings of the type of story that grabs me and holds me for a long time. Ships that are substantive and about the characters knowing each other, challenges outside the pairings that they face together, themes that can be dug into and explored and interpreted in many, many ways while still being very clear on the message of the story, extensive mythology that can be built upon and played in and expanded on and on and on (even if not perfect) and that mythology allows for big sweeping narrative alterations, like characters coming back perhaps not permanently or in the same way - but allows for the recognition of the loss of love and the significance in one's life and the value of second chances without removing the stakes from the story completely.

[3gremlins]

so i've seen a lot of (really good/thoughtful) critique about how the lords of fortune not stealing from everybody indiscriminately is weird and kind of sanitized and doesn't really make sense in-world, and i see you all, totally agree and think you have very good points but also

i kinda saw them having a Qunari History Artifact Specialist on staff as specifically an Isabela thing as in "last time i stole a random cultural object b/c it was shiny it was a huge pain in the ass actually and i'd like to not do that ever again"

like kind of an in joke with izzy/da2 meta nod more than anything (which fair, doesn't make sense canonically and is jarring in world but i really think it's just there as an isabela joke and not meant to be anything more. i know there's party banter with taash that tries to justify it more which i agree is extra silly-like they're pirates, they should do morally grey pirate things and it's not as fun if they're not a little morally questionable. but i like the idea that isabela specifically is like "okay we should maybe double check if anyone is going to care about this object and follow us through hell and high water just to get it back. there's no way im going to befriend a disaster bisexual willing to fight for me twice")

[the-ace-with-spades]

The P-51 Mav has in his hangar was an engagement gift — Ice bought it for him instead of a ring

[i-cast-zone-of-truth]

big scary demon Zhao Yuanzhou bringing “weaker than a human” energy levels to fight the final boss was so choice