#ok BioWare you got me

[tadpole-apocalypse]

Reposting this for no reason at all:

[oopsallmabari]

i'm not opposed to the name swap tbc my pattern brain is just going. but they've all been dragon age: one word can we pwease pwease keep it dragon age: one word

[baku-usagi]

OK just finished the new dragon age gameplay review and heres my initial thoughts so far:

sooooo much better then I was thinking it would be after the trailer.

Whoever did that trailer did a truly horrible job. While minrathous is a little scifi esque, what we've seen does still at least have some of the general dragon age vibe so my interest is piqued again!

The vibe feels flatly inquisition though.

It makes me really really sad that fans have for over a decade now been begging for the games to return to origin roots, and been continuesly ignored.

I had hoped against hope that the success of bg3 would have opened up was EAs eyes to how absolutely needed a good dialog bar was, and a silent protagonist (especially since fans have been quietly complaining about the wheel and voiced protagonists since dragon age 2)

But alas, that is not a change that happened. It does look fun even if it is leaning more and more into the action adventure stuff for combat. God I miss my origins tactile system though :(

I'm excited so see the new companions in action, they're the least concerning part of everything so far. They seem lively and interesting.

I do think certain things just don't bode well for the lore and universe. Dragon age has been experiencing weird little retcons and simplifications of hard topics since inquisition, and it feels like veilgaurd will continue that legacy.

My biggest complaint is actually this:

We are immediately seeing very very small choices to be made. Unlike in bg3, where the dialog wheel serves not just to give you choices but to help create the personality of your character, this wheel has had the standard bland and tasteless three ish options that leave our rook as uninteresting as the voiced companions before them. I felt deeply disconnected from my inquisitor because there was not really much to connect with, and it seems rook will be the same.

We see no immediately consequences for our choices either besides approval of course. Which again after balders gate 3 is hard to swallow.

I don't think it's gonna be a bad game anymore thank God. But I am sad because i was reallly hoping for more on the actual choices matter rpg front that I can immediately tell is not going to be there.

That being said, some positives too!

As much as I'd like the return of tactics based, I think the hack and slash seems fun! I love the animations especially for rogue because I tend to play mages and rogues.

There is so much more nostalgia to yet be had as we get to continue meeting old friends on the way. I actually really like the game animation (nervous about it having the same eye problems Andromeda had tho 😬😬)

And I think varric and Harding have aged beautifully!

All and all I went from feeling like this was the worst it could get, to feeling like it's gonna be mid, but hopefully still worth playing! And hopefully my mind will continue to be changed. I hope. Bioware somehow managed to make me eat my socks on the critiques lol

(EDIT****

I AM SO HAPPY FOR THE SKIN TONE WERE SEEING IN THIS GAME. THE ROOK USED FOR THE GAME PLAY REVEAL WAS BEAUITFUL AND HIS SKIN LOOKED LIKE A ACTUAL PERSON AND I'M SO GLAD BIOWARE FINALLY GOT THE DARKER SKIN TONES LOOOKINH HUMAN AND GOOD HOLY SHIT. I'M SO EXCITED FOR THE CHARACTER CREATOR IN THIS GAME IF NOTHING ELSE)

[mythalism]

v&v ep 3 thots:

is this a ghilan'nain monster??? the sounds give me centipede vibes

"our prideful ways", something something the maker something "without your pride!!!" ok...... "really intense eyes" i need to **** *** **** ** ***

"the future always hides in the past" EXCUSE ME???????????? WHAT THE FUCK. i will be remembering this when i am watching solas's rebellion memories, bioware. mark my words.

got a thing for elves do you? yes. the answer is yes

pookie mercilessly fucking random people over so he doesnt have to to do any work himself <3 anti capitalist king

davrins voice is fucking crazy

"did you say... darkspawn?" PLEASE JRHGKJRHWGHGR its so corny

why does solas employ random ass mercenaries and laborers to do jobs for him when know he has a massive thedas-wide network of loyal spies and agents???? are they taking PTO???????

i love drayden... i hope they are in the game

i also hope we get to see drayden and solas meet... they would be besties i can already tell

interesting that brayden implies the new, weird darkspawn are a result of blood magic ?

he who hunts alone lord of tricksters YESSSSS YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS YESSSSSSSS i like that they are reminding us of these monikers. like they're saying dont forget who he is dont forget the legends......

the wolf betrayed us.... this is so good. yes he is plotting he is planning he is cunning i love seeing this side of him

im not sure who it was so apologies for not being able to give credit where its due but i saw someone on my dash recently talking about davrin being their pick for whichever companion might be an agent of fen'harel and....... yeah....... something he just said made me go hmmm but i was cooking and now i forgot what it was LMFAO

guide me on a path that splits between the sun and moon.... an eclipse as fen'harel stirred.... uh huh... mhm....

davrin easily translating an ancient elvhen dialect that he recognizes as ancient... ok.............

"captain shoulders" im crying

wow that was good. best ep by far. im gonna read the transcript and look for whatever it was that made me suspicious of davrin lol

[thekingofwinterblog]

Ok so, having seen the Gameplay trailer that Bioware pulled out of their ass in the aftermath of possibly the worst videogame trailer in history, i have to say im not impressed... But i almost am.

Because they ALMOST got it right. Like all the building blocks are there, but it's always just one step off from being great.

Like the character models dont look anything the like the complete joke that was the fortnite DA trailer... But while you can tell the animators put their heart and soul into the models, they still look awful.

And it's ALL the lighting and coloring's fault.

The thing is, the models and enviornment doesnt look terrible in a vacuum... but the problem is that it ALL blends together. It's all just a mixmatch of colors and shades that makes the entire thing look like an uncoordinated mess with no rhyme or reason behind it.

Take this shot of minarathous. It's not just grey, on top of grey, but it sure looks like it. The colors, rather than contrast and embolden everything to make it look striking, instead makes it one, big, sloppy looking mess.

Here is one, single shot from Inquisition to illustrate the poiny. Notice how everything is very grey here too, but the way the lighting is, you can easily differentiate between everything, every character sticks out so much better and looks infinitly more interesting and memorablr just by virtue of not looking like they're part of the background.

It's not a coincidence that the only part of this gameplay showcase that looks absolutely stunning is Solas, because he is the only character who actually has the lighting to stand out, both when illuminated by the blue magical energy withouth the purple, white and blue mess that is now how magical energy looks, but also in the shots where he's illuminated by the veil.

I can tell you why it looks like this too.

The lighting and colorists of the development team was trying so, so very hard to make the concept art lighting translate to 3d models and enviornments... And it just doesnt work.

Maybe there is a way to make these pieces work in 3d, but this sure aint it.

Maybe the enviornments that are set in the daylight will look better, but i can tell you, that with this engine and style, every single nightshot is going to look absolutely atrocious, regardless of wheter the models look better than that horrible fortnite trailer.

Then there is the dialogue.

Now there are a lot of complaits that a lot of the dialogue is the usual by now terrible Marvel "banter" that the MCU unfortunately popularized.

You know, the quirky, dont take itself too seriously style of writing that almost never works outside the MCU pre Endgame.

But that's actually not my main vomplaint with it.

My complaint is how... Lifeless the voice actors sounds.

I just listened to these lines, and the thing that struck me is not that they're bad, but how i KNOW both Varric and Solas Voice actors are so much better than this.

"People are dying right now! You need to listen!" "People are always dying. It is what they do."

Like... These lines SHOULD work.

I know the common joke is that this is the usual terrible dialogue in the vein of "My face is tired from dealing with you", but the fact is that it's actually good on paper.

Varric here should sound like he's pleading, making one, last, final plea to his old friend Solas, reminding him that people are fucking dying all around them(Though the rest of the scene dont exactly convey that).

A plea to his humanity.

And solas throws back that he knows. He KNOWS people are dying. That's what they always do.

For anyone who knows Solas at all, this is such a good line. You dont need him to go into a spiel about how his entire reason for doing this is so that people no longer have to die all the time, that the entire reason they do die is because of him...

It should work... but it doesnt.

Solas Actor is NOT giving it his A-Game. At all. And neither is Varric's.

He doesnt sound like the emotional Solas we saw in Inquisition, and frankly neither does Varric. Any and all charisma both had are seemingly gone, replaced by two actors who make the characters sound like themselves, but eithouth the emotion that made them work.

Just hearing Solas telling Varric that this story does NOT end with his downfall just makes me think that the actor either didn't give a shit, or was bored... Which was just hammered in further when Solas just gives a pathethic scream of "Noooooo!" When his big plan is foiled.

Maybe it's that the rest of the writing is just so bad that they just gave up, or they had the same level of quality for their voice director that george lucas gave his actors during the prequel triology filming.

Either way, this really just hammered in the point for me of kind of game we're getting here... And i didnt even touch the gameplay in this post.

[sometipsygnostalgic]

game awards

Monster Hunter Wilds announced for 2025. Footage appears to be nothing more than a scripted gameplay demo. Very unpolished. I would expect the final game to be completely different, perhaps drawing inspiration from this demo. This is a surprise as the game is expected to have been developed since 2019, and the reveal footage here speaks otherwise, with actual physical development only just starting recently.

Baldurs Gate 3 was announced as Game of the Year winner. I think that it was very clear the game deserved this title, not just due to the quality, but due to the impact it has had. People will be comparing other games to this one moving forward, and it actually is terrifying for Bioware, who have had failure after failure this past decade and are no longer the kings of... whatever this genre is. Character-driven multichoice action rpgs???

Guy showed up with pretty good drip.

Allan Wake 2 won a lot of awards but while I'm sure it's an ok game, I'm not sure if it won for being the most amazing narrative or because it appeals very specifically to american journalists, aka, the people who nominated it.

But if you look at the competition in the Direction and Narrative categories, it's not like the other nominees had much going for them. Most of them don't have voiced main characters and the ones that do are, well, not famous for their great narratives. I don't know how most of these games ever got nominated for these categories. Is it a bad year for story driven games?

But then they gave Alan Wake "best art direction" and NOW I am suspicious. It has not been nearly as influential as, like, any of these competitors.

There's lots of categories, big L to Starfield for being against BG3 as best RPG, but I also think a genuine victim of this year was Tears of the Kingdom. It was a spectacular game but it didn't win a SINGLE category. Fuck, it lost to Music against Final Fantasy 16, which is a far more mid game as far as people tell me.

Thankfully Hifi Rush was recognised as having great audio design. I love when a game doesn't just have good music, but USES it effectively as a game tool.

I think the reason most of these games lost out is because the competition was so strong. You would've never expected, going into this year, that Tears of the Kingdom would lose in EVERY SINGLE CATEGORY it was nominated, but when I saw the nominations it wasn't a surprise. (Edit: It actually won best action adventure, but that was it).

The truth is, Breath of the Wild was in 2017 what Baldur's Gate 3 is in 2023, an earthshaking game that changes how everyone else in the industry designs that kind of game. And Tears of the Kingdom, compared to BG3, just feels too similar to Breath of the Wild. It doesn't change anything in a way that is going to have an impact past this year. Everything special it does has already been done better somewhere else, in this case by Minecraft or Fortnite with its sort of creative engineering.

I do think it deserves best musical score though.

[unsettlingcreature]

here's my thoughts on the veilguard reveal trailer. I would say there's a mix of good and bad for me, but I've tagged it as critical just in case. all the bad stuff is grouped together at the top :)

I wonder if they went with a more cartoony style because of Absolution…? I'm not against a style change, but I think it's too cartoonish, I can definitely see the Fortnite/Overwatch comparisons people are making. Taash especially suffers from this WHICH SUCKS BC I LOVE QUNARI

I'm not reaaaally going to comment on the hammy Marvel-esque dialogue because this was mostly just revealing the characters. I'm more upset they labelled Emmrich as the necromancer and not the mortalitasi. Probably aiming for a wider audience 😔

Overall, the tone just feels off. If you put this next to Origins and DA2, you'd barely be able to recognise it as Dragon Age. Is this an end to its dark fantasy roots? Sad if true. We already saw the beginnings of the shift in DA:I but this is… much further :(

OK I'M DONE DWELLING ON THE THINGS I DON'T LIKE, ONTO THE THINGS I DO

Varric looks SO good, you can really tell whoever modelled him put a lot of care into it even if I personally think Mr Tethras needs to go back on the shelf 🙄 very excited to see more Harding, if they deny us a proper romance with her then I will be rioting!

I want Lucanis to do unspeakable things to me. I don't think I need to elaborate. I want to give Davrin smooches, I think he genuinely looks the best (visually) out of all the Companions. He looks SO good 🥰 Bioware, they both better be on the list of romanceable characters!

I loved the small glimpses we got of Tevinter in Neve and Lucanis' intros (assuming I'm right, those lanterns look a lot like some of the earlier concepts for Tevinter, especially Neve's)

(OURRRRRRRRRGH I WANT TO SEE MORE OF TEVINTER PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE)

The elven ruins look brilliant, regardless of what I think about the art direction a la the characters, the environments look amazing. Ain't no way my current PC is going to run this game LMAO, I'll definitely need to upgrade before DA:tV releases.

Also baby griffin:) very cute and the dragon looks AWESOME, I definitely think they've improved on them consistently with each game. I can't wait to fight with or against that big ol' beast.

I think that the trailer wasn't a total miss for me but it definitely wasn't a complete hit either. I'll be holding off on making any proper judgements until we get the gameplay teaser + more trailers in general.

[nowandthane]

Mass Effect Trilogy Tag

tagged by @menacingmetal thank you!!!! <3

tagging @grim-starling @stormikins @vakariansvixen @westernlarch @illusivesoul @drelldreams @xoshepard (i know you already got tagged but tag me in yours too if u do it i wanna see it xD) <3 and anyone else who wants to do this!!

I am a fan since: I first played in September 2022 and it's consumed my life since! I had the OT since like 2018/19??? but i couldnt play because it gave me motion sickness kjdfhgkdf then I got MELE free cause amazon was doing a thing and by that point i had friends who taught me to mod the game and i can play with relatively few issues now :3

Favourite game of the series?: oooh idk i love them all and i played them first time all in a row so theyre kind of like one game to me... probably me2?

MShep or FShep?: femshep. ive yet to complete a game with anyone other than femshep. well, anyone other than sarani specifically lmao but hopefully that'll change xD

Earthborn, Colonist or Spacer?: earthborn!! (sarani again xD)

Biotics or Tech: tech (again... sarani. she is not a biotic)

Paragon or Renegade: paragon choices, renegade dialogue xD

Favourite Class: infiltrator!! ive never played a class other than infiltrator (yes, you guessed it, sarani :3) but im trying out vanguard like anytime now so we'll see?

Favourite Companion:

Least favourite Companion:

you could put a gun to my head and i still wont answer those two i will not choose

My squad selection: i dont really have a main i think? it depends on who's narratively appropriate for the mission, then on who will help me most with their build. i try to make sure everyone has equal time cause i wanna see them all....

Favourite In-game romance: well it's def thane if youve known me a while youd know i used his name for like over a year while i was figuring out my gender stuff xD also garrus and tali ofc <3 but tbh they're all good!! with the exception of jacob cause bioware did him so dirty ugh

Other pairings I like: joker/edi, miranda/ashley, miranda/jack are some of my faves but tbh this world is my playground i WILL mix and match them xD

Favourite NPC: jenkins nihlus and aethyta, i kind of really want her to [liara shoots and kills me]

Favourite Antagonist: Saren for sure i need him to choke me

Favourite Mission: Priority: Tuchanka probably... i love mordin so much and his arc... beautiful

Favourite Loyalty Mission: Tali!!!

Favourite DLC: arrival. ok no lmao. omega probably!

Control, Synthesis or Destroy: destroy i guess but only because i pretend the geth and edi dont die lmao.

Favourite Weapon: black widow!!!!!

Favourite Place: Rannoch

A quote I like: Tali's 'The difference was you.' and 'I got better. I got you.' (very romance specific i know i love her okay) garrus's 'gray... i dont know what to do with gray.' legion's 'do these units have a soul?' kolyat saying 'the prayer was for you' when wrex says shepard is a sister to him

im gonna go cry now

[vigilskeep]

I think Aveline is the character hurt most by everything in DA2 being the first draft. Like it feels like everything about her is just at the first concept stage whereas some characters feel like they were a little further along.

Idk that Donnic would be the most appealing man ever on a second or third draft but I think it would be more obvious why *Aveline* likes him.

yeah i guess so. idk im not sure whether thats a case of it not being “finished” necessarily or if it’s just like badly written. wait who wrote aveline

ok it was a man i just had to check. btw are you telling me fr that one man wrote lelianas song, a paragon of her kind, AND sera... “average bioware writer writes problematic wlw representation every game” factoid actually just statistical error. problematic wlw representation georg, who lives in cave & writes over 10,000 problematically represented queer women a day—

ANYWAY my point is that while yes all da2 writing is very rushed and aveline’s probably suffered from that, i also think sometimes a man and a woman are standing next to each other and that’s literally enough for some writers tbh. the narrative pretty much fails to engage with aveline as a complex or flawed character which is like why her act 2 personal quest is comedic relief rather than the character-defining plot everyone else gets, and why her act 3 emotional state solely hinges on whether or not she got a man

[lordbhreanna]

I feel it in my fingers, I feel it my bones, N7 Day is around the corner, and so feelings grow.

It happens every year, even if I know we'll get the tiniest bits of breadcrumbs. I'm not even sure the next Mass Effect will see the light of day, given BioWare's situation, but...

Nothing hits like home as this saga does, I'm sorry. I have resumed my MELE playthrough (on ME3 right now, doing Rannoch missions) this week instead of playing BG3 because I am itching fore more 🪐SPACE OPERA🪐 , more NORMANDY and more SHEPARD.

The only thing that's more or less feeding my ME brainrot, beside playing the games, is watching Babylon 5. I started the show some months ago for the first time and it got me pretty hooked, to the point I had to binge-watch the last episodes of season 1 yesterday. For a show that's from the 90s, it has aged incredibly well, and I do appreciate the 90s scifi aesthetic as well, tbh. It has its own charm. And you can see it was an influence on Mass Effect, no question. Just like watching some episoded of TNG and thinking: "Ok, so this is where this mission in ME comes from..."

I would also rewatch The Expanse again, but... I finished my last one just a few months ago. I need to give the books a chance at least before I go at it again. (Or wait for an opportunity to rewatch it with the BF or friends, I will use any excuse.)

And I am still hooked on BG3 and loving every moment of it, don't get me wrong. I already reached Act 3 (barely started), but I miss the space setting, I'll be honest. I love fantasy, but I've always been more of a space opera kind of woman. However, gamewise, I'm not sure Starfield will be my thing, even though the setting and story are intriguing.

In any case, I'll be here waiting for my favorite ME youtube channels to dissect every little detail of those N7 Day crumbs like a madwoman.

[greypetrel]

Hiii, 17 and 23 for the fandom asks? 👀✨

Hulloooo ✨💜✨

(pretty bummed that this is the only gif for this song, but bear with me)

Tis the prompt list

17. the thing in canon that everyone loves and that you also love

The mabari in DAO is named Barkspawn. I love a good pun. Speaking of which: the fact that Alistair's motivation is revenge. And that it's so strong that if you don't allow him to have it... No matter how approval you had with him, no matter the romance: he tells you to fuck off and goes his own way. It's such an unusual thing for the trope he represents that just blows my mind. I was dead sure I would have hated him or found him boring as a character, I generally don't enjoy paladins much... I am so glad I was wrong.

Also, Zevran. As a character. Bioware, remaster the game and allow him to gift him Spritz. He deserves his spritz with cicchetti. I am sure that Antiva is Spanish-speaking Venezia ok.

23. the fandom you're curious about because of a mutual

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Because of someone. Also I'm so close to look for the White Queen, again your gifset has been... Convincing. :P

Unrelated (I am weak for period dramas): Dungeon Meshi. My love for manga/anime got cold in the years, but I'm seeing art and pages reblogged by mutuals and... I'm getting curious.

[v-arbellanaris]

Re the power struggle between the Grey Wardens and the Chantry. You can also snatch Anders right from the templars grasp and it's possible that a big reason why he's left alone in DA2 is because he's a Grey Warden. Anders hardly makes his actions in DA2 a secret. He is loudly rebelling, yet the templars leave him alone.

That's why the whole Warden arc in DAI makes no sense. The Chantry and kingdoms of Thedas have no authority over the Wardens, but an upstart order who is effectively nothing but a branch of the Chantry does?

YES! i started writing the post abt the wardens in the middle of collating more info about it but i was so gobsmacked at how much there was just pre-ostagar that i wrote the post before getting to the rest of the series and then the post blew up LMAO

i think part of anders not getting snatched up by templars when he's in the party with you is just nonsense mechanics stuff (they should've had a quest like they did in dao -- tho i think that quest was deleted lmao -- where if you try hand morrigan over to the templars, she leaves the party permanently, or even like in lothering where they can ask that templar what he'd do with an apostate and he susses out that you and morrigan are mages and goes "ive got bigger problems than apostates atm") BUT there is dialogue & quest stuff confirming that the templars raid darktown fairly often looking for him outside of whenever he comes on quests with you, so i dont think he was untouched because he was a warden.

if anything, i think him being a circle mage seemed to be more important than him being a warden since the chantry explicitly sends templars after him while he's with the wardens. to repeat: the chantry sends templars to hunt down warden mages, which is fucking illegal. wardens exist outside of the jurisdiction of the chantry! they have no right to drag warden mages into the circle, even if the warden mage was originally an apostate OR if they were a circle mage. AND justinia was canonically looking for the warden to become inquisitor before she sent cassandra looking for hawke -- the implications for a surana/amell are pretty horrifying.

i hated HLTA for so many reasons, but mostly, i hated it because it justified the inquisition taking action against the wardens, as if they had a right to it. "we're going to stop the wardens from summoning demons to fight the darkspawn and kill the archdemons" and that's a bad thing because Summoning Demons Is Bad, as if blood magic isn't the most effective thing against darkspawn (which! considering the implications of red lyrium being magic repelling is so fascinating. does being a grey warden mean some of your connection to the fade is messed up???). as if wanting to end the blights is bad -- we have solas calling the wardens ignorant and stupid as if the wardens killing archdemons and fighting darkspawn isn't the only thing that has saved the world every time a blight has erupted. and it pisses me off that no real reason is ever given for WHY it's a bad idea, we're just supposed to take it at face value that because solas, an elven god who definitely knows more than we do just trust bioware ok, says its a bad idea, it's a bad idea. the warden's plan is a bad thing because Someone Else Will Use The Demons To Take Over The World and Only The Wardens Could Ever Summon This Many Demons as if kirkwall doesn't have shades popping up outside of the hanged man every other day. corypheus was literally in kirkwall???

it would've been something if corypheus was using the wardens to get the location of the archdemons. wouldn't it tie into his crisis of faith and the sense of danger so much more? he's gone looking for his gods but raising them is definitely going to cause a double blight. but why bother raising the stakes or creating any level of danger for corypheus, right? that's not the point of the game :)

and yeah, the inquisition 100% has no authority or leg to stand on to engage with the wardens or even to kick them out of orlais. yet the quest -- and most of the game -- is framed in such a way that these actions seem justified. in general, this quest was a clumsy way to end a conflict that's been building over the course of the entire franchise -- which can be said about any of the longstanding conflicts addressed in dai tbh.

[fandom-geek]

finished ostagar and lothering last time, so time for my second round of re-playthrough thoughts

the cinematics continue to be excellent, and you can really see the (at the time) recent lotr inspiration with how the battle goes down. kinda weird that the mages weren't ordered to attack alongside the archers, though. rip cailan, duncan, et al., i hardly knew ye.

it's interesting to think that (as per the wiki) that cailan knew that alistair was his brother. for all his talk of riding off into glorious battle, he still chose to give alistair what should've been a remarkably safe task. given cailan's character, i'm fairly sure it's motivated by a fairly straightforward "protect my little brother" desire, but it's interesting nonetheless

gameplay wise, i had completely forgotten that you unlock more tactics slots as you level up. it was annoying at first, but the more i think about it, the more it's a bit ingenious. it means that you have to get to grips with micromanaging your party in combat before you can just rely on the ai to take control of them successfully, in a bit of a reverse difficulty swing. i actually quite like it.

da:o's politicking plot isn't exactly the most subtle or terribly complicated, but it's still very well written. admittedly i've seen, like, one cutscene from that side plot so far, namely the landsmeet cutscene after ostagar, but still. you get very immediate and clear impressions of almost everyone involved - bar anora, who is being remarkably silent but clearly respects teagan, and eamon, who is busy being comatose.

and another hit from the 'definitely 00s worldbuilding' - leliana and morrigan's banter immediately posits that, if morrigan isn't an andrastian, she must be an atheist in our sense of the word. despite, yknow, for all intents and purposes being chasind, who have their own animist beliefs and shamans. i know morrigan is far from an even remotely typical chasind (thanks to her ancient elven god mother), but it's still a very 00s choice of them.

speaking of her ancient elven god mother. i got that banter where morrigan talks about how flemeth would seduce chasind men, bring them back home to have sex with her, kill them, then tell morrigan this was also expected of her as an adult. flemeth is winning the worst mother of the age award by a country fucking mile and we haven't even touched on morrigan's "i'm fairly sure my mother is going to kill me and possess my body" thing yet. what the fuck, flemeth???

that said, i am also this close to putting alistair and morrigan in a get along shirt. i hadn't really considered it before, but they're both deeply sheltered young adults who... aren't exactly in a good state btwn the aforementioned childhood and alistair losing his newfound family. add in my poor cousland who's dealing with all of this, the potential loss of any justice for their family, the actual loss of their family, plus her concern abt whether fergus is even alive... it's the trauma trio alright. not that anyone in the party is particularly well adjusted except for wynne and maybe sten, if only by qunari standards. perhaps shale too

(all of alistair and morrigan's bickering also led me to rewatching alistair and morrigan's conversation in da:i and ok. bioware did nail that. it's so wonderful to see how they grow over the next decade, especially with kieran in the picture.)

speaking of companions - leliana! it is probably some more 00s worldbuilding that everyone's reaction to her saying she had a vision that the maker wants her to go with them is that she's out of her mind, but it's funny enough that it works. also helps that we are talking about two grey wardens who have been publicly accused of treason and regicide, and a chasind-looking apostate. like.... yeah, even if you believe in the maker, having a random sister help you shank some guys in the pub then tell you that is probably a bit hard to get behind. not that that'll ever stop me from recruiting her, lol.

i had, uh. kinda forgotten that sten was imprisoned for murdering an entire family, children included. the things you forget after a decade, huh? i haven't really engaged with him beyond that because i figured my warden was not dumb enough to bring the convicted murderer running around the town where he got convicted, so, uh, yeah. need to talk to him in camp and figure him out more.

aside from that, not much more to add. i had actually forgotten abt the quest boards, then i only remembered the chanter's board, so imagine my surprise when i see the blackstone irregulars too. not the nicest bunch, but it's good xp either way. i'm fairly sure there's at least one more faction offering quests but i have basically zero memory of this beyond the chanter's boards, so i'm looking forward to rediscovering that whole thing.

[mrs-gauche]

WOW, so volume 3 of The Missing is out and… what the heck just happened? 😂 I feel like this volume left me with more questions than the previous two volumes combined. There are some VERY intriguing lore bits in this one (and also a lot of.. questionable stuff again, too lol). It messed with my head in every possible way, so I hope I can somehow collect my thoughts by writing them all down under the cut. You know the drill. :D So let’s dive into it.

(Btw, I've already talked about the matter of each volume being drawn by a different artist in my post on volume 2, so I’ll just say that, out of the three art styles we got so far, I probably like this one the least? Maybe it was just me, but I found myself a bit confused at times by the visuals and what was happening? lol Of course, this is all subjective and it's not bad or anything, I just liked the previous ones better, I guess. But hey, it’s nice to see that, apparently this new artist got BioWare’s memo on Varric’s (and Harding’s) new design, too. lol So, no sudden design change again, like we got from volume 1 to 2. Though is it just me or does Harding’s hairstyle keep changing in every volume? lol Makes me wonder what it‘ll end up being if we get to see her again in DA4 (because she‘s obviously going to be a companion 👀.)

- So we start off with a neat one page kinda “roadmap”/”montage” of Varric and Harding traveling to our next destination, Arlathan Forest….. by ship? (*still crossing fingers for a ship main base in DA4 btw*) Ok, I know I said I would stop nitpicking about every little thing in this story that seems to happen out of “plot convenience” after the last volume, but.. I just have so many questions here already. 😂

Ok, so.. how exactly did they even manage to make it out of Vyrantium like that? Are the Antaam who are setting the siege on the city, in addition to not knowing about people getting in and out of the city through the sewage, ALSO not aware of/don’t care about people leaving the city by ship? 😂 I mean, I would assume that the Antaam still have a strong naval power under their belt with all those dreadnoughts and what not, so… were Varric and Harding just incredibly lucky or are the Antaam just really bad at setting a siege? lol

In fact, why even take the risk to travel by ship in the first place? lol Especially considering how in the first chapter of Tevinter Nights, it was said that the Antaam were occupying the shores along the Arlathan Forest, so…. did they just retreat after the events of that chapter or.. again, are Varric and Harding just incredibly lucky to have not come across their camps when they reached the shores? 😂 ANYWAY.

- Nope. Luckily, they don‘t encounter any Antaam OR their dreadnoughts, but they do come across a few shipwrecks that *are* probably the result/aftermath of some sea battles between the Qunari and Tevinter, I assume? OR, my other guess, seeing as there is also this giant sea monster depicted on the map right along Varric and Harding’s route…

....maybe those ships fell victim to one of those lovely creatures. lol (Remember that DA4 codex entry in one of the BioWare Community Updates about motherflippin Sea Dragons??) There certainly seems to be a good chance for a generally far more “oceanic” setting in DA4! 👀👀

Btw, I’ve also seen people being confused about there being icebergs in the northern sea? lol

I mean, we already established snow on the equator (confirmed by Mark Darrah himself lmao), so I don’t see a problem with some ice in the nocen sea. lol

- Anyway, leaving the sea behind us… We then get a gorgeous establishing shot of our next location, prompting me to say.. Welcome to Inception Forest I mean Arlathan Forest!

Things have indeed become very strange in this place, it seems. 

My first question upon seeing this was actually how old some of these twisted structures and the ruins we see throughout this volume might be? Seeing as the general assumption seems to be that this forest was the place where the capital city of Elvhenan Arlathan once stood, and imo it’s as good as confirmed at this point that Arlathan is/was the Golden/Black City in the center of the Fade, I’d say it makes a lot of sense that magic ran wild here after Solas created the Veil and did whatever to take Arlathan to the Fade, along with some very angry trapped gods inside? lol Unless we believe that other story in which, according to Tevinter, Arlathan sank onto the ocean floor after some massive blood ritual, long after the Veil was created. Either way, the Veil/magic/spirits going bonkers in this place could be traced back to a lot of historic events.

What I am kinda missing in this panel though (besides Harding’s hair color, I guess lol) and throughout this whole volume actually, are the golden/autumn leaves we’ve been seeing in all the concept art/illustrations thus far?

Though maybe that’s just a stylistic choice by the artists?

And again, sorry for the nitpick, but plot convenience strikes again as we just so happen to walk into this very helpful group of people. lol

- Irelin and Strife!! <333 Another space to cross out on our speculation bingo card. lol And as expected, judging by their design, they are in fact the people we’ve been seeing in all the concept art/teaser trailer/etc.

- I don't know but something about the art style, the way this panel is drawn, the overall design of those guys and just the name "Veil Jumpers" is giving me huge 80s rock band vibes. 😂 Like, I was looking at this, thinking "So, when's their album coming out?" Because damn, I'll be the first to buy it! 😂

- I'll be honest, that is not at all what I imagined Strife to look like when I was reading Tevinter Nights. lol I'd say he definitely lives up to his name. 😂 He kinda reminds of Sten..? What with the hair and facial features. Also, he wasn't described to have vallaslin in TN? So did he get it after the events in the book? And speaking of similarities.. Doesn't Strife also look a lot like this one guy from the DA4 concept art?

Idk, but given the height and the skin tone, I always assumed that this has to be a hornless qunari? But upon closer inspection, the ears don't really look all that pointy, so... maybe it's just a *really* tall human? 😂 (Or sneaky BioWare once again messed with this image in editing.. I just KNOW that “Shotgun Girl” is Harding and they edited the weapon in the line up concept art to not look like Bianca and her height to resemble that of a human to fool us! I’m ONTO you, BioWare…. 👀)

- So.. the thing about Strife…

While in Tevinter Nights, he was described as a city elf from Starkhaven who eventually joined a Dalish clan, there is an interesting theory floating around that he might actually be an ancient elf. 👀 For one, he appears to be taller than the regular elf, which we know for a fact that at least some of the ancient elves were a lot taller than modern elves (Solas being a special little snowflake again lol).

His facial features are also quite similar to most of the qunari we’ve seen thus far, which could point to the theory of the Kossith being the product of some ancient elven experiments with dragon blood.

There’s also the matter of his name. “Strife” reminds me a lot of how the ancient elves like to take on a defining attribute/purpose in life as their namesake (e.g. Solas/Pride, Abelas/Sorrow, Felassan/Slow Arrow), so “Strife” might’ve literally been his name in ancient times that he now just translated into the common tongue.

- So as it turns out, the Veil Jumpers are simply an “alliance between the best Dalish mages, hunters and other non-elves willing and able to contain the threat of the chaos that reigns over the Arlathan Forest”, which has me wondering how many Dalish clans living here are currently missing a mage, what “containing the chaos” actually means and how they’re able to withstand the effects of some of the strange magic that we see throughout the volume. Also, how do non-elves even get to join them in the first place? Where do they come from?

- I gotta say, Irelin actually *does* look a lot like how I pictured her in the book. lol I like the fur she has going as a little hint at her shapeshifting abilites.

- We're also introduced to two completely new characters called Binde and Tist Tits (I SWEAR, I misspelled it the first time, but since I have the humor of a twelve year old and as a German, the pun is just too good to miss because "Binde" is also literally the German word for "menstrual pad", I'm just not gonna correct myself lmao), who don’t have much of a role or dialogue in this volume, but I still like their design a lot!

- So in conclusion, so far I’m loving the diversity of the Veil Jumpers, seeing as *cough* obviously this is one of the factions you’ll get to choose for your protagonist in DA4, so you won’t be limited to play as an elf *cough* and I’m very excited to learn and see more about them! :D

(- Btw, does anyone know what happened to Myrion? lol I would love to see him again in DA4, having joined Strife and the Veil Jumpers after the events in TN! <3)

- Varric interrupting Harding seems to be a running gag at this point. lol What also seems be a bad running gag by now is half the artists of this comic forgetting about Harding's freckles somehow. 😂 Well, at least they didn't forget about her scar this time around. lol

- Also, Varric and Harding starting off WAY too trusting again, when they don’t even know if these guys could be affiliated with Solas‘ agents or something? lol Also, they don’t even have anything to prove their claims here. Basically, there should be no reason for the Veil Jumpers to trust Varric and Harding either, especially given that they’re after some super powerful ancient artifact….. but we have to further a plot, so we’re friends now, I guess. lmao

- lmao Yeah, because apparently the Inquisition just can’t affort to send out more than these two goofballs to stop the end of the world. And I still admire your optimism here Harding, but again, given that Solas was already several months ahead of you in the last volume, how could you possibly still believe to find it before him or the Venatori at this point? 😂

- Well, I think you guys underestimate our indestructible Mr Varric “Plot Armor” Tethras. This man has survived two whole games, including several DLC, a book and like a dozen different comic series. He’ll manage, I’m sure. lmao

- I'm sorry, but how the hell does this map even WORK?? LMAO Like, how are you supposed to use this for any sense of orientation or direction?? I swear, this is what it looks like if I tell a six year old to draw a treasure map. 😂

- The weird map aside though, I think the concept of these different “trials” could make for some really fun features in DA4, gameplay wise? Like, can you imagine level design with entire upside down sections or messing with time like in the Prince of Persia games for example? I think there’s sooo much potential here for some really cool creative level design ideas!

- Now, this was super trippy! Switching places with spirits like that is definitely a first and I can’t even begin to think about what all this could indicate in terms of established lore?? Like, how does this work? What kind of spirits are those? I’ve got a lot of questions here.

„Then you’ll be trapped down here. Forever.“

- Wow, thanks Strife, would’ve been very nice to have known that *beforehand*. lmao

- I assume these are the poor people who met that very fate then, which is horrifying, to say the least. I don’t even want to guess how many ages some of them must be trapped there, seemingly unable to die? *shiver*

- I… What kind of face is THAT? lmao

- I’m impressed by Harding seeming to adapt to all of this quite well compared to Varric. Maybe she should consider becoming a Veil Jumper some day. lol

- Next up is the “upside down” trial and in relation to this, I’d like to shamelessly use this opportunity once more to refer to this little theory I posted a few weeks ago. :D

- Also, hey look, Leopards! That’s new!

- THIS whole series of events messed with my head so much on my first read.. Like, I had to re-read this part four times and I still don‘t fully understand what happened here, but we’ll get back to this moment by the end (you know what I’m talking about). lol

Though I felt SO bad for making fun of Varric rapidly aging in my last post when I saw him suddenly collapse like that. 😶 Also, was I the only one thinking about what it must’ve been like for the ancient elves to experience something similar when Solas created the Veil and time got distorted, without even knowing what physically aging even meant before that? Like, that must’ve been horrifying as well.

„I think it’s better I don’t even try to understand what just happened…“

You and me both, Varric. lol

- That’s certainly a VERY different kind of Varterral than what we’re used to. lol Though I really like this new design, gives me LOTR Ents vibes! Can’t wait to fight against one of these guys in DA4. *nervous laughter*

- I want to point out that this has to be the very first time in this entire comic so far that someone actually comes up with a plan before jumping into action. lmao Really appreciate you for that, Irelin. <3

- WOAH OK, hold on a second??? There’s so much to this panel that I don’t even know where to start. lol I literally gasped out loud.

Ok first off, the mural on the right. Obviously, this is the same mural that we saw in the 2020 teaser trailer, which indicates that this has to be the same place then, too, right? (Unless Solas is just walking around leaving his signature graffiti all over Thedas. lol Though I do wonder why this one looks way more “crumbled” than what we saw in the teaser?)

The mural on the left though is new and probably the juciest part about this whole volume for elven lore scholars. lol I’ve already seen many people speculate, so I’ll just say that my initial thought on this was also Ghilan’nain and Andruil!

So, there are two figures that appear to be female with some very familiar headpieces, who seem to embrace each other in some way. The shape of the headwear seems to also align with some of the symbols we’ve seen in the latest cinematic, which are widely assumed to represent the Evanuris.

And the upper figure looks a lot like the one seen in the teaser and the concept art, which going by the fandom’s most popular assumption, could very likely be Ghilan’nain.

As far as we know, the only females in the elven pantheon are Mythal, Sylaise, Andruil and Ghilan’nain. And out of those four, Ghilan’nain and Andruil are believed to have been lovers. So, if that’s what we’re seeing in this mural, that would actually be a huge deal, since, well, up until now, we didn’t even know what any of them looked like!!

There also seems to be an ominous third person, cramped up in the lower corner of the mural, which does kinda resemble the red lyrium idol, like the amazing @felassan​ has also pointed out in this post!

And while looking at this, I realized that those garments and headwear are also very reminiscent of some Tevinter designs we’ve seen, particularly the Archon’s outfit?

Which imo could hint at Tevinter once again just adopting a lot of ancient elven concepts into their own culture after they conquered them all these ages ago. Like, it’s surely no coincidence that the mage-ruler of the Imperium looks so much like the most powerful rulers of Elvhenan?

I’ve also seen people saying that the red female appears to be pregnant?? I’m not so sure though, it’s hard to tell from the angle and the way it’s draw. 🤔 But if true, it would definitely raise *a lot* of questions.

Though I can’t believe I haven’t really seen anyone actually point out the most baffling part about all of this!

Which is, why the flippin hell would Solas even choose to draw such imagery in the first place?? lmaoo (Assuming that the right mural was probably made by him, too. Which suggests that he drew this one as well.) Like, is Solas treating these ruins like his personal drafts for his secret tumblr side blog, drawing intimate GhilxAndy fanart?? Solas, you owe us ANSWERS, Sir!

And funny enough, the art style does make it kinda look like these murals are more like giant wallpapers rather than actual frescoes. lol

- ANYWAY, since there’s still a lot more to get to, let’s talk about the “Big Shocking Reveal”.

And I’m not talking about the fact that Solas has apparently taken the Crucious Stone long before they got there.. No, that wasn’t even remotely surprising to me. 😂

No, I’m of course talking about Varric thinking it was Solas who saved him from that Leopard. lmao

THIS made my head spin in so many ways, and it kinda still does lol, so I’ll make an attempt now to make sense of this the best I can.

So, let me get this straight… The way I take it, the supposed “Venatori assassin” ran up to Varric out of seemingly nowhere, shoved him aside, then Varric “aged back”, the Leopard jumped on the assassin instead, turned into a kitten and then the assassin essentially…. disintegrated? lol At least, that’s what it looks like to me...

All right. So if that’s what happened, then I feel like there are several possible scenarios here.

A) That Venatori guy was actually real, but was somehow manipulated by Solas to do this.

B) Solas made a spirit possess the guy or there was never a real person in there to begin with.

C) Solas actually pulled another “Bard” disguise and dressed up like the Venatori assassin himself (although I don’t know exactly what happened to him then when he “vanished” after that kitten attack lmao), which I guess would also retrospectively suggest that the Venatori who had been stalking Varric and Harding since volume 1 was also Solas himself all along……

*sigh*

You know, honestly I had this silly thought in the back of my mind from the very beginning, like I kept laughing to myself, what if this Venatori was actually Solas all along... but I guess I just refused to ever write it down in my previous posts because… I thought it was just.. too ridiculous? 😂

And I don’t particularly mean the disguise part, obviously ever since “the Bard”, anything is possible. lmao

No I mean.. Why.. the heck.. would Solas… stalk Varric and Harding, while setting them up on this loooong friggin goose chase through half of the country and leave all those clues for them to follow his tracks…. only for Varric.. to find this letter.. telling him NOT to interfere??? What was the purpose of all this then?? Like, how does this make sense?? 😂 Someone help me understand… That being said, I just really hope it was either case A or B. 😂 Or Varric is just.. wrong? lol OR I should simply stop questioning the logic of this very simple comic. 😂 As long as the actual game’s writing doesn’t leave me with a headache, I’m good.

Though in hindsight, it IS pretty funny how I even kept saying how crappy the Venatori was at his job. lol Like them leaving the X pattern on that deepstalker in volume 1 was such a strange thing to do? And if it turns out to be case C, then I can already see Solas trying to pull this number on us again in DA4. lmao I guess the game’s slogan will be “Trust no one.” It could be Solas in disguise. 💀

- I love how Solas apparently made his own customized Dread Wolf signet ring for a wax seal AND proceeded to even sign the letter with his name, as if there could be ANYONE else leaving a letter like this addressed to Varric in such a place. lmao This MAN!

- Oh dear, Solas really was like „Please Varric, elven mythology already turned me into their greatest villain in history, I don’t want to be one in yet another smuddy literature popular narrative…“ lmao

- I’m a little confused by this conclusion, seeing as the previous volume mentioned that magic had already “run wild in Arlathan Forest for at least a 1000 years”. So I thought this was nothing that happened just recently because of Solas‘ actions? Though maybe Irelin is talking about something else? Or the state of Arlathan has somehow gotten even stranger since Solas started to prepare something for his big ritual he mentioned in Tevinter Nights?

- It’s also interesting to note that, out of all the factions we’ve come across so far in this comic, the Veil Jumpers are now the only ones who actually got to know Solas‘ name and identity?

- So that’s where we’re leaving off and looking at the blurb for the final volume again, I’m curious to see how all this will now tie back to Minrathous and if the Crucious Stone is even going to play any significant role at all. lol As you might've noticed there were a lot of "why" questions here, which I doubt any of them will be answered in the final volume, so... I guess we're just left to wait for what's in the actual game then. 😂

If anything, the preview of the final cover does seem to complete our speculation bingo card, with how it continues to follow the pattern of the factions in the teaser/concept art/short stories from 2020.

So I assume the final faction, which is the only one still somewhat shrouded in mystery, is going to be have something to do with “The Viper“/Tarquin? 👀 So I’m very excited to find out who it’s gonna be and most of all, to get a look at the big city, Minrathous itself (and who knows, maybe we even get to see Solas in the very last panel or something)! Let’s see how all this ties in to DA4! :D

[omniblades-and-stars]

🍕 ❤️ 💚 🧠 for Korak and Crash pls I’m having a weird day and they’re comfort characters for me

I'll bring you the good stuff for our beloved saints Crash and Korak just for you Korbs.

🍕 - What is their favorite food?

Crash: I already answered this elsewhere, but now I am on my phone because I have to pretend to do my job, so I will copy it here.

"There is an elcor street food vendor on Omega that serves the best food out of a giant pot that Crash has ever tasted. She doesn't know what's in it (he must have told her a hundred times, but she's pretty sure it changes every time), but it's delicious."

Korak: OK, I made up a food one time and I can't even remember if I fucking named it because of who I am as a person. Basically, it's like a goulash, heavy on that one little snippet of world building Bioware gave us about there being a spice called ignac native to Khar'Shan, and full of all sorts of delightfully weird alien veggies. Korak is also quite fond of sukiyaki he's found.

❤️ - What is one of your OC’s best memories?

Crash: I gave an answer for Crash already, but she's such a joyful person, let's hit you with another. (I am coming up with this off the dome by the way.)

There was a young turian kid living on Omega who she knew well because his family lived in the same building as she did and he was often left unattended (latch key kid sort of situation). One day he comes to her crying because he can't find his ragged little stuffed varren toy.

Well, she went looking for it and found it pretty easily, the little scamp had dropped it just outside and it had gotten kicked out of the footpath. But instead of just giving it right back to him, she set up a little adventure/mystery for him to go on with her to rescue his toy.

They went mucking through the jungles of Sur'Kesh (the back alley behind the mega-complex) but alas! He was not there! So they trudging through the deserts of Tuchanka (an abandoned lot in front of an empty warehouse) and broke into the crumbling ruins of the evil krogan warlord's secret base (the warehouse) where they had a very intense imaginary battle to rescue the stuffed animal. Burn took a nasty wound to the snout, but our little turian hero was there to save the day and patch him up!

The best thing about this story is that her little buddy grew up and got off the station before it dragged him down or killed him like it so often does for so many others.

Korak: The first Nos Astra sunrise that Korak saw when he and Aumellio left Omega behind together. It was a simple thing. They were staying in a cheap hotel, didn't even have a place to actually live yet, all of their possessions condensed into a few not very large boxes. But leaning against a balcony rail together, watching a new beginning literally light up before them.

Cheap hotel coffee tastes really good when there's hope on the horizon.

💚 - What is your OC’s gender identity and sexuality?

Crash: You know, it's an interesting thing to think about, how krogan perform gender. The examples we get canon-wise in game, krogan society is deeply gendered at least culturally. The women have their own clans, their own spiritual practices even. Crash rejected all of that. She left Tuchanka which it seems like not very many krogan women do. She wears armor and has no desire to live like the women on her homeworld do. But she still identifies as "female" for whatever that might mean. If we base all of what we know of krogan females on Urdnot Bakara, one might say she's gender non-conforming at the very least.

Though I suspect all of this is just another failure on Bioware's part to include non-cis-male aliens in their initial world building.

Crash is firmly asexual and aromantic. (She does however like romance stories but she won't tell you that.)

Korak: Korak is a cis dude, and he's very much a gay man. There's not a lot to elaborate on there, he's a pretty simple guy.

🧠 - What do you like most about the OC?

Fuck how am I supposed to choose?

Crash: I think my favorite thing about Crash is how sure she is of herself and her joy. She made a conscious decision a very long time ago to live in a way that made her happy, made her feel fulfilled, and she does it with all of her hearts because she knows she's doing what she wanted all along.

Korak: My favorite thing about Korak is that he's actually a bit of a sweetheart and he's so lost trying to be a good dad, but goddammit he is giving it all he's got.

Plus he's kind of a hunk.

[seriouslyseravellan]

ok but the real question is why tf can amell/surana and mage!trevelyan have tattoos?? are there tattooists in the circles? do certain mages learn how to tattoo in secret? do they do it behind the templars' backs? they're all face tattoos they're not exactly easy to hide! are there templars who take on tattooing as a hobby and offer tattoos to random mages?? do the mages get to go out if they're very well behaved and get a face tattoo as a treat? tattoos don't really seem to me like something the templars would allow! and if tattoos aren't allowed then what is the punishment for the mages (like my surana) who VERY CLEARLY got massive designs tattooed on their faces? if they ARE allowed then are tattoos common in circles? like as a recreational activity amongst the apprentices? an easy opportunity to practise healing magic?? wHAT IS THE ANSWER BIOWARE??? are you gonna explain THAT in veilguard? HMMM????