#rook is actually a new one

[sweet-beezus]

Character (re)designing continues

[mohntilyet]

rook being such a nobody and surrounded by more influential companions right after the obviously well known inquisitor could be really cool actually. that conversation w solas 'what will they call you after this is done' <- NO FUCKING CLUE LOL!! the idea that this millennia long, world-ending story of gods and a herald being controlled for a moment by a nobody is incredible. they start as an irritant and end having saved the world. nobody thanks them. they go back home. maybe they're literally wiped off the face of the world when they're trapped in the fade with the dread wolf! and most of all, their name is not remembered. literally, because they become a 'rook' to the inquisitor's king.

like i’m actually really liking the idea that the inquisitor and rook get conflated into the same person by the public and by history, and what little agency they had is taken away. you were never in control of this story. your narrative will be written by other people, just like every figurehead that came before you. you are not the chosen one. the choice to have faded out and see the irrelevancy as a boon, or struggle to make your name known (not rook, not the nickname, not the title) would have been so. interesting.

veilguard is a heroic story (and the game doesn’t even let you be rude most of the time) that has to end heroically (the evanuris are defeated in some way, the last archdemon dies, and most rooks climb down from minrathous to literal cheers and applause) but the hero themself is forgettable. narratively that could have been so funnnn. but it wasn’t on purpose so it just feels hollow.

[wanderingibon]

the viago-crow rook dynamic makes me crazy i fear!!! the found family!!!! the layers!!! the care of it all!!!! the 'i am afraid of losing my protégé who I've come to regard as family but I don't exactly know how to convey that so I have to be stern toward them, remind them not to abandon their contract, so they aren't eaten up by the antivan crows like I know the organization can do and has done time and time again' i am literally rambling rn but i could write a whole essay i fear

[vaguely-concerned]

walking through lucanis' mind prison. the tam lin of it all

[hopeslastkiss]

'bad ending' solas and elf!rook - penance

web weaving insp. - pt.i - pt.ii

[aces-to-apples]

Every time I see screenshots of Veilguard romance options followed by complaints about them not being "actual flirting" I am more and more confused. Like call me crazy but I actually think even calling them "flirt" options is a misnomer that's doing us all a disservice. Like look at them. Look at the heart. It's not about the nebulous concept of flirting, it's about showing care. Showing love. And oftentimes that's not an asinine comment about how someone looks, but rather a piece of affirmation, an offer of help, or a reassurance that their needs (or even baggage) are okay (good, even) because that means they're with you for it.

[ieidolon]

now that i'm playing dragon age: veilguard i understand hbomberguy so much better. think i could probably do a 3.5 hours long video called "dragon age: the veilguard is FINE and here's why"

[parfettii]

roblox oc art ... lore later....

[hawkeshep]

actually Varric is alive and right next to me? no clue wtf you’re all on about

[riddlerosehearts]

TWST JUMPSCARE ON THE DISNEY WIKI????

yes this is the page for the box that the evil queen wanted to put snow white's heart in 😭 i needed to refresh my memory on how it looked because people were saying something about rook's box in his new groovy being the heart box, but i'm not sure about that because it kind of doesn't look anything like it. i guess the shape is the same and the green accent color is similar so it could be meant as a more subtle reference! though the one from tapis rouge looks exactly like the one in the movie, which is super cool and i haven't read that event so i had no idea that was a thing until just now.

edit: WAIT I'M SO STUPID HOLD ON... THE LAST IMAGE IN THIS SCREENSHOT IS FROM THE LIVE ACTION REMAKE... WE DON'T SEE THE FRONT OF THE BOX SO IT'S ACTUALLY PLAUSIBLE AS A REFERENCE TO THAT ONE??

[crossdressingdeath]

Today I am learning that I apparently care significantly less about callbacks and cameos than most people in this fandom. I mean, I'm worried about the Well choice yeah, but only because that's going to be awkward to write around if Morrigan and Quiz are both here. Otherwise a lot of it is like... yeah yeah, we won't get the Warden writing letters to us or whatever. Is Rook's story good, though. Everyone shut up about companion cameos for a sec, is Rook's story good. Like, would I like worldstate references? Yes. Absolutely. But seeing people genuinely decide that this game will be completely ruined by the lack of worldstate references is like... guys. Calm down. The game isn't about the Warden or Hawke or Quiz, it's a decade later on the other side of Thedas, please take a deep breath, set aside the anger at the lack of fun little callbacks, and really think through which choices would actually still be relevant in general. Then remind yourself that we don't actually know the full plot of this game, and what will or won't actually matter worldstate-wise is going to shift based on that. The lack of worldstate customization is unfortunate, yes. But it's not the end of the world. Did you play DAI for references to your worldstate, or for Quiz's story? Did you play DA2 to hear about what the Warden's up to, or to play Hawke? I absolutely get the disappointment and annoyance, Bioware really fucked up here, but this is not going to ruin DAV. If it'll ruin DAV for you then you probably wouldn't have liked it anyway. Dragon Age is not a callback factory, and this game is set much further from the others in both space and time than we've seen before in the series (the longest timeskip up to this point was what, three years?). Give it a chance before deciding that it's completely ruined because they simplified the worldstate.

[douglasfeiffel]

i am really enjoying impact winter but yet I find myself wondering the same thing I wonder when consuming most vampire media: if the vampires can control how much they drink from someone, why don't they? It's hard to see the vampires we're supposed to see as good people as good people when they're murdering non-vampires left and right when they could. according to the story itself. just not do that

[lulu2992]

Before things got better, they momentarily got worse…

(Although more violent things happen or have happened in Far Cry 5, I felt this needed a Mature Community Label, just to be safe)

Chronologically, this is the first time my Deputy Taylor’s story (you know, the one I’ll never fully write) really diverges from canon. This is also the least pleasant thing that happened between her and the Baptist.

Context and explanation under the cut:

While John is busy taking Hudson back to her “room”, Taylor manages to grab a knife in his toolbox (with her teeth) and to cut the ropes around her wrists. She considers leaving the Confession room to go look for her colleague, as we do in the game, but she quickly realizes that not only has she no idea where Hudson is, but that trying to find her way through an unknown, presumably huge bunker filled with cultists also isn’t the best idea. Instead, since the chair is still intact in this scenario, she decides to sit down, hold the ropes around her wrists to make it look like she’s still tied up, and wait for John to arrive so she can ask him where Hudson is… and maybe tie him up and steal his key, while she’s at it.

When he comes back, he seems relieved that she’s still here, and he politely (but not without a hint of irony) thanks her for her patience. She tenses when his eyes linger on the ropes for a few seconds, but he then simply smiles at her and asks if she’s ready to Confess her sins. She shrugs and replies that she doesn’t really have a choice.

“Very well,” he says. “But before we begin…”

He comes closer and leans over her, placing his hands on the ropes around her wrists.

“…did you really think that I wouldn’t notice?”

At this point, he’s not smiling anymore. Feeling suddenly cornered and in danger, Taylor pushes him over using her feet and a fight ensues, during which they mostly try to subdue (and not kill) each other. He’s a more powerful opponent than she expected him to be, partly because he’s absolutely furious that she “betrayed” him, and anger makes him stronger. At one point, he even manages to overpower her and, in pure rage, puts his hands around her neck.

A few seconds later, the Deputy’s survival instinct will cause her to deal a powerful blow to the Baptist’s left cheek, effectively knocking him out.

Taylor was wearing a t-shirt when she woke up in the bunker, but it was ripped open by John, as it is in the game, and she lost what was left of it in the fight. She even briefly used it as a “weapon” to try to make him lose his balance. That said, I want to stress that this scene isn’t supposed to look sexy, and they were too busy fighting to really pay attention to that anyway. John also lost his glasses that day, as you can see on the right of the picture.

I don’t know if you noticed the bruises on Taylor’s neck, on her knuckles, and on John’s cheek here, but if you did, that explains them.

Later in the story, when their Wrath has considerably subsided and their relationship has positively evolved, they will get to talk about this incident again so they can move forward together. Acknowledging your past helps you build a better future.

[vaguely-concerned]

actually the more I listen and compare the more I think that a better way to describe the difference between the british masc rook voice and the american one overall is that the british sounds like a very real person who is being genuinely fierce and determined despite the fact that they are scared and understand the gravity of the situation. and the american one sounds like they might really be deeply fucking nuts enough that when the chips are down they are not even really afraid they're busy being a creature of pure 'go go go!!' fjdsklfjsa. when they really hit their stride they become less a person, more some divine instrument being used for the wildest improvised guitar solo you could ever imagine (and desperately trying to keep up with themselves as the rock ballad of inspiration sure is Happening To Them So Much). BIG moist von lipwig vibes, for those in the fandom overlap

[chumett]

In order to excuse the seemingly weird inconsistencies with the lore/background of an elven mc I just hc that my LoF Rook lies all the time about her life before the Veilguard because she doesn't want anyone to know that her parents and brother are totally alive with her dalish clan in Rivain.

[largemandrill]

Thinking of just playing da4 again (with the same rook and build) but at a much higher difficulty because choosing the standard easy-ish mode may have hampered my experience a bit. This is obviously the main reason and not just so I can romance Davrin again shut the fuck up and get out of my house.