#stop being dramatic

[muddycherub]

I never want to get better again or be happy again. I can't take the pain from being depressed again out of nowhere. Over and over. Please I can't do it if this is all life is. GETTING BETTER AND THEN GETTING BAD AGAIN. WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO, LIVE WITH IT? WHY WOULD I???! THE ACHING OUTWEIGHS THE SMALL TIME I'M BETTER. IT'S SO MUCH WORSE EVERY TIME

[rigginsstreet]

People on here will be like “people do WHAT this way” and it’s a very common thing I am willing to bet they have seen portrayed all their life

[scribeofmorpheus]

Why Dragon Age Veilguard isn't a "Cathedral"

Concept art by Matt Rhodes

"To disinherit the storylines of past games goes directly against the notion of building cathedrals."

What is inherent with Veilguard that keeps bothering me is the fact that the world's choices truly didn't matter--and it doesn't simply bother me from a player perspective, it's not simply a grievance borne of frustration to what I (as a longtime fan) have lost. It's about the very culture of the arts under capitalism's new media habituation cycle [x][x].

Yes, I spent hours of my life playing and replaying each instalment of Dragon Age. Yes, I painstakingly curated a 'canon' world state by replaying what came before in preparation for Veilguard. Yes, I am even more unsatisfied with the end product--time hasn't helped, it's just widened the divide. But, and I can't stress this enough, these very personal gripes aren't what hit home the most. It's the inherent disregard of legacy. A legacy that the previous writers and game developers were building towards.

In the DAV artbook, "cathedral" is the word used to describe the process of making a game. Matt Rhodes' exact words are: "One artist can make a painting, but it takes a team to build a cathedral." Cathedrals took centuries to build. The architect who drafted the first blueprints would likely never see his work realised, he had to rely on those who came after him, like-minded and passionate, to see it through--for the culture, for the future, for legacy. Painters took on several apprentices for this reason too--giant frescoes were not completed by one man's hand, even if it is one man's name that immortalises them. Similarly, if you weave a narrative around choice, what good does it do to take it away at the final act if not to fall to caricature?

To disinherit the storylines of past games goes directly against the notion of building cathedrals.

Late-stage capitalism and profit-margin-obsessed game producers forcing developers to churn out meager content, to make a known brand into something it's not, to chase a fad or a popular trend... o, how reductive and cliche you've been forced to become Bioware. We have lost the cultural thought patterns relative to Cathedrals. We know only of barn-raised churches--done in a day but unlikely to last the turn of the seasons.

And don't even get me started on the music of Veilguard either. From Origins to World of Warcraft to Everquest to Baldur's Gate to Dungeon Siege, you can hear the intricate interconnected weave of sounds inspired by the Dungeons and Dragons-esque fantasy genre. You hear it in the repeated use of certain instruments, in the harmonic weeping notes of a bard-like singer or the foreboding echoes of drums as if of war. In tavern songs. But then, rather than hire someone who loves these worlds and this genre, who is a hungry artist looking to make a name, a legacy if you will, for themselves with a spectacular score, you hire any already sated composer, one well-into the encroaching years of career fatigue, whose notes repeat in countless projects, who feels less concise and more uninterested with each new project. One who has long since cemented his legacy. Someone in it for a paycheck and nothing else! And, to top it off, you let him compose something so minimalist? I am offended actually.

Cathedrals! We should have witnessed the final tile being placed on the Dragon Age cathedral. Instead, some architects walked up, tore down the interior and installed IKEA furniture and called it authentic before having to call the previous architects to come and fix the "load-bearing issues", forcing them to rush and add a coat of varnish and a few 'aged' details for authenticity.

[shepscapades]

When I first saw this I was mostly flooded with relatively angsty thoughts, but the more I tried to translate those thoughts realistically onto the page, the sillier and sillier they got =w=

[koipepo]

That omake of little Kabru not being able to show off his howetown sweets because of Misril gets to me a lot so...

Here's a happier Kabru (and Lairu)

[until-the-house-shakes]

Sirius: So Prongs.. when are you asking me to be your best man?

James: oh.. uh… about that.

Remus: I’m his best man.

Sirius: HUH???

James:… yeah. I uh

Sirius: IM YOUR BEST MATE! BEEN SO FOR YEARS AND THIS IS HOW I GET TREATED? AM I AT LEAST A GROOMSMAN?

James:.. not mine?

Sirius: What??

Regulus: oh for fucks sake. I want you to walk me down the aisle and be my best man.

Sirius: *tearing up* R-really???

[hoss-bonaventure]

this whole clip is sooooo funny to me out of content. “i know who you are” feels like a note you’d get from your homophobic bully in 6th grade.

[idontmindifuforgetme]

romance may be dead but I am not . I will continue to be hopelessly in love with everyone and everything

[tiger-grace]

Jason: everything I wish to or not to occur is inevitable

Cass: what

Jason: the illusion of events happening is limitless. in the grand scheme of the multiverse everything that could possibly happen to me will in some shape or form

Duke: his favorite string cheese brand got canceled and people are voting to bring it back or not

Jason: the folds of reality and choice allow endlessness. what does it matter at all if the vacuum that is inevitability consumes us in the end?

Tim: holy shit dude just ask bruce to buy it back for you

[okbutwhy-rebooted]

If that happened to me my toddler sisters woulda eaten that before I could take the pic

I don’t believe in god I don’t believe in hell I don’t believe in heaven I don’t believe in spirituality. I believe that when we die we cry in the dirt for eternity, and I welcome it.

[rosy-crow]

THANK YOU HAMAGUCHI YES

[alicentwhore]

Fuckin. Dumb and Dumber over here

[divorcedfiddleford]

and you may say to yourself: "my god! what have i done?" and you may tell yourself: "this is not my beautiful wife!" and you may tell yourself: "this is not my beautiful house!" and you may ask yourself: "well, how did i get here?"

time isn't holding up, time isn't after us, time is a pony ride! (images described in alt text)

[leixo-demo]

"😭😭😭 they disbanded" you guys love to spreand badly translated information just luke the idol fandom when people thought pearl and marina broke. They're on HIATUS, they stopped doing music and I belive and this is not copium, that It's because they're on their honeymoon AND NO MORE DISCUSSION

[emry-stars-art]

@vivireshar they kiss 🤲

[ghostlyarchaeologist]

Leverage S04E07 The Gone Fishin' Job.