#veilguard tag

[fleshwerks]

Wait what's the tea on the whole Davrin and Assan situation? I feel like I missed something. Are there links?

It was a Reddit AMA for Veilguard, and it was something of a disaster.

disclaimer: i'm not just lily myself, i'm also not north american, so i'm an outsider fan looking in when it comes to this issue, which does have a heavy, if not dominant, racially charged component, but here's what seems to be the gist of it.

So. When the game first came out, some people noticed and discussed the character Davrin, right? And expressed either worry or frustration with how this Dalish black male elf seemed very interesting, but his whole deal seemed to be dominated by Assan getting in the way with cute dog stuff. Whenever players tried to pry threads on his feelings about the Dalish, and other things out of him, it always seemed like inevitably, all things lead back to Assan and Assan's cute baby pet shenanigans.

So then, when it was time to choose between Harding and Davrin, there were entire reddit threads on the main sub, as well as plenty of Tumblr and bsky content about how everybody chose Davrin to die... until Assan dived after him, and presumably died as well. And then these fans admitted that they instantly reloaded an older save, and chose Harding to die instead. Entire threads of ''oh no, not the dog!"

It hadn't quite reached the fever pitch yet, but then the AMA rolled around.

Now, BW has a bad history with regards to treating their black companions with much dignity. And Bioware fans in turn have a bad history with saying mealy-mouthed shit like "I don't hate them because they're black, I hate them because they cheated on my Shepard (Jacob Taylor)/they're boring (Liam Costa)/they're bootlicker bitch (Vivienne)". That, and having a cast that either all pass the paper bag test, or if BW's generous, have one (1) black person that ends up controversial with the fans due to poor writing choices, or because fandom forgives, idk, solas, more for being Like That than it forgives a black character for comparatively minor trespasses. Double standard.

There's also the trope 'black dude dies first'. And in this case, the 'first to die' choice came down to a black man new character, and a popular white girl from a previous game.

Then the reddit AMA took place, and Epler had this to say:

And the fandom imploded. Some righteously, for Epler outright stating it that Assan dominating Davrin's entire character and being the emotional anchor that'd give Davrin a shot of being chosen over Harding, and for failing to make Davrin stand out enough on his own to compete against Harding (debatable. When it wasn't Assan hour, Davrin was great. Total mensch.) Which is fucked up.

Another part of the fandom suddenly felt like Bioware played them for fools and made them do a racist thing by appealing to them with the cute baby griffon, acting like they somehow got manipulated and not, in fact, entirely catered to.

And now there's further discourse and reaction towards that part of fandom, which I think reveals both BW and the fandom as frankly still rotten and not having learned a goddamned thing since earlier games: Bioware included Assan, because they knew Assan would be wildly popular and that Assan would be what'd give Davrin a shot at being chosen, not Davrin himself... and it worked. And some people keep coping with how 'Davrin's death 'made sense for his arc!' and completely try to downplay the fact that most people saved Davrin because the damned flying dog was too cute to die. That pale fandom can't really wash their hands of it, because BW deliberately catered to them with Assan, and it worked exactly as intended.

Some even got mad at Bioware for making Assan die with Davrin, because fuck the black guy I guess, how dare they make his flying dog be loyal to him until death, it hurts my feelings!

It's a clusterfuck with fans blaming bioware, bioware blaming fans, fans blaming other fans, 'go woke go broke' dickheads still on their same bullshit fanning the flames and neither/none of them realising that 'that' part of fandom, and bioware, deserve each other and mirror one another perfectly.

It's the pits, chief. If you're interested in more, you can search the #davrin tag and sort by 'latest', many people there having their own take and eloquent criticism that further elaborates.

[fvrtvne]

obligatory showing off my rook

[breadedsinner]

All the interesting characters and here I am making eyes at the human dude

[dissonantverses]

necropolis time yaaaay

[merrybandofmisfits]

90% freckle by volume in all verses

[eurodynamic]

"You like to walk a little too close to the edge..." "So do you."

LUCANIS DELLAMORTE ❤️‍🔥 Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024)

[nipuni]

Emmrich Volkarin 💀

[mynoodlesdoodles]

It's difficult to concentrate on spell casting when there's an Antivan short king behind you, gushing over your kills and tossing out compliments left and right...

[snarkspawn]

did I doodle this mostly so I had an excuse to draw this spite reaction image?

(YES HAHAHA YES!!!)

[houndvoice]

Y’all seen these videos

[harmonified]

[fleshwerks]

another thing I'm noticing on this re-run is that Neve and Harding know more than they should. This implies that a lot of the dialogue took place off-screen, but I feel like the moment of breaking the News to those two should've happened on-screen. Hell, I might've forgotten it, but did even Solas in the cutscene say it was Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain? If he did, it was basically in passing. So why the hell during the roundtable those two already talk like they know exactly who those two misty and obscured weirdos were in the breach, and moreover, why do they instantly believe it?

edit and why did they basically appear in the scene as if elevated by stage lifts? I feel with cutscenes in general, people get ushered in. Solas gets some artsy framing, but everybody else's like 'we need to get this mf in, just.... put them there'.

anyway, like it feels like we're already in the battle planning stage with everybody on board. which hearkens back to my grievances about how everybody's so united and friendly already. at the very least this moment should've resulted in some Reactions. But we didn't even get that Moment, let alone Reactions. Where's the doubt? The fear? Mortals have never ever experienced something even close to this, and dudes are just hanging out on their sofas knowing Ghil's and Elgar'nan's resumes and going 'yea we gotta stop them.'

THERE'S THREE OF YOU!

CORYPHEUS issue had a more serious, grave war table going on!

[ruushes]

all you really need to make a good first impression on the ceo's grandson is for him to have suffered a year of solitary confinement

[breadedsinner]

I feel genuinely bad for people who shipped their Inquisitors with Harding but I think for the sake of Progress you're going to just have to take the L on this one.

[dissonantverses]

ahhh no way this game lets me execute my exact headcanon for these two! absolutely delighted. let there be coffee person on tea person violence

[hextechmaturgy]

as they say, sharing is caring