#wicked answers things

[lizzybeeee]

DATV is overly reliant on Supplemental Media - especially if you are a returning player

TL;DR: Supplemental material should not be required reading in order to understand what's going on in the main game -> it's additional material that enhances what we were given. If what we were given is lacking and unable to coherently tell us a story, then the writers and those in charge did not prioritize what was important.

Not a take that's unique to Dragon Age, but one that is very relevant when talking about DATV. I've made a few posts about plot/story points that either make no sense or have been dropped entirely in the lead up from DAI to DATV. Every now and then I get a few comments or messages about how certain points I made were addressed in supplemental material released in the lead up to this games release.

This isn't a call out post, by the way! But it's frustrating, to me, that this games writing is so lacking that my understanding is being inhibited because I can't remember details from a book I read two years ago - not to mention various podcasts, comics, and short stories. My understanding of a video game in a video game series should not be reliant on additional/optional content.

DATV is a weird game in that it is absolutely a 'soft/scorched earth' reboot while also marketing itself as a continuation to what was set up in Inquisition and Trespasser. Personally, I think that if you are up to number 4 in a game series, one with a continuous story-line, it should be expected that new players won't be able to catch up to everything -> it's the game developers job to make the world and story intriguing enough that the new players will go back to previous games in the series and fill in the blanks themselves.

Veilguard, as a sequel, is overly reliant on content that comes from outside the games themselves (including DLC's) if you want to make sense of the world and story. Trespasser left us with an epilogue that set up some plot points for the next game: Solas & the Veil, the Elven Rebellion, and War with the Qun - plot points that have been built up since the time of Origins. But when we get into DATV two of these points have been dropped and resolved, off-screen.

There are more questions, but these are the ones that bothered me the most while playing the game:

What happened to the Agents of Fen'harel/ Elven Rebellion? -> answered in a cursed reddit AMA.

What happened to the Qunari following Trespasser -> addressed in Tevinter Nights, and a codex entry you can pick up (optional).

Why is Skyhold infested with demons? -> mentioned in Tevinter Nights.

How did the Dalish go from worshiping their own pantheon to knowing they are false gods? (specifically those we meet in the Veil Jumpers) -> mentioned in the Missing comic series.

What's up with Nevarra's Royals? -> Tevinter Nights addresses that there is a power struggle in the Pentaghast family and the role of the Mortalitasi in making it worse - though it does not address the whole 'mage puppeting a corpse' issue and all the implications it has.

This is a video game series -> the bulk of the information required for me to understand the story and its relation to previous entries needs to be included in the final game version. I am playing a video game and not attending a uni class - I should not need to have a required reading list in order to understand what the fuck is going on. I should definitely not need to go onto a reddit AMA to understand what happened in-game, either.

What makes this stand out the most is that DAI was very successful in tying in previous games, DLC's, movies, and books! Inquisition did a great job in getting you up to speed on the events of the previous games early on, providing personalization if you played those games, and giving the player the opportunity to inquire into these events.

Hiding away the answers in additional material or a codex entry that may be missed is not good game design or good writing. DAI didn't assume that you had bought and played the Legacy DLC -> it made certain you experienced the conversation with Varric and Hawke if you wanted to proceed in the game. It didn't hide away imperative information in codex entries - it had characters talk about it in scripted scenes and encourage the player to ask more. You would actively need to avoid interacting with characters for you to not experience this information in DAI.

Leliana talks about her role during the Blight, her calling by the Maker, and her relationship with Dorothea/Justinia -> DAO and Leliana's Song DLC.

Cullen talks about his time as a templar at Kinloch & Kirkwall -> DAO and DA2.

Cassandra speaks about her history, investigation into Hawke, and the Seekers -> Dawn of the Seeker movie, DA2, & Asunder novel.

Varric talks about Hawke, Kirkwall, and Corypheous -> DA2 and Legacy DLC.

Cole talks about how he discovered he was a 'demon' - it leads to further conversations about Rhys, Evangeline, and Lord-Seeker Lambert -> Asunder novel.

Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts -> the game literally continues what the Masked Empire novel sets up, the Orlesian Civil War. The game does a decent job of telling us about the players (Celene, Gaspard, Briala etc...) and the reasoning behind the conflict through dialogue, the ability to explore the battlefields, quests, ambient dialogue, etc... The book is not required reading - though it greatly adds to the complexity of the characters, motivations, and political intrigue!

I never once, playing DA2 or DAI, felt penalized or like my experience was lacking because I had not engaged with supplemental material or DLC's. I got into Dragon Age when I was in high school, it wasn't until I graduated and began working after that I had the disposable income available for experiencing the extra material. I cannot say that for DATV - If you have played Inquisition and go into DATV straight from that you will, absolutely, be confused about how we got from A to B.

Which is especially strange to me!? Why is it that new players will be less confused than those that are returning players? It's like the game is actively punishing you for playing and caring about previous games in the series.

Supplemental media is bought because the main product has earned your investment, love, or interest. Not everyone has the income available to buy it with their own money - especially if you live outside the US and have to pay additional shipping costs. Not everyone has the ability to buy or 'obtain' the digital versions either. My understanding of the main story of a video game in a video game series should not require additional monetary investment into other mediums.

The game itself should be enough and DATV is not enough.

[summersinyourblood]

Genuine question, but going anon, cause I don't want any angry gelphies after me. 1. Cynthia Erivo said multiple times, that Gelphie is platonic. 2. She is a queer woman, if she wanted to indicate in her performance any romantic interest towards Glinda, she probably would have done so, or would have gotten them put it in the text/script. So why do we think Anything that Glinda may or may not feel is reciprocated by Elphaba?

thanks for the question!

there are many versions of wicked, and of glinda and elphaba - the original book series, dozens of productions of the musical, etc. - and the movie is only the most recent one. many gelphie shippers consider themselves primarily bookverse shippers, or musicalverse shippers, or even shippers of one production in particular.

though i love cynthia erivo, she does not own elphaba. she isn’t the first person to play her, and she won’t be the last. she doesn’t have the final say on the character and her feelings.

even if ms. erivo was the only actress to ever play elphaba, what you’ve described is just not how shipping culture works. it doesn’t (and has never until very recently) depended on whether the actors approve of it - just ask any spirk shipper! playing elphaba doesn’t put her in charge of interpretations of the character forever. that would not only be no fun for anyone in the fandom (not just gelphies!) but counterproductive to media analysis in general.

[magefelixir]

theatre kids will really go to a movie musical and obsessively look at everyone’s shoes in a scene to see if any of them are en pointe

[tetzoro]

after 5 days of nonstop social hour, i am finally home & curling up on the couch ^_^ yipeeeee !!!

[faithless-hoaxx]

fanfiction is great because what do you mean kit is being BROKEN UP WITH by his girlfriend who thinks he isn't emotionally invested in their relationship and the WHOLE TIME he's having gay thoughts about how the sky looks like tys eyes

(plspls update soon btw)

Yeah, no, it only gets worse from there. Thanks for the ask :)

(I'll do my best!)

[slightlyrebelliouswriter23]

Jude seems like the person who would randomly come up to Cardan and say “kiss me you piece of shit” 💀💀💀

hmm canonically speaking, i'm not sure i really agree. not only does "piece of shit" not appear to be within the Faerie lexicon (their insults are much more creative), i can't think of a scenario in which Jude would sling around such heavy-handed insults before a romantic moment.

which isn't to say she doesn't get angry with Cardan. we all know she very probably does. i just don't think it's in her nature to mix anger/insults and romance.

when Jude is at her lowest low, when she is the angriest at Cardan she's ever been, the most she does is wheel around and slap him. she doesn't clock him, she doesn't tackle him to the ground or attempt strangulation. she doesn't even really use fighting words. it's a one-and-done slap, and it is certainly not a romantic moment.

Cardan on the other hand.... 👀 while "piece of shit" might not be something he'd actually say, he does canonically say "you're a dirty mortal liar" to Jude. which isn't exactly in a romantic moment, but is something i can very easily see being transposed onto one.

–Em 🖤🗡️

(p.s. if this was meant as a prompt for more writing, please tell me that explicitly in future asks! i might not agree with a canonical interpretation of this line, but that's not to say i wouldn't write something like this into a modern contemporary setting. this ask seemed like it could go either way, so an explicit request is very much preferred 🖤)

more theories and analysis

[seijorhi]

Checking in to see how you're doing🤗

I reread fall about 10 times within the span of a day, I've read it so many times that I know the words by heart evenstill, I never get tired of it

🦜

yea nonnie, i'm good!

slowly chipping away at some fics and lurking around, it's just been quiet here so :))

[liuisi]

hm.

[hobie-doh]

What an enigma! (pun may or may not have been intentional :))

Its Her!!!! I love how you captured her gremlin energy, and all the details, augh its so good!

I always try my hardest not to just keyboard smash and scream at you as I'm trying very hard to be articulate and cool, but words do not do justice to the emotions I feel, it's always a pleasure to go "who in the world sent me an ask? ANON!!!"

Sidenote, you are improving like crazy, the detailing on the hair is subtle but very nice and your hands are looking better every time I see them!

Little secret, Enigma is my third favorite design out of all my thieves! Seeing my darlings drawn by someone else just has this incredible magic to it.

Anyways YIPPEE!!! More art for my hoard!

[jessmalia]

The only reason Ariana got casted is because she supposedly saw the OBC and got to meet them backstage. 🙄 She just rubs me the wrong way. I wasn’t getting Glinda vibes either.

Yeah, celebrities should not get prioritised in casting for things like this just because they have insane connections and money.

It's super annoying to not only get an adaptation that really misses the mark, but to watch it became such a big cultural phenomenon as it has. I'm watching everyone get obsessed with it going, "Oh, this is why they cast Grande. So they could reach as wide of an audience as possible." I think it all comes down to the fact this adaptation wasn't made for musical fans, it was made for the general public (the pop-ification of the soundtrack that people have mentioned). It's why Elphaba isn't ugly, too, cause people are less inclined to root for an ugly protagonist, so they'd make less money that way. They got their woke points by casting a black actress but then failed to make the actual character justice.

Capitalism truly is the enemy of art.

[a-flickering-soul]

so i finished reading all of the parts of make our life, make our way and ughhhhhh it was so good. i cried while reading the everything: in triplicate. just out of curiousity if the series finished or do you plan on writing more parts. either way its perfect

Aaahh thank you so much for reading and for liking it enough to send in a whole tumblr ask! I do plan on adding more to the series-- I currently have two WIPs in this universe, with at least two or three more fics simmering in my brain. I'm usually pretty good about marking concluded series/works as finished on Ao3, so I definitely have more to add to in that universe for sure.

Anyways since I am so delighted at receiving an ask about this series: 450-word preview be upon ye! I'm taking the gang to Ikea.

Fiyero wants one thing and one thing only, and he says this out loud. “I want one thing and one thing only,” he announces, trailing after the other two. “I want a nice bed. That’s it.”

“That’s presumptuous,” scoffs Glinda, who is trying to beat Elphaba to the store door so she can open it for her. “Says a lot about where your head is, is all I’m saying.”

“Yes,” he says pointedly, and walks past her into the store after Elphaba. “I’m tired of sleeping on your garment bags.”

“My back does hurt,” says Elphaba over Glinda’s affronted sniff. “Add a bed frame and mattress to the list. Do we have a list?”

“We don’t have a list,” Fiyero says. “We don’t need a list. I can remember everything.”

“Great,” says Glinda, finally making it into the store after them. “Because we need pots and pans, bed linens, a lamp that actually works, plates, silverware. . .”

The issue is this: government pardons take a while to actually happen, regardless of the amount of support or precedent they might have, and as a result there is literally nowhere they are permitted to live. No government-paid housing (which means his and Glinda’s former townhouse is right out, not that any of them actually want to set foot in that building ever again), no conveniently-located Animal safehouses they can stay at without implicating folks in yet more bureaucracy, and absolutely no strings they can pull to conveniently temporarily occupy, for example, Shiz student exchange dorms.

As a result, the three of them pooled their meagre funds together a few weeks ago (his discretionary fund had been pretty much drained during the first few months of the Everything (as they’re calling it now), Glinda had her parental allowance and governmental salary cut off almost immediately after the Everything ended, and quite frankly Elphaba never was very flush to begin with) and it turns out that with all of their resources combined, they can afford one dogshit two-bedroom apartment in downtown Emerald City, unfurnished, zero utilities included. Hence, the reason why the three of them combined are skint as anything and at Ozkea during the off hours in the hopes that nobody else is there and they can furnish that dogshit apartment with dogshit furniture.

The lighting in Ozkea is always something that hovers around unreality– it’s too bright to be soothing, too dim to be natural, and somehow makes every single person look like hell warmed over. They’re greeted almost immediately with the home goods section and Glinda immediately makes a beeline for the plates.

“This one is twelve per set,” she says, then frowns at the sales shelf. “But these are identical and way cheaper. . . What’s the catch?”

“Lead paint, probably,” Elphaba says, and just like that, she gets sucked into the Ozkea maze along with Glinda. Fiyero goes and gets a cart.

[man-monsters-and-aliens]

HEY DUDE IT’S JACK’S MONTH WHY NO JACKPOSTING

OMG YOU'RE RIGHT I FORGOR

they're 🎃🍍🍈 gonna eat all your candy 🍭🍬🍫

[leverage-ot3]

Happy birthday!!!! 🩷💗💘💞💕🥰🥳🎉🎊🎂

🥹🥹🥹 a day late responding but thank you so much lovely

[sharkneto]

Obsessed with my friend I went to see Wicked (Part 1) with who had never seen the musical nor The Wizard of Oz

[thereisnosp00n]

I don't want to like... continue harping on our comprehension skills as a population but TIL that there are theatre kids who have maybe been singing along to "Dancing Through Life" for who knows how long that are just now figuring out that when Fiyero says "Life's more painless for the brainless" it is, in fact, foreshadowing his fate.

Idk if that's a spoiler... The musical's been out for 20+ years babes. If you weren't gonna look it up before the movies came out it is not that critical to your life. By the time Part 2 comes out you will have forgotten that I shamed you for this.

[emilyaxford]

okay i woke up with a song in my head that i cannot place and i'm hoping one of you musical lovers that follow me can help me out

this is the tune:

here are my vibes for trying to place what song it is:

i believe it's from an old musical? or if it's not that old it's styled to be that way?

i think the song is about teaching someone something, like the rain in spain from my fair lady

first three notes are music, the descending notes are a phrase of some form

i feel like it could be about a dance? or a proper name for something? like "bum bum bum, the sa-ra-je-vo waltz"

here are musicals i've looked through and it hasn't immediately stuck out: my fair lady, the king and i, oklahoma, carousel, oliver, south pacific, camelot, the music man, guys and dolls, annie get your gun, the sound of music, bye bye birdie, funny thing happened on the way to the forum, sweet charity. so i think it could be from a stage musical i haven't seen OR it's from a movie musical which of course does not narrow it down at all.