merrilldidnothingwrong

[merrilldidnothingwrong]

our franchise is so progressive and class-aware and culturally conscious. we focus on the Real struggles of the common people. and we make sure our dilemmas are always rooted in complex socioeconomics and never in anything so petty as Good and Evil. we only ask the hard hitting questions. such as Do The Mentally Ill Deserve to Live? or Does The State Have a Point About Enforced Eugenics? or Is Genocide Acceptable If The Victims Are Unpleasant To Be Around? or my personal favorite: What If This Society That Has Been Caricaturized By The Dominant Colonialist Religion As Being Bloodthirsty Savages And Conquering Invaders Is Actually Inherently Warlike, Violent, and Xenophobic In The Exact Ways The Dominant Colonialist Religion Has Claimed?

with special guest star Every Woman On The Planet Only Fit Into Four Categories (Madonna, Whore, Child, or Madonna But With A Sword) and recurring character Black Woman You Should Never Listen To Because Trust Me Bro

[merrilldidnothingwrong]

It irks me when people say "but look at Dorian" as a defence for how "good" Gaider was at writing Dragon Age.

Yeah, look at Dorian. The guy who has a whole conversation about how slavery is actually morally grey and the Inquisitor doesn't know what they're talking about to challenge it. The guy who jokes about and belittles Briala's rebellion as ludicrous and wrong. The guy who we don't actually see change these views until other writers take over.

TL;DR: One great scene about homophobia does not make up for all the racism in his writing lmao

[merrilldidnothingwrong]

uh. fiona and alistair are both in Inquisition and are straight up white. even in DAO alistair was clearly meant to be a tan blonde guy. like. do you but there's headcanon and then there's "fuck canon i do what i want". this sounds like the latter which is 100% valid but let's not pretend you're drawing from the source material, it's an AU

Can you idiots learn how to fucking read.

[merrilldidnothingwrong]

Alistair in Dragon Age: Origins > Dragon Age II > Dragon Age: Inquisition...

And y'all still like to pretend this isn't a problem, part of a much larger trend from BioWare.

[merrilldidnothingwrong]

A lot of people have commented on how Redcliffe in DA:I looks nothing like it did in DA:O. But actually there is a canonical reason for this. You see when Anders blew up the Kirkwall Chantry, the destruction was so great and so wide that debris flew all the way to Ferelden and reshaped the landscape. This was revealed in a hidden codex entry found by clipping through the windmill. 

[merrilldidnothingwrong]

so if "bad" mages often get transferred to kirkwall* and mages in kirkwall are made tranquil more often, often illegally and the tranquil do most of the labor in the circles and are its main source of income, is one major implicit reason for the gallows being allowed to flaunt the rules of the chantry so the tranquil from kirkwall can compensate for other circles with lower rates of tranquility or am i going crazy.

* supposition but i don't think the timing of karl's transfer from kinloch to kirkwall was a coincidence + was likely due to his relationship with anders and i think the theory that the starkhaven circle burned down due to an attempted rebellion partially due to hearing about the (almost) annulment of kinloch has merit

[merrilldidnothingwrong]

i like to imagine the act 1 kirkwall gang hanging out on those steps outside gamlen’s place for no reason. just sort of lounging and bickering

[merrilldidnothingwrong]

Cullen haters who are also Anders fans are indeed morally superior in every way

[merrilldidnothingwrong]

something else that drives me nuts about how they wrote vivienne is how hard it is to make friends with from a purely mechanical perspective. it just seems like most of her approvals are just normal level or slightly, while her disapprovals are usually high. it doesnt help that it seems like she doesnt have an opinion on some things too even when most of the other characters do, so unless you micromanage her approval you probably wont manage to befriend her unless you're pro-circle, since that's what gives you the most approval from what i remember. i managed it once but only because i was checking the wiki every five minutes

Certainly compared to other characters, like Solas for example who gains approval just through talking to him, there is a clear difference, yes I agree.

[merrilldidnothingwrong]

Tranquil Scar Mod

Many people have asked me to bring this mod back over time. Well, here it is, now without bugs.

This mod edits the scar texture map to include a tranquil brand. As such, you can pair it with any face texture, and control the severity/opacity like any other scar.

[DOWNLOAD]

[merrilldidnothingwrong]

This is so funny oh my god...

"In DA2 Cullen is a bit of a dick but" - he literally says he does not see mages as people and routinely kisses Meredith's ass until at the very last minute decides he doesn't want to kill Hawke lmfao

But he's a #white man and #pretty and #traumatized so I guess that means he gets a pass at inflicting massive trauma on others uwu

[merrilldidnothingwrong]

loved your post! super interesting! what would a ruler of the dales be like? would it be like keepers for dalish clans, a monarch, or something else? does briala remain the leader?

To quote a past post I made:

I would like to see Briala as ruler of the Dales not just because she is a favourite of mine, but because I genuinely believe she is the best established character fit for the job. She was trained in everything Celene was trained in, has first-hand experience in court, has extensive connections, and has demonstrated her ability and desire to utilize these skills and assets for the benefit of elven kind.

We know that some prejudice exists against “flat-ears” as some Dalish call those from the city, and we know that city elves have adopted a lot of misinformation from humans into their views of the Dalish. It would take time and positive leadership to reconnect the people, without risking falling into some sort of hierarchy based on origin. This is why I do not believe one group or the other should single-handedly rule alone. Rather, I think there should be a Grand Council of High Keepers made up of those voted into the position each to represent a single district of the Dales. (I like the idea of there being seven High Keepers, not just because there are seven traditional districts of Mi’kma’ki, but because it works out that there seven of the Creators. So it makes sense that there would be seven High Keepers.) The Grand Council would meet and make decisions together, with one appointed leader at the head to act as the Council’s chair.

[merrilldidnothingwrong]

Sounds like that person didn't interrogate the biases DAI was giving. The sheer level of manipulative writing is most obvious when you compare Vivienne to Cassandra. Like, in both cases, what they say and how what they say is presented are so far apart it's maddening. - Mod Alistair

I’m so glad other Vivienne fans exist because the fandom can sometimes make me feel like I’m going crazy

Someone genuinely argued to me that Divine Vivienne is a tyrant who uses the Templars as secret police and that she wants to make the Southern Chantry like the Tevinter one, all while they’re trying to argue that Cassandra is more open minded than Vivienne 😭

What fucking alternate universe is that person playing in???

[merrilldidnothingwrong]

The City of Chains: Kirkwall in 9:31 Dragon

Zoomed in quadrants and explanation below the cut!

Keep reading

[merrilldidnothingwrong]

Governor Rayan Ivenci most dragon age character ever written, they're a government official, they live in fantasy Venice but sound like Scar from the Lion King, they hold the completely reasonable opinion that a city being run by a shadowy self-governing collection of hired killers who regularly murder each other is bad, all their coworkers are assassins who make fun of them for having this opinion while wearing bird outfits and living in a casino, somehow Ivenci is still the villain here, they're nonbinary and spend what precious little personal time they have on some immaculate gender affirming eyeliner, they're bald, they all but tell you that they're working with the Antaam but it stiil takes until the end of the game for the '''top tier''' Crow leadership to figure it out, they're a goddamn mage and you only find that out during the final boss fight where you're standing in front of a middle government office worker and their health bar appears and they throw a fucking fireball at you!!! I'm literally always thinking about them.

[merrilldidnothingwrong]

Call him out, Jowan!

[merrilldidnothingwrong]

aside from the DLC companions, why are the 3 relevant female warriors in these games a different flavor of cop