#adding that last tag just in case

[mumms-the-word]

Yet another Veilguard update with the usual good, the bad, the ugly, and the me freaking out about minor references and callbacks haha

This one is very long sorry

So since the last update I have done as much side content as possible before heading to the Hossberg Wetlands and later Weisshaupt (which I just completed last night) which included, briefly, unlocking all of the solas regrets murals

And uh WOW was that whole deep dive a doozy. I definitely should have spaced out the murals over time rather than movie-marathoned them back to back. But the things I learned about Solas…it’s insanity

In a good way

In a really horrifying way

I loved that our theories about Solas being a spirit of Wisdom first were confirmed, and I lost my mind over the fact that the first elves were spirits who gained physical bodies by taking Titan blood (aka lyrium). And the fact that Solas CREATED THE BLIGHT by essentially making the Titans Tranquil?? And that’s why Dwarves don’t dream????

Losing my mind. Solas what have you DONE.

I still ahev to process it all haha but I do have a few thoughts

So far, I wish there was more engagement with these elements and the Chant of Light. The companions react and say that these reveals basically dismantle Andrastianism but the Chant has several allegorical parallels to what, apparently, really happened. The Maker’s first children were spirits, and all that…so I kind of wish the Chantry had a bigger presence in the game with more reactivity

But that’s a post for another day. For now, I reloaded back to only 3 murals unlocked so the team only knows the story up to Solas creating the Veil. I’ll rewatch the others later.

I got worried about being locked out of stuff so I went ahead and did as much side content as I could with a couple of exceptions. Turns out, I probably didn’t need to do that and it would have made more sense narratively if I hadn’t. More on that in a minute

The Siege of Weisshaupt mission was SO GOOD!! Like…the main missions are really where this game shines, I think. I have gripes with some of the companion conversations, but in the actual story missions, the action, the intensity, all of it is so good. And I thought Ghilan’nain turning her archdemon into a many-headed hydra creature was *chefs kiss* so cool. I love fighting big/unique stuff like that!

All that said the follow up scene with the team at the table leaves…a lot to be desired

Listen, DA games pride themselves on bringing together a team of companions that players adore and fall in love with. Naturally we enjoy helping out our companions because we like them. We don’t have to be told to help them because we just generally do that…and if we don’t then, rip, suffer the consequences

So I got a bit annoyed when the scene suddenly turned to a very overt “fix our problems” narrative

I don’t know, that feels so…forced to me. Varric literally tells me I have to solve everyone’s problems. Which is like…I was going to! Because they’re my friends! But being straight up told like “hey you have to solve everyone’s problems and stop their distractions or this team isn’t going to function” is like…I’m sorry are we adults or aren’t we? Why am I being told to babysit the team? Can you guys not pursue these distractions on your own rather than wait for me to give you permission? Did we all forget that two gods are out there rampaging? That they’re strong enough to destroy a fortress that stood against the blight and various conflicts for over 900 years? That they haven’t stopped and show no signs of stopping anytime soon?

But no, by all means, tell me in very obvious terms that my job is now to reconcile all your differences before I face the gods again. That doesn’t feel very handed at all.

Let me be clear. I love to help my companion. I love the idea that you build a team that works well because you have shaped them via your leadership skills. I love the idea that your team works well because you have invested in them. That’s really the heart of any DA game—gather your team, earn their loyalty, and see how well the friends you’ve made along the way assist you in the big battles to come.

But…that scene around the kitchen table could have been so much better, so much more nuanced, and far less “Solve their problems.”

To me, that scene should have been everyone fighting, calling out everyone’s distractions and mistakes, and essentially devolving into outright arguments over the table until Rook yells at everyone to shut up. Everyone is mad, everyone is upset. And then maybe the companions are like “sorry Rook, listen, I have a lot on my mind. I’m still going to help with the Big Problem but I’m also going to pursue this Other Thing whether you like it or not.” No suggestion that it’s now your problem to solve, but a heavy hint that it might get done more quickly if you help (which also gives you room to be an ass and not help). In this scenario, everyone ends up being very disgruntled with you, but you still have your hint that you need to pursue companion questlines if you want to see their cool abilities or special items or get them to be a Hero of the Veilguard or whatever…but that’s just my opinion

Basically I wanted subtly and tension. So much more tension.

What we got instead was a couple of annoyed comments and then Emmrich being like “oh dear we’re all distracted by the things that bother us” and everyone offering up distractions that, yes, need to be resolved…but it’s very easy to be like “hey bud the Hand of Glory and the Nadas Dirthalen can wait until the gods aren’t threatening to destroy the world I think.”

It’s not the worst scene in the world, but it could have been reframed better. Either frame it as “Sorry Rook but none of these factions trust you enough to aid you in the fight, you have to prove yourself to them” (and loop in the companion questlines that way) or show your team literally unraveling because they can’t get along or agree with you—now you see the evidence of what you need to fix, and nobody has to outright tell you to “solve everyone’s distractions.” It’s just implied. Because you saw them fighting. A lot.

Like duh I knew I’d have to resolve everyone’s problems if I want them to like me or stick around! That’s just what I’ve come to expect from RPG games like this. It’s an expectation of the genre. But I don’t want to be told that’s my job now. If anything it triggers my contrarian nature and now I want to see what bad ending I get when I don’t listen to the game’s extremely heavy push for me to deal with everyone’s issues

I won’t, but I’m tempted

I just…wanted it to be better. I want see everyone bitching at each other until everyone leaves in a huff and Rook just sits at the table, head in their hands like “oh my god everyone hates me and they hate each other and we’re going to die if everyone can’t get their shit together”

Then maybe Varric sits down next to them and goes, “Hey kid, did I ever tell you about the time Hawke tried to convince a Rivaini pirate, a weird abomination, a Dalish blood mage, a stiff-necked captain of the guard, a broody elf who glowed in the dark, and a few other friends besides to all agree to fight as a team to stop a qunari invasion in Kirkwall? It worked, more or less. By the end of the night, everyone had worked together enough to end up with one dead Arishok and an entire city’s gratitude.”

Maybe Rook looks up and says, “And how’d they manage that little miracle? Without everyone trying to kill each other in the process.”

And maybe Varric smiles and shrugs. “They had their differences, trust me. Half the time you couldn’t put two of them in a room together without a fight breaking out. But they all believed in one thing. They believed in Hawke.”

Then maybe there’s a pause, as he lets Rook consider that for a moment, before he stands up and says, “It’s a good bedtime story, in any case. I’ll let you sleep on it.”

Sigh. It just would have been cool…

Now in all fairness the scene felt even clunkier because I had actively been doing side quests and helping out my friends so it was like…it felt weird to have this implication that I’m not already helping them. It makes me think I shouldn’t do any of their side quests until after the Siege of Weisshaupt but who knows

I keep pendulum swinging back and forth between moments of brilliance and moments that leave me baffled and wondering who made some of these narrative/writing calls. I don’t hate the game by any stretch of the imagination. Like I said the Siege of Weisshaupt was amazing! And I loved the callbacks to precious games! You should have seen me live reacting and screaming about codexes in the Weisshaupt library haha But it’s like whiplash when something that good is followed up by a scene that feels excessively more hamfisted in comparison.

Anyway I am very busy this weekend and dunno when I’ll get to write another update soooo if you’re following for more, hope to give you more updates in the near-ish future!

[galaxygazer-lav]

This is why I love Luigi

[evan-on-the-internet]

this hurt my feelings (/pos)

[anbaisai]

Wait actually if Skully can turn people into pumpkins we can delulu Jamil is caressing a pumpkin!Yuu instead of, you know, a regular pumpkin

I'll be honest with you anon, I have most certainly thought of that as well after learning of Skully's UM... how scandalous, Mr. Viper... (we will conveniently ignore the fact that the pumpkin is speared on a fence)

[sophaeros]

the last shadow puppets - everything you've come to expect: 2016 tour outfits — almost all clothes custom made by ray brown sources

[trashcanwithsprinkles]

This might be a bit random but would you say you have any thoughts on Neurodivergent readings of Zhongli (more specifically autistic)? I was thinking about it in the latest chapter of JG amd even before then too. as an autistic person myself i feel he reads very heavily as such, especially when talking about his human mask and feeling like he doesn't need to force it as much with childe, and his issues with human expression in smiling etc. but I think it's then an interesting debate between that and the fact that, well, he's just not human. that all comes from a place of being an entirely different species, unevolved and unrelated to human brains and how they think and read social patterns, and I feel we don't really have any way of telling if ZL has any divergent tendencies among dragons right? and even then he's half, too, so that affects things.

anyway sorry for the ramble I was mainly wondering if you had any opinions on the matter, or if you intended the parallels I definitely see while reading your Zhongli! love your work as always <3333

i think i might've commented on this at some point but never directly, so here – i do have thoughts on the matter!

as you mentioned, it's difficult to tell with characters that aren't human, because you can't call something 'neurodivergent' if the bases for their neurotypical-ity are not the ones by which we measure this stuff. so, to me, ALL non-human characters are neurodivergent-coded. they may not be neurodivergent, technically speaking (like how you mentioned, maybe all dragons are just like zl), but to us, they read as such. so, coded. ultimately i do think there is merit in labeling them as neurodivergent because, even if they, again, technically aren't; we are going to run into problems if we attempt to treat them as neurotypical, so we might as well say yeah, neurodivergent. it is also kinda correct anyway – they do diverge from us. that's a fact. it's like saying dogs are colorblind. if all dogs see in the same range, then you can't say your dog in specific is colorblind (unless it actually is but that's beside the point); but compared to us, from our perspective, for what it matters to us and how that will translate into how we treat them then yes! dogs are colorblind! i think i mentioned it once in conjunction with characters like alhaitham. to me, zhongli is neurodivergent-coded, while alhaitham is neurodivergent straight-up. because (as far as we know) he's human, so his brain should, in theory, be like ours.

as for which flavor of neurodivergency zl is coded to have in specific i would agree with you on autism! but then again, i'm not an expert on these things, i don't know the exact ins and outs and the specific characteristics that constitute an autistic character – i just write them the way i perceive them, with the quirks i perceive them to have. not to get preachy but i think that's the better way to write characters in general, since that's how real people work, after all. people with autism aren't born fitting some parameters that will make them autistic – they're born with specific quirks that we then interpret as autism, and even then you don't necessarily get two people having the exact same experience with this. most of these terms are umbrella terms regardless as to how well-defined or how big or small the umbrella is.

so yeah!

[lowoserdrawsstuff]

drew our beloved wet cat of a man, jon sims!! totally didn’t write out the name of each episode, knowing full well the majority of them would be covered, just to make sure the spacing was somewhat consistent

another version (subtle but major spoiler warning!!)

[tainebot01]

Another Ace Attorney animatic, this time inspired by a video by @arcticflakes here!

[xxartmanxx]

"Under the Pale Blue Moon"

Inspired by that one line at the end of one of the Multiple Eito's Route.

I also made one where they're under the sun, which turned into 3 different versions lol

I think i need to start making my canvases smaller...

[jessamine-rose]

Just sharing my idea for an L-card series I’d like to see in What in Hell is Bad? I doubt the devs would ever release smth like this tho :/

Note:: Bottom! Characters, Top! Reader who has either a dick or a strap-on, MINORS DNI

A series where MC gets to rail the Seven Deadly Sins and/or Seraphim.

Imagine the featured character straddling MC, who is either explicitly amab or wearing a strap-on. For each character, MC’s condom or strap-on is in their signature color (red for Satan, purple for Leviathan, etc).

The Adoring functions would include thrusting into the character and leaving handprints on their waist.

[gothic-clownz]

fuckin dweeb

[blightoath]

i think instead of framing the post-weisshaupt discussion as "we're all distracted, we need to fix that," an easy tweak would've been to have them realize that going at these things alone is going to be too hard considering the wardens did just that and got decimated. they need to pivot to getting their allies ready. and then have them bicker over who to go to first, rook asks about the shadow dragons and neve snaps, lucanis ponders about remaining wardens and he and davrin get into it (or flip-flopped depending on city choices i suppose). then maybe emmrich stays behind after rook dismisses everyone to point out that they're not really a unified faction themselves right now, that everyone's having difficulties with the losses and personal struggles. then varric hammers it home with the final convo.

[nejackdaw]

Okay I haven't talked about Judas OR the Judas album in a while so I'm going to share this analysis I finally placed and I'm losing my mind about

In the song Field of Blood (song 5,) the chorus ends with a line I've never quite been able to find a suitable conclusion about. Right. (Putting my rambling under a read more, the screenshots make this long)

Oh, okay, "what is my god," he's having a crisis of faith. Why is God so cruel as to order Jesus be killed (reminder that the album is a mix of biblical and Gnostic canon, where Jesus asked Judas to be the one to betray him.)

WRONG

If we move two tracks ahead in the album to Death is Just a Kiss Away, right before the last chorus we have these lines:

Which is insane! Because this part is actually saying "you have two gods, God and Jesus" (sun and moon, as I'll get to) "and no matter which you choose" (obeying the kill command or refusing to kill Jesus) "you're going to piss everyone off"! Okay now I know, "but where did you get sun and moon/God and Jesus" and HERE I TELL YOU:

Jesus is CONSTANTLY referred to with constellation imagery! (There's a whole song about it!) The Gospel of Judas includes the quotes (from Jesus) "Judas, your star has led you astray" and "the star that leads the way is your star." The album takes this and RUNS with it. Makes Jesus Judas's guiding star. There is SO MUCH night/star symbolism going on here, mostly in Constellation, but also from A World Where we Belong:

SO BASICALLY: considering that Jesus is heavily referred to with night sky imagery and they're literally both referred to as "two moons aligned," it isn't unreasonable to conclude that the line from Just a Kiss Away is in fact talking about God/Jesus. WHICH MEANS

When Judas is about to hang himself and he pleadingly asks "what is my god?"

HE DOESN'T KNOW IF IT'S GOD OR JESUS BECAUSE HE'S FUCKING IN LOVE WITH HIM APNDOANSOANS HE OBEYED GOD BECAUSE HE'S GOD BUT HE'S KILLING HIMSELF OVER JESUS. I HAVE MANY OTHER LINES ABOUT THIS (DEVOTION TO JESUS, NOT GOD) BUT THAT'S A DIFFERENT TOPIC

[claitea]

finished the dlc! enjoyed it a lot :D

[lunarasphodel]

Since I finally finished my sketchbook here’s some highlights :)

I blame the Crow for my new podcast blorbos…

(The last one is under the cut bc it looks AWESOME but it has a significant amount of blood/gore and self harm imagery)

:]

[showfallmediamaintenance]

[Video transcript begin.]

[The video begins with the camera being hastily shoved into someones jean pocket, heavy breathing can be heard, along with talking. A woman in leggings and a tight t-shirt ]

?: I knew you’d come to your senses, honey! 

[Voice registered. Awaiting name.]

?: No! No, stop!

[Voice identified: Liam.]

[The woman grabs Liam’s arm, nails digging into the sleeve of his hoodie. She drags him towards a house. The door opens, and the woman takes him inside.]

?: Gloria, who’s there?

[Name registered: Gloria.]

[Voice registered. Awaiting name.]

G: Jason, it’s Liam! He’s all fixed! 

[Name registered: Jason.]

L: No! Let me go!

J: I knew you’d fix yourself. Do you get it now? The outside world is too dangerous for you. You need us.

[Liam wrenches his arm out of Gloria’s grip. Taking a few steps back.]

L: I��� I–

J: You need us, Liam. I hope you’ve learned your lesson.

[A few seconds of silence. Before Liam speaks up again.]

L: N– no! I don’t! I was doing just fine before!

[Jason laughs. Staring at Liam in disbelief.]

J: You liar. 

L: I’m not–

G: Sweetie, please. You’re just a kid! How could you ever survive on your own?

L: I made friends! I–

J: Enough, Liam. To your room. 

[Another silence.]

J: The time out of the house fixed you, that’s why you’re back. It got all that nasty shit out of your brain. You’ll go to your room, and behave. Now.

L: I–

J: What? Don’t tell me you’re still one of those dirty f[REDACTED]s, Liam! 

[The room is still. The air sucked out of it with one word.]

G: Listen to your father, Liam.

L: He’s not my fucking father! He never was! 

[Gloria gasps.]

G: Liam! That is no way to speak to your parents!

L: You aren’t my parents, I don’t care if you’re related to me by blood, Gloria. I hate you! I fucking hate you both! I didn’t want to come back, I’m not fucking ‘fixed’ like you thought! This is me! You can’t fix that! 

J: Enough of this bullshit!

L: SHUT THE FUCK UP! I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU SO MUCH. I WANT YOU OUT OF MY LIFE! I–

[Jason raises his hand and brings it down, hard. Liam cuts himself off with a yelp as the hand makes contact with him, he backs away from Jason. The older man's face is fully red, his expression almost oozes rage.]

J: Listen here, you fucking brat, we’re your parents, and you’ll listen to us! We are the ones taking care of you, you ungrateful piece of shit, so what we say goes. That is final!

[Liam stays silent, he slides his foot backwards.]

J: Where the fuck do you think you’re going?

[Without another word, he sprints and jumps out the window.]

J: GET BACK HERE, YOU FUCKING F[REDACTED]!

[A loud gunshot rings out in the quiet neighborhood. Liam screams, but keeps running, his breathing heavy and panicked. He sprints like his life depends on it.]

[Transcript end.]