#anyway. back to replaying

[ajastu]

there's a lot of posts in the DA tag criticizing veilguard, and like. Barring the fact that most of those feel like they're really not thought out OR they are not made in good faith...which is a whole another topic on its own...

I don't think that even if it WAS a bad game (which, it really is not), i personally could ever go on a criticism crusade against it. Just because of how...important it is, in regards to representation in these sorts of rpg games. The options it made available re: character creation.

Like, hear me out. I love Origins. I've replayed origins a million times. A lot of those times, i had to ignore large parts of how the game referred to my player character bcs i thought of them as nonbinary. Because it was just. Not An Option. And it was fine, i got pretty used to it, because i literally had to do that in EVERY game that let you create a character (and irl lets be real lol). Power of imagination and all that.

And then bg3 properly came out (obligatory 'i know its not the first big game to let you choose pronouns, its just the one i experienced first' disclaimer). And it let you just. have a nonbinary character. Which was refreshing! I remember how excited i was to learn about that. But ultimately, it didn't make much difference, because it never comes up after the CC screen. (and dont get me started on the same clothes changing depending on the body type lol) And sure, being trans isn't, like, the entirety of someones lived experience, but it does still come up? Like its still pretty relevant as far as personal characteristics go. It shapes your experiences in a certain way.

All that is to say, when I saw this pop up in veilguard, i damn near lost my mind abt the Novelty of it all

Like. You can do that??? YOU CAN JUST DO THAT???? IT COMES UP IN-GAME??? YOU CAN JUST. BRING IT UP WHEN RELEVANT??? YOU CAN TALK TO ANOTHER NONBINARY PERSON ABOUT IT, EVEN????

Suddenly, i no longer had to run a constant filter in my head. My character was just allowed to exist in the way i imagined them. And i did not think i needed that, but, hey. Turns out, its really nice being pandered to, sometimes <3

'oh but its worded so awkwardly-' i cannot express how much i don't care about that

'but its bad representation because it doesn't capture every trans experience at once' first of all bad take, second of all it gotta start Somewhere.

This is not something I would want to pick apart. Could I? Sure. But that is not the point here. It doesn't need to be perfect to be important. ESPECIALLY with the way things are right now. And hey, that said, it's still pretty damn good as far as these things go! like its not even bad!! it really isnt!!!

Point is, veilguard set a new standard for character creation in AAA games, for me personally. Now that I know what it's like, any new game of this type that comes out and doesn't take the same care in it's approach will be lacking. It's something so simple, in retrospect, and it's kind of incredible it took This Long to get there. But we did get here!! Veilguard got here, despite the development hell and EA handling it all in the worst way possible both pre n after release. And that is why datv will forever have a special place in my heart <3

TLDR VEILGUARD THEY CAN NEVER MAKE ME HATE YOU

[kenchann]

kris and soul stuff + vessel ( ˃̣̣̥o˂̣̣̥ )

[spitedemon]

i really don’t think it’s “typical dragon age fandom nonsense” for people to be genuinely upset about the world state choices. combat, level design, art direction, gameplay gimmicks, those have all varied across each dragon age game. the one thing that’s remained constant are nods to our previous choices.

i wasn’t expecting my HoF to come riding in on a griffon, but i can’t find a monument dedicated to warden tabris somewhere around the anderfels? lucanis couldn’t have some lines about the time that one arainai boy was stirring up trouble in antiva city? you’re gonna tell me that making a mage the new divine wouldn’t have some impact on nevarra and antiva? on the anderfels, the supposed most devout militant andrastian nation in thedas? you’re saying nobody in the north is paying attention to who rules orlais or ferelden? come on.

[wyvernity]

been thinking about the sinnohtrio lately......plus misc other stuff

also, casual ko-fi drop!! get something in this sketchy style starting at $10 woop woop

[daeyumi]

🌜🎭🎊Dawn of a New Day 🎊🎭🌞

[2022]

[changanomaly]

persona 4 au where everything is the same except saki konishi was still alive when yosuke and narukami came into the tv world and instead of her dying yosuke dies in place of her. and she instead gets a persona and joins the investigation team. hell yeah

[mewnia]

This is basically how they solved their argument, right?

[s-h-a-s-e]

the ultimate lifeform my beloved <3

[emily-mooon]

My favourite fish loving saint <3

[ajastu]

god okay. sorry for yet another text post. but i'm just still thinking about the argument that veilguard is bad because the only option re: morality of your player character that it gives is kindness.

Now, to preface. I understand where this criticism comes from. Veilguard IS a departure from the general scheme of the previous games, in several aspects. And i understand how people would be upset at not having quite the same kind of options/ways to influence the world. It took me some getting used to, also.

What i do disagree with, however, is using that to claim that the game is bad, irredeemable, and also meaningless n soft or whatever.

Because it's really not. It's just different, with a different narrative focus. I've played the previous games several times, and as i said before, origins is in first place for me. Veilguard is a very close second. And i'm not more right or wrong in this opinion than someone who thinks datv is the worst game in the series.

You can still make choices that will influence the world in wildly different ways, they're just not... ''genocide or no genocide'' kinds of choices. Which i can see how some people would not consider the difference significant enough to be interesting for them personally. Which is whatever, im not their dad, i dont really care.

However. I think it's kind of weird to say that ''the game made me resent being a nice person'' or that "kindness you dont have the choice not to offer isnt worth a lot"

Like, game criticism aside. That is just an objectively weird thing to say.

There are ways to phrase that particular dissatisfaction in a way that will not make most people side-eye you. This is not one of those ways.

The thing is, it was a deliberate choice in characterization. Since game development at AAA scale is. an incredibly complex beast, i suspect there were many different reasons for it, and not all of them purely narrative. It is also not 2009 anymore. We are not getting another Origins, like, probably ever.

But. Rook is established in the very second cutscene to care about other people. It makes sense narratively, too, with Varric being the one to recruit them. Their backstory also shows that they gravitate towards the 'moral' choices. It's not bad writing. It's deliberate.

That does not mean that everyone has to like it. And i don't think the people who are upset about the change in this gameplay aspect are stupid or wrong.

We are all different people with different preferences, and i really am sorry if the game ended up being a disappointment for you. I know how it feels, and it does suck.

But i also do think it might be worth to examine the way people choose to phrase this complaining. The claim that kindness is somehow diminished in value if you aren't offered the choice to be cruel alongside it. I just think that, like. misses the point of what kindness is?

I know what those people mean when they say it, i just...fundamentally disagree with the sentiment. And i think phrasing it in this way is incredibly weird. sorry 🤷‍♂️

There is a better way to talk about this particular complaint. I just never actually SEE that being done. and i do think a lot of it comes from not actually engaging with the source material people are trying to criticize. Like, the person i sort of quoted earlier explicitly said they have not finished the game. If you never give something a chance in the first place, if all the information you have is second-hand, then i do not find your criticism valuable in any way. There is no substance to it, no backing. You are not proving a point, you're just chasing your own tail at that point. There isnt even a bone to chew. You've only heard of the bone. you havent actually experienced it.

Another part is people being too twisted up in the emotion of disappointment to actually see that they're not making compelling arguments, necessarily, and that they're actually being a tar pit.

I know not everyone thinks as much about the push towards dismissing the value of kindness for kindness' sake as i do. But like. It really is very weird to see this insistence that game bad bcs it didnt have the option to do a murder to an innocent person, or something. While also dismissing the horrible things we Are shown as 'not in your face enough'.

And honestly, personally? I dont love origins or any of the other ones specifically for the ability to choose the evil options. It's never even been a choice for me, because you can very well play the games without having to make the bad choices. theres always a workaround. And that workaround doesnt even harm u in any significant way. there isnt an actual like. terrible complexity here. I enjoy the dwarf politics quest a lot but ultimately, knowing the outcome? its EASY to choose Bhelen. Unless you're playing a dwarf noble origin, i guess. Rip Harrowmont 🙏 you would have made a terrible king.

And again, my personal opinion is not more right or wrong than that of someone who adored the prev dragon age games exactly because they allow you to make some terrible terrible moral choices.

At the end of the day. why are people still so pissed about a game that came out almost 6 months ago that many of them havent even played in the first place? Relax. take a walk if you can. Maybe move a snail out of the road if you find one. There tends to be a lot of them after it rains. Think about the ones that didn't make it. Try to find compassion for lives so easily dismissed. Maybe that will make you think about whether or not kindness on its own really is so lacking in value.

[anne-is-confused]

Inquisitor Lavellan's first time in the Hinterlands (colorized)

[vnknownmc]

leviathan is heavily battling for my most favorite brother

He's still losing to mammon but! at least hes trying!!! Leviathan i love you so much, my true friend.

have a cute little doodle page expect most of the doodles are fully coloured and shaded

[refinedstorage]

heavy traffic

Nobody Wants to Die 2024

[the-stars-are-warring]

I have a particular type of issue when writing fic that I have a very hard time directly contradicting canon without an explanation and the consequence of that is that I'm like "I know Vader snapped Fox's neck in that one comic but it is technically possible to both survive a broken neck and survive a broken neck without paralysis though it will likely never give you full range of motion again." And thus the utterly absurd detail of my Fox lives headcanon is that Fox lives but also has Batman neck for the rest of his life.

[rsenak]

king & executioner

[lilac-rose-writes]

"I can't do this anymore"

(or- nugget, penny & lily parallels because i couldn't help myself)

nugget & penny both reach a breaking point, and it's only then that they rebel against the principals. nugget was intended to be an experiment; billy was an accidental substitute. penny wasn't meant to be an experiment; she still acted as a useful tool. both nugget & penny know more than they should about what the principals are up to. billy confided in nugget about what he knew, penny's been exposed to it firsthand. the principals control them via drugs and remotes, and both of them are despondent because of it.

and then there's lily. lily refuses to take the pills, refuses to give in to the principals, and she ends up in the reverse situation. her brother's gone, she's bullied relentlessly, and she's losing the will to live more by the day. when cindy pushes lily to her breaking point, lily does the opposite of rebelling. lily gives up.

penny tries to die and fails, so decides to help with the rescue instead despite the threat it puts on her life. the female principal kills her for it. the moment penny fights back, she's given what she wanted- in a death she couldn't achieve alone.

nugget can no longer remember what billy said to him, but he wants to help nonetheless. he gives up the note even though it's one of the only memories of billy he still has left. nugget can read. how many times do you think he's gone through it, deciphering the handwriting and committing each word to memory?

lily can't read. lily's trying to find billy. lily's the reason there's a statue watching everyone in the playground. lily's putting herself in danger. nugget's scared of the principal, scared of speaking against him, scared of putting both lily and himself in danger when he's almost entirely convinced that billy's already dead. nugget makes a memorial. no-one but billy had seen inside of his cave before. in giving kid the note, he gets what he wanted too- billy back in his life.

lily gives up. lily doesn't fight. in that loop, lily dies. in a way, that's what she wanted too.

there's also a difference in how they give in. nugget trips over his words, tearful and scared. nobody's allowed to talk about billy, not without the devices in their pockets blowing up. he's overcome with grief and trying to reminisce about a friend he's been forced to forget hurts more than he can put into words. nugget's is a confession. nugget's is a cry for help.

penny cries out. penny's in anguish, penny's brain and will and body are all rebelling against each other. people aren't meant to be robots. penny knows she wasn't meant to survive. she's desperate, she's shouting because no-one will listen. penny's is a warning that she won't stay. penny's is rebellion, because she can't find it in herself to obey anymore even as a plastic smile stays plastered on her face.

lily's apathetic. every word is monosyllabic until she reaches the end of her sentence. "mean" is juveline, "mean" is simplistic. lily's a child. she focuses on cindy's bullying so she doesn't have to think about everything else she's lost, everything else on her mind. lily's miserable. lily's detached. lily speaks softly. lily goes without a fight.

…, !!!, . nugget gives detail, struggling to express just how affected he's been by billy's disappearance. penny's words are short and capitalised, as loud as ted's agonised screams when he's pushed into the hole. lily offers two short sentences: a surrender.