ammoniteflesh

[ammoniteflesh]

in other thedas gender politics news, I think the broodmothers deserve discussion. because reproductive horror is a feature of the series, albeit kind of a stealth one: there's wynne, and the dalish, the theme of stolen children; there's morrigan, and kieran, and the idea of pregnancy and kids as a means to an end, of children as tools, the intersection of blood and inheritance (also present in the anora-alistair-fereldan succession crisis); and there's the broodmothers. and of course there's misogyny to that design, but I think there's meat there in the way that specifically dwarven women are used to demonstrate this horror. in the caste society, cis women are subject to that very specific form of misogyny - as vehicles for reproduction, their status is irrevocably tied to the offspring they're able to produce, their value to the men as vessels for male heirs, and their capacity to fulfil that potential and deliver multiple healthy heirs.

it's not a coincidence that the darkspawn we see out in the world are, by implication, all male, with female darkspawn relegated to the position of Mother - it's a grim reflection of that degree of misogyny that even undergoing the worst fate imaginable, the dwarven women of the game are tied to their capacity for reproduction. origins and awakening posit that darkspawn are people: the only female darkspawn granted a voice is literally called the Mother, and held as Insane and Depraved, sympathetic only in her love for her offspring.

and of course it's symptomatic of the way the devs view (and treat) their female characters, but I think if we agree that 1) darkspawn are People and 2) dwarven women are the primary target for broodmotherification, we can draw some nasty parallels between darkspawn culture and the culture they're most closely tied to - dwarves. because if anything remains of the original cultural heritage there, it stands to reason that is passed down and perpetuated by the offspring of the women taken for this purpose. which I think is fun and yucky:)

[ammoniteflesh]

sorry i have personal hatred of the fact that dav took a dumb on literally any visual time consistency in architecture, clothes and thedas in general

DAO clearly painted Fereldan as a 13 century England. (it became a problem in DAI, where orlais looked a bit more modern, 17th century "Baroque"-ish in comparison)

but looking back at dav and we have:

investigators (any "investigations" back then went pretty much as we saw them with Hawke - a bunch of people stomping around looking for clues, listening to gossips and usually failing. that work was given to guards mostly, of course some locals could go and try to figure out everything themselves, but hiring a private investigator?? lmao)

elevators in Minrathous (i would've been fine with this one, if it was Archimedes' type of elevator, but that would include human (probably slave) labor, and we can't have that ☝)

Newspapers because do you have any idea how much time it took to make and publish anything in medieval times? I'm not even asking who these newspapers are for, cuz the majority of people in Tevinter (slaves, servants, workers) wouldn't be able to read. What the hell are you even writing about? You don't have good enough communication to make news??

cyan/magenta/purple/UNNATURALLY colored fabric, which back then could be acquired only by rich people, because the paint itself costed a lot (murex sea snail were used for purple fabric, for example, Cochineals for magenta)

general clothes style mismatch - just put harding, who's relatively fantasy looking next to steampunk-emmrich or noire-neve and observe the style clash.

and last but not the least:

a fucking piano, an instrument that was created in around 1700 (roughly the same time as steam engine and thermometer), is just starting there in a lighthouse and solas for some reason knows how to play it??

this is so jarringly inconsistent and just straight up stupid and i'm certain there's more stuff like this that my brain just blocked as a traumatic memory

[ammoniteflesh]

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

[ammoniteflesh]

helena eagan who grew up wanting for nothing but at the same time truly wanting nothing until she watched her innie receive the affection she spent her whole life trying to earn. helena eagan who stepped into her innie's life because she wanted to know what it felt like to be loved with no strings attached. helena eagan who tried so hard to be the woman her innie is - who crawled through a tunnel full of goat shit to help mark find his outie's wife, and tried to console irving before his trip to o&d, and laughed openly and freely with the refiners around the campfire on a snowy night - but in the end just couldn't pull it off. helly was never cruel. sometimes the poison drips through.

[ammoniteflesh]

In addition to the above, I thoroughly recommend getting yourself on the mailing list for Palestine Solidarity Campaign. They've provided me with a TON of pre-written emails to send to my MP, as well as emails to companies with ties to Israel. They also just generally do great work and are worth supporting!

Anyone in the UK?

If you are in the UK please consider writing to your MP about some of the shit ongoing. Here are some templates, please review at your discretion/edit and fact check.

Palestine Gaza crisis: Write to your MP | UNA-UK

Disability Benefits Cuts (the vote is 1st July so only a few days!) Letter template to MPs about green paper - Benefits and Work Forum

Transphobia Write to your MP – TransActual

These are the ones I have spoons for right now, please feel free to re-blog with your own UK specific templates or resources. I will aim to delete any comments that share right wing, racist, homophobic, zionist, antisemitic, transphobic, sexist or otherwise hateful views not in keeping with the aim of this post.

[ammoniteflesh]

what if you found out you had the potential to be a likable person but had no idea how to become her? what if you had proof of concept that if you were just raised different, or in a different environment, or around different people, that you could be someone you want to be? what if the only way to be loved is to become a different person entirely and you find out that even if you tried, you can't be? what if you find out that you could never be the version of yourself that is loved? well this happened to my good friend helena eagan

[ammoniteflesh]

[ammoniteflesh]

da2 isn't the best dragon age game *because* it's openly a tragedy, but being a tragedy forces a level of narrative coherence that the other games in the series don't have, and *that's* what makes it a better game.

okay, so. dragon age 2 runs on nested foreshadowing and a limited set of themes that almost every character and plot beat fall into: love is not enough, wealth is not enough, power is not enough, good intent is not enough. the problems you run into are structural, rather than individual, and your ability to resolve them as one person is strictly limited. the arishok is a central figure for this, because he prefigures every other tragedy and makes the game's thesis statement as clear as possible. he doesn't want to be in kirkwall, but he is compelled to remain until he gets back what was stolen. he doesn't want to lead a coup attempt, but he is compelled by qunari codes of justice to act. he does not want to die and fail his duty, but but he is compelled to by the other two impossible demands. every tragedy in kirkwall is the result of too many people with wildly different definitions of justice crammed into one place specifically designed to maximize human misery and suffering, and so you get a wonderfully nested narrative onion where each quest reinforces that idea, where there are no good options, just positions you can take — even the affinity system plays into that, where constantly gassing up your friends or constantly pushing them to change are equally correct ways to go, but ones that won't ultimately make a huge difference in their lives or characters, because no matter how much they like you, they're not under your control.

this coherence is even justified by the framing device. of *course* the moral of the game is "insisting on a dogmatic, narrow idea of justice destroys individuals and societies," it's a yarn being spun by varric the con artist to a chantry cop!

neither origins or inquisition play with that sort of narrative complexity. origins is a jaundiced hero's quest, certainly, but it's still basically a hero's quest; inquisition has a number of characters who question what you're doing and why, but the multitude of voices pulls the game in too many potential directions. DA2 was so constrained in its production that it pulled on decidedly ancient theatrical traditions, and it worked so, so well

[ammoniteflesh]

@ruushes asked for Vivienne w 8c!! (thank you so much!! again.. sorry for the waitlmao)

[ammoniteflesh]

I need to do five different work things AND look for permanent employment AND update my artfight refs AND revamp my neocities AND make info pages for the rest of my OCs AND rewrite TPoAB AND go insane maybe

[ammoniteflesh]

going insane over the fact that helena's father never realised it was helly using the OTC until she literally stood on stage and screamed it out, but irving immediately knew something was up when helena came back pretending to be helly. the fact helena clearly studied helly's interactions with mark, recognised the significance of the attraction between them and tried to replicate it as well as she could, but she never managed to convincingly do the same with irving because she just couldn't recognise that kind of love as existing, let alone mattering- a familial bond, a relationship that rhymes with a father figure. she never expected it. why would irving pay attention to who helly is? why would he notice? why would he care? but of course he does. helly was never cruel. fetid moppet.

[ammoniteflesh]

I still can't believe that bioware has morrigan tell you a whole story about how as a kid she came upon a girl she thought was so beautiful that it rocked her entire world and awakened new and bewildering longings in her (longings which by their very existence angered and perturbed her mother)... and then they have the temerity to ask me to believe she's straight

[ammoniteflesh]

Morrigan https://www.instagram.com/anta_rf - my arts

[ammoniteflesh]

as a certified Mage Guy: this is a really good earlier concept mage Davrin

[ammoniteflesh]

See no evil

[ammoniteflesh]

Makkan de Riva at your service >:3

[ammoniteflesh]

Wicked hearts and wicked eyes