brothermoth

[brothermoth]

Romancing him with a dwarf hits different because he has to reckon with a woman who has been part of a criminal organization and feels (in my playthrough at least) no remorse about her past. My inq is very "yeah I've killed people. I'm good at it. So what?" And it's delicious to have this man who deifies women and values chivalry trying to figure out what to do with the blunt, brash dwarf that loves crime and murder and keeps trying to get in his pants.

still thinking about blackwall's gendered dialogue differences. the chivalry towards and idealization of f!inquisitor. the frankness about sex with m!inquisitor. sheryl chee can we talk...

^ this is sooooo crazy . when f!inquisitor asks, blackwall's mind goes to the ideal of family life, which of course he doesn't believe he deserves. but in response to m!inquisitor he's firmly oriented in reality where he could've fathered a bastard at some point, who knows, but no child would deserve a father like this. (a father who's killed children.) the romanticized ideal of a happy family as a kind of just reward, as opposed to reality where a child can be born of an unknown, disgraced father and the fact they deserve better doesn't change the facts. all they can do is try and avoid the truth. and of course the focus in both cases on being 'deserving' in either a positive or negative sense. (people only get rewards they deserve in fantasy!)

and like it is. so andrastian. blackwall isn't overtly faithful in the way of leliana or cassandra, but it is clear that the idea of the inquisitor as andraste's herald means something to him, and plays heavily into his idealization of f!inquisitor/an inquisitor romancing him especially. he is invested in the idea of women as purer and closer to divinity while men (like him) (especially him) are forever marked by betrayal and violence, because it's a familiar and comfortable framework to contextualize his own guilt. we've GOT to get a war table operation going for diy feminizing hrt

[brothermoth]

Highly recommend Fundie Fridays on YouTube for batshit American Christian nonsense, but also looking into medieval Christianity really helps contextualize a lot of this shit. Modern American Christian culture is largely based on Calvinism —that "protestant work ethic, hyper-capitalist, individualist breed of Christianity— that tells people they are predetermined to go to heaven simply because they go to church. It's a product of the most insufferable Christians from Europe who were hated so much they had to leave. Puritan ideology has done irreparable damage combined with Calvinist shit.

I would also like to point out that most modern antisemitism (ie. the familiar Nazi propaganda and a lot of the imagery they used: blood libel, appearance stereotypes, etc.) comes straight from 15th century Christians and has clung on like mold for 500 years. There was antisemitism before that, don't get me wrong, but the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade and new ideas of race + plague nonsense really took it up a notch.

Worth noting that Muslim ruled regions were the best places to live as a Jewish person historically and I think it's very disturbing that media nowadays pretends like this wasn't the case. The majority of state level violence against Jewish communities was within Christian countries (in fact most of Christian Europe literally forced out Jewish people for a while). Muslim rulers allowed Jewish people to hold office and had far more religious toleration than contemporary Christian areas.

Openly admitting to being in a death cult (which doesn't involve your own death, but that of a different religous group to fulfill your religious prophesy) is still wild in and of itself, even if you want to "stay of our prolonged wars," Shermichael.

I don't think a lot of normal people understand that the Evangelical Christian rapture prophesy says that a modern Jewish state must exist in Palestine where all Jewish people must move to and then be sacrificed in a large-scale war to allow the return of their Messiah.

People in the highest levels of our government believe this which really informs a lot of policy making around the Middle East

[brothermoth]

obligatory post today

[brothermoth]

it’s a beautiful day to redownload dragon age inquisition

[brothermoth]

I can't fathom assigning a sexuality to someone whose sexual history is remembered by maybe a diary entry or a rumor at best. You don't know if that married man was on his knees for his 'close friend' every Saturday after billiards. You don't know that the uptight society lady wasn't getting eaten out by her neighbor after a glass of gin.

you say "we can't concretely label historical figures as gay or trans because those labels are part of our very specific contemporary culture and wouldn't have lined up with how people in the past understood themselves" and no one bats and eyelid. you say "for those same reasons, we also can't say that historical figures were straight or cis by our standards" and society goes wild.

[brothermoth]

swifties bout to stretch further than cirque du soleil to defend this, but one sub is clocking it:

[brothermoth]

They inspire me a lot

[brothermoth]

[brothermoth]

Hyperfixating on decades old video games like the fool I am

I played dragon age 3 when I was like 14 and I decided to play it again out of spite because I thought Veilguard got so much unfair and frankly nonsense criticism

They're very different but both good games, however I think the dialogue in Inquisition is a bit awkward. Companion banter is one of the saving graces but there's very little interaction between all of the characters. I think Veilguard did a much better job of making the companions feel as if they were befriending each other too. They chat, they hang out in each other's rooms, and you can clearly pick out the smaller friendships within the group.

I much prefer the romance arcs in Veilguard too, though I like the acknowledgement of dynamics and potential issues in Inquisition (ie. mage Inquisitor asking Cullen if he's even comfortable being with a mage). The romances in Inquisition are very rushed, which sucks because that's one of the main draws to the games. I like that Veilguard makes you work for it, and it's much easier to see Rook have actual chemistry with the characters. Part of this is the nature of the characters' role in the story which I totally understand, as Rook is more of a peer rather than a superior to the others, where the Inquisitor is elevated to basically deity status. It works with the story to make the character feel so isolated! But, I think the romances needed some more meat to them if that makes sense.

World-wise I love the more open world in Inquisition, with the dragon fights and the ability to accidentally wander into some horrible mess that has you going fuck fuck fuck and spamming buttons. I'm a slut for collections and spent probably half my time gathering rocks. Veilguard has a much more limited map and the boss fights are confined to missions rather than randomly placed.

I have a love hate relationship with the gear system in Inquisition, because while I love being able to play dolls and dress up the characters it can get very overwhelming having so much gear to manage. I absolutely love being able to customize the colors and armor appearances which I thought was lacking in Veilguard, though I did like most of the armor we got. If it was a bit more customizable I would've been in heaven. Character creation is definitely the best development between the games and it drives me insane that you can't change body type in Inquisition. Not even like ...a few options. You get pencil Lavellan, brick shithouse Cadash and Adaar, and just average build for Travelyan. I love the qunari in Veilguard but they should've had more hairstyles available. Lack of hairstyles in Inquisition is so bad. They should've added more in some random update like 9 years ago. Also really liked being able to equip an appearance and armor separate in Veilguard. Nothing pisses me off more than getting really good armor that looks like shit, where low stat armor is awesome. This is a callout of Solas in particular why are his fits ASS.

I felt spoiled in Veilguard not having to worry about my companions getting themselves killed because it drove me absolutely insane. They were, however, much less useful in fights. My Inquisition strategy is to turn Blackwall into a tank and just send his ass in while the rest of us attack from a distance. Veilguard made me do the work myself, which was fine because I love the combat in that game. It's smooth and it looks cool and I like the different weapons, but I do wish you could have a single sword as a rogue instead of two. It's a bit clunky with the bow also. The mage staff combat was also meh, I like the way it looks but it's just far more difficult than orb and dagger. I do like orb and dagger though, it's a creative change from staff only combat in other games.

The characters in both games are so so good. I think the companions are always the saving grace of dragon age because there's no constraints regarding player customization. I think the custom characters can hold back storytelling, which is probably why Hawke remains so popular. They're a more set character, with a specific background and family no matter what. The people that complain about Taash or Sera just hate autistic people I think. Taash was immature because they're like 22 surrounded by people 10+ years older. They have one of the best storylines in my opinion, and I think their friendship with Lucanis is so fucking funny. 30-something tired workaholic being besties with a much younger coworker is my favorite dynamic.

The lore connects as well as it does between all the other games. In fact, I found myself going "oh! Oh!" While I was replaying Inquisition because of little details that ended up being important! Cassandra commenting on whether or not archdemons are pets to something more powerful!! The buildup between games to the gods being main villains is so juicy and wonderful. I thought the gods made much better villains than Corypheus. Elgar'nan having his cat fight with Solas really highlights what I think is a huge theme; little people suffering for the egos of the powerful. Also he laughs just like Bo Burnham in welcome to the internet and I cackle every time.

I will agree somewhat with the criticism of Veilguard's sanitization of a lot of issues brought up in other games. I think they did implement a lot of themes! I do however understand why they didn't hone in on the darker elements. It's a different game for a different time. Everything sucks so fucking bad right now and I really appreciate the ideas of unity and hope that Veilguard is full of. I think doom and gloom has its place, and I rather enjoy a darker topic, but I think it was purposeful to hone in on a message of hope. It's just what was right for the climate nowadays. I also really appreciate the unapologetic support of queer people in Veilguard, you have to give it credit for that at least.

Anyways they're fun games with interesting lore and none of this matters that much. I had fun playing veilguard and I had fun playing Inquisition. Play Veilguard with an open mind, it really doesn't deserve the vitriol it gets.

[brothermoth]

Romancing him with my Lavellan Inquisitor is a blast because they're both unhinged in two different directions. City boy ends up with a guy whose idea of a date is fighting a dragon or wading knee deep in a swamp looking for rocks and picking fights with local fauna.

Also being with someone he cares about who confronts him directly about his ignorant beliefs is absolutely delicious from a romance perspective. Having to contend with the fact that this man he loves and respects would never be seen as his equal. He's got Solas AND his boyfriend both hounding him about the topic and I think that's very important for his development

it's unfortunate that dorian often gets characterized as just kind of a Generic Best Friend™️ for the inquisitor, bc i feel like he's actually SO odd. juvenile delinquent child prodigy mage who kept getting into fights and dropping out of various schools. refuses to take the well of sorrows on moral grounds. progressive by tevinter noble standards, but still throwing in clunkers like "well... slavery isn't THAT bad" in conversation. but still has enough conflicted feelings about it to wallow in Tevinter Guilt about arlathan and slavery, and genuinely discusses it with solas? and then if given a few years, he does decide to do something about it. only for solas to go "sorry but i have to destroy this world :/ try to enjoy your remaining time i guess :/"

and, if you recruit him at redcliffe, there is the angle where his first major introduction to the party is... them all dying horribly of red lyrium in front of him. because of the actions of his own mentor, whom he respected a lot. while he tries to do advanced theoretical fade physics calculations in his head. i can only imagine he goes "well! we don't have time to unpack all that. where's the nearest bar" after coming back to the normal world, but jeez. he is so bizarre and i love that.

[brothermoth]

great graphics. 11/10

[brothermoth]

If you're a TERF you're a gender fascist. No other way to spin it. You claim your ideology is about protecting women and children but what it actually necessitates is an overfixation on people's genitals and the persecution of a minority group that does not actually hold institutional power. You insist on fitting humanity into two strict boxes that do not reflect the true diversity present among 8 billion of us. The moment you start talking about "large gametes"--what the fuck are you doing?

All fascists cloak their actions in protective language. But unless you're going after the white male billionaire class that actually holds the most power and does the most harm to both humanity and the planet, you're not protecting anyone and your "resistance" is not worth anything.

[brothermoth]

Okay so Victorian erotica is literally the most heinous, morally bankrupt, horrific shit I've ever read - but I've read a fair bit, partly from historical interest but also because a while back I helped a friend with a university project she was doing about censorship and pornography in 19th century England.

Anyway I need to share with you all the most hilarious line that has ever been written, circa 1887:

[brothermoth]

I’ve noticed that they they’ve stopped calling plantations plantations in real estate listing. Look at this fucking description for this evil ass house with intact slave cabins on the property:

“Once a vibrant farm and market, the land still carries the echoes of community, cultivation and memory.” I get that real estate is a job but if you wrote this I think you should kill yourself.

[brothermoth]

[brothermoth]

sometimes people take attempts at historical nuance regarding terminology to mean "people didn't use these words to describe these identities and behaviours, but these identities and behaviours still existed, because they are fundamental truths of what it means to be human", rather than "we map our current conception of identities and behaviours with these words but they are not labels that can be straightforwardly applied to past experiences of the world because identities, behaviours, and conceptions of how those fit together are culturally and historically specific" and it. frustrates me

i don't think there is a concrete external reality of sexuality that we are merely creating labels to describe. i think the fundamental experience of sexuality is shaped by the labels and ideas available to us. people will always exist who don't conform to the norms of their time and will drive the development of new terms and new ideas but they do that within their own context not because of some like........ ontological pattern

[brothermoth]

looked a cool artist i found and instead of her actual art the first result google showed me was AI art made with her work. i hate it here!!!!!!!