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The Drowned Halls

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bloodraven telling bran he still regularly sees visions of what bittersteel was doing in life soo embarrassing catastrophic idgaf war loss. hes been dead 100 years grandpa

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So I had holiday time recently, and decided to give Veilguard another go and see where my feelings are now.

This post is likely going to be way meaner and way longer than my previous one, but there are some thoughts I need to get out.

In all fairness, development hell made anything in this game a problem at the start. But the game's BIGGEST and worst problem is writing, especially dialogue and companion quests. As disappointed as I was with other decisions (like cutting out past choices), I could have lived with them better if the writing wasn't so... blah/cozy/empty/telling instead of showing.

There are periods of hyper focusing on one topic with a character, only to not touch on or gloss over something that was actually interesting.

Why did Aelia steal Neve's leg? We'll never know, and we'll only meet her in a 3 second cut scene where she's getting arrested.

Dang, the Butcher and Dragon King have some interesting lore and perspectives despite having once been of the Qun. I wonder where-oh, they are also dead after meeting them for 3 seconds... okay.

The worst though, is Mr. "Oh, I'm possessed by a demon, but it's cool, I can work past my personal hang ups 🙂" Lucanis. This is ignoring how we had an entire Dragon Age game where we watched our companion be eroded from the inside out by not even a demon, but a spirit, by the way.

The writers could have shown how spirits and demons are the same, and how if a spirit can be corrupted, then a demon can be worked the opposite direction.

Should that character arc be given to assassin royalty? Probably not. And we didnt get any contemplation or lore about spirits and demons with Lucanis anyway.

It's like Spite's inclusion was a complete waste of time, and a bad idea from inception. His character felt more like an attempt to have "Oh Alf, you silly cat-eating alien" moments than to have any real purpose to a demon being present.

Speaking of Lucanis, the best way I can describe what a heinous drop in writing quality there's been is that, in an older game, Illario would have been the companion character. His quest decision would have been to break Lucanis out of prison to take over the crows, or kill the abomination and take over himself. Even his surface level jealousy and power hungry motives are made naturally interesting due to how close he and his cousin were growing up. But you would never know outside of a few token "we were like brothers" in dialogue.

We had a dude who killed an entire family that helped him in the first game, a willing abomination and a blood mage in the second, and Solas and Blackwall in Inquisition. Solas and Blackwall have done legitimately horrible things. They made unambiguously immoral decsions and they are better characters for it.

Veilguard's most morally ambiguous companion isn't even the trained assassin, but the incredibly polite and kind necromancer who wants to be immortal.

Everyone else is a freaking Power Ranger.

Side note: what was the point of introducing the Black Divine if it's going to mean so little, it came out through data mining? I was a religious leader in Inquisition, but we can't delve into the Chantry's schism when we're right there in Tevinter?

Also, for all the hooting and hollering about continuing interrupted dialogue, or getting to hear missed companion dialogue at the Lighthouse, hardly any of it was worth all that effort.

Davrin, Emmerich, and Neve are the only companions I felt like I had a real conversation with, and Neve is done a complete disservice by her personal quest. Davrin and Neve were the only ones who Rook didn't speak to like a disappointed teacher. Emmerich had those horrible conversations with Taash and Harding, and was thankfully saved by his writing in the rest of the game, because wtf was that?

The gifts. What was the point of that? Not only is there zero dialogue about the gift and what it might mean to the companion (allowing for some lore drop) but there isn't even a status change. Not that the companion meters mean anything, because no one can leave your party unless they die in the final act.

And Elgar'nan. Oh Elgar'nan. We don't even know you.

Would have been nice to get a little nibble of a background with him like we did Ghilan'nain, who we know used to be a normal elf and kind. Even Corypheus got some background for those who didnt play the Legacy DLC. He was a Tevinter magister that broke into the Black City. That's some nice lore that informed his character (even though he was a nonentity in Inquisition).

Whereas the Evanuris end up being a case of the audience doing all the legwork for the writers. I like some things forever being kept a mystery, but that itself is an artform of what to reveal and what to keep close to your chest. Why did we never touch on why Mythal would put up with Elgar'nan and his shenanigans? We got some interesting insight into her with the version trapped in the Fade. But even that seemed wildly different from the woman we heard in the murals.

Fade spirit Mythal I can 100% see allying with the Evanuris despite having reservations. The Mythal in Flemeth and the memory murals I do not see that. It's like the writers wanted to have their cake and eat it too with her being betrayed but also being the "best of them."

I have a whole other rant about Solas and his relationship (or lack thereof) with the Inquisitor that will be in a part 2 because this is long enough.

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Hope? Yeah. Rebellions are built on hope.

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY (2016) dir. Gareth Edwards

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By Peter Steele

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Quentin Stipp

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As a kid, I spent quite a while staring at my family's tattered paperback cover for Lloyd Alexander's The High King, the fifth and final book in the high fantasy kid's book series 'Chronicles of Prydain.'

It's a visceral scene that pulls the viewer in like any cover should. Check out the fear in those bugging eyes. The ligaments of the knee. The ligaments on that Couldron-born zombie's neck. A lot of ligaments in this one! This image may have been my childhood introduction to the concept of ligaments.

The artist is the Belgian illustrator Jean-Léon Huens (1921-1984).

Read more

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IMDb’s Ten Highest Rated Episodes » Star Trek: The Original Series

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some more original content... pixel art page decor for u... no kredit necessary, just enjoy...

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The fantastic sci-fi-themed sketches and artworks of Anthony Brault - https://www.this-is-cool.co.uk/the-sci-fi-sketches-and-artworks-of-anthony-brault/

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My most favorite passages in literature are paragraphs people like this would have skipped.

They would read a book like 'The Once and Future King,' and and miss out on everything relevant because there isn't that much dialogue, despite being a book for younger readers.

It's not impressive to have read 100+ books if it's all crap like 'It Ends With Us' or ACOTAR. It just means you're literate and aren't discerning with your time.

These people have to be stopped

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FRANKEN’S GEARS (1987) dir. Koji Morimoto

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Way to go, Team Milky Way.

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Hand-colored photos of early 20th century Japan taken by Branson Decou

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Clancy Brown as The Kurgan - Highlander (1986)

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Clancy Brown as The Kurgan in Highlander (1986)