gwinaesfer

[gwinaesfer]

Rook Appreciation Week 2025 - Day 4: Laidir

Miss Lydia Laidir!

For @rookappreciationweek, I did portraits of different Rooks from all around tumblr. Day 4 it's the one and only Lydia from @sun-marie! I freaked out a little bit when I recognized her XD Hope you like it!

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If you'd like a portrait of your own Rook or any other character, my Commissions are open! I offer a variety of options from basic portraits to full body posters, you're more than welcome to DM me for more info!

[gwinaesfer]

Thoughts on Dragon Age: Inquisition (and how they relate to my opinion of the Veilguard)

It occurred to me that I never finished this review JDIFSOAJDIOSA I'm a few months late but hey, better late than never. Some of you are aware and were excited for me to play Inquisition for the first time after playing Veilguard, sooo let me yap about it.

Important notes: I have only finished the main story, I don't think I'll play the DLCs but I'll explain this further on (in summary, I'm exhausted and the DLCs are long and hard).

This post is GIGANTIC, and also to respect people who don't like critial content I'm putting it under the cut. If you're skipping this, thanks for the company, I do want to chat more with people who have other perspectives so my ask box is open. Still, reminder that this is MY opinion on how things happened in MY experience, you are allowed to disagree with me.

Let's start on a lighter note, here's everything I absolutely adored about this game:

Straight to the top of the list, the soundtrack. What a work of art, pure emotion in song that takes you on this journey even harder than the game itself. The motifs that follow you throughout the story and remind you why you're there, that you have a world to save and people to care about, how the scores talk between each other. Just UGH, 1000000000000000000000000/10. Personal opinion it is better than VG's soundtrack, not an accident that one of my favorite musical moments of VG was the Inquisition theme building up in Blood of Arlathan.

The scenery. What a BEAUTIFUL game to look at, even with 2010's graphics and resolution, the game looks like a painting wherever you stop. Shoutout to the Dales and the Emerald Graves for making me tear up. I love both game's art style, I have nothing to complain or compare.

The companions*: It's impossible not to love all of them, building a friendship (or relationship) takes time and feels earned, I loved how realistic that felt. Yes some people disagreed with my choices and we didn't turn out friends in the end because of it, it's what happens in life and I actually liked having this sense that no, not everyone loves my Inquisitor for what she does. Romance will get its own topic but the friendships in this game, oh my god. Cassandra opening up and turning out to be really sweet and goofy, Leliana being emotional about everything that's going on, Josephine letting herself relax around you and no one else, literally every single one of the Iron Bull scenes, the Wicked Grace game. Goddamn I love these people. Also while at it, the character designs were on point, chef's kiss.

*Regarding personality, I will have a topic further on about the companion missions but it's in the bad section lmfao.

The romance. You guys saw me going through solavellan hell, and if that was an afterthought that they added later in development I can't IMAGINE what the other romances look like. It's tragic and it hurts but it fits the story so well, I do have an issue with it but I understand in this case that it was added later so it will be lacking. For me personally it was so odd and so sad seeing Solas being a normal person for once and realize that he is a person (Veilguard lays heavily on the mystic aspects of him). I think solavellan is an extraordinary match, I see why it's so popular, you all were absolutely right.

Speaking of her, the Inquisitor. WHAT a character. The responsibility of the world on one's shoulder and the yearning from being completely alone while surrounded by people. I played a Lavellan Inquisitor (duh) and it hits you just right just how hard her life is, someone who belonged to a culture that's completely separate from the rest of the world now having to face all of it, becoming a symbol of a faith she doesn't have. She was to be the Keeper of the entire clan, was taken from that path and lost it without ever being able to do anything about it. She's surrounded by people who don't understand or disregard her beliefs and still fights for all of them. When I played Veilguard I thought it was bullshit that she would leave the world behind and willingly go to the Fade, now that I know who she is I see why she needed to go. GodDAMN what a tragic character and so fun to explore in writing.

Not a Section, but what I'm gonna touch on this next topic isn't good or bad. This is neutral ground.

The Story. I have mixed feelings about the story of this game, mainly because playing it in its entirety was SO demanding, SO boring, that I could barely connect to the story at all. It felt badass in a way that I read about it and thought whoa, that's cool, but after I finished it, I felt like it could be more. Still, a protagonist that unwillingly becomes 1- a religious symbol (REGARDLESS of their faith), 2- a war general and 3- a KING/QUEEN of their own little nation was INSANE. Also loved how much culture there is on this game, Orlais looked so different from Ferelden and the rest of the world, all the bits of Dalish history we could read, talk about and even visit sacred grounds!!! I learned more about the Qunari by just chatting with Bull than playing Taash's quest in VG. Thedas looks so alive in this game, it's refreshing to see.

On another note, however. What made the story move and the conflits it brought didn't seem convincing enough for me. Corypheus is a good antagonist, sure, and his monologues were incredible. I still have no fucking idea where he came from, who he is (was?) and what led him to be there in the first place. If the game told me, I was too tired of it to listen. All I gathered was red lyrium bad, addiction worse, fake(?) archdemon big no no, I barely understood what Solas was doing there too, but only because I already knew about it before playing. If all of this is explained in Trespasser, then sorry, didn't have the patience to play it, but also, if the core of your story is explained in a DLC, that's also bad??????? Anyway, good anchor to go to the bad section of this post.

Most critical part of the post, everything I hated about this game (you're welcome to drop the reading right now XD thanks for the company if you do so, see you around <3)

Playability was my biggest issue with Inquisition. Right off the bat, the camera made it impossible for me to fare well in combat and just navigating the game in general, it took me a few tries to actually grasp it in the prologue (I walked around pressing the mouse keys to move the camera with it instead of A and D). I don't know how Inquisition was released, but it felt like a console game thrown into a PC platform without the necessary changes for it to run well for PC players. I didn't mind the ability bar (or whatever it's called), it took no time at all for me to get used to it, it was the camera that got me nauseous and didn't allow me to actually see the game. 3/10 because of how the companions will blast out their special abilities automatically instead of you having to select them (which saved my ass countless times)

I think it still counts as playability, but the quests came in second as my biggest issue, which is bad because it's.... the whole game. The main quests didn't feel very connected between each other for me because of the sheer amount of side quests available between them. I was completely drained halfway through it, I was SO bored, I was viciously following markers going "I wish I was playing literally anything else right now", I forced myself to finish this game and that shouldn't have happened. "But Gwin, you don't have to do the side quests!" True, and by not doing them I miss out on 90% of the lore in a game known for it's writing, I miss companion quests and opinions that could change my view on certain topics, and generally speaking the markers left on the map would piss me off.

I DID miss companion quests, I didn't finish Sera's and Vivienne's stories at all! I know where I went wrong with Vivienne, I refused to give her the wyvern heart because I didn't know what she was going to do with it, and I found absolutely no way of finding out later? It looked like I was completely locked out of her story (I understand the story reasons of it, the "you didn't trust me with this so fuck off" I guess, but no explanation whatsoever? No way of saying aye sorry I didn't give you this then but I want to now?). I have no idea what went wrong with Sera.

Some of the quests were also SO mundane and so... ??????. For instance why am I, the leader of a newly founded military force focused on saving the whole goddamn world, looking for a goat someone lost in the woods? Why am I looking for a wedding ring your daughter lost in the snow? Some of the early game quests made sense (looking for supplies for the refugees, finding medicine for that one woman, hell even looking for the golden halla had meaning), but the others...? In my opinion Veilguard made better choices in side quests, all of them did feel like they had stakes on the bigger problem at hand, you should help the compassion spirits because they were on the verge of turning/you will uncover an entire demon operation under Minrathous, you should look for the crows missing in Rivain because they were bringing suplies back to Treviso after the dragon attack, those missions helped the storytelling of how fucked up the world was then.

Another thing that Veilguard did WAY better and no one can argue about this, all the companions matter to the story at some point, and all of them show up in big missions where you would expect the whole team to be there. Inquisition had me facing an army of demons with 3 people. Out of TWELVE companions only about half of them were integral to the story. You can spend the entire game without talking to HALF the crew once and it doesn't change absolutely anything. Lelianna and Cassandra mattered because of the Divine, Varric mattered because he's directly tied to how the entire plot started and to Hawke, Cole sort of matters because he warned Haven about Corypheus and he's used in storytelling regarding Solas and spirits, and that's all that comes to mind right now.

It was a good game, it could've been great, even, it had everything to be, but I've said this before, I'll take an imperfect game with great playability over a perfect game that's insufferable to play. It does not push me away from loving this era of Dragon Age history though, it's just not something I'll revisit often.

Thank you for reading, I encourage you to give your opinion (respectfully, please, this is a conversation and not a debate), and I want to make more friends to talk about this.

[gwinaesfer]

WE’RE WE HERE FUCK WE’RE SHIT QUEER UP

[gwinaesfer]

Periodic reminder that if I know even a single thing about your Rook, I love them

Everyone has such precious lovely kids and I love them all SOOOO much

[gwinaesfer]

observation: among a certain subset of tumblr users, the term “blorbo” has become unchic, but the concept it describes is still important; and so it has been replaced with “The Character”

[gwinaesfer]

Had a brilliant idea, dressed my disruption!Rook how I imagined she looked like back then, then sent her to Disrupt and Conquer, and got emotional whiplash

Let me make it you guys' problem too

[gwinaesfer]

Had a brilliant idea, dressed my disruption!Rook how I imagined she looked like back then, then sent her to Disrupt and Conquer, and got emotional whiplash

Let me make it you guys' problem too

[gwinaesfer]

Rook Appreciation Week 2025 - Day 3: Ingellvar

Miss Veryl Ingellvar

For @rookappreciationweek, I did portraits of different Rooks from all around tumblr. Day 3 it's the beautiful Veryl from @hedwigoprah <3 Hope I did her justice!

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If you'd like a portrait of your own Rook or any other character, my Commissions are open! I offer a variety of options from basic portraits to full body posters, you're more than welcome to DM me for more info!

[gwinaesfer]

GDAHSAJIGFJA´DKJEIAWOTFHQWO0RJEWTH73459RY83WERFUWY49EW9QU8QW 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[gwinaesfer]

BITCHHHH this picture I took of my Rook

[gwinaesfer]

why the fuck is it called the xbox 360 what does 360 mean???????????????????

[gwinaesfer]

i like this banter bc we do have a saying in brazil that's like. opinions are like assholes, everybody has one

[gwinaesfer]

Rook Appreciation Week 2025 - Day 3: Ingellvar

Miss Veryl Ingellvar

For @rookappreciationweek, I did portraits of different Rooks from all around tumblr. Day 3 it's the beautiful Veryl from @hedwigoprah <3 Hope I did her justice!

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If you'd like a portrait of your own Rook or any other character, my Commissions are open! I offer a variety of options from basic portraits to full body posters, you're more than welcome to DM me for more info!

[gwinaesfer]

i am not immune to men with long hair

[gwinaesfer]

I have to say, all of these Veilguard Week events I've seen going around make me so emotional. This game went through hell and came out in pieces, its development was nothing short of absolute horror. We got a game that was the best it possibly could havs been given the circumstances, a game that unfortunately will always have a reputation of BioWare's biggest failure, and probably will be known as the one that broke the studio forever.

Yet we look at it with love, we celebrate every little thing about it. For weeks we have been saying look! I love this game this much! I made stuff for it! We celebrate each character like they're ours now, and we'll take care of them from now on. Everyone gets a turn to be loved in a fandom that could have turned its back on them, but didn't.

Thank you everyone that organizes and participates in these <3

[gwinaesfer]

i saw this and thought "oh." and then i got possessed

[gwinaesfer]

I see people talk a lot about how Ketheric is the best villain in BG3 because he's serious and has genuine sympathetic motivations while Orin and Gortash are just going "heehee I love being evil" and I feel like these people have missed what a massive fucking loser and piece of shit Ketheric Thorm is. I say this as a Ketheric lover--I am rotating this man in my brain so often--but my god he sucks so bad.

Like I don't want to minimise the grief of losing your loved ones before their time, and I can't even imagine how horrific it must be to have to bury your child. But plenty of people have to do that and then don't become war criminals about it. Ketheric murdered a lot of other people's families in his grief, even before becoming Myrkul's Chosen in return for getting Isobel resurrected. (And ofc, his treatment of Isobel is more Control and Abuse and lying about her girlfriend being dead when he's actually torturing her than about being a sweet doting dad who loves his daughter, but that's a whole other post.)

Gortash is repressing his tragic backstory and delighting in hurting people the way he was hurt. Orin is too deep in a lifetime of cult brainwashing to recognise that she has a tragic backstory until the very last moment, and trying desperately to get family approval the only way she's ever been taught (murder). Ketheric only looks more tragic on the surface because he's marinating in his backstory. He is not in any way a better or more complex person for it, he's just a deeply sad man, in more than one sense of the word.

He absolutely benefits from having an entire act built around his storyline and having it be actually well written, while Orin and Gortash have to share Act 3 and then get upstaged by a talking brain as the Big Bad! But being voiced by JK Simmons doesn't make Ketheric not a loser.