lasandra

[lasandra]

my thing about datv is i have literally no beef with people who enjoy the game like you'll catch me dead before you catch me shitting on fans for the simple crime of being fans but what i think is actually borderline disgusting is how many fans feel the need to shit on everyone else for not liking the game and refusing to separate their enjoyment from the degradation of everyone else who dares criticize it. its never normal ass criticism either its insane reductive garbage like "disliking the sanitization of the setting makes you a rape fetishist" or "wanting more conflict between characters is an indication you are emotionally stunted" like unironically in what world do you live in where these are even remotely sane conclusions to draw about people who didn't like your insane corporatized fanfic

[lasandra]

Literally how my Rook felt!

she’s so sick of them

[lasandra]

I feel like he COOOOOULD, but he'd have to actually hit rock bottom and Illario hasn't yet. He's been deeply humiliated sure, but humiliation alone isn't going to change a man like Illario. Forgiving him is an important step in his path to change and redemption, however. Not because it will make him feel guilty because it won't, at least, not at first. The dude thinks far too highly of himself. I think he would have preferred death because it would have been less shameful for him. Illario needs to find something he cares about more than himself (which does not need to be a romantic thing, in fact I doubt a romance could accomplish it) and that will be the catalyst of his change. Then once he does care, over time he will look back on the way he treated others and he will fall to his knees humbled by the grace and mercy extended to him when he never deserved it. Odds are likely that the guilt will eat at him from the inside and drive him to apologize and knowing the Crow mindset, try to make up for his failings.

As for the type of person it would take, I suspect it would take a child or protege (Especially he is unconditionally and non-romantically loved and respected by them). Someone he is very directly responsible for in one way or another. If it was a romantic interest, I suspect would have found somebody by now (though it would certainly make for a damn good redemption romance fic).

How LIKELY is he to change? Not very. He is very clearly narcissistic and it is incredibly difficult for narcissists to go through this type of change. On top of that, he's in his late 30s, approaching the 40s. Going through such drastic changes after around 43-46 significantly decreases the likelihood of that level of change (though it doesn't make it impossible by any means. I've seen people that age and much older change drastically).

There is my attempt at an analysis.

Out of Curiosity

[lasandra]

...how much of a bastardass solas is to rook vs how sweet-loverboy solas is with vhenan gives me whiplash and makes me both horny and physically ill

he would never show vhenan that side of him. like he tried so hard in trespasser and he physically couldn't do it. he called her vhenan and almost choked to death holding back his tears and self hatred as he kissed her lmfaoaofjilhbleiuhb

and then with rook he's like

"yeah i hate blood magic >:(" *blood magics rook to get his way*,

"varric, yeah? at least you still have him to chat with. lol." *literally kills varric and uses blood magic to fool rook about it*,

*traps rook in the fade with the full intention to leave them there to rot and die in the worst fucking prison imaginable to him specifically*,

"i swear 2 god and on the lives of all my friends (leaves vhenan out of it) the veil won't come down by my hand sweetie pie :) love u. we've made such good memories together, yeah?" *because the veil will come down by rook's hand, the chesspiece solas uses to win the game, doesn't give a single flying fuck about rook other than that they are his foil and he begrudgingly respects them*.

i love pookie so much. he's so dastardly and pathetic at the same time

[lasandra]

This. This is the exact moment I absolutely fell in love with Viago.

Viago showed up!! Of course he had to make a dramatic entrance with poisoned ballistas

It was nice to see Rook all excited to see her practically older brother Talon show up

[lasandra]

[lasandra]

@therearenonamesforwhatiam

One day, you will log on and see this, it might be days, it might be years, but it's going to be really funny when you do because I'm not even telling you I tagged you in something lol It will just be a nice little surprise.

posting your fic on AO3 like

[lasandra]

He wants Rook so badly okay like come on this is all so suggestive

[lasandra]

Viago: I am at a loss for words-! Rook de Riva, narrating: Though he claimed he was speechless, Viago yelled at me for 45 minutes.

[lasandra]

My Rook I headcanon as the daughter of Alistair and my Warden, so like, this is perfect for her.

Please look at the cheese on the plate.

Now please look at the cheese on Rook's plate.

Rook sat down mid conversation, and the cheese wheel in both shots looks about the same. So someone just put a whole hunk of cheese on Rook's plate in preparation of them coming? No one else has food on their plate. In fact, the only food on the table is that cheese wheel. So either:

It's not dinnertime, but someone knew Rook would want a snack (valid).

OR

They just finished a meal, and the only thing the companions saved for Rook was some cheese (also valid).

I'm not sure which one is funnier 😂

[lasandra]

This poll was originally run prior to Veilguard’s release.

[lasandra]

Last day to submit your answers for the DA romances survey!! During the weekend I will put together all the results

[lasandra]

ENDGAME SPOILERS FOR VEILGUARD (again)

Seriously, don't read this post or watch the clip if you don't want spoilers.

Solas' banter with Neve (clip with all other companions):

[lasandra]

Now we just need a Mod that puts him in mismatched fabrics (particularly plaideweave) so I can recreate this iconic look.

Hope I'm not interrupting?

[lasandra]

Why Fenris could Never Cameo in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

In the run up to Dragon age: The Veilguard, I was almost certain that Fenris would be our main legacy character from previous games. Not only has he been central in the comics released between DAI and DATV, he is an escaped Tevinter slave who's plot revolved around magisters, magic and the structural prejudices surrounding elves in Thedas. Not only that, but he's canonically in Tevinter killing slavers currently so he's geographically in the right place for us to meet him.

About halfway through the game though, it was clear to me: Fenris could never cameo in The Veilguard. Because he'd break it.

How the Veilguard treats Thedas is...odd to me, to say the least. I will be writing another post about how much I adored the expanded big lore in this game (the titans, ancient elves were spirits, where the blight came from etc.) and yet while these large lore expansions worked for me, the actual culture of modern Thedas is entirely softened, its sharp edges filed down until it's a sanitised fantasy world devoid of what made the franchise so vibrant and compelling in the first place.

So let's start with Fenris and slavery. In all three games, the reality of slavery is pushing at the corners of the world. In DAO Loghain allows Tevinter Magisters to enslave elves in order to raise money for his war effort. In DA2 Fenris is fighting to be free from slavers who will not leave him be, let alone the reminders that the city was built by slaves which are everywhere. In DAI one of the two possible mini-bosses is Calpurnia who was a slave, and characters such as Gatt and Dorian both show us how much slavery is tied into Tevinters culture and success.

But DATV the first game actually set in Tevinter where we get to see the famed Minrathous...it's like the game purposefully wants to avoid the issue. I can feel it tilting the camera away to not allow me to see. Slavery is mentioned, but never talked about in depth or as a specifically ELVEN problem in Tevinter. This might have been done to be less problematic, it feels ignored.

We are in DOCK TOWN. We are at the DOCKS. You would think that slaves from all over Thedas who are being smuggled and bought by various groups would be everywhere. You would think that the injustice in dock town would be partly built on the back of ships we've seen in the comics crammed with elves in chains. This is the world Dragon age set up for us. And yet...nothing. zilch. A tiny easily skippable side quest where we free a couple of venatori slaves, but only one of whom is an elf.

None of our Tevinter characters seem to have been influenced by their culture even a little bit when it comes to how they view elves; there is no moment when Neve fucks up and says something prejudiced, no moment when Bellara or Davrin are distrustful of her for being a Tevinter mage.

The same goes for Zevran; a character who epitomised the issues with the crows. The crows have consistently been characterised as very morally dubious assassins who kill for the highest bidder and who buy children on the slave market and torture them as they grow in order to assure that they reach maturity able to withstand torture without giving away a client's name. Zevran is very explicit about the fact that if you fail a contract your life is forefit.

Nobody responds particularly to you if you're an elf. Nobody trusts rook less for it in Tevinter. Nobody treats Rook any differently. Even DAI had better mechanics for this; with nobles in Orlais less likely to trust you as an elf.

Considering one of the main plot points of this game and what makes Solas sympathetic is the fact that he was fighting against the slavery of ancient elves...you'd think the game might want to mirror that in modern Thedas. It might want to show us how characters fighting to end slavery in Tevinter are similar to Solas and how the society Solas fought against was similar to the one that characters we love such as Fenris have fought against in modern Thedas. Maybe we'd want to explore how in a world of slavery like this, how could the answer NOT be to tear it all down? Maybe we should have that option at the end of the game so it really can chose whether we agree with Solas and his plans or not.

Adding Fenris to this game would entirely break the game because Fenris refuses to allow you to look away from this horror. He is a sympathetic character who had to learn to trust mages again because of course he didn't trust them. Of course he didn't. Fenris wouldn't allow the camera to shift focus because he's literally covered in the lyrium scars that show how slaves are used as experiments in Tevinter. Fenris WOULD question Neve on how she feels about elves and slaves. Fenris WOULD have things to say about Lucanis and the crows (let alone the fact Lucanis is an abomonation). So he could never be in this game; he'd drop a bomb on it's carefully constructed blinders to the very society its supposed to be set in.

And yet, in DATV, the crows are presented as...a found family of misfits and orphans? The politician who opposes the crows having absolute power in Antiva is framed as a comically evil idiot who doesn't understand that the crows are ontologically good. Yet...they're NOT. Crows in this game act more like a secret rebel group than an assassin organisation. We see no crow taking contracts with the VERY RICH venatori magisters despite being hired killers. We see crows just refuse to kill people despite having a contract because 'its crueler to leave them alive'. The crows don't feel like the crows here, they feel like a softened version of a cool assassin group who are cool because they wear black and purple.

Our pirate group are also sanitised; the Lords of Fortune are good pirates who only steal treasure that's not culturally significant. Theyve clearly read the modern critiques of the British Museum and have decided to explicitly stop anyone levelling similar critiques at them. There is no faction of the Lords of Fortune who aren't like this, no internal arguments about it. Everyone just. Agrees. And is able to accurately tell what a cultural artifact is vs. what treasure that you can have yourself is. Rather than showing us why a pirate stealing cultural artifacts might be bad (like in da2 where such a situation literally causes a coup and a war) it just tells us it's bad. But also pirates are cool so we still want them in our world.

This issue seaps into Thedas and drains it of any of the interesting complexity and ability to SAY anything that this franchise had before this game. It becomes a game about telling and not showing rather than the other way around. The games have ALWAYS asked questions about oppressive structural systems and their interplay with society, religion and culture and how these things can affect even the most well meaning character. Dragon age at its best IS a game about society and how society functions both for and against it's characters and what happens to societies built on cruelty and indifference. The best bad guys dragon age has given us are those who are bad because they embody these systems or have been shaped by them. Our main characters have had to wrestle with questions surrounding how to exist in these systems, fight against them, learn and grow.

Yet every group you come across in DATV is sanitised and cleaned up to the point of being as non problematic as humanly possible. None of our cast of characters have to wrestle with where they came from or the world that shaped them. None of them have to confront their own biases. They start the game perfectly non-problematic and end it that way too.

And this just...isn't what Dragon Age has been in the past. It isn't why I love the franchise. The whole game just felt, in a way, hollow. And this was a CHOICE and it is why the legacy characters are few and far between. Too many dragon age characters are just too...angry and complex for this game. You can feel them pulling their punches on this one. I have to imagine they did this because they didn't want to be criticised or have too much controversy? But I think it honestly goes far too much in the other direction and just makes it bland.

I can't imagine what I say here will be unique, but it is the basis for a LOT of my other thoughts on this game so I wanted to get it out of the way first. The softened Thedas and characters make this game by far the weakest in the franchise.

[lasandra]

And get me, he did.

one of the very first thoughts i had when meeting lucanis in-game:

“damn, he’s really gonna get ppl with those sad eyes, isn’t he?”

[lasandra]

Emmerich would just befriend all the zombies...

This poll was originally run prior to Veilguard’s release.