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Completely unrelated to anything else I've ever posted but

Can the people who genuinely believe Epic!Penelope was sitting/standing in front of the axes (so she would die if someone managed to string the bow and make the shot (leaving her son to fend for himself against the suitors)) tell me when they think she gave up and decided to leave the room?

Not asking to belittle you (despite my tone and general vibe) I'm genuinely curious about the logistics of it. In my mind she gets the hell out of there before The Challenge even ends because she knows the suitors would get violent when they realize it was a rigged game.

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Honorable mention

A small collection of court augur being a complete freak (complimentary)

Bonus:

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I love seeing the posts from people who don't trust The Voice worth a damn. I'm sorry sir, that is my PARENT I am walking them through this world hand-in-hand and cradling them gently to my chest as they come to terms with Existing

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I've been seeing a lot of posts about what we were "supposed to do" in Veilguard based on the Art Book, and as a concept artist, that specific phrasing kind of irks me.

"We could have" is often much more accurate than "we were supposed to," because sometimes a concept is put out there just for the sake of putting it out there and seeing what can be done instead. Like finding where you want to draw the line in the sand and back up a bit. Not to say "supposed to" is always incorrect (especially if the devs themselves phrase it that way), just that concept art is often times more about exploration than a solid intention. Someone saying "we considered the idea of doing x" doesn't mean it was brutally shot down in the last leg of the race, sometimes it means they had one conversation about it and the idea didn't fit. It could be because of art, narrative, design, development, budgetary, and/or scope restrictions, it's not often as watered down as "they just didn't see the appeal of how this was better than what they gave us." Sometimes it is! But sometimes people (myself included) just get so attached to an unfulfilled concept that it almost feels personal that it was scrapped.

This isn't even Veilguard-specific, it happens to everything that releases their concept art, but this started as a comment on a Veilguard post and I quickly realized I kind of sounded like I was standing on a soapbox in someone's backyard. (So I promptly chased myself off with their garden hose to ramble here instead)

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(banging my fists on the table) SPIRITS TURNING INTO DEMONS DON'T BECOME THEIR OPPOSITE, THEY BECOME AN AMPLIFICATION OF THEIR WORST.

WISDOM BECOMES PRIDE, JUSTICE BECOMES VENGEANCE, LOVE BECOMES OBSESSION, DETERMINATION BECOMES SPITE.

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Oh no I love all the additions and speculation people are adding! Reading my response back it very much doesn't come off that way because I'm very bad at explaining myself, but any and all irritation is directed at the people who inspired the post in the first place loll

(banging my fists on the table) SPIRITS TURNING INTO DEMONS DON'T BECOME THEIR OPPOSITE, THEY BECOME AN AMPLIFICATION OF THEIR WORST.

WISDOM BECOMES PRIDE, JUSTICE BECOMES VENGEANCE, LOVE BECOMES OBSESSION, DETERMINATION BECOMES SPITE.

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It's definitely not 1:1, but these are specific characters we've seen (DAI, DA2, DATV (concept), DATV (game)) to support the actual point of the post-- that it's not about turning into their opposite. I've seen people say Spite being a spirit of Determination doesn't make sense because Spite is a form of Determination, and that's... the point.

If I knew this post would be seen by more than five people I would've been more clear in how I wrote it, but at the time I was just screaming to myself in an otherwise empty room

(banging my fists on the table) SPIRITS TURNING INTO DEMONS DON'T BECOME THEIR OPPOSITE, THEY BECOME AN AMPLIFICATION OF THEIR WORST.

WISDOM BECOMES PRIDE, JUSTICE BECOMES VENGEANCE, LOVE BECOMES OBSESSION, DETERMINATION BECOMES SPITE.

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The gravestones were their greatest fears; I could see Compassion becoming Despair, but Cole specifically seemed much more likely to be on the path to Rage or Vengeance. "There is no compassion and there's nothing I can do" vs "There is no compassion and I will do something about it"

I don't have in-work passages to cite at the moment but I would absolutely say that different spirits can become the same thing as well as the same spirits becoming different things

(banging my fists on the table) SPIRITS TURNING INTO DEMONS DON'T BECOME THEIR OPPOSITE, THEY BECOME AN AMPLIFICATION OF THEIR WORST.

WISDOM BECOMES PRIDE, JUSTICE BECOMES VENGEANCE, LOVE BECOMES OBSESSION, DETERMINATION BECOMES SPITE.

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(banging my fists on the table) SPIRITS TURNING INTO DEMONS DON'T BECOME THEIR OPPOSITE, THEY BECOME AN AMPLIFICATION OF THEIR WORST.

WISDOM BECOMES PRIDE, JUSTICE BECOMES VENGEANCE, LOVE BECOMES OBSESSION, DETERMINATION BECOMES SPITE.

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With all the valid criticism for Veilguard, "I can't wank to it :(" is by far the least compelling and immediately invalidates anything else you say. Simply a skill issue on your part, unfortunately

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I'm so fucking glad I got the art book

Anyways, Elgar'nan is wearing a wig in-game

t/s: With Solas, we established that hair loss would be the only outward indication of an ancient elf's age. Elgar wears a wig attached to his crown

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WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE COULD'VE SAVED HAWKE FROM THE FADE?

WE COULD'VE PULLED HAWKE FROM THE FADE AFTER TEN YEARS JUST TO TELL THEM VARRIC DIED LIKE A WEEK AGO???

t/s: What if we return to the Fade and rescue whoever was left behind? How would their time in that alien landscape change them, and what insights could they offer into Solas' plans?

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Every ten years one of the greatest heroes Thedas has ever seen dies. If you survive your own battle, you die for the next hero to live

Thinking about a worldstate where the Hero of Fereldan made the ultimate sacrifice, Hawke was left in the fade, and Inquisitor Lavellan fucked off past the veil

I don't know if it would be funnier to decimate the Veilguard crew as a cherry on top or leave Rook to be the one who has to pick up all the pieces now. Really hammer in that "your destiny was to die, but you remain regardless. What now?" existentialism from Davrin's storyline

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Thinking about a worldstate where the Hero of Fereldan made the ultimate sacrifice, Hawke was left in the fade, and Inquisitor Lavellan fucked off past the veil

I don't know if it would be funnier to decimate the Veilguard crew as a cherry on top or leave Rook to be the one who has to pick up all the pieces now. Really hammer in that "your destiny was to die, but you remain regardless. What now?" existentialism from Davrin's storyline

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The end slides about stories was very sweet and all but Bioware where are my epilogue slides? I know they'll get retconned anyways like the Dalish getting the Hinterlands and Anders happily living the rest of his life with his Wardens but where are my epilogue slides???

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You know, say what you will about Veilguard but it feels like the only Dragon Age game (since maybe Origins depending on how you play) that doesn't even try to go "maybe the Templars are just doing their jobs and the mages should stop :(" and coax your character into agreeing with it as the Objective Truth.

Granted that's because any in-game mention of the mage vs templar conflict I could find seems to be limited to one late game side quest you can easily miss, but seeing the enemies named "Undead Templar," "Chantry Zealot," "Envy of Power," and "Murdered Mage" where one is clearly portrayed as being more sympathetic and it's not even TRYING to be the Chantry/Templars this time kind of got to me. Some of them show regret, but it's because they know they were wrong.

Points docked for not letting mage!Rook even mention being in a Circle, the College of Enchanters, or the Bright Hand. We get to talk about how the ancient elven mage tyrants are bad for the elves but not the mages. Would've been a fine standalone game but you let your players craft the past twenty years of this world's history and how did this turn into a rant about the world states god damn it

Spirit of Compassion: Glinting. Gleaming. Stealing us with steel. Splinters flying as they kick in the door to our home.

Spirit of Compassion: Baking in my armor. So much hotter here than back in Ferelden. Kill on sight. But they don't look like abominations. They just look sad.

Spirit of Compassion: We run, but they chased us. We tried to surrender, but they killed us as we knelt. The spirits roar as the fire comes. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.

Spirit of Compassion: The wood will always be scorched, but the rain has washed away the fire and smoke. Thank you.

If anyone knows of any codex entries that mention the war please let me know

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....Davrin we would have given you a chair. You didn't have to go and make your own. Maybe at least put a cushion on it??