#also dont take this as fact but iirc there was a rumour (or it was actually said in an interview or smth) that harris and menzies were told

[cliowo]

In this essay, i will explain the reasons why sky children of the light has become an increasingly unwelcoming game to new players and veterans alike-

Yeah yeah i usually only share my words here but tumblr feels like a really comfy place for me to share unfiltered thoughts and i needed somewhere to vent ig (skip if you have no idea what I'm talking about)

When I first started playing in prophecy, sky was a really fun game. We didn't have the request for a guide function then and I'm actually really grateful for it because the joy was in exploring each of the different realms and season areas on my own and randomly stumbling across spirits whose stories were waiting for me to discover. Maybe it was because I was a dumb moth - i didn't even know how to access seasonal spirits trees - but the pressure to cr just wasn't as intense as it is for moths today. The back to back seasons and "days of" events seem to have sucked the fun of exploring the world of sky for moths because they're so focused on grinding for candles/hearts/event currency that they just dont slow to smell the in-game roses anymore. And the thing is I get it because there's just so many new cosmetics as well as older ones from past seasons and events to farm for.

I mean sure you don't have to collect every cosmetic but 1 cape costs like 70 candles on average, same for a pair of pants iirc, a prop/acessory at 40-70 candles (70 if its an instrument??) , and hair at around 40-50 candles; and the best part is you can only earn 20-21 candles max in 1 reset 🤡 Add all of that plus the need to look for event currency in fear of facing such prices in the event rerun and you get stressed out moths facing existential crises every 2 weeks when ts arrives😀 Sorry moths, the economy is bad irl and just as bad in sky.

And what of the veterans? Yeah, well, we get no friends as everyone starts to quit the game and those that stay live off copium revisiting the places we once visited with friends- Or maybe that's just me

New friends, you say? *cue flashback to moths begging for help with cr* we exchanged like maybe 5 sentences max at chat benches🥲 i have nothing against helping out but it does make it difficult to form a bond when they disappear right after and you fade into their constellation of ubers

And then we have the seasons.

... Honestly the only season that made an impression with me after aurora was the recently concluded season of the 9 coloured deer, which was also another collab season💀

I actually had to check the sky wiki for this:

Remembrance - ironically very forgettable. What was the story again? Was it the one with the group of spirits living in one specific hole in vault like why- vault is bigger than that sad hole- OH THE PLUSHIES okay maybe this one was passable... im trying okay

Passage - ??? Havent finished this season's quests so uh- so far it seems like... a cult..? In isle...?

Moments - if they wanted a camera in-game, they could have just added it to like the days of sunlight event (the camping one) or smtg. They did not have to force a season for a camera💀 imho the camera was the only thing worth mentioning abt this season and i don't even take pictures

Revival - i suppose aviary is pretty and it's nice that the spirits have somewhere to stay now. Not particularly impressed. Don't really remember the story in this one.

...i heard rumours of a furniture season after the 9 coloured deer. Looking forward to hearing what they'll name this one lmao

The quality of "days of" events is still acceptable to me. Just maybe ignore the numerous iaps and the fact that we have multiple umbrellas but only 1 is f2p (don't understand whats up w that btw)

And also the recurring bugs💀 I've been playing for at least 3 years and I've faced these bugs/problems multiple times:

1. Unable to light frends constellations because the screen just yeets itself into oblivion or some random environment feature where i cant press the button

2. Game crashes (after every update istg-)

3. Splitting servers

4. Sky discrimination and gate keeping, aka refusing to let me open the game

5. Being unable to collect currency/dailies (it's not my internet i checked)

The lack of compensation is another matter entirely

I don't know man I'm tired. The only reason why I still have it installed is because it's my only link to the people I used to have fun and relax with. Not everyone has discord or insta or some other social media.

If you made it this far thank you for coming to my ted talk. Feel free to leave your thoughts- just remember to be respectful

Tldr:

The sky economy is bad. For everyone. Moths (and maybe even vets) are stressed out and vets are losing friends. The seasons are increasingly dull and the long-lived bugs are frustrating.

[borealopelta]

It is time for the final episodes! Commentary by yours truly

Ep 8 starting off as wonderful as the last 20 times I watched it, Mr Crozier’s little “that’s not how I see you 😳” when Mr Gender insults himself, and them stopping to have a few words while looking at each other… alack! The emotions!! They’re so gentle with each other in the way they talk and LOOK at each other and them calling each other brokfhsd…brothrjhvc…I still can’t say it…they look like they’re about to k*ss and then... cut to them running towards the camp like two little cartoon figures doing a stupid little cartoon dance

Back in the camp tragedy awaits (of course, what else could happen) and we’re back with our regularly scheduled programme of hating Native people and casual gore

And how could I forget Mr Hickey (I hate his face <3) back on his bullshit, interrupted by the man himself (with that I mean Mr Jopson the ultimate madlad) being sent out to the great emptiness to be confronted with his lies

Good Lord, Mr Bridgens and Mr Peglar standing in the tent, l-o-o-k-i-n-g [at bruises and being ever so gentle even in times of extreme hardship while Mr Collins eyes some bottles very conspiratorially, I wonder what’ll happen (except I don’t)] I did Not pick up on these two the first time around and it makes the things to come so much worse

Oh this show and it’s cruelly casual depiction of death and dying and illness and injuries and overall suffering (I have a whole lot of thoughts about that that I won’t put here but dear Jesus) It happens so often and is such an integral part of their everyday life that it seems so normal to have several dead people lying around, to have people fighting for their lives (looking at you Mr Gender and your St Sebastian looking face) eugh it pains me

Mr Goodsir saying his last words to Lady Silence pain me once more, he seems so desperate for her to stay and you can see the exact moment his oh so fragile heart breaks once more as she walks off into the fog…

Then we have the absolutely fantastic speeches by Mr Crozier and Mr Hickey, I’m vibrating from excitement at how petty these two are with each other

Aand they’re getting interrupted by the Collins one-man-rave. Oh and a giant spirit monster

More Gender scenes from the man himself (the gender is arson) His eyes are like black holes full of trauma…

Collins getting mauled to death and his soul sucked out, what a wonderful way to end an episode right? This got very long and I apologise for that but there are thoughts being thunk so watch out for more

Dearest boaty mcboatface i FORGOT to reply to these but I'm procrastinating on studying for my exam (its on friday!!! wtf is wrong with me!!!) so it's time for Them!

The Big Fitzier Scene is just. Yeah exactly what you said the next logical step was to make out. What's better than dying of scurvy but still snatching a smooch from your captain slash role model slash Beloved™???

I have to ask HOW you missed the bridglar tho like....they are So Tender you look at them and go 👀 a-HA you two are homosexuals!! I see! But dgbdhdndkd yeah everything hurts about them as well <3

What's an absolute kick in the chest with Silna's departure is that,,,, I can't say it without crying ANYWAY Goodsir apologizes to her. That scene fucking unzips me like he apologizes. GOD.

The whole Hickey thing is such a mess and i love it so much...the fog makes the whole mood muted somehow and everything feels urgent and dangerous like the moment before the storm where you're just waiting for that first crash of thunder. des voeux and [idk who the other guy is] convincing tozer to open the armory, little being pressured into greenlighting it, tommy armitage looking cute af (it's not important to the plot but it's important to ME), and then Irving's autopsy, Hodgson (boyfriend) confirming Hickey's lie, the whole got damn thing is just So Fucking Much. And hhhhhh the basis of me making james and dezza friends in every single au aka fitzjender suggesting des voeux to be put in charge of the armoury....he trusts him!!! and that makes me so sad ok.

anyway the hanging scene my beloved. mr jared harris deserves a thousand kisses for that speech his VOICE CRACKS man his voice cracks,,,,i can hear the "thAT was MR HickEY" in my head. also i love watching Tozer's face in that scene as he finds out about this stuff and you can see the horror on his face that hickey lied to him and murdered farr and Irving and alienated the Netsilik. and he was stupid enough to go along with it and now he'll die for it. as we all know i'm the #1 Tozer stannie round here so of course I'll yell abt him anyway. Hickey's speech too....hate the man amazed by his Skills of Manipulation. He talks in this super weird way when he's gaslight gatekeep girlbossing and you can't not listen to it,,,

Collins one-man-rave made me crack up but it really is that,,,the ensuing carnage is one of the worst/best scenes for being so graphic and just dealing with a bunch of side characters efficiently. Love diggle being just wrestled into a harness and made to haul with the mutineers, little and tozer's Talk™ (probably the basis of that ship gdhdhfjd), tommy hartnell the absolute lad being the Best Boy in the show and of course the jender and his rockets!!! he really went all out there <3

Collins' death and Tozer witnessing it is so....once again a thousand kisses to Walmart for using Microexpressions and Body Language because his little twitches and whatever the fuck his face does lives in my head rent free.

[foxx-queen]

inquisition prologue

I think a lot of people were disappointed with the fact that inquisition was the only game that didn't have a 'prologue', because we didn't have time to get to know our character before they were thrust into saving the world. IIRC, the writers said they didn't have a proper origin prologue because there wasn't time? which I guess makes sense seeing as they tried to do a Lot with inquisition, regardless of if they did it well. but I was thinking about how they could've done a small prologue and! here's how I think they could've done it without creating new origin areas.

while the immediate explosion of the temple of sacred ashes in the menu is a cool visual, I feel like they missed out on a big opportunity by blowing up the conclave immediately. I think they make the same mistake with redcliffe, as in they bring us to a place we already know and have explored in dao, but don't let us explore it, or see how it's changed. it's like they wanted to be nostalgic but didn't really follow through?

so I would change that. selecting a new game takes you into selecting your gender, race and class, along with the chance to import a dragon age keep save. depending on what you select, character creation loads with a different background screen: a fancier interior for the noble humans (perhaps even inside the temple), a small tent for a dalish elf, a larger tent for the qunari, a cart of lyrium for the dwarves, and a group of mages for the circle mage. this also means the cc is in normal lighting rather than the watery green light in the fade.

once the cc is done, you get to explore the small location you start in. by speaking to the people within that area you can develop how your character acts, and you also get to know these people we're told we have connections to. if you're a mage, you can talk to the other rebel mages, about their fears for the conclave and whether it'll work and being around so many templars. let us meet the representative fiona sent in her place, and let them talk about fiona, so that the player gets a picture of her before in hushed whispers (I know she's in da comics/books, but not everyone has read those). if you’re a human noble, you get the chance to talk to other nobles and talk about your family, and decide earlier on whether your character is devout or not. show us that free marcher nobles are considered ‘quaint’ or w/e rather than simply saying it. if you’re a qunari, you get to talk to more of your mercenary company. personally i loved the sound of the valo-kas mercenaries! its also a big deal to show us a group of qunari outside the qun that we don’t have to fight, so it would’ve been great to get to know them and what its like living as a free tal-vashoth, especially sonciering that the mage rebellion ‘started’ in kirkwall and there’d been qunari there too. theres a bit of extra dialogue if you’re a mage, considering the tensions and the fact that you’re free and have always governed yourself, which is exactly what the mages are asking for. if you’re a dwarf, you get insight into being in the carta. we’re told the cadash are a ‘ruthless dwarven crime family’, so this would be an opportunity to actually show us that and what being part of a surface crime family means as a dwarf. it could show us how they’re ruthless, or if that’s just rumours spread by people who don’t want someone else controlling the lyrium trade (the chantry). if you’re an elf, perhaps you’re seperate from the rest. maybe you’re able to talk to elven servants brought along by the nobles, or have conversations with elven mages about what its actually outside templar control. youre probably advised to avoid nobles and templars, and mistaken for a servant more than once. 

as you exit the small starting area, a cutscene occurs that shows divine justinia and her entourage walking through the crowds and up the steps into the temple of sacred ashes. i dont care about the chantry personally, but to me there was this massive disconnect as a player when we’re constantly being told about the beloved divine and how its a tragedy that she died, and then we meet her in the fade and everyone recognises her. because we’d never met her before, even though its supposed to be this big moment, i was like?? who is this random old woman why is everyone shook. you also get to see how many people are there, because again we’re told that so many people died at the conclave, but we never see that. even when we arrive at the destroyed temple, there’s only a few crispy bodies around. so instead we see the hundreds gathered for this attempt at peace, so what comes later has a greater impact than the sad dialogue wheel ‘all those people... dead’. 

the cutscene ends with one of your ‘origin’ friends / someone you’ve already spoken to directing you into the temple. if you’re a noble, someone jokes that you should go ahead and get a good seat. if you’re qunari, you’re sent to stand guard over where the noble you’re guarding will sit. if you’re a dwarf, you’re told that one of your contacts has asked you to supply a templar with lyrium, as they’ve run out, so you slip in a side / servants entrance. if you’re a mage, fiona’s representative asks you to go ahead and keep an eye on the divine, to make sure the templars don’t try to speak to her before the peace talks begin. if you’re an elf, you decide to slip in a side / servants entrance to keep your distance from the main crowd. this gives the player a small opportunity to see the inside the temple, so while we can’t explore it as much as we did in origins, we’re able to see some changes. this is something i really wanted to know, because the temple in origins has a very spooky vibe, and we can assume the chantry changed a lot of things to make it more modern andrastian. at a certain point, a cutscene occurs where the player looks up at a statue of andraste, and the camera pans up towards the roof of the temple, and then out of it. we see a sweeping view of the temple and all the people gathered which pulls back to show the people still approaching, much like the original menu screen. the title dragon age: inquisition appears, remains on the screen for a moment as the game saves, and the explosion occurs. 

the dust settles, and the camera follows survivors / soldiers looking up to see the ruins of the temple, and the breach. it follows them through the ruins of the temple, providing a contrast to what we saw earlier, so that the scale of the disaster is much more apparent. the survivors reach the fade rift, the player character falls out of it, and the screen fades to black. while unconscious, the player character experiences flashes of running through the fade, and the glowing figure near the rift. from there its basically the same, except when we reach the temple with cassandra, varric and solas, we’re arriving having seen it previously bustling with people, and so the destruction has far more impact. 

anyways, its not a perfect prologue by any means, and much shorter than origins still, but it would’ve been enough to let us experience our character’s origin, while still retaining the mystery of what happened. it also would explain, at least in retrospect, why it was the player character who stumbled upon the plot.