#art after a bazillion years

[fishfucker6969]

he is babygirl. to me

[dokidokidraws]

I miss you.

(P5 Omori AU)

[pacifistcowboy]

i have FINALLY started doing the lineart for my lil espilver comic. it has literally taken me a month to get here. what the f

[mrs-gauche]

So, I *think* I've calmed down enough to form coherent sentences about this trailer now, after watching this about a gazillion times. 😂 There is just SO much in this and I still can't believe it's all real.. I feel like people have already dissected every single frame anyway, so here are just my poor two cents (that's a lie, it's an essay lol), I'm sure 90% of this has probably already been said lol, but I just had to write my thoughts down, so there you go. 🫠

But first, can I just ask you guys this.. Does anyone else feel SO friggin overwhelmed every time something huge like this drops? 😂😭 Like, I LOVE the collective excitement and freaking out over all this with the fandom together in real time, and maybe it's because I'm not a native English speaker, but I'm watching the trailer live and within like fifteen minutes there are already a bazillion notifications, messages, people have already made hundreds of theory posts, edits, fanart and shitposts, meanwhile I'm sitting here still looking at the FIRST FRAME and trying to process what I'm even looking at. lmaoo Like, it takes me SO long to take it fully in, calm down and look at ALL of it in detail, while I go radio silent for like two hours, making people think I just died watching the trailer, I guess. lmaooo So.. sorry if it takes me forever until I even go on here and look at everything you guys are posting. 💀 <3

Anyway, so first of all, I'd like to just generally say... Everything about this blew. me. away.

Look. After like 20 years of watching BioWare's entire animation catalogue of the same 25 movements in every cutscene, that it would make you jump every time a character but even slightly moved differently than everyone else, we're now getting a game that is SO INCREDIBLY CINEMATIC, SO SMOOTH, unlike any BioWare game before. A game where everyone just moves and expresses emotions like their own person, making everything a hundred times more immersive and impactful!!

Not only that but there's a BioWare game now with PHENOMENAL LOOKING HAIR and REALISTIC HAIR PHYSICS. Guys, do you understand this is HISTORY??? lmao We've been asking for this for YEARS and it's happening!! 😭

And the cinematography? THE CINEMATOGRAPHY?? Just looking at that very FIRST LOCATION SHOT alone. The camerawork, the composition, the fluidity of movement, the shift of focus, the lighting, the use of MoCap, the facial expressions... As someone who spent a *LOT* of time using the flycam to make cinematic gifsets of DAI, where - with all respect to the devs - 90% of the camerawork basically consisted of "zoom in/zoom out"... this. blew. my. fucking mind.

Like, they did it. They mastered the Frostbite engine on all fronts. And it truly hurts my heart seeing people compare this to Fortnite or whatever, when in my opinion this time they actually managed to find a perfect mix between stylized and realism, in favor of making the characters even more expressive and this coupled with the use of MoCap and the incredible cinematography will make these emotional scenes hit SO hard and.. ugh, I just love it so much. 🥹❤️❤️

With this being said, let's dive into it!

Okay, so I know this is super random, but it was literally the first thing I noticed about this trailer. lol Did you noticed that it said "BioWare" *before* "Electronic Arts" in the beginning, unlike that first... controversial reveal trailer, where it was the other way around? 😂 Not reading anything into this of course (or do I? lol), but.. Idk, I thought it was.. interesting. 👀

So we start off with the first of many amazing tracking shots, with the camera orbiting around Rook in this place devoid of color or life. The note at the bottom made me chuckle "Game engine footage with some costum camera angles", I was like "Oh, so they used the flycam to make this?". lol So some shots of these will look different in the final version (what kind of spoilers are they hiding?? 👀👀).

I do hope that next shot DOES end up in the game though, because holy SHIT, that FIRST wide shot already blew. me. away.

Look at the COMPOSITION of this.

Actually, you could probably take every single location/wide shot of this trailer and hang it on your wall. lol But seriously, the way this place just looks... dead. It makes me think of "void" rather than Fade.. like an ancient graveyard. The raw Fade looks generally creepy, but this is haunting even for that. There's no life, no color, no motion. It's all broken and crumbled. Almost like it reflects Solas' feelings. People are speculating if this place might change depending on Solas' state of mind.. This is the Fade after all, but Solas is here physically and this being the place that was supposed to be the new prison for the gods.. It's probably different from the rest of it.

We also see all seven statues of the pantheon from the ritual site again. Solas "I have the high ground", *literally* talking down to Rook, while standing on two separate cliffs (how did Rook even get there, I wonder? lol), like there is quite literally a rift between them (for now..!) and Solas is keeping a distance, as always. We still don't know how that connection between the two even works, I assume Rook can only contact him while asleep? But to think that this is the place where he is trapped now, where he is even more isolated than ever before, is making me so emotional. ;-;

I love how it's just black and white though. It gives the scene a destinct atmosphere that might be important, if this is where we get to see Solas doing a lot of introspection. In the art of filmmaking, the absence of color is often used to force the audience to focus on the contrast, textures, and tones present in the image, which can evoke a deep sense of emotion.

And speaking of emotions...

"You have no idea what you have done."

We had already heard that line before, but something about that booming, echoing effect they used on his voice sent a shiver down my spine!

"The blighted elven gods walk free. And all because you disrupted my ritual."

To me, he *sounds* much more frustrated here than he *looks* when saying that. lol He looks incredibly worried though, and just so tired. A moment ago, he was SO close to achieving his goal after hundreds of years of preparation and then he failed again... and now there is this completely clueless stranger who got him in this situation, but who he has to rely on now to stop these gods, when he's unable to trust anyone, and yet he can't even yell at them too much, because he *needs* them. He must be so exhausted.

And yes, it is kinda funny how they put "elven gods" in quotation marks. lol

Thank god he still has his freckles though. ❤️ We're actually seeing a lot more texture on his face here than in the gameplay showcase. And yes, not only did he get his eyebrows microbladed but apparently he's also sporting eyeliner and lipstick now. 😌✨✨ The only downside to the lack of colors here is that his super purple eyes are not poppin' anymore. lol

"You battle against gods. They will not rest until you are on your knees. Fearful. Cowering. Helpless in the face of such power."

I love how they play this line so early on in the trailer, that it makes you go "WAIT... IS THAT- NO WAY" and not until the end do we get the confirmation with the most amazing entrance ever.

We then get a shot of what I think has to be Treviso in flames and Ghilan'nain symbolically coiling her tentacles around a crow statue's head, as she's probably about to take over the city. 👀 *falls on my knees the second I meet her in the game* lol

Then there's the shot of this horrifying Blight.. lump.. growth thing that has completely devoured an elf (and several other bodies it seems) with a hair style that has everyone wondering if this could be Felassan! 🥺🥺🥺 As much as I would LOVE for Felassan to make an appearance.. I kinda hope this *isn't* him.. because good god, whatever happened to this persom here must be pretty traumatizing (are they even still alive?) and also, how do we get them out of there? lol Either way, seeing as there are Harding, Bellara and Neve accompanying Rook here, this might be earlier in the game (and this is them dicovering that the Blight is already spreading rapidly?) and yet it already shows us that this Blight is on a whole other level than anything we've seen before, and it's taking every living thing.

Then we see another snowy place (or might this be within the same area?) that's also in huge parts taken over by the Blight. You can also see a dead(?) dragon lying on the ground at the bottom right corner? 🥺

Then Elgar'nan literally pops up right next to Ghilan'nain, and btw, I love how I can't even tell where her body begins or where it ends in this shot. lmao What ARE you, Ghili?? 💀

It looks to me like maybe she was struck by a bolt/spear from a ballista or something? The Grey Wardens tried to take her out maybe? Looks like the power of Elgar'nan's mere presence blows the Wardens away then lol, like they're just insects to him.. and in the blast we can see a person that looks like Evka?? <3333 (please don't die here though 😭)

Then we're getting a first glimpse of a dragon that shows up multiple times in this trailer. Also, to me, it looks so much like the dragon from the Golden City vinyl cover, which has me like 👀👀👀👀

Next there are a few scenes from the prologue we've already seen in the gameplay showcase, but it's coupled with new lines from Varric, that have me super worried. :(

"Rook, you've got this. I've seen your work. You're clever, adaptable. And you don't know when to quit.

My first reaction to this was "Oh god no, that sounds so much like a "passing the torch" kind of dialogue to me" as in Varric either dies (PLEASE NO but it IS super suspicious how he's not seen or mentioned in any other scene so far) or retires his role as the leader of this group and hands it over to Rook. And he just sounds... weary. 🥺 I wonder what he means by "your work" though? Is he talking about things Rook has done before Varric recruited them? Or is it maybe later down the line, after Rook has already proven themselves to be a great leader? 🤔

Then we get another shot of that one dragon and our first look at Harding with the bruised face (whoever did this, come fight me!) and some poor person tangled in.. something, I'm not sure. lol

Then there's a super quick shot of the floating building in Minrathous, followed by Rook opening a gate Aragorn style, which leads me to believe that this is actually somethere IN that floating building maybe?

But the fact that Rook and everyone else seems to be wearing casual clothes in the following shots, plus the architecture in the background has me wondering if they might be at the Lighthouse actually? 👀

Especially because in the very next shot we see Rook, Bellara, Neve and Harding all in casual clothes again in front of a giant eluvian and I wonder if that's the mirror that we've read about in the Game Informer article. The special eluvian at the Lighthouse that can take you anywhere? :o

Speaking of the Game Informer article, it also told us that Rook, Harding and Neve went back to the ritual site after what happened in the beginning, which is probably what we're seeing here!

"You want allies to go after the elven gods. I've got places to look."

Well, good thing we have a clever detective on the team that apparently knows people who would willingly fight some gods. lol Notice how Harding's face is still injured in this scene. 👀 So I assume whatever happened to her must've happened at the ritual site? Btw, I love how the trailer makes it look like they're all in casual clothes and the second they're stepping through the eluvian, they're in full gear? 😂 (I'm sure those two scenes take place at different times though.) It's crazy how much different the Arlathan Forest looks now, without the cataclysmic storm and all. I love the lighting, the colors and the soft rain! :3

Then we get another gorgeous location shot to hang on the wall. <3 My guess here is definitely Anderfels, given the landscape and those "pillar ring" things we've seen before (I still have no idea what those are, the funniest guess is still griffon training flight path 😂 But something tells me those things will be important.).

"I'll be damned! A griffon!"

Davrin and Assan!! <33333 And the dialogue makes it sound like this might be the first time they meet each other?? 🥹🥹 Followed by a scene of Davrin taking care of business and what might be the return of children in DA?? 😭 Seeing that little girl made me so happy, because that was actually one of the few things on my wishlist for DA4, because I always felt like children make the world feel SO much more real and immersive and besides Kieran, children were completely absent in DAI.

Am I trippin or does it look like this child is smiling here, while running away from a horde of darkspawn?? 😶 Kids in the Anderfels are build different, I guess. lol

"In war, victory."

CHILLS!!

Then we see Assan again, who is pinning down a.. thing I can't identify. lol I'm very curious about all those cages in the background though.. 🤔

We then get one of the shots that made me freak out the most, because it's a flippin *underwater* shot of elven ruins??? 😱😱

We know it's elven because if you look very very closely, you can see a Halla statue in the distance, to the left side. I'm immediately reminded of the stories about Arlathan having sunken to the ocean floor! There's also still all that mention of Ghilan'nain's grey "goop" that smells like the ocean and another shot later on of a dragon (Elgar'nan?) emerging from the ocean! 👀👀👀

And aside from all that, it's just such a sick level design!! 😍 What do these ruins look like if you enter them in the game? How do we get there?? There's an eluvian in the middle of the ocean on the newest map that's included in the Collector's Edition! 👀👀 If that one flippin theory of mine actually turns out to be true and there are somehow two parts of Arlathan, one on the ocean floor and another in the center of the Fade/the Black City, I'll do a triple backflip. lmaoo

Then Lucanis jumps in with some incredibly smooth fighting moves against the Venatori... and PURPLE WINGS!! So we were right with our speculation about the reveal trailer! Why does he have them? Is it some connection to a pride demon that revived him? 😂 I don't know, but it looks SO cool!! And after showing off, we hear his first line "I'm ready" with that sweet sweet accent, which is just the cherry on top!! <333

What the heck is up with the sky in this one?? My first thought was the Lighthouse?? 😍😍 Because if you look closely, there are a few wolf head ornaments on the walls? 👀 And this could be in the Crossroads and just like a real Lighthouse, there's a light on the top..? 🥹

Then there's Bellara using some magical device, that looks super similar to the things that were next to the big eluvian in that other scene!

Which makes me think that this might be where we help Bellara find this artifact in order to get the eluvian at the Lighthouse to work properly (since it doesn't seem to work right without Solas, according to the Game Informer article).

"I've never seen this before. There's something kind of exciting about it!"

Not gonna lie, that line and that weird looking device gave me Peebee flashbacks from Andromeda, which I honestly wasn't the biggest fan of. 😂 But Ghil Dirthalen (member of the community council) responded to me a few weeks back on twitter and confirmed that Bellara is nothing like Peebee at all. lol So that's a relief. 😂 I'm really looking forward to learn more about her and every time I see her magical gauntlet, I'm reminded that we're *definitely* not in Ferelden anymore. lol

Anyway, we then get a few shots of the Deep Roads?? Kal-Sharok??? 👀👀 And of course, there's Harding's big reveal of her new magical powers! The animation on this looks sooo amazing!!

Like many suspect, the Titans' awakening might have something to do with this! I totally agree with what Ghil Dirthalen said on twitter recently and, rather than this being Harding having Solas' petrification powers, it's actually Solas who has the powers of the Titans/stone sense/whatever Sandal did to those ogres back then lol. (I need Sandal to return and be her "teacher" or something 🙏❤️) We know of Solas' orb, which was likely created by obtaining the heart of a Titan. And if the Titans are connected to the Forgotten Ones, Fen'Harel was once considered their ally in Dalish legends. 👀

Also, if you look closely, you can see that the moment her powers are triggered, we see the blue glowy effect all over her body, like glowy lyrium veins almost?

And that in turn could hint at something in connection to her blood? So that big injury we see on her (which is still visible in this scene btw!) was maybe the moment her blood came in contact with something that awakened these powers? (We need Valta back to explain! lol)

"What is happening to me?"

That delivery gave me chills again... She is frightened. Ali Hillis is so good. 🥺🥺🥺

Next up is the Grand Necropolis and people have already pointed out that the ceiling we see at that entrance hall or something looks like a GIANT rip cage?? 💀 (What kind of creature would be THIS big???)

First look of Emmrich in-game!!! And he's wearing a fancy new outfit!! And I paused at the perfect moment to catch Rook already falling in love with him, clearly. lmao

There are two characters next to the gate that could be anybody, really. Myrna from Tevinter Nights or Joanna from the short story "The Flame Eternal"? The guy on the right is actually giving me Executor vibes?? 👀👀👀

Then there's Giant Skeleton Monster (Manfred's mom?), and don't even ask me what this could possibly be. 😂 I just hope we don't have to fight THAT (we totally will 💀). I got flashbacks of the Human Reaper endboss in ME2. 😭😭

"Let the Fade draw close!"

There's something kinda... posh about the way he says this? 😂 Like, he's not really intimidated by Giant Skeleton Monster and it's just another Tuesday in the Grand Necropolis and Professor Volkarin is just doing his every day job. lol

Then there are two shots of what I think is somewhere in the Anderfels but snowy again, like that area in the beginning where Elgar'nan and Ghili showed up? And a destroyed watchtower that is occupied by the Wardens. Then we get a *third* and final shot of this beauty again.

"Draw the dragon out into the open. Then attack."

I assume that's Taash?? Sadly, that shot of her drawing her weapon is all we got from her in this trailer, but she looks awesome!! <333 We're gonna be Lord of Fortune buddies, even though we might disagree on the matter of dragon hunting lol (look, I don't want to *fight* dragons, I want to be *friends* with them 🫠😂❤️ I want to see them live their best lifes.. for the most part (I get to the Elgar'nan dragon and the blighted "twin dragons" in a second lol))

We see the docks of Minrathous for a split second and then a first glimpse at a romance scene between Rook and Neve? 👀 At the Lighthouse maybe?

"You and me Rook. Maybe that's what scares me."

What does she mean by that exactly? Does Neve have commitment issues? lol Or is this more like a "We're a dangerous match, Rook. We'll be too powerful of a couple. Like Bonnie and Clyde." kinda statement? 😂

And THEN... Well, then we get probably THE most badass looking introduction/entrance of any character in DA yet. lol And YES, I freaked out SO hard.

SHE'S BACK. Returning like the QUEEN that she is. 🙏 And of course, she has to come down a flight of "stairs" again. lol (And no, Claudia Black did not lie, she just wasn't contacted at the time. 😁) Gosh, that transformation is so SMOOTH. I could watch that forever, it's so darn beautiful. 😍 Again, the way this is done, cinematically.. just *chef's kiss*.

In retrospect, it seems almost like a given that she would be back because.. well, everything about the way DAI ended. lol Flemeth wanted her to inherit her "godhood", and she looks more than ever like her mother now. Remember the designer notes on that last scene in DAI.

Flemeth intends to let Solas have the power, so long as she can pass the essence of her godhood onto Morrigan, a gift Flemeth had always planned for her daughter yet one Morrigan misunderstood as hostile possession.

So, what exactly is she now? Did she receive whatever Flemeth sent through the eluvian at the end of DAI? Does she carry Mythal now?? If so, does Solas know (I NEED a conversation between those two technically "half-siblings", because Flemeth/Mythal is both their "Mother"? 😂)?? Remember when I said that this one dragon that appears multiple times here reminds me a lot of the dragon on the vinyl cover with the Golden City, which is very likely Mythal? So my very first thought was that the dragon is actually Morrigan?? lol Just throwing that out there.

It seems to me that she is with the Dalish/Veil Jumpers in the Arlathan Forest now? (Btw, if you look closely, you can see elven mosaics in COLOR in the background? :O)

"These are the times in which legends are born or slain."

That line goes so HARD aHhhh. Also, speaking of slain, that new outfit is slaying too. <33 Her return also means that the Well decision and potential consequences are back on the table, which will definitely keep me up at night again. 💀

That moment right there. She is everthing. ❤️❤️❤️ I wonder if we're gonna see Kieran again?? 🥺🥺

We then get the most impressive tracking shot and choreography of what I think is Teia and Viago fighting some Venatori?? <333333 Like, seriously, the way the camera is following his movements in this shot without a single cut, makes me think of something like flippin Games of Thrones' Battle of the Bastards. 😱 And those hair physics on Teia as she's swinging around?? Absolutely amazing.

Followed by Lucanis and.. is that Zara Renata (the character with the best name ever lol)?? Fighting over an ominous glowing staff. lol We know these two still had unfinished business with each other after the Wigmaker Job in TN.

Then we get our first in-game look of my man MANFRED (🎉🎉🎉🎉), proving yet again to be the most fashionable character in the whole game, using his pelvis effectively. lol I love him so much.

Then there's another terrifying shot of Giant Skeleton Monster, which almost looks like it's in command over the crowd of people here, like they're possessed or something? Uhg.. As if this thing wasn't scary enough. 💀

"Our gods are back. Our gods! How do we stand up against that?"

Again, CHILLLLS!! Chills all over. It's gonna be so interesting to hear what the Dalish, Bellara or Davrin think about all these revelations!

Then we see the Wardens again, confronting one of the super duper blighted "twin dragons" we see at the end (more on that later).

We see Neve using a barrier or something against a guy who wears the same armor as her, so maybe the Shadow Dragons are corrupted, too?

Then we see Rook dramatically tossing a sword on a table at Weisshaupt? And holy moly, Davrin in that new armor here looks FINE. 😍

Back in Treviso, we see a cool finishing move from Rook, obliterating a poor Venatori guy. That bow on Rook's back though (I need it)! :O

"I believe in all of us. So let's get it done."

That little pep talk from Rook certainly worked for me. lol Like, whatever it is we're doing here, I'm so pumped, let's gooooo!

Then we get literally a millisecond of a frame, where you can see Ghili lying on the floor.. with the lyrium dagger stuck IN HER CHEST??

EXCUSE ME?? They wouldn't just spoil her death like that, right?? lmao Also, that adds another billion questions about this damn flippin dagger and at this point the list of questions is getting so long that I've completely given up speculating. 😂💀 We see how Rook tries to retrieve(?) the dagger but the power it emanates pushes them back?? What the heeellll.

And then I died. No, really. lmaoo

What can I say.

I cried. I screamed. My soul left my body. It happened. We FINALLY saw him. The Dreaded Wolf, He Who Hunts Alone, Roamer of the Beyond, God of Rebellion. The one everyone's been talking about since flippin 2009. And by GOD, he lives up to his NAME.

He's dreadful, he's horrifying. He's a monster, a nightmare. He's perfect. And just like Solas, he's just a Little Guy and bald. 😭😭😭

...At least in comparison to this dragon!! Look at that friggin SIZE DIFFERENCE. Someone measured the size by comparing them to Rook, who we see for a split second before Fenny leaps in. So, make no mistake, Fen'Harel IS the size of a high dragon, like he was described in Tevinter Nights... It's just that this blighted dragon is HUMONGOUS. lol That dragon, let's call him Elgar'nan, because we all KNOW, right?? Who else could it POSSIBLY be?? He's got the horns, he's the dragon on the vinyl cover with the Blighted Black City, he's ENORMOUS!! I've been saying this forever. Fen'Harel vs Elgar'nan, Battle of Gods was all I ever wished to see and FUCK, I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT WISH CAME TRUE. 😭😭😭

And look WHERE they are fighting!! It's Minrathous, you can clearly see the floating building in the background!! Which means the Dread Wolf is OUT. He's no longer trapped, or in the Fade. Remember Sandal's prophecy "When he rises, everyone will see". And he HAS RISEN. lmao And look at the lighting!! It's the same dim, gloomy RED we've seen at the end of the reveal trailer with the eclipse. "AN ECLIPSE AS FEN'HAREL STIRRED". IT'S HAPPENING. Remember the 2020 teaser MURAL.

Is this the Black City or is it the floating building?? Either way, it's BLIGHTED. In the trailer, Minrathous has clearly been completely taken over by the Blight. "All the world will soon share the peace and comfort of my reign", that's what Elgar'nan said at the end of the 2023 teaser, and what better way to take over the world than to start with the biggest capital in Thedas, a nation which built their own empire over the ruins of Elvhenan, ruled by the most powerful mages!

And I am SO scared. You can see Elgar'nan snapping Fenny. The dragon is blighted, and maybe so is Fen'Harel. He's also clearly been through so much. "The Wolf chews his leg off to escape the trap.", is what Cole said in Trespasser. I don't think he always looked like that. In the murals and the 2022 cinematic, he has a lot more fur. And I can't help but think about the devs saying that Solas wasn't always bald either. lmao How are they connected.. are they one and the same.. are they bound to each other.. we still don't know. But I'm SO. F*CKING EXCITED. TO FIND OUT.

Those few seconds of this scene were breathtaking and whoever made this trailer knew exactly what they were doing, because the editing is so perfect as Fen'Harel charges at Elgar'nan in slow-motion and the music cuts out completely while that beautiful wolf howl can be heard and you can almost HEAR everyone's jaw dropping on the floor. lmao THAT's. how. you. do it. *standing ovation* *sobbing*

Okay. Breathe. Moving on. We gotta get to the end. lol

The very next shot is SO funny to me, because we literally just got to see Elgar'nan, the biggest flippin dragon we've ever seen in DA and it's followed by a shot in which Elgar'nan looks SO tiny next to Ghilan'nain. lmaooo

His ego doesn't allow to appear small though, I guess, so he f*cking levitates to top her in height. lmao These two ancient clowns are already killing me.

What's interesting though is that this is the exact same angle from which we left off in the gameplay showcase. And Solas is nowhere to be seen, so... did he literally just "poof" away right there into that Fade prison?? lmao

We get a quick montage of all the lovely monsters we will face. Like I mentioned, there's the Elgar'nan dragon taking a swim in the ocean, I guess? (I hope he drowns. lol) And a shot of what I think is Irelin (from TN and The Missing) doing.. something with some magical device. Someone fighting a magical "automaton" in the Arlathan Forest. lol Harding doing her THING again, acting like Toph from Avatar, literally bending the flippin earth, like a true Child of the Stone!!

And right before the end, there's one of my personal favorite shots, Rook basically bitch slapping a Pride demon into full K.O.?? lmao

The trailer ends with a final beautiful shot of Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire. lol No, seriously. A SUPER blighted pair of angry dragons, seemingly at the same snowy place that Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain popped up earlier in the trailer. 👀👀👀

So, they might have something to do with this? There was a dead dragon lying on the ground in an earlier shot, so maybe the elven gods revived them? If I see Blue and Red, I'm of course immediately reminded of lyrium.. whatever that means. Or, given that they seem to be attacking Grey Wardens in this place... maybe we are looking at an altered form of Archdemons?? Or something similar to Corypheus' dragon? 👀 There is an interesting theory floating around that Ghilan'nain might look like *that* because she somehow merged with her lover Andruil. As I mentioned in the beginning, Ghilan'nain seemed to have been struck by a spear or something.. and in this shot, you can see that the red dragon is pulling a spear out of its body! Sooo... maybe that actually IS her?? And she somehow transformed into two different blighted dragons, representing herself and Andruil??? The tinfoil hat is strong with this one. lol

ANYWAY. The release date is revealed to be 31st of October, making this the best Halloween of all time!! Not only is it perfect because of its origin, Samhain, the thinning of the Veil between the living and spirits.. But also because we all get a chance to dress up as Manfred, walk into the store, buy the game and then go Trick or Treat (but mostly trick) in the name of Fen'Harel, the Trickster God. 😂😂💜💜💜

And that's it!! Now we only have to wait two months before we can all lose our collective shi— NO WAIT, OF COURSE WE'RE NOT DONE YET.

WHAT THE HELL

IS THIS

EXCUSE ME, how do you throw this in there in the background at the very last second, HELLO??? A rocky object, split in half. HUH, WHERE HAVE WE SEEN THAT BEFORE.

Oh, you sneaky sneaky people. The mural depicting a Titan's death.... Remember the description of this place in DAI's files.

"A final eluvian is situated in a beautiful bolt-hole where Solas has painted murals. Fen'Harel was here and wanted to make sure nobody ever found what the other gods were doing. This place was the breaking point for him that turned him against the gods."

Whatever this is... I think it might be the very reason why all of this is even happening. The Evanuris mined the Titans' blood and "something else" before they collapsed and sealed the Deep Roads with stone and magic.

"Terror, heart-pounding, ice-cold, as the last of the spells is cast."

"What the Evanuris in their greed could unleash would end us all. Let this place be forgotten. Let no one wake its anger. The People must rise before their false gods destroy them all."

I'll leave it at that. I'm so so so flippin excited. I want to thank all the devs involved, I'm so full of joy and can't wait to finally return back to Thedas in October. 🥹🥹🥹 (And if anyone wants to get me that "Rook's coffer" collectibles thing for my birthday two days after release, my address is— naah just kidding!! ..or AM I?? 👀😂😂)!! 💜💜💜💜💜

[twothpaste]

Y'see, no, y'see, what I mean is like

Claus starts the very first battle with 42 HP (the number 42 is associated with death in Japan). He loses his shoes as he ventures to his doom at the Drago Plateau (another piece of Japanese death symbolism). He re-emerges as a nigh-silent, apparently emotionless revenant - with a broken, disjointed heartbeat. Some Tazmilians speak of him as if he's already obviously dead, and even suggest Flint oughtta give up on his lost son. Which is cold and painful to hear, but does reinforce the game's consistent theme of moving on from grief. This perpetual tension between clinging to the past out of love & hope, and coming to terms with a bygone loss.

When Hinawa's ghost speaks to Claus, she says, "You must be so exhausted." Personally, I get the sense this implies a deathly weariness beyond just how overworked n' stressed out the kid is (especially considering the person saying it is a ghost herself). But more importantly, she tells him, "Come to your mother." Which would be… kind of a deranged and horrible thing for her to ask of him, if he wasn't already supposed to be dead. She calls to him from beyond the grave, and asks him to join her at last. And he does, without question. Recognizing he's been kept alive against his will this whole time, a tormented spirit that was never permitted to move on, trapped in a robotic corpse that's been twisted beyond repair.

His three-years-delayed death, though heartwrenching, brings the story's motifs of grief and acceptance to a natural conclusion. Flint has to finally let go, Lucas has to find peace with it. You can't re-animate the past, or fix anything by selfishly pursuing it. In fact, you may just wind up zombifying its image into something corrupt, something hardly recognizable (Porky does this constantly 🤧). Only by letting it lie can you honor it, and begin moving toward a better future.

'Course, this is just my impression of what Itoi's intentions were with Claus. One of a bazillion possible interpretations, and by no means the most definitive. Even on the off chance I'm totally right about what he was goin' for, he's a chill dude who's stated plenty of times he welcomes fans to find their own meaning in these games. That's kinda the point of narrative art, after all. I personally feel like the story hits harder if Claus' suicide was yet another reckless choice he made, rather than a necessary course of fate. Interpreting it instead as a second tragedy all its own - with its own slew of implications - rather than a conclusion to the first. Lettin' the character be more than just a sacrificial symbol. That's just me, though. 🤸‍♂️

But altogether I just love how many ways this game can be read and re-read. How much it has to offer, if you peel back the layers and inspect it a little differently. And how other fans are always drawing my attention to different angles, makin' me reconsider it in new and compelling ways.

[orangekittyenergy]

I just wanna say that your art is a huge inspiration to me and keeps me motivated to keep going.

You capture each character so well. Your colors and lineart are exquisite. I look forward to every piece you make

Keep up the excellent work. You are a gift to this community and to art as a whole.

Love your work.

Ahnjgbnjjn thank you so much babe ❤️😭 I'm going to print this out and look at it anytime I start to doubt myself.

Honestly, it's still crazy to me (after a bazillion years of telling myself to draw more and just....not) that I'm actually drawing now, people like my stuff, and I finally did commissions like I always wanted to. Like...it blows my mind sometimes. So seriously, genuinely thank you! I have no plans on stopping!! 🙌

[beesmygod]

BLOODBORNE LORE Q+A PART 6: the founding of pthumeru, the discovery by byrgenwerth, and the fishing hamlet

part 1

part 2

part 3

part 4

part 5

---

BLOCK #LONG POST/ TO NOT SEE THESE HUGE POSTS

shawn asked me a question about the mensis ritual and mergo and the process of trying to answer it in short became a catastrophic failure.

this is going to be a nightmare (hehehuhehehe) to try to explain in broad strokes to people who don't know bloodborne or even to people who do, but i'm going to do my best. anyone who tells you they know what happened or they have "solved" the mensis ritual is a liar. the timeline is muddy and deliberately vague, up to and including how long ago everything happened. i have educated guesswork but that's it.

i will post pure speculation in italics and important nouns in bold. i am peppering this with as many wiki links as possible to back up my claims. not gonna lie this looks like a fucking MAD magazine editor went to town on it or like the timecube website submitted a guest article.

but much like how you need to first make the universe in order to make an apple pie, we must first talk about the history of yharnam before we can talk about its newest resident, mergo.

---

untold eons ago, a race known as the pthumerians served the great ones as they slumbered. after becoming exposed to the deliberately vague notion of "the eldritch truth" (it is unclear if this is a specific phenomenon, like the secret to their longevity, or simply the knowledge of the great one's existence), they developed a unique and startling appearance: pallid skin, black eyes, and slacking jaws. i mean, they also lived underground so they look like underground creatures do. either way, they are distinctly inhuman humanoids.

this civilization became lost, but did not die; they continued to serve the "gods" underground, excavating tombs and chambers without rest. over time, they elected a leader, yharnam, pthumerian queen, who was given a ring imbued with special meaning by the great ones indicating her commitment to bearing a special child, a child of blood (the ramifications of this are not known). she still wears the ring today.

arguably, a civil war breaks out in pthumeru, (as evidenced by the armors left by what must have been early cainhurst knights, but i have not looked into this enough to be satisfied) that results in a schism that pushes some pthumerians to the surface, where they become the modern day royalty of cainhurst. the cainhurst royalty and the pthumerian royalty both aspire to have a child of blood and have knights that work explicitly to further this goal, putting them at odds with each other. today's cainhurst royalty maintains some of the "pthumerian look" but not to such an exaggerated degree, with the resemblance fading with each removed generation.

pictured above are the canonical cainhurst royalty and their descendants in order of relation from left to right: annalise, queen of the vilebloods (top left), lady maria (top middle), arianna, woman of pleasure (right; she is also the most distant descendant). the bottom image is concept art of lady maria during her boss fight with a more exaggerated look that did not make it into the game.

---

anyway: a bazillion years later or whatever. the cainhurst royals rule over a land that includes the victorian england-ish city of yharnam, named for the forgotten queen of pthumeru. the main appeal of yharnam is its proximity to a university of bold, weird research.

the school of byrgenwerth and its scholars were once an archeological and historical research center. however, during the course of their studies they discovered a vast labyrinth beneath the school where (if the first location they discovered was the same as ours this would be the pthumerian labyrinth) they encountered ancient humanoids, women with the ability to re-animate corpses, an perpetually burning dog who somehow still lives and, most intriguing of all, a creature that defied all understanding. further investigation revealed an unspecified "holy medium", ritual blood, which does not coagulate. this is the ritual blood found in old yharnam on the altar.

further investigation of the labyrinth was halted by the first encounter with a beast. here is a longer post about that encounter and my evidence that leads me to believe it occurred.

this is where things get really fuzzy as to which event happened first. im going to post this part without italics because all the events do happen. its just not clear in what order.

in order to combat these newfound beasts gehrman, a student of byrgenwerth (as he has dialogue where he refers to willem as "master"), took up self-styled arms (the first trick weapons) and became the first hunter. he was followed by a collection of self-styled mercenaries that would come to be known as "the old hunters". there is evidence of the old hunters having once been in the labyrinth as you can summon one to help you fight and the bell descriptions reveal that they were used by the first hunter after discovering them in the labyrinth.

the miraculous healing abilities of the old blood (the origins of which are not specified but i can show you my guesswork later lol) in the labyrinth became known to the students at byrgenwerth. the blood is used to combat the beasts by use of invigorating injections. blood is plentiful and works quickly to heal.

byrgenwerth also begins study and collection of the "phantasms" present (or were once present) in the labyrinth. the discovery of the augur of ebrietas, a slug that summons flailing tentacles of unknown origin, and the arcane properties of pearl slugs drives the school's continued plunges into the depths in spite of the danger posed. part of this research involved discovering the parasitic qualities of these creatures, which could inhabit eyes.

while continuing to investigate the ruins, byrgenwerth became aware of a fishing village where a washed up carcass of a monster was teeming with otherworldly parasites and a stillborn fetus. the parasites had caused the villagers to transform into fish-like monster people not dissimilar to the monster on the coast. the villagers seem alright with this change and actively cultivate millions of the parasites for daily use, such as especially potent lamp oil [1].

upon arrival to the village, the school and its hunters helped themselves to a little bit of genocide just for fun. villager's heads were treppaned open in the search for "eyes on the inside" (a visual metaphor for insight as well as a literal phenomenon) and the monstrous corpse was desecrated by the byrgenwerth researchers who took her child (as the villagers of the fishing hamlet chant) and one of the orphan's three umbilical cords, the one lined with eyes.

i know we find this in a weird place later. we'll get there.

but this wasn't just some pile of fish goo they were fucking with, it was the corpse of the great one, kos (or as some say, kosm). kos's wrath and retribution would come in due time. this event triggered the creation of the hunter's nightmare, a sort of eternal, bloody hell for hunters who participated in the massacre and those who become "blood drunk" where the must relive the event for all eternity. notable hunters trapped in the nightmare from the time of the old hunters include ludwig (not yet notable), laurence (looking awful but he had a busy couple of years before he wound up there), some named NPC hunters such as yamamura and gratia, and lady maria.

lady maria, gehrman's apprentice, could not tolerate her role in the fishing hamlet massacre and threw her beloved weapon into the fishing village well. she, with others, joined laurence when he split from byrgenwerth to found the healing church. its not explicit that the fishing village massacre was the reason for the split, as there were ideological differences (and family matters) brewing that also came to a head, but a one sided genocide seems like a matter that would cause a splinter between one faction that is ruthless in its methods and another that appears to be in the business of healing.

but thats a whole other post.

---

uhhh this took a very long time but once im done with this i will never have to type it ever again. the next one covers the healing church in its entirety and should end with the arrival of our hunter in yharnam as the city fully slides into chaos. thank you for reading. or not. its none of my business.

---

https://www.reddit.com/r/bloodborne/comments/3uq6wq/interesting_lamp_in_the_hamlet_spoilers_maybe/ which leads to this image: https://i.imgur.com/zVJbcJ2.jpg

[mimithealpaca]

A Goat and A Bunny

after a bazillion years, i have finally returned @jellicores's art trade with its OC, puck! thank you so much your patience, friend, and letting me take my sweet ass time drawing your equally cool AF goatling!! i love puck so much QWQ)

[ravenkinnie]

Do you have any thoughts on good/bad/worthwhile Cassandra Cain storylines? Her introduction/origin years ago was uhh not good (i.e., mega-racist even by Batbook standards), but I figure a bazillion lesbians can't be wholly wrong (except about TSwift and maybe The L Word).

here is the thing, if you wanna read about a character of color in comics you gotta accept it will be a little to very racist. I'm pretty sure being racist is just a requirement to be a comics writer, like they make you take a racial bias test and only hire people with highest scores. and hilariously I can't guess which introduction you mean because I realise that her og-og origin also falls under some racist stereotypes but new52 was just a full on massacre jsnsjsj

I need to caveat that the storylines in her solo will have art so racist it will make your eyes water sometimes, that's why it's so hard ro recommend it sjsjsjks but I genuinely think the first few arcs from it are great, even though it's funny as fuck that they realised cass not speaking at all was either a lil racist or not very good for carrying a solo and they magicked her the ability to speak but it DID lead to the shiva arc and that was fucking crazy amd i haven't seen a batfam mf go this hard since then. on the flipside some of the later arcs and the annuals are.... oh girl. apart from racism even, they are just choppy and messy and nothing was ever gonna go anywhere because dc hated my girl and wanted her gone so she's not allowed to have any meaningful storylines connected to batfam or yk. anything really

and its only worse from here, like the whole evil cass arc after that leading to batgirl redemption is straight up infamous because of how stupid it is. it's pointless and it brings nothing and was never gonna be resolved because every man at dc secretly imagines their wife is deathstroke when they fuck so it's not like cass will actually get her dues at the end of all that. it was literally her death and the maidens and that shit sucked even less somehow

and that was the good era <3 n52 outsiders was okay, not very preboot cass accurate and shiva wasn't that in character necessarily but its not physically painful to read. but her introduction was fucking batman and robin eternal and I think whoever thought of this panel in particular

needs to be in fucking prison for the irreperable damage this did to fanon. and also whoever came up with tim saying because she can't talk she must have the mind of a chuld - oh if I got my hands on tynion for this. oh bitch

rebirth doesn't even deserve a mention because it was just boring. now we have batgirls as her main comic and I hate that fucking thing with my entire heart like I would pay a turkish witch to curse everybody involved in making this. the way they said they wrote them to be about 14 I'm gonna have a fucking heart attack just remembering it. from newer stuff the only things I would say are worth attention is her story in the asian heritage month special - not crazy good but its okay - and spirit world but it's not that focused on her. still a fun read tho

also, preboot, there are some REALLY good one off issues with her that you would never think to read because they are buried in other runs. my faves are gotham knights #2, dc presents batgirl vs joker, gotham secret files and origins, and batgirl secret files

tldr: if you want to stan cass you have to accept you will suffer. there's no joy to be found here, even in the good arcs. thankfully, I'm delusional and love pain so the potential they never made her live up to is enough to drive me crazy for eternity and one day I will suck off a dc editor so good they will let me write a cass solo with full creative control and jh williams on art and I will have my revenge. and they will all be sorry

[ididgettomeetyou]

i want to give my 2 scents on that infamous shipping video bryke put out in i think it was what 2008/2012??? im unsure.. anyway my thoughts are this... One it was def immature/ not great to use kids artwork to demean them.. As a lazy artist taking peoples art to insult them really bugs me.. its why i hate when people here grab zutara art and bash it.. artists put their heart int their works. talking about it in ims is one thing but posting it/bashing it is just meanspirited.

what im saying is i totally can understand why people were upset with that video..

personally as an azulaang crackshipper i thought that part was kinda funny.. but i enjoy weird darkships. and as mutliszutara shipper i obv dont think people shipping it are dooomed. while i find it a bit amusing it was def meanspirted/uncalled for.. beause at the end of the day they are adults and you dont bully children over ships. its why im mad at grey for bullying kids some years ago/ and being very weird to em in general.. im happy her adult va is gonna be different.. im hoping one day daph will too.

BUT anyway its been what 14 years now? i see no point in still being bitter over that video after 14 years.. i see zero reason to be bitter over a ship for that long.. doesn't seem healthy its more fun to just enjoy your ship and not act like the creators robbed your house and stole everything you love. this fandoms attachement to being robbed/ is riduclous.. the creators didnt owe me zutara at 2008 back when i shipped it its their show.. they can have whatever ship they want. I wanted danny/valerie i got danny/sam.. it sucked but it wasnt the end of the world.. plus Butch acutally sucks as a person..

i think its just time to let the bryke hate die cause .. its been like 14 years. and without em the show wouldn't even exist. there be no zuko/no katara... there be nothing.. ive never see a fandom hate a creator so much its just insane to me.

esp with a bazillion other writers involved. who shockling wrote for kataang/maiko. . zutara was a fun crackship but thats all it was man.. a crackship no one was robbed.

[daggersandarrows]

I keep hearing a lot about Flight Rising but I have no real idea what it is about apart from dragons, can you tell me more about the game and what you enjoy about playing it?

ohhhhhh my god where do i even BEGIN...i love fr so much, it is the only browser game that has been able to capture me, lol. i hear a lot of people saying "it's basically draconic neopets" so i guess that's true but to be totally honest i know absolutely nothing about neopets lmao

anyway, flight rising is, essentially, a browser based dragon breeding game. when you first join the site you get one (1) custom dragon, the only custom you'll ever get, and one randomly rolled dragon, and from there you kinda pick your direction with what you wanna do on the site. the breeding mechanics are the main point in the game and they're kinda brilliant in how simple they are and how many possibilities you can have.

Dragons have seven inheritable features: the first being breed, the second being body color (primary color), the third being body pattern (primary gene), and then the same for the wings (secondary) and overlay (tertiary color is invisible if the dragon has "basic" as their tertiary gene). This is Perelandra, she is a guardian black/black/mint skink/butterfly/firefly. You can buy and change genes, breed, and eye type, but not color.

Dragons also have different eye types (hers is faceted) but those are rolled randomly. There's a bazillion colors, which makes breeding for rare combos really fun and rewarding just in that it's super satisfying to finally get the dragon you want after sinking a massive amount of time into it, depending on breeding cooldown length.

The dragons are also super customizable, there's tons of apparel and there are also usermade skins; this is my pride and joy, Tealeaf, who I completely gened myself in i think 8 months, wearing the skin odocoileus:

Apart from breeding you can also fight in the coliseum with a team of dragons to get item drops.

The really, really nice thing about this game is that the ratios of regular to premium currency are in this nice sweet spot where it's challenging to get the premium (gems) but certainly not impossible; I've not paid a dime to get where I am and have still gotten plenty of gems and been able to customize lots of dragons.

There's also just a really generous site culture where older members will frequently just give newbies (or anyone really) really expensive items purely just to help out.

ALSO, the site is divided into flights, which are basically clubs that determine the aesthetic of your page and the eye color of your dragons. There are eleven flights, I started in water but I'm currently in ice and am thinking about moving to lightning or arcane, not sure yet. There is a mechanic called dominance through which the top three flights for the week will get certain perks (marketplace items and lair upgrades are cheaper, mainly). This is a collective effort; the whole flight earns dominance points by exalting dragons (points are higher if those dragons have fought in the coliseum first). Dragons don't die so this is the only way to permanently remove them from the site. It's kind of brilliant; it keeps the site's servers functioning and users get really, REALLY into organizing dominance pushes. There's bingo games and raffles and art trades and all sorts of stuff, usually planned out a year in advance if it's meant to be a head to head dom battle. Like for example a while ago, water fought earth (and won!) and we'd been planning that at LEAST nine months in advance. I personally stored 200 dragons to be exalted and won a couple raffle prizes.

Dominance might be my favorite mechanic on the site, I just love how much it's like completely community run based on this relatively minor site mechanic and has become something so central to the community.

Thank youuuu for the ask, I never do not want to infodump about FR <3

(one last pic; i have yet to name this dragon rip)

[deeisace]

:[

It has come to my attention that after November I won't be able to afford buying canvases unless I sell them

I forgot to put that in the budget

Lucky I have a bazillion 8x5 boards I bought cheap and didn't use, but I will at some point have to overpaint my shitty old inks from years ago, and what the fuck'm I gonna do with all those "I have too much mixed paint left, better slap it on a mini, aren't textures fun" squares?

Like one'a them inkblot things - "this one is pink and has diagonal paint strokes, or this one is green and pointy, find a picture in that"

Ych, jesus

I guess I could do like. Tiles? Y'know, stick 'em together they're a full picture? Drawn over the colour block backgrounds?

People who like weird art would like that kinda shit right? I mean that you could display them any order, you don't have to put em in the order that makes the picture

I like that kinda shit, don't see why other people wouldn't

Or just what the colour/texture make me think of, in like plain lines over each one

Hm.

Well. A thought for another day, I'm three hours later than I meant to be on going the goddamn shop, so I'm gonna do that

See if my brain will let me pick up a sewing needle instead of my phone when I get home

I need to stop thinking about painting and do some actual Tasks, why am I like this

I do Nothing for Days and when I am thinking it's about the Wrong Task, ech, how am I alive

[squadron-of-damned]

Any headcanons you have about Phoenix Wright?

Well, as I am still getting through the original trilogy, I don’t really see headcanons to have much of a point. Phoenix is purposefully written like a blank slate so the player can project on him. In that manner, any headcanons made about him are more of a psychological analysis of self via proxy. Anyway, here are some headcanons:

He is half Japanese (in the localisation, anyway) - his mother is Japanese and his father is white, might be of Irish origin.

While he is not shredded, or have well-defined muscles, he is quite strong, especially core, backs and legs. He moves around heavy stuff often.

He has a very good memory and can “memorize” texts in the manner that he remembers the page and reads the text out loud without a single word passing through his brain on the way.

He’s finished the Art Major. His fallback plan if being a lawyer didn’t work out was to become police sketch artist and get to Edgeworth this way.

After every trial he calls his mum and tells her all about it. He keeps in touch with his parents

At some point during the college years he had to make a reproduction of a known painting (our art teacher back in high school loved that), and Phoenix ended up re-creating a painting of Barok van Zieks (teacher’s choice “I know you are studying law also, Mr. Wright, this might be of your interest.”), so now Phoenix has personal beef with him because he had to use a bazillion shades of lavender and it was not fun.

He’s a snuggly drunk and ugly weeper.

[wolfylch]

After a bazillion years im posting art of my OCs!!

Here's some Antoinette and @imagionary Alucard! X3 ⭐️💕

[windrider01]

After seeing this post I think I’ll be taking everything down from my devi.ant.art after unopting EVERYTHING for this AI generated BS first just incase and then saving all my works onto my PC to keep them as I do like going back to see my old art and how much I’ve progressed. I might also deactivate it unsure yet, might still keep it just to have my user but everything else gone

Edit: So now I find out today they changed it and automatically opted everyone out of this instead of having them opted in as default. Also adding in a button to unopt everything in or out instead of going through, every.single.post OTL well too late I already removed everything but one deviation from a bazillion years ago

[13catsinatrenchcoat]

I don't remember where the Idea came from but I have this AU where all the people of the Naruto universe except Naruto were teleported to an alternate earth for reasons that don't matter. I have been dreaming about this almost everyday, developing it more and more

also, this is adult Naruto we're talking about

so Naruto now stuck alone on the whole planet (not really he still has the tailed beasts and Kurama and the toads) goes through several stages of grief and starts losing his sanity and wanders around for a bit but then gets a grip and makes a bazillion clones and send them all over the world to maintain the farmlands, sewage systems, the internet servers, pulls all the boats onto land and everything else

the different clone representatives of the different nations and villages get custom drip and some even dye their hair

he starts playing music and art and gets ridiculously good real fast and has parties with himself and after a year or so, starts making a documentary of himself for the day when everyone returns

about 3 years later finally somehow Sasuke makes contact because who else and he's like 3 years? it's been 1 week ok you wait it'll take about a month for me to get everyone back here and poofs away

out of character I know but I am dreaming all of this okay?

and by the time everyone returns- which is 12 years, Naruto had become the most talented person on earth and had upgraded the whole world's infrastructure all on his own and cooks a feast for all billions of people across the world.

weird shit, I know. I just had to share