#at least while things in treviso are a mess

[impossible-rat-babies]

i love that eshka loves spite and that, to a degree, he sees her actions and can interpret them in his own way to understand that she cares for him. and the opposite is true as well

[luke-naberrie]

i saw that dragon age veilguard hasn't sold well (in the official statement, they specifically said that 1.5 million copies had 'reached players' so it must have sold even worse than that which. yikes) and while i'm quite gutted about that, ea and bioware also only have themselves to blame for it.

they let ten entire years pass between inquisition - a game that, for the most part, dragon age fans generally really like, at least for the lore - and veilguard. in those years, we saw them make andromeda, anthem, and heard reports of them trying to make the-then new dragon age game live service. thankfully we didn't get a live service dragon age game in the end, but a lot of the original writers were dropped, and i think that shows with the quality of the writing in veilguard.

i've never played dragon age for the gameplay, in any of the games. i despise the gameplay in origins - it's clunky and horrible and the deep roads makes me want to let the darkspawn win. but i love the story, which is why i endure the deep roads and the fade. the same in da2, which is probably my favourite of the entire series, even with the repeating dungeons (actually i love the repeating dungeons. i like knowing where things are), and the same in inquisition with the companions who feel like real people (cassandra pentaghast my beloved).

veilguard... the cuts show in the writing quality. the best character was emmrich (and assan and manfred) and from what i've heard he also had the best romance. which is another thing that suffered greatly - the romances (other than emmrich's). in a game series known for its romances, to the point where bioware was marketing the game as the most romantic as the series, how have they managed to mess it up that badly? cullen and solas' romances were late game additions in inquisition, and they're some of the best in the entire series, so it can't be an issue of time constraints.

rook's dialogue choices were essentially just different flavours of pleasant. do you want to be cheerful, lesser purple-hawke, or stoic? there's no real choice to be had throughout most of the game. even the choice between minrathous and treviso has little impact beyond what merchants might be available and a couple of later game choices. compared to earlier games, where you could let an entire village be overrun by corpses, or let fenris be taken back by danarius, the lack of choice is rather stark in comparison. the only real choices come at the very end of the game.

AND speaking of choices - the entire series has been about how all our previous choices have always mattered, about how we can always carry them over and use them to influence the world. so it was very much a slap in the face when not only could we not use the dragon age keep or import any choice beyond who we romanced in inquisition and what we wanted to do with solas, but the fact that by the end of veilguard, everything we did from origins to inquisition was all for nothing. bioware's choice to do that to varric was a kick in the teeth to long-term fans. oh, we got a little reference to the hero of ferelden in weisshaupt, how nice. pity they didn't tell us whether they're still alive or not. a shame we don't know hawke's fate.

so no, i'm not surprised that the game did so poorly in sales. i'm disappointed, but i'm not surprised because as i said, it's their own fault. i said back in november that they might not have another chance to make things right, and i hate that i might've been right about that.

this turned into an unintentional rant about all my grievances with the game.

[wishforhome]

random thoughts about viago as king

i've been kind of playing with an eventual fic in which viago becomes the king of antiva, and here are some random related thoughts and history for anyone else thinking about this (in no particular order and kind of rambling):

The succession in Antiva is probably kind of a mess. Fulgeno II has multiple legitimate heirs but countless bastard children, including Viago himself. All the other bastards are living outside of Antiva.

Historically, the succession has often been determined by external forces. The merchant princes likely have a significant say, as do the Crows themselves (World of Thedas Vol. 2 notes: "The Antivan Crows are an order of assassins so entrenched in the nation of Antiva that they have become a political force unto themselves. More than once they have all but dictated who would ascend the throne of Antiva, regardless of who originally stood in the line of succession.")

In order to become king, my guess is that Viago would likely need to accomplish at least two of the following three things: (1) eliminate all the legitimate heirs and any illegitimate heirs with the power or resources to challenge him, (2) have the backing of the merchant princes, and/or (3) have the backing of the Antivan Crows.

The throne in Antiva is extremely weak, with most actual power being held in practice by the Merchant Princes and the Crows. In Eight Little Talons, we learn that Viago apparently believes that if he were to take the throne, he could restore true power to the monarchy; it is my personal suspicion that he would do this by leveraging the Crows to directly support his reign. In order to make the monarchy more powerful, he would need to reduce the influence of the merchant princes while maintaining control of the crows. (Having a close ally as First Talon would undoubtedly make this much easier for him.)

The Merchant Princes are highly unlikely to back Viago for king, since his goal is to centralize power within the monarchy, which would necessarily reduce the influence of the merchant princes.

There's been one civil war in Antiva in recent history, the "Three Queens" era which occurred early in the Dragon Age, sometime after Maric Theirin retook the throne of Ferelden in 9:00-9:02 but before 9:14.

We know that Viago and Fulgeno II have some kind of relationship, as Viago says at the end of Eight Little Talons that he's going to Antiva City to brief the king about what happened at Lago di Novo.

A codex entry notes that "when the Antaam invaded the South, the people there were completely unprepared. Antiva and northern Rivain were overrun quickly, with the invaders pushing down through the Green Dales to the Minanter River, leaving only the southernmost of the Free Marches spared." This suggests Antaam forces likely hold the majority of Antiva, not just Treviso; however, the King apparently remains free [not that he has much actual power], as Viago and Teia send him reports on their efforts against the Antaam in Treviso.

Viago would likely be able to leverage some popular support from the common people given his role in freeing Treviso specifically (and possibly Antiva as a whole) from the clutches of the Antaam, as well as his contributions to defeating the gods.

One potential route for Viago might be if his father legitimatized him in recognition of his contributions to Antiva during the Antaam invasion. I likely won't go this route, but I think it's an angle that could work.

Viago would likely face some opposition in terms of making Teia queen, given that she's both a commoner and an elf, but I believe he would figure it out and make it happen. She might also be popular with commoners given her roots.

It is unclear whether Viago could maintain his position as a Talon while also being King of Antiva. It is apparently not uncommon for members of the Royal family (non-bastard ones, even) to join the Crows (World of Thedas Vol II notes that one royal princess, Liviana, founded the Valisti dynasty of merchant princes and was First Talon at one point). [Talk about overlap: one person was a royal princess, a merchant prince AND First Talon.]

I genuinely think Viago would be a pretty good king. He would be good for the economy, putting the welfare of the nation ahead of the individual fortunes of the merchant princes, and he would be a significant patron of the arts. That said, it would probably be a really scary time to be a noble or merchant prince because if you pissed him off too much, he'd have you killed.

My personal plan for making Viago king is as follows: his father dies of natural causes, and with the succession being extremely contested and with the country on the verge of another civil war, Viago clears the playing field by eliminating everyone else vying for the throne. The Merchant Princes don't want him, but are forced to recognize his claim given the lack of other alternatives, Viago's support from the crows (thanks Lucanis and Teia) and the fact that he is extremely popular with commoners, both because of his role in defeating the Antaam/gods and the rumours that he was behind the string of deaths that prevented another war from breaking out.

[kai-dimir]

OC Tag Game

I was tagged by @emmieloumay ! Thank you! and them @kindlyfeline tagged me while I was working on this!

I'm tagging: @spinfins @clericblood @elfmaid and @issilya

No need to do it if you don't want to. I love seeing everyone's Rooks!

General:

Name: Kai De Riva Alias: Rook Gender: Trans man Age: 30 Spoken Language: Common and Antivan He's learning Elvish from Bellara and Davrin. He only knew a few words beforehand. Sexual Orientation: Pansexual Occupation: Assassin

Favorite: 

Color: Red Entertainment: Reading. He likes trading book recommendations with people. He’ll read just about anything. Pastime: Metal working/smithing. He likes making gifts for his friends. His favorite things to make are jewelry and fancy/decorative knives.  Food: Anything sweet! He'll eat most foods but has a major weakness for sweets. Drink: Vodka or Rum. He prefers hard liquor because it flavors better. Again, the sweeter the better.

Have They…

Passed University: He graduated crow training, but that's the closest he has to a formal education. See the next line. Had Sex: He's had sex with Teia and Viago. Teia was his sex education. He felt awkward asking her, but he knew she was more knowledgeable. He then proceeded to come out to her as trans during a hands-on lesson about how his body worked. He got wasted the night he graduated training and annoyed/coaxed Viago into bed. Viago didn't believe that his brand was a tramp stamp and had to see it. Viago made him swear to secrecy and maintains that he just wanted Kai to shut up. Then there's Lucanis, but that all during/ after the game. Had Sex in Public: Not yet but he loves to tease those he cares for so he's probable drag Lucanis into some situation eventually. Gotten Tattoos: Yes. He discovered how much he loved them after he got his crow brand. He had skulls on his left arm and leg. It's his way of paying respects to death since it's his job to end lives. Gotten Piercings: No, I could see him wearing decretive ear cuffs for formal events, but nothing permanent. Gotten Scarred:  Yes, He has a ton from his time with the crows. He has his top surgery scars as well, but he doesn't view them as scars because he wanted them. Had a Broken Heart: No, He never loved anyone before Lucanis. He's had a crush or two, but they were nowhere near as strong.

Are They…

A cuddler: Yes! The man's handsy with everyone. He shows his affection through physical touch. He almost never takes his hands off Lucanis. He's usually hanging off his arm or has at least one hand touching him. If Lucanis is setting he's usually leaning on him. Scared Easily: Anxious mess, yes. Scared, no. He doesn't startle easy at all. Even when he is he's good at hiding it. Jealous Easily: Yes, especially when is comes to other crows thinking they can steal Lucanis from him to gain a better status. He's not the type to go after anyone though. He makes it clear through deliberate shows of affection that Lucanis has eyes for him. Trustworthy: Yes, if there's one thing you can trust him with it's to take care of his little found family. He'd drop anything for his veil guard.

Family

Sibling(s): None Parents: His mother was a Dalish elf who left her clan after giving birth to him. His father is an unknown merchant prince. His mother died while they were living on the streets of Treviso. She left her clan to find his father so they could be a family. She didn't know how to survive in the city and severely overestimated how happy the merchant prince would be to find out he had a new child. Children: None. Doesn't have any and doesn't plan on it ever. Pets: He's never had any but loves animals. He'd probably adopt several kinds of animals with Lucanis post veilguard.

[mxssful]

troubled girl

Hands are curious things.

Hers are small, and calloused. Her fingers get a little twitchy when she starts to get bored. Currently, they pulse with the ache of swollen knuckles and split skin.

The girls’ hands had not been calloused. They had made a point of it, she remembers— hands on her cheeks, the scent of honey and rose water. Squishing her face, laughing, such a silly girl, Rosie. Do you even know what the words to that song mean?

Her hands are calloused now. She had known this for a while, but she had not felt the weight of it until a week ago, when she looked at her palms and suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to lather her entire body in milk and honey and rosewater and lavender, to find something soft she could wrap all her jagged edges in, something sweet to disguise the scent of ozone.

She turned sixteen a week ago. Had she still been with the girls, she would have been put to work proper— properly, that stern voice corrects in her head. 

Hands are curious things. Hers pulse with the ache of swollen knuckles and split skin, her gaze fixated on dried blood and clear fluid. She thinks that if she makes a fist, angles it in the light just right, she can make out the paleness of bone underneath. She wants to lick, to peel back her skin with her teeth, find out the hue of her skeleton. Eat herself until there is nothing left but the cleanest, barest bones, instead of the mess of flesh and blood and feeling that she is.

Perhaps she would feel better after her own cannibalization.

“Are you listening to me?” 

Viago doesn't squish her face, but sometimes he does this— grab her by the sides of her jaw, move her head until she's focusing on whatever he wants. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes she leans the weight of her head into his touch, a beast of burden leaning into the bit inside their mouth— and if the metal hurts against her palate, then it hurts. But at least it's something to bite onto.

(Fire polishing might be another alternative. Let the worst parts of her melt down to nothing, and whatever is left behind be smoothed, hardened, cleared, purified. Maybe that’s what they tried to do to Andraste, but they had the temperature wrong, and she burned down to ash with nothing to show for their efforts.

There are glass lamps in Treviso. Bright. Colorful. She should like to be a little like that, she thinks— with an option, naturally, to smash them against the ground, and use the shards as a weapon.)

“I am a Crow of House de Riva,” she repeats, “not some petty criminal.”

Everything is sharp, sometimes, so sharp. Herself and the whole world— if she could only close her eyes just so, just until things come out of focus—

She imagines Viago's hands aren't soft either, but she does not know. She remembers more the taste of his blood than the texture of his skin. Rosa understands not how he lives like that: always with a barrier between himself and the world. 

Everything is so sharp, but his eyes are sharper, caught somewhere between blue and grey— violet, sometimes, in the right lighting. Like a storm. Someone had said— who? When? Was this a song? Was it something else? Perhaps an old refrain?— ‘Clouded eyes, unclouded future.’ Maybe this is what he looks at when he frowns and schemes, some crystal-clear future that will only take a hundred and thirty-six steps for him to reach.

She does not have storms in her eyes

She carries them in her head, and in her heart.

She cannot see the future. But she can walk right on his footsteps, and maybe she’ll get somewhere.

“Why do we keep having this conversation?” His face is stern as ever, his tone halfway between disappointed and annoyed. He carries tension in his shoulders, but this is not new. 

Not for the first time, she thinks he would make a very poor whore. 

The thought pulls at the corner of her mouth.

“You think this is funny?” Viago asks.

“No,” she answers. “But that thing on your face you insist on calling a moustache is.”

Retaliation will come later, mixed into her dinner, she knows. And she will welcome it— leave no crumbs, look him right in the eye and demand he ups the dosage next time. And then she will spend a night throwing up, writhing, crying, feeling like her stomach is on fire or like her brain is melting and dripping out her nose. But she will not die.

Neither will apologize. They will move on, there won’t be hard feelings. 

No matter how much they might fight— and lately, oh, lately she feels like the only thing she’s good at is fighting— it would be much worse to simply be… apart. 

Rosa leans her weight onto Viago’s hand.

He can support her. This is good enough, even if he doesn’t squish her face.

“Why do I bother with you?” He says, not for the first time, not for the last.

“Because you hate being wrong,” she answers plainly. 

She knows what they call her; what they have been calling her for years. Viago’s pet project— shortened to Viago’s pet. Like a half-trained dog always trotting after him. Viago’s pet, in different tones— from curiosity, to fondness, to derision. 

Woof, Rosa thinks, and keeps trotting after him, day after day.

His nostrils flare, and he looks at her that way he does sometimes— like he would like to put her in a jar and shake her very hard, see if her pieces come loose. She snorts.

She’s sitting on his workbench, his collection of jars and vials pushed carefully to the side. She supposes she fits there just fine among his studies. Rosa curls the toes of her left foot inside her boot.

“Make a poison after me.” She says. Suggests? Demands.

“No,” he denies.

This is one of his favorite words with her. No. Sciocca. No. Sciocca. She does not know how he can stand to be so predictable.

He lets go of her face and begins searching for something in his drawers. A bottle of antiseptic. Cloth. Pity, she quite likes dried blood on her knuckles.

“What would you use? If you were to?”

“It doesn’t matter, because I am not going to.”

"What would my poison do?" 

"Nothing, because it won't exist," he pauses, then. "Perhaps give whoever ingests it a terrible migraine."

“So make it.”

“No. Sciocca.” 

She deflates, but gives him her hands without waiting for the request. He’s precise in tending to her wounds. Not affectionate, but careful. But this is how he handles everything— sometimes she likes to watch him work, whatever it is that he’s doing with his hands: developing a new concoction, practicing his bladework, taking notes. She sits nearby, and watches, and gets lost in the rhythm of Viago’s hands, and sticks out her tongue at him when he complains about her being unnerving again. 

He has nice handwriting. She does not. She tries— sort of. Sometimes. She could try harder.

There was a rough patch between letters and her— she would keep setting her notebooks on fire by accident, again and again, no matter how her trainers tried to instruct her. Constrain her. Said things like control, and intent, and she had tried to understand those things— and they also said things like mana output and channel the harmonics and her eyes glazed over.

And then she had taken Viago’s notes on the development of a neurotoxin, led by nothing but the curiosity to see if she could get away with stealing from him (she could.) 

He has nice handwriting. Rosa had traced over the grooves of the paper with her bare finger— trails of fire had followed, perfectly controlled and constrained to the path of his sentences. And that had been that.

Whatever books she set on fire after that, had been with intent.

“Is it another rage demon?” He asks her, straight to the point. He had been unnerved, mistrusting— rightly so, of course. She had been unnerved and mistrusting as well the first time she heard those saccharine voices, promising her things— but she knew not to trust things that sounded like they might smile too much.

Nothing ever comes for free. Unless you steal it.

Eventually, whatever demon hangs around her, leaves.

“Perhaps I am the rage demon,” she says. Shrugs. 

Viago does not smile, because he rarely smiles. This, she likes about him. She would like it better if he laughed— she’s convinced, still, he doesn’t quite understand her jokes.

Except the puns. He does this thing when she makes a pun— breathes slowly through his nose. Once, she saw the corner of his mouth twitch. She knows she will wear him over, in time, erode him in the relentlessness of her humor. She wants it to be so, and thus it will be.

(Nothing is ever free, unless you steal it. Everything else you grab with your own hands.)

So Viago does not smile, but there is a note of something in his voice as he tends to her bloody knuckles.

“I have no doubt about that,” he says. 

Rosa does not smile either, because she is not in a mood for smiling. Her knuckles don’t look quite right without blood on them— too clean, but not in a good way. They sting at the touch of antiseptic. There were no rage demons, but maybe she descends from one, It would explain the fire in her blood.

(But what would explain the storm in her heart? What kind of demon is linked to lightning? Pride? But she would rather have no pride, because then she has no shame. Shame is for those who can afford it.

She can afford things, these days. She still steals, to see if she can get away with it.)

“You can’t keep picking fights,” Viago tells her— stern as ever.

The look she gives him is sharp, and dark, and stormy— she can, she says without saying, she can, and she will, day after day if she needs to. And she always needs to. Sometimes, something feels wrong, just at the edge of her perception— when she looks at her hands and does not recognize them, not because they’re calloused, but because they lack wicked claws and are not constantly covered in blood.

At least she stopped throwing rocks at Chantry sisters. 

“You do not have the size to keep picking fights,” Viago tries again.

She resents this. She resents this, so she bares her teeth— that stings as well, her bottom lip is fat, the barely-congealed blood not doing much in ways of maintaining the cut sealed. Fresh blood wells— she tastes metal, and does not mind it.

Viago reaches for her face again, digs his gloved fingers on the sides of her jaw. A muzzle, perhaps.

Woof, she thinks. Woof, woof, woof. She’ll trot after him the next day, and the next.

“Everything you do,” he says, “reflects on me, the good and the bad.” He brought her here, after all. Pulled her out of a cage, saw something— some potential— and said come along.

And along she went. She’s dangerous, now. She likes it, calluses and all.

(She still feels like she must bathe in some pleasant scent. Something sweet.)

“If you must insist on picking fights— do it quietly. Hit fast, hit first, do not let them get up. If you’re going to be stupid, be clever about it at least.”

Again, she settles in his hold, as she ruminates on these instructions.

Her knuckles are clean. She’ll dirty them again soon enough, so it’s bearable.

“Yes,” she says. “I don’t dislike that.”

[postmanlee514]

Okay I’v been thinking about some post-game Rookanis thing since I finished my first playthrough

Spoiler ahead alert!

So here’s my hc: since my Rook is a Shadow Dragon,they will join the rebuilding of Mintharous and Lucanis needs to take the duty of The First Talon. The couple may have a long time couldn’t be able to make time for each other.

And finally the two get their time to discuss their own business such as:

1) Where to live, they can’t be separated in two city forever. Rook probably will be the one to compromise? They do enjoy the city and I think maybe Teia will invite them even before Lucanis asks LOL

2) my Rook is a Necromancer, It’s time to talk about necromancy with Lucanis 😆 I knew Emmerich tried but Hey! This is Rook speaking! Maybe Lucanis will try to understand necromancy?

3) Keeping pets. Lucanis already has a pet snake but how about Rook? Growing up in a military family, maybe they moved around a lot. This time they finally settle down, so keep pets is a good way to provide a sense of stability. But I also think Spite may disagree Lucanis and Rook’ decision Hahaha

4) About wounds healing . My Rook was a foundling and lost their parents years ago,then was Varric who was their nearly-father for like half a year, then was Harding-their longest-standing companion. They can’t be not having trauma in losing someone and be really fear to be abandone. So after all they’ve been through, maybe this is the chance Lucanis will be there for them for a mind therapy ? I would love to see them curing each other. <3

Followed are some of my gripes(No need to read!)

I literally cried for like 2 hours when I saw what Rook experienced when they trapped in Fade.Varric is always my favorite since DA 2, and damn! Varric’s words really help me to continue the game after the Mintharous or Treviso Choice. Shadow Dragons and Neve blamed all of this to Rook (and I was like “Rook is only one person without army and forces how could they be able to save the city? And Minrathous did have far more forces than Treviso has”)and they’ve already messed up the ritual. The self-doubt was about to overwhelm them, but they had to pretend to be optimistic and help everyone in the team dealing their problems.

My Rook has never considered themselves as a leader, they just stood out and begun to take the duty of finishing the job and they tried their best to take care of everyone. In the game,Varric was the only one asked Rook how long has it been since they’ve slept while they’re worrying others’ sleeping.

And the absence of companion banter, didn’t got their option when companion talking about a mage thing,etc…really made me feel unwanted . I hope maybe someday bioware could add some rook’s reaction to companion banter🥲

I mean, at least they should have comments on Romanced Lucanis told Taash how to kill mages and that’s like dancing or seduction …

“I’m right here hearing! Lucanis! ”

English is not my first language so please forgive me if I say something weird 🥲

about my Rook:

[chrismerle]

so, like, I am perhaps a little overly-protective of Veilguard, because I am genuinely very fond of it and a LOT of the complaints I see about it fall into the following categories:

'I am bitching about things that have been present since Origins, but I am very conveniently only taking issue with them now and acting as if they are unique to Veilguard'

'I am bitching about things that I claim haven't been addressed/explained, except they actually have, they just aren't super relevant to the main plot so Varric or Solas didn't turn to look at the camera and address it to my liking'

'I am bitching about how the game is messy but conveniently acting like it's UNIQUELY messy when in reality Dragon Age as a series is a goddamn mess'

'Taash is blunt and kind of awkward but seems largely unbothered by their own bluntness and awkwardness. I find this to be an unpleasant trait and anything I find unpleasant in a person is bad writing.'

'I am incapable of recognizing the difference between bad writing/game design and things that I personally just don't like that much'

and I think all of those categories of complaints are fucking stupid, and I wish the people bitching in such ways would either find some fucking whimsy and just appreciate the game for what it is, stop torturing themselves with a game they clearly don't like and aren't going to like, or at the very least have the good manners to stop putting their ass-hurt-y whinging in the main tags.

that said, I do have some legitimate criticisms! I am not just irrationally praising every element of the game.

you can't really talk to your companions in the Lighthouse. there are a few "scheduled" conversations that take place as cutscenes, but you can't just walk up to them and bug them to talk for the most part, like you can in previous games. hell, I would've been fine with the Mass Effect 3 method, where you just walk up and press the 'talk' button and they spit out vaguely situationally-relevant dialogue until they eventually tell you 'not right now, Rook.' but instead you're largely limited to just listening to your companions bond with each other by eavesdropping on them, which is relatable to me because I'm a nosy bitch and any conversation happening around me is no longer a private conversation, but isn't really what I was hoping for.

I don't think Minrathous and Treviso should have both been facing the exact same threat. like, I can buy that a merchant city with a couple handfuls of assassins and no army could be brought low by one dragon. but if the militarized techo-mage capital of The Country Where Everyone Does Dangerous Magic can't hold off ONE DRAGON then that is no longer a me problem. the excuse that was given was that it was circling the city from the air, raining death from above, but the archon's palace is its own long-range weapon, and most mages are also their own long range weapon. Rook rocking up with two additional fighters should not have been required to turn the tide in Minrathous against ONE DRAGON. Minrathous should have been facing a much larger threat than it was.

Varric really needed more ambient dialogue. I guess the devs didn't expect you to actually poke your head into the infirmary that often? 'cause the poor guy only seems to have like five canned responses that he gives. and as funny as it is that 90% of the time he was asking me when the last time I slept was with deep suspicion, it got a little old.

I ran into some audio and camera weirdness. with audio, it only ever happened with banter while running around, not in cutscenes, so I don't think it was my headphones. voices would get really crackly suddenly. and for camera, it wasn't, like, game breaking, but the camera did occasionally just whip itself around to face the opposite direction with no input from me. mostly when I started using the long range attack, but once while I was shimmying through a crack in the wall.

it's a little weird that Rook can't engage more with/about the faction they're part of. like, my first Rook was a Veil Jumper, but Bellara still had to explain basically everything to him, when it could have instead been her explaining it to Rooks of other factions but having a conversation about it with a Veil Jumper Rook. or at the very least some sort of 'Bel--Bellara--BELLARA. I know how it works.' 'Oh! Right! Sorry.'

and then there are some things I just personally wasn't a huge fan of:

I could have lived very comfortably without ever seeing the Mass Effect 3 readiness rating ever again. but there it is. you have to do ... so many side quests ... if you want to keep all of your companions alive. so many of them.

most of the armor is really ugly, in my opinion. my first Rook spent the entire game running around in the N7 armors (the version without the coat was his casual outfit, since my private running joke was that he only ever had time to take his coat off before he had to go put out more fires). my current Rook has been running around in the brown leather duster coat the entire time. I think it's because they're all kind of over-designed? a lot of them would be perfectly fine if they got simplified a bit. whoever dressed the Lords of Fortune, you need help, most of their outfits are so fucking ugly.

I know it's CONVENIENT when you use the same button for basically everything but the 'interact' button and the 'jump' button being the same means I tried to pick something up and then accidentally yeeted myself off a cliff or into a volcano so many times.

they nerfed my archers, man :( I mean, I kinda get it. I was an archer once in Inquisition and was so over-powered. archers got to be so fucking cheap in Inquisition, especially if you specialized as an artificer. it was great. some of the most fun I've ever had playing Dragon Age was being an explosive archer in Inquisition.

the Inquisitor's class should have been one of the previous choices we could carry over. in general, I don't care that it was mostly a clean slate, but we should have at least been able to specify if the Inquisitor was a warrior, rogue, or mage. let us actually see them in combat at the end.

I ... don't think I really had a point to this whole ramble. I just have a lot of Dragon Age thoughts and feelings and only a few Dragon Age friends, and I can only babble at them so much before I feel like they'll wanna break my keyboard with their brains.

[thesummerstorms]

definitely made trying to figure out a post game epilogue for Arsinoë more complicated when I chose the ot3 route.

some (but not all) of the questions to figure out that I keep waffling on include:

Does Antiva have actual polyamorous marriage?

I think we can safely guess Tevinter doesn't.

leaning towards yes towards social recognition of poly relationships, but not of poly marriages bc marriages are a tool for making alliances and distributing resources? also possibly for the religious reasons of Maferath having a "concubine" but selling Andraste out after she became the "Bride of the Maker"

no two of the pair would be willing to marry formally/legally without the third, I do feel pretty set in that, but absolutely there are going to be people in both Tevinter and Antiva presuming that will happen

the Crows and especially Caterina presume Lucanis will marry one woman or the other and the second will be the unofficial lover, which puts a bad taste in his mouth

In Antiva it's probably going to be presumed that Lucanis will marry Rook specifically because she's the strategic one to take as a wife, solidifying ties with House de Riva, and that is going to drive her insane because of the way it implicitly devalues Neve

Conversely, maybe some of the Shadows think that Rook will move to Minrathous with Neve after "earning her way out" of the Crows? Or that it's the least Neve deserves to have Rook relocate permanently to help clean up the mess after Rook chose Treviso but still pursued her?

How dependent on Chantry recognition is the legality of a marriage anyway?

Ashur might offer to quietly marry them, and he's one of the few "Chantry" people Arsinoë might accept that from, but would Antiva recognize that?

Do they have a choice if Lucanis is First Talon? Or is it something that would be said to be recognized but also picked at to undermine him?

How does that uncertainty play out towards wills, protection, widows' rights if one of them dies early?

Would that even be something the three want?

What happens, legally/socially if they don't marry formally?

Do they still consider themselves married?

Do they marry unofficially/privately?

How does that effect the politics, their relative protections in one another's homes and factions, etc

I ultimately don't see Neve leaving Minrathous even if they three stay together, nor does Lucanis leave Antiva. The Eluvians help a lot, but how does that actually functionally work?

If Arsinoë doesn't formally marry into House Dellamorte, House de Riva is still based in Salle

They might keep separate households but all of those households are "shared" when the others are in town, but that is going to get so complicated

How can/does the Lighthouse play into this? Arsinoë felt weirdly comfortable there; Neve & Lucanis didn't

What happens if Lucanis, for instance, is in the Lighthouse over night when shit goes down in Treviso?

But at the same time, even Talons have to travel and be occasionally out of contact while on the road right?

Arsinoë doesn't want children, possibly had a hysterectomy young; Neve doesn't want them; how does that go down with Caterina?

How does this undercut the political power Dellamorte has once it's clear that neither of them are getting pregnant and both are on the older edge of being able to do so to begin with? Since there's no new generation or heir forthcoming

Who is Lucanis's heir, legally speaking? Illario seems unlikely

What the fuck is going on with Antiva anyway, and what are Lucanis and Rook going to have to do with it?

Neve is going to have to stay in Minrathous after the shit show at the end game, but if they're marching off into open conflict to finish driving off the Antaam/reclaiming the rest of Antiva, that's going to be an intense separation

Neither faction is going to be necessarily endeared to their representative's partners by their absence, although some will undoubtedly understand more than others

Is Viago going to let his whole... thing go? Because it puts him, Arsinoë. and Lucanis in a very awkward spot if not, since he would have to depower the Crows and the merchant princes somewhat to strengthen the throne

Physical effects of Solas being in Rook's head and her entrapment in the Regret Prison

I know I want to give her physical side effects, but I need to work out the specifics/scope

Absolutely, Lucanis and Neve are going to have their own individual freak outs though. So is Viago.

Rook... in denial maybe?

How do Lucanis, Neve, and Rook negotiate the whole Crow thing long term anyway?

Neve is not going to appreciate it if Lucanis pulls a Caterina and wipes out whole houses that threaten his family (including her and Rook)

Spite:

I know how he would fit if it were just Lucanis & Rook, but how much do I want to take what the in game Nevecanis dialogue says as true vs how much do I want to ignore it?

Is it like a process? And if so how does that work?

Like, they love each other and I am relatively set on keeping them committed to one another until someone dies, but it's not just a "happily ever after" kind of deal; they and their distinct priorities make it so, so complicated

[hydrangeapartridge]

Sooo I finished Veilguard (my opinion and heavy spoilers under the cut):

I'll start by saying I am a huge Dragon Age fan. Origins was my first RPG and that series is a favourite of mine. I loved all 4 games even if they are imperfect, they each have their moments of genius.

If the beginning of the game felt "rushed", as in unknown Rook thrown into the stopping Solas deal like that, and then having a list of people to recruit to help, the more I played, the more I grew found of this Veilguard team and this game.

I can't imagine how hard it must be to produce a game while taking into consideration the amount of things that happened before and please the old fans and new audience.

Maybe I don't need much to enjoy a game but after 10 years I'm just so happy the game is out, running without bugs, beautiful graphics and with writing that to me isn't bad or worse than Inquisition or DA2. It depends on characters and quests but I still grew attached to wonderful characters (gosh Emmrich...) and some moments of emotion as well as a rather good pacing. I'm not a hardcore gamer so my opinion on gameplay is what it is but I had fun in most battles and boss fights and didn't feel like running from point A to B without understanding what I was doing.

Of course I would have loved to see Fenris again for example, or hear from Hawke, but I understand we can't have it all. I was at least happy they mentionned Felassan.

Regarding the lore, it felt weird for a second having the crew dissect Solas' regrets and tying together all the secrets and mysteries of the world, but I'll accept it (I know, maybe I'm a bit too indulgent but it's in my nature, I take the positive side of things: we had answers)

With that said, thoughts for the last quest and the ending:

First, I'm so sad that you can't end the game without sacrificing Harding or Davrin. I picked Davrin first not knowing what would happen of course and seeing Assan plunge into the blight after him was HEARTBREAKING!!! I can't imagine being less sad seeing Harding meet the same end... There is no good choice, like between Minrathos and Treviso... but ouch it hurt. It don't know if they should have made more choices available for that part? maybe.

Then I chose Bellara to disable the barriers and I found it unfair compared to Davrin's end that she's completely blighted and then magically cured at the end. I would have liked a recruitment by the wardens for example (takeback to Carver and Bethany)

That part plus the attribution of roles for the battle was very Mass Effect like (Bioware duh, Kaidan vs Ashley is a known trick but I was surprised they did it here). It's a mechanic I enjoy (I kept dear Emmrich safe by my side! poor man had to climb that huge tentacle. That and the coffin, so much exercise in one day... Good thing he does his morning stretches).

The devs made an effort to emphasise that saving the world is risky and has a cost. I suppose it's a change from the perfect playthroughs you can often do without losing anyone. Still, I love happy endings so I'm sad about that part.

Then the Varric thing. I kind of saw it coming because despite avoiding spoilers, people talked a lot about him... And by the end of the game I found it weird that he was still in that infirmary. To think that I was so relieved when he supposedly didn't die at the beginning... I felt like a fool. I was an easy way to bring me to tears since he's a loved character. I was a sobbing mess saying goodbye to him and though it was an easy way to make me feel things, well it was well executed in the sense that they took their time with it and the voice acting and dialogues were on point.

The scene in the lighthouse with Varric's empty bed only twisted the knife in my poor heart. I was so sad bc of Davrin and Assan and Varric that the scene with Emmrich almost felt weird. I mean, it was perfect and a good way for Rook to change her mind and reunite after Rook was stuck in the fade (which is brushed over a bit too quickly. It has been long given they had time to forge a dagger and it wasn't emphasized enough I think). But that last romance scene was nice especially after they fought before the fight with Gilhanain (I like that a lot! made it feel real, and also I liked how Emmrich started apologizing during the quest).

Then about Solas:

I love Solas but he kept betraying us so much that I almost started not wanting his redemption XD. Rook is very kind-hearted to offer it to him... Let's be honest we do it for Lavellan.

My dear Lavellan. They didn't miss her portrayal. young elf thrown into a war, a mere mortal in pure hopeless love with an ancient god, robbed of her arm, of her vallaslin, discovering her beliefs are lies... Yet still standing there and forgiving Solas, offering to be eternally trapped with him. Her heart. I'm a fan of that kind of love story so that ending was perfect for me (ar lath ma vhenan <3)

Overall, it was a great experience. Made me cry, made me laugh, made me fall in love again with the series. What a day to live the return of Dragon Age, especially with such an active and wonderful fandom here (I know there are a lot of haters elsewhere and I'm not going there XD).

I'll do a review of the companions and their quests soon.

[babe-a-yaga]

Alright. Veilguard. Thoughts at length including significant discussion of endgame.

From a gameplay perspective, combat and exploration, it's a triumph. The best the series ever was, imo. Genuinely a joy to actually play, and beautiful for every moment of it. The main things I struggled with, were I missed the search ping from inquisition. Loot and resources were visually highlighted well enough to find easily, but sometimes I STRUGGLED to find notes and investigate points because the map only narrows it down to a general circle, and they aren't highlighted the way items are. I had to look up walkthroughs for a few side quests because I truly got stuck and the quest text wasn't clear enough on whether I was supposed to be finding an "investigate" clue or a note, or what, and it wasn't marked close enough, nor highlighted. A search function would have helped a lot. Similarly, the mini map could have been improved if instead of marking the exact location of chests, the exact locations of quest points and merchants were more clearly indicated. But the combat, as an orb and dagger mage was FUN fun. I LOVED it. I had actual FUN fighting. The jumping and climbing and ward crystal and blight cyst puzzles were FUN.

The beginning is long, and probably the roughest from a writing angle, but it improves and improves as it goes. The tension is very high. The companions as individual characters are all likeable, interesting, and how they grow and interact is fantastic.

Rook, while I liked them a lot, is probably my least fave protagonist, they didn't feel as fleshed out as previous entries. I may still warm on them, as I typically don't nail my "canon" protagonist down in my head until I've messed around on a few different playthroughs and find the background/romance path that actually resonate with me and my head canon. I don't think I've ever gotten it on the first play.

To that note, I didn't find the background or romance as compelling as previous entries, but I've seen others commenting that Shadow Dragons got the short end of the stick. This compounded by the fact that, as I romanced Lucanis and thus chose to save Treviso, it effectively bricked the shadow dragon faction for the rest of the game.

Docktown felt like Kirkwall. I look forward to saving Minrathous next time to see what it could have been.

All of this feels super critical of the Minrathous/Treviso choice but that is far from the case. The choice, and heavy consequence of it, was compelling from a story angle. My Shadow Dragon Rook, with the knowledge that Minrathous has never fallen, is from a military family and knows it has an army and a magisterium, and their trusted SD colleagues to defend it, chose to protect a defenseless civilian city already weakened by occupation. And the devastation to the SDs made it personal.

I felt really emotional about the loss of the merchant Lorelei, specifically. My Canon warden is a Tabris warden, who's greatest failure was the elves Howe and Loghain sold to Tevinter that weren't retrieved. To find one again here, who found a place in an anti-slavery organization, and then failing them again, hit me.

I dont know if it's a Lucanis thing specifically, or if it's all of the romances this time, but while I loved him as a character, the romance fell flat for me. And not because it was slow burn, it just didn't feel like it had enough content to feel a romantic attachment, and I felt he actually had orders of magnitude more chemistry with Neve than he did Rook. I'll probably let them hook up the next time around, and just love him as a dear friend. As a character he wasn't what I expected going in. He was so soft and caring with everyone, and I ADORE him, just not as a LI again.

I loved the dynamic between Rook and Neve this play through. Neve was the one who came with me and got injured in the initial ritual choice, and then I didn't save Minrathous, but we were both Minrathous mages, and both Shadows, so they had camaraderie and conflict. That ultimately ended up feeling like the most compelling companion relationship for this Rook, as a friend.

Early game I hear the criticisms that the dialogue felt a little unnatural sometimes, and it's not unfounded. It improves a lot as the game progresses though. There's points where, especially "blue" dialogue selections come out sounding like therapy talk with your companions. Which feels a little weird until it says something you didn't know you needed to hear. For me this hit during Hardings heart of a titan quest beat, when she's taken over by the titans anger and I chose to tell her to honor the anger. And suddenly Rook had me in tears. This is the point where I committed a lot more to purple dialogue with some occasional direct options and didnt lean into blue as much, but it's also when the character quest arcs started to all come into their own anyway and it felt a little more natural.

Weisshaupt was excellent, cinematic, apocalyptic, and scary.

I also have a history of going into Dragon Age games with very clear ideas of who I expect to like and romance from the companions based on marketing, and then having that all subverted when I actually get to know the characters, and happily, this was the case again. I was coming in on the Neve Harding Lucanis train, with no real interest in Taash or Davrin (outside of Assan) based on what I'd seen. Davrins whole "gloom howler monster nemesis" thing they teased in the combat previews did nothing for me. Once I got into playing, I loved Davrin. I loved his little picnics and walks in the woods and doing shrooms in Arlathan outings! They were very sweet and funny and Rook had great friend chemistry with him and Assan! And his main arc, the Gloom Howler, I'm a convert. Full disclosure, I am a DA book reader and Last Flight was likely my favourite, but before the reveal I realized that the Gloom Howler was in fact, my beloved Isseya, and I was devastated when it was confirmed. She deserved better than to be made a villain, but it made me way more engaged than I would have been otherwise.

Further on the books though, I've never felt more rewarded for engaging in the tie in media than I was in Veilguard. It certainly isn't essential to do so, but it really enhances the experience. The whole new cast of faction characters were familiar to me, meeting Maevaris, seeing references to the whole Wraiths of Tevinter gang in Charter's letters, the Isseya plotline, Felassan haunting the shit out of the narrative from beginning to end, all VERY rewarding.

Bellara also snuck up on me as being super likeable. I'm a fan of Epler's work and I knew he was very proud of Bellara but I came in with "ahh...Merrill 2.0 I guess" energy, and she almost immediately won me over. Her arc with her brother was very touching, and her role in the final act had me gutted.

Taash was the real standout fave I didn't see coming. Their youthful petulance at times, their social skills boiling down to picking fights because they can't communicate their actual issue well ("sorry I called you a skullfu- skull liker. A skull liker"), their relationship with their mom, their dynamic with Lucanis (when I wasn't rotating for companion or faction, Taash and Lucanis were my regular party makeup), were all amazing. The climax of their arc with the dragon king was the first time the game made me ugly cry, instead of just get misty. They made me laugh out loud more than once. They reminded me of myself, and people I know. They were young, troubled, and very relatable.

Assan and Manfred were both really delightful comic relief characters, I was very attached to both and they felt like the right amount of cheese. Emmerichs quest choice between lichdom and Manfred was such a non choice I stopped reading after "save manfred".

Emmerich was the only one who didn't super resonate with me, and that's fine and likely just a me thing. He was still a lovely and interesting character, I just wasn't personally compelled by a lot of the necropolis plots and aesthetics. I've seen others who feel very differently, so not a bad character, just not one I connected with.

There is an element missing from this game, that I myself do miss a lot, and I know others are going to be super critical of. One of the things I've always loved best about Dragon Age, was it's layers of socio-political commentary. Lore heavily steeped in the politics, history, societal and racial dynamics of the world etc. And more specifically, how that lore has always been presented. Dragon age has always put the player (should they choose to engage with all the reading and codexes and such) in kind of an informal anthropology role. The lore is given in bits and pieces through just existing in the world, through letters and tablets and academic texts, primary and secondary sources, conversation and folklore, frequently contradictory as it is in life, and raising as many questions as it establishes Truths while you are forced to interpret based on the information you have. It's what makes the world building of Thedas feel so rich and substantial and REAL. And it's not present in Veilguard which I think is contributing to people feeling like the game is just "speaking to us like we're dumb" when we who have been here for many years are used to approaching the lore as a study. I miss it too, but sitting here now, credits having rolled, I understand it's absence. Veilguard feels like goodbye. Veilguard WAS straight telling us the lore this time, but at the end I feel the questions...all of the questions...were answered. The Evanuris. The old gods. The Blight. The Dwarves. The maker. The golden city. The veil. The chapter is closing and we know the truth. If we ever return to Thedas, it will be different, if we are never able to have another Dragon Age game, we walk away now without loose ends. I suspect this shift in approach was a deliberate attempt to give us that closure, and I can accept it.

The worldstate thing. They did, in my opinion, an acceptable job navigating around the lack of worldstates. I never felt a jarring thing happened that contradicted my headcanon, having Morrimythal and the inquisitor working knowingly together all the time kind of removed the need for me to know who drank the well because it really could have gone either way and achieved the same thing. My Inquisitor felt like my inquisitor. She was as I would have played her. The second conversation with her, where she spoke of her relationship with Solas, was perfect. I'm an unrepentant Solavellan player, it compels me, and I had been going through the game looking for cryptic codex references and hoping for a shred of perspective from Solas's side. When he acknowledged it to Rook, I gasped, and was satisfied but not hurt. When Lavellan spoke about HIM it unexpectedly broke me. One of my favourite moments. She was sad, and tired, and still in love, but not willing to give up the world for him until it was safe, but after she would still follow. As MY Lavellan would have been.

Solas and Mythal. I loved how it was handled. The regrets. The playable memories. I'm pretty critical of who Mythal is, but really enjoy how she was written. I loved the differentiation between a Mythal who had lived thousands of years with mortals and it having changed her from Mythal the mercurial goddess. I'm glad she didn't get the same treatment as Isseya, that a powerful woman who did terrible, terrible things wasn't reduced to a 2D villain, but someone deeply flawed who could be changed by living in the world as it is. I wish Isseya had been given that same sympathy as I feel she deserved it more. Isseya like Solas, did terrible things against her own will and tried to put it right, before ultimately being corrupted by powers beyond her and deserved a better end.

I loved the evolving dynamic of Solas and Rook through the game. How they started off with "verbal jabs" annoying the piss out of each other, and Rook talking mad shit about him behind his back. Solas intially physically standing elevated and apart from Rook. But as events unfold and Rook proves themselves capable, and the playing field literally and metaphorically levels between them, he begins to stand level, but still apart. He begins to shift from outright condescension to mentor. He begins to feel less like Fen'harel and more like Solas. He still knows things he isn't telling, hiding behind half Truths, but Rook too, has seen Solas's memories and met Mythal and doesn't tell him. They mirror each other, in respect and in deceit, but as they grow in that respect they also begin to throw out some pretty real moments of vulnerability to each other. Solas ASKS Rook if they're OK, if their team is OK. Rook is honest with him about when they're truly shaken. When Rook fails their "one shot" at Ghilan'nain, instead of coming down on them about it Solas actually admits they did a hell of a job and living to fight is a victory of its own, and checks on their well being. Rook calls him on his entanglement with Lavellan and Solas doesn't shy away. Even following his inevitable betrayal, Rook, while pissed, understands him and likes him enough to get past it, and Solas openly admits that Rook has traits he finds "enviable".

The third act was, unquestionably, the strongest part of the game, and where any complaints of the game "not being dark enough" lose all merit. The story takes off and doesn't relent, and it's nothing short of devastating, over and over again for the full duration of the act. I came off the couch by the end. I was on the floor SOBBING through huge swathes of the final act. I believe no matter what, one companion probably dies, and one is blighted and saves the day in the end, probably. But your choices impact the live to die ratio beyond that. This is my assumption having played it once. I made calls that got half my team killed. I made the mistake of building all of my combat kit around synergy with Lucanis, my LI, because he was in my party no matter what all game. Because of this, I deployed Davrin in the final battle when Lucanis would have been the better choice. And Davrin died for my mistake. Harding made the ultimate sacrifice. Bellara was taken by Elgar'nan and blighted. So when the second round of deployments came, keeping Taash and Lucanis with me meant I had a choice between only Neve or Emmerich to send with Morrigan, when neither were suitable. So I knowingly sent Emmerich on a suicide mission to protect Neve, who I'd put through hell repeatedly already. When Solas pulled his little castling maneuver (yeah I learned some basic chess stuff ahead of this game specifically to spot that metaphor when it came, I'm deep nerd on this stuff) and threw Rook in regret jail, I sobbed.

The Varric reveal had me destroyed. In spite of my neurotic summer long binge of the Dragon Age books, I only caught the Tevinter Nights foreshadowing because I peer pressured a good friend into reading it this week and he had commented to me that he got "Sixth Sensed" by the ending of "Down Among the Dead Men" like two days ago. Not only that Varric, my beloved fave, my Hawke's true ride or die, was dead, but that Solas, my poor, terrible, beloved fave, killed him. That he knew. That he deliberately robbed Rook of grieving that with her friends for his own gain. I was inconsolable. It was the moment that I doubted whether I could redeem him, something I've been ten years resolved to want for him. In a long list of truly terrible things Solas has done, this is a truly terrible thing. Not as much the killing as the after. In the end it was for Lavellan that I decided to continue on that path. She earned his redemption more than he did.

I'm glad I recorded most of act three, because I was, without exaggeration, untethered sobbing myself hoarse through so much I'm not sure I absorbed some scenes properly.

The Solavellan of it all. When the moment came, Elgarnan defeated, Veil tearing apart, and Rook put the dagger in his hand and said "choose a different path", and Lavellan entered, and...failed to convince him herself. I truly broke again. After everything. After ten years she still believed, and he still couldn't turn from it. Not even for her. And when Mythal entered, and proud to the last Fen'harel crumbled in on himself and cried as she let him go, and Lavellan still, as always, met him with nothing but understanding and care, and they finally got their "in another world." And I finally got my reprisal of "Lost Elf Theme" I've been yearning for the entire game. I said going in, what I wanted for Solas was to be made wretched, to break and cry for the wrongs he did, and then I want the man to know something like peace, after what, 8000 years of literally apocalyptic grief and regret? And that was precisely what I got. It is so, so fitting, that the cadence of Solas's speech was patterned after "Hallelujah"; as that is what the close of his arc felt like. A cold and a broken hallelujah. And Lavellan, who lost everything in her service to the world, her faith, her family, her vallaslin, her arm, and her love, finally got to put her burden down and go home to him.

One of my big qualms with the game was the score. I found it really disappointing. It wasn't "bad" in that I never felt it removed me from the moment, but it also didn't add much, and nothing in it was memorable or moving. The complete lack of music on the ending slides was weird and jarring. The moments that really hit me in the chest were the scarce few moments where the inquisition score made it back in. I no joke was praying the whole game for a snippet of lost elf or dark solas. The Trevor Morris score turned what would have been just a long gauntlet of difficult qunari fights at the end of trespasser into a truly urgent narrative moment that I'm usually playing through tears. It punched me right in the chest and has been deeply anchored in a corner of my brain for a whole decade. Nothing in this score holds a candle to that. It was... mid. At best. The inclusion of lost elf in the final moments was the saving grace for me, a crumb I'll treasure. I always said the Inon Zur scores were pretty mid too, but they had a strong identity and compelling moments that I do listen to from time to time. Trevor Morris's work on inquisition was masterful and this game would have been improved a lot by keeping him instead of throwing him over for a big name like Zimmer, who didn't understand Thedas well enough to it justice and kind of phoned it in.

Another nitpicky issue was in the cameos. Dorian and Maevaris were appropriately aged I felt. Isabella and Morrigan did not look their ages. They both felt victim to that old trap of women who were the "sexy ones" in their respective games, when they were in their 20s canonically, not being permitted to visibly look old.

On the flipside, the character creator allowed me to make Lavellan look properly middle aged, which made me SO happy. She isn't twenty, she wasn't in inquisition and it's been a long ten years, so I'm really pleased she was able to show it.

Character creator itself was spectacular. Best I've ever used. I had a vivid picture of what Rook looked like in my head, that wasn't the airbrushed glowy Rooks we were seeing in the marketing content, and I was able to create her almost perfectly. I look forward to playing with it more now that I'm through the game once.

I've talked a lot about how much the game made me cry, and that's coming put of act 3 where that's largely all I did, but through the first two acts, I laughed out loud a lot. It served a lot of honest, joyful, funny moments in spite of the stakes, and that's what made act 3 land with the weight that it did.

I dont have much to say about Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain. They were over the top, villainy villains, and it worked. It's what Corypheus aspired to and didn't quite hit past the attack on Haven scene (which still slaps). They were present, and frightening, and all powerful, and defeating them genuinely felt like impossible odds. They weren't the profoundly human villains of origins and 2, but they were well done. I'm a little let down that we didn't get the whole Horrors of Hormak experience with Ghilly, but non book readers don't know what they're missing so it's a disappointment I won't dwell on.

All in all the end was incredible. It felt harrowing. Not like Inquisition, where you won! Hurray! Back to the castle to celebrate and go to bed! Onto the next adventure! Veilguard felt like you prevented apocalypse by the skin of your teeth, but the horrors and loss that that kind of war take as payment for your success leave you feeling like the world is saved, but I'm not sure Rook was. It's not a celebration, it's an ending. And it felt like a goodbye. To Thedas. The ends are tied up. The questions are answered. The Arch Demons are all gone. The Black City is truly empty. The veil stands.

The game was very good. It wasn't perfect, it never is. But the end was.

Anywho, this was way longer than I planned but I clearly had a lot of thoughts and my friends are all still early game so I needed to get them out 🙃

[rookedcrow]

she liked to think she’d gotten better at hiding her emotions since the last time they’d spent this much time together. she also liked to tell herself the reason she’d never told him how she felt or just how hard she’d fallen had been more about thinking they would always have more time ( instead of the fear he didn’t feel the same way. imagine pouring your heart out only to find there’s no cup to catch it ) --- and by then, she’d figure something out. plenty of time. at least until his grandmother or her brother intervened one way or another.

it’s always about time --- too little of it in treviso, too much of it apart. and now he’d asked her for more of it himself. ( she wasn’t naive enough to think for a moment that things would go right back to the way they were all those years ago in treviso; back to when the two of them would sneak off only to fall into each other’s beds spend time alone. ) maybe too much time had passed since then ----- too much had happened to the both of them .... but had she been naive enough to believe the flashes of the past when they were together for too long in the present meant something (while ignoring the simple fact that there had never been a something spoken aloud or properly named back then, of course )? standing just a little too close to one another, glances that lingered a little too long ... maybe so. and that misguided hope was a point to be cross with herself about, not him.

but he’d asked her for time, and she’d given it. time and space in a place that felt suffocating at the best of times despite the airy appearance. she’d done exactly as he’d asked knowing how difficult it would be to cut herself off completely. she knew how she’d acted around him in the past; how it felt as though his eyes were on her and only her. how it felt when he’d have her in his arms … or tangled up in bedsheets. giving him space meant closing a part of herself off again, a part that she hadn’t realized would be waiting for her to find in a watery prison. if he was going to need time, she would have to forfeit much more than hours, or days. or weeks. it meant keeping her eyes down, her conversations short. accepting missions that would keep her away and occupied.

and she’d hated it.

as if the lack of a glance didn’t cut deeply enough ( not that she wanted to be on the receiving end of one of his withering looks ), the lack of any sort of response cut down to bone. but what else could she expect from a master assassin? no longer committed to feigning a count of arrows, she stands back up, arms crossed protectively over her chest and still too afraid to even try to look him in the eye now. she’d seen him hurt more than once in the past, but it had always been physical wounds ----- cuts and scrapes, stab wounds and broken ribs. never once had it been because of her. but this --------- this was her doing.

she hears him shift his weight, hears the familiar cadence of his walk past her and back towards the double doors. “lucanis? wait,” but her eyes were still fixed on the stone below her feet, and he didn’t stop. there didn’t even seem to be a hesitation or a hitch in his stride. the doors groaning at being disturbed again so quickly confirmed it.

“shit.” she barely gives him the chance to get much further ahead before she’s given her quiver a proper kick ( and with the way the arrows scatter, she’ll probably lose another one when she eventually comes back to clean up the second mess she’s made in the last few minutes ) and heads for the double doors herself.

the fucking doors. couldn’t have less dramatic doors, could you, solas?

she turns herself sideways in an effort to save time not waiting for them to open completely, cursing under her breath ( at the doors? at herself? ) as she goes, hoping to still see him up ahead. “lucanis, wait. please?”

He was not the same man she knew.

He'd always been a weapon. Beyond the Crows sharpening all of his edges Caterina had ensured that there was nothing dull about him. A part of him changed that day in Minrathous, with Ambrose. He was all-too aware of the cruelty of man but something about the Wigmaker got under his skin. (Maker, if Caterina knew she'd have literally taken a pound of flesh from him to teach him to feel. He was surprised Illario had kept it to himself.) In truth the rage that had ignited within him was frightening and Lucanis had believed he'd stifled it.

Oh, how wrong he was.

Time had become nothing more than a foreign concept thereafter. The short bit spent with Emilia where he'd pretended he didn't care for her more than something Teia and Viago flaunted about (the point there had gone straight over his head like a stray arrow (goodbye!!)) and then he was locked in his own personal hell for a year.

Or was it two?

Maybe a decade. A month?

Rage kindled, burned so harshly and brightly that it consumed. Piece by piece, the cavalier attitude of Lucanis Dellamorte faded away and all that was left were jagged, sharp edges. Broken, covered in blood and viscera from getting caught on things (mostly himself) and the cycle perpetuated itself until there was nothing left but rage and spite, and Spite. (Truly, Lucanis did not recognize himself anymore and it had nothing to do with looking in the mirror. Were those his dark circles? Was that his too-long beard? He needed to cut his hair, but not now. His cheeks were thinner than they used to be. He looked older than he was. He looked exhausted. He was exhausted.)

But Emilia reminded him how to be at least a little human. And if not human, than Crow again. Something more than a rapier and a dagger, than a demon. No--no, not Emilia.

Rook.

Nothing was the same. Everything had changed.

Dark eyes burned into her, bore holes that surely would have actually appeared on her flesh or at least seared through her armor. He had asked for time ---true, but she had gone above and beyond. (So had he, but details, details.) He'd brushed her off, at least he'd hope sincerely and it was not so much brushing as he had nearly begged her (he had, actually) and while he was thankful she had obliged ...

Weeks. Barely even a glance. The only time he'd left the Lighthouse was on his own business, and gone was the idea that she might come back and need him for something because now he was apparently as useless as a sundial in the Fade. He was the fucking Demon of Vyrantium, he was worth more than sitting on his hands.

Oh, clearly he'd been spending too much time muttering to Spite if that sort of vitriol came to mind first.

And, of course, she didn't even spare him a glance. (What little piece of his heart he had recognized was very much alive and willing and wanting oh the want was such poison stilled itself and once again there was nothing left but sharpness and coldness and walls upon walls of a fortress he did not remember building but knew he had.)

"Hn."

It was a short sound. An ending. Punctuation to mark the stop of a chapter or perhaps a book. Because while there was such romance in him that it often poured out unexpectedly and choked him, he was also Caterina's progeny. He could be colder than ice if he wished it, could shut out everything that made him feel and reduce himself to impulses and one singular thought. After all, he'd survived the Ossuary. He'd survived his childhood. That sort of conditioning didn't go away.

There was no shortage of things to do. He'd made himself busy these past few weeks and surely his presence would be useful in Treviso. His chest rose with the deep breath he took and for the first time since she'd come down the steps and pushed the door open to the eluvian's sanctuary he looked away from her.

And he did not look at her again.

Instead he brushed past her with all of the arrogance everyone assumed the Dellamorte family had (and could have, and did have when it suited him), and pushed his hands into the too-large door far behind her. Boot falls echoed against the hum of magic ---and another first marked his time since he'd joined her on this journey: he could attribute his migraine to something other than the bewitched mirror.

[pensola]

Just as a sort of bad example, but I always play good characters first time. And usually only time, because I am one of those that often play a game once. Anyway, something changed with Baldur's Gate 3.

First playthrough, I play a goody-two-shoes like usual. I do try to make her a personality and background that fits in that world and explains her choices, as well as sometimes even choosing, not badly, but choices I normally would not choose, because of that. Anyway, was fun.

Then some months later, I realize I want to play the game over again, do what I missed, try another class, use other companions, that sort of thing. This time, I still go as a good person, BUT, I decided that this one had some "edge" to her. She will choose to help people, but will be witty or sarcastic, or make choices based on vibes or to mess with the establishment. Some of her choices were different from my first character because it felt more fitting with that character, and some of my choices toward the end were still to save the world, but in a different way that was not the game's intention but still worked perfectly with what I thought my character would do.

Then, I went crazy and made a THIRD character I finished, who was ALSO a good person, but in a more brutal, straightforward and "ride or die for my friends"-loyalty way. And I chose this time choices that were stupid, that were mean and shortsighted, because of that character. Same with my soon to be fourth character, who will make way more stupid and evil choices, because of that character's background.

(It is worth mentioning, I replayed the game because of the gameplay first and foremost, I enjoyed the battle system and wanted to try different strategies and classes, and the exploration of roleplay was a bonus. I doubt I will replay DA:O in a long while, for example, because I do not find the gameplay as fun)

So yeah, all in which to say, I completely agree with this; it isn't just about being good or evil, it is about having a choice on HOW you are good or evil. It's not even about being evil, it is about being flawed, shortsighted, upset, an asshole, and more.

And BECAUSE it is possible to choose otherwise, it feels like it means more when those characters choose that particular choice. Or, I choose for them. I am not choosing Purple Hawke-choice, I am making a choice that works for my Iris Cousland, or Sulla Mahariel, or Siova Tav.

I do feel like with Rook and DA:V, that choice is largely lost because they don't lead anywhere. Not only do I have to choose based on a short line that will be spoken completely differently anyway, which is STILL a thing that annoys me regarding DA2 and DA:I, but they all basically lead to the same response. It says something when I see people show off their different Rooks, and their descriptions are just their background, who they romance, Minrathous/Treviso and what they did with Solas, because those are the only choices we are really given that can differentiate them from each other.

That's not to say that "different choices with basically same responses" don't work; they work well enough in Final Fantasy XIV, where the dialogue choices are there mostly for vibes and giving the player a choice to personalize their Warrior of Light a bit. The difference there is that XIV is an MMO and thus players have little to no expectations that the choices will matter, or that they are there for anything less than flavours. Dragon Age, meanwhile, has lived with choices having responses and consequences, and that is why people expect the same for DA:V, and why the lack of choices and responses can be so loud and disappointing. At least that is why I agree with the OP.

"Why are you complaining about not having evil options? I know that none of you play evil/the majority of people play good characters anyway."

Most good RPGs won't just give you an evil choice and a good choice. Usually it'll be a sliding scale of assholery, and usually there will be a decent enough in-universe reason to do something "evil".

A good enough writing/dev team will make it very tempting to pick a shitty option, be it through gameplay advantages or character motivation. Some games get away with just making it fun/unhinged to be a dickhead (Mass Effect Renegade Shep comes to mind, as they objectively get a "worse" mechanical outcome at the end of the trilogy, but plenty of people still maintain it's the best way to play). WotR gives you enough wacky chaotic options that playing a goody two-shoes makes me feel like I'm missing out.

I actually think that having bad options presented to the player makes the choice to be good all the more rewarding? Like when I see just how much of a shithead I could make my character, what truly cruel and unhinged things they could say, that makes it more meaningful when they don't? Ya know? I could be evil but I choose not to? In games where I'm placed in a position of power? Imagine that. Not picking those options is just as much of a power fantasy as anything else, to me.

You can be good without being nice. Games aren't great at this distinction yet, but being able to be sassy or stoic or rude while still making "good" choices is very much a part of roleplaying. I don't have many "evil" OCs (aside from my original work), but all my OCs are good in different ways. Some of them are just barely good enough to not be evil.

Sometimes one "evil" choice presented can fit an OC that is otherwise a disinclined to do bad shit, just because it better aligns with their personal morality. So even if I don't play a wholly "evil" OC who picks every "evil" choice, I can still play somebody who's unique and complex. Or at the very least somebody who makes mistakes? Like people do?

Replayability? In an RPG?? Might be important? Yes most people don't play evil ... for their first run. But people who replay games, and particularly RPG players, will make multiple characters/runs, and the existence of different options makes the prospect much more rewarding.

Idk man. There's like a bajillion reasons that players who only play good guys should still want the options to be shitty in their games. And a bajillion more for why they should exist in roleplaying games in particular.

Just my onion though.