#datv stuff

[anneapocalypse]

I do actually think it's important to separate criticism of Bioware and EA's labor practices from speculative criticism of a game itself based on its promotional material. I think this because I believe the layoffs and insufficient compensation would still be morally wrong and worthy of criticism regardless of the game's quality. Dragon Age: The Veilguard could be the greatest video game ever made, a critical and commercial smash hit, and the layoffs would still be worthy of criticism and the workers entitled to fair compensation.

I don't think it's productive to conflate the two, or to suggest that the game will be bad because of unfair labor practices. You see the problem with that line of reasoning? If the game turns out to be great, then that whole argument is refuted. The quality of the game should have no bearing on our solidarity with workers.

So far as I am aware, the laid-off workers have not at this time called for an organized boycott. (Boycotts are one tool in the toolkit of labor activism, but not the only tool.) If you nonetheless believe you should not personally buy the game because of the layoffs, then I believe the quality of the game should not enter into that decision. If that's your conviction and you're sticking to it, I do respect that choice (with the caveat that playing a pirated copy and discussing it on social media is still a form of promotion of the game).

Given that a boycott has not been called for, I do think that it's valid to both plan to buy the game and expect to like it, and to voice criticism of the company's labor practices and express solidarity with the workers who made it.

If what you believe is that you won't enjoy the game when it comes out, and are making a decision not to buy it for that reason, that's also fine and a decision I respect. It's just a different decision than choosing not to buy the game as a form of labor protest.

If you believe that you will not enjoy the game, and you fully intend to buy it anyway, that's also a choice you're fully entitled to make, I just think it's a choice that you should own. Criticizing a product that you paid for is completely valid; we do it all the time in fandom. It's just not the same thing as labor activism. It's media criticism. These two things can have overlap, but they're fundamentally different activities driven by different motivations. I just think it's good to distinguish between them.

[reagan-the-saunders]

sooo I compiled some of the dialogue I got doing the blight eruption quest thingy this run <3

btw I'm playing a warden, romancing neve, with both neve and davrin in my party so there are lines here that require those conditions.

[wentian]

bellara: hey what's about that gifset you promised me two weeks ago? 🥺 me, making another solas set: don't worry about this kitten bellara: okay 💗 yay 💗

[psin314]

spite is like their naughty little cat.

[rookanisstuff]

In honour of me gobbling up @morrriigan’s Love Letters fic! I am HIGHLY entertained by the thought of Rook and Lucanis discovering there’s romance fiction written about THEM

PART 1 | PART 2

[spicyalgebra]

anyone else think this too

[triaelf9]

I love my spooky dad and I love all the headcanons for Ingellvars and Vorgoth helping raise them, so as a mood-lightener this week, I doodled some babby Ronan doodles for fun now that I've settled on their canon faction XD

Hope this brings you some smiles too ^_^

[rom-e-o]

Arguably THE MOST important Emmrich lore:

(Source)

[wabart]

roughhousing 😏

(AKA the concept art for Lucanis's room but it's at the Villa... and after 6mo apart post Veilguard he gets a surprise visit!!)

[thesummerstorms]

I've seen a lot about Spite joining in Lucanis's anger at Solas for imprisoning Rook, which is always a treat.

I've been thinking though of how Spite would take the blood magic/mind manipulation but specifically though. We do get that fun line at the end game about "You. Hurt. Rook."

But especially when Rook first reveals the mind control to Lucanis? Especially a romanced Lucanis?

Mages using blood magic to warp your very nature is not only a real and intense source of danger for spirits, something they maybe understand even better than mortals, it is a trauma Spite has specifically endured.

Venatori Blood mages pulled Determination unwillingly through the Fade, imprisoned it in Lucanis, and for all Spite seems set in keeping its new name, that was a major source of trauma for it.

Now Pride is somehow also a blood mage and has used Blood Magic to entrap Rook and to alter their mind enough to make them fit into the locks of the Regret Prison. Literally trying to change their sense of self.

Rook, who Spite trusts more than any other human, even Lucanis, who Lucanis loves, who Spite loves in so much as an embodiment of Spite can love, and Pride has tried to hurt them and trap them and change them the way Spite was hurt and trapped and changed. No matter how confusing mortal emotions and pains and existence are that is something Spite can understand and dread/resent.

Solas is very lucky that Rook was returned to them by the time Spite and Lucanis saw him next is all I'm saying.

[flushwithdarlings]

viago heckling rook de riva and teia out for blood at the opera

[anneapocalypse]

The thing is, even if Lucanis did hate mages generally (which as @dreadfutures says here, is probably not why he's called the Mage Killer), surely we can understand that that means something completely different in the north than it would in the south, right?

It's going to be really interesting to see how the fandom engages with Tevinter tbh. Like, back in DA2, a lot of people thought Fenris was pretty unreasonable about mages. It's easy to feel that way. Even I feel it sometimes and I love Fenris. But then you take a step back, and you remember that his entire life experience is mages having absolute power over him and using that power to cause endless suffering. Those people are still chasing him until Act III, making it difficult for him to shift his paradigm and see the situation in the south for what it is. And some players, even knowing that context, still had trouble seeing Fenris for anything more than a bigot. They couldn't see his context anymore than he could see Anders' or Merrill's.

And as players who have played and loved three games set in the south of Thedas, we are the ones who are going to have to shift our perspectives now. The power structures in the north are different. The way they operate and maintain their power is different. Sure, the base principles still apply, but the devil's in the details. Someone "hating mages" simply does not have the same connotations in the context of the north. If a character in Tevinter says something like, I don't know, "Something must be done about those mages," it doesn't in any way mean the same thing as it would when spoken in Orlais under the southern Chantry. And maybe I'm just stating the obvious, but Idk, I felt like it warranted saying, not just for Lucanis but for all the new characters we're going to be meeting in the north.

[reagan-the-saunders]

another tidbit of neve x rook stuff for yous <3

[wentian]

you know if nobody died (max factions rep) during the 'bad' ending, it'd literally be my favorite ending. no kidding, it's so perfect and gay dramatic 😭😍

[psin314]

rook loves to make his “colleague” feel relaxed so that he can finally get a good night's sleep.

full for the second one

[punkaches]

And when you kiss me I am happy enough to die.