#it was fresh and earnest and clunky and fun and had promise

[fleshwerks]

Thoughts on new Dragon Age "teaser"? You have the best takes.

I'll be deadly honest, I didn't even realise it was out, that's how checked out I am, but I will always fall hook line and sinker for a delicious bait made of things I can chew on, so let's seeeeeee. I'll do first impressions for now. I'll warn you, I haven't done 'takes' in ages, I've seriously lost my edge and resemble someone yelling at a cloud more than someone with intelligent or at least entertaining takes. Proceed on your own volition. Note, I have not been keeping up with DA4 updates. At all. I am literally grasping at straws and screaming out of my arse.

I'll say this. I believe Mark Darrah who had retired from BioWare was brought back on to save this tattered ship that had failed to launch how many times now? If you were with DAI and Anthem especially, you know that when a vet of that calibre is being brought on board towards the end of production, you're fucked. The sheer scope of the regions visited in the trailer... I wouldn't blink an eye if it was a turn-based strategy game, but it is not.

I'm surprised how shit the game visually looks, but it's been my criticism with the thus far released art, and now, environment assets. And again, I'm coming off of Anthem, and Anthem was truly, truly gorgeous. Now someone might argue that every DA has had its distinctive visual style. Well I thought DA2, for what it was, sure did look inspired. I didn't enjoy the game or the characters, but I enjoyed looking at it. Dragon Age Inquisition kind of lost me aesthetically, but I see what they did there. It was more generic, certainly not attempting to be photorealistic, but I saw the idea and accepted it.

Now this though? What is this? The panning over what I presume is Treviso literally looks like a mobile game ad.

Ok, fine, I'll not go in on the visuals, I'm too fresh out of art college and I'm so anal-retentive that my o-ring's more pinched than a pinprick about this stuff. Moving on.

I believe the new PC is an Antivan Crow? Since when are they fighting for all of Antiva? Everyone??? Since when?! Zevran's canonically not returning, and even he was compassionately practical on his best days. The Crows are not good people. They buy kids to train for miserable jobs meeting miserable ends. Oh, so we had a whole character who gave the Crows a finger for being the shitshow they were, but now they're this resistance task force? What, why, because the 'Islamic Borg' invaded?

Then. I feel like I'm missing a fuckton of contest because I haven't read the preceding comics and stories, I have one comic book from the DAI-DA4 interim and it ended so disappointingly, I never bothered after that.

We're really retconning all the complex and complicated factions into freedom fighters, aren't we. I guess such is the state of our real world. Always a plucky band of people belonging to formerly shitty fucking organisations suddenly saving the day like heroes, possibly somewhere along the way ruminating for 2 seconds on whether they deserve to pat themselves on the back, landing on 'but we will change how we operate, and we will save the world, always!'

I'm into the Rivaini squid though. I've never been fond of Rivain, not just because parts of the fandom like to present this place that has barely been talked about in canon like some haven for... idk. I just didn't expect squids. And you people know I love marine invertebrates. You know what, fuck it, here's my 'best take': have squid, will travel!

But that port city ravaged recently by the dragons in ruins looks like it's been in ruins for the past 2000 years, only recently excavated. It's so clean. And here I go again with the aesthetics.

Anyway, Falon'din and/or dirthamen is fuckin' around in Rivain, aren't they. Because I believe that head shape, multi-hands etc were presented in many of the statues we saw in DAII, and given that Falon'din's proverbial crows, envy and nightmare were so prominently featured, and sexyman Solas' outright resentment for former master Dirthamen and the vain Falon'din, welll... risen gods. Dirthamen at the very least was associated with watery depths, but they're twins (or are they? Perhaps the facets of one person altogether)... Anyway, I'm more interested in what the fuck is happening in Weisshaupt. That part genuinely interests me. Circling back to Dirthamen, Razikale is the dragon of Mystery. Associated with Dirthamen, at least according to my theory, while Urthemiel was the Dragon of Beauty, and we keep getting indications that Falon'din was pretty, aggressive, and exceedingly vain. So Big Dirty's up next. Falon'din had the crows, right? Both defeated in DAI. He's out, more or less. And again, Solas most likely was Dirthamen's student before he decided that he himself didn't want to be but totally wanted to be revered. So my take is that Razikale, who got mentions in DAI is waking up as well.

The villain gods of this mess, the classic Dragon Age false gods we fight in every single game as end bosses, will be connected to Dirt. Eh. Same eagle, different liver.

Anyway I have a doubt that this kind of scope will end anywhere nice. The production's been fraught as fuck to the point where the panic button has been pressed many times. The art looks like a significant downgrade, the production has been filled with veterans just clocking the fuck out.

It doesn't sound interesting. I'm tired of saving the world as an Eastern European in late 2023. This kind of story does not speak to me at all anymore. Not after 2019, not after 2021. It looks dated and mediocre, the story is so old that if it goes where I think it will, it has no relevance or message for anybody but perhaps some American audiences (some). I'm just... I'm not.

The rah-rah I got from that clip leaves me ice cold. There is no rah-rah in such widespread misery. There are only curse words and the sound of grinding teeth, and everybody's a dick, and everybody's dick past is dredged up hard. No retcons.

I don't want it. It better receive insanely high marks for me to play it. And I loved this franchise, two of the PCs have gone on to be archetypal in my private works now.

The mystery is gone. The power creep... I don't want to hang out with gods. They should have never been brought into the story as characters you can extensively hang out with. Edit: basically the entire thing sounds about as exciting as a somewhat well-produced mobile game. Which is fun to fuck with while taking the metro, but...

[angeldcgs]

“i… i didn’t…” even frankie could tell that he was just poking lighthearted fun at her, trying to turn a mortifying moment into a silly little mistake they could both see the humor in, but she was still too shaken to join in just yet. maybe somewhere down the line she’d be able to laugh at it, maybe in five minutes, or maybe not until she was back home filling her roommate in on what happened, just not now when it was all still so fresh. “sorry… i promise i’ll give you a heads up next time.” a slight smirk found its way to her lips despite herself, not quite over the embarrassment, but with some of the initial shock dulled, frankie wasn’t in complete panic mode anymore. tons of couples had funny, awkward, clunky first meetings, and then went on to have long, fruitful relationships; now at least she would stand out to him. the first girl to punch him in the dick after knowing him only ten minutes. so maybe it wasn’t the end of the world, and she hadn’t completely ruined everything, but she was still too embarrassed to even look at him for longer than a second or two. he didn’t give her the option to look anywhere but at him, though, taking hold of her face and subtly forcing eye contact. it was uncomfortable to hold his gaze at first, but once she registered his earnest expression and fond eyes, frankie found that she didn’t want to look away. except to peek at his lips as he scooted in and brought her hand back to his fluffy curls, of course. that couldn’t be helped. it was pretty much impossible to think about anything but his all-consuming presence by that point, once again transfixed by the viscerally intimate sensation of closeness. she could watch couples in rom coms, she could read her fair share of guilty pleasure dark romance novels, but nothing could accurately portray what it was really like to be at oxygen sharing proximity— the way the other’s scent seemed to permeate the very air, that heart-racing anticipation, the unpredictability of human beings. kissing aside, frankie could probably stay like this for the rest of her life. lips parted slightly at the brush of his thumb against the plumper of the two, almost wishing he’d push the digit just a few inches further to poke into her mouth. “are you sure?” she spoke so softly it was only audible because they were sharing the same personal space, fingertips loosely threading through his hair. “i’ll be good this time…” drifting in once again, she paused when they were close enough for the tips of their noses to brush, slotting her head so they fit together like puzzle pieces and merely savoring his essence flooding her senses.

"here i was thinking you did it on purpose." making light of the situation would be the quickest way to make her feel better, at least it would be if she allowed herself to see it all as less disastrous as she was probably making it in her head. she hadn't hit him hard, it was more so the shock of being touched so suddenly that had made him flinch but that probably didn't matter to her. laughing wouldn't help, but he also didn't want to be too serious, it felt like either way she'd only get more upset. it wasn't a big deal, he had kind of been expecting some kind of disaster to take place, whether it be her falling over, maybe even turning away to throw up, it just so happened that it happened to have affected him more than herself. "it's alright, i swear. i'm not hurt, you just surprised me." it had hurt, but telling her that wouldn't help her. his hand stroked her lower back softly, as comfortingly as he could to try and coax her out from the shield she'd put up. seeing her so distraught shouldn't have been so cute, but it proved how badly she had wanted to kiss him, it was embarrassing for her but she seemed upset more than anything, like she had ruined her once chance at having a nice, romantic moment with someone. luckily, oz wasn't so easily deterred, he'd put up with a lot more from women, most of which had been done on purpose so some clumsiness couldn't be enough to turn him off. he bit his lip in an attempt to stop himself from chuckling at her childish awkwardness and moved his hand away from her back to once again cup her face. "i'll be fine, i swear." he said earnestly, waiting until he could catch her eyes before speaking. once he was again certain she wouldn't shrink away from him, oz shuffled the inches closer to her so that their legs touched and guided one of her hands back up to his hair. if she fell again, she'd just press against his body, melt into his side like she was meant to fit there. "how about..." his thumb brushed against her cheek again before moving down to rub thoughtfully across her bottom lip. "we give that another try?"