#quick glance

[dovewingkinnie]

i like the idea of dr sawyer having this feeling that people were waiting to catch him without yarnaby, that maybe a certain someone has plans for him

[teratomatica]

you always land on all fours

[crimsonphantasmagoria]

Veilguard is not about regret

I've seen a lot of discussion going around about the themes of regret in Veilguard. In particular I've seen a couple of related claims thrown around: one, that Rook and the Veilguard companions are supposed to act as parallels/foils to Solas, an example of how to deal with regret healthily, and two, that Rook is a terrible foil to Solas because there's nothing that they've actually done that's worthy of regretting, and anything that they theoretically should regret (like helping disrupt the ritual that freed the Evanuris, whether you think that's a deserving accusation or not) they simply don't. I'm here to tell you that both these perspectives are true, and it's because Veilguard isn't actually about regret.

Let's start off by talking about the companions shall we. Let's list off the regrets in their storylines. Bellara regrets not being more careful and not somehow saving her brother. Taash regrets not making up with their mother before her death. Davrin doesn't actually have one of his own, instead the regret in his storyline is Isseya's regret about what happened with the Griffins. Emmrich's storyline is more about wavering on the brink of a choice, which may cause regret, though I suppose we could include regret about where his friend has ended up in life. Lucanis regrets what happened to his relationship with Illario. Neve regrets Aelia remaining free, and the death of Rana's partner. Harding regrets not seeing through Solas earlier, and also I suppose the fate of the Titans, though I'm not sure I would categorise what she feels about that as regret.

Are you seeing a pattern here? Let's elaborate on it further. While in the Regret Prison, Rook is confronted by three regrets: the loss of the secondary team leader, the loss of the companion who disabled the wards, and the loss of Varric. And the solution to all of these regrets is this: it wasn't your fault. Those companions, they knew the risks, and they volunteered to go into danger. It was their own choice.

Now Solas. Solas has a great many regrets. He regrets tranquilising the Titans. He regrets taking a body. He regrets killing Felassan. He regrets killing the fragment of Mythal that was in Flemeth. He regrets creating the Veil. He may even regret starting his slave rebellion, given everything that followed after, though that memory is unclear what the actual regret is. These are all active choices he made. The only comparable regrets amongst the companion's storylines and Rook are Isseya's, and sort-of Emmrich's. I'll come back to Emmrich later. Isseya's regrets are actually a pretty good comparison point, except, as is obvious, that's not actually Davrin's storyline. Davrin's regrets on the Griffon front are more institutional, and feed into his storyline about having been made into a weapon, and what to do with yourself after your purpose as a weapon has been served. Actually a pretty good parallel with Solas! Except, once again, it wasn't really his choice, was it? And it's certainly not a choice about a horrifying atrocity he comitted.

Which brings us to Solas’s final regret. He regrets Mythal’s death (the first one). Except, that isn't his fault, is it? She chose to go and confront the Evanuris, rather than join the rebellion or run away with Solas. All he did was give her the information that they were interfering with the Blight, information that she would almost certainly have learned for herself eventually, and assuming she would have made the same choice to confront them would still have resulted in her death. The solution is: it wasn't his fault.

This is the regret that is being paralleled, by an overwhelming majority. And they're right, it isn't his fault and he should forgive himself for it. The thing is: this isn't regret. It's a twisted form of grief. Once you realise this, the whole theme starts unravelling, because not all regrets are created equal. I think this is why some people accuse the narrative of excusing Solas, or trying to sweep aside the things he's done: because it is. The whole message of Veilguard is that you should forgive yourself for the things you had no control over, except that Solas did have control over all those other regrets I listed out earlier, and I say that with a great deal of affection. He did that. He can't forgive himself because it wasn't his fault, because it was. Not all regrets are created equal. And the focus on the narrative of 'it wasn't your fault' means that people look for the person whose fault it was, and that blame lands on Mythal. Who does share some responsibility for some of those acts, but again the narrative is about deliberately pushing away culpability. I suppose one could make an argument for blaming Elgar’nan for everything? I think we should blame Elgar’nan for everything.

Indeed, the narrative focuses so hard on the idea of Solas doing everything because of Mythal, because of that twisted grief, that it completely loses sight of the actual reasons he had for doing the things he was doing. The spirits are trapped in the Fade, many of them yearning to access a world they naturally should have access to. The elves have been enslaved for millenia, and have lost almost everything about themselves, including their origins. Mages are either feared and reviled, or use their overwheling power advantage to lord over those who don't have the same access to magic. And let's not forget, two more Blights and the Veil comes down anyway, releasing the Turbo Blight (which he created) onto unsuspecting Thedas. Not to mention there were suggestions in Trespasser that there was something going on with the remaining ancient elves in Uthenara, who apparently vanished from existance along with his agents.

I mentioned earlier that I would come back to Emmrich. That's because his storyline, in my opinion, is the only one that actually depicts the theme they should have been going for with DA4, namely, when presented with a difficult moral choice, what will you do? What are you willing to sacrifice, and for what? In theory, as has been pointed out before, Bellara's archive choice might once have also been this: it is implied by the phrasing of 'free the spirit' that the Nadas Dirthalen was supposed to be a trapped sapient spirit, forced into servitude, rather that a fantasy VI, and the choice at the end would have been do you free the innocent at the cost of the knowledge you could extract? These naturally feed into: do you bring down the Veil, causing a great deal of sorrow and harm but also potentially creating a better, more equal future, or do you refuse to make such a great sacrifice of lives? At the very least, I think this theme would have stayed more true to the setup of Trespasser, as well as the design of the companion binary choice system, and who knows? Perhaps there might even have been a third option.

[daddy-long-legssss]

he said 😐

[samglyph]

Ghost Hunter Au Part 1/2

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This is my entry for the Malevolent “write in your style event”, @malevolent-monthly!

I wasn’t initially planning on participating since this is a writing event and not an illustration one, but the prompt immediately inspired me so I got the go ahead to make a little comic! Part two out soon.

ID in Alt text provided by @shadow0haven

If you like what I do and want to see more, consider donating to my ko-fi!

[prettyboyivy]

like a victorian man part 2 (ear edition)

[ragnarockz]

💙🍩

[deathernoia]

this is the crazy pic i found that i was talking about last night

very interesting pose of the creature on the right 🤔

the one on the left seems more humble

and this is part of the caption that came with it...

like, they were literally roomates, but in a Friendship way ☝️☝️☝️ it seems

but uh

it's also very funny considering the site looks like this 😭 like look at the tags on the side

I know why this guy put this pic in his blog.... not very slick

[robo-dino-puppies]

(quickfire questions with david tennant and catherine tate)

[kirby-the-gorb]

[rabid-transcendentalist]

[joongdunking]

Dunk being bold part 2

BOLD DUNK x SHY JOONG 😆😆💛💛

[lunarifie]

As much as I love Kai’s little sailor suit, we were robbed of him slaying

[made-my-peace-with-all-the-bad]

Them btw ☹️

[idontmindifuforgetme]

I miss when the fyp page was actually usable and helpful

[sporeclan]

how did i go from being around from the start of the blog reading to just only now realizing crowstar is in fact not a boy. i have no idea how this happened i think my brain just never comprehended it

LMAO happens to the best of us :'D Not a single one of the founders were boys, though, which isn't something I intended but a fun thing that happened regardless

Minklake doesn't know anything about Goldpurr, but aren't that concerned about it. They really didn't like her anyways, so they haven't lent her a thought for like 20 moons now lol

And oh yeah, they would be FURIOUS if they knew just how close Dawnpelt got to being next in line. They bonded with Mousegrove over the lengths they both would go to get Cinnamonpaw back, there's no way they wouldn't go to similar lengths to protect/avenge their sister

chat, is she cooked?