#your choices matter less and less

[drop-drop]

remember when mobile games were actual games and not just time killer giving you a satisfaction boost by making you go through a check list and watching numbers go up?

[thedragonagelesbian]

Screaming crying throwing up....

[wackpedion]

this is how teachers who insist i always do the homework look like to me

[veilkeeper]

in addition to lrb, i don't necessarily entirely agree with that post but i also don't... disagree with that post. in terms of my disagreement, i think there's value in having a leader who can inspire a group of talented, intelligent people and keep the team pointed in the right direction through the chaos. after all, that's essentially what varric also would have done had he survived. so i don't really doubt rook's place in the team, or why they lead.

(especially since, contrary to what people were saying in the notes of that post, rook does have something no one else does: a connection to solas. they are the only one who can talk to him and get information on ghilan'nain, elgar'nan, and the blight, and it is those conversations with him that the team can then work off of to make a plan. i think it's disingenuous to say that rook has no Special Circumstances that makes them the leader of the veilguard. no less special than previous world-saving protags, at least.)

however i do think more should have been done by the writers to make rook... more notable? when we first got news about the game, i thought we were going to be playing as an established member of a faction; if not a prodigy, at least someone who had done the work and was making a name for themself. then we actually get into the game and.... well. The faction reps at least vaguely know you, but in several instances you're barely on the radar. mercar is so low on the food chain they don't even know the viper's real name (despite that being information he'll give a completely unaffiliated rook basically as soon as they meet), and laidir is so replaceable that taash hasn't even ever heard of them. aside from your Big Fuck Up that got you sent to work with varric in the first place, there's no real indication that rook has ever done something worth noting, there's no skills or contacts or stories that can give you a leg up.

i feel like there was a missed opportunity—in the game, the factions feel more or less useless. rook gets some flavour dialogue that can be really fun, but they have no substantial impact on the story or in any of the quests. thorne can conscript the mayor of d'meta's crossing in a one-off unique interaction, and then for the rest of the game there's nothing for anyone else. rook is a [insert faction here], and it doesn't do anything. varric might as well have just grabbed a random guy off the street and said "you've got this, kid."

[revvethasmythh]

So I went and watched all the possible endings, and it confirmed something I had been thinking, which is that the redemption ending choice is, perhaps, the most immediately regretful one--but that they all come with some form of regret. In the redemption ending, Rook has to knowingly deny themselves the catharsis of retribution (should they desire it, which, at least for me it felt difficult not to) in order to offer Solas one last, painful chance to do the right thing. That willful denial of your own catharsis feels like an immediate regret. Giving Solas the opportunity to pursue atonement might very well be the best choice all around, but it is also incredibly painful to offer that to someone who has done so many terrible things (not a small amount to you personally). Why does he deserve another chance? Especially when so many dead (including a beloved mentor) lie in his wake? Which, I suppose, is the point: he doesn't. But you offer it anyway and it SUCKS ASS, because how could it not?

I don't know how this plays with other story choices (a sacrificed Davrin or a Harding who embraced her anger, for example), but within the context of my own choices, I can imagine an immediate satisfaction to either tricking or fighting him--especially the trick ending, where you can actively name drop Varric--but it feels like the sort of thing that would feel worse as more time passes. Once you've calmed down and are able to ask yourself if that's what the people you've lost really wanted. Varric, in Regret Superhell, didn't want vengeance. He just wanted his friend to walk a better path. And Harding always believed there was another chance for anyone, so long as you kept reaching a hand out for them--even when it sucked ass. So the redemption ending feels like a sort of indignance, an instant regret for not doing worse, for not getting comeuppance, for being forced to eschew satisfaction (related: I wonder if the Inquisitor feels those things as well coming out of this ending, considering how long they've lived under the shadow of Solas' actions). Conversely, the other two endings feel like an immediate satisfaction, because you got to trick the trickster with all the wits Varric taught you, or because you finally got to punch him in the face and it felt really good. But I feel like those endings would come with a creeping regret, something that sneaks up on you later, especially when remembering the fallen and what they would have wanted you to do. Ultimately, because of that, it feels like no ending is devoid of regret. Which I suppose, is rather thematic.

[vaguely-concerned]

there's a self-help/mental health adjacent post that's going around and it seems to be really helpful for a lot of people which is very good. I also personally hate it with all my fucking heart

[toddtakefive]

despite the fact that spider-neil is heavily based off of the amazing spider-man (2012) peter parker, neil is infinitely more similar to miles morales from the spider-verse movies

[shigarakins]

i remember when the bodysnatching happened and how hardly anyone else in the fandom (or what i saw of the fandom) seemed to find it as horrifying as i did. then the same thing happened again with the mind invasion. and yes the fact that the mind invasion happened at all and not even the story gave much of a fuck about the fact that it did is still one of biggest gripes with the finale

[13eyond13]

Idk what it is about fanfic soul mate trope stuff where you're living in a world waiting your whole life for your soul mate to appear that matches your soul tattoo or whatever that creeps me out but it honestly just makes me go 😱 instead of 😍 every time

[vorakh]

sorry disco elysium you will always be a queen in my heart but you made me want to get better, while pathologic gave me at least one mental illness ):

[unproduciblesmackdown]

come get your levitous sidekick / vicious bastard / funny little guys

[some-pers0n]

My one wish is that when Scarlet Hollow episode 5 drops that it strikes up such a discussion that it explodes in popularity in the same way Slay the Princess did and more people get exposed to this great visual novel with so much heart and charm and fun characters and silly spooks

[anxiously-sidequesting]

hear me out. Ambrose (derogatory) could have been such a good character if he was *actually old* (no that party city beard ain't fooling me).

Like from the beginning it could have been "I'll show him- threatening a new student before orientation, no less- ACK, oof, my back!"

And YW would have been like "Nah don't worry about it old man, I'll fight that Mall staircase or whoever for you. But first let's get you to bed, you haven't taken your meds today."

Like it could've been such a great dynamic between a guy who's knowledgeable and truly wants to help but is way past his prime, and the young apprentice who has no idea what's going on at any given time but is "yeah this dude will 100% keel over from trying to take on the weight of the spiral if I leave him alone for two seconds so I'll knock some heads for him. I like knocking heads anyway >:D"

First off I absolutely love "Ambrose (derogatory)" I'm gonna get that tattooed on my body /j

AND SO LIKE IM KINDA LIKE 🤔 AT THIS SCENARIO (not you anon your idea is absolutely lovely, just thinkin hard about this) BECAUSE LIKE. OKAY HERE'S MY THOUGHT PROCESS

I guess it would be cool to have a YW who instead seems eager and willing to fulfill the role of the Savior instead of dreading it (and it would give a bit of a different face to their relationship mentor/mentee with Ambrose) buuuuuut like in the case that Ambrose is really too old to deal with things himself, instead of whatever reason he doesn't do things in canon, he could always just like find a capable and prepared adult to deal with the nationwide threat of Malistaire INSTEAD of the new kid who's eager to fight

AND THIS ISNT ME DISSING ON YOU ANON I LOVED YOUR IDEA. Like instead of seeing the YW unhappy and resentful and trudging along doing dangerous stuff it's interesting and cool to see where in an alternate universe the YW immediately takes to being a hero and loves the action and does it FOR Ambrose, not just because he told them to. I think that would be very cute if it like, removed the actual issue that Ambrose is still relying on an ill-prepared child to do his work. Whether in canon where the YW is urged to follow Ambrose after Malistaire, or if Ambrose falters and then the YW rushes in to beat his minions up instead, it's still on the Young Wizard to clean up this very adult mess. If this scenario continues on just like canon, the Wizard still ends up being Bartleby's Scion with a tainted Shadow Soul and heaps and heaps of trauma. It just started out a little differently

I HOPE IM NOT SCARING YOU ANON IM NOT SCOLDING YOU IM JUST ANALYZING THIS (please don't be sad I love you anon ty for sending this). Please feel free to send me more of this if you like because it's really interesting tbh. I really.hope I didn't scare you off with this HASKDNDRLSJSJ this was a great ask

[neuromantis]

maybe the issue is not lack of reading comprehension or lack of basic logical skills or irony poisoning or short attention spans or reactionary takes or making everything a meme or eternal pointless infighting about the meaning of pointless things.

maybe i am just genuinely flawed to the point of breaking as a person.

[elisedonut]

I've been playing the ootp game on ps3 (because Colin's in it) and really out of the hp games I've played so far its the one the feels closest to what I would actually want from an hp game

it emulates pretty well too

Like I like that there's a giant list of da members you have to find and talk to just wish we could talk to them more ngl

[sydmarch]

slay the princess extremely good game