I’m a big fan of Dragon Age and the world its built. Of course I was excited when Veilguard news began! And then there’s the internet.
Typically internet things don’t influence me so much. But the consensuses I kept seeing about Veilguard, did. Perhaps its the kind of fear that comes with being a fan of a series going on its fourth (four and a half technically, with Awakening) game.
Even after talking to my cousin about it, who had also played all the previous games and said she loved Veilguard, I couldn’t shake the unease the internet had placed in me.
I enjoyed playing it. I like Veilguard.
But the criticisms had me bracing for impact at every turn. Instead of going for the romance I initially was looking to do, I chose the one the internet told me was the most satisfying. I found myself echoing other’s criticism and feeling bad that I’d…liked it. More or less.
So lost in all this, I couldn’t talk about it freely; I was always putting down the equivalent of wet floor signs. ‘Yeah I really liked this – BUT YOU MIGHT NOT a lot of people didn’t find this worked well…’
I don’t think I was able to truly enjoy it until my pal @the-muffin-master, without any previous biases or fears about the series as a whole, had fun.
They had fun. They enjoyed the world and its characters and happily wanted more.
I was able to shed the general consensuses about things, take a breath…and look in again. And I got to have the fun that I wanted.
But I don’t think it should have taken a friend to crack this for me. Even a neighbor who was on her second or third playthrough, ironically, only had negative things to say.
Then why are you still playing it?
I understand, okay. I’m not allergic to media analysis and criticism. I don’t need people to say Veilguard was perfect . Obviously it wasn’t.
...Nor was any of the previous Dragon Ages.
Dragon Age 2 was infamous for its asset reuse, so much that in game they had characters comment on it.
I can’t even begin to remember the complaints about Inquisition, but I remember reading them.
And don’t get me started on the areas in Origins that do not give you any warning and then locked you in! Sometimes by yourself (RIP mage wardens). Hope you had the psychic foresight to get all the potions you needed!
I acknowledge there are issues with the game. Locking us into only being nice (thus, the 3 tone indicators more or less being moot), unable to have any real negative relationships because you cannot lose companions permanently due to the unique powers each gives you for traversing terrain.
Depending on your playstyle, there are large sections where it feels like you’re doing nothing, while others drop 10+ side missions in one big heap.
But despite that...I still felt the spirit of Dragon Age in it. There were so many interesting things tied up, revealed, shown.
I feel like its easy to talk about what you’d want and not look at what you have. Its fair to feel disappointed in the promise of what Veilguard was supposed to be and having your expectations let down.
But damnit! There’s so much fun stuff in it!
It boggles my mind when I see people say that they consider, ‘Inquisition the end of Dragon Age’, or echo similarly worded sentiments that equal out to, ‘There is nothing in Veilguard and the series as a whole would be better without it’.
Okay but hear me out. So in my game literally almost all my sims houses have plants all over their house. Especially Kade because he loves gardening and all that. So I LOVE this plant thing that came with seasons, it’s cute, simple & it can fit most builds. I wish EA could make this into a full blown planter for your sims Garden. Like it could come with the soil & all you need to do is plant your seed & watch your plants grow. This would be amazing in a small house or apartment that your Sim doesn’t have to sacrifice having a garden! Plus let’s be honest, there isn’t that many planters in the game (and some of the swatches are meh) but this would be a cool planter! Plus it could fit into your greenhouse! Like just imagine seeing herbs & some flowers growing in this! Sims Team cmon! EA GAME CHANGERS SAY SOMETHING!🥺😩
A e di se me cfare do ta krahasoja presionin shoqeror, qe i detyron njerezit te sillen ne nje menyre te caktuar dhe nese nuk e bejne behen “uncool”? Do ta krahasoja me nje arkivol. Po, po, me nje arkivol. Vecse ky arkivol eshte nje qe nis te behet gati, posacerisht per ty qe ne momentin e lindjes tende, sepse kjo eshte koha kur njerezit fillojne te presin gjera prej teje.
Ne fillim jane gjera te vogla, te flasesh, te ecesh, qe ne fakt te duhen ne jete. Keto jane ne rregull. Duke u rritur gjerat ndryshojne. Duke u rritur ti ke ardhur te kufijte e arkivolit. Njerezt kane krijuar nje opinion per ty, cfare je dhe nuk je dhe eshte ky opinion qe i ka dhene forme.
Nese ti rritesh edhe me shume, e di c'ndodh? Fillon te mos ndihesh me rehat, me veten dhe me menyren se si te tjeret te shohin. Te duket sikur nje mije tulla te kane rene mbi shpine qe ti te kerrusesh e te shkosh prap aty ku ishe, sepse ndryshe ti nuk je nje prej tyre. Ndihesh i vecuar, i vetem dhe te duket vetja budallaqe qe po mendon keshtu.
E di c'ndodh nese ti rritesh aq shume sa t'i kalosh caqet e ketij arkivoli? Ti vdes. Nuk vdes me te vertete, nuk te ndalon zemra, por TI vdes. Shpirti yt.
(Ajo pjese qe guxoi te dale jashte, te ngjyroste jashte vijave, te mendonte jashte asaj kutie te celikte— ajo ngordh, fishket, vdes dhe angullimat e saj mbyten nga zerat mizore qe flasin e flasin e flasin pa thene gje por qe sigurojne epersine e tyre ne kete hierarki “demokratike” qe quajme shoqeri.)
Cdo gje e jotja ndrydhet sepse kjo shoqeri e poshter e ka hale ne sy kur dikush i del kundra rregullave te saj te pashkruar, por te ditur, qe thjesht jane aty dhe na kalbin.
Ne ate cast ai arkivol kthehet ne varrin tend. Ne varrin e shpirtit tend qe do te kalbet 7 pash nen dhe e do te harrohet ne token e ftohte, nen shollat e kepuceve te tyre te shtrenjta. Do te endet si nje fantazme pa trup dhe trupi yt do te ece e do te ece por do te jete
bosh
i pajete dhe aq
i vrare
sa edhe flladi me i lehte do ta rrezonte nga themelet, nje nga nje, derisa te shembet.
Cameo I bought for @the-muffin-master ; I insisted that they post it, as it was a gift for them, but alas, they insisted right back that I post it, hehe!
Cameo's character limit is quite grueling, so this was the prompt I eventually landed on:
"Lucanis is home, tired. when he opens the bedroom to find Saar (Rook | he/him | Qunari) there, his knees buckle; all his tension leaves & he falls. after, he explains the relief & love he feels to know Saar will be there when he comes home."
(Video w/ Zach's face & transcript below cut; I...get embarrassed at SEEING the actors saying the things. Which is why I made an audio version lakfjslkadfjals)
"....Saar, mi amor. Nothing, nothing, mi amor. It was a long job. And the whole time I had the image of you in my mind, of returning to you. And it gave me strength. Please, mi amor, let me place my head on your chest. I just want to listen to your heartbeat.
There it is. Saar...The beat of your heart is like a symphony to my ears. It calms me down. It is the sound of being home. Not just a familiar place, but a home I had always known had existed but never visited. How do you do that? How do you bring me to such a peaceful state just by being?
You are a bed for weary bones. You are a good night's sleep. You are a perfect cup of coffee in the morning. On a quiet, winter morning. And your chest is my pillow. What? I like to sleep here. To listen to your heart. To feel the pace of your breathing. You are a wonderful mystery. You are a gorgeous miracle. You are a thing I did not know could exist.
The only thing I would look forward to was completing the contract, letting Caterina know that the target had been taken care of, collecting my money and moving on with my day. There was a sense of completion, but no joy waited for me.
And all day, as I trudged through the streets of Treviso after waiting in ambush for a half day. My legs tired. Hungry. My vision blurry. Still, I saw the shape of you, Saar. I saw your silhouette. And it pulled me through. It put fire in my bones. And it led me back to you. And now I am here. And you are actually here.
This feeling is beyond words. That is what you do to me, Saar. You make all the words and metaphors seem so futile. Because the love you fill me with, the joy, the peace, the calm, the harmony, is beyond description. Now, Let me put my head on your chest again, Saar. Let me listen to the symphony of your heart and the sweet story of your breath. Ay, mi amor. This, this is my home. Te quiero, Saar, thank you for existing."
This post is not an 'end all be all' of knowledge on this topic, nor is it exhaustive.
In Thedas, the ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤworld is made up of three layers: The 'real', the Veil and the Fade.
For ease of understanding I'll be calling the regular world where characters live, the real world.
The Veil is a wall between the real world and where magic comes from: the Fade.
The Fade reflects the real world. This means that to some extent, much of history is recorded within the Fade. Emotions from the real world manifest into spirits and demons. And of course, this is where magic comes from; when a mage uses magic it is not an internal force they're pulling from but an external - opening a hole in the Veil to pull magic out from the Fade.
In universe, the layman who is not a mage and does not interact with magic / mages much have simple views on spirits and demons.
These views are thus: Demons are evil and are drawn to mages (Which is why so many believe that containment of mages is just, because they are a natural danger).
Spirits? Rarely spoken of. At times, not even believed in.
Why is this?
It has to do with how few actually appear in the real world.
Spirits are considered 'good' and embody 'good' emotions / concepts: Compassion, justice, wisdom, etc. Demons embody 'bad' emotions / concepts: Lust, gluttony, rage, etc.
The world is filled to the brim with hunger, rage and lust and thus, demons are consistent and constantly banging at the Veil to wreck havoc in the real world. They are voracious and their hunger never satiated. They feed on their given emotion within people, driving people towards disaster.
Things like compassion are far harder to find and spirits encompassing the 'good' emotions don't tend to want to go into the real world. They typically only appear when they are pulled by an immense calling that relates to their given emotion.
However, a spirit / demon may be changed and transformed by influences in the real world.
The change from one emotion / concept into another is, as the rest of this, not as black and white as turning something 'good' into something 'bad' or vise versa.
An example is a spirit of Justice turning to Vengeance.
Or let us ponder the DA:V character, Spite. In a sliding scale between 'good' and 'bad' emotions, I would not necessarily seat spite directly into bad, yet he is decidedly considered a demon by NPCs.
This all to say that the arbitrary black and white in universe treatment of spirits and demons is over-simplified.
But! This is just a general primer and starter to a series of posts I'm writing, laying out in universe definitions. ✌️
I swear to God your Parsley voice reminds me of Morty from Rick and Morty.
sjfdlsdjfsljdfl
i tried to record an audio bout it but like ?? i didnt like it and really i couldn’t pull off what i thought was a MORE morty voice just sounded like my parblle
which is the problem really, like morty i tried to do a trevor at some point but couldn’t quite get it different enough from my parsnip, oh well
