#datv critical

[notebooks-and-laptops]

Remember in DAI when Krem has no real words to describe what he is in Tevene but The Iron Bull is able to lend him words in Qunlat to explain his transness. And how Krem murmurs 'and the qun doesn't treat them like any less of a man?' and bull says 'they are a man.' and it's one of the only places in DAI where the Qun is not only portrayed in a positive light but is portrayed as a place with a different cultural understanding that is actually interesting and nuanced??? And then in DAtV the Qun goes back to being kinda just evil bad and Taash has to go to Tevine to get words for what they're going through because qunari/Rivain doesn't do that whereas enlightened tevinter the imperial ruling power does? And they wanted to humanise tevinter and dock town so they removed slavery but despite saying they wanted to humanise the Qun they instead made them all growling evil mega mobs? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[the-savage-nymph-art]

A list of consequences your choices in DAO, DA2 and DA:I could/should have had for Veilguard:

- having Kieran with Morrigan leads to Solas being significantly more powerful (Urthemiel's soul absorbed through Flemythal)

- making Gaspard Emperor of Orlais leads to an orlesian/fereldan allied war against Tevinter (because he chummies up with Alistair and/or Anora), weakening the Imperium significantly.

- giving Briala any kind of power supports Solas indirectly. (For elvhen glory™)

- disbanding the Inquisition lowers the Inquisitor's influence and reach, but they can act much faster. And Inquisitor in Chantry service has more power, but much less freedom with it.

- different support for the Inquisitor depending on their choice of ally or conscript/recruit mages or Templars

- Zevran alive and as leader of the Crows (in Antiva City) could mean infighting between houses or a different approach to certain missions, because of 'the purge'.

- Leliana as Divine might try to find an accord with the Imperial Chantry. Maybe.

- Hawke in Weisshaupt?

- Hawke sibling in Weisshaupt?

- Fenris in Minrathous (one way or the other)

- The Hero of Ferelden finds a cure for the Blight if still alive

- depending on who rules Orzammar key dwarf based mission follow different paths, because either you get in or you don't.

- being at least friends with Dorian in inquisition grants a boost in Shadow Dragon trust and influence

- ...

[joudama]

Now that Veilguard is out, this feels like he was trying to warn us.

[lizzybeeee]

When you spend 20 years attempting to bring down the child slavery, murdering, human trafficking exploitation ring that stole your childhood, murdered your friends, and killed countless innocents only to have them rebrand as 'Noble Freedom Fighters™' off-screen.

[crimsonphantasmagoria]

I do think one of the things that made me saddest about Veilguard was the sheer lack of continuity. And I'm not even talking about worldstates.

Where are the Varterral? Why is Arlathan forest guarded by magical robots instead?

Where are the merchant princes of Antiva? You know, the people who really run Antiva? Not the king, not the Crows?

Why does the Lighthouse exist? Wasn't it implied in the last game that Skyhold was Solas’s fortress? The place where the sky is held back?

Why was Emmrich never a member of a Circle? Why have we forgotten that Nevarra had Circles (although presumably those who managed to become Mortalitasi had much greater freedom than mages elsewhere, they would presumably also all be Harrowed mages from the Circles in Nevarra originally)? Why have we forgotten that Cumberland was home to the College of Enchanters?

Where is the Felicisima Armada? That Isabela was part of? Why does the timeline of Taash's storyline and their mother's work with the Lords clash completely with the Kirkwall timeline?

What do you mean, the Titans are done? Then what was going on with the Titan in the Descent? The one that woke up and started moving around and got soothed by reconnecting itself with Valta? It seems like that Titan was very much alive and well, where are the others? Given that lyrium is alive and the Titan's blood, I can only assume that anyplace where you have actively growing lyrium, you have a living Titan? Why can't the dwarves reconnect with them?

A lot of these are little things...but they all add up. This, combined with the fact that quite a lot of the characters don't seem particularly integrated into the world of Thedas either...

[ichorknight]

i dont really talk abt this outside of discord bc ive not liked datv from the very beginning and theres typically nothing critical i could say that others havent said better, but the 1920s paper boy trying to escape a gas explosion level backpedaling and blame shifting trick weekes has done on bluesky lately is a rare highly-concentrated level of insufferable

trick weekes, on a public panel and then again on discord: erm actually ☝️we DID did have slavery depicted in veilguard. if you blathering simpletons wouldve just looked at the 10 seconds of the venatori using the narratively inconsequential elven npcs as furniture, during a quest that rushes you through the experience as fast as possible so you can hear two characters arguing that we actually wrote the quest to show, ermmmm, you would know. and anyway, we didnt even NEED to do that, because erm, OBVIOUSLY☝️every character in the game taking place in slavery city knows that slavery bad, so ermm, methinks theres no need to hammer it in when it takes screentime away from me and my friend's ocs going shopping. and also if youre going to write about dismantling the status quo, erm, methinks you should instead be thinking about the regular people that are free to go outside and complain about the price of buying bread, which is why i wrote it like that, i wanted to write about my - i mean regular peoples experiences, who are struggling too yknow, when they slip and fall on a pile of slave corpses rotting in the sun on their way home

trick weekes, less than a month later: i actually dont have hands. guys. i dont have any hands. i didnt write it like that. it wasnt because i was on board with shipping a fantasy friend group simulator instead of a dragon age game. how could i have when i do not have any hands. i had absolutely no power over the writing, as lead writer. i had to write things bad because my boss was physically standing over me saying WRITE EVERYTHING BAD NOW which he could do because i was just the lead writer i barely even worked there. and then when we got rid of matt goldman 3 entire years ago we could write dragon age again. but then when i gave my script to corrine busche that had dragon age in it she ripped it up in front of me and said UGH! I HATE DRAGON AGE! there was nothing i could do guys. and even if there was as i established i dont have any hands. so. actually it was because of saudi arabia. actually it was because of the VA strike. actually its because you hate friends. you hate friends and you wanted a dragon game with no friends or happiness in it. actually you hate non binary people. actua

[fruitzbat]

idk if anyone’s said this yet but I also think it’s incredible how taash starts their character quest by hitting rook with “✨ you don’t get to tell me who I am ✨ 😤” and then you literally do

[onwardspasserine]

you hate the veilguard because you're transphobic. i hate the veilguard because it does not live up to the socio-critical quality of previous games, but rather simplifies complex dichotomies, seeks to eliminate all kinds of life-like problematics, and superficialises full and intricate ideologies and identities into a form that is easy for the masses to chew on. we're not the same.