okay i admit: one weakness in Veilguard is the inability to. yknow. just kinda be dismissive to other characters. less of an RPG than…. “hey here’s three things Rook might say”
for instance, why can’t fenris be a dick to neve because he doesn’t trust tevinter mages? you can credibly RP fenris in inquisition. easy-peasy. COTJ. sera instantly hooks him: mischief to piss off rich human cunts? fenris is in. he might betray dorian to his father, realize his mistake, make amends, and end up accidentally befriending dorian. but also, utterly fall for josephine, who is goodness and intelligent compassion personified (whom we know would purr like a kitten for a deep masc voice crooning sweet amores.) children’s play. you can credibly do it, with imagination.
can’t do that in Veilguard. i don’t care if it’s been ten years (closer to fifteen for most of the events of da2), there is no fenris in any universe who would not be a snarly defensive dick to neve gallus. at first. until charm took hold and he grudgingly, again. liked her.
but you can’t do that. rook grins at neve when they’re still half-strangers. ugh. bye beautiful warrior; this isn’t a Fenris rp after all. (i’ve played two excellent warriors: i think it’s time to restart as a qunari rogue laidir.)
anyway, related, a second weakness: compared to prior games, as a protagonist rook is by necessity cool with everyone around him using magic all the time. and also, even as a warrior or rogue, using magic himself. he has to use the dagger. doesn’t bitch about it, though. there’s no option to bitch about having to handle a lyrium dagger?? what the fuck -
if you’re trying to get inside a character’s head who really existed in the game series, and who didn’t hold particularly outlandish opinions for a man of his history….. but you’re locked out from a major part of his perspective because he’s now cool with the magic he despised, for having been QUITE SPECIFICALLY enslaved and tortured by a tevinter magister?
well. that’s not very dragonage, is all i will respectfully say. i don’t want to be a dick to Neve Gallus because i like being a dick - i want to be a dick to Neve Gallus because fenris would do it
