hello there, listeners. welcome to the broadcast.
you've tuned into something a little soft and a little bit strange.
welcome to night vale community radio's (unofficial) outreach and community engagement blog. we're happy to have you here with us tonight.
this blog was created to support town-wide wellness, improve night vale metrics, and lower incident reports from the dog park.
(we're not allowed to mention the dog park. but we think it appreciates the effort.)
my name is jamie. i’ll probably show up on your dash when you least expect it but most need it.
you are welcome to stay here as long or as little as you'd like.
please don't be afraid to take a look at the following for easier navigation of our small radio show. you may find answers to the questions you may have had (or maybe not had known about yet) below.
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☽ tuning assistance
we recommend navigating the following frequencies
for the clearest signal
signal info — what this is
station log — broadcast schedule
intern file — about me
tag index — decoded tags
safe tuning — content and comfort notes
station archive — recorded signal blocks
about the static — disclaimers and tech info
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☽ frequently asked questions (read more)
q: what is this blog about? what's its purpose?
midnight broadcast is an ongoing radio station from our friendly town of night vale. we air nightly, answering your questions and offering soft whispers into the static. whether the night is too quiet or the world is too loud, we make space for the broadcast. it moves at its own speed and we encourage you to listen slowly.
q: who are you? are there others at the station?
i'm jamie, i run the broadcast. i'm also an intern at night vale community radio during the day. you can also find me @jamie-is-offline. there's others here with names and faces, but none of them work the broadcast like i do.
q: is this a roleplay/game?
the broadcast is a creative space for us to write a story. told in pieces of a town shared by others. residents and strangers are invited to join us in telling stories about it. but remember that the station has walls, and the intern is a person with a life outside the signal. sometimes not wearing their mask.
q: when does the broadcast start? are the segments live?
midnight broadcast begins posting around 10:05 pm pst and ends around 6:05 am pst, for those who still understand how time works. for a full schedule, please see here. the segments are scripted a couple hours in advance and placed into a queue on a daily basis to allow questions to be answered.
q: what questions can i send? am i allowed to interact with the broadcast?
we welcome all questions and will try to answer them if they're received through the static. please be kind to the intern. we will not respond to inappropriate (nsfw) content or bigotry. cursing is not censored on the airwaves. interaction is welcome, and can be done in bulk or through asks, reblogs, wishes, and even divination.
q: why haven't you answered my ask yet?
most asks are answered on-air, primarily whispered into the quiet moments during the time slots of 11:05 pm pst and 5:05 am pst. due to the limited signal, you may not immediately receive an answer through the static. rest assured, we saw you. your message has been received.
q: do i have to catch up with the broadcast? is there a plot?
midnight broadcast is a night-to-night radio station. we do not engage in plotting of any kind, whether it be the demise of those who deserve it or otherwise. you can take the time to browse our archives in any order you'd like.
q: do you do any content warnings? what sort of tagging do you do?
we are happy to tag anything that might need to be tagged. but due to the frequency of our broadcast, we primarily offer content warnings in the form of our safe tuning page. send us a message if you need content to be tagged and we will do our best to adjust it for your safety.
q: why do you sometimes post outside of your schedule?
our #day-shift often brings information you otherwise would not hear during our broadcast. from our signal recaps, which are required by station management, to updates on the station's health, we occasionally send something through the airwaves during our day. we also provide an optional poll once a week.
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enjoy the broadcast? support our station.
the jar is near the console.
(no exclusive content. just gratitude and signal.)
This was supposed to be a silly personal night post... umh, witch hat atelier chapter 90-93 spoilers. Summarized version if you're curious but don't want spoilers: I'm writing a diary!!!
I started to keep a diary after years and boy it's so fun. I can just add whatever and write stuff like "okay so I'm always stressed because I have to keep a parasite tree from growing inside me, I'm not mentally ill"
Then I decided to sketch qifrey and thought "man, this guy's hair is so messy"
no officer you don’t understand. Yes, I killed him and I put his body into a plastic bags after sawing it into convenient pieces, but I’m kinning Dexter Morgan so it’s not- Kinning? Well, you see. When there’s a fictional character that you don’t just relate to but- *gunshot*
Specifically, Trespasser and how it just absolutely rips the soul from your body.
Massive spoilers ahead.
It is a slow, foreboding march.
Even when I played it the first time, their were two inevitable conclusions that loomed over the story.
Solas did this. (Something that's actually pretty nicely foreshadowed. Don't get me wrong, I would absolutely crack the egghead open if given the chance, but he is a brilliant character.)
The second is that the Inquisition isn't politically convenient anymore. And that only ends one way. (That's made obvious by the fact that the Inquisitor either has the relinquish all power or let the the powers that be have final say.)
And every interaction along the main story, just fills you with more dread. It becomes more and more apparent that there isn't a good ending here.
This is what happens after you got the 'good ending', where everything was wrapped in a neat bow. The thoughts about probable implications for the holy war you started just are swept away.
The best part about Trespasser is that it claws you back into an epilogue where you have to face those implications.
Given the Dragon Age world and universe, it actually seems a lot more like the ending we should've gotten in the first place.
In fact that's the worst thing about Trespasser, is that the true ending/epilogue to the game was put behind a fucking paywall. (and new game plus because god EA is a dogshit company)
There's also just an air of finality. This is the last time the Inquisitor is going to be around their inner circle, so you're all the more compelled to see everyone's dialogue and really take in the downtime. Because you know that by continuing your heading towards the destruction of everything you've built up for the last 40-60 hours.
Your companions have other things they need to pursue, they promise they'll provide whatever aide they can to help the Inquisitor find Solas, but the quiet part.
The unspoken trade off, is that means the amount of allies the Inquisitor actually has side by side with them, dwindles each time they're promised the nebulous all aide that can be offered.
Then Solas takes the last thing he can. I fully believe he intended for the Inquisitor to die after ripping the anchor from them. He only paused the reaction killing them, so he could have one last opportunity to justify his actions, in hopes that person he was about to murder in cold blood didn't think him a monster.
And there's the opportunity to give him exactly that.
If promised that he can be changed and it doesn't have to be like this. Then everything he's done, the skulls he's crushed, and the bodies he has left to bury, were all for a higher, greater cause, and even one of the people, or the person he betrayed most, in some small way can see that.
If promised, he will be defeated. That changes nothing, that prospective comes from someone that simply can't see reason and barely a threat worth considering.
Either way, he leaves the Inquisitor to die, to be consumed by the very magic he helped create, one final act of betrayal that it wouldn't even pass his mind to rectify.
The thanks, the celebration, the accolades after that.
After your Inquisitor had lost who they were to be a religious martyr for a god and a country they might not even believe in.
After they potentially save the lead monarchy.
After they purged the world of the apocalypse that literally scarred the sky.
After defeating lost legends and long dead gods.
After stopping yet another war from breaking out.
After having their arm severed from their body because the people around them couldn't handle the thought of them dying forgotten in such a place.
They have to walk into a room of people who have hated them and every god damn thing they have stood for since the start.
There is no hesitation in being handed the entire list of the things you and your inquisition have done to piss these people off.
A complete bombardment, the full intention to spell out every good deed that will not go unpunished.
Finally there is that ultimatum.
Do you keep the Inquisition's forces with direct and full communication with both governments, that barely get along at the best of times. And face complete military retaliation if you step a single foot out of line.
Or.
Do you disband the Inquisition. Let the world take the very last thing it can from you. Give into the final set of demands made, and hope that the bonds with allies made will be strong enough to survive complete, willful annihilation.
The closing scene is the Inquisitor in a room and dagger in a map, pointed to Solas, Tevinter.
Then there's my Inquisitor. Salmon.
A Dalish Elf. An archer. Iron Bull's lover.
All of these things just add to the tragedy of this ending.
He always promises to kill Solas. It's just what needs to happen.
The game, and surrounding dragon age lore, makes it pretty clear that Lavellan doesn't really have a place back with their clan. They've strayed to far. Gotten to involved in human politics for the clan to be anything but a target if they were to return.
Even if the keeper welcomed them back, the act of returning would in itself be irresponsible.
Then there's the lost of an arm.
Apart for the general rehabilitation that would need to take place, an archer specifically, would lose just another piece of their identity.
Sure Salmon would preserve with another weapon, but he would never be able to use a bow again, something he's probably had with him from birth.
And then Iron Bull. Another thing made clear is that Iron Bull doesn't bring the Inquisitor along for a far amount of the mercenary trips. Even in the base game ending, this is true.
(This is the one thing thing I also know to be confirmed in Veilguards)
So he probably spends months, by himself, learning how to fight again, using whatever connections he has, focused on the one goal of finding Solas, just so he has a fleeting chance to kill him.
It's just so sad to think about.
Trespasser is a depressing, miserable, spiteful, loathsome experience if you cared about this game. Which I clearly do.
And I haven't even gotten into the whole 'the elven gods are the only true gods and thus centuries of oppression and hate were over complete falsehoods' and what that means for any of the Inquisitors.
And yet, it has got to be one of the best endings to a game I have experienced.
It was a crash grab. I'm not even going to deny that. It was the entire set up to selling a fourth instalment.
However it felt like dragon age. All of the other games had similar themes for the endings, where yes, you saved the world, but at what cost?
There was always that effort to make you think of the sacrifices you had to make in order to get that far. And I think Trespasser just did a really good job of that, by literally stripping the Inquisitor of everything they cared about.
You can't even marry Cassandra if you help her achieve her dream of being Divine.
Even if you romanced Iron Bull, he'll still betray you if you didn't do the Charger's mission, or let them die in said mission.
Dorian is going to Tevinter and you can't follow.
And then there's the fucking Solas romance.
And that's top tier. I adore the fact that there isn't a happy ending here.
It makes subsequent playthroughs a lot more interesting, in the fact that making certain decisions that seem like the right thing only ends in fucking you over more in Trespasser.
So do you play, in a way that makes the Inquisition's death sentencing a little easier, or do you go through in spite of it.
That your inquisitor is going to end up stripped of all personal identity, so should they do the best with the one they're given. Or lash out and make it everyone's problem, because they won't be remembered as who they are, and depending on your choice in Trespasser, they probably won't be remembered as the Inquisitor.
I don't really know how to end this whole rant.
But do keep in mind if any of this changed or was recontexualised, or was just reconned in Veilguards, I don't have knowledge of that.
I haven't played Veilguards, I don't plan to, so I'm not familiar with any of that game's canon/lore. And to be fair both DA O and DA 2 are more like hazy memories to me at this point as well.
So yeah, I just wanted to rant about Trespasser and how it pretty much making the rest of the game redundant or that it meant nothing, actually worked here.
Woke up in the middle of the night and I'm taking a quick note. I really don't want to forget the dream I just had where there was a drag queen named Fanta Chlorine
No you don’t understand I use up 99% of my body and minds faculties so that I have to get divine intervention/inspiration all the time duh. Where do you think this post came from?
