“We’ll Be Okay.”

I feel as though this is very important

I think the problem is that on both sides of fandom, the concept of a “redemption arc” has gotten twisted to a point where it’s basically meaningless.

See, a lot of the time when the woobifiers say they want a “redemption arc” for their fave, they don’t mean that they want that character to have to face the awfulness of what they’ve done or put any actual effort into changing or face any real consequences. They basically mean that they want the good guys to realize to realize their fave wasn’t so bad all along and have them hug it all out or something, with maybe a token nod to the villain feeling regret, but nothing that really holds them accountable.

So of course if you’re thinking of “redemption” that way, you’re going to have people on the other side saying “This character doesn’t deserve redemption! They’ve done awful things!” Because yeah, they don’t deserve unconditional forgiveness and support from the heroes. They don’t deserve to have the slate magically wiped clean as if all the bad things they did never happened. But that was never supposed to be what a redemption arc was about. Real redemption is long and messy and hard, and it takes a really good writer to pull a proper redemption off. But when it is done right, it’s not about letting the villain off the hook - it’s exactly the opposite.

undone without you 

"sex scenes have no narrative purpose" is such a funny take on so many levels. people will really believe that the whole human experience is valuable to portray artistically except sex, which of course has never held emotional weight or significance for anybody

Veilguard in many ways is reductive while being the most directly moralizing of the Dragon Age games, which makes it impossible to play a character with politics, ideas, or morals different from those the game espouses.

The game continuously tries to convince the player that these options do exist, hints at the fact that you will need to make sacrifices in order to win the war against the Evanuris, and ultimately, to stop Solas. But it fails to actually deliver on any of those promises by providing only three major choices, and a handful of minor choices. Not to mention that most of the dialogue options won't allow you to be authoritarian with a sole focus on defeating the Evanuris.

In my mind our three major decisions are:

The City you choose to send other people to defend, resulting in it being Blighted and captured by the villains already vying for power.

The person you choose to lead the other group when attempting to kill Ghilan'nain.

Whether to provide Solas closure & redemption, trick him, or fight him.

My issue with the first decision is that it does not go far enough. In a game that is ostensibly about hard choices, the fact both cities come out of it still standing, even if one survives in very bad shape and under totalitarian rule, doesn't make sense to me. The city you help should barely survive thanks to your presence, and the one you leave others to defend should be blighted and uninhabitable.

Additionally, you should be able to give a reason to your companions, in game, as to why you chose one city and not the other. For example, my Grey Warden Rook chose to help Treviso because they knew Minrathous' history with Blights and thought they might be able to handle it without them. But there are other Rooks who will save Minrathous because they hate The Crows. There are Rooks who will flip a coin and follow its lead. There are Rooks who think Minrathous does not deserve to be saved.

But this game does not, textually, allow Rook that kind of anger. It does allow Rook to say anything at all about the choice, other than that they had to make it, and that they are sorry. The game tells us we must feel bad for not being able to save everyone. But why?

Part of my issue with the second choice lies with Lucanis, and the fact the game does not allow you to dismiss any of your companions. He fails to strike when it counts most, and Rook and the whole team seem understanding if frustrated by it, but are willing to give him a second chance. But why? Because it is the morally right thing to do? Because he needs a shot at redemption?

Those are not good enough reasons for my Rook. But the game does not allow Rook to dismiss him after a catastrophic failure. It insists he remain, despite it being more than reasonable to kick out the guy who had one shot and missed.

Which relates to my real gripe with this choice: you should be able to choose any of your companions to lead the group, resulting in any of their deaths. And they should be the one to strike the final blow, not Lucanis, unless he is the person that is chosen. This, to me, is far more narratively satisfying, and puts the choice back into Rook and the player's hand.

The final decision is the one I feel is the most well done, but I still have issues with it.

The Inquisitor, romanced or not, and Morrigan, should be there in all endings. Morrigan should always help you defeat Solas, and the Inquisitor, based upon decisions they made in the prior game and not solely relying on whether or not they romanced him, should either fight with or against you. If they meet that criteria in the ending where you trick Solas, they should be the final boss. Additionally, the Inquisitor should get to choose whether or not to go with Solas if they have high enough friendship or romance in the redeemed ending.

My frustrations with Veilguard overall are the way it tells you it is doing something, without ever showing you, the severe limitations it imposes on actually roleplaying, and the way it glosses over previously established cultural issues and flaws within its narrative. It reduces the Venatori and Antaam to shells of their former nuanced selves. References to slavery within Tevinter culture are almost entirely removed. The Crows have morphed into an illusion to an Italian Mafia rather than a brutal group of spies who take part in child slavery and kill those who do not live up to their expectations. I cannot be a dalish elf, or a city elf, in a way that at all reflects the culturally distinct upbringings those two groups have. I cannot make Rook into anything more than they already are. I cannot make a Rook that falls outside of what the game deems as acceptable.

This game sanitizes the aspects of Dragon Age that were most interesting to me personally, trying to tie up all lore questions in a nice little bow, in aim to appeal to the widest audience possible. But it fails to do that, because in doing so, it lost the identity that makes it appealing.

I have said this before, and I will say it again: All art is inherently political because art is both a reflection of and the means by which culture is facilitated. And the illusion of choice in this game, the illusion that you can make hard decisions or play a character that's antagonistic or authoritarian, feels very inline with what capitalism presents to those who live under it. The choices we are presented with are a facade. The representation we are given is surface level and largely unsatisfying. We must act, even in our fantasies, in a way that corporations deem acceptable. We must maintain the status quo.

My Wicked fan arts Finally done with the first act! ^^

i love this little game <33

while drawing this i ended up subconsciously taking way more inspiration from this work than i expected, so you should go look at it bc it rocks

I’m back on my bullshit

some of the most extra things Miles Naismith Vorkosigan has ever done

- explain Vorloupulous’ law in detail and then break it like ONE SECOND LATER, because what’s the point of a vacation if it doesn’t involve some casual treason among friends - think unironically that maybe he can get over his thing for tall women by sleeping with an 8 foot tall supersoldier (spoiler: doesn’t work) - “Would you believe, I’m here by accident? Oser wouldn’t.” I WONDER WHY MILES! Maybe it’s because you just happened to turn up in the middle of an interplanetary arms race to steal his mercenary fleet for the SECOND TIME? - “Who are you?” “I don’t even want to talk about it.” - lost AN ENTIRE EMPEROR once - is a trained Imp Sec operative, but primary method of staying undercover is hoping no one looks him up on Wikipedia - memorized all of Richard III - only comes up with the cover story that he’s Miles Vorkosigan’s clone right before his actual clone tries to murder him - the dramatic farewell kiss with Bel in front of a room full of people - possibly the worst dinner party ever thrown in the history of the WORLD, so bad calling it a trainwreck is an insult to trainwrecks - after she proposes, immediately started doodling Ekaterin’s name in his notes like a lovestruck teenager while the Council of Counts was still in session - casual friendship with an enemy Cetagandan general who he can call in a pinch  - when someone asked if he was Tien’s murderer and he got so fed up that he was like bitch I might be

I want to write this someday

if luke and leia were born during the clone wars

like, during season 4, not after when everything went terribly wrong

- Padme, 6-9 months pregnant, rushes into combat all the time. Anakin has an aneurysm. “YOU ARE A SENATOR. HOW DO YOU GET SHOT AT ALL THE TIME???” and yet she never actually takes damage because she is ~flawless~

- officially, Padme’s children have no father. In an interview with the press, she said “I wanted a baby, so I acquired one” and that’s that. unofficially, anyone with the Force knows Anakin is the father. Honestly, anyone with eyes knows Anakin is the father.

- because you know how Anakin and Padme are the least subtle secret couple? Yeah, that goes out the window when she gets pregnant. Anakin kisses her mid-battle and smooches her back at camp and watches her with stars in his eyes and professes his love for her all the time. When Padme asks about this, he just shrugs and says “well they haven’t kicked me out of the order yet!”

- which is mostly because of Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan is deliberately pretending he didn’t see his former padawan makeout with a senator. it’s like, okay, he knows he’s supposed to do something about this, but they are in the middle of a war, and if they have to kick Anakin out of the Order right now for knocking up a senator then they will lose this war. Obi-Wan has more important things to worry about than Anakin’s libido. 

- KIX  👐 TELLS  👐 PADME  👐 THERE  👐 ARE  👐 TWIN  👐 BABIES  👐 IN  👐 THERE  👐

- speaking of the clones, oh man, they are so fiercely protective of Padme. She is their general’s lady and their senator and they would gladly die before letting her or her babies get hurt.

- (but also, preggars Padme makes them sad, because will any of them ever get that for themselves? probably not–they were made to die, and with the rapid aging…but maybe one day…)

- Rex has absolutely had to go get weird food combinations in the middle of the night for his general’s wife. absolutely. that is in Rex’s job description.

- also you thought Padme gave effective speeches before? Imagine pregnant Padme giving speeches about needing to end the war for peace for the future. 110% approval rating comes from soft pregnancy glow.

- the twins are born on a battlefield in a camp where there’s blasterfire and smoke not two feet away. Obi-Wan is there, and he intends to tell Anakin and Padme both that he’s sorry, that they’ll get the twins for a little while, but they’ll have to go to the temple, they’ll have to be raised in the creche–

- but then luke is born, and the Force screams at Obi-Wan this is your padawan and obi-wan goes “oh” softly.

- also, Leia comes into the world and Ahsoka watches and goes “oh look it’s my padawan. I mean I’m a padawan myself but that girl is going to be my padawan some day this is rad.”

- so Anakin relaxes a bit, ‘cause the Force is going to take care of its grandchildren okay, it wants it’s favorite son to be happy.

- which means Palpatine has lost any and all chance of converting Anakin to the dark side. It will never happen now.

- i’m not saying that after they are born, Anakin and Padme strap a twin each to their back and then head out into battle, but Luke and Leia’s first lullaby is the sound of blasterfire and lightsabers

The Midnight Splatter Series - Created by Melissa Smith

T-shirts, mugs, and cases available for sale at her TeePublic Shop. All of her designs are 25% off this week, just use the code GIVEME25 at checkout!

Taliesin’s character is very gender, as always, but can we also appreciate that he really said, “Try to kill my character this campaign, Matt, I dare you.”