Friendly Reminder That:

Rolan Quarn is the greatest turian ever

So I’ve been doing some research for my story.  Which led to me to do a google search of Rolan Quarn, or as most people will probably know him, the turian con ‘artist’ from the Citadel DLC.  

Turns out the guy’s actually been involved in the series since August 2010 where he popped up on Cerberus Daily News, after he stole the identity of Delumcore System’s CEO after he died of a heart attack a week into a holiday.  Rolan then ran the company successfully for two years before getting caught by a routine traffic stop noticing discrepancies in his geneprint.

After his capture, police then released evidence that Rolan had previously passed himself off with dozens of other disguises, including a stunt driver, sous-chef, martial arts instructor, ambassador, varren tamer, news anchor and stand-up comedian.

Three days after, he slipped free of a tracking bracelet and police escort and escaped the planet, but only after leaving a recorded message thanking many of Delumcore’s employees by name and giving advice for the future, ending the note by saying: “Sorry about the bail.  I wish everyone the best.  I’ve never been prouder of the people I’ve worked with, and that’s saying something.”

Then, on New Year’s Eve, he steals the Times Square New Year’s Eve ball (which is four metres in diameter and weighs 5185kg) from the Citadel by himself, before returning it later with a note saying “C-Sec needs funds.  You can smuggle anything onto this station.”

adsfhjaksldfhsajkdfha

Then he shows up in the Citadel DLC with the sexiest voice ever and basically tells you how he’s future Robin Hood.  But turian.  

He may only show up for five minutes in the game, but my god, what a legend.

Ballad of Reclamation

Waken the guardians, rally their wards. Gather their banners, their hammers and swords. Call to the speaker, Travelers voice. Call to the people and bid them rejoice. Run to all corners to find those in hiding. Run to the vanguards bearing our tiding. Our words are rallies, though through no feat. We sing not of victory, nor of retreat. Foes do not cower, nor do they flee. Their force still grows far as our eyes can see. They are not weakened, arms not diminished. But for this strength, we still are not finished. For we are standing, strong as before. Greatest our prowess, since the Dark war. Foes may not cower, foes may not flee. But we are guardians, neither do we.

After the absolute fiasco that the Mass Effect books culminated in, I had no interest in remembering anything from the otherwise wonderful and illuminating literature.

the lack of attention the comics and novels get from not only the fans but bioware themselves makes me really sad cause everyone assumes nyreen was the first female turian ever but that’s not entirely true

nyreen was first in-game, yes, but the first visually depicted turian in the whole franchise was lieutenant abrudas, from the comic mass effect: evolution:

and even before abrudas, ambassador orinia [link] has the distinction of being the first female turian in the franchise anywhere, from the novel mass effect: retribution, in which she’s actually a major character.

like idk man i love nyreen but she’s not the first female turian, and it makes me sad that other awesome characters fall by the wayside just because bioware cares so little about its supplementary material it doesn’t even bother letting people know it exists after it’s published

Jesus fuck, okay. Splitlip and oddly humanoid dark elf, here's the skivvy. Neon, I get you. You, like me, are blown way out of the water by TES lore. It's huge, it's beautiful, like some heartstopping soda you'd pick up at a gas station, you know it's gonna keep you busy for a long time. You want to tackle it head on, "what are gods really, what's with Ahnurr and Fadomai, what the hell is a Lyg?" All good questions, so when you see Bo posting about whether or not a dwemer agrees with it's plumbing you get more steamed than a centurion's faceplate as to why they're not asking "real questions." Here's the takeaway.

You can't police people's theories.

I'm not sure I buy a lick of their lollipop but the Kag-theorist isn't just pulling this out of the Wild blue yonder. It's a theory tied together with duct string and shoe tape but so are half the theories floating around out there. It's not our place to dictate what questions get asked by other people. Different interests, so on and so forth.

This is getting boring now. When y'all have proof instead of blind and factless speculation I’ll hear you out. Not giving up. I just think you’re all disingenuous and not worth my time unless you have proof to back it up. I also believe that many of your main points have been false insults that do not further prove your point. Yes, headcanon can make it more interesting, sure. But from the headcanon that started this Tumblr quagmire, it simply isn’t plot relevant. If you wish to continue this, I’d be more than happy to receive messages and will reply promptly in order to keep things organized.

I’ve considered this at some length before. The Minotaurs were a proud people that were reduced to little more than beasts on the edge of society by a fanatical religion. There’s certainly a regal nature to them that is sadly lost in the games.

As the whole ‘dragon blood’ thing goes, it’s hard to say because Alessia’s bloodline were the original Emperors. They were eliminated only to be replaced by the Septim line. Both were able to wear the amulet, both may have consisted of Dragonborn.

So then is Dragonborn an inherited trait at all?

Okay weird lore observation. Heirs of the dragon blood are capable of wearing the amulet of Kings. Traditionally that refers to the heirs of the imperial throne. It's been inferred by some that all of the heirs of dragon blood are technically dragon born and could absorb dragon souls. One of the first (if not the first) MINOTAURS was an emperor and the son of Alessia no less. Thus it would stand to reason that not only could a minotaur wear the Amulet of Kings, but could also absorb dova souls?

it hasn’t been clarified whether the dragonborn who can wear the amulet of kings are the same as the dragonborn who can absorb dragonsouls. nonetheless the idea of minotaurs being able to wear the amulet of kings is… very interesting ngl 

Can we step back for a second though and look at this twitter thread without any blinders whether that be on any level concerning representation in media, to realize how aggressively presumptuous the Twitter OP is being?

Outright, the focus is on ‘their’ culture. On ‘their’ tiny little aspect of this vastly creative effort that has been almost universally loved by those who’ve seen it. Things like this, people trying to control creators, to punish those who want to make something if it isn’t made to ‘their’ specifications, are the modern equivalent of the old Catholic Church arresting artists who made things the organization found “untasteful”.

Outrage culture is just a thing we have to deal with for now. People are going to flip their lids and go on childish vendettas against people that don’t fit their vision of a good artist or media maker. But preemptively throwing an aggressive and accusatory tantrum about something no one has even SEEN yet is where I draw the line.

You want to see representation for your culture? Right now that’s you. And by that example your culture is whiny, self-interested, and narrow minded.

High fantasy worlds based on real life geography and culture amazes me every time! 

The most influential people succeeded because they were willing to suffer the small injustices to focus on their goals.

can we please let historical women be historical?

NOTE: I AM REFERRING HERE TO AESTHETICS, NOT MORAL/SOCIAL ATTITUDES. RACISM IS GROSS AND ENOUGH PEOPLE IN ~YE OLDEN TIMES~ WEREN’T RACIST THAT IT’S NO EXCUSE

papers are praising Emma Watson to the highest heaven for refusing to wear stays and a hoop skirt in Beauty and the Beast and honestly, I’m kind of sick of it

yes, it’s a fairytale, but Belle is living in 18th-century France. she probably would have worn stays because they’re a basic foundation garment that provides breast and back support and pretty much every woman wore them. probably hers would have been laced more loosely because she’s not upper-class. and yeah, she would have worn some kind of hoops or panniers under her fancy ball gown. which would have been significantly fancier than the new adaptation is making it and needed the support and can you tell how hard I am side-eyeing the designers

in a fairytale it doesn’t matter so much. I’ll concede that the movie’s not actually set in real-life 18th-century France, so they can do what they want. but it’s a trend I see a lot in historical fiction, too. Miss Whatsherface is a Liberated Strong Female Character and doesn’t wear a corset! how shocking! how perfectly tailored to appeal to our modern sensibilities!

here’s a truth-bomb: women wore corsets. most women didn’t lace them at all tightly and some took them off upon returning home for the evening like we take off our bras today. nevertheless, they did wear them, in almost every echelon of society. factory girls, servants, farmers, sex workers, artists, aristocrats, the earliest female politicians and doctors- almost all women. the only time I’ve seen “liberated woman doesn’t wear corsets” done well was with a character in the Artistic Reform dress movement started by pre-Raphaelite artists in the late 1800s. and then the author actually did research to reflect that Artistic Reform was more than just not wearing corsets

most women also wore skirts most or all of the time (with notable exceptions like Amelia Bloomer, Anne Lister, and other singluar ladies who defended their right to pants). many also wore hoop-skirts, panniers, or crinolines. and guess what? they were still badass.

Ada Lovelace made her groundbreaking mathematical discoveries in the dorky balloon sleeves and puffy skirts of the 1830s

Madame C.J. Walker became the first black female millionaire in the US and ran her beauty empire in bustle skirts and corsets

Mary Shelley invented science fiction in stays and an Empire-waisted dress. Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake got commonlaw married and wrote reams of poetry in the same

Dr. Shih Meiyu got her medical degree from the University of Michigan in a corset, as did Dr. Kang Cheng at the same time

these women were products of their time aesthetically and we shouldn’t have to divorce them from that or denigrate it to appreciate their accomplishments. the same holds true for historical fiction. if your female character can’t be just as strong dressed in the typical clothing of the era, you need to go back to the drawing board