The way Lucanis gently held the coffee cup, like a prescious little bird :')

Davrin warm up!!!!! gonna draw him more often so i needed to just get a feel of how to draw his face

i guess i just miss my friend

shes everything to me

close-ups under the cut!

The Lighthouse murals, under a cut due to DA:TV spoilers.

she tied you to a kitchen chair

she broke your throne

she cut your hair

I got a party banter between Bellara and Taash about how the Lords of Fortune steal elven artifacts. And then Taash clarifies later that they have a Dalish expert on the team so they can check to make sure the Lords don't sell something culturally important and instead return it to the elves.

Like. I get it. You want the Lords to be fun swashbuckler Disney pirates and Robin Hoods instead of actual pirates who steal and plunder. Because we're only now in Western society realizing that stealing from indigenous groups is, uh, bad. But like. Writing really uninteresting factions for your "dark" fantasy (tho lbr Dragon Age hasn't been dark fantasy since DA2) isn't gonna solve real-world neo-colonialism, ya know? The Lords not stealing priceless elven artifacts and returning them to the elves doesn't signal to me that the Lords are total rascally good guys, it signals to me that BioWare itself is trying really hard to seem morally conscious. "See? We know stealing from other cultures is bad!!!"

And man. Not to be a "political correctness has poisoned media" grifter on main (tbh it's less political correctness itself and more the commodification of real-world activism) but I couldn't help but imagine how this convo would've played out in earlier games, potentially even Inquisition.

You could've so EASILY made this interesting while giving the Lords and Taash and Bellara a lot more depth, while also making it clear that stealing from indigenous groups is wrong.

Just have the Lords, yeah, actually sell those artifacts. But also establish that the Lords take in and help elves from all walks of life. That they free slaves, or collaborate with alienages. Then you could have Taash defend the practice by saying to Bellara that little orphaned elf kids being sold as slaves probably don't give a flying fuck about some artifacts they're never gonna see, but the money from selling those artifacts goes to buying them food. And have Bellara fire back that preserving elven culture is also part of its survival, and that there are Dalish clans that would be willing to pay for them or offer something in return. Or have her say that the Lords are doing charity for the sake of recruitment rather than actual altruism. And then Taash responds that those high and mighty Dalish elves don't do shit to help abandoned city elves, just because those aren't part of their correct elven subculture, and they care more about reclaiming old glory than helping the people that exist here and now.

Then you could have side missions or at least codex entries that describe maybe some Lord recruit being conflicted about what they're doing. Maybe a few of them are collaborating to hijack a deal or steal back an artifact. Have implications that some high-ranking Lords are, in fact, using those artifacts for their own gain, despite claiming otherwise. Have some Lords genuinely trying to help, and believing that gold and trinkets don't matter as much as people's lives, so they sell them in exchange for safety for refugees or slaves or some other helpless group.

But no. Instead it's "hey do you steal from my people?" "nah lmao we have a cultural advisor don't even worry about it" "oh wow so cool and woke of you!" And then that's it. No need for any further discussion. No conflict and no complexity. No bad actors and moral quandaries.

Weh.

telling myself that thom made this

OH!!!!!!

EuroGamer: 'BioWare knew the deepest secrets of Dragon Age lore 20 years ago, and locked it away in an uber-plot doc'

Rest of post under a cut due to length and possible spoilers.

Veilguard—The Apotheosis of Victim Blaming

I am an abuse survivor. Part of the reason I empathize so heavily with Solas is because of this. I’m not the first person to point out that his behavior in DAI has all the hallmarks of an abuse victim, and everything we know about Flemeth/Mythal from the first three games and all supplementary content has characterized them both as abusers. Because victims becoming abusers is indeed a real and tragic phenomenon.

I was so hoping they’d handle the subject with the nuance and maturity we’ve come to expect from BioWare. Instead, we spent all of Veilguard combing through the most painful and traumatic memories of someone who was coerced and abused by a person he trusted, all the while the characters we’re meant to view as good and empathetic people mock him and glorify his abuser, who among other things willingly owned slaves.

Because there is no grey area, Mythal abused Solas just as Flemeth abused Morrigan and her son, and Justinia abused Leliana. And it’s clear this was the intention. It was always the intention. The foundations of it were too strong to remove entirely from the game, but I guess someone higher up wasn’t comfortable acknowledging that women can in fact be abusers, and men can in fact be victims.

So instead we get a group of relative strangers rubbernecking the tragedy of an abused man and going out of their way to heap the blame on the victim. At one point Lucanis literally says that he ‘should have just said no’ which is the kind of talk you hear about victims of assault and abuse all the time from the worst kind of people. I should know, because I’ve had the exact same experience.

It’s not just a disappointment. Disappointment doesn’t begin to touch it. I feel sick and I feel betrayed. I came to Dragon Age with DAI. It remains my favorite (or was, now the whole thing just makes me depressed) because, despite how dark things got, compassion and empathy were always there. The abused always had a voice, however singular, to stand up for them and defend them. Not so here.

There’s a sense of callousness and mean spiritedness that permeates Veilguard. Not sure if that was the intention, but that’s what we got. I couldn’t even finish the game—‘just say no’ was the last straw for me—but against my better judgement I looked into the endings, and really that was my mistake. Because the ‘good ending’ essentially boils down to the abuser oh so magnanimously releasing her victim while a group of strangers gaslight him into submission. I don’t really understand how we got here, but I hope the Devs understand just how damaging a message they ended up with. I know what it’s like to be judged with malignant bias by people determined to hate you while your abuser is lauded and praised. Because abusers are often charismatic and excellent at keeping up a saintly appearance to hide their monstrosity and further alienate their victim. That’s what this feels like.

They can try and retcon it all they like, maybe new players won’t notice, but anyone who remembers the last three games knows better. Flemeth and Mythal may have been victims once, but both went on to use and abuse the people closest to them. Sugarcoating them in the interest of ignoring/making their victims look worse is genuinely vile.

I don’t know who let this change happen, but they’ve contributed to an already skewed public perception about what abuse looks like and how abusers get away with their crimes.

And through the parallels to Varric and the Inquisitor in the "good ending", the game continually drives it home that Solas won't get "softened" at the behest of his friends or even recent lovers. I'm not mad that Solas had to learn something about Mythal specifically to change his mind. I'm mad that he didn't get the chance to break free mentally before he was so graciously forgiven and let go. When from our previous encounter with Mythal's shard, it seems more likely that whatever remains of Mythal doesn't give a shit about Solas's principles, or the memory of those sacrificed for their cause. Since Solas has been consistently portrayed as practicing self-abandonment for the sake of duty, I feel that his showdown with Mythal should have been centered on her memory becoming a cynical, vengeful husk, to make an opening for an organic disappointment on Solas's side. Then, once he got disappointed in Mythal, a favorable Inquisitor could say: it's fine, I can see you changing, let's move forward.

Otherwise, if BioWare so insists that Solas would not change his mind for anything, that indeed paints a very grim and fatalistic picture of our chances to overcome the abuse patterns and the guilt of complicity. But it seems they wrote themselves in the corner by making Solas absolutely obstinate as he came so close to fulfilling his plan.

So, while the portrayal of Mythal throughout the ages tried to be somewhat nuanced, that nuance died with Flemeth. Everything about Morrigan's arc and Solas's arc in DATV ultimately validates Mythal as the person still entitled to dispense moral judgment and forgiveness as she pleases because... *checks notes* she was driven by Benevolence in the beginning? WHAT?

What is the most infuriating, Mythal from the shard has nothing left. We saw her dragon fly one last time. Rook plunged the dagger into Elgar'nan's heart five minutes prior. They don't have to cower in fear from some terrible punishment from her. Nothing stopped them from giving Mythal a piece of their mind and calling out how she trash talked Solas in the Crossroads when he wasn't there.

Seriously though, making a Rook who's aligned with favorable Inquisitor's goal to save Solas say "fuck it, we ball" and risk fighting Mythal in that moment would be so good for so many reasons:

Veilguard—The Apotheosis of Victim Blaming

I am an abuse survivor. Part of the reason I empathize so heavily with Solas is because of this. I’m not the first person to point out that his behavior in DAI has all the hallmarks of an abuse victim, and everything we know about Flemeth/Mythal from the first three games and all supplementary content has characterized them both as abusers. Because victims becoming abusers is indeed a real and tragic phenomenon.

I was so hoping they’d handle the subject with the nuance and maturity we’ve come to expect from BioWare. Instead, we spent all of Veilguard combing through the most painful and traumatic memories of someone who was coerced and abused by a person he trusted, all the while the characters we’re meant to view as good and empathetic people mock him and glorify his abuser, who among other things willingly owned slaves.

Because there is no grey area, Mythal abused Solas just as Flemeth abused Morrigan and her son, and Justinia abused Leliana. And it’s clear this was the intention. It was always the intention. The foundations of it were too strong to remove entirely from the game, but I guess someone higher up wasn’t comfortable acknowledging that women can in fact be abusers, and men can in fact be victims.

So instead we get a group of relative strangers rubbernecking the tragedy of an abused man and going out of their way to heap the blame on the victim. At one point Lucanis literally says that he ‘should have just said no’ which is the kind of talk you hear about victims of assault and abuse all the time from the worst kind of people. I should know, because I’ve had the exact same experience.

It’s not just a disappointment. Disappointment doesn’t begin to touch it. I feel sick and I feel betrayed. I came to Dragon Age with DAI. It remains my favorite (or was, now the whole thing just makes me depressed) because, despite how dark things got, compassion and empathy were always there. The abused always had a voice, however singular, to stand up for them and defend them. Not so here.

There’s a sense of callousness and mean spiritedness that permeates Veilguard. Not sure if that was the intention, but that’s what we got. I couldn’t even finish the game—‘just say no’ was the last straw for me—but against my better judgement I looked into the endings, and really that was my mistake. Because the ‘good ending’ essentially boils down to the abuser oh so magnanimously releasing her victim while a group of strangers gaslight him into submission. I don’t really understand how we got here, but I hope the Devs understand just how damaging a message they ended up with. I know what it’s like to be judged with malignant bias by people determined to hate you while your abuser is lauded and praised. Because abusers are often charismatic and excellent at keeping up a saintly appearance to hide their monstrosity and further alienate their victim. That’s what this feels like.

They can try and retcon it all they like, maybe new players won’t notice, but anyone who remembers the last three games knows better. Flemeth and Mythal may have been victims once, but both went on to use and abuse the people closest to them. Sugarcoating them in the interest of ignoring/making their victims look worse is genuinely vile.

I don’t know who let this change happen, but they’ve contributed to an already skewed public perception about what abuse looks like and how abusers get away with their crimes.

And through the parallels to Varric and the Inquisitor in the "good ending", the game continually drives it home that Solas won't get "softened" at the behest of his friends or even recent lovers. I'm not mad that Solas had to learn something about Mythal specifically to change his mind. I'm mad that he didn't get the chance to break free mentally before he was so graciously forgiven and let go. When from our previous encounter with Mythal's shard, it seems more likely that whatever remains of Mythal doesn't give a shit about Solas's principles, or the memory of those sacrificed for their cause. Since Solas has been consistently portrayed as practicing self-abandonment for the sake of duty, I feel that his showdown with Mythal should have been centered on her memory becoming a cynical, vengeful husk, to make an opening for an organic disappointment on Solas's side. Then, once he got disappointed in Mythal, a favorable Inquisitor could say: it's fine, I can see you changing, let's move forward.

Otherwise, if BioWare so insists that Solas would not change his mind for anything, that indeed paints a very grim and fatalistic picture of our chances to overcome the abuse patterns and the guilt of complicity. But it seems they wrote themselves in the corner by making Solas absolutely obstinate as he came so close to fulfilling his plan.

So, while the portrayal of Mythal throughout the ages tried to be somewhat nuanced, that nuance died with Flemeth. Everything about Morrigan's arc and Solas's arc in DATV ultimately validates Mythal as the person still entitled to dispense moral judgment and forgiveness as she pleases because... *checks notes* she was driven by Benevolence in the beginning? WHAT?

What is the most infuriating, Mythal from the shard has nothing left. We saw her dragon fly one last time. Rook plunged the dagger into Elgar'nan's heart five minutes prior. They don't have to cower in fear from some terrible punishment from her. Nothing stopped them from giving Mythal a piece of their mind and calling out how she trash talked Solas in the Crossroads when he wasn't there.

I admit I don't understand it either.

Souls of powerful blighted entities are supposed to be able to hop into other darkspawn - who are soulless by default, I guess? The previous Archdemons could do it, Corypheus could do it.

The point of the Wardens' sacrifice was to attract the Archdemon's soul, and something about the Joining concoction/ the Warden already having their own soul resulted in both souls "canceling each other out" and both the Warden and the Archdemon permadying.

I suspected the Archdemons and the Evanuris binding each other's life force would create a loop of effective immortality: not only would the Evanuris be invulnerable as long as their Archdemon was alive, but the archdemons themselves would respawn into other darkspawn until they stumbled upon a Warden.

Could this be a feedback loop created by the implied ability of the firstborn elvhen to reincarnate? Would Archdemons actually carry "shards" of their Evanuris waiting to hop into another body, whilst the souls/ spirit of these Evanuris dwelled the Fade prison?

The lore in DATV implies that the five other Evanuris died with their Archdemons because... they didn't have bodies outside the Fade prison once the Archdemons were slain, and their reincarnation failed due to the Grey Warden Loophole?

So if anything really changes the situation here, it would be Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain inhabiting bodies while they commanded their Archdemons. Like something of them had to leave the dragons and return to their proper bodies, so that an Archdemon's death didn't trigger the reincarnation protocol???

Another factor here is that the Dagger, the only tool supposedly able to permakill an Evanuris, was primarily made to Tranquilize primordial pre-Veil beings. So if an Evanuris is to be killed, their spirit must first be sundered and banished back to the Fade.

you who I called brother

I've seen it said that Rook is a better romance option for Solas because unlike Lavellan, they know who he is from the get go. So let me make something clear:

Rook does not know Solas better than Lavellan does. They know his history, his crimes, even his regrets, but what he shows when they talk to him is very much a mask.

Fen'harel is not who Solas is. As dishonest as he was about his past during his time with the Inquisition, he also came the closest to being himself ever since he took a body.

In sappy terms, he hid his deeds and plans from Lavellan, but not his heart. With Rook, it's the opposite.

Who we see in Veilguard is not some kind of "Solas unmasked", it's Solas who has returned to wearing the mask he was allowed to shed for a little while and hide the fact he'd ever worn it.

The raggedy apostate who plays mental chess with Bull, trolls Sera, beats Blackwall at diamondback, who nerds out about magic with Dorian and approves of helping every single hinterlands peasant you encounter, that's the real Solas. Keeping his past a secret is what allowed him to stop being what his service to Mythal and his people made him into, even if for just a little while.