gen z has to reckon with its radicalization problem. you are not a morally pure and superior generation of youth come to save the world, your men and boys are radicalized at an unprecedented level and you ignore it because it’s too hard to address but you have to. these boys are in your classes, they date your friends, you know them and you cannot continue to pretend this is an “old white guy” problem

girls are contributing, too. the coquette aesthetic, the “i don’t want to girlboss i want a man to pay my bills”, girlmath girljob girlmoney. it’s a joke, it’s clothes, it’s whatever, i get it but it is driving a mentality of traditional gender roles and you know you’re joking but your boyfriend doesn’t. your kid brother doesn’t. you have to stop this shit it is a contributing factor

I have no ill will against people who enjoy DAV, more power to them. The fans who call everyone else "entitled" for not mindlessly consuming an expensive mediocre product are the real villains.

Literally made an account just to vent my thoughts because DATV is beyond disappointing and actively destructive of the previous games/media in the series.

The story/lore choices made concerning what happens in the south of Thedas during DATV are devastating and a clear attempt to create a 'clean slate' for the franchise going forwards.

Spoilers to the game are mentioned going forwards -

fantasy:

I load up Dragon Age: Veilguard for my first play. After creating my Rook, I progress to a simple screen. "Continuing Your Adventure?", it asks, with a quick explanation that this part of customization is optional and will have no effect on the Veilguard story, but players of previous games can enter a few key choices and find easter eggs about them while exploring.

"Don't mind if I do!" I say, and am taken to a lovely interface where I make about 10 choices by selecting beautiful tarot cards representing the major outcomes of previous games. This is a pleasant experience, because each card is accompanied by a brief summary of that choice and an intriguingly vague blurb about the consequences it had over the past decade-ish in Thedas. Fun! I read the lore, admire the art, reminisce on playthroughs of yore, and enter Veilguard excited to experience the next part of the story.

Later, I loot an "Orlesian mask", and Rook or a companion delivers a banter line referencing the leader(s) of Orlais, whom I selected in world state customization. Hark, codex updated?! I open the entry and read it, and the text delivers payoff on the intriguingly vague blurb from the tarot card.

By the end of the game, I have found similar easter eggs for all of the world state choices I selected in customization. While it would have been nice for these choices to be woven more organically into the story, I understand why this would have been impractical, and am content to see my Thedas represented in a simple, fun, and engaging way :)

I have been very positive and hopeful for DAtV ever since it was announced, but the latest IGN article has massively tanked my excitement, to a degree where I'm wondering if I even want to purchase DAtV on release or wait for it to be discounted at a later date.

Here is the core if the problem:

Continuity has always been such a massive part of what makes the DA/ME Bioware titles special. Playing an RPG where I can romance some of the characters is no longer enough of a unique formula, and others have likely done it better than what DAtV can ever offer (I don't expect nowhere near the level of complexity of BG3). The fact that we as players could inhabit a world that responded to our choices throught time and reflected our decisions in big and small ways was a core part of what made Dragon Age different. Reducing it to 1 romance and 2 DLC decisions completely destroys any visible continuity, where even a character like Morrigan who according to the devs has always been present for "world shaping events" will have to dance around not actually mentioning any consequences of said events.

Basically, avoiding any mention or any consequences of those "world-shaping events" (Epler's own words) makes them kind of not world shaping at all. It competely removes both the stakes from past games and any player agency since no matter what you did or chose in the past the world of Thedas in Dragon Age the Veilguard remains exactly the same. You didn't at all shape it as a player.

Finally, I just want to add as someone working in design myself that respecting user/player contribution and preserving their input are just basic principles of good design. Many, many players across many years have dedicated their most precious resources - time, effort, even money - into crafting their own unique Dragon Age characters, worldstates, and storylines. First offering the tools for players to make all those choices and then completely ignoring them is the studio/EA essentially saying that what we did doesn't matter. Our time doesn't matter. Our effort doesn't matter. Our stories don't matter. All that matters is that we open our wallets and pay for another game because it has the branding of a franchise that we used to love.

People in the ASOIAF fandom are very obsessed with passive women they can project onto. The obsessions with the characters of show!Alicent, Sansa, Elia, and Helaena are perfect examples of this.

In the show, Alicent is changed from a woman who actively seeks power and heads the scheming of the green faction into a passive victim who watches and reacts to the men around her. And yet, despite this being a much more boring characterization, the show version is vastly more preferred by her stans. They condemn her book character as simply an "evil stepmother trope" while completely ignoring how their fav is just as blank and tropey as they accuse her book counterpart to be. Alicent stans want her to be the show's blank victimized canvas.

Helaena is someone who the show changed very little in the adaptation, because both book and show Helaena have little impact on the plot other than to be victims of their surroundings. Both women are forced to marry Aegon at thirteen and have his children, go through B&C, and are the least active members of the green faction. The show only added elements to make her more tragic: her dreaming and autistic behaviors. Helaena's character makes her the perfect canvas for certain fans to project themselves onto as she simply exists to be victimized and play the dutiful wife/daughter despite her circumstances, just like the show version of her mother.

Elia Martell is a woman who we know very little about. She died thirteen years before the events of ASOIAF and, unlike characters like Rhaegar and Lyanna, she has no pov characters who think about her enough for us to learn anything about her. The only things we know are that she was loved by her family, was in an arranged marriage to Rhaegar, had his two (confirmed) children, and was brutally raped and murdered by Lannister men. She is an unknown character and, again unlike Rhaegar and Lyanna, has no known active role in the events surrounding the Rebellion. Because of these things, she is, again, the perfect blank canvas for people to project on.

Sansa is, despite being a prominent pov character in ASOIAF, a very passive character. She rarely takes action in her circumstances and simply reacts to them while trying to survive. There's nothing wrong with this, she's a young girl who has never had to fight for anything in her life, it's not unexpected or condemnable for her reaction to her circumstances to be this way. However, her passivity is something her stans obsess over. She is praised for being the "perfect lady" and they project their desires to see her rule onto her and how they view her story.

These women have been chosen by these fans because of their passivity and tragedy. They love that the women have suffered in the name of the "duty" they believe is higher than them. Because they love passivity, they hate the women of ASOIAF who are active in their own lives and fight to better their circumstances. Characters like Rhaenyra, Arya, Daenerys, and Lyanna are all massive influences on the world and purposely chose to challenge the patriarchy. Since they did not take their suffering silently, theses certain fans view them as wrong and hate them. They only love the women they can project on and who simply refuse to fight for better lives.

controversial opinion, but characters are so much more interesting when you are able to forget about shipping them for a moment and actually appreciate their unrelated personal plot/arc. if the most interesting thing you can think of about a character is the ship you like them with, then I don't think you actually like that character very much

Age gap discourse is surreal to me because social circles being limited by age is very much just something for when you're in school. Even in college, you can be in classes with people 20+ years older than you, especially in community colleges with people getting degrees "later" in life.

People in their late teens and early 20s are coworkers with people in their 40s and 50s. If you join community groups or clubs, you'll probably meet people decades older than you. Your neighbors probably won't be the same age you are. Neither will everyone at the bars or cafes you frequent. It's totally normal to meet someone much older or younger than you and hit it off as an adult because real life is not segregated by age.

Ubisoft continuing to refuse to allow me to play through a AAA Assassin's Creed game from the jump as only a female assassin as the main protag is gonna drive me up the fucking wall one day

people collectively reinvent slut shaming every other month in new terminology. "noooo I don't think she's a disgusting slut...I think she is participating in casual sex toxic hookup culture and this makes her used and corrupted untrustworthy" do you hear yourself at all💀💀

It's ok to want money. It's ok to be upset that you're poor and wishing to be rich. I understand. People who say that money doesn't buy happiness have never eaten pasta every day because it's 50 cents at the grocery store or been short on money for christmas presents. Constantly scraping by makes people miserable and depressed and of course you're gonna dream about money, about being happy and priviledged. That's not greedy or horrible, that's life. It's ok.

Also, something I feel like gets lost on the people who keep repeating that “money doesn’t buy happiness” is that money itself isn’t going to make you happy. Or getting additional money when you have plenty isn’t going to instantly make you happier. But financial safety is one of the most universal aspects of happiness in the world we live in (even if we wish this wasn’t the case). Like the money itself isn’t going to make you happier, but not worrying about rent will. Getting to have hobbies will. Making your favourite meal will. Meeting a friend for a coffee and a cake will. Being able to afford those things without mental and financial strain will.

a few reminders because i’m tired and angry

feel free to add more

THE WAY I SPED TO HIT REBLOG-

unpop opinion...i don't like the manhandling in the new kisses I have seen (we'll see if that astarion kiss does get added in). MC doesn't consent to that type of touching... I already have issues with how the MC is so passive/submissive in almost all the sex scenes (you have one option to take charge in lae'zel's scene and you get a shorter/less explicit scene)

anyway...

I also find it odd that Lae'zel, a female character who is dominant leaning is is the only one who allows for flipping the script. But ofc you don't get that option with any of the male companions.

BG3 I love you but every time I see two female characters who are the same height stand on tippy toes with their chins tilted up to kiss each other it makes me want to vomit blood

I don't care about your immersion or how you find having too many romance options in your game annoying or whatever.

I love the way Larian's Faerun is Bisexual. I love how the majority of the characters are Bi or Pan and no one is fucking weird or prejudiced about it.

Lord knows I will never get a positive environment like that in real life with all you hating bitches.

watching ppl on bg3 Twitter losing their mind over the newest update "changing Gale's character" to make him more palatable when it's literally just a bug fix (you're now able to tell him "I'll give u a magic item in 5 minutes" if you don't have any items on you at the moment, and he doesn't act like you've told him you're not giving him anything).

I get the frustration about Lae'zel bc. Same. I miss her lines, too, and it's stupid that they got changed. But this isn't rewriting a character, it's literally fixing an issue with the game.

(I'm still grieving for EA Gale having to eat actually important magical items, which actually felt meaningful, but considering how many ppl throw a fit over feeding him the Ring of Color Spray or Komira's Locket, it's probably for the best he doesn't actually need anything useful.)

something about Baldur’s Gate 3 giving you the opportunity to pick your (binary) genitals separately from the rest of your (binary) character model—

—but then having two different versions of clothing and armour depending on whether your character model is “male” or “female” (sorry haha, the game says “masc” or “femm,” which is actually if anything way more transphobic), such that it is impossible to be e.g. a “man” wearing a blouse or a “woman” wearing a men’s shirt—

well I think you might as well have not tried to seem “gender-inclusive.” at this point.

sorry. wait. hold on. if you’re buying clothing and armour, or even if you are in your own inventory, the preview always shows the item on the “male” character model. if you are playing with the “female” character model, there is no way to see what the item will look like on you, or if “comfortable outfit” with a high collar that covers your chin will become “breasting boobily flouncy peasant blouse corset top” the instant you put it on (it will).

so not only are they doing stupid weird sexual dimorphism things while pretending not to, but the “male” body type is explicitly the default one. this is like. turbo misogyny.

[ID: first image is the outfit preview, showing a a teal cap-sleeved shirt, pinkish tan undershirt, and brown belt around the low waist; the shirt and undershirt both have a collar around the back but are cut out at the front to show a bit of the throat; the undershirt has laces down to the collarbone; the shirt has laces most of the way down the front, tightened all the way. the shirt is unmodelled, but appears as it would on a flat chest. second image shows the outfit as it appears on a body model with broad shoulders, muscular arms, and a flat chest; it looks exactly like it does in the preview. third image shows the outfit as it appears on a body model with narrower shoulders, slim arms, a dramatically tapering waist, and breasts. it is a pinkish tan corset top with spaghetti straps that laces down the front; the fabric does not meet in the centre, but reveals a teal modesty panel. the tops of the breasts and a couple inches of cleavage between them are showing. there is no belt. end ID]

this game lets you pick your pronouns in the character creator