your blood joined with mine

whatever it takes

psa: friendly reminder to check on your funny friend from time to time! otherwise, you might not notice that the ancient elven god of lies is using blood magic on their mind to make them hallucinate your dead friend to manipulate them until it is too late!

rook: why are the elven god's free and unleashing blight upon thedas? can they even be stopped? why are you inside my head, what is going on???

solas:

Just to check we are in agreement that the ritual went wrong because Solas stabbed Varric and not because Rook dropped a statue on him right?? We all saw that everything was "fine" until he did that right???? That the dagger was made to bond with ancient elven blood so it went haywire with Varric's and that's why the tear exploded right??????? We did notice that every time the fade opened in this game was because of the dagger getting in contact with blood RIGHT??

I love that the magical macguffin of Veilguard is this ritual dagger that has been used to commit acts of violence several times over its several-thousand-year lifespan.

That this violence is a lasting legacy of the ancient elves. That Solas tries to use new violence to make up for the wounds from old violence and fails and that Rook instead forces or convinces him to not only keep the Veil in place, but tie to his own life.

Violence only begets more violence here until someone decides that it stops.

the smuggled relic case is SO fun as a mercar oh my godddd

he is literally so pookie though

Also I hate how Minrathous vs Treviso Choice has been whittled down to "Crows vs Shadow Dragons".

If Treviso gets blighted, (among many things) the water gets tainted (which doesn't stop at Treviso), the city becomes completely uninhabitable and everyone gets fucked due to lack of clean water and food and trade.

If Minrathous isn't helped, everyone gets fucked due to Venatori storming in and executing people.

Both choices are fucked. Both choices impact innocents that have nothing to do with this. There is no morally right choice. Why are we forgetting that.

Tapping this sign yet again.

Oh btw Ivenci is supposed to have a few good points

Like they’re still obviously wrong in the whole selling the city out to an invading army and planning to drug everyone with lobotomy drugs

But you’re supposed to hear what they have to say about the crows and think hmm they have a point

There’s a lot of complaints about this game making everything in black and white morality with no nuance, but this is one of the many examples where there is nuance and people have chosen to not only pretend there isn’t, but somehow use the existence of nuance as proof there is no nuance

The writers did not slip on a banana, fall on their computer and accidentally hit their keys in a way that wrote ivencis lines criticising the crows, before they accidentally got sent off to the VAs and then accidentally was included in the game. They put that there deliberately.

When you hear those lines and thing “you know they’ve got a point here” that is because the writers deliberate included them having a point there so that you would think they had a point there

The whole point is that yeah they may have a point but that does not justify all their actions and the harm they’ve caused to others. Hmm I wonder if that fits in thematically with the rest of the game

I think a huge factor in people not being able to understand this game is that the game as a whole relies on understanding Solas’ character as written, and people are refusing to understand it

Solas is, and has been since his first appearance, an egotistical, hubristic, racist, manipulative, abusive and condescending asshole who regularly commits atrocities and pretends that being sad about them is enough penance. He is a terrible person who insists he’s actually the hero of the story. He is a liar and a manipulator, and he lies to himself as well. He uses other people like chess pieces and sacrifices them for his cause without much of a thought, and without them even knowing they are being used.

This is who he is. This is who he was always written to be. And veilguard is almost entirely about deconstructing that. Every member of the veilguard is a foil to solas. They are all who he pretends he is, and his false hero fantasy falls apart when you put them next to him.

Every single companion storyline is about that character successfully doing something that Solas is incapable of, but would be capable of if he wasn’t such a terrible person. And they all face a dark reflection of themselves and come out the other side mostly unscathed by that, aware that this dark reflection is not them because they are not actually like that.

Solas faces many of the same challenges the companions do, and fails each and every one of them, because, unlike them, he is not actually a hero. He is not a good person. He does not learn to accept that just because something is broken doesn’t mean there aren’t parts of it worth saving. He does not learn to accept the harsh truths and move forward. He does not accept that he is responsible for his own actions, even if someone else orders them. He fails every time.

Solas faces not one but two dark reflections of himself, Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain, the prideful god who always thinks he’s right no matter the consequences, and the servant and lover of another god whose atrocities are not justified by having been pushed by their lover and mistress, but does not come out the other side unscathed because it turns out he IS actually like them. His reflections are accurate, they’re real parts of himself that he pretends don’t exist, not just twisted versions of their fears like they are for the companions. At the end of the game he even admits that yes, he is very similar to Elgar’nan.

Pretty much the entirety of veilguard is a very careful and deliberate deconstruction of Solas’ character and self image. We go through, in elaborate detail, all of his crimes, all of his mistakes, all of the reasons why he is wrong, why his actions are unjustifiable, why his regret doesn’t absolve him of responsibility, how he thinks it does anyway.

We completely tear down every single aspect of the image he has constructed for himself. We destroy every single excuse with clear examples showing that that was not how things had to go. Every justification. Every insistence it’s okay because he’s sorry. Every time he insists he knows best and we should leave him to it. Every single illusion that he is a good person is shattered. By the end of it there is absolutely nothing left, and his repeated attempts to keep up the facade come off as pathetic and ridiculous. In all his banters with companions he tries to use his usual tricks, pretty excuses, belittling comments, fake niceties and every time he’s completely shut down.

He tries to imply Davrin has a biased view of him from stories about the dread wolf, Davrin responds with evidence the truth is even worse. He tries to apologise to Harding, she comes back with a list of all the terrible things he’s done that an apology can’t cover. He tries to appeal to spite, spite points out he hurt Rook so why should he trust him. He comes up with excuses for killing Varric and Neve points out that there’s no pretty excuse for using blood magic on Rook in such a cruel way afterwards. The illusion is shattered. That’s what the entire game has been building up to. And it makes his last attempt at betrayal seem embarrassing, because we now see through the facade and know that he was too obsessed with himself to even consider we’d see it coming.

But the thing is a lot of people refuse to see this. This is where his characters been heading since the beginning. This is who he’s always been. But a lot of people ignore any and every negative thing about him, and then complain the game doesn’t make sense. Of course it doesn’t make sense. You’ve ignored every single theme, plot point, and piece of characterisation to make up a version of Solas in your head and that’s not the Solas the game is about. It makes complete sense when you see Solas as he truly is, as he was written to be. It’s such a good bit of writing when you actually let yourself experience it as it is and allow yourself to be open to the idea that the guy who is trying to commit his second genocide might be a bad person.

I don't have an essay in me about this right now, but after the surface level racist treatment of the Antaam, I'm clinging to these little scraps that treat them and the Qun with more sympathy and nuance than at first glance.

The crumbs are there. They shouldn't be crumbs, but they are there.

Plus everything the Butcher had going on. He was like a more charismatic version of the Arishok but who actually like the city he was in. There was so much potential there and I think I speak for all of us when I say I would have loved more of that guy.

what bugs me about Morrigan in datv is that her story prior means nothing. her journey to escape an abusive mother, a destiny she didn't necessarily want, her journey of becoming a mother she never had... it all doesn't mean anything in datv. she's still an instrument of higher powers and what she worked for so hard is not even present.

and that's heartbreaking imo.

Just losing my mind at the implications that the companions have all been trying to help Rook grieve Varric, and Rook doesn’t know

Emmrich, wise and long-familiar with grief, being told by Neve and Harding what happened; understanding why sometimes he overhears Rook’s muffled voice in the Infirmary, talking to no one. He takes Rook to the Memorial Gardens and mentions he talks to his parents, thinking Rook might be comfortable with the same. Rook lights candles and rings bells but Emmrich watches, sorrowed, to see Rook still seems in deep denial.

Neve takes Rook to the Wall of Light; a Shadow Dragon Rook knows just what this means but any Rook can understand the solemnity, the power of remembrance. Neve reenergizes Brom’s light and looks to Rook, hoping Rook will mention wanting to make one for Varric. Rook is kind and comforting to Neve, but Neve is lost in wondering why Rook doesn’t take the chance to open up. She can’t figure it. Maybe Rook just can’t face it, not yet. Maybe Rook does something privately. She isn’t sure but it nags at her.

Davrin’s not big on talking about feelings. He’d rather just move on. But he sees the way Rook seems a little hollow sometimes, a little distant; he sees how Rook takes so quickly to Assan. “Hey Rook,” he says, and invites them to come with him and Assan to safe places in Arlathan, where the woods are clean and green and growing, where real sunlight dapples through the trees. Rook always seems to love these outings, seems lighter afterwards. But Davrin feels a little confused in that Rook never seems to realize the outings are mostly for them.

Taash is another person not big on feelings. But they know how much feelings can twist you up and mess with your head. When Lace tells them about Varric they feel badly for Rook, and think to how they feel when they’re struggling. Epic fights, dragon fights, drinks with the Lords. Taash is perfectly capable of doing all that on their own. But maybe bringing Rook along will help get them out of their head a little bit. Does it help? Taash isn’t sure.

Bellara’s double-versed in grief after what happens to Cyrian. Rook helped her through trying to reach him, and Bellara wonders, in her own pain, if she can help Rook a little bit too. Especially if Rook is elven, teaching Rook about the braziers and the challenges is another tool she can share about her or their people, another way that might help Rook with their grief. Neve’s told her that the Wall of Light didn’t seem to help Rook much, but maybe a different funeral tradition could help them instead. Rook helps her light the braziers and Bellara feels her heart lightening, though she wonders at Rook, who seems more moved by Bellara’s reactions than anything else.

Lucanis is nearly as allergic to dealing with feelings as Davrin is, but he immediately clocks how Neve and Harding are acting, and asks what happened before he joined them. They tell him about Varric and that they’re worried about Rook, that Rook seems to just be shoving those feelings down without dealing with them. Lucanis is no stranger to that, but while it’s fine for him, he doesn’t want to see someone who risked their life to save him share that struggle. He brings Rook to Caterina’s funeral planning to show Rook it’s okay to admit the loss and honor it. When that doesn’t seem to make a dent, he falls back to his standard - lavish meals, small gifts, coffee. He knows it would help him. He just wishes it helped Rook too.

Lace hurts the worst after losing Varric and Lace is where Solas’ magic comes the closest to faltering. Rook can see Lace is down, she’s quiet, she’s afraid after what happens with the gods escaping; but Solas’ magic holds and Rook can still never see quite why. Lace would love to sit over drinks one night and share stories about Varric, but she sees that Rook doesn’t seem ready, and she doesn’t want to push. Instead she writes letters to Ma, to the Inquisitor, to Cassandra, to Aveline, maybe even to Hawke. She writes out her stories with Varric’s old quill and she carries a bolt of Bianca with her. A dozen times she goes to talk to Rook about him, and when she tries Rook turns away or changes the subject. It hurts, but Lace knows she can’t make Rook talk about him, and she hopes in time it will get better.

This just absolutely crushes me the more I think about it 😭

Edit: Varric’s death is Rook’s personal companion quest every other single companion tries to help them with, and can’t 😭😭😭

Gold & jewelry banter by and with Emmrich ✨

Thinking about Morriwarden. How does it feel the moment you accept the memories of your mother and your mother's mother and the woman she has been for hundreds of years through the bodies and beings of her daughters, and the memories of a goddess,

and you look down at your hands and see the hands of the one who abused you and was abused by her other and so on, and at the origin is the mother of all mothers, the pinnacle of paternalism and maternal abuse,

and you curl your hands into fists and you know you will never be the mother your mother was, or the All Mother was. You saved your son from what you were the Inheritor of.

But you look at your life's love, Blighted, wasting away toward as heroic a death as zombification can be, and know that it is not your fault, but now it is - now you are the person who began it all, and yet she, that person, will never take blame for it. you should not take blame yourself for it, and yet you do. because you cannot save him.

I ache for Morrigan. What is Mythal worth, what goal of hers is so worthy, that she SHOULD be preserved through the ages? And now Morrigan carries the burden of this guilt and the pain of consequences that Mythal seems incapable of feeling. And your partner is dying for her ancient sins that she has done nothing to fix, or already dead.