Latest Posts by imhartheclever - Page 2

not to be That Person but y’all have got to learn to be more normal about bisexual characters. this isn’t 2012. women romancing astarion is not the problem, nor is karlach “lesbian coded”. the real problem is y’all’s biphobia stemming largely from homophobic stereotypes

i love you foils i love you gothic doubles i love you clones i love you alter egos i love you twins and false identities and shadow selves and reflections and ghosts and eidola and puppets and masks and

I had time to finish Jaws of Hakkon over the weekend

(Bring me to life plays in the background)

VentureBeat

EA’s BioWare will lay off 50 and cut ties with unionized Keywords playtesting group

Electronic Arts said that its BioWare studio based in Edmonton, Canada, is laying off 50 people on the team even as Dragon Age: Dreadwolf.

THEY LITERALLY LAID OFF MARY KIRBY......... WHAT THE FUCK BIOWARE??????

i have zero faith in dragon age 4 being worth a shit now. how do you let such phenomenal talent go to waste like this? what the fuck is happening behind closed doors at bioware?

Ursula K. Le Guin

“the sea doesn’t care about you!!” ok well just because the ocean is unspeakably powerful and can’t stop the rhythm she’s held for uncountable eons just for one person doesn’t mean she can’t love you. loving and changing are two different things. we wouldn’t have life without the ocean…. and yeah, if you don’t respect her and treat her cavalierly, you’ll perish. but how can anyone say the sea doesn’t mourn when she holds so much life and beautiful secrets in her belly? why are we putting atheism on the ocean that loves us?

one thing about me is that i will lose my mind about the personification of the house

BLACK SAILS • I.

A whore for every finger on your hand, but your eyes kept drifting to this. Tell me, what is it that is so precious to you? insp.

it's funny and kinda sad how during the high approval cutscene solas is surprised or maybe disappointed when inquisitor tells him that they don't believe the anchor changed them. he is suddenly faced with the possibility that all those people that he sees as shadows are actual people

i mentioned that already on another post but i need the da:dw protagonist to be beaten up by solas. i want to have to reload several times because he's that powerful. i want to see the protagonist scared to fall asleep because he might be lurking in the fade. i want to feel dread whenever i see him

i want solas to be scary as fuck

Can I say something that blows my mind about Varric and Solas’ relationship? Imo Varric was THIS close to actually convincing Solas. we all talk about romanced Lavellan almost getting him to admit everything and possibly give up his plans, but we neeeeddddd to give Varric props like this man was really about to convince a whole ass god (literally named Pride) that he is wrong, that going through with some self destructive attempt at rectifying ur mistakes by destroying the world is Not the proper way to process ur grief, and Varric doesn’t even know he’s doing it. Varric really is the party bard fr the charisma score on this man………..

yes I’m talking about the man on the island banter. Every time I hear it I tear my hair out because VARRIC you almost HAD HIM he was CRUMBLING I just KNOW IT

circle mages and nationality is sooo interesting. you’re from this country. you’ve been stuck inside a circle tower so long that you can’t remember what this country even looks like. you read about your own home in books; you half remember it like a dream. the only time you are ever likely to see it is if you go to sit at its monarch’s right hand, or if at the templars’ whim you are sent away from it forever without warning or explanation. they still expect you to fight and die for this country, whatever country you’re in, whenever you’re called upon. and you’d do it, too, just to prove you belong here. you want to go home. you’ve never had one

Going mad over Silver being told “The crew will look after you” in the final episode of season two as the crew’s surgeon is about to cut off his leg despite Silver’s repeated pleas that he doesn’t want him to, and part of it may be due to the unbearable pain he’s in, but I don’t think that’s all of it.

Randall died one episode ago. When Billy introduced Silver to him at the beginning of season one, he said that Randall had been injured while in service of this crew and that the crew owed it to him to take care of him despite his infirmity — because of his infirmity. As a disabled man, Randall has no future outside Flint’s crew in the harsh world they live in.

Silver knows this. As we approach the end of season two, he’s slowly becoming a true member of the crew, “I” becomes “we” and “the men” becomes “my men” or “my brothers,” but he can still walk away from them if he chooses to do so. By cutting off his leg, even with the best intentions in the world, the crew is tying him to them more securely than any contract or blood pact to these men and — for the time being — to Flint’s captaincy. His very ability to walk away from them is literally being limited, which we see in the beginning of season three as he struggles with his new wooden leg.

Silver has gained the infinite loyalty of these men at the price of his leg and maybe even of his independence — he can still leave them and try his luck elsewhere, he knows how to make himself useful, but no matter how charismatic he is, the first thing people will probably always see is his wooden leg. He has become Randall. Despite being in the throes of immense pain, I think Silver realized what he was about to lose. Even if a part of him had still been entertaining the possibility that this was just a temporary situation, from this point on, he has no choice but to serve these men to the best of his ability because now they’re in a symbiotic relationship.

It’s a very grim answer to the question his entire season two arc is asking: where does he belong? What is his place in the world? In the end, he who held most of the cards in his hands at one point is not being given a choice: he’s staying here, with this crew, echoing the question Flint asked him earlier in the season — where else in the world would you wake up and matter like this? It’s the only place left in the world where he can matter now. The infinite possibilities have collapsed down to one. The man who wanted everything, who could be anyone, is now forced into a single role and can only play it genuinely.

Have heard claims that they originally intended Inquisition to start with you at the Conclave and walking around and talking to the attendees before everything blew up but decided against it because “Oh it’s too slow-paced to start, we need something more dramatic and engaging” but the thing is like. That really could have done a lot to establish the Inquisitor as an actual character with a life-history and relationships as well as averting the whole “No one fucking went to the Conclave” thing

No no no because Sigrun DIED because she was a duster. She DIED because of it. Poverty killed Sigrun. She is a walking corpse killed by a society that didn't give a shit about her until she died for it. God I'm OBSESSED with her dialogue with Nathaniel about this!!!

shapeshifting lessons with the gf

someone please explain the concept of poverty to aveline

They're innocent let them go

I will just drop this here and leave and never look at it again lest I find more things to fix :’)

If you’re bad enough at DA2, you can imagine that Varric keeps saying “…And then they died” every five minutes, which pisses Cassandra off to no end because it’s a lie, she knows it’s a lie, but he keeps doing it and she gets so into the story that she falls for it every time and just screams in pure rage.

not to advocate for MORE sexism in bioware games or anything like that but like...the "gender equality" in DAO is so poorly thought out and by that I am SPECIFICALLY referring to women in the Grey Wardens.

Sure yeah Alistair makes that off-hand comment about how "there aren't many women in the wardens" that's more indicative of the writing team's sexism than anything else, but genuinely speaking I think there's actually a valid reason for women to not be allowed in the Grey Wardens.

You cannot tell me that Alistair and the HoF were the first to discover what Broodmothers were and how they were made. You cannot tell me that Grey Wardens have been fighting back Darkspawn for centuries and they do not know about Broodmothers. And if the Grey Wardens know about Broodmothers, then they must know that sending female Grey Wardens down into the Deep Roads is a bad fucking plan.

I can understand concessions being made during a Blight; hell, being a Grey Warden is such a Shit Job that I can understand the Grey Wardens being willing to take in anyone. But like...the women who join cannot go down into the Deep Roads for their Calling. And I would argue that them going down into the Deep Roads at all is a bad plan unless they've got some equivalent of a suicide pill with them in case of capture by Darkspawn.

It honestly is baffling to me that there's NO mention of protocols for female grey wardens during their Calling or expeditions to the Deep Roads being different AT ALL. All it would take is Alistair saying something along the lines of "So that's why there's so few women in the Wardens" after they discover the Broodmother.

Because a woman joining the Wardens isn't just risking death.

She's risking a horrific, violating transformation that turns her into a creature that endangers everyone.

oh wait. fun design element, time to read into it too much

so: like the other companions, bull has a few specially-modeled armor designs in addition to his default. here they are.

notice that he's never seen without his giant belt. it's thicker than the ones other characters have, which are mostly just for holding up their pants, and it doesn't sit near his hips. he's wearing it so it wraps around his core muscles, supporting the area between his rib-cage and his pelvis. the way he wears it makes it resemble a back brace, or maybe a lifting belt.

bull is hauling incredibly heavy weapons the size of his entire body around all the time, and for as much as he plays like he doesn't care about his safety, he’s both forward-thinking and already disabled - he wears a leg brace, is missing an eye and some of his digits, probably more he never mentions. the belt he's always wearing is so he doesn't fuck up his back.

bioware really wants me to romance fenris for whatever reason

dragon age inquisition sidequests: lalala druffalo in the hinterlands lalaaaalaaaaa

dragon age 2 sidequests:

Can I say something that blows my mind about Varric and Solas’ relationship? Imo Varric was THIS close to actually convincing Solas. we all talk about romanced Lavellan almost getting him to admit everything and possibly give up his plans, but we neeeeddddd to give Varric props like this man was really about to convince a whole ass god (literally named Pride) that he is wrong, that going through with some self destructive attempt at rectifying ur mistakes by destroying the world is Not the proper way to process ur grief, and Varric doesn’t even know he’s doing it. Varric really is the party bard fr the charisma score on this man………..

yes I’m talking about the man on the island banter. Every time I hear it I tear my hair out because VARRIC you almost HAD HIM he was CRUMBLING I just KNOW IT

"i fancy many things. i fancy things that are beautiful, and things that are strong. i fancy things that are dangerous and exciting... would you be offended if i said i fancied you?" zevran and my fem tabris sadhin, as inspired by the crown of love (john everett millais, c.1875)

Visual development from Treasure Planet: A Voyage of Discovery by Ian Gooding, Hye Coh, Dan Read, Christophe Vacher, Steven Olds, Dave Tidgwell, and Guy Deel.

"...but sorry, lords and ladies! according to our source in skyhold, this bull still only has a single rider, the inquisitor himself!" transquisitor tenoren adaar, as inspired by bacchus (caravaggio, c.1589) 🌷

one more thought about Blackwall.

it's so, so rare that a media depicts the path of atonement. very often the story talks about redemption - and just stops there. acknowledgement of wrongdoings, and that's it (and sometimes not even that). there is no more work done, people who were hurt don't benefit from that, but the wrongdoer gets a slap on the wrist and a nod of approval.

but Blackwall's story is both just the beginning and already full force. he has already come to terms with what he's done. he knows saying anything now will be worthless. so he gets up and he DOES things. he helps people as much as he can, he trains people to defend themselves. that's also why he joins the Inquisition, not for some selfish reason but because it was the right thing to do. he could be recognized any moment, seeing as the Inquisition grew so fast and powerful, and he kept going.

in Inquisition a lot of companions have so much space to grow. they are still dealing with traumas, with whatever problems life throws their way or they happen during the events of the game and they have to deal with it. some characters even stagnate. but not with Blackwall, he probably comes off as boring to many people because he's already gone through all that. there is only one big heartbreaking revelation which changes very little. now it's just hard relentless work to make the world better. it's a long process.

and i love it. I think more media would benefit from this kind of stories, too.