When Rook pushes the statues over it distracts Solas, but he then goes right on with the ritual and nothing bad happens
Do you know what actually disrupts the ritual and releases the gods?
Stabbing Varric with the ritual focus. You know, the one that’s very sensitive to being bled on
Stabbing VARRIC, a DWARF with the TITAN LOBOTOMY KNIFE
1) Ruins the ritual by cutting through to the fade enough for the gods to escape
2) Through this connection, delobotomises Harding, as she is the next Dwarf to touch the lobotomy knife
It’s the knife. It’s blood magic. The lobotomy knife made out of pure titan blood that can cut through the veil. Is what. Cut through the veil and let them out.
I DO wish the game telegraphed this more because the dramatic irony is delicious but I do think it’s just too subtly portrayed and I don’t think people are just being stupid by missing it. It’s easy to miss. Just think the game missed a trick by not more overtly comparing this false regret of Rook’s- believing this was their fault- to their real regrets about actual choices they are 100% reaponsible for. It’s a great parallel to Solas and his refusal to truly take responsibility!
Honestly for how bizzare and heavy handed certain things are (WHAT is the deal with the “Yes We Must Deal With Our Personal Issues” conversations? Why is everyone saying Lucanis missed bc he was distracted, when he was literally parried? What does any of that serve? Genuinely I want someone to help me reconcile how bizarre that was bc that really destroyed my trust in the writers when I was playing and I’d love to have that softened!) plot points like this that are perfectly coherent but subtle would be served by being signposted more strongly. I just think this is a realisation the player should be having in the Prison, because I think it’s a really impactful realisation!
rb this and tell me what ur accent is. this has no purpose except the fact i just realized i could have like… mutuals with cockney accents or newfoundland accents or something and thats just wild
highlights of the responses:
the solid hundred americans saying “idk general american”. i dont know what that is so im gonna pretend you mean “I sound like a disney channel character”
shoutout to whoever said “gay”. also whoever said “autism”.
to those curious; ‘newfoundland’ accents are what everyone i know says to refer to the stereotypical “canadian accent” that bad american TV has, 'cause you’re basically only gonna hear that in a random fishing town on the Maritimes’ coast.
the fact that almost every french person called their accent sexy
all my fellow canadians who are saying “canadian but i dONT SOUND NEWFIE” like yes babe we are not all One Single Fishing Town Accent (no hate to the newfies tho ily)
the one who said “i sound like siri. i have no accent” meanwhile siri is So Fucking Accented to my ears
the amount of people with english as a second language in the notes who now love their accents <3 that’s great, love urself
everyone going “i’m TOLD i sound british. please not that”
the one person who described their accent instead of just saying a word. they happened to be canadian and i was like “you just. absolutely and totally described how i talk”
the amount of californians going “californian but i dONT SOUND SURFER OR VALLEY GIRL” like the US version of “im not newfie”
the one single californian who was like “yeah i sound surfer. what are u gonna do about it”
You may recognize this comic that I created for Mohammed Ayesh (@ayeshjourney) many months ago. We decided to bring this back to promote his new campaign which will help support his family as well.
He has done so much for others, vetting and prioritizing others’ campaigns for a long time. Now is the time to help him and his family.
As I was writing up this post, I was talking with Mohammed about how our days were going, when a quadcopter shot at him through the window.
Not a single thing has changed since the first time I talked to him in May. He is still in an incredible amount of danger, if not more!
Please consider helping Mohammed today. I still talk to him very often, and I can promise you that he is one of the most incredible friends I have ever made. His tenacity and kindness knows no bounds. 🫂♥️
Someone was being a fucking hater on my explicitly positive DATV post AGAIN (u all know I can see your tags right. They get delivered to me express mail style) so here’s an essay about how I thought the Grey Warden plotline was great:
First, it was extremely lore-consistent. I don’t know how to tell people this, but the Grey Wardens simply are sort of shady— it’s part of their charm. In DAO alone we found out they:
- kill anyone who refuses the joining
- are definitely using a blood magic ritual to induct people
- tried to usurp the throne of Fereldan
In DA2 they:
-Forced Malcolm Hawke to perform a blood magic ritual against his will to contain Corypheus, by threatening to kill his family
- Built a giant prison in the mountains they didn’t tell anyone about and that someone could wander into and not be able to escape
- the entire Corypheus thing. They didn’t even tell the other Wardens like what he was or how dangerous he was.
DAI:
- the demon army thing was pretty bad
And that’s not even mentioning any stuff from the books or comics or shows! That’s just stuff in the games!
So they’re shady. It’s okay! They’re my little woobie guys, idc if they’re sort of shady!
But the plot in DATV is about all of those previously established issues coming back to bite them in the fucking ass, as they should! Knock knock, it’s the consequences of your actions, baby! The chickens are home to roost
(Which is just good storytelling. Like if you set up a bunch of issues and then never pay them off or anything that’s bad.)
Destroying Weisshaupt was inspired! Firstly bc Davrin is Weisshaupt, metaphorically (bulwark against the darkness, etc, I already made a post) so it serves his character arc. But also because it strips away the pageantry and the grandeur from them; no more castle for you! No more myth!
Davrin explicitly tells you that the First Warden is a traditionalist; he represents the historical attitudes of the Wardens. They do not accept help, they do not give up their secrets, they are standing alone against the dark. And it doesn’t work! He’s fucking wrong (and very punch-able). Being secretive and isolationist is a mistake that costs them nearly everything.
But also, and I’m not sure how many people experienced this on the first go-around, the game does ultimately come down on the side of the Wardens always trying to do the right thing. You CAN talk the First Warden down, because in the end he’s a Warden, and he might be stubborn and curmudgeonly and miserable but he CARES about the world. He came to do good. He admits he was wrong and he helps you. Because the heart of the Wardens is about selfless service to other people. In Death, Sacrifice.
Stripping away Weisshaupt and the glory and pageantry leaves the Wardens at their most vulnerable and forces them to return to their fundamental principles: helping people. That’s what Lavendel is about. Helping individual people and preserving every life possible even if it doesn’t feel that glamorous or heroic. Lavendel isn’t a significant place; it doesn’t matter, but it matters so much.
And then, the Cauldron.
First off, do not at me about Last Flight. I don’t think people should have to read external materials to play this game and understand it. If the information is vital it should be presented to the player in the text.
The Cauldron is the repository of the Wardens’ secrets; it’s where the keep the bones of the Archdemons, the secret to the Joining, ancient and dangerous weapons, as well as the bodies of the griffons, which represents their most shameful errors. Isseya is the avatar of the Wardens’ mistakes; she’s been hurt by what they made her do, and her pain was never acknowledged by them. They buried her story and her suffering like they bury everything they don’t want to deal with and are ashamed of. They left the bones of the griffons, whose deaths they directly caused, to rot because they were too sad to acknowledge them.
But it was wrong to walk away, it was wrong to bury it. Isseya makes sure that they can never do that again, that they have to own what they did and take responsibility. By discovering who she is and by restoring her personhood to her, by reminding her of her love which drove her to her anguish in the first place, Davrin saves her and he saves the griffons. He doesn’t do it using violence, because another sin of the Wardens is just assuming that they can kill their way out of their problems, which the game disproves by revealing the origin of the Blight. You can kill as many darkspawn as you want, you will never fix it! The Titans’ dreams do not need to be slain, they need to be healed.
Isseya is in so much pain because of her incredible love for both the griffons and the Wardens, and because of her guilt. Look what she builds! An alternate Weisshaupt, a distorted reflection of her home. She entreats both Davrin and Assan to join her, because she doesn’t think she’s trying to destroy anything. She’s trying to save them! She wants them to come home. “I am their mother,” she says, and she’s right. She saved them, then, and she ends up saving them now! Because she made Davrin and the other Wardens look, unflinchingly, at what they had done, it will never happen again. She was going about it wrong during the game, but she was ALWAYS trying to save them.
Davrin, Antoine and Evka represent the Wardens’ commitment to being different. They let Flynn undergo the Joining without becoming a Warden, they reveal secrets to non-Warden Rook, they offer to help the Viper without asking for anything in return. They ask for help and offer it freely. If the Wardens are going to persist into a world without Archdemons, they HAVE to change. They can’t be what they were anymore. The game is asking what a Warden is when they have to be more than their oath, when they have to live. It’s a great exploration of and expansion on previously established lore.
Anyway, my advice if you hated the plot and the game and the characters is to a) make your own post b) don’t bother me about it, because I have the time and I will be loudly positive in response!
