Kevin

It also goes without saying that bioessentialism inherently can’t be trans inclusive no matter how hard you try. “All men including trans men—” probably not. “This is only a woman’s issue—” is it really? “Afabs only—” why? “All trans men are like—” what? what are they like? finish the sentence i dare you.

🎧 : " come in, z-team "

Unhinged Text Posts: Zevran Arainai Edition

Rook might just be my favorite dragon age player character. I love what a good friend they are. I love being this character, in all their iterations.

emmrich and manfred volkarin, just literally everything about them both

I can be nonbinary??? in favorite game series??? plus many other trans & queer characters along a realistic spectrum of ideologies and identities??? FUCK YEAH

factions brought back the feel of selecting an origin a little for me. I wish there had been more content related to each *but* I do really like what there is. I do feel this was done better here than in Inquisition.

Speaking of: my real gripe about Inquisition was just a lack of anything feeling unsettling or spooky or urgent in any way. For me, I learned that the horror elements of previous games were essential for it to really feel urgent, necessary, heroic, and like a Dragon Age game *to me*. imo, Veilguard brought spooky back, with everything from blighted D'Meta's Crossing to Zara Renata's bath to Isseya's haunted twisted grief and the griffon tomb etc etc etc - I really feel like this game didn't hide the creepy parts in the codex this time, and while nothing will ever quite make my skin crawl like Hespith's poetry in the dark blighted deep roads, this brings back an element I was surprised to find I really missed. And the 2.5-3 Big Bads (depending on how you view Solas ymmv) of this game are far more interesting and intense than Corypheus ever was.

I like finally getting to see parts of other countries we've only previously heard about, and I *love* that those areas are realistically somewhat different than the rumor and speculation about them in previous games and that each has grown in unique ways since their first codex snippets.

I like to see that most interactive NPCs are being less openly racist / otherwise bigoted in a Dragon Age game, and I don't really get the people who complain about *not* being called knife-ear or whatever every other minute. I feel that budding cultural shift has been building in game for a long time, we're in new areas, many of which do things differently, and it's well explained by the efforts of groups like the Shadow Dragons and Lucerni and all of our Wardens and Hawkes and Inquisitors and several of the companions shaping change in the world for in-game decades. It can be realistic for things to improve. I love how openly hopeful this game is, when made in such dark irl times. It inspires me to more action in reality.

I love that Bellara and Taash are both clearly neurodivergent in wildly different ways. I love that characters who read very clearly as autistic/ADHD/AuDHD are continuing to be included in spite of all the vitriol there was about Sera.

Lucanis being demi (and imo as a demisexual person myself, quite accurately portrayed as such) is lovely and his romance scenes are delightful whether with Rook or Neve.

I love the other relationships that begin when companions aren't romance by Rook (Taash/Harding, Neve/Lucanis, and Emmrich/Strife are all really cute and have great cutscenes and banter.

The faction based specializations are cool as fuck imo

This game gives me more of the found family vibe of earlier games, I missed that.

Davrin & Emmrich arguing about different Being A Dad Strategies

I've put in 275 hours and I'm still finding new content with each playthrough???

Vorgoth.

"Everything I've done to control this... I don't care. I would drown us in blood to keep you safe."

The way the companions are introduced? The COMPANIONS themselves? The beautiful, unending tragedy of Hawke in this atrocious city, mixed with some brilliant banters and poignant monologues?

Like I cannot believe they got away with this game in 2011. Everyone is bisexual and it actually changes dialogue and acknowledges the queerness of it all. Aveline finds love and remarries after her husband dies (not for money or power or security but because she loves this man!!). Anders is literally a conservative’s greatest fear: a queer, demon possessed civil rights activist. The game feels entirely different depending on whether Bethany or Carver survive Lothering. Hawke becomes a nobleman in Kirkwall and their entire manor is run by two dwarves, a dog, and an elven girl.

And the companions and their relationships feel so alive and full, even when Hawke isn’t present. Varric pays off crime bosses to leave Merril alone as she wanders around Darktown. Aveline hosts holiday parties and is incredibly sad that Isabela didn’t come. They all play Wicked Grace at the Hanged Man and Fenris is awful, but Anders is worse. Aveline makes sure the guards don’t bother Fenris in High Town, and steers Templars away from Anders’s clinic. They don’t always agree, they bicker and fight with one another, but they are Friends.

Oh, you wanna know about the gameplay? I don’t play Dragon Age for gameplay, I got nothing. Something something spiders and reused maps but that just means I always know where to go.