MAY THE DREADWOLF TAKE YOU.

SOLAS IN DRAGON AGE: THE VEILGUARD + O SLEEPER BY THE OH HELLOS

Last night my household had to say goodbye to the best cat I think anyone has ever had. His name was Ganldalf and while we don't know exactly how old he was (he was a stray when we took him in) we had him for ten years and best estimates put him at nearly twenty years old.

While he did have some health concerns, up until yesterday none of them were severe. Things took a very hard turn and we had to make the choice to let him go by the evening.

The whole process, from bringing him to the emergency hospital to the cremation services ended up costing us nearly $1500. A cost we were not prepared for in a situation we could not prepare for. My roommate is a single mother to an eight year old who manages because I'm able to financially help out, and this expense, while absolutely necessary and unavoidable, has put a huge burden on both of us.

I don't like asking for help, I don't like putting my hat on my hands and admitting that I am struggling, but this is where I and we find ourselves.

If anyone has the resources to help, even just a few dollars, it would be deeply appreciated. I have a Kofi, Venmo, Cashapp, and PayPal which I will provide below if anyone would like them.

Thanks, and sorry for bringing down the mood on your feed ♥️

Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/sidhelives

Venmo: https://venmo.com/u/SidheLives

Cash app: https://cash.app/$SidheLives

PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/SidheLives

Your companions can do anything - even take down corrupt gods.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard - coming Fall 2024.

OMG, I've never been so happy and grateful for writing something. 😭❤️ Also, the pride is through the roof. Did I really write all that? Aaaaahh!

Like, so often in games (especially Bioware games) you get asked to make these world-shattering decisions. Your characters go on these quests to stop a great evil, to battle gods, to bring order, or sow chaos, and at the end you’re left with the power to utterly change the world. And that’s not really a power that should ever rest with just one person, but in these narratives, it so often does.

And afterwards, I usually find myself wondering about all the worst case scenarios. Sometimes I get a bad ending and it’s just like ‘well I guess I’ll start over and try again…?’ But even when it’s a good ending, all too often it’s ambiguous enough that it still seems like a lot could go wrong further down the road.

To me, this is Solas. This is what happened to Solas. He is one of those video game protagonists. He got to the end of the adventure and he had to decide to separate Magic from Reality in order to seal the gods away, and he had no real idea what would happen afterwards except that the gods wouldn’t be able to destroy the world. I’ve freaking done that. Anyone who has played Final Fantasy VI has done that.

And then he woke up in motherfucking Thedas aka Apocalypse Tuesday and found out that everything was a disaster.

At which point his first thought was ‘okay, I’ll start over and try again’ because the world was approximately as real to him as a video game, so why the heck wouldn’t that be his first impulse?

But then - then he screwed himself over. Then he went on an adventure in Thedas. Then he made friends. Now he can’t start a New Game Plus and try for a different ending without erasing all of that. The man is fucking boned. It’s like all the things I ever worried about for my Charnames and Knight Captains and Revans and Exiles and Shepards and Wardens and Nerevarines and Dragonborns all comes crashing down around Solas, this poor sap who was just trying to save his stupid people from their own stupid selves.

I have just… I have walked too many miles in those shoes, at the mercy of a game writer’s narrative whims, to not feel for him. To not want to help save him from this goddamn mess. Every choice-based RPG I have ever played has trained me to empathize with Solas.

And I just wish my Inquisitor could take him by the shoulders and look him in the eye and go:

I see this a lot in writing.

You just wanna write something, but then...the idea seems a little crazy. Or you're as afraid to use swear words. Afraid to be yourself because people could find that weird.

STOP IT RIGHT NOW.

I was afraid of my own style of writing, because it's very weird, surrealistic, and shows too much emotion.

But then I decided to stop thinking like this and write a story completely in my own style.

And it was awesome.

Do not censor your own work, letting yourself write what you want to write whether it's dark, silly, unrealistic or whatever can be an amazing experience and maybe result in your best work.

Then the mofo disappears, and when you find him again he reveals to you that HE'S FUCKEN THANOS.

It's insane. It's so freaking confusing, half of the people who hate Solas don't even get it. Lavellan went too deep in hopes of finding a like-minded elf, and ACTUALLY FOUND ONE, he SAID "you change everything" while repeatedly trying to find ways to lose respect for Lavellan so that he would have a reason to break it off without guilt. But noooo-ho-ho you couldn't, buddy. Lavellan is right there with ya, questioning the past and future, but not losing hope and fighting for change, mistakes and all. She's opening up to you, protecting you and those dear to you, listening to you and being vulnerable.

BUT YOU LIIIIEEEDDD TO HEEEERRRR. You didn't mention you were FEN'HAREL?! You didn't mention you had plans to punish and destroy to your own judgement alone?! You didn't mention almost everything going on is entirely your fault?? I mean?! Who knows how she would have reacted. How she would have felt. What choices she would have made with that information. But now her heart is broken. She wants to believe in that elf she fell in love with, she wants to believe there's a piece of him that's still good. Like freaking Darth Vader or something idk. It hurts.

He made her feel special. And then he set off to mind his own business again, which turned out to be EVERYONE'S BUSINESS as well.

IN-GAME CINEMATIC - Dragon Age: Dreadwolf

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