Virginia The Gray

I feel this way, too! Internet culture as a microcosm of American hegemony pushes us to hedge everything we feel strongly about behind a masque of cynicism. The only emotion I am encouraged to express is RAGE, and only if my rhetoric (although not necessarily my argument) is strong enough to pull half of a polarized audience alongside. This will also make people angry with me, moreso if I have any marked traits, such as being a female, non-white, or queer person.

Collectively, we're pushed toward never making a statement about what we love, about what we enjoy, without adding qualifiers to showcase how we definitely do have good taste. We don't want to be criticized, and we're being bombarded by hundreds-of-millions to literally billions of dissenting opinions, so we literally can't escape it.

If we accept what we're being pushed toward, then the "light leave[s] our eyes" as we lose that connection to the things we love. Enjoying things is a skill, and it atrophies! Our focus actually does determine our reality! Suddenly even if we do want to leave off and enjoy looking at a painting, we find ourselves on autopilot, "comb[ing] through the paint to find the fibers the brush left behind", and we literally can't just shut off and have fun.

And what does this create? What joy or value or cultural progression does this encourage us toward? When we shut ourselves off from the vulnerability that artists showed us in sharing their work with the world, when we start by not sitting down for the dinner that they prepared for us, but instead start saying that the appetizer should have been pan fried instead of oven-roasted because that's the only valid method of preparation, what journey are we creating for ourselves and the people around us?

This is the dominant culture. This is the world that advertising and its endless hunger for engaging, polarizing content has created.

I love that we are discerning with our art and our consumption of that art. I understand why this tendency toward hyper vigilance and being almost afraid of enjoying things that are secretly Bad, Actually began. We embraced Death of the Author until the Author started being a bit of an asshole and we needed to resurrect them so we could tell them to stop shouting slurs from the grave. This is normal and good.

However, the moment we start using art not as a vehicle for humanity and feeling but rather as a puzzle we must solve to find the Problem within (and, critically, disparage others for not finding the Problem, slinging moralized rhetoric and demands for shame), we lose the purpose of art. We’ve lost the plot, literally.

It’s exhausting to feel like the nay-sayers are right by virtue of their cynicism alone and those of us who still enjoy things are silly or vapid or plain dumb. “Oh you sad stupid little baby, if only you knew that the things you love are garbage! If only you knew how to pay attention, you’d see how terrible it is and how terrible you are for liking it,” they cry, and so we must disclaim our own joy with “no no please, I am smart, I do pay attention!” and then we fall willingly into the trap, finding the nuggets of hate we can find, even if those things never bothered us in the first place, just so we can prove we have “earned” our right to enjoyment. This stinks especially when, in many cases, I find that people who talk the most shit have willfully misrepresented or otherwise ignored key aspects of the thing they claim to understand better than me.

It’s not shameful to like things. On the inverse, it’s also not shameful to DISLIKE things. What’s shameful is acting like some dude standing in front of a painting in an art gallery scoffing at every person who stops to admire it. “You know the artist used the wrong shade of blue for the water there. Didn’t notice that? Ha. Yeah, didn’t think so. You seem like the kind of person who’d like this garbage.” That’s…weird! What’s the “right” shade of blue, and why do you get to decide? Are you the artist? Do you work for the gallery? No? Then leave me alone! Let me derive my own meaning from things that were designed to be interpreted, and refrain from falsely attributing more value to your negative interpretation than my positive ones. It fails to be any kind of meaningful discourse and only succeeds at making us both miserable so you can pat yourself on the back for being smart enough to submit yourself to cynicism.

And I always thought it sounded a bit too brutal for his relationship with Lavellan. These lyrics are so destructive. Lavellan isn't cruel to him like this. It doesn't make sense

But since Veilguard came out I realized. These were never about Lavellan

Some in-depth character development questions for your Rook, inspired by the major arcana tarot cards

The Fool: Where did Rook's journey begin? What were they doing before joining the Veilguard?

The Magician: What are Rook's thoughts on Solas? Do they change as the story progresses?

The High Priestess: Which does Rook obey more: their head or their heart?

The Empress: What does family mean for Rook?

The Emperor: What does Rook's leadership style look like?

The Hierophant: Is Rook religious? How do they feel about the religious organizations that impact their life the most?

The Lovers: Who is your Rook's most significant relationship within the Veilguard? How do they help Rook feel seen and understood?

The Chariot: How does Rook fight? What are their preferred abilities and damage type?

Strength: What gives your Rook courage? What inspires them to keep fighting?

The Hermit: When Rook is alone with their thoughts, what do they think about? Is solitude a blessing or a curse for them?

The Wheel of Fortune: Describe an interesting character moment for your Rook. What made this moment stand out to you?

Justice: How does Rook feel about the circumstances that led to them leaving their faction? What does returning feel like?

The Hanged Man: What does Rook do when their hard work doesn't pay off? How do they cope with failure?

Death: What part of Rook do they need to kill to become the best version of themselves?

Temperance: What does Rook do to deal with the stress of their situation?

The Devil: What type of demon is most likely to target Rook? Why?

The Tower: How does Rook respond to unexpected catastrophe?

The Star: When things get dark, what gives Rook hope?

The Moon: How does Rook's past impact their values? Does their past come with any biases or blind spots they have to account for?

The Sun: What is Rook passionate about? How do they fuel that passion?

Judgement: How does Rook approach difficult decisions? How do they cope with the consequences of those choices?

How it works:

Reblog this post with a link to your fic (or a fic you think is underrated) from the DA or ME fandoms (you could do the others, too, but I’m not as familiar with KOTOR, JE, BG, Anthem, etc)

I will reblog your rb so people can see it

I will go and read your fic

I will leave you a comment (my username on AO3 is flyiing_giraffe, comments come from there)

I start with whoever posts first, and go down the list from there

In the interest of fairness, I read the first chapter of all multi-chapter works

It will likely take several days to get through everyone. I appreciate your patience!

Rules (more like guidelines):

You can send all pairings and any rating, but if you are sending explicit stuff please lmk (esp if it’s not housed on AO3)

If you already did this and want to send the same one again, go ahead (I think you should promote your stuff!) but I will prioritize comments for fics I haven’t read yet (I’m probably not going to comment a second time on oneshots, sorry)

I am happy to reblog any fic posts you have throughout the week, but please link them in your rb for the sake of convenience

This post is going up at 12:00 p.m. MST and you can continue to submit until midnight MST.

Like, I wish we gave the writers more credit with how consistently he's written. Over a number of years of game development hell. They knew who he was, his motivations, his speech, his internal landscape. Dude literally recites a childhood assassin's nursery rhyme to himself as he kills 7 guards in the Ambrose's palace. That's why his emotions recalling the wyvern book to the lighthouse was like, not surprising to me at all. dude's inner child has been so compromised and destroyed this entire time.