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vecna · 4 years

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Oohh for the fandom meme! Dragon Age?

Send me a fandom!

Oh boy, this is going to be spicy.

It’s also very Anders-negative, so apologies up front.

The character(s) I first fell in love with:

I’m actually not sure which was the FIRST, but it’s a tie between Morrigan and Alistair. I saw fanart of them going around at the time Origins first released, and that’s what got me to try the game!

Alistair was a breath of fresh air, because at the time, I was used to warrior men in games being all Edgy and Rough, and he was the total opposite and a sweetheart.

And Morrigan was just instantly my goth wife, and had Claudia Black as a VA, so I was sold immediately.

Both still hold a special place for me!

The character(s) I never expected to love as much as I do now:

Loghain is the main one. He does a lot of truly reprehensible shit in the first game. But once I sat down and read the prequel novels about young Loghain, plus saw what he’s like if you recruit him, he grew on me A LOT and now he’s a top fave.

Nathaniel I expected to hate as soon as I saw his name + who his father was, but then the expansion came out and I ended up loving that dude almost immediately. I really wish he was around more after Awakening, and also really wish he’d been a romance option, especially for a Cousland haha.

Merrill is a weird one because she was totally uninteresting to me in DA:O, so when they announced her as a companion in DA2 I was like, “Ehhhh.” Then they punked me by making her adorable and sweet and now I love her.

Plus a bunch of side-characters like The Architect? I liked him a bunch in the novel + Awakening – although I found his Plan in the novel much more appealing. But as the years have gone by, I keep surprising myself at just HOW disappointed I am he’s never appeared again haha.

The character(s) everyone else loves that I don’t:

There’s a few, and all of them will get me yelled at, but here we go.

First: Isabela. This one’s a bit complicated, but it really just boils down to her attitude towards how you play your character. I actively dislike characters who are super sexual – regardless of gender. But Isabela in particular bothers me because she’s constantly pushing her lewdness and sexual humor on you, and when you try to discourage it, she admonishes you with, “Well, you’re no fun.” Her whole character is just… like that for me. Super pushy, overly lewd, gets uppity when you don’t have the same ~liberated~ opinions she does, and this is all played up in the writing like she’s this Empowered Woman the player absolutely must love, especially if they’re playing a male character lol. I hate her for the same reasons a lot of people hate Liara in Mass Effect, but with the addition of pushy lewd jokey characters always rubbing me the wrong way.

Second: Iron Bull. I’ve written a lot about why he makes me more uncomfortable than any fictional character I’ve ever encountered, and I just outright hate him, he makes my skin crawl. If you want details, feel free to DM me, I don’t really want to rant about it again publicly.

Third: Anders. Again, I’ve written a lot about him before, but. I hated him in Awakening, for a lot of the same reasons I hate Isabela in DA2. But the changes they made to him in DA2 are just kinda :/. While I absolutely agree with him about Mage Rights, the level of preachiness they added to him drove me nuts, and the fact that you’re painted as a Bad Guy if you don’t like him blowing up the chantry. And from a purely OOC standpoint: He’s become a figurehead for all the aggressive Discourse people in the fandom, and if I see someone list Anders in their sidebar bio, I know pre-emptively that their blog is going to be full of 6 page long essays of meta about how everything is Problematic, and no thanks.

To a lesser extent, I’m also not fond of Zevran. But in his case, it’s not anything major like the others, I’m just tired of Bioware’s habit of making the bisexual characters overly lewd sex-focused rogues/deviants.

The character(s) I love that everyone else hates:

Loghain, lol.

But also Sebastian Vael? There’s so much about him that I find genuinely fascinating, especially regarding his backstory, and his struggles between his feelings of responsibility to his family vs his dedication to the Chantry and bettering himself. He’s such a dear character to me, and such a pivotal part of any playthrough, I’m always blown away when I remember he’s a DLC character and many people don’t have him.

HOWEVER Anders being the fandom darling means that people tend to unfairly shit on Sebastian for reacting poorly to the Chantry explosion. People also like to label him as a poster child of a White Straight Church Boy, while refusing to acknowledge he’s… not straight, and not exactly a church boy either lol.

Also Vivienne, but I think that one’s really self-explanatory. I love her, and she gives a really needed perspective on the Circle, since most of the mage companions previously were apostates. But of course, she gets written off as a Chantry apologist, and an uppity bitch, when people would def love her for the same traits if she was not black lol.

The character(s) I used to love but don’t any longer:

Justice. And by extension, Anders. A lot of people like to rant about how Justice ruined Anders, but I always saw it the other way around.Justice was my favorite character in Awakening. The whole concept around him, that he was a Fade spirit who took human form and was experiencing life for the first time was SO fascinating. I felt like there was so much to explore there with his character.

Buuuut then they had him merge with Anders. With the narrative being that he WAS a spirit of Justice, but the moment he connected with Anders, it corrupted his entire spirit into something he wasn’t anymore. So essentially, the character I used to love no longer exists, thanks to Anders. And it reminds me of that phrase recently, about how the destination is so terrible you can no longer enjoy the journey? I can’t even appreciate Justice in Awakening anymore, knowing what happens to him.

To a lesser extent, Corypheus. He was SO COOL and the premise of him was AMAZING when he first appeared in the DA2 DLC, but then Inquisition had to go and turn him into a weird shallow mustache twirl villain.

The character(s) I would totally smooch:

None? Idk I don’t really have the Smooch Fictional Character gene.

The character(s) I’d want to be like:

MAEVARIS TILANI. May I one day finally have the confidence in my identity that she does, and also marry a sweet bear man who adores me.

The character(s) I’d slap:

Too many to list, really. Probably Anders.

The pairing(s) that I love:

THERE’S SO MANY. And most of them are with the PC, because I generally don’t ship NPCs together. But my top 3 are:

M!Hawke / Fenris is my ultimate OTP in the Dragon Age series, by a long-shot. Not even sure where to start on how much I love it, but two damaged guys leaning on each other to work through their respective loneliness and trauma is MY JAM. And lmao I love silver-sideburned Hawke chillin in retirement somewhere but being a supportive husband while Fenris goes off hunting the Bad Guys, it’s great.

Solas / Lavellan is a close second, with the caveat that I increasingly prefer it with a male Lavellan. Having the Inquisitor in love with Solas just changes the entire tone of the game for me, for the better, and him actually being the villain trying to end the world while in love with this normie elf is just (chef kiss). Too bad I’m burned out by how overly spammed it is.

Dorian / Inquisitor is in third, I will just always be fond of how it’s a story of the Inquisitor helping Dorian be happy with who he is, escape an abusive family, and realize that he’s allowed to be loved. Good shit good shit.

Some others:

Warden / Morrigan is probably my favorite Origins ship, and that only intensified with the way she talks about the Warden in Inquisition, esp if they’re Kieran’s other parent. What a cute goth family, regardless of the Warden’s gender, cause you can pry Bi Morrigan from my cold dead fingers.

Cassandra / Inquisitor might have a lot of Romance Cliches, but I adore it – although, similar others, I increasingly prefer it with a female Inquisitor. I actively dislike the weird no-homo rejection with her, and come on, a lady Inquisitor being her Knight In Shining Armor is just good storytelling.

Cullen / Inquisitor, for a lot of the same reasons as Cassandra. I love me a cliche romance, but I’m also fond of the narrative w/ him of someone he loves helping him heal through the lyrium withdrawals and take time to rest.

Josephine / F!Inquisitor is just adorable all around, and wholesome, and great.

Varric / Hawke COME ON HOW WAS THIS NOT AN OPTION.

On the rarepair end:

Sebastian / Hawke doesn’t seem like it would be a rarepair – you’d think everyone who loves Cullen/Inquisitor would love this one too. I do! But alas. That said, I’m also pretty aggro about this one with a male Hawke because SEBASTIAN IS CANON BI. WHY WAS HIS ROMANCE STRAIGHT.

Maric / Loghain is a rarepair I will take with me to my grave LOL. Never forget the scene where Maric thought Loghain was leaving, and bolted across the camp with almost no clothes on to beg Loghain to stay. Come on.

Nathaniel / Cousland is dear to me, and I love it so much more than Alistair / Cousland haha.

Greagoir / Wynne, I can’t believe this got validated in canon ahhhh.

The pairing(s) that I despise:

Again: THERE’S SO MANY.

Iron Bull / Dorian is my least fave by a longshot. Again, I have written about why I hate this pairing a great many times, but it’s awful and toxic and makes me deeply uncomfortable, and I could happily go the rest of my life without seeing anything about it ever again. Please keep poor Dorian away from that man. He deserves someone that doesn’t sexually harass him until he’s finally worn down into dubious consent (while drunk) and then outted to everyone about it.

Isabela / Fenris. Sorry, but it’s just bad writing that Fenris bails on Hawke because the physical intimacy triggered his PTSD and he needs space to process, but then will turn around and have a casual sex relationship with Isabela instead. Yikes.

Anders / Fenris. Aveline / Isabela. Alistair / Morrigan. All of the DA2 Hawke/companion rivalmances. I don’t enjoy “these two people hate and antagonize and want to kill each other… but they fuck” in any form.

Cullen / Amell. Yikes.

And basically ALL of the canon wlw pairings in this series suffer from the fact they have men writing them, and as a result they’re almost always some kind of abusive or racist, and skeeve me out. See: Celene / Briala, Leliana / Marjolaine, Branka / Hespith, etc. Please Bioware, I’m begging you to consult some actual queer women. It’s insane how badly they’re treated compared to how the canon mlm couples are written.

FINALLY, I recognize this will be the most unpopular of all, but. As much as I love M!Hawke/Fenris, I just honestly cannot stand seeing F!Hawke/Fenris. There are some pairings where I’m so attached to the m/m or f/f version, I cannot deal with the m/f version anymore, and that’s one of them. (The others are mainly non-Bioware.)

#LONG POST #REALLY LONG #SORRY #misc: text #misc: asks #misc: meme #series: dragon age #gen: bioware #utopianoverlord

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acradaunt · 6 years

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Thought I should write up my own thoughts on the MHWorld demo for a certain particular XBox owner.

Thoughts are quite positive, but I don't think that's a huge surprise. Definitely the biggest downer is that female armour still completely suuucks. 0/6 sets contain actual pants. Male Anjanath is basically male Pink Rathian armour (full plate, helm and all), while female Anjanath is basically Dalamadur's G-Rank armour (worn by the GS in the 4U demo). Basically a metal bikini with a big furry/spiky cape-thing. Great for a barbarian look, absolutely, and perhaps fits Anjanath's personality better. But, uh, it's a drastic design difference from the simple and understated male version. And if you wanna be a tankgirl, it's kind of a big ol' middle finger.

The new way skills work is about 40000x better and more intuitive. Every part gives a level in a skill, and every level has some value. I seriously wonder why it took this long to come up with such a simple and elegant solution. I believe that random charms, sockets, and decorations are all gone. I honestly wouldn't mind one bit.

Jagras (and most of the non-critical wandering monsters; Kulu Ya-Ku, not-Chameleos, and not-Lavasioth) were complete jokes. Like, less threatening than Great Jaggi. Barroth was a bit easy, but all-in-all, felt the most fun to fight. He certainly wasn't the towering, mud-spamming titanic jackass he was in Tri. Anjanath takes like 12-15 minutes to kill, and varies between hitting for like 20-30 damage and 110 damage (of 150, in case that wasn't clear). Rathalos likewise does 25-40 on basic nicks, but taking that fireball or homing claws to the face does 135 damage, and is basically instant death. It reminds me of the Hypers and Deviants having certain random attacks do absolutely ridiculous amounts of damage. It doesn't feel all that great, but it's probably more honest. It puts emphasis back on the big, flashy attacks, and them bumping you to death isn't as big a deal. Roars and Stuns aren't as impactful, but annoying as ever. I kinda feel like 'hey, why can't I move?' and don't really feel like what's causing it. Probably because Gen really kicked up the roar's effect, and with Earplugs, I used that all the time as my golden opportunity to fire out a big Hunter Art.

Noooow, weapon changes. I'm feeling pretty smug about the changes to the GS; it basically confirmed for me that my GS playstyle, and Guild Style for the GS, was the 'correct' method to use it, and all the people who called me a dumb c*** for not running away after every draw were wrong. ANd assholes. You can charge even more than ever, and Tackle you can do can stop you from getting ragdolled every four seconds.

I was pretty sure I'd be back to feeling rather lukewarm about the Lance, after losing Absolute Evade and Shield Assault for quick-sheathes and/or 'get-out-of-bullshit-free', but I think I like it more than ever. The decreased loss of Stamina completely makes up for its losses. Dashing for days and getting loads of free pot-shots on fleeing monsters is hilarious. Blocking also seems to be worth a damn, as not EVERY. SINGLE. attack causes kickback, nullifying your counter-attack, or does multi-hit, causing you to get murdered during your counterattack frames (Astalos notably did this on every attack). Or maybe it's just that most guys in the demo aren't that big of dudes. Getting joust & jump back is also great, and seriously might put Lance in the running for best mounting weapon. That said, mounting itself doesn't feel as good as it did in 4U/Gen. Maybe it's just the less clear interface.

I like to think that for Maces they took the Striker-combo (the version without a golf-swing) and made that the Circle attack, rather than a wholly useless side slap. I felt like I totally devastated Anjanath with it (who, unlike every other Brute Wyvern, is graceful enough to have his head low enough to reach with the Mace), but still timed out. Maybe I spent too much time wandering first (probable), or maybe the demo Mace is exceptionally weak, as it has Paralysis on it, and Gen's Para/Sleep weapons were remarkably bad in raw offense.

Easily the 'most improved' award goes to the Bowguns. Maybe not surprising, but having a decent second stick makes a lot of difference. More than that, though, is you can move and shoot; you're not a total sitting duck when multi-shotting bullets. I fought Barroth with a LBG, and got hit exactly once, and Barroth did pretty unimpressive damage, instead of the insta-kill it woulda been in the past. Thinking on it, I have LITERALLY never not seen a bowgunner NOT triple cart. Or at least double cart. The non-dedication of armour and defense boost involved alone makes them actually usable. The new bonus fire stuff is wacky. LBG's mines are hilarious; dump 'em on a downed monster, and you can get multiple melee punches in for 100+ damage. HGB has long-range mortars (they might not be new, though, TBH) and the machine-gun thing from the first trailer. It also has a sniping thing, but that seemed astoundingly unimpressive.

Switch Axe's explosive discharge now just freaking grabs you onto the monster, and between that very distinct confirmation and the numbers, actually feels great, and not the 'oh, did I miss? It didn't even react to my huge explosion' of the past. Previously, you could enter Sword Mode at 50%, and reloading it gave a full 50%. Add on Gen's Demon Riot and Energy Charge, and the Switch Axe half might as well not have existed. Now, while you can enter at about 33% charge, reloading only gives 33%, too, and it can drain kinda fast, so there's reason to use it in Switch Axe mode. It's weaker than Gen's SA, sure, but it feels like a far better weapon. It helps that the transformations now include attacks themselves, making Switch Axing mid-fight an actual thing.

Hunting Horn is improved enough just be seeing the notes like XX would've added, but the fact you can chain songs into each other means you always have ALL your songs active, all the time. It kinda feels less interesting, weirdly. You're like, 'oh, now what should I do' during the fight, instead of desperately going into the menu repeatedly mid-fight because you have the memory of a knat while doing sick flips off everything's back so you can play the notes in relative peace in midair.

Sword and Shield is more like Shield and Sword, having even better Shield attacks added again. The reverse-shoryuken after the leaping attack is kinda spotty and inaccurate, but the leaping attack itself isn't as important for re-positioning, either. The loss of Whirlwind Slash and Oils ultimately results in me liking World SnS less than the Gen version of it.

Katana has a couple more moves than just 'try to spam out Spirit, uh, whatsitcalled', but is still mostly the same. If you're not a fan of the Spirit Gauge, not caring via Sakura Slash is still probably the more fun version of the weapon. Bow is the same, but with one special attack that takes forever and a day to charge. It's still the best the Bow's been, but I'm still not 100% sold on it. Charge Blade has a weird slidey-thing and can charge the blade itself, too. Nifty, but feels like it'd be impossible to do within actual combat. Dual Blades are almost identical. I still don't give a damn about Insect Glaive and Gunlance.

Mantles and such are pretty much better, global, Hunter Arts with a more honest recharge time. Challenger is Mace's Taunt and the Healing spike is one of the generic HAs nobody ever uses. It's hard to get a feel for a Palico's value and options from the demo, but the fact you can personally tell it to heal/flash/taunt, rather than having to hope they don't do something stupid is a huuuge step up.

I saw you can save 140+ armour sets, so I can most certainly redo the 'save a set for every monster' thing that I did in Gen. Couldn't set items, but I imagine it's also an unreasonably high number. You lose out on that 4th excess item pouch that Gen/4U had, but instead, all ore and monster parts have a whole separate, even bigger bag they get dumped into. Mining is stupidly fast, and you get a whole whack of 2-5 mushrooms/honey in a single pick. Gathering for supplies in the middle of a rough fight absolutely seems viable. Potion drinking-and-moving is great, but all-in-all, it feels like other things even it out. Changing sets at camp could be stellar for multi-monster fights, or even just 'oh, face is busted, time to put away the gun, and stab it in the face directly'.

I'm sure there's other things I have to say buuuut somehow I've taken like an hour and a half to write what I meant to do in like ten minutes sooo that's probably a good reason to stop blabbing.

#Monster Hunter World #Monster Hunter

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