Do Not. Respond To My Doylist Criticism With A Watsonian Explanation.

uhh yeah

sighhhhhhhhh

Veilguard fails to realise that for those who believe, faith is stronger than anything, even facts.

Right in the beginning of Veilguard all the Dalish/veil jumpers are so nonchalant and against their gods returning, as if they were convinced offscreen that their whole faith was based on a lie (even though they all still wear vallaslin) and their gods were Evil™. This, again, fails to consider that the vast majority of the Dalish would either not believe or not care because it's their religion, their faith.

Morally ambiguous gods exist in real life religions too and it didn't stop people from believing in them. Divine morality transcends mortal understanding, so their actions are always rightful. This also leads to the concept of a 'god-fearing' person - even the term used (θεοσεβής) can mean both respect and fear. Mortals are humbled by the gods' power and greatness, and willfully submit to their divine authority.

You needn't go further than the goddamn Bible itself to see countless examples of unethical things that God did/supported including legitimization of slavery and punishment (Exodus 21:20-21 “Anyone who beats their male or female slave with a rod must be punished if the slave dies as a direct result, but they are not to be punished if the slave recovers after a day or two, since the slave is their property." is one unhinged example), cannibalism, many kinds of violence, war, and of course, genocide, one of which was literally the deliberate destruction of nearly all humanity and living creatures on earth. The god of the most widely practiced religion in the world for millenia. Ask a devout Christian if they would stop believing in God just because 'um actually he is bad'.

Mystery is also a great aspect of religion, which also makes it an excellent worldbuilding element for writers. Mystery adds to the immersion because just like the characters, we don’t know everything except the beliefs and unanswered questions. And we're not supposed to, because this is how religion works in real life, where faith is about belief rather than what’s fully understood. It makes the story feel more real and engaging. Professional writers - of a AAA title no less - should know this.

Religion was one of the greatest themes in all previous games, especially Andrastianism and the Elven pantheon. Reducing it all to 'the Evanuris did it' is disappointing to say the least, and even if it was the truth that only the writers knew, they should have kept it that way, or at least some of the mystery. It adds immersion, drama, nuance, it encourages thought and discussion. For all Veilguard failed in the 'show, don't tell' rule, in this case this is too much exposure, and not even done in a good way. ''Religion is fake, so now everyone's atheist or unfazed. Oh, except for one (1) person who is mildly upset'' is not how faith works, especially in a setting so religious as Thedas.

I love how every week in post-episode interviews, jacob anderson is just chilling and pondering louis’ precarious psyche and being like ‘oh louis is so fucked up. that man is Not well, can you believe how unwell he is??’ while assad zaman kinda looks like he’s been up all night trying to absorb armand into his soul and he’s like ‘armand is a little scheming bitch, he’s always scheming and planning and also he’s lonely. but mostly scheming’ and then every once in a while a wild sam reid appears and he goes ‘btw whatever they’re telling you about lestat, they’re lying and my close personal friend lestat de lioncourt is NOT happy about it’

the best thing about dragon age's canon being so "decide what did and didnt happen" dependent is that you can just ignore veilguard. none of this stupid shit happening is perfectly canon compliant for your world state. if veilguard can just decide what did and didnt happen in a world state so easily its only fair the player can do the same thing. like erm actually i consulted my dragon age keep dot com and none of that shit was in there. so

What shocked me about Pentiment is that it soon becomes very clear you're not here to solve the murder. You're not here to speak the truth. The system is inherently unjust and you're here to find evidence to condemn someone.

Even if the person is guilty, do they deserve death and damnation (they're Christians they believe in that kind of things) for what they've done? The game don't give you the time to investigate everything. Do you choose to investigate someone further because they seem guilty, or because you WANT them to be?

Most detective games won't let you move on until you find the right culprit, and you're delivering justice. The world will be illuminated by the truth. But most detective game don't make you watch the public execution.

opal cat

Bug 182 be like:

🎸🦗 🎶 🥁🐜

🎶 🎤🐛 🎶

🎶All the🎶

🎶Crawl things🎶

Arthur Trevethin Nowell- Captives, 1887.