the three that died in the yellow of autumn grass

Got to the Brecilian Forest and I'm reminded about Zathrian... as a character... a character that exists... and the Nature of the Beast... as a quest that exists.... an quest about an enormous immortal demon wolf and an ancient bald elven leader unable to let go of old hatred... going through all of this is going to take forever.

Something interesting - I don't think they meant for the elven to sound so different between games. I think the issue may have been, they were pretty shit at phonetically typing out what the words sounded like for their voice actors. Because this is not anything near as helpful as the IPA, I will tell you that. I'll write more about elven in the morning.

I own all the Dragon Age books, but I only read the ones with Solas in them (I know I’m a bit hyperfocused lol) so I’m going to read those as well.

Today, when I was putting a quilt on a quilting frame, my mind wandered to Dragon Age and I couldn't stop thinking about this question because I couldn't answer it, even after like 15 minutes of hard thought. So I turn to you guys.

Why do you think Solas likes Mythal?

going through some of morrigan's conversations where she talks about flemythal, and I'm reminded that morrigan and solas have a very weird relationship through her. do they both see her as a mother? would that make them the weirdest siblings in dragon age? does she see her as a mother and solas sees her as a friend? what do I do with my suspicion that at one point solas was written as mythal's lover? would that make him spiritually morrigan's stepdad? or was he the family dog? Is Flemythal the abomination similar enough to Mythal to draw these relationship lines? I know they argue with each other in mythal's temple, but it's so funny because it's almost like they're both arguing in her house about like which one of them knows her the best. And morrigan doesn't even know she's talking about her own mother. What Pride Has Wrought remains the quest with the strangest and strongest undercurrents

(these are both Flemeth talking) It's interesting that she would capitalize the "He" when referring to the Archdemon. And I think this would have been the first part of the game where it's really confirmed to you that the darkspawn are people.

I'm fascinated that they included every edited version of every line they wrote, so you can see the whole process from beginning to end. I think I remember a Bioware video or podcast where they talked about how they almost scientifically determined what the best line length was, and they said that like... an NPC should say 3 lines max in a row before giving you back control to make a decision. I wish I remembered which video that was so I could rewatch it.

At any rate, when reading through these, the edited lines are always 1000% better. It's just wild how few words you need, and how ideas are easier to process when they come one at a time. I can also kind of understand better why the writers always are so humble about it being a team effort because, yeah, that's way more editing than I thought.

(shakes Flemeth) TELL ME WHAT YOU KNOW

The coolest part of the DAO Toolkit are these comments that the writers made for how the lines should be delivered. This is about Morrigan reacting to Alistair hearing all the people died. He apparently cried like a baby... ;o; ;o; ;o;

there are so many notes like this. I don't remember the same kind of notes for lines in the Inquisition files, but those were so hard to look at in comparison that maybe I just wasn't looking hard enough?

I'm just laughing... like in the scene after the big signal fire battle where everybody gets betrayed and dies, you're there with Alistair trying to figure out what to do, and there just happens to be an elven goddess right there, saying, "ah yeah, that sounds good" "no that sounds stupid" "that might work" "oh that sounds like a plan to me"

Flemythal I love you

this game series is about getting pep talks from ancient deities and rising to the occasion

this is like the first conversation scene of Dragon Age: Origins, and if we'd paid attention to it, we would have seen it was clear foreshadowing that the elven gods were "wrong" in a way that the Dalish don't expect. I've seen people claim the elven gods plot is some annoying new direction in the story that is made up to throw the series off track from what it's really about. so let me repeat myself

this conversation happens in the first ten minutes of Dragon Age: Origins

also I figured out how to use the Origins Toolset to look at the dialogue trees so you're all in a world of hurt

I'm excited to get to the end of my replay so I can read the like... 5 comic books and 100 dev posts I've missed in the past years. I know I've missed some things. I did watch the Dragon Age anime on Netflix, it was really good

made the mistake of clicking on the "for you" tab and saw the worst dragon age text post I have ever seen. It was like "man, I hope Bioware goes back to exploring [idea they thoroughly explored in all 3 games] like they did in Origins. I just know that they're just so obsessed with [idea that has been the main focus of everything from the very first cutscene of Origins]. I'm so sick of it."

This is what 10 years of not actually playing any of the games and playing them in your head is like. 10 years. I think some of you guys need a break. I know it did me some good.

two minutes into talking to Alistair and he already made me laugh out loud. I forgot how fun he is. what a prince

It's really crazy how every elf I see is just the most unhappy and abused person. I don't remember meeting a single happy elf in the entire series. They're all enslaved and lost and suffering and browbeaten servants. Solas please destroy the world please. don't even hesitate. right now immediately

he's just so.... dreamy