Dragon Age The Veilguard Criticism Thread (formerly Skepticism Thread) [Spoilers]

In some ways I recommend stopping with DAI.   It is a good ending to the series to have the Inquisitor gazing off into the sunset with their LI, unless you romanced Solas, in which case, you win some, you lose some.   Then ignore the bit with Solas and Flemeth (they even managed to ruin her in absentia in DAV).     It's unfortunate because the DLC were some of the best bits of DAI but in some ways they were a precursor of what was to come, particularly with Trespasser but even the others.  To give some examples:

JAWS OF HAKKON

The whole business of the origins of the Exalted March on the Dales.   I was pretty fed up with the Emerald Knights quest in DAI because that had the whole star crossed lovers vibe to it and it seemed to have trivialised the whole reason the war erupted.   I also didn't like the various recommendations from the advisors concerning he peace offering the Dalish wanted to offer as a way of building bridges.   However,  at least there were options and even the Dalish haters had the alternative of giving the information to the Chantry.    Then JoH took it to a whole new level.   The Dalish were presented as wholly at fault and you weren't even allowed to defend them.   Every companion that had an opinion on it, blamed them.  Bloody Sera even trivialised it again by suggesting it was all "pride cookies".    The only slight concession that they may have had justification for thinking Drakon was "no better than Tevinter" was if you listened to Ameridan's memories and he admitted that Drakon wanted to "simplify" the religion in the south (the reality of which according to WoT2 was that he massacred every independent clan that didn't agree with his "vision".    That all happened before Ameridan became his "friend".   Was he blind or something?   Couldn't they at least had him cultivating friendship with Drakon in order to protect his own people?     Drakon was exactly the sort of corrupt leader the original Inquisition were set up to oppose.    Still, at least it did confirm my decision in Trespasser to disband my organisation rather than repeat history and make it the puppet of the Divine and, indirectly, Orlais.

Ameridan worshiping both Andraste and Ghilan'nain as mortals elevated to godhood.   That was just jaw dropping to me.    Yet, once again no one in game seemed to really get the significance of this.   I definitely got the vibe once more that the other Dalish were the ones in the wrong for not being able to adopt a similar approach rather than this was in direct contradiction to the dogma of the Chantry (and the Chant of Light) that there is only one god, the Maker.   It was like Cassandra's comment in the main game all over again, where she asked why my Dalish couldn't make room for just one more god in my pantheon?    This was definitely a precursor to how the revelations in DAV should have impacted more on people who claimed to have any sort of faith in either the Creators (which is how the Dalish used to refer to them) or the Maker.   The old 2013 trailer with Morrigan narrating (which was clearly pointing more to the events of DAV than DAI) stated that "faith lies in ashes".   Yes, that is how it should have appeared in DAV.   Anyone who had any genuine faith should have been having an existential crisis but any significance was reduced down to a few short lines of dialogue in the group therapy sessions and then gone.

Avvar mage training.   There had been hints of benign possession previously in the games with the codex on Rivaini wise women doing this deliberately to gain wisdom.   However, that was more a case of a adult mage presumably doing some sort of deal with a spirit/demon.   Now apparently it was possible to train up mages in a safe way by allowing them to be deliberately possessed by a spirit and then at the end of the process the spirit just leaves.   Except in the case of the trainee we meet who didn't want to give up her friendly spirit.     It did rather fly in the face of previous lore on the matter.    It was something of a follow on from the sage of Tyrdda Brightaxe though and did give a different perspective on the whole Andraste and the Maker story, so it challenged thinking on the matter rather than contradicted previous lore.    Still, it never really seemed to bother people as much as it should.    Again, from a faith perspective as much as anything else, although of course it did have some sort of relationship with the Seeker ritual.   Perhaps that is why Cassandra wasn't too bothered by it.

THE DESCENT

I loved the fact that we expanded on dwarf lore in this DLC.   However, my main objection at the time was how had the Titans been totally forgotten by everyone?   The dwarves have a vague memory in the reverence for the Stone but they were the ones most affected by what was done.   I had to assume some collective form of amnesia by all the races because, as DAV confirmed, apparently the humans were already around when the elves appeared.  I assume the Dalish racial memory was warped by propaganda.   Having seen the lore expanded further in DAV, the question now is, how was this titan unaffected?   Also, how did something that was originally a solid mineral become an organic liquid?   Is the lyrium the dwarves mine just dried blood?   (Funnily enough the writers of Rings of Power did something similar with mithril, turning it from just a cool metal to some magical cure all created through a nonsense, lore breaking process - I swear those writers had played Dragon Age.)   

Lots of other interesting concepts played with in the Descent, like those strange dwarves, but also the fire worshiping lizard people, but clearly they didn't know what to do with them, so buried them with the rest of the Keep.

TRESPASSER

It is a pity you can't play the bit with the Viddasala without encountering all that elven lore and having in the end to confront Solas.  It was also clearly a trailer for the next game (10 years too early) rather than proper sequel to DAI.   If the Inquisitor had been carried over into DAV then it would have been okay.   However, they weren't.