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

Don't think even Solas get to explain why on earth he's breaking the status quo, to the point I think the only one who wants to redeem him is just apologist.

I mean, what is his version of ideal world that he think it's worth it that thousands of people must die (insert chud meme here) so that the world he wanted to exist become reality?

Let's break down some:

1. Elven Slavery bad, and Solas must make Thedas great again by breaking the veil.
-------the problem with this: Slavery barely mentioned, iirc only 2 dialogue string where people get to say that "Solas hates slavery". Minrathous has one or two codex entry about slavery, but there is no act of enslavement we can see (again, correct me if I'm wrong)..

Based on Trespasser, I thought Solas’ whole thing was restoring the elven civilization, and the destruction of modern Thedas was a necessary byproduct.

“I would have entered the Fade, using the mark you now bear. Then I would have torn down the Veil. As this world burned in the raw chaos, I would have restored the world of my time … the world of the elves.”

“I will save the elven people, even if this world must die.”

Come DATV, he insists he was NOT destroying the world, and instead his sole focus is tearing down the Veil while “minimizing the damage,” implying that some humans, dwarves and Qunari would survive.

I guess he *forgot* about his original motivations along with that army of elven followers.

Don't think even Solas get to explain why on earth he's breaking the status quo, to the point I think the only one who wants to redeem him is just apologist.

I mean, what is his version of ideal world that he think it's worth it that thousands of people must die (insert chud meme here) so that the world he wanted to exist become reality?

Let's break down some:

1. Elven Slavery bad, and Solas must make Thedas great again by breaking the veil.
-------the problem with this: Slavery barely mentioned, iirc only 2 dialogue string where people get to say that "Solas hates slavery". Minrathous has one or two codex entry about slavery, but there is no act of enslavement we can see (again, correct me if I'm wrong).

Many if not all elves that is shown by the game is not indentured servant/slaves,
the game did not show you that Slavery is a problem/dilemma,
the game didn't show you the elven oppression.

The game is doing a bad job at convincing me that Solas is a liberator because it seems to me, there is nothing to liberate.

2. The Two Elven Gods did absolutely nothing to convince us, the player, that their vision of the world is better than the world we are currently live in. They're one dimension antagonist. They're just bad, because they are, and seemingly their only function is to justify why Solas had to rebel in Ancient times. If that is what supposed to convince us that Solas is a good guy (which it isn't, because player and companion noted that Solas just treat his friend like a pawns), The game does a horrible job at crafting believable antagonists, let alone complex ones


Again, I cannot fathom what would be the reason for somebody that would redeem solas, except that if they're emotionally invested with the character, in which case logical reason should be out of the window.

Slavery and anything sexual are the worst sins that are completely taboo nowdays.

I'm honestly not sure I completely oppose this taboo, but there is no doubt we miss on some plotlines and ideas because of it. No chance we're ever gonna see something like the broodmother again

Man imagine seeing the Tevinter and Quarni war. With the Quarni hitting Minthrathos with their cannons (I think the Quarni developed canons in canon, right? Lol) and for the city to rebuilt itself because it's a magical city. One can only hope lmao, I suppose. I also wanted to meet the descendants of the magisters who went to the black city because I think that would've been wild.

Yeah Tevinter was definitely a place for amazing things to happen - to have taken part in - but they squandered it to make it all clean and sparkly.

It can certainly be portrayed and even shown as a systemic evil without being caricatured.

I mean, in DAO we had Loghain selling elves from the Denerim alienage into slavery.

Fenris in DA2 was an escaped slave.

Even DAI touched on it with the Tranquil and "reeducated" Qunari.

But we have a non-binary villain, this alone makes them a very complex character!

Of course it could but I don't think people nowdays have the same sensibilities they had when DAO and DA2 were made, that is what I was trying to say.

It seems clear to me that the "sanitation" of Dragon Age is, among other things, also a result of the times we live in, in which it seems like people don't have high tolerance for specific atrocities (SA and slavery) while being able to tolerate others (genocide, murder in general) in their media.

I'm not saying it's good or bad mind you, I can see the upsides and downsides.

I just finished S2 of Arcane and DAMN that's how you write an amazing sympathetic villain. My favorite character in S1, what an emotional rollercoaster. Wasn't too happy about the first 4 episodes with the relationship melodrama but it turned into a visual and narrative masterpiece at the end. Few things have impressed me as much as that show in recent years. Piece of art. All hail the French!

DAV is hot garbage in comparison. Absolutely creatively dead.