Lady @Lady@cat.family

@coriander i assumed as much but saying “i’m sure they’ll be fine” is just asking for trouble so

@coriander mostly just wear goggles, don't put body parts in front of or behind any spinning blades, and keep hands hair etc away from anything sharp

@coriander woodworking is not too difficult if you have the space for it and also know how to not cause yourself severe bodily harm

@coriander but yeah i mean, bioware games are character driven narratives, there’s no doubting that, and part of this is just me seeing more of the machinery behind what makes the magic work than other people, which is not necessarily a good thing, and part of this is me being jaded about how every media franchise is trying to lean in on recognizable characters that fans feel attachments towards that they can just keep cashing in on, instead of telling novel stories

BUT even beyond all that, like, i like My Neighbor Totoro for the characters. and no Bioware puppet has half the personality of Little Sister, or could ever, really, because their job isn't to be complete characters, it's to be plot drivers and tools for the player to build narrative around

(which is, contextually, much more important! it's a roleplaying game!)

@coriander oh yeah i mean they’re good bad jokes

@coriander i’m definitely getting extremely jaded by latest trends in fandom and marketing but i am growing very tired of media criticism that views characters in isolation rather than as something which develop out of and participate in a more wholistic narrative world

i was reading reviews of dragon age books on wikipedia and lots of critics evidently were like “this was good but i wanted more inquisition characters and less worldbuilding” and (a) read fanfiction and (b) idk learn how to appreciate a good story??

like anders is compelling as a character because of reams and reams of worldbuilding about the specific relationship between magic and religiosity; “powerful white man mage thinks he’s oppressed” would be cringe as fuck if magic weren’t established in the exact way that it was

these are “characters” but they’re not REALLY characters so much as symbols for specific positionalities and how the machinations of power and culture play out thru individuals

and having that reduced to “alistair tells good jokes” or “i find iron bull very fuckable” style analysis just feels bad to me, idk

@coriander there are definitely bioware characters i have liked but if that was the reason i was playing the game i would have finished inquisition

@coriander it's like handing out free licenses to Unreal Engine, you know, fuck epic, but also games

@coriander honestly being able to check out a DnD book when necessary while saving money to spend on indie downstreams which use the system seems pretty good

@coriander unfortunately that's the genericized name for childhood magic dragon friends