Dragon Age: The Veilguard Thoughts
(SPOILERS FOR WHOLE GAME! From immediately after finishing day of, maybe more later)
Fun game! I have lots of thoughts! Here I mostly just want to fire out some immediate post game feelings on the characters, factions, and events. I hope you enjoy reading. I played a Grey Warden spec warrior with lots of burning, projectile spam, and using 2H Casket Sharp, which I don’t think I can prove deals extra damage compared to other 2H’s but I anecdotally felt like it did big numbers over the rest.
Neve
For my run, I had Neve get injured stopping the ritual, saved Treviso, and had her get taken by Elgar’nan. This created the main thread of Rook’s regret, of constantly having Neve suffer the consequences of Rook’s actions and putting Neve second to the others, which was a fun through line for Neve’s story. I would say that reflecting on the game, Neve’s story is the one that comes first to my head and she had the most dramatic arc that I think on fondly.
Unfortunately as the player, my choices was partially driven by not enjoying Neve’s moment-to-moment writing, as well as her codex entries. Personally I detest the character voice style of omitting the subjects of sentences, which seemed like a consistent quirk for her.
(alt text: screenshot of codex entry “Neve’s Case Notes: Aelia. Text of entry: Aelia’s back. Still a zealot. Somehow worse. Where has she been? Never left? Too many places to slip through. Like the catacombs, but her old haunt’s clean.Too many tunnels. Somewhere else? Need more of a lead. Look for rumors. Ask Lucanis-heard anything from before? Old notes at apartment. Warn Rana. Hiding behind puppets. New trick, Blood magic stronger. “Risen god” showed her the way. Someone made friends with an escaped god. The bet’s on Elgar’nan. But there’s more to this. What’s the big picture? How does she “fix” Minrathous?)
I mean it’s pretty clear as a “detective’s rapid note taking”, but it grated away at me and it felt like she talked this way as well. It was lots of fact stating that (at the points they appeared in the narrative) were beaten into the ground already, which Neve and Harding suffered the most from especially in the early game.
Which is also to say, Neve being a detective seemed like the idea her character was originally constructed around but I did not find Neve to do much actual detective work. I too love a detective, and am in love with the conceit of the detective, so I understand the desire to have that be Neve. But I don’t think they took advantage of that in a way that played to the strengths of that archetype. (Freely admit that I haven’t read the novels/short stories, which may help with appreciating her.)
I have also heard that the “saved Minrathous” Neve has a different flavor, so perhaps this was a function of my choices.
Harding
Harding was the character I was least engaged with, which kills me as someone who thought she was great in DAI. As I mentioned with Neve, she got saddled with a lot of the early game exposition, and it was particularly bad in my opinion. No one should have to say “Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain” that much in their entire lives.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd5QZrJDV2U (Video taken from the first five hours of Dragon Age: The Veilguard)
Why couldn’t they just say the Evanuris? Proper noun overload? I would have much preferred that to hearing “Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain” or “the gods” (the GODS! Our gods! WE have to KILL the GODS-the elven gods-by ourselves?!) for the umpteenth time. It soured my first impressions of Harding and Neve so strongly.
Harding transitioned from discussing the absurdity of fighting the gods (Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain, in case you have forgotten), to a discussion of how weird her newfound magic was. It frankly was not that weird! A story about how Harding is suddenly uncomfortable in her own body because of the magic is good, but I felt that was never fully engaged with and the writing would always return to Harding apologizing for how “weird” it was.
The meeting with the Kal-sharok dwarves and the Oracle had no juice for me. At this point, I still do not know how the Kal-sharok dwarves survived the darkspawn, or if they are tainted with the blight like Grey Wardens, and the game did not seem interested in exploring that. I would describe the Oracle as having a valkyrie-esque vibe, which personally is something that I have never liked as an aesthetic, so turning Harding into chosen warrior woman was the least interesting direction I could’ve imagined.
I wish that Harding’s companion quest got to be responsible for the reveal about the origins of the blight. I thought that would have flowed beautifully and given her more play in the main storyline. Which, I’d also go so far to claim is the big reveal of Dragon Age as a series, and should have had its own quest. Dwarves have been the oft neglected race of the series, and learning their relationship to the blight and the Titans was a big moment for me that I wanted to be bigger. Why wasn’t Kal-sharok a faction instead? I know the answer is video game production, but regardless.
For the record, Harding was also the one that died in Isle of the Gods, and I didn’t plan for it or reload after it happened. Thought it was cool as hell, shoutouts to the developers for killing someone no matter what you do. Ramped up the tension terrificly for a wonderful finale.
Taash
Taash was a stand out character for me. One of my favorite scenes in the game is the part where they discuss their gender with Rook in the blighted dragon cave. The way they work up to it in the scene by comparing themselves to the blighted dragon and being scared something is fundamentally wrong with them that is incompatible with the world. That their sense of self is compromised and has no real home. Oof! It’s good! Killer performance.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeuKRMFSdlA) Screenshotted from this video since I was in my feelings during this scene.
(alt text: Taash: They turn her into something blighted and ugly and wrong. Something she was never supposed to be!)
I thought the codex entry where Taash talks about gender identity with the Shadow Dragons was a little on the nose for me, in the sense that it’s using a bit of our current vernacular for describing queerness and putting that directly into the setting (rolling my eyes at Maevaris saying “You’re valid”). But I can also understand that entry is not for me, that maybe someone playing this can get something out of that, the video game medium can be a transformative process for thinking through this, and whoever wrote most likely had to fight and fight for it be in the game. The Taash scene described above did it in a way I appreciated more.
Also putting a pin here that playing Rook as trans/non-binary character then positions them as somewhat of a peer/elder who can help Taash come to terms with this, which I think is an interesting position to put the player character in! Worth thinking about some more.
Emmrich
I’ve heard there is some branching choices for the discussion of mortality and death with Emmrich, but the ascension to lichdom seemed like a no-brainer based on the conversations we had. After the time I had spent with Emmrich and Manfred, I saw very little growth in the relationship between the two of them, so at the point the choice rolled around, I didn’t have any narrative weight I could attribute to bringing Manfred back.
Likewise, I wanted to have some kind of discussion with Emmrich about the nature of ever lasting undeath being perhaps an avoidance of his fear of death, but the options I was presented with didn’t seem to support that line of reasoning. Like I mentioned at the beginning of this section, it’s possible that because I was accepting of Emmrich and his views of mortality too early/quickly that I was cut off from more possible arguments about it.
Emmrich’s lichdom was also the last thing I did before the Isle of the Gods, which I thought was a nice capstone “everyone is hanging out and having a laugh” scene before the end of the game.
Davrin
Davrin’s scene with Eldrin was one of my favorite in the game. An old man watches a sweet child who sings to the halla go off on a self imposed death sentence for the sake of heroism, and writes him off. But then he comes back and has unwittingly become a shepherd. What’s not to love.
(alt text: Eldrin, looking at Davrin: Davrin…I’m glad to see you took the road less traveled. It suits you.)
Also I enjoyed Davrin’s post-Weisshaupt speech about being a blade without purpose. I played a good chunk of the game with Davrin and Bellara as companions and their relationship was a high point for me.
Lucanis
I liked how Lucanis got to have a big part of the main story line by being a contract killer. Cool wings. I used him a bunch in the early game, but eventually ended up using Davrin and Taash a bit more in his place.
I was expecting something entirely different with Spite, as he felt like a nonfactor for a lot of the game. I’m not sure Spite was entirely necessary to the portrayal of Lucanis. More weird abomination stuff please.
His final choice of either imprisoning or forgiving Illario was another no-brainer. Go directly to jail, my guy! Do not pass go! I’m not sure what the idea was there, I would think flaying him alive in front of the Crows was going to be the harsh choice, and imprisonment would be the “merciful” option. Which perhaps is an evolution of the morality ethos, but I don’t know what narrative justification you could have for forgiving Illario.
Bellara
I thought Jee Young Han gave a tremendous performance as Bellara. As I started the game, I was pretty concerned I was going to crash out of it due to an over exposure of “Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain” (the elven gods), and was on the verge of throwing my computer out the window if Bellara said Nadus Dirthalen one more time in her introduction. However, it was Bellara’s first companion quest and her discussing her self-inflicted blame for her brother and the well-being of the Veil Jumpers that roped me in to the rest of the game.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pWtW84VKys) Screenshotted from this video since I did not get a shot of this line.
(alt text: Bellara, looking forlorn: Then why does it feel like it was?)
I ended up romancing Bellara as well, and I thought it was endearing but mostly fine? A little bit of a variation on Cassandra’s love of serials for several of the scenes and nothing worth writing home about. To be frank I feel like the player romance was really not that big of a deal in this game, despite all the attention they get in marketing, or at least did not stand out in my playtime. The inter-companion romances were exciting to see (and especially liked Taash’s “everyone I love dies” line. Stew in it!)
Solas
He was fun! Laughed out loud at the end when he said he was sorry for betraying me again.
(alt text: Solas: I am sorry for this final betrayal…)
(me when I’m sorry)
I did the Mythal ending, and I really liked the themes Rook, Varric, and Solas discussed regarding agency and regret. If I write another one of these, I think it will be more about that. It’s the thematic core of the game and despite all 95 of my quarrels I’ve nailed to the Chantry door here, this may be my favorite exploration of a theme that Bioware has done.
Varric
I had pieced out the reveal a bit, and was personally hoping for a bigger confrontation scene between the party, Rook, and Varric. I feel like the implication of the game is that the Varric we see for most of it is actually a delusion of Rook’s, but I personally like to think it is actually Varric’s spirit in part that was guiding Rook along (instead of it all being one big trick). The last conversation implied that to me.
Thought it would have been fun to have some kind of Emmrich and Varric conversation where Emmrich isn’t sure if either Rook or Varric realize that he’s dead. I think there was room to explore that weirdness, but I’m not sure that would have matched the designer’s vision of the big reveal scene. Room for fanfic, I suppose.
Also enjoyed the echoing between Varric and Solas saying variations of “You have everything you need.” Off the dome, the other one that comes back around a bunch is “Whatever it takes,” which is a little corny to me but the repetition hammers it home and I come around on loving it.
Morrigan
I wish she wasn’t so friendly and helpful. My favorite moment of hers was when Rook asked a foolish question about the fragments of Mythal, to which she responded with the only bit of Morrigan disgust I can recall.
(alt text: Morrigan: You are aware of what the word “fragment” means, are you not? One small piece of many formed when something greater is broken?)
Other than that, she was perfunctory, which makes me sad.
Rook
I played with Erika Ishii’s voice over (the Low pitched one), and thought they did terrific as the lead. Rook has a couple variations on the core personality of “sensitive battle therapist” and is probably worth thinking about more and writing something else on. Perhaps there were too many times where Rook’s lines were simply “____, I am so sorry.” I guess that’s on me for picking those options (skill issue). Otherwise, enjoyed it!
Factions
While I do love Vorgoth (don’t we all?), the factions and gaining rep with them was such a strange experience that I have to imagine it was one of the big relics of DAVE being a live service game, and could not be extricated or transformed. The closest analog I can relate it to is Destiny’s love of Titans, Hunters, and Warlocks being three distinct groups in the world, and that the original design of DAVE was trying to invoke that. I suppose I have a tiny amount of affection for the Destiny classes banter (probably from having Too Many Hours in Destiny 2), but anytime a character drew attention to my history as a Veil Jumper, I desperately wished for them to discuss literally anything else. Stating how Rook’s characteristics were befitting the group despite myself not being able to call to mind anything unique to the Veil Jumpers compared to any other faction regularly pulled me out of the game.
Why not a Dalish Council or something like that instead of Veil Jumpers? It diverged from my previous interpretation of elvish society(Dalish and city elves) in the series a large amount for little to no payoff.
Lords of Fortune were mostly non-existent and felt the least thematically cohesive with the rest. While I’d normally agree with the design ethos of “Add Isabela to fix it,” it was not satisfying for me here.
In Conclusion
That’s it, I can probably keep going but will need to sit on it some more. I’d like to think more about the performance of Rook as the player character, main theme of agency in the game, and how it mechanically supports that. Or I could just talk more about any of these characters. Thank you to anyone who worked on the game for making a real treat, and thank you to whoever reads this!
Final Note: WHY does the Skip button have to appear during cut scenes when I am taking screen shots! EGREGIOUS!