Dragon Age Inquisition - Doomsday Cult Simulator

[@justmeagain4662]

The fact that when you don't agree with Sera to disparage an important part of your heritage for the sake of your relationship with her, she just assumes you think she's not smart enough for you says a lot. It's honestly vile how she even tries to make you feel bad for her boomerang bigotry. "Waaah, so you're dumping me because I'm not elven enough for you?" Sera, *you're* the one dumping *me* because I won't let myself be emotionally blackmailed into being a bootlicker like you.

[@zakai-kaz]

Your bashing of Sera is healing to my soul. That i couldn't get my elven mage to challenge her or at the very least shut her down on any of that self loathing bull in anyway that was substantial just lead to me utterly avoiding her recruitment every other playthrough.

[@zakai-kaz]

"Take your elves I'm just people." The fuck does she even mean by that.

[@SuperPal-tr3go]

To be fair she does get better in Trespasser... when its revealed the Dalish religion is a complete miserable lie which finally allows her to sympathize with them because she doesn't have to worry about being objectively the wrong type of elf thus she has no reason to be insecure anymore. It's an incredibly fucked up way to go through character development but I kind of love it.

[@ghostphantom8453]

This hurts my soul as a grandson of immigrants cause like I don't really know much of my own culture like that and I feel shame for not being taught that culture.

[@baydiac]

@@SuperPal-tr3goSo she doesn’t get better, basically. Her awful words and behavior come out when someone shares beliefs independent of hers: all other gods must be demons, especially Dalish gods, and so on. There is no indication that she’s become a better person if she sympathizes and acts kindly when someone tells her “btw Sera you were right the Dalish gods [aren’t real, are evil, etc.]” because her beliefs aren’t being challenged anymore. She’s sympathetic when things go her way and bigoted when they don’t. She would have only been “better” in Trespasser if she learned she was wrong and begrudgingly began to accept it. That’s like saying “my transphobic aunt who says awful things about me has gotten better because when I told her I’m not trans anymore (went back in the closet) she stopped saying awful things and was actually very warm to me”. That’s not how it works!

[@geomease]

I chose a Qunari female mage who embraced the mantle of Herald of Andraste, specifically so I could piss off and offend every single faction simultaneously. The qunari hated me for being an outside female abd mage The church hated me for being the herald of andraste and a ‘dirty filthy qunari’ The templats hated me for being a mage The mages hated me for claiming to be the herald of the chantry. It was a fun run where everyone was pissed off at me but couldn’t do anything because I was too powerful.

[@Spectralgamer135]

I always felt kinda bad for Sera, doesn't change the fact we still broke up when she demanded my Dalish mage forswear her gods. As someone who actively worships what christians consider to be pagan gods this isnt the first time I've heard that shit and it will never fly with me. But more to the point Sera reminds me of those folks who cozy up to groups that actively hate people like them and I wish we had the opportunity to point out that the humans she was so desperately trying to be like will never see her as a person, just a convenient means to an end to be disposed of when her utility is gone. The poor girl needs therapy but sadly thedas is still probably a few centuries/millenia from developing the concept divorced of religious context.

[@Armaggedon185]

In regards to letting players pick their own race and background, even a little thematic consistency would help the story lots. Make the dwarf a fugitive. Make the human a poor nonbeliever. The theme of Dragon age is about oppressed people turning out to be the world's greatest saviors, in spite of what other people do or say about them, but the games haven't realized that yet.

[@krankarvolund7771]

Yeah, even without going as far as Skyrim where your race is just a skin and two bonuses and have no impact on the story, you can at least reduce the impact it has on the story by giving everyone the same start as a fugitive or something, and just building on the race differences later in annex dialogue.

[@therotryzit]

Having the Inquisitor give all the villains ironic punishments was the best part of this snorefest.

[@Naoise012]

"Just because a hot older woman told you to." You do NOT want to know what I'd do just because a hot older woman told me to.

[@anonlvl1957]

Female quanari mage is disney maleficent basicly And therefore best class

[@eauxkei702]

Unpopular opinion: Playing as an Andrastian human mage was the most fun I had in Inquisition. Playing as someone who was raised by a privileged, noble family of templars who fell into second-class citizen status the moment her powers surfaced was a blast to roleplay. I played into the pre-established background and ended up with a character who had to grow out of her self-hatred and become her own person. I struggled with parts of Inquisition, but playing this particular character helped me through it. Had way more fun with this character than I did with my elf, qunari, and dwarf.

[@crimsonhawk9492]

You get it!!!

[@elcalabozodelandroide2]

well yes ; that bc it is the only part that is better made

[@echo8395]

i always like playing as a human mage who doesn't believe in the maker, mainly because it was fun getting disapproval from Cassandra when I said I didn't believe in the maker

[@bussing666]

I feel so called out because my first character was a qunari mage and I had a fun time as him

[@XainRussell]

Honestly I hadn’t even thought about the treatment of Elves in different fantasy settings until Dragon Age went out of its way to treat elves like shit in such a blatant and explicit manner. I come from a predominantly D&D themed background when it comes to elves, and in most settings for those games Elves, and most player races in general, aren’t treated as any significantly more powerful or special than Humans. I think pulling a Tolkien and making elves a more powerful race isn’t that big a deal because they were basically just the Fae and that’s the Fae’s entire deal, to be the otherworldly force that could help or hinder on a whim or if you’re just polite enough. I’ve always sort of preferred keeping player races on the same even keel though, when fantasy racism isn’t baked into the setting, because then it doesn’t linger and fester when either A) the player(s) won’t do anything or B) the player(s) CAN’T do anything about it. In regards to Dragon Age, the suppression and subjugation of Mages and Elves are the most interesting conflicts to engage with, and yet the writers are desperately trying to jingle keys in your face to try and get you not to think about it. Also yeah, that fucking ball where you had to schmooze with nobles was torture, and having no good result come of it made it feel like such a waste of time.

[@Estarile]

Honestly the only time I've seen an response to Tolkein's elves that worked was Pratchett's elves. And that was A: fully intentional, and B: was done by playing up the fae origins of the elves.

[@karb__]

Babe wake up, new lily post

[@jaspervanheycop9722]

An exta point against Sera: holding your bow like that (25:10) shows she's a buffoon. Either she dislocates her shoulder or her bow is so pissweak it probably couldn't pierce the Inquisitors casual outfit. The Bioware animator still at "work".

[@mikailaturkleson7472]

I got Inquisition for free from a sale on Epic Game's store but even then I can't help but feel I would have been better off not bothering. I barely started the Hinterlands on my own because the gameplay was just soul sucking and none of the companions were grabbing me. After watching Lily record for Inquisition every step of the way, I am definitely not going to bother with this game again. SWTOR has less MMO bullshit than this game and that's an actual MMO. Also, I used to think Sera was cute before I saw what she said about other elves. I feel ashamed. Also Also, yes. I did draw 7:45 XD

[@jaspervanheycop9722]

Inquisition came out, or rather was developed during, an awkward time for RPG's, when everyone had to be open world and have some form of multiplayer integration. I'm happy that's over, I got really sick of having to play 50 hours at least of side content every single RPG (and no, "just skip it" isn't valid, you'll end up getting a very hard endgame). Also the Hinterlands clearly was where most of the development time went, and it's still a chore. The other areas are just the Hinterlands again but with a different biome. (the same big hub area, endless wastes with some side fluff, optional giga hard side boss setup) If you bounced of there, it's probably just not your game (it wasn't for me either, but I still finished it since back then I didn't have the disposable income to buy more than 2 games a year...)

[@bleakautomaton4808]

The treatment of elves in some fantasy is pretty crap. Not as much as the whole "no POC in medieval times so therefore not in fantasy media" garbage. It does suck.

[@Valeria-pf3xy]

Definitely agree about the humans being the "good at everything" race in fantasy and sci-fi because it's boring compared to what other races are allowed to be: interesting. Throughout all the editions of DnD, all other races get a variety of traits that make them stand out amongst others, but humans get to be customizable as their special thing, which means they get nothing other an extra feat and more skills. If humans were allowed to be more interesting, they would be good at throwing and endurance running, because that's what humans in real life are good at evolutionarily. Maybe we'd also get some focus on cultures that rely on human runners to deliver messages and/or on sports based on throwing things or lasting for long periods of time that humans just excel in compared to others. Probably would look more akin to non-European cultures, but that's just ludicrous.

[@jaspervanheycop9722]

That's like the one thing I really like about GalCiv's lore. There the humans are inventors, innovators and diplomats, they clearly have their own shit going on and aren't just the other races minus whatever intersting traits they have. Nor is it just another Humanity Fuck Yeah story, the Humans get wrecked by their open attitude and experimentation all the time. (Also I like how for once the outlook on humanity is cooperative rather than machiavellian/space fascist)

[@blockyuniverseproductions]

For a project I am working on, I actually gave humans the Alchemist specialization.

[@dianehallmeyer8901]

Yay, a lily analysis video of something ive never heard of 😊

[@RorschachRaccoon]

Idk. I feel like DAI did give me some chance to affect the world for the better. By making Leliana the Divine, you're able to disband the Circles in favor of the College of Enchanters which are just schools with political sway and no real opposition if you don't recruit Vivienne. By the end of the game mages, elves, dwarves, and qunari are at least officially accepted by the Chantry if nothing else and as far as I know, the institution of the Templars and the Seekers had completely died out because of my choices. It's possible even the Dalish elves got a better shake with Leliana's inclusivity amendments compounded with making sure Briala became an ambassador during the Winter Palace. It wasn't perfect and left a lot of things in the air but for the most things were remarkably better than when they started back in Origins.

[@spectre1300]

8:55 Aww. I like Dwarves, Good ole classic Stumpy Grumpies

[@arthurcreatio7798]

Rock and Stone, my brethren!

[@blockyuniverseproductions]

*Raises book with grudgeful intent.*

[@spectre1300]

@ Pulls up my own book of Grudges and stares back

[@CawfeeCakes]

I didn’t play a qunari until veilguard, and i fell so in love with her, but i STILL went back and made an elf. Because elves are superior, and i am helpless against such a notion.

[@Storm-crow13]

You made a brief throwaway comment about magic the gathering and my brain started being annoying about it. MtG has a multiverse with countless worlds and a couple don't even have humans but many of them are dominated by European flavored humans, some are dominated by other flavors of humans, Some don't have species dominated cultures with humans mixed into every faction, and in some humans and former humans are the only type of people. But with a fandom who's opinion on the story is surprise about it's existence I'll take those few worlds. Also you are far more ethical than about how you think about the Inquisitor needing to trick the Andrastians. I relished in the opportunity to subvert their bigoted hegemony through trickery and make the inquisitor someone most of them hate on principle so I played a Qunari Mage with no qualms about tricking them

[@Storm-crow13]

I just had a thought about Sera, she is a symptom of Bioware's insistence on subverting genre conventions. Similar to how Varric is the least dwarf-y dwarf they could make without making him absurd. They could not resist making an elf the least elf-y as possible and the result was Sera.

[@GenAqua]

We'll see if Lilly does videos on Mass Effect.

[@chartreusemaiden604]

And Gaider who is the original creator of dragon age said himself, this is all about elves. Plus, I am human, I wanna play play elf in every game.

[@mj91212]

Another banger, thank you Lily! 😁

[@VALKRYSA]

Thank you for the video ! Would love to see an analysis of the crpg Divinity Original Sin 2 if you want in the future if you want :)

[@hannahbranch7770]

As a Christian, I actually feel very seen, because God being inherently chaotic is something that I embrace whole heartedly but the rest of my kind tends to get weirdly defensive about it. Like hun, I think that you forgot that in the old testament alone Yawah changed his mind about if sins should be generational mid covent.

[@Estarile]

It really helps when you just don't take the old testament as settled history or a divinely dictated document. It contains truths, but it isn't historically accurate. That said. I cannot understand people who hear about Jesus's actions and don't understand God is chaotic. The rules are there for us, because God knows we freak out when They let us get more than a peak. God is Cthulhu who loves, cares for, and wants the best for humanity was not the conclusion I thought this comment would come to, but there it is

[@1ronlungg]

Bit of a missed opportunity to not engage with the fact that the villain in this game is a burned believer who literally went to heaven and saw that God wasn't there. Thus, he wishes to take his place. That motivation was obvious from the first scene you meet him: 'Beg that I succeed, for I have seen the throne of the Gods, and it was empty'. 'If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him' - Voltaire If anything, Inquisition is the Dragon Age of missed opportunities.

[@LilianOrchard]

I mentioned in the video that between playing the game and writing the script, I had completely forgotten what Corypheus was even doing because he was such a non-presence.

[@jonasboel2473]

Dragon Age put itself in a terrible situation. They want to make a story where you can put *any* protagonist in and the story is minimally impacted. It's often like that in these stories. BG3 act 1 solved this by being a hub of side quests and allowing you to completely skip it. Act 1 is the only act where you can just run through the entire thing. And the other two acts are railroads with two paths, and some optional side tracks

[@fern1009]

Congrats on getting this one done Lily, it is no small feat! This game was stonking big.

[@SuperPal-tr3go]

I am interested to see what Lily says about Veilguard because that game falls into the trap of Inquisition and just drops the ball on any interesting social conflicts while shitting on elves even harder.

[@blacktoothlongwalker1037]

Sera has strong feelings about her race. So she deals with it by ignoring the elf/human dynamic and focus on the upper/lower class dynamic. Thing is, it isn't one binary or another. There's multiple things going on, life is chaos. I've dealt internally with my own similar race issues, which is why I had to break up with her too. Liberating the oppressed really is worth a romance.

[@laughingjack85]

Humans are most likely a self insert character in most places. In my opinion though I think humans can be very interesting because then it's more of an exploration of the game and the world than the other characters who have baggage. My only gripe is that they should allow people to pick humans who come from various backgrounds and not just *noble human insert again* which would allow you to have the complex storylines similar to Dalish elves, city elves, dwarves, etc. P.S. I would like to see a world where humans are not the dominant race again tho

[@Billpro25]

Wow, the more I heard about WOW's storyline the more I am pleased I had never ever touched it.

[@pirateguy3521]

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ Thanks Lily! 🔥

[@troperhghar9898]

Inquisition was the only Dragon Age game i ever played and i still couldn't get through it

[@I.Simmonds]

I tend to let Selene die, and make Gaspard a puppet, I figured that was the least shit option.

[@brownbaron7179]

I prefer nerfed elves for a reason that I admittedly just assumed everyone else had: it’s not interesting. From an ecological perspective power like that needs to have some kind of drawback. I do agree humans are often too boring though. (Also the idea of a race of beautiful super-people kind of gives ubermench vibes to me.)

[@LilianOrchard]

"Vibes" are a terrible way to judge something. And it can be interesting if you're creative. Rigidly sticking to certain principles is the reason fantasy gets so damn stale. Also "nerfed" doesn't have to mean completely shit on for no reason. They could be like the Blood Elves: The best at everything they do, but they don't do everything.

[@itsnikkis]

Can I just say that using Thranduil as footage for your point about Elves was brilliant. Because yes, that man thinks he is better than you, and he is correct.

[@Venetheus]

Excellent video. Inquisition was a step down from DA2 but I did get a lot of enjoyment out of it. Roleplaying my tal vashoth Celia Adaar as an Andrastian was amazing because I managed to piss off everyone. (That and I really love the Blackwall romance with her)

[@Argronok0]

If you played or know of the game Elder Scrolls III Morrowind, curious what kind of character you would play as in that game's world/setting.

[@alsaiduq4363]

30:54 The issue with this is that you end up alienating your players. If bioware had the balls to stick to one vision and commit to that, maybe we could have some semblance of themes. I disagree , Dragon Age could have both player choices and themes, they just need to figure out what they want to do first. Fallout new vegas lets you kill everyone yet you have themes that interconnected between dlcs and base game, even tackle the meta narrative of your character going from place to place and have huge impact the wasteland using Ulysses perspectives. I dont think is impossible for Bioware to do something similar.

[@alsaiduq4363]

Yeah, you're the courier, but you still have freedom to decide what you're.

[@LilianOrchard]

The problem with comparisons to Obsidian, is their games are from the ground up meta narratives about RPGs and whatever philosophy book they were reading that week. BioWare does very specific character driven narrative, which often suffers under the weight of player choice.

[@JackKielty]

15:34 you must be true English born to understand

[@barrettbirks1058]

Why didn't you include any footage of the Qunari? I understand if you don't like them (little hard to believe considering they're 8 foot tall bull people) but to outright exclude them is odd. Iron Bull is one of the best party members in the game and they have an interesting story about the race being sexist and male dominated. Just a strange thing I noticed

[@LilianOrchard]

I'm working more big picture. In the next video I only really include Bellara, Taash and Davrin. Some companions are more related to the overarching themes than others.

[@lanceshadow5582]

"Elf, the proper way to play a fantasy game"! 100% agreed elves are my default as well

[@elivenya-theautisticbookwy9638]

Fun Thing is.....the elven gods ARE demons xD all of them got corrupted...so Sera had a point at the end...

[@Zerathenezot]

They are spirits taking mortal form. Though I'm gonna love the Veilguard video. Lily saying the Inquisitor is a door mat. Oh it's nowhere near as close as Rook is. The nicest nice who has ever niced.

[@LilianOrchard]

The difference between a demon and a spirit is irrelevant. It's just what the Chantry calls spirits because they're idiots

[@elivenya-theautisticbookwy9638]

@@LilianOrchard well a demon is a sprit at its worst..so the point still stands...

[@walabixha1746]

​@@LilianOrchardyeah this , Anders had a spirit of justice in dragon age awakening. But then then it gets called a demon of vengeance when that demon is actually wanting to do something against the chantry . You know , the people that oppressed Anders for the way he was born . It isn't even subtle

[@viconpc9531]

With Sara I just pair her up with a qunari and boom no more drama lol

[@Kalle_Demos]

Inquisition was different from the first two games in good and bad ways. The game seems tailor made for an Elven perspective but I hated that the Mage/Templar conflict was largely explored in books and sidelined in the games. FYI, Wynn plays a large role in the book, dies and this is never mentioned once in Inquisition. Overall, for me, it worked. It’s what comes after or what doesn’t come after in Veilguard where things fall apart. Inquisition was set up as a part 1 of a finale. And well…yeah.

[@BlackMegas]

Human hater…. So common. The grey warden just get shit on after the first game. And what are your morals?

[@Mortal2064]

:)

[@EggznBeansnMeat]

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