Politics blech. Now that would be boring. Nah, gimme more asploshuns and badass griffons ripping out pounds of flesh at a time from a dark vortex sucking dragon!
No sarcasm at all, either.
Though, more descriptions of the nitty gritty ground war would have been interesting indeed. But whatever, ****** GRIFFONS, MAN.
CROOKYTAIL SWAG
I did not like "The Last Flight"
Magic overdose, every character of any import is a mage and we only ever follow them. It gets tiresome to read
"And then she rained fire and ice at the Darkspawn" every time there was action
I liked the Archdemon fights (what terror! what presence!), and the aravels bit.
But yeah, other than that... ice and fire and fire and ice and ice and fire SHIMMERING SHIELD and ice etc.
Only real complaint I had was that trans mage with the absurd descriptions. How outrageous is it to have a warrior change looks every day, where the hell do you get the material when sieged and everything else. Silly.
Want a trans, fine, nothing against that, but really, the trans mage's looks had more description put in it than anything else in the book. Eyeroll.
All my written battle scenes usually focus around the brutality of combat...slashing, stabbing, explosions, bodies being rent to and fro and etc.
Actual battle isn't like dueling or individual combat, army vs army is grit and blood.
In that sense I would actually say it's relatively well done. It's raw, brutal: said trans mage, for instance, partially melts their own skin off by indiscriminately throwing fire spells at the Darkspawn. But it suffers from an overwhelming presence of mage-focus, and I say this as a person who largely favors mages.
I would have liked to have seen more of the ground combat too, but the book was about Isseya and the griffon riders who generally avoided the close combat those battles. I did like the part where they try to seal the Deep Roads entrance and the ground gives in below them.
My favorite written battle is probably one written by the Portuguese author Filipe Faria.
It's fantasy, it describes an army of 100000 "orcs" finding itself surrounded by a much smaller force of two humans kingdoms who are covering the exits from a valley. It's twenty pages long and there is not a single line spoken during it and we do not follow a single character. Instead, it's 20 pages of the author describing how the armies are moving, how orders are being passed around, what is working, what isn't, why. There is even a plot twist where one of the infantry batallions is set to march much sonner than they should, leaving the cavalry no time to retreat and trapped between them and the orcs and it becomes a plot point later in the books.
The cass-bi people are starting to convert me.....
Hey, c'mon no, everyone likes what they like.
And it's more ontopic than The Last Flight.
Guest_StreetMagic_*
The cass-bi people are starting to convert me.....
Funnily, I'm listening to Bowie/Freddie Mercury (Under Pressure)
We did not see an event where mages used their powers to turn a tide of a battle. They contributed but creative uses of magic was never what decided a battle; they killed darkspawn but there was never any indication they fared better at that than anyone else, it's just that the author will not allow the action to focus on no one but mages, with vivid descriptions of dozens of spells being used...followed by a couple of lines of how everyone else was doing their thing too.
Garahel is barely in it and there is even a reveal of how one of the characters in present time is an Arcane Warrior because holy hell there just weren't enough mages around.
We get it, magic is awesome. Could we please see some description of how the armies are fighting the darkspawn? Maybe some politics?
DAO shows other parts, the ones that you wanted to see.
But if the Darkspawn armies are indeed at least outnumber any Thedas army ten to one, then mages are absolutely necessary to turn the tide. If mages can actually make it rain fire, thunderstorm etc... with the cover of an army, in the same battle a mage kills 100 darkspawn when a soldier kills one (scale-based). So why do you want to hear about details of the soldiers? They were canon fodder so that the mages remain safe and rain destruction on Darkspawn.
I mean that was my expression of Last Flight anyway. It was a pretty big and extensive blight, no army would have been enough.
Guest_StreetMagic_*
Mages and Archers on Griffons... that's the ideal darkspawn combatant, I think. But the big swinging 2hander is definitely useful too.
They need to go the Thedas version of Asia or Africa and get some elephants. That would help.
Grey Wardens would be unstoppable if they had Cassandra 
Mages and Archers on Griffons... that's the ideal darkspawn combatant, I think. But the big swinging 2hander is definitely useful too.
They need to go the Thedas version of Asia or Africa and get some elephants. That would help.
Jade Empire 
I was bored by the temple of Mythal part in "What Pride had Wrought" (but fighting side by side with Ser Barris against was ****** awesome), those "gods" bores me to death.Funny, those are the biggest points of intrigue for me. Well, elven lore surrounding the gods anyway.
The book wasn't about elves, the main characters just happened to be elven. The book's about the Griffons, and how awesome they were, as well as why they were "extinct".
It's also partially about blood magic and the taint, suggesting there's a link there.
She deserve better than a Oder that tried to destroy the world more times than it saved, and she deserve better than becoming a Ghoul.Grey Wardens would be unstoppable if they had Cassandra
Jade Empire
Guest_StreetMagic_*
I was bored by the temple of Mythal part in "What Pride had Wrought" (but fighting side by side with Ser Barris against was ****** awesome), those "gods" bores me to death.
And the protagonists being elves already make me dislike then, elves are a worthless race in any game be it in Warcraft (destroyed the Horde), Magic the Gathering (Goblins > Elves), Witcher (Order Path + Roche ftw), etc. Dont remember living a elf in any kind of game, the elves of DA are no excpetions.
I hate the Grey Wardens, wish I could disband them and every nation make their own tainted soldiers to fight agains then
But I will give you that Griffons are cool.
The Elves of D&D are so varied I don't see how you could dislike all of them. You might like some of the stories. They're just people, among many others basically. I mean you have some elf specific stories (Drizzt), but most are just defined by their jobs. Not their culture.
The Elves of D&D are so varied I don't see how you could dislike all of them. You might like some of the stories. They're just people, among many others basically. I mean you have some elf specific stories (Drizzt), but most are just defined by their jobs. Not their culture.
Guest_StreetMagic_*
Thats because I never played D&D.
I wasn't sure if you did or not. Just throwing it out there. You don't have play it though. Some of novels are all you need to get a feel for it (there's plenty you should avoid too, but I can't compile a list atm).
Its not a good side of DA lore. Its clearly an addiction and I suspect most Templars don't live to become a veteran. Addiction either kills them or they go insane after they are relieved of duty due to old age. Or the chantry continues to provide to retired Templars.
The one in front of chantry door in Denerim is a good example. (in DAO)
Even Drizzt, in his not-like-most-Drow-ness, is insufferable. **** that entire race.
Guest_StreetMagic_*
Even Drizzt, in his not-like-most-Drow-ness, is insufferable. **** that entire race.
That's Drow though. They're all about themselves.
I'm just saying that the average D&D story is just about adventurers and ****. Like the elf or halfling on the team is the "break in" specialist. Not just the "elf" or "halfling".
Mages' AOE don't cover armies.
And that is not even the point. The point is that it's boring to read about the same characters doing the same thing over and over again.
Guest_StreetMagic_*
Now I remembered Tallis and it only confirm my theory that elves make everything worse to me.
She's no elf. She's a damn Qunari apologist.
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