Did So Much Damage To This Demon That It Dyed Taash’s Hair

Good job. You panned a great game with some of the most diversity in gaming history, a poc cast and a nonbinary character played by a nonbinary actor, and the ability to be trans or nonbinary yourself and talk about it in the game. Congratulations. If we don't get another game with this level of representation for years you know what the fuck happened.

okay maybe this will work with putting it in Taash's tags :c

looking for an elven Rook save file for the final Taash romance scene for Rookanis modding purposes.

will give credit. 👉👈

I just realized I haven’t promoted the Taash Trash tumblr community for Taash Week! I’ve been so distracted by all the excellent Taash content!

If you wish to share posts about them all year long, come join the Taash Trash tumblr community!

Now look at this cute screenshot of my Rook & Taash:

Taash smiles

Iskra's like, "Babe, I can't take it when you stare at me like that. It's making me moooiiissssT." 🥵

Like the writing was really good in this game and it’s so frustrating watching people be like “I didn’t get special attention from a character because it’s not a perma horny game so writing baaaaaaaaaaad”

Characters are allowed to be characters. To be fleshed out and have fulfilling relationships outside 'you' the player. I know, we love our blorbos and whatever...but it's not that deep.

Maybe Rook is too distracted to actually put real bonding time into their romantic relationships. Maybe Rook being a boss is an intimidating power dynamic that makes their partner hesitant. Maybe connections are stronger with other people.

I'll just say, the way I connected with my first ever GF, is very different from how I interact and connect with my partner NOW. What is okay with one partner, doesn't mean it'll be okay with the next. The jokes, physical connections, and love languages all have grown and shifted. That's how relationships work.

Some of ya'll really need to understand relationships are complex. And that BioWare doesn't have it out personally for you because so and so companion didn't fall to their knees in co-dependant agony worshiping your Rook.

Okay, let's talk about the coming out scene, because people are saying Taash was the one out of line.

Shathann is a sympathetic character. That does not make her a good person. She saved her child from a life of servitude by leaving the country she loved and tried to preserve that culture in her child. I respect that. I also wish there was a way to encourage Taash to embrace both sides of their culture.

BUT.

From the moment we meet her, Shathann criticizes literally everything her child does. Taash runs an errand for her, and Shathann criticizes their posture, pronunciation, gender presentation, AND sexuality, completely unprovoked, yes, in one fucking conversation. Shathann invites Taash over for dinner and then makes Taash cook that fucking dinner. And this has happened before, as stated in the dialogue. Taash is so affected by this behavior and probably worse they have endured their entire life that they say "you don't get to tell me who I am" at a simple question about their heritage, out of pure instinct.

Now to the actual scene.

Taash invites their mother to their new home and prepares a dinner for her, which Shathann immediately criticizes and has Taash make vegetables to go with. Can you imagine inviting someone into your home for dinner you prepare only for them to shit on it and ask you to cook more. And Taash does so, with a grunt. I'd be like bitch you're in my house, I cooked, eat. But they just do it.

Then they say it. "Im nonbinary." Shathann asks what that means, completely fair, and Taash explains that it means they're not a man or a woman.

Shathann asks if this is because she criticizes their gender presentation. Now listen. I have a parent who thinks nearly everything "wrong" with me is a reaction to their actions. It pisses me off. So Taash is getting reasonably frustrated, and insists that's not why. VALID. They were asked a question and they answered.

Let's talk about the Qun and gender identity. Yes they have a word for people who identify as a different gender than they were assigned. But this is implied to apply to trans men and women, not nonbinary people, so Shathann is asking Taash if they "just" identify as a man, because that's something Shathann can better understand, something more convenient for her to process. Sort of like when trans people come out to someone and are asked if they're "just gay."

No. And Taash says no. They have explained who they are. If Shathann was just having a hard time processing it that would be one thing, but she basically talked over Taash and tried to suggest that they were just a man, which they are not. Taash is being vulnerable. Taash doesn't even HAVE to tell Shathann this, but they want to, they think she deserves to know.

And what Taash says next is not purely to do with this one conversation, as explicit in the text. "why am I never enough for you." Never. Not now. We have seen Shathann critique Taash in every scene they share, and that's with a whole other person present who is not in the family. We don't know what happens in private. Shathann signed her child up for a fucking war without even talking to them about it. What Taash says is the build up of years of being talked over and criticized for everything they do, provoked by offering themselves to that person in a vulnerable position only to be talked over and criticized more.

"Why am I never enough for you."

And Shathann does not answer. She doesnt say "of course you are." Even if she disagreed with Taash's identity, which would be shitty, she could still affirm that they are enough for her. She doesn't.

She fucking leaves.

Maybe she thinks that's what Taash wants. Maybe not. But if someone asks you something like that, you affirm them. You say they are enough. Especially if they're your fucking child. But no, this conversation is too inconvenient for Shathann, she's not getting her way like she did when she signed Taash up for a war without their consent, so she just leaves. She could've said "I don't understand, but I love you." She couldve said anything. But she just left.

I'm sad she died. Im glad she accepted her child in the end. But no, Taash was not in any way out of line in this conversation.

Shathann was.

cottage. quiet. [chapter 03]

Cottage. Quiet | Chapter 02 [ Ao3 Link ] [ ch. 01 ] [ ch. 02 ] [ch. 03] Word Count: 4500 Rating: 16+ Summary: Ma, Harding, and Taash deal with an unwelcome guest.

This one took a little while longer to get out than usual. My writer's block seems to be flaring up and I'm a little emotionally shaken, but it's out! I think I'll take the next chapter to finish off some light fluff and filler, and then fall back strong with where I'm hoping my story to go.

As always, thanks for reading! I really appreciate every single one of you.

i'm sorry but the "da fandom is a little racist BUT veilguard holds most of the blame for making davrin so irrelevent in the game" excuse is the weakest shit i've ever heard. no actually i genuinely think this is almost exclusively a fandom issue. like i won't argue that the "davrin vs harding choice is reliant on assan" shit john epler pushed was unbelievably racist and i won't argue that there's merit to the fact that it was tone deaf at Best to have the black man's character arc so reliant on his animal companion but i'm sorry you cannot fucking convince me that the "knight in shining armor with a gentle heart and a cute animal companion that takes you out on picnic dates and carves you little wooden trinkets" character is not almost Perfectly Engineered to be the most popular romance option in any game ever and yes i fully believe the only reason he isn't is entirely hinged on the fact that he's black and no amount of whataboutism towards the devs can convince me otherwise

I think where the “you’re just mad people are critiquing a game you like” crowd gets me the most is that I’ve read all their critiques. I was legitimately surprised on my first run that some people took Veilguard so personally and were vitriolic so I went through and read what they were saying because I was like “what did I miss?” That’s my first instinct when something confuses me is to dig. (Oh hey I applied this to the game too! Crazy!)

And when I started breaking down what they were saying was when I started getting annoyed because their arguments were either in such bad faith, reductive, or just plain wrong. Like Orientalism in the game? Fair! But I have not seen talk of that get anywhere near the amount of traction as “Solas should have torn down the Veil and him and Lavellan should have had elf supremacy together and they didn’t so game bad.” “I missed a bunch of stuff then blamed BioWare.” Or “I didn’t like how it played out so writing bad.” Or “They didn’t say the Maker enough and I counted.” That last one is my favorite. Oh and “the language is too modern” and they’re specifically talking about Taash because they don’t want to admit nonbinary people make them uncomfortable.

But wow I don’t see that energy from the other side at all. I don’t see them even trying to understand or read why people like the game. I try to encourage people to read your meta write ups as well as my own and they either just want to pick a fight because I have the audacity to love the game rather than hear me out or step outside of that negativity for like two seconds. Here we are two months later and they’re still acting like Veilguard broke into their house and beat them up and stole their sixty bucks then took a piss on the old games.