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angry cat energy

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Alongside my “canon” Rook, Ainara de Riva, I have been running another play through. He was Veil Guard, but I started from scratch and chose Gray Wardens instead. He’ll be romancing Bellara. 🩷

I was struggling with making him just right, so I did follow a slider tutorial on TikTok, just tweaking things here and there as I wanted, so I can’t take full credit! But this is Orin Thorne!

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Cullen Rutherford + text posts 4/???

Part 3

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i appreciate that the plot points for inquisition are just a list of cullen's ptsd triggers. demons, red lyrium, red lyrium templars, demon armies, blood mages, possible blights, definite undead, tevinter mages, tears in the veil, and worst of all, *checks notes* orlesians.

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Cullen Rutherford + text posts 4/???

Part 3

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that one venatori who thought they'd get a revenge for zara during the final arc lol

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Lucanis: My Rook.

Spite: OUR Rook.

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Dragon Age: The Praise Kink Simulator

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Raw. Next question.

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Feeling as though Rook is secondary to Neve? You shouldn’t, not really at least because Rook is irreplaceable for the same reasons people are holding animosity towards Neve.

‘Neve gets him without doing any of the hard work.’ Rook is the only person alive who could even be able to. That’s the whole point.

Saving Minrathous results in the Inner Demons quest never happening.

Meaning an unhealed Lucanis never makes peace with Spite.

Meaning he goes on to enter a relationship with a woman (to no fault of her own) who could never, and would never, force him to face his fears and give him the unyielding encouragement needed to live without compartmentalizing every important thing to ever happen to him.

Without Rook completing that quest— Lucanis remains chained down by his debilitating fear of disappointing Caterina, the shame of being made into an abomination against his will, the guilt of being the one who got off easier than Neve and the pain and anger Illario’s betrayal brought onto him.

“Thoughts live here. Ideas. Feelings.” Disappointment. Shame. Guilt. Betrayal. All of which Lucanis felt were too big, too messy to face.

Solavellan is Rookanis’ foil. Except Rook is if Lavellan had succeeded in persuading Solas to face his regrets.

And what was the crux of the replacement Fade prison Solas crafted for the Evanuris? It was a prison built on regret, and the only way to leave would be to face them. Which Ghilan’nan and Elgar’nan would never be able to do.

Spite says “Lucanis is here. Behind locked doors. I can’t break through.” But Rook can.

In his mind’s eye, Lucanis makes Caterina, Harding, Neve and Illario his jailers of negative emotions in a prison of his own creation.

And in all that inner turmoil, his idea of Illario says, “Rook, you’re too good to be here.”

Rook isn’t one of his jailers, not because they don’t matter enough compared to the others, but because Lucanis’ thoughts, ideas and feelings for Rook are too good.

Rook opens doors, they’re not a jailer who throws away the key. In Lucanis and Spite’s eyes, Rook is the key. They are a liberator, a hero, the only one he’ll listen to.

Love, understanding, the unwavering promise of companionship (platonic or romantic) despite the risk to themselves sets Lucanis free.

I’ve seen people who are disappointed in his storyline complain that it feels as though ‘Rook strong arms him into a committed relationship’ that he somehow ‘feels obligated to indulge’ and engage in as a result of saving Treviso. I believe these claims just end up ignoring the really good diamonds in the rough we’re given in terms of Rookanis relationship development.

A romanced!Lucanis gives way to lines like “I don’t know what Rook sees in me. I’m happy to just be around them.”

And paralleling scenes like when Caterina chastises a kneeling Illario with “A Dellamorte never kneels.” Only for Lucanis to later walk over to a post-Fade trapped Rook and literally kneel at their feet like they’re the only deity he cares to worship like this is Take Me To Church by Hozier.

And what is Rookanis as a ship, if not Rook teaching him it’s okay to assert himself, which leads to Lucanis reclaiming his humanity through an act of love? Just saying. Given time, and love, he turns into a Gomez Addams sort of romantic figure.

If Rook were associated as any feeling to Lucanis then they’d be love. Affection. A state of understanding. Purpose? Freedom?

Better yet, Rook could be determination. After all, Rook’s defining characteristic is that they ‘just can’t seem to quit’— in the face of the man they care about saying ‘give up on me, i’m damaged goods’ why wouldn’t they win him over in the end?

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The TikTok dragon age fans making thirst traps of Lucanis are so fucking funny to me because we are perceiving him in completely different ways. Like I think he’s hot too but that’s also my depressed sleep deprived husband who would cry if I held his face. We are on different wavelengths friend.

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came home drunk last night and got way too excited to see my antivan wife cooking dinner

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I want this shirt for my Rook de Riva so badly 😭

I got That One Shirt (or lack thereof) in Veilguard

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Dragon Age: The Praise Kink Simulator

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#no sleep coffee shakes ptsd workaholic

hopelessly charmed watching this exhausted man's fight against his unhinged little plus one result in his needing to lean on literally every available surface or otherwise bobblehead on his cot trying to stay awake. you're doing horribly, sweetheart 💕