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qaanngi · 15 days ago

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Tell Me Tuesday but on Sunday

because my friend, the illustrious and amazing @slothquisitor (highly recommend reading her work and following by the way) tagged me (thank you 💜), and I love your Caterina so, at your tag, you can have some of mine (or my thoughts about her specifically from an uncanny resemblance) which aren't too deep tbh.

Pick a scene/chapter from one of your fics (or I'll suggest one!) and add any commentary you feel like. Why that line? How come this plot twist? What does the eyebrow waggle MEAN?!?! I want the dirt and I can only smash my face up against the glass of your stories so hard before I start to leave smudges.

Edit: Dhdkfbf I forgot to tag someone!!!! Tagging @thefrostyshepard if you'd like! 💜💜💜

I'll put it under cut because I am, at heart, a tangent girl, so I'll probably go off on some random bits and pieces.

The short version: I wanted to explore what my Rook's (Amri) relationship with Caterina would be like. It was equal parts an exploration for both of them for me? I have brief notes about my thoughts at the end of the yarn itself, I'll expand on that here a little bit.

Nyk, if you see this, maybe don't read it because it's about a thing that has some game spoilers 💜

So what I wrote at the bottom of the little yarn is still very true:

I’ve seen a few different takes on Caterina/Rook’s relationship, and wanted to tackle how my Rook (kind of an insufferable little shit and a hopeless romantic) might act/feel towards Caterina. In the game, their interactions are limited but pretty cordial, and respectful on Rook’s part, despite everything. I wonder if Caterina kind of begrudgingly is okay with Rook. I also wonder what her husband was like, to have such a big family, and whether she might find herself thinking of him, especially with her grandson newly in love. What was he like? Is he anything like Rook?

The last bit that's "What was he like? Is he anything like Rook?" became the foundation of the entire thing. It's the title - the resemblance is so uncanny she can't help but hear him whenever Rook opens her mouth.

I wrote thing thing in one sitting and edited a little after, which wasn't wise but I had an evening to myself and I wanted to contemplate the characters.

The bit opens with Caterina dismissing Rook entirely. I'm not alone in thinking that Rook de Riva would've been punished or killed for botching the Talon Antaam Operation, but based on like a letter we can find in the room Caterina's in during A Murder of Crows she's yelling at people to be united, and she's also the one to organize the meeting during Eight Little Talons. I think in some cases she would be more pragmatic, at least if the circumstances are that dire. So I don't think she would outright dispose of Rook in this scenario, who can canonically take out 20 Antaam on her own.

I did also have her be the one to vote to punish Rook publicly by having a public whipping in front of as many houses as they can. I think that fell in line with the idea that she wants everyone to be united on this front, but dumbass moves like this wouldn't be tolerated.

I also fully believe Rook de Riva expected to be executed or something after the contract on the gods was done based on my favourite NPC dialogue between Neri and Rook. A bit more on that later lol

For most of the story she doesn't talk as much, mostly observing Rook through my bare bones writing lol. I think it's obvious in ELT and the game she doesn't need to say much to cut an imposing figure. Most of her dialogue before the third part is through the flashback dialogue, where young Caterina has a bit more of a back and forth with Federico, my version of her late husband. I wanted to contemplate this character in her youth - I wanted to contemplate the type of person she might've fallen in love with to have a large family with, and entertain threads on how she ended up the way she is before she lost everything.

I also figured, as she would be one in a line of a very broken family, and because the foundational idea was Rook/Grandpa Dellamorte being absurdly similar, that there would be a few similarities between Caterina and Lucanis. She spares Rook in the beginning - he spares Illario at the end of the game. There is a hopelessness and resignation about her dialogue when she talks about her family - Lucanis doesn't fight back. Falling for an intrepid, hopeless romantic runs in the family.

My favourite bit is the part where Rook throws pebbles at Lucanis's window like it's an 80s movie, because it's the most 1:1 scene (again, I probably should've sat on this longer). I figured a young Caterina had some rebellion in her, and that Federico would enable and tempt her enough that they would meet up with enough frequency and they'd be bold enough to sneak him into her room. I wanted her partner to be her polar opposite, but somehow they fit together really easily. The type of person who could, in theory, get her to crack a smile.

The last section is the most dialogue heavy? And a bit heavy-handed, now that I'm rereading it lmfao. I mention up top it's a 50/50 for my Rook, Amri, and Caterina.

Teia is the contact Rook de Riva touches base with when going to Antiva. It's not Viago, her literal boss, but Teia. The Crow version of Lucanis's "Teia, don't flirt with my colleague" comes after Teia says "You're such a dear. You definitely didn't get that from Viago" which I really love because it's so familiar, so I speculate Rook would have a relationship with Teia that goes beyond interacting when Viago is part of the engagement. My Rook is also an elf so I think she'd really look up to Teia and probably believe in a lot of what Teia believes as well (because Crow Rook is pretty Pro-Crow in the game), which I think would help her case with Caterina since Teia is really the only one Caterina likes, so being in Teia's camp and school of thought would make her slightly more palatable, in addition to being uncannily like her husband.

I gotta talk about my Rook for a sec. I'll make it tiny to make it easier to skip:

So idk if it's arrogant or presumptuous of me to have my Rook imply some pretty disrespectful things to Caterina in the final scene to her face, especially as a Crow, someone in the culture. We have a phrase for this in Vietnamese - mất dạy, and according to my elders you do not say this about/to people, but I think it's an accurate thing to say about my Rook at least by her master and a few of her own antagonists because it implies she is fucking low-class, ill-bred, rude, disrespectful, vulgar, uneducated swine. House de Riva is a meritocracy to me, but that's her master telling her who she is her whole life. So I think she would have some fearless audacity.

But back to my thing above about Rook's conversation with Neri, I do think Rook de Riva (or at least mine) would have fully expected some sort of formal notice for her execution after the contract on the gods was over. Crows have a lot of rules. Fail a contract, if you're not a Nepobaby, you're fucked. So I don't think she would really care about being punished or dying because Crows are trained to endure torture, and death is just a forever nap.

But at the same time I think she'd also know her life has external value now. Rook might not have a big fancy title like the Inquisitor, but she very publicly led the charge to save Minrathous, has decent standing with various high-profile factions across Northern Thedas, and in Antiva pushed a dragon and the Butcher out. Not to mention personally saved the new First Talon and helped him push Venatori influence out of the country, and is a god-killer in her own right. I don't think she would hold onto power, true to Rook/the Veilguard, I think she would help delegate things until the dust settles, but people trust her opinion to delegate in the first place. Which, from the most shady faction in the game, is rather meaningful - she's the likeable, trustworthy(-ish) Crow. I think she would easily be willing to gamble with her life because she knows it has some amount of value now.

There's also a heavy hand about my Rook's former master, which had a few different purposes: a pot calling the kettle black moment for Caterina, and a subtle but in-the-Crows-styled acknowledgement of the things they do to their own.

The TL;DR version: My Rook has very messy feelings about the Crow-abuse, even though she's a Crow too. I think it would seem more Other Faction Rook-ish to care about the abuse in this way and call it out because hey, that's fucked up. But it's a Tuesday for a Crow.

“Your former master is a dreadful woman, yes.” “Yes, but she made me. Just as you made Lucanis and Illario.” Caterina raises a brow at her less than subtle comparison. “You speak far too freely, child.” “I know,” Rook says in a low voice. Caterina applies just the slightest bit of pressure to her chin. Both women do not move.

Tangent!

I finally got that banter between Lucanis and Rook about training under Caterina being torture (it didn't trigger my first two playthroughs 😭). One of my favourite things about the Crowmance version of Rkns is how Lucanis will often turn a question Rook has back to them, pretty much knowing their response already. Their answers are exactly the same. Rook is the one that says it's torture, and he's like "there you go."

Back to Caterina (but still part of the tangent)! I don't know if it's just the influence of other people's interpretations of Caterina clouding my own or if the coldness of her character is very tangible to me, but at least by the way my friend sloth writes her (if you see this, hi sloth 👋💜) it's a very distant family. In my opinion, the "love" in this family is real I guess, but it's also an obligation and a title - it's no different from a job. It's kinda like going to a funeral for a relative you've never met before because you share DNA. I don't think the boys can name a thing they genuinely love about Caterina, nor she about them.

But the way I guess I've internalized how others portray Caterina to her grandsons lacks a certain fire and brimstone. There isn't any warmth there, but there also isn't any malice. I feel like the abuse is probably disciplinary-esque with the added layer of assassin training. It's a piss poor teaching method, but it's there for teaching and building character, not to humiliate and hurt.

I've kinda talked about this on my blsky, but I feel like I would like Illario a lot more (and I like him, I'm an Illario myself actually) if he was a granddaughter. I think the crux of why I wanted a thing between my Rook and Caterina was because in the data files, Caterina is half-Asian. She's half-Korean specifically, but there's a considerable amount of cultural overlap between countries that have historically been influenced by China (the Sinosphere). I don't think she was specifically written Asian, but a lot of things about her felt eerily familiar to me. She could easily be a member of my family.

In my experience*** there's a very specific familial structure and relationship between parents and their children, especially based on gender. I don't doubt this exists in other countries as well, and filial piety, which I think informs House Dellamorte quite a bit. Veilguard does away with a fair bit of the sexism for the most part (notably except when Taash is exploring their identity, but it's less DA:O/ME and more "these are some gender roles"), but I had pondered how things might be different if gender had been a sticking point in their family as well. And I singled out Illario because if he was Illaria, who already doesn't measure up to Lucanis, the older of the two, what executive function does she have now? As the Spare to the Heir, the heir who is a guy, would she be expected to marry someone of Caterina's choosing and be a baby carrier? The boys have the equipment to make babies, yes, but daughters and wives have historically had one specific function. To Caterina then - did she have any siblings? What about her parents? Did they all die before she did, thus leaving the legacy of her house squarely on her shoulders?

So, back to my Rook lmfao: I decided to offload that speculation about Caterina and a granddaughter to my Rook, hence the mention of her master, and why she equates the two of them, and then herself and the Dellamorte boys. There is a lot to be said about women and their relationships with their daughters. Asian women, in my experience*** are a lot harder on their daughters than they are on their sons for no other reason beyond that they're girls.

So she says that while also putting herself at Caterina's mercy. Caterina gives her her cane, which she's killed people with, and they have a staring contest of sorts.

It's preceded by a bit about my Rook and Federico about how both of them can lie with their eyes, which is a character thing I was inspired by actors who can act with theirs. It's meant to be a little romantic thing with Federico while also being a bit of a character thing for my Rook. It's not important to Caterina's stuff though.

I don't think Caterina is so old and out of touch and broken that she doesn't appreciate a bit of fire. She likes Teia, and has a lot of charisma to me in ELT, and is mouthy to Rook or Lucanis, depending on dialogue options, when they save her in AMOC. So in light of the ghost of her husband just echoing about when Rook is within vicinity, I think she would appreciate, in some capacity, the fool in front of her swearing a pretty high level of loyalty to her grandson, if only because she knows how far a fool is willing to go for a Dellamorte, because her fool succeeded, and they had a family together.

This wasn't meant to be particularly deep. Again, I've seen several interpretations, all interesting, I just wanted to explore one that was a bit softer? Lucanis is a conversation topic, but I wanted a lot of it to be between the ladies. She does come to understand Rook through comparing her to her husband, and the comparisons are at their clearest at the end.

I don't think she would ever talk about her late husband or children/other grandchildren, and maybe she's too sharp to slip up, but I would love if she did. I did read a beautifully written and deeply personal character analysis about Caterina and how grief would prompt her to misremember/mismatch names and be haunted by the losses, so maybe she would. She's getting old, and my Rook is slowly wearing her down.

Anyways, this got long. Thank you for the tag sloth if you're down this far! And if anyone else actually sat through my incoherent ramblings about a fictional elderly woman assassin, that was cool of you 👍

#tag meme #le whiny text post #Caterina Dellamorte #Amri de Riva

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