#also corypheus theme worked great ONE TIME before the last battle

[chernychnyi]

it was my first time playing trespasser and solas actually moved me. because of the music!!!! the score is so good it made me care.

[theharellan]

dragon age positivity meme | accepting

i’m going to be answering these in one post for the sake of simplicity and cutting down ooc posts!

✾ your favourite da:o main quest | sent by @cuervocanto

my actual favourite quest is paragon of her kind, but i talked about why i love that one here. and yes, i don’t even rly mind the deep roads.

my second favourite is probably the landsmeet, especially taking into account that it has some sub-main quests that are grouped together under the umbrella of preparing for the landsmeet. such as resucing anora, breaking out of fort drakon, and solving the unrest in the alienage. i find returning to the alienage as tabris second to aeducan returning to orzammar, but it’s still very interesting coming back to a place where you grew up with no power, suddenly having power. and regardless of origin the worldbuilding is good, immediately the fact that you’re barred from the alienage upon initially entering denerim tells you a lot about the state of elves in ferelden. the choice at the end isn’t particularly difficult, “slavery is bad” isn’t a controversial opinion even in ferelden and so even the warden i created with the intention of being That Kind of Human couldn’t choose that option, BUT it does make for an emotional choice when playing tabris

as for rescuing anora and breaking out of drakon, i just love the humour in the quest. i never have my warden break out themselves just so i can have the companions bullshit their way in. my personal favourite combination is zevran and oghren, although i do enjoy morrigan-leliana and sten-dog, as well. i think my fave thing about oghren and zev tho is that iirc they’re one of the most successful combinations.

as for the landsmeet itself, it’s not particularly challenging, but i enjoy the variety of options you get and how it changes the game going forward. like, in every game anora is queen for me in some capacity, but beyond that i’ve had a bitter king alistair working with a warden who recruited loghain, loghain and the warden alone, etc. i enjoy the politicking and making an alliance with anora. it’s enjoyable even on replays.

❄ your favourite da:i personal quest | sent by @pentaghasted

my actual favourite personal quest is cole’s, which i talked about here. instead i’ll talk about iron bull’s b/c i’m glad they committed to what they started in trespasser and i also appreciate how the choice is set up. most of us save the chargers b/c the lot of them stole our hearts in the two scenes they were in, but unlike some other choices in the series choosing the sadder/arguably worse option doesn’t require you to be roleplaying as an evil bastard to choose it.

so like, most games i save the chargers, but my playthrough where i’m playing a practical trevelyan-- she goes with the qunari dreadnought. the chargers were assets, but a qunari alliance could have been more beneficial in the long term. heck, even my inquisitor who saves the chargers feels a lot of guilt about it-- because even if she didn’t know the people on the dreadnought, there were a whole lot of them, and her decision got them killed. she needed to show she cared for her own people first, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t matter.

which contrasts this personal quest for something like... say, fenris’s third one, which don’t get me wrong, is very emotional. but i cannot fathom why a hawke how kept fenris around for all that time and clearly spent time talking to him would just say “yeah you can take him” its just kinda over-the-top cruel. so i am glad when i can roleplay the alternate decisions i ordinarily wouldn’t make.

and i love seeing the quest’s differing effect on bull. he adjusts either way, but one puts him on a path where he’s going to be facing you, one way or another. and he pays the price for that.

♦ your favourite piece of lore | sent by @felandaristhorns & @sephirajo

i’ve answered this before the last time i reblogged this meme and answered the dalish mage lore from da:i and rivain just. as a whole. i’m going with the lore regarding elvhenan, though, b/c i think the games do a good job of subverting what we were told in da:o and da2 while also explaining how those misconceptions happened. i love going back to the previous games and seeing new angles to the lore and the places where they were building up to it. i love seeing the foreshadowing within inquisition itself.

and i just love how elvhenan is characterised, as a hyper-magic society where reality and dreams aren’t necessarily different things. and where feelings are just as physical as every other aspect of a person. it explains so much about the fade, spirits, solas, it makes even comments like merrill’s-- someone with a pretty nuanced view of spirits-- kind of sad. she calls the fade “another people’s land” not knowing that it was her land, and her people.

while i’m on that spirits in general make me sad. how perception screws with them, and how i think that just further isolates mages. for once i don’t think this is a plot by the chantry, i don’t think they’re lying about how they think spirits are, they’re just wrong to characterise them as they do. but at the same time i don’t think they’d disapprove of the effect is has on mages. it’s cutting them off from potential friendships, and not only that but friendships the templars would have 0 way of regulating given they could potential happen in dreams.

but i’m off-topic. the point is i find the worldbuilding surrounding elvhenan, to be some of bioware’s best. it makes sense, it’s nuanced and varied and doesn’t make elvhen characters wear one single hat. clearly it was a heavily flawed place, but it had a lot of merits and you can see why solas misses it or why cole, upon learning that the veil was never meant to be, feels validated by the idea that he was never wrong to want to be a part of both worlds.

♬ your favourite part of the da:i soundtrack | sent by @daggersandpoison

da:i has the best soundtrack in the series and i don’t think this is a controversial opinion. i do love inon sur’s work, and i was a little worried when i heard morris was composing inquisition b/c i found me3′s soundtrack to be overall a step down from me2′s (it lost a lot of what made the mass effect series unique). BUT with inquisition he managed to keep dragon age’s unique sound while also improving upon it. the inquisition theme gives me chills when i start up the game and even while i’m walking around in the field and a few chords play while i’m picking up my 100th elfroot.

but it’s always hard to choose my favourite. it’s honestly a tie between journey to skyhold and the dark solas theme. both of these give me specific solas feelings, the former b/c you have solas entrusting a lot of hope and faith in the inquisitor (it’s esp poignant if by that point you have a burgeoning friendship with him). and b/c it comes off one of the strongest moments in the dragon age series, aka the battle of haven and encounter w/ corypheus. also i love the dawn will come, fite me. and from my inquisitor’s perspective, esp my main inquisitor, thora, this is probably the first time she’s felt like she was worth all this herald talk. even if she doesn’t believe it, the song beginning with a soft, unsure sound and rising to a triumphant end when skyhold is unveiled encapsulates what i love about the inquisitor’s story and my inquisitor’s personal feelings.

dark solas theme i love b/c it conveys so much of the sadness and loneliness of his character. i would talk more about it b/c it makes me so sad i literally can’t listen to it unless i’m writing post-trespasser solas and even then it’s risky. it’s just a good track ok. and it caps off my favourite dlc.

ღ your favourite da:i banter | sent by @renaudtrevelyan

i talked about some banter i love here between bull and solas. i have to admit i have a hard time choosing my favourite in da:i b/c i just love so much of the banter in this game. i always tell myself not to choose solas banter, and i’m going to... choose one solas and one non-solas.

Solas: I do not understand you, Sera. You have no end goal for your organization. Sera: Nobles get rattled, and people get payback. I play in the middle. Solas: Why not go all the way? You see injustice, and you have organized a group to fight it. Don't you want to replace it with something better? Sera: What, just lop off the top? What's that do, except make a new top to frig it all up? Solas: I...forgive me. You are right. You are fine as you are. Sera: You hurt my head sometimes, Solas. Solas: Yes, I have been known to do that.

this banter is great to me (and all the banter leading up to it) b/c it informs so much about both of their characters. solas is trying to help sera, in this string of banter. he’s trying to give advice so that the red jennies could potentially become an organisation that does more than makes little people’s lives better with pranks or the occasional knife in someone’s back. it’s a conversation between two characters who are, in different ways, absolutely sick of the system and have different ways of dealing with it.

solas wants change. sweeping, societal change. sera isn’t sure change will help any, and would prefer the relative stability of a pre-breach world where she knows which way’s up. neither is wrong to deal with it the ways they are, and solas just has to look at the top he lopped off to see that, yes, they grow back just as bad. idk i just love solas and sera a lot and i love seeing what they have in common and how they handle their frustrations differently.

Sera: I don't get it. If you want to change, just change. Why this "fake Warden" rubbish? Blackwall: For one, people wanted me dead. Being someone else kept me breathing. Blackwall: And then, knowing that people thought I was good made it easier. Sera: (Laughs.) You needed them to think you could, so you could think you could! Sera: You're smart, but you're sort of stupid.

i’m picking another sera banter b/c i love her. i love sera b/c she’s smarter than ppl give her credit for, she cuts through why rainier did what he did the same way cole does. their relationship on the whole is very sweet and it was hard choosing one banter. but i appreciate her ability to both love and support thom while also calling him out on his bullshit. the two of them are good for each other and im so glad they’re friends. my only regret is i’ve never seen thom as sera’s best man in wedding art. or sera as blackwall’s for that matter. their friendship needs more love-- actually, sera just needs more love period.

☄ your favourite da:i codex entry | sent by @chantrysworn

i love this codex entry, describing wisdom (solas’s spirit friend):

When the summoning ritual was complete, the spirit appeared. Both spirits and demons have no gender as we understand it, but this one, much like the rare and dangerous desire demon, presented as female. Although its form was not threatening, the spirit carried itself with a confidence, an awareness, I suppose, that I have seen only in the most powerful of demons.

This spirit of wisdom was polite and courteous. It answered our questions about the Fade, even acknowledging the difficulty when we could not understand what it meant. There was none of the bargaining one normally associates with a summoned creature, save that the spirit sometimes asked us questions as well. Heras shared a mathematical formula he had recently proven, while Etrenne explained her study on magical themes in the Chant of Light, and young Rhys talked a little about his mother.

When we were finished, the spirit thanked us for the conversation and then vanished, although none of us had dismissed it. We soon discovered that the summoning ritual we had devised was critically flawed. The spirit had been under no compulsion to come or remain. All the time it had talked with us, it had stayed of its own volition. Heras was greatly concerned that such a powerful spirit remained free, and has updated the ritual to correct for the weakness in the binding enchantment. I understand his caution, but I also confess that I quite enjoyed the conversation. I am not certain the spirit would have talked so freely had it been shackled at the time.

—An excerpt from Spirits of the Spire by Senior Enchanter Francois

you can see so much of why they were friends in this codex. the politeness, answering and asking questions, no bargaining just a nice conversation where both parties learn things. and then you find out it never had to show up in the first place, it just wanted to-- and likely would not have been as accommodating had it not been free.

it’s great for informing us on a character we tragically don’t know all that well. and also? it’s incredibly sad when you think about what happens to it, it almost makes you wonder if the mages who ultimately bound and killed it would have had better luck simply asking for its protection. solas says something along those lines, but he also says it prefers remaining in the fade (interesting in itself, given that the chantry pushes the agenda that all spirits want beyond it. contradicted by multiple spirits we’ve met tbh, including cole, who actually quite likes the fade).

this codex is also interesting b/c it tells you some about what mages study and do with their time. and it goes back to what i mentioned previously, w/ chantry attitudes depriving spirits and mages of one another’s company.

anyway i love wisdom and it deserved better.

[sky-scribbles]

Tanner Hawke’s playthrough of DA2 is done! I never did do a proper introductory post for him, so instead I’ll talk about some assorted thoughts I have about him and his story in the game, and throw in a bunch of my favourite screenshots.

Rambling about an aggressive pro-mage, Merrill-mancing rogue Hawke below the cut, plus my thoughts on several random things in the game.

(Ffs, my blog theme’s squishing my pretty screenshots again. I’ll see if I can sort that out soon.)

- I was a little worried about playing Red Hawke at first, but... I actually really enjoyed it? Where the red options got too aggressive, I’d switch briefly to green or purple, ‘cause Tanner’s a ‘lil jerk except he really isn’t at heart. He ended up about 80% red, 15% blue and 5% purple - and when speaking to his friends and loved ones, it was almost always blue and purple options. And even a lot of the red options were much more simply brutally honest rather than outright aggressive. I think I misjudged Red Hawke; I have rather a soft spot for them now. They come across, to me, as bitter, blunt, to-the-point and ready to fight, but not in the least dislikeable, as long as they’re not picking horrible options in the moral choices.

- This was my first time with Warden Bethany, and it was both heartbreaking and wonderful. The former because that first bitter letter she sent Tanner was just the saddest thing, and seeing her resentful of the Warden life and of the brother who loved her was just agony. But... she grew up so much. Circle Bethany is happier, but Warden Bethany is stronger, older, maybe even wiser, by the end. I ended up loving it far more than I expected.

(The family all looked really alike in this game too, which was amazing ‘cause my first Hawke looked like he was the milkman’s child.)

Sorry Fenris I know not all of us have great bonds with our sisters

- And the Merrill romance was just. The cutest thing. Few things have made me happier than seeing my withdrawn and hot-tempered Red Hawke melt into a gentle puddle around his sweet little elf. 

I do wish there had been a bit more content to the romance - one flirt option in the entirety of act one and not a single one again until her personal quest halfway through act two? Not even an opening conversation in act 2? Really? If I remember rightly, Anders and Fenris both had multiple flirt options in their recruitment quests and post-recruitment convos, then more in their opening chats in act 2... and I really got the feeling of yes, these guys and my Hawkes were already forming an attraction soon after they met, and it’s been growing stronger these past years. With Merrill, I... didn’t get that so much. Which is absolutely not a knock on her character or her romance, both of which I loved! I’m just a sappy little thing who wants mooore.

Look at these cuties tho

- It was pretty interesting playing a character who is 100% behind tearing down the Templars almost right from the get-go. I wasn’t sure how Tanner would feel about the mage rebellion at first, but things were decided with a single line from Cullen in act one: ‘I’ve heard interesting things about your sister, Hawke. I hope they’re not true.’ Cue the incredibly protective Tanner dragging his sister to the Deep Roads with him to keep her away from the Templars, only to lose her to the Wardens and have her resent him for it. So Tanner pretty much blames the Templars for everything that’s gone wrong in his relationship with his sister, and that’s not something he forgives easily. 

A big part of his character development was going from the Circle needs to be destroyed because the Templars did me a personal wrong to it needs to be destroyed because it’s the right thing to do. He alone of all my Hawkes so far didn’t really question Anders’s actions during the final stage of Justice, guessing that this was the first strike of the war against the Templars, and deciding that he was willing to be a part of that war.

Yes, I did the first stage of The Last Straw with a three-mage party. It was awesome.

- Tanner and Fenris had such a great friendship. Two withdrawn, bitter but good-hearted blade-wielders who don’t hold back when it comes to avenging the wrongs done to them... It’s a match made in the Golden City. I headcanon that Tanner spent a lot of his time ‘round Fenris’s mansion, both of them drinking and complaining about pretty much everything.

Battle buddies ftw.

Actually, Tanner had good friendships going with all the party - he was in the Rivalry zone with Aveline for some time, and I did consider pursuing that path with her, but in the end I just couldn’t do it; after some initial headbutting over their different methods, they came to respect each other immensely.

I think Varric and Anders drew for closeness with Tanner after Fenris - the former because he’s one of the only people who can get Tanner to open up and laugh, the latter because he made Tanner feel he could actually do something about the messed-up world that took his sister from him, rather than just venting his anger with mercenary work. Anders might not have the best handle on his own rage, but he sure was good at channelling Tanner’s into something productive.

Choosing my party was always a struggle; quite often it was ‘OK, which one of Varric, Fenris and Anders is being dragged along with Tanner, Merrill and Bethany this time?’ But I still had plenty of mix-and-matching, especially on personal quests, where I always tend to drag along the party members who get along with whoever’s quest I’m doing (Isabela tends to be a staple in personal quests, ‘cause she accepts everyone just as they are, bless her wonderful roguish heart.)

- It was my first time doing the Legacy DLC, and I loved it. Having more time to interact with Hawke’s sibling is an automatic win, and it also gave some extra exposition on Corypheus’s powers and motivation that really make me wish I’d had this DLC before I played DAI for the first time. Everything just makes sense once you see Corypheus calling upon Dumat, and being answered with nothing. I can’t wait to do the DLC again when I replay Dalton and Bryony, my first two Hawkes. 

All in all, I loved this playthrough to death. Rogue combat was amazing (Tanner was so overpowered by the end - Mark of Death plus Assassinate took out bosses with terrifying speed) and I’m very, very fond of Tanner, his tiny elf wife, and his bickering found family. This game still continues to own my heart - it’s so personal, so full of character, so focused on emotion.

What’s up next? I’m probably going back to SWTOR and Mass Effect for a bit, but when I return to Dragon Age... the Inquisitor in Tanner’s universe is gonna be a dwarven warrior named Tova Cadash who’ll romance Sera, but she’s going to be on hold for a bit. Mostly because I have a fierce desire to replay my first Warden and Hawke and... I’m not sure I can fight it.