#anyway dragon age origins is good

[deadrocks]

I have seen a fair amount of sort of criticism-of-criticism regarding the Dragon Age series that either boils down to or states outright that the early games weren't actually that good and only seem so due to nostalgia. For myself, though, I will have to disagree. I just played through Origins again and I think it still holds up. It isn't perfect, something which the videogame scholars of this very website have been expounding on for over a decade, but it's pretty fucking good. Well-developed NPCs, fantastic acting, a main quest path that repeatedly asks the PC how far they will go for the power to stop Armageddon. Enough bleakness to make the threat feel real, enough humor to keep the darkness from becoming overwhelming. Combat isn't even bad. It's kind of ugly, but many fans have put in real work to mitigate that over the years. A game worth revisiting, or playing for the first time.

On the other end, Inquisition is still a huge fucking drag for me. I got like five hours in this week and I want to punt that game out a window.

[araneapeixes]

My dragons have aged again and I'm replaying Origins. here's my warden Ailea, and also a comparison doodle of my first warden from 8 years ago

[cheriboms]

[spite] has entered the chat >:P

[itseghost]

sketch of my warden :] really enjoying origins so far

[saltlordofold]

warden-commander Aedan is So Done you guys ft Anora and some Cousland armor ✌️

[mabaris]

“men are always willing to believe two things about a woman: one, that she is weak, and two, that she finds him attractive.”

truly insane to have a character say this and then make them actually attracted to men in any capacity. btw.

[attractthecrows]

solavellan this solavellan that. my favorite way to interpret dalish heroes is as mirrors.

you're Mahariel. your life is over because of a mirror.

You are the mirror of Garahel. Tamlen is the blighted mirror of you. You, the hero, are a reflection of what has been and should never have been. The blood spilled and blackened over a millennium in the name of corrupted once-gods.

you're Merrill. your life is forever altered because of a mirror. you are a reflection of the pride and the folly of your Keeper, of what a Dalish mage should be, and should have been all along.

you are Lavellan. you are the Inquisitor, the lynchpin of fate, both a reflection and avenue of change - like an eluvian. you are the reflection of Mahariel. you are the reflection of your clan. you are the reflection of Ameridan. you are a reflection of Corypheus, caught in a cycle older than either of you. you are a reflection of the elvhen heart and soul. you are, unknowingly, the reflection of Fen'harel, and you will drag the world kicking and screaming into it's new fate and future.

you are, more than anything else, a mirror.

[corseque]

I'm just laughing... like in the scene after the big signal fire battle where everybody gets betrayed and dies, you're there with Alistair trying to figure out what to do, and there just happens to be an elven goddess right there, saying, "ah yeah, that sounds good" "no that sounds stupid" "that might work" "oh that sounds like a plan to me"

Flemythal I love you

this game series is about getting pep talks from ancient deities and rising to the occasion

[atticusfinchismydog]

I think there are a lot of good faith criticisms you can have about DAV, but I have seen so few. I'd like to point out that DAV got left holding a pretty hefty bag, as both DA2 and DAI did not address DAO in any significant way that allowed for meaningful integration of lore states, not did DAI successfully incorporate DA2; the Hawke appearance was a disaster that boiled the character down regardless of how your Hawke handled Kirkwall. I definitely think that DAV should have handled DAI's lore better; nothing was in the way stopping them from doing so and the inexplicable 8 year time gap still makes no sense and I've completed the game. All the choices from DAI seem moot as a result of centering the game in the North and hand waving the south with blight, which is deeply frustrating. At the same time though, I don't think any introduced plot lines from DAO or DA2 would have made a lot of sense here, given the distance in time between the games within canon. HOF content should have been dealt with sooner. DA2 stuff was already scrambled by DAI. I understand avoiding it and I really think it was a damned if they do, damned if they don't situation.

[minweber]

Well, thank you, Veilguard, for supplying me, for the next few years, with something over which to agonize how great it could have been if just about everything about it was different - or, as it is better known, The Essential Dragon Age Experience.

[sotc]

I FINALLY BEAT TRESPASSER AOUGHHHHH i am feeling so much. I LOVE YOU DORIAN. I LOVE YOU SOLAS. I LVOE YOU BLACKWALL. I LOVE YOU COLE. I LOVE YOU JULEIC. I LOVE YOU TRESPASSER MUSIC. I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE MY INQUIZZY AGAINNNN

[emmavakarian-theirin]

the way it kinda just dawned on me we're never seeing alistair again

[breadedsinner]

Dungeons & Ages & Dragons: Alistair

This is where I try to build all the playable characters from the Dragon Age series in Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. The goal is to match their in-game abilities as best I can, while maintaining their general spirit and keeping them semi-viable for play. I will detail my decisions best I can, so even if you don’t agree with my choices, you can understand why I chose them.

Since the games have some flexibility with build, I will focus on starting abilities, abilities shown in cutscenes, etc. Ultimately the builds will be based on what I think the character’s role is.

Standard point array, I will mainly keep to the official books, but I may stray once or twice.

Yes I’m aware there’s already a Dragon Age Tabletop Game.

Character sheets were created with More Purple More Better: you can download for free or pay what you’re comfortable with: https://www.flapkan.com/

Full characters sheet with breakdown here!

*

[rin-hanarin]

I've had some Zevrans in my wips for months, I think I'm done.

I was thinking about this one specific fun thing about him and it's the fact that lore-wise he could kill you, but wasn't actually trying, and also ended up in a situation where pretending that he's a shitty assassin is more profitable. Then the Blight ends and he's like "Yay :D" and proceeds to murder the shit out of other Crows for ten years like it's nothing, like? Sir? That's very attractive, actually.

[stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage]

I'm sorry, but why don't we talk about Witch Hunt more? Seriously, I think it might be my favorite DAO DLC. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the hell out of Awakening. Leliana's Song is good. The Golems of Amgarrak is... eh, bad. I didn't really like that one. The Warden's Keep, The Stone Prisoner, and Return to Ostagar are all amazing and I love them.

But Witch Hunt??? Y'all. I can't. I'm too emotional right now.

I have at least one dynamic from each game that I'm obsessed with. For DAO, it's the dynamic between romanced!Alistair, Tabris, and Morrigan. I've talked before about the dark ritual and stuff in this post, so let's just say that my Tabris, Rose, very much has unfinished business and a score to settle with Morrigan.

Tabris and Morrigan grew so close throughout the entire journey of DAO, y'know? Close enough that Morrigan claimed she thought of her as a sister, and Tabris felt the same way... and then in one single moment, it's just shattered.

There were signs that Tabris ignored, like the way Morrigan dismissed all the circle mages and claimed they should be left to their fates since they "allow themselves to be caged like cattle." Or how she disapproved every time Tabris wanted to help those down on their luck. Or, worst of all, when Morrigan disapproved when Tabris chose to kill the Tevinter slaver instead of making a deal with him to use the lives of the remaining elves to grant her more power... one of those caged elves being Tabris' father.

But she gave Morrigan the benefit of the doubt; she's sheltered and only had Flemeth as an influence and teacher, of course she's unempathetic and selfish, but there is good in Morrigan's heart. She can learn to be more empathetic and to care for others.

At least, Tabris believed that until Morrigan confessed that she's known about the ultimate sacrifice and the dark ritual from the beginning, that Flemeth sent her with the wardens with a purpose that Morrigan intends to follow through with. It's devastating and it broke Tabris' heart.

She just learned that a warden has to die to stop the blight, and that warden could be her or Alistair. Not only are they romantically involved, but they've been through all of this shit together, they're the only ones who fully understand what being a grey warden is like. They carry the burden on their shoulders, and they're probably going to lose each other to the archdemon.

And Morrigan waits until she's at her most vulnerable to ask that of her.

Again, I've gone into more detail about that before, but at this point Rose is done with people deceiving her. She's done with Morrigan... except she's not. It's the betrayal and knowing Morrigan got what she wanted that causes Rose to go searching for her.

To Morrigan's credit, she does give some answers. She claims she didn't thing the archdemon would show itself so soon, and she did what she had to because she didn't wish to see Tabris hurt or die. I believe her, and to an extent, Tabris believes her... but Morrigan still doesn't get WHY it's a betrayal.

Morrigan's right: She will never understand Tabris, and Tabris will never understand her. She can insist it's not a betrayal all she wants, but it absolutely is, and Tabris has never allowed anyone who crossed her to just walk away... except for Morrigan.

Until now.

Hearing that Morrigan manipulated her way into the trust of this Dalish clan so she could steal their book and run is just further evidence in Tabris' eye that she hasn't changed. Maybe it was always foolish to believe she could.

So... she stabbed Morrigan.

She didn't do it to kill her; Morrigan is the daughter of Flemeth and a powerful mage with healing magic, a mere stab isn't going to kill her.

No, it's about what the stab represents: "I am done with you."

And how the scene plays out? It's so dramatic and good, just the way everything slows down, the music, how they make eye contact as the stabbing happens just....

I know it sounds really bad, and this is the part where I remind everyone that I ADORE Morrigan, but the stabbing ending is so satisfying from a story-telling standpoint for my playthrough.

It's so tragic and it hurts and I hate it.... but I love it, y'know?

I love Witch Hunt, like I haven't even talked about Ariane and Finn, or how the circle just has all these books on Dalish artifacts and translations of elvhen, or how other eluvians can be found with a shard from the broken one in the dalish origin.... like you're telling me that Merrill had a piece of the puzzle? If she had the knowledge, she could've found a working eluvian to study?? I'm going to gnaw my own leg off--

Listen, I could gush about this all day.

But now that I've completely finished DAO, it's time to replay DA2.

[lesbian-diana-cavendish]

Absolutely love this picrew so I had to make my wardens, hawke and Inquisitor! If you see this feel free to do it too!! (And maybe tag me, I'd love to see y'all's DA characters!!)

A bit about each of them:

Valda Aeducan x Leliana

Named after a former great queen of the aeducan house, Valda is a proud warrior with her mother's eyes and her father didn't even try to hide that she was his favorite, causing both brothers to resent her...(Also, all dwarves can grow beards! Most women in orzammar just chose not to... probably due to a human lover of a paragon at one point who accidentally made it a fad in her time lol...When she gets to the surface Valda starts to occasionally grow hers out)

Antoinette "Atton" Tabris x Morrigan

Atton is very butch and most non elves mistake her as a man, something she used to her advantage to survive the alliangae, she's a rogue with quick hands and a quicker wit. she has a lot of rage against nobles and she doesn't try to hide it (she and Valda exist in tandem and it takes *awhile* for them to get along)

Marian "Rain" Hawke x Isabela x Merrill

("Wow hawke, how come the Maker lets you have TWO GFS?!") To strangers she's a sarcastic ass who comes across as borderline lackadaisical, but her inner circle knows shes extremely driven and can be deadly serious when needed, had a twin brother who died at ogstagar to save carver so he in turn could save their family, it took her well over a year to even say his name again.

Pallegina Trevelyan x Sera (Trevelyan)

Youngest of seven, greatness was never really expected of Pallegina, who was always a bit quiet and socially awkward, she didn't take to politics as quick as her siblings, and was usually just ignored by her parents, but one of her older brothers trained her with the sword and shield and she proved to be a natural warrior, she was sent to the conclave as an expendable formality. Thanks to the support of her friends she's taken to being the inquisitor remarkably well... tho Josephine often has to work overtime to fix her many faux pas