#but i messed with both of their colors a little

[rpgchoices]

The result of the DA romances survey (>2000 partecipants!) - Part 1

2273 people answered the survey, thank you so much! I truly did not expect such a big number and I am so humbled!

With all this data I wanted here to present the general results, and then work a bit more with correlations (ex. Zevran romancers... who did they prefer in next games?) in a part 2. So this part 1 will be a summary (with graphs) of the whole survey. The original survey was here on google form, I reopened it only to allow people to check how each question was written.

This first part is divided in:

General considerations on the sample size

General data

Dragon Age: origins (spoilers)

Dragon Age 2 (spoilers)

Dragon Age Inquisition (spoilers)

Dragon Age The Veilguard (no spoilers)

1. General considerations on the sample size

The survey was open from 16th November to 23rd November and 2273 people answered.

A consideration always must be done of the sample. In this case I wanted to underline that the places where I shared the survey and especially where it found track are well represented, while I definitely missed other portions of the fandom.

In general I shared the survey on tumblr (here), on twitter, on blue sky and on reddit. On twitter and blue sky I received a very small number of likes and retweet, while mainly the survey was shared on tumblr and it received comments here on reddit. Twitter, tumblr and bluesky are more correlated to a closer circle than places like reddit, so for completion sake: my rpgchoices tumblr is mainly about queer romances and videogames with queer content, my twitter is less DA-focused (actually only DA focused recently) and my bluesky is very very small.

Also keep in mind that people who have access to playing data will always have the correct data, because this sample size here reflects the online active fandom (mainly on reddit and tumblr) and not the general player base!

Another thing: I really regret not adding a question about age, gender and where you found the survey!

2. General data

The first question is, of course, which games did you play? People could choose multiple games at one:

I was quite surprised to see that Inquisition was the game most people played, but in general these was little difference between the three main games: DAI, DAO and DA2.

Veilguard (in violet) was divided between "Finished at least once" and "playing" and the sum of the two is 1998, which puts it just after Trespasser.

DAO DLCs are also the less played in general (with Darkspawn chronicles the least played), but with Awakening more played than DA2: Legacy and DA2: Mark of the Assassin.

Now, jumping into romances:

The majority of people seem to have a canon romance for each game (56%). 26% of people instead have different player characters for different romances (just like me!) while 15% of people mix it up!

Regarding the total characters that can be romanced in all the games (please ignore the colors, I messed the up... I am sorry):

For these graphs we can look right at the top and see that in both cases: Alistair is first. Alistair was the character that was romanced at least once and also multiple times the most. The order is the same for the first group of characters (in order): Alistair, Fenris, Zevran, Anders, Solas, Cullen, Dorian. The rest is relatively similar, with only some swaps.

For Veilguard (in violet) the numbers are smaller because the game is still new, so not many occasions to romance multiple characters. Lucanis in both cases was the most romanced in Veilguard and the one most romanced multiple times (126).

There was also another general question at the end, regarding other videogames with romances:

Congrats to the 5 people who played Hero-U rogue to redemption (it was adorable).

The question was framed with (for example) "Baldur's Gate games" so any game from 1 to 3. All these games have romances and are rpg, also if not all of them have queer romances.

Probably thanks to BG3 we have Baldur's Gate games in first place, with 1941 people (almost close to the full amount of the sample!) who played them, followed by the Mass Effect trilogy and Elder Scroll games.

If I can personally recommend games on the bottom half of the list: Pendula Swing (1920s urban fantasy, no combat, queer romances, female protagonist), Sorcery! (male or female protagonist, only 1 romance option who is a guy who tries to assassinate you, 4 games, text rpg, lots of choices, fantasy), Enderal (free pc mod for Skyrim with its own world, lore and story, one of the best game opening scenes ever if not the best, fully voiced, action rpg, queer romance, two tomance options) and Rogue Trader (isometric rpg in Warhammer universe, no knowlegde of the world or lore required, sci fi, turn based combat, multiple romances, queer romances, 1 d/s romance where you can choose to be dom or sub) are among my favorite games ever.

3. DRAGON AGE ORIGINS (spoilers from the game)

Alistair was the romance most favorited by people who answered the survey, with 38% of people choosing him, followed by Zevran (26%) and Morrigan (18%). A very small amount of people (3%) had no one as their favorite/canon romance.

Second fav romance was basically the same graph again!

Regarding the player character:

Female human Warden (Cousland) was the Warden that seems most played by the sample size, both for being considered the canon one (surpassing second place: female city elf, by almost double) and for being played at least once.

I also found it interesting that the order of female and male characters is the same. In general female Wardens are more popular (68%) but the order of popularity for origin being played at least once is still: human noble, city elf, dalish elf, elf mage, human mage, dwarf noble and dwarf commoner.

For what is considered canon, the order seems to change, with city elf male falling down the other elves, and human mage being even less popular.

There were also two questions about Morrigan and Alistair's destinies, but people let me know I missed some options, apologies! So take these with a grain of salt:

4. DRAGON AGE 2 (SPOILERS)

For favorite romance in DA2 we have Fenris taking even a bigger % of "fav romance" than Alistair in DAO (and keep in mind Alistair had less competitors!), followed by Anders (24%) and Isabela (15%).

Interesting for the second favorite romance it is the "No second favorite, only one favorite" that wins with 31%! This means that in DA2, a 31% of people just have a strong preference for one romance only.

Regarding the player character (Hawke):

(top graph) purple female Hawke seems to be the one that is preferred as canon Hawke, followed by purple male hawke. Red hawke (both genders) was the least chosen one.

(bottom graph) in general, Marian Hawke had a higher number of players (played at least once as) than Garrett Hawke, but the difference was not as big as we saw between female and male protagonists in DAO.

(pie graph) regarding the customization, the majority of people (51%) customized all of their Hawke, indipendently from gender and playthrough. A big number (33%) instead used the default Hawke, while others preferred a mix of the two (depending on gender or playthrough).

VARRIC!

39% of players would have romanced Varric in DA2 if he had been available! But interestingly this pie is divided in almost equal parts between yes, no and depending on how the romance actually was (which was the one I chose!).

5. DRAGON AGE INQUISITION

Solas was the most chosen romance (as favorite or canon) in DAI, with 25% of people choosing him. Dorian is second (18%) and Cullen third (15%). The no one (3%) is comparable to the same answer in the previous games.

Maybe unsurprisingly Sera was the least favorite romance among the companions (sigh... she is my canon one), with The Iron Bull also having very similar numbers to her (that surprised me, I admit it!). Josephine was the favorite female romance in DAI (11%).

As for DA2, when I asked about the second favorite romance there was a high number of "no second favorite" (19%), followed by Dorian, then Josephine. I think the fact that we do not have the same order as before (Solas, Dorian, Cullen) might mean that the Solas and Cullan romancer are very dedicated to their romance, especially Solas - who had only a 9% of people that chose him as a second favorite romance.

Regarding the Inquisitor:

Female elf (Lavellan) had an incredibly high number of people choosing her as their canon inquisitor, more than double second place (human female). The rest of the Inquisitors are not too different (a part from dwarves who again get the least amount).

For the question "which of these inquisitors did you play at least once" the order of the choices are pretty similar, with "female elf", "female human", "male elf" and "male human" (in this order) at the top.

Regarding the choice for Divine Victoria:

The majority (60%) chose Leliana as their Divine. In second place instead we had no canon Divine or a change based on playthrough. Vivienne (my Divine!!!) was the least chosen one (I am starting to feel some of my choices are very unpopular haha).

Now, for who did you leave in the fade:

It is pretty clear that (black and red graph, last on the right) Stroud was the easiest to leave in the fade.

(blue and red, first graph on the left) Hawke was also saved the most in games that had Loghain as the other option, with a similar percentage of people that chose to leave Loghain (82%) or Stroud (85%).

Surprisingly this flips (central graph, grey and red) when the choice was between Alistair and Hawke. Hawke in this case was the one left in the Fade, even if in less extreme % (67%), with Alistair being the one usually saved. Which checks out given Alistair was the most popular romance choice in DAO among the people who answered this survey.

6. DRAGON AGE VEILGUARD (NO SPOILERS)

And here the tentatively presented Veilguard results! I say tentatively because we are still very close to release, and a lot of people did not have the time to experience the full game or multiple romances.

In fact, only 11% of people completed multiple playthroughs. 46% completed the game at least once, while 31% are still playing it for the first time.

Regarding the player character, I only added questions regarding factions as they seem much more influential than elf/qunari/dwarf/human:

This was a multiple choice in case people tried different factions! Shadow Dragons, Mourn Watches and Grey Wardens have very similar numbers and are the top three. Surpringly, Veil Jumper was on the bottom (with Lord of Fortune being the least chosen).

Regarding the romances:

Before players started the game it seems like they had an idea among the characters who were romancable, with a lot of people being interested in the three male characters (Lucanis, Emmrich, Davrin) followed by Neve, Harding and Taash. Surprisingly, Bellara was even lower than "none/no spoilers".

In the first game, people followed more or less what they were interested in, with 28% of people going for the Lucanis romance, followed by Emmrich (19%) and then Davrin (16%). Following we have Neve, Harding and then Bellara, which this time surpassed Taash.

When we look at "who is your favorite romance" (graph on the left) we see that things changed based on expectation/who you tried to romance first.

Lucanis is not first anymore, but we actually have Emmrich (23%) as the favorite romance, followed by No one (19%) and only then Lucanis (15%). Davrin is in fourth place with 14%. The rest follows the same order as before, but all the female characters and the one non-binary characters are under "Multiple beloved equally" which is 9%.

Regarding the second favorite romance, maybe (because the game is so new) it is to be expected that the option that wins is "None/I only have one" with 36%, followed by Emmrich (16%) and then Davrin (13%). Interestingly, Lucanis fall to just a 7% under the "Multiple" (11%). I think (like we saw before for Solas and Cullen) it seems like the people who like Lucanis romance him and might not have a second favorite.

I hope you enjoyed this summary!! I cannot wait to make even more graphs and see what else is in this data!

[mattyriddlesbitch]

Yule Ball (Chapter Six)

Mattheo Riddle x F!Reader

Warnings: Mentions of fighting, I think that's it

Posting early since I forgot to do this earlier

The Yule Ball was only hours away and you and the rest of the girls in your dorm were getting ready, putting on makeup and doing each other’s hair, helping zip each other’s dresses up. It was chaos, the dorm was a mess from all the clothes and shoes and accessories thrown about as some of the girls made last minute changes to their outfits. Lots of ‘Does this look good?’ and ‘How does this look?’ was being asked over the music playing. It was definitely the most active and chaotic the dorm had ever been since you started. Even the first and last nights of the school year were calmer.

You finally finished getting ready, looking at yourself in the mirror. The dress was gorgeous, the shoes matched perfectly, your makeup and hair were done perfectly. Honestly, you never felt more beautiful, but you were still nervous. Why were you nervous? It’s just Mattheo.

You didn’t have much time to think about it since one of the girls called your name to join in some photos they were taking to remember the night.

After the photos, you all headed to the Great Hall to meet your dates. You were so focused on not tripping on the stairs from your dress or heels, you didn’t notice Mattheo at the bottom just staring at you in awe. He offered his hand to you on the last few steps and you finally looked at him and smiled, taking his hand as he helped you down the rest of the way.

“Hi, Matty.” You said when you finally stood in front of him.

“Hi, princess.” He copied. The lack of words would’ve put you off if it wasn’t him you were talking to.

“That's a nice suit.” You smiled as you looked down at the suit, noticing the tie color matching your dress.

“Thank you. I like the dress.” He said, making you look back up at him.

“You get into another fight since I last saw you?” You asked, noticing the cut along the bridge of his nose.

“Maybe.” He shrugged.

“So, what should I expect tonight? Are we dancing or just hanging with your friends or what?” You asked, still smiling at him.

“Do you wanna dance with me?” He asked, raising his eyebrows.

“I feel like that’s kinda the point of having a date to a dance, so yeah.” You nodded.

“Fair point.” He said, offering his arm. “Come on. We better get in if we wanna see Potter make a fool of himself.”

“Oh, right. He gets to dance in front of everyone.” You take his arm and he leads you both into the Great Hall.

After a few minutes, the champions of the Tri-Wizard tournament came in with their dates and danced. People slowly started to join them and Mattheo led you to dance with him. He placed a hand on your waist and his other hand held one of yours, your free hand going to his shoulder as he led you two to the music.

“Wow. You actually know how to dance, like really well.” You said, a bit surprised.

“Is it that much of a surprise? We were forced to learn anyways.” He said, smiling ever so slightly, like he was happy he surprised you.

“Fair point.” You said, repeating him from earlier. Each house had their own dance lessons earlier, and it definitely wasn’t optional.

“I did also learn when I was younger. My mother forced me to learn.” He said, his smile growing slightly.

“Oh, really?” He surprised you yet again, making you smile at him. You liked learning these little tidbits about him.

“You don’t believe me?”

“Hm. I’m not sure. I’d love for it to be true though.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because it’d be funny to imagine you in dance lessons.” You teased, and this time he actually chuckled.

He took the opportunity to catch you off guard and spun you before bringing you back to him, continuing to dance with you.

“Mock me all you want, at least I know how to dance. More than I can say about most of the guys here.” He said, letting go of your hand to place it on his shoulder, moving his to your waist, bringing you a bit closer as you danced.

“How old were you when you started these dancing lessons?” You smiled at him, seeing if you could get more information out of him.

“I was nine. But the teacher gave up after a few weeks.”

“What did you do? You didn’t curse them did you?” You joked.

“Maybe I did.”

“Surprised they lasted a few weeks then.”

“She was stubborn.”

“Seems like you learned something, though. It’s cute. Thinking of little nine year old you being forced to learn how to dance.” You laughed.

He just smiled at your laugh as he continued to guide you in the dance.

After a few songs, he guided you over to a table to rest and the other boys slowly gathered with you two. All the boys were joking around and their dates were gossiping, it really seemed like everyone was having a good time. It honestly was the happiest you can recall seeing Mattheo. He was laughing and smiling with his friends. You even watched and laughed as they danced together during a few of the line dances and fun songs. You really couldn’t think of another time you saw Mattheo smile this much.

He pulled you from your seat to join them in dancing. You laughed together as you danced to the music, just having fun, wrapping your arms around each other. He kept you dancing with him through the slow songs and the upbeat ones, swaying and spinning you, or just dancing while singing the songs to each other.

This was a version of Mattheo you really loved. A version you could really fall in love with.

No. That wouldn’t work out.

You quickly shook that thought from your head as you kept yelling the lyrics of the current song playing to each other.

“I wanna show you something.” Mattheo said in your ear during one of the songs so you could hear him.

You nodded and he led you out of the Great Hall by your hand.

“Where are we going?” You asked once you were in the hall where it was much quieter.

“Somewhere. Just be quiet if you don’t wanna get caught.” He said before putting a finger over his mouth as he looked at you over his shoulder.

You cursed him out in your head, knowing you were doing something that could get you in trouble, but still followed him.

He led you through the castle, up the stairs and down some hallways before getting to the final staircase that led to the Astronomy Tower.

“We’re not supposed to be up here this late.” You whispered to him but he just smiled at you.

He guided you over to the balcony and gestured to the view. “Yeah, but isn’t this worth it?” He said, looking at your face for your reaction.

You could see the lake and the landscape and, of course, the night sky. “Wow…” You breathed out. You’d been up here before, but not at night and not when all the stars were out. It was breathtaking.

His smile grew at your reaction as he turned his head to look at the view, leaning forward on the balcony railing.

“So how often do you come up here?” You asked after a moment of silence.

“A few times a month, at least.” He shrugged, looking back at you. “It’s quiet. And it’s away from everyone.”

“I can see why you  like it.” You nodded before looking over at him. “No people, it’s calming and pretty.”

“Don’t tell anyone about this. I would hate for my spot to be ruined by everyone else.” He said with a small smile.

“I won’t.” You smiled back. “Why’d you show me then?” You asked, curiosity getting the better of you.

He shrugged, looking back out at the night sky. “I don’t know. I don’t mind you here.”

You didn’t comment on that, not wanting to dig too much deeper into it. “I had a lot of fun tonight.”

“Yeah?” He straightened up and turned to face you, leaning his hip against the railing. “I had a lot of fun too.”

“I’m glad I went with you. I’m not sure I would’ve had that much fun with someone else.”

He smiled again at that. “Me too. I think that was the most fun I’ve had in…a long time.”

You smiled back at him. “I liked that. I liked how happy you looked.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t expecting to actually enjoy it, but…” He shrugged again.

You leaned up to kiss his cheek. “Thank you, Matty. For a fun night.”

“Yeah. Of course.” He said, watching as you leaned back down.

You smiled at each other for a moment before you spoke up. “It’s getting late. I should, uh, get to bed. As much fun as that was, my feet are killing me.” You chuckled.

“Right, yeah. Well, come on then, princess. Let’s get you to bed.” He said, gesturing you towards the stairs before helping you make your way down them so you don’t trip.

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Taglist:

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[laugtherhyena]

Fighting game brainrot makes me think back to the fighting game ocs

[arielluva]

its just a burning memory

(version without extra effects/textures under cut)

[elvenbeard]

Glitter and Gold

upcoming masc underwear by winks uwu

[liquidstar]

a friend who'd wait :)

[op3ra]

neeeew rusty reference <3 (regular color scheme + more saturated color scheme)

starlight rusty below the cut; couple more versions coming eventually :3

[aranarumei]

i think hanzawa and tashiro should manage to get themselves into an oops stumble into each other + fall situation only instead of like an accidental kiss or something, hanzawa's bangs fly up and in his excitement tashiro grabs his face like, "wait--is that your natural hair color?" because this is, wildly enough, his first time seeing hanzawa masato's eyebrows, because he is delightfully weird about keeping secrets sometimes, and because he has his hands on his face he will feel as well as see they way hanzawa blooms a violent red, face suddenly filled with deep heat, and tashiro will. well. he won't kiss him, of course. but he will be enchanted, a little, by what hanzawa masato looks like when caught completely off guard.

[inkalope]

My manufacturer sent me pics of the first samples of tvc book Armand and IWTV amc Armand plushies! (Keep in mind this isn’t their final design just first sample so they will look different later on). Have to modify both of them a fair amount but here’s the start!!! 

[catlover4536]

Heya @themissbanshee , so for the first time in a long time I've kept my internet art promise and drew you Fem!Wally in the Monika outfit, with some changes here and there to get it to fit her better! She did turn out pretty cute, don't you think?

Of course, this is also your reminder that I've thought of her a lot these last few days. I've done a few sketches of her, and that is probably why the Monika outfit turned out so good ahhahahm.

[dailyeca]

Facts about the Underwater Grotto

Fact 1: Though most of the entrances are underwater, humans can enter from the beachside through a small cave in the side of the cliff that connects to the underwater section of the grotto. When it's not raining, there's low tide pools and cool stepping stones and quartz crystals glittering in the cave walls.

Caving In Arc: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

[triangle-dog]

I finally (after 5 attempts in 6 months) have managed to register Nova with the AKC without being interrupted and having the form time out - and I can't even apply for her trick titles with the Canine Partners number they just gave me!?

To some extent, I would understand if she were purebred, but do you really think I'm going to fake a 100% "All American Dog"??? (I don't even like that name...)

Come on, they would let me apply for the trick titles if I applied for the CP number with them :( My motivation is limited and your website is aversive. Just let me do everything at once

Anyway, hopefully she'll officially have her CGC in the next however many business days

[cherry-shipping]

ok............................................. at least i didnt pass out while making this..............

[youremyonlyhope]

Stupidly I decided to watch this video just now.

Today would have been my Grandma's birthday, but we lost her last fall and then my Nanna in the winter.

I did not think that a commentary video on Rugrats would make me uncontrollably sob. But I blocked out how sad the Mother's Day episode was. And combining it with Grandma's birthday...

I've spent the last 10 minutes or so doubled over crying.

[motherforthefamicom]

i want to work on art rn but i have like three separate drawings In Progress currently and theyre all at different and frustrating in the process so instead im just gonna keep wasting tjme probably

[cel-aerion]

Made a few more Shrinky Dink keychains since that last post.

They may have a theme going.