#changing how many people were in the chantry bc anders remained popular after the end of da2

[fithragaer]

i hold the rarest dragon age opinions of neither hating nor loving anders and cullen

[pestopascal]

why vivienne compared to leliana or cassandra?

this got long.

it’s a big fuck you to the whole concept of the chantry in general. a mage in the seat of southern thedas’ seat of power? oh my god they aren’t any better than tevinter after all! funny about that, orlais. 

vivienne has been a part of ‘the game’ for so long, she’s like actually willing to use it to her advantage, whereas leliana has struck out on it several times and cassandra just doesn’t want to do it. celene could’ve honestly learned from vivienne if she wasn’t so enamoured by “weird dalish artifacts” and hiring morrigan lmao

yeah the last two were the left and right hand of justinia, but like... leliana was dipping in and out of kirkwall to see if they needed to send an exalted march at one point and was keeping an eye on things from a distance (and even varric says shes good at her job because she’s not emotionally involved), cassandra got her place bc dragons (remember that animated film? lmao what the fuck was that) and the whole seeker concept is just. they know how to reverse tranquility.

guess who gets access to secret official records? a mage. guess who would probably use that information in likely a more controlled environment because magic, instead of trial and error and fucking around with spirits? a mage who is fully aware of the attraction to spirits and demons that her magic has.

yes you can soften leliana again. i recognise that. i have a lot of grievances with leliana being bioware’s widdle baby angel (much like liara), but her hardened as divine is fucking baller and makes sense for her development. softening her was just such a weird concept to me so whatever idk man she doesn’t wanna take chances but does? leliana still hardened takes no chances in orlais.

leliana is literally so detached though as well and she doesn’t get what being a mage is actually like. and cassandra honestly hates magic up until like either you romance her or “wow you’re the only mage i know who is okay” part comes up. i mean she has more of a reason to not like them, i know, her entire backstory is literally shaped around politics and magic. i read the books, i watched the movie.

rivain’s circle was so successful because it remained open and accessible to literally anyone. including family members. it got marched on because the chantry didn’t fucking like that apparently. vivienne would know this. same with how she knows how the marchers work with their circles. she knows how the orlesian circles work.

bioware wants you to hate vivienne so much and they try to play it off as not pure racism on their behalf but they literally dress vivenne up as maleficent and then like hint the entire way through that she hates you and will betray you but if she gets mad at you? you know what she does? she cleans your room for you. gives you life advice, understands if you betray her in regards to the love of her life, and moves tf on. like. she also does like other forms and styles of magic and education. she is wary of people (solas) who take to the fade lightly, because that is what she has been taught. she has opinions on the dalish (as does literally everyone), and y’know what she is wrong. but she’s also not. i think people also need to remember that bioware retconned the fuck out of everything in dai and that her dialogue reflects those changes? so like naturally her first fucking conversation is highlighting that retcon.

it can also be a reflection of what she has been told about the dalish by circles like you have to also remember that no matter what, everything in the game hates dalish elves.

vivienne is prioritising education. look, fiona gets royally fucked over left right and centre and we get it. she doesn’t fit into anything more. she’s not warden enough. she’s not mage enough. she was grand enchanter, she also technically was part of the reason the mage-templar war kicked off (not anders, contrary to popular belief). fiona wants to do things at her own pace without the chantry breathing down their necks because we know how horrific the templars are in the circles (i mean. kirkwall??? alone???). vivienne leashes the templars under her control. cassandra ends up effectively prioritising them still, especially if you rebuild the seekers, and leliana just chops off a whole movement. people still hold grievances towards mages, no matter if the entire south of thedas came out with “ok only a small margin are bad like 1% but the 99% are honestly good people”. protection, controlled protection, is something.

especially to tackle something so deeply rooted into the south of thedas religion. she fucking recognises that it is the worst time to be a mage and that everyone else’s decisions have fucked up the majority’s livelihoods.

vivienne wants to give mages political power and advantage which isnt legally possible even when she was elected to work beside celene. she wants them to be more prominent in the societies they live in.

accessibility. the game doesn’t phrase it that way at all. vivienne doesnt remember her parents. like literally so many people in game comment how trevelyan was lucky/rich enough to be visited by family at ostwick. vivienne didn’t get that luxury at ostwick circle.

lyrium control. literally the biggest fucking market in the entire game that we only ever hear bits about, primarily in tevinter, but orzammar is right there hello.

she actually?? doesn’t trust?? templars?? idk where people came up with that. hello she grew up in the circles.

the game fucking sabotages her okay. bioware wants you to hate her So Damn Much. they want you to completely distrust her because she is a better introduction into orlesian society than what leliana could dream of being. even josephine gets it. orlais is the seat of power in the south and the game was based in ferelden. leliana’s approach would work in ferelden because they literally left everything up to a bunch of barely 20 year old fugitives in the end. orlais is disgustingly french and not in the ‘we are good at revolutions and leave guillotines around when we wanna make a point’ kind of french either. it’s all the worst parts. vivienne knows that.