#dragon age 2 got.... flemeth

[pandoratelenor]

Tbf the first dragon age game is very much about some dragons

(The archdemon ya know? Flemeth. And dragon andraste!)

But it is like. Dragon age fans keep forgetting that because... honestly i think it is cause.

The game (Dao) is just good as selling its lore of the blight. So one sorta forget the gane is actually basically about defeating 1 very evil dragon

[zaahvi]

number 3 and 4 for my DA six fanarts! flemeth suggested by @ultimmmmmp & zevran suggested by @crowwithabrush!! 🖤

[eye-of-the-queen]

If you’re one of my friends (or someone else who found me through the tumblr algorithm) who is upset about the latest veilguard news turn away now because you’re most likely not going to like what I’m about to say

Rant under the cut

People are being so dramatic for no reason I’m sorry

“This was all a waste of time” when they literally say in the article that the events of the games STILL happen, it’s not like they’re retconning them. And most likely world state decisions from the previous games will still be asked in the games going forward AS they become important, they literally said they chose the world state choices based on what would be relevant to the story of the new game

It’s a new area of thedas and literal DECADES after the events of the previous games, I’m sorry it just seems silly to expect the events of the past games to still have the same relevance that they did in inquisition, which is only 2 years after da2 and 10 years after origins and also took place in the same area of the continent as them

I do agree that not including the well of sorrows decision is certainly a choice, but we also don’t know the complete story of veilguard literally at all. What we do know is solas has the aspect of mythal that was in flemeth, we also know that for at least some portion of the game he’s trapped in the fade and rook is kind of his mouth piece. Maybe the reason it won’t come up is because with him being trapped he can’t actually do anything with his powers, that’s been my theory for a while at least

I genuinely do not know how y’all got “The inquisitor either hated solas or romanced him” from what they said. The leap in logic is crazy to me because they literally said that your relationship regardless of whether you romanced him or not is going to be important

“How are they going to write around these world state decisions with them not being choosable?” Well considering the game is fully written and is coming out next month it seems they found a way

The way y’all were all hyping up this game as the next best thing and then ONE thing that you don’t like is revealed and y’all all turned on it is crazy

Also to tie this up, we literally know that veilguard has gone through at least 2 rewrites because in the same article where they revealed the world state stuff they literally said there was an iteration of da4 that just did not have that much solas involvement. Have yall considered that maybe the rewrites were due to them getting stuck on all of the choices that could be made in past games and so they decided to just pick the ones that were going to be the most relevant to the story to start with and then go from there in subsequent games

I’m sorry, coming from someone who’s literal favorite game franchise is dragon age and has replayed origins multiple times, this all just seems like such a non issue to me

[sapphim]

Dragon Age reverse unpopular opinion things I'd love to see u talk about:

- depictions of Tevinter so far

- Hawke sibling death(s) (scene, story beat, later handling, whatever you feel led to talk about)

- high dragons in all 3 games

- favorite codex entries

- Thedosian food/drink (I have opinions about this so I love reading other people's)

depictions of tevinter - I don't really know that I've seen enough of tevinter depicted to have formed an opinion? I haven't been keeping up with supplementary material, fwiw

hawke sibling death scenes - I think their deaths in the deep roads are the good sort of impactful because 1) you actually know them as characters by that point and 2) you're being punished for meaningful decision points that you didn't know would lead to their deaths but like... in retrospect yeah, taking your sibling on the dangerous expedition, not taking the warden on the dangerous expedition, tragedy is kind of fair play, there. the prologue fails on both counts here, but I think the deep roads was implemented well. ofc this goes out the door on follow-up playthroughs or if you've got the wiki open in another tab but I love when something terrible happens and you look back over your choices and say "ok yeah I didn't see that coming, but I probably could have"

high dragons - idk if the "kill 10 high dragons" sidequest in inquisition Was Actually a reaction to all the "if this is dragon age then where are all the dragons" jokes but it feels like it was. and if so, that's funny. like they had to fill their semi-open world with something and they were like. fine. ykw, fuck it. have all the dragons you could possibly want. you dicks. tell us there are no dragons in our dragon age game this time. you can't. I hope that's how that played out.

and like there were already like three major high dragon fights in origins—the archdemon, flemeth, and best girl andraste—so like. objectively there were dragons.

speaking of best girl andraste I loveeeee high dragon reaver cults. the concept is soooo sexy to me.

codex entries - I love the idea of codex entries fr fr. one of the biggest strengths of origins from the beginning, imo, was the decision to drop so much lore and all of it from biased in-world perspectives. mass effect's codex never clicked for me but I devoured every scrap of paper in origins. the lore attached to items made them feel distinct and meaningful, as well.

as for specific favorite entries, idkkk, it's been a while. I will say that nothing has stuck with me like the descent's darkspawn emissary has. fucked up if true. oh and also the one about the darkspawn magister eating the other. fucked up if true

thedosian food and drink - this answer is gonna sound like a cop-out. and it is! but the only opinion I have on food in thedas, which I am going to share here regardless of whether it's on topic (it isn't) is that free marchers have cheese rolling events. like at their grand tourney and shit. and I mostly have this opinion because it is very funny to imagine various fereldans reacting to this discovery. but also bc it is very funny to imagine varric tumbling ass-over-teakettle down a hill alongside a giant wheel of cheese if he ever elected to participate in this fine marcher tradition. there that's my food opinion.

[reverse unpopular opinion - send me a topic and I’ll say what I like about it (or die trying)]

[pinacoladamatata]

figured some people may not have heard this theory; so some theory bullshitting about evanuris, their symbols, and old gods predictions/lore speculation under the cut

It's a decently popular theory that the Evanuris are the old gods under different names. So we have the evanuris

Elgar'nan: God of Vengeance

Mythal: the Great Protector - now known to be Flemeth/came to Flemeth at some point long time ago.

Falon'Din: Friend of the Dead, the Guide

Dirthamen: Keeper of Secrets

Andruil: Goddess of the Hunt

Sylaise: the Hearthkeeper

June: God of the Craft

Ghilan'nain: Mother of the Halla

Fen'Harel: The Dread Wolf aka Solas. known to have been in uthanera until like, yeah you know.

not counting solas, that is 8 gods. 7 of which he locked away, bc Mythal was already dead (kindof). Then, this art we got, only 2 of 7 bells are still lit. and the number 2 leads us to the archdemons

Now Archdemons, which we know are 'awakened old gods' that used to be worshiped in Tevinter.

Dumat, the Dragon of Silence and the archdemon of the First Blight

Zazikel, the Dragon of Chaos and the archdemon of the Second Blight

Toth, the Dragon of Fire and the archdemon of the Third Blight

Andoral, the Dragon of Slaves and the archdemon of the Fourth Blight

Urthemiel, the Dragon of Beauty and the archdemon of the Fifth Blight (This is the one that gets soul sucked into baby Kieran if you do the old god ritual)

Razikale, the Dragon of Mystery

Lusacan, the Dragon of Night

The only thing is it's hard to tell WHICH evanuris could be Which old god. But with the new dragon age 4 trailers and art, we see those evanuris symbols and we Know that 2 of them are going to feature, and Razikale and Lusacan are the only old gods left, who could be any of the evanuris really, but my guess is

Dumat = Falon'Din, killed in blight 1

Zazikel = June killed in blight 2

Toth = Sylaise kileld in blight 3

Andoral = Andruil killed in blight 4

Urthemiel = Dirthamen either killed in blight 5 or turned into Keiran

Razikale = Ghilan'nain

Lusacan = Elgar'nan

and honestly any could be any of them, I'm just kindof going off vibes. The last 2 are just more heavily theorized to be Elgar and Ghil.

I want to point out that Razikale could also be Dirthamen, since mystery and secrets line up fairly well, and Lusacan could also be Falon'Din, ala night and death. and I personally think Razikale could be Andruil and that Urthemiel may have been Ghilan'nain but I have no evidence other than Andruil's symbol of a bow kinda looks like the one headpiece and again, vibes. There's ALSO the constellation codex you can use to try and line these up but it's like, complica- ANyway, it could be any of them really

this image below also shows 2 figures, who we can kindof just assume are like, 2 other big bads

Given the shape of their heads/imagery, a lot of people theorize that the one on the left is Ghilan'nain, and the one on the right is Elgar'nan, but we also don't know for sure. The main points for these 2 has to do with Elgar'nan being associated with the sun, and Ghilan'nain being associated with monsters.

There's also This image where someone tries to line up all Evanuris names to symbols, from lysergic_fox on reddit

and now this from the new reveal trailer- 7 pillars with the evanuris symbols atop them, although we can only see 4 in the clip

so yeah i think a lot of signs are pointing in the evanuris = the archdemons direction and there's 2 left + maybe Kieran who used to hold the soul of one of them, but after DAI's ending of Mythal taking ~something~ (probably the old god soul) from Keiran and then Solas ??killing?? Mythal and that blue smoke, Solas may have both Mythal and the other old god baby soul, idk wtf happened there.

another reasoning for thinking evanuris = old gods actually comes in form of a codex in the Bellitanus constellation in DAI, where it shows Urthemial and the constellation looks like this; compared to one of the evanuris/bell symbols on the right

if this theory is true, it seems likely that the black city is also part of arlathan, and that the BAD (big ass dragon) in the trailer may be of the remaining evanuris. (it may also not be but again.)

So now, where do we think Titans and the blight fit into all this, knowing what we know about Lyrium being Titan blood, and red Lyrium having the blight and the titan mural?

And THEN we have the forgotten ones (we only know about 3) (im pulling this stuff from the wiki btw)

Anaris – according to an old tale, he was once tricked by Fen'Harel while dueling the Great Hunter Andruil

Daern'thal - from that one staff description in DAI; "The Forgotten Ones belong to the ancient Elven pantheon, but their names were lost after the Great Betrayal. Their worship continued in the shadows, despite efforts to stamp it out in the old Dalish kingdom. This staff belonged to a priest of those gods, specifically Daern'thal"

Geldauran - from DAI codex entry: There are no gods. There is only the subject and the object, the actor and the acted upon. Those with will to earn dominance over others gain title not by nature but by deed. I am Geldauran, and I refuse those who would exert will upon me. Let Andruil's bow crack, let June's fire grow cold. Let them build temples and lure the faithful with promises. Their pride will consume them, and I, forgotten, will claim power of my own, apart from them until I strike in mastery.

I would guess these were all actually elvhen or whatever. But who wants to bet the Great Betrayal is when Mythal was killed?? 👀

I almost wonder if some of the archdemons/old gods are forgotten ones instead of evanuris? but the numbers for the evanuris line up so much better.

AND we got the Forbidden ones; a group of four unique and very powerful ancient demons. It is said that they are older than both the darkspawn and the Tevinter Imperium. Some scholars even believe they taught the Magisters of old how to use blood magic.

The Formless One - we know like, nothing.

Gaxkang - demon dude in Denerim you could hunt down and kill in DAO

Imshael - demon dude you can kill/or let go in Emprise in DAI

Xebenkeck - desire demon you can kill in DA2

There's another codex or something that talks about how they were exiled from the evanuris lands but i don't remember where it was in the wiki. Interesting that they all seem to be spirits/demons however.

so like *total speculation here* but i think the forgotten ones may have been solas's old coworkers and might still be kicking and i *almost* think he's trying to save them, rather than the evanuris, and his "plans" consist of getting their help to deal with the remaining 2 evanuris/old gods

So anyone else want to go off the deep end and compare constellation codex notes?? theories? 👀

(but also none of this is serious and it's all theory so don't be gettin all bent out of shape if you disagree. you can reblog this in 6 months and make fun of it if it's all wrong lmao)

[ultimatemilvesbracket]

THE MILVENING HAS BEGUN

That's 114 contenders! Amazing job everyone!

we got 323 submissions and labored over every single one until approximately 2am, which is why this bracket looks so fucking incomprehensible. (shoutout to tumblr user asparagoos for creating The Milves Rubric and user pastramis, who plays fantasy football and knows brackets.)

anyway, full match-ups are below the cut. starting tonight (3/30) we'll start with uhh the upper left-hand chunk today, then make our merry way down the list three times a day until the first elimination round ends. the top scoring milves will not appear until the second elimination round, aka when this bracket is legible.

milf lovers grab your therapist's number!

ROUND 2 / BRACKET 1

Regina Mills (Once Upon a Time) vs. Marge Simpson (The Simpsons)

Queen Clarisse Renaldi of Genovia (The Princess Diaries 1 & 2) vs. Olivia Crain (The Haunting of Hill House)

Barbara Howard (Abbott Elementary) vs. Ambessa Medarda (Arcane)

Helena "HG" Wells (Warehouse 13) vs. Taissa Turner (Yellowjackets)

ROUND 2 / BRACKET 2

Catelyn Tully Stark (A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones) vs. The Black Fairy (Once Upon a Time)

Penelope (Greek Mythology, The Odyssey) vs. Siobhan Sadler (Orphan Black)

Xenomorph Queen (Alien Cinematic Universe) vs. Goldie O'Gilt)

Bella Goth (The Sims) vs. Jean Milburn (Sex Education)

ROUND 2 / BRACKET 3

Cersei Lannister (A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones) vs. Valka (How to Train Your Dragon 2)

Queen Calanthe (The Witcher Netflix) vs. Nancy Botwin (Weeds)

ROUND 1 / BRACKET 1

Marge Simpson (The Simpsons) vs. Ella Montgomery (Pretty Little Liars) WINNER MARGE

Queen Clarisse Renaldi (The Princess Diaries) vs. Peggy Bundy (Married With Children) WINNER CLARISSE

Sarah Jane Smith (Doctor Who, Sarah Jane Adventures) vs. Olivia Crain (The Haunting of Hill House) WINNER OLIVIA CRAIN

Barbara Howard (Abbott Elementary) vs. Stacy's Mom (Fountains of Wayne) WINNER BARBARA

Ambessa Medarda (Arcane) vs. Jacqueline Carlisle (The Bold Type) WINNER AMBESSA MEDARDA

Helena "HG" Wells (Warehouse 13) vs. Flemeth (Dragon Age) WINNER HG

Taissa Turner (Yellowjackets) vs. Janet Van Dyne (Antman and the Wasp) WINNER TAISSA

ROUND 1 / BRACKET 2

Patty Hewes (Damages) vs. The Black Fairy (Once Upon a Time) WINNER THE BLACK FAIRY

Milah (Once Upon a Time) vs. Penelope (The Odyssey) WINNER PENELOPE

Siobhan Sadler (Orphan Black) vs. Norma Bates (Bates Motel) WINNER SIOBHAN

Gerri Kellman (Succession) vs. Xenomorph Mom (Alien Franchise) WINNER XENOMILF

Alex Blake (Criminal Minds) vs. Goldie O'Gilt (Ducktales 2017) WINNER GOLDIE

Bernie Wolfe (Holby City) vs. Bella Goth (The Sims) WINNER BELLA

Elizabeth Jennings (The Americans) vs. Jean Milburn (Sex Education) WINNER JEAN

ROUND 1 / BRACKET 3

Valka (How to Train Your Dragon 3) vs. Ana Servín (Madre Solo hay Dos) WINNER VALKA

Matriarch Benezia (Mass Effect) vs. Queen Calanthe (The Witcher Netflix) WINNER CALANTHE

Julie Cooper (The OC) vs. Nancy Botwin (Weeds) WINNER NANCY

ROUND 1 / BRACKET 4

Ana Amari (Overwatch) vs. Aunt May (Spider-Man MCU) WINNER AUNT MAY

Joyce Byers (Stranger Things) vs. Queen Ramonda (Black Panther) WINNER JOYCE

Admiral Kathryn Janeway (Star Trek: Voyager) vs. Nalini Vishwakumar (Never Have I Ever) WINNER JANEWAY

ROUND 1 / BRACKET 5

Carol Newman (The Santa Clauses) vs. Bette Porter (The L Word) WINNER BETTE

Addison Montgomery (Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice) vs. Sabine Cheng (Miraculous Ladybug) WINNER ADDISON

Laura Roslin (Battlestar Galactica) vs. Mrs. Brown (Paddington 1 and 2) WINNER LAURA ROSLIN

ROUND 1 / BRACKET 6

Yennefer of Vengerberg (The Witcher 3) vs. Carminha (Avenida Brasil) WINNER YENNEFER

Camila Noceda (The Owl House) vs. Sarah Alder (Motherland: Fort Salem) WINNER CAMILA

Wynne (Dragon Age) vs. Melissa McCall (Teen Wolf) WINNER MELISSA

ROUND 1 / BRACKET 7

Mon Mothma (Star Wars) vs. Carol Peletier (The Walking Dead)

Helen Parr (The Incredibles) vs. Seven of Nine (Star Trek: Picard)

Abigail Pent (The Locked Tomb) vs. Medea (Greek Mythology/Euripedes)

ROUND 1 / BRACKET 8

Queen Elinor (Disney's Brave) vs. Caroline McKenzie-Dawson (Last Tango in Halifax)

Evelyn Wang (Everything Everywhere All At Once) vs. Takhisis (Dragonlance)

Annalise Keating (How To Get Away With Murder) vs. Maureen Robinson (Lost in Space)

ROUND 1 / BRACKET 9

Gemma Teller (Sons of Anarchy) vs. Celeste Wright (Big Little Lies)

The Fairy Godmother (Shrek 2) vs. The Smart House (Disney's Smart House)

Marcia Roy (Succession) vs. Martha Rodgers (Castle)

ROUND 1 / BRACKET 10

Pyrrha Dve (The Locked Tomb) vs. Danielle Rousseau (Lost)

Olivia Benson (Law and Order: SVU) vs. Linda Flynn-Fletcher (Phineas and Ferb)

Morticia Addams (The Addams Family) vs. Maeve Millay (Westworld)

ROUND 1 / BRACKET 11

Melanie Cavill (Snowpiercer) vs. DCI Amy Silva (Vigil)

Beverly Crusher (Star Trek: The Next Generation) vs. Lucille Bluth (Arrested Development)

Abby Bartlett (The West Wing) vs. Laura de Mille (Doom Patrol)

ROUND 1 / BRACKET 12

Alicia Florrick (The Good Wife) vs. Ellie Torres (Cougartown)

Zelda Spellman (The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) vs. Lisa Lisa (Jojo's Bizarre Adventures)

Tsunade (Naruto) vs. Jules Cobb (Cougartown)

ROUND 1 / BRACKET 13

Katherine Hastings (American Auto) vs. Esme Cullen (Twilight Series)

Abby Griffin (The 100) vs. Letty Ortiz (The Fast and the Furious 9)

Jocasta (Greek Mythology) vs. Joss Carter (Person of Interest)

ROUND 1 / BRACKET 14

Julia Sugarbaker (Designing Women) vs. Eve Fletcher (Mrs. Fletcher)

Chrisjen Avasarala (The Expanse) vs. Marion Lavorre (Critical Role)

Tiffany Valentine (Chucky) vs. Jodie Mills (Supernatural)

[thegeminisage]

STAR TREK UPDATE TIME. we have finally watched the voyager pilot! short verdict: nothing will ever be as good as ds9 but i enjoyed it!!

longer verdict: i will go through it character by character, in order of appearance, saving the maquis crew for when they have more than .5 seconds of screentime in the little opening. this feels like a REALLY big cast, by the way?? am i counting right? 11 recurring characters and we don't even have seven yet? tos has 7 with chapel and rand appearing sometimes, tng had 8 with o'brien and guinan sometimes, ds9 has seven with...man, jake nog rom garak AND keiko as recurring extras, and we don't even have worf yet. so i guess ds9's is technically bigger! anyway.

JANEWAY: i was surprised at how janeway sounded...her voice is different than i expected even though i've heard her be flemeth in dragon age. i was also kind of surprised to see her in the bun and her head looked So Big. like dax's in season 1-2 of ds9. i'm used to seeing her with it down in gifs which looks better but personally i also think she could have rocked the kira cut. that said, i like her so SO much. she has a couple of speeches that remind me VERY strongly of kirk - when she's lamenting harry left his clarinet behind and not getting to know him, when she decided she couldn't sacrifice an entire people to get one ship home. she's got the kind of compassion kirk did - when she pulled up a stool to listen to the caretaker's troubles, when she held his horrible little corpse, she was genuinely filled with real sadness for what had happened there. (as a side note, speaking of tos, the ship voyager also reminds me of the original enterprise WAY more than the tng enterprise was - especially their little cafeteria.) i was really surprised she had a boyfriend, because i feel like i've heard she gets with chakotay! sorry to her bf, she is gonna cheat on you (and i support women's wrongs), but the worst part is the dog. if they pull some odyssey shit with the dog i'm gonna be so upset. ALSO, i love that she insists on "ma'am" instead of sir (that always bugged me) and even that will only do in a pinch. YOU WILL ADDRESS HER AS CAPTAIN. even when her hair fell down she fixed it on her way down the hallway. she's such a badass. when she says she's gonna get them home I BELIEVE HER. she's got an iron fucking nerve and balls made of titanium.

TOM PARIS: i hate this man so much it's insane. i googled to see whether he died and found out he was played by one of those cadets wesley got in trouble with...girl, he was in prison, why not just make him the same guy?? anyway, he was kind of shitty to both harry and chakotay (oh boy we are already being racist to chakotay) and i cannot believe THIS is the man janeway is gonna have salamander babies with. he's extremely obnoxious all the time (him harassing that betazoid lady...fuck off lol) and i just KNOW people are writing paris/chakotay slash because of their whole deal which makes him more annoying. the "your life is mine now" thing is racist as hell. i'm not prepared to sympathetically see this man's hidden depths bc i know that as a snarky white man he already has half of whatever voyager fandom happens to exist doing that for him already. sadly, we will have to put up with him for all seven seasons. LUCKILY, aside from the racism, half of which came from this guy anyway, he was my only real sour note.

HARRY KIM: love this dude. i like how he managed to talk sense into b'elanna when she was wigging out and despite my wishing he didn't have to be friends with tom paris him going "i can pick my own friends" was a great way to show that he's not afraid to stand up for himself. i wish i wasn't feeling so anti-quark lately bc otherwise his scene in the bar with quark (and why is it always quark doing these surprise cameos!!) would've been pretty funny. i think it was a nice touch that harry, on his first EVER mission, got to be the one to deliver the news about how far from home they were. i absolutely love his whole deal of being completely green and meeting everything head-on anyway, he is so brave. as i said before, the way he is just charging through despite being out of his depth reminds me a little of chekov, if chekov had brain cells. he's very charming. i think he and b'elanna could get it also.

HOLOGRAM DOCTOR: he is so funny, i love him. like, i don't really know how he works? is all of medbay a holodeck? but it's kind of hilarious that he's sentient enough to get annoyed when people are randomly beamed away and when people forget to shut him off (he needs a nap!)

CHAKOTAY: oh i am already feeling how rough this is going to be. that "can't you use some magic to turn into a bird and fly away" and also the "your life is mine now" were rrrracist. (that said, "you're too heavy" was a really good comeback.) can we please be normal. that aside: i really like him. i like how quickly he came to grips with the situation and i like how much he hates tom paris (NOT SEXUAL!!! NO!!!!!! i just agree with him) and i especially like that he has a set of titanium balls to match janeway's like did we SEE that doomsday machine-esque suicide run he almost went on? he cut it even closer than kirk did and kirk cut it that close ON ACCIDENT chakotay was yelling at them not to beam his ass back until his ship was already on fucking fire. also, he's very handsome. ALSO, when tom paris asked him "you'd rather die than let me rescue you?" i had to laugh because quite literally 10 seconds prior out of mine own mouth was "if it was death or tom paris i might let go." i really hope there's more to chakotay than "tom paris's antagonistic buddy" because 1. a fate worse than death 2. this is not humans and vulcans this is real life racism you cannot spock and bones this. STOP THAT.

TUVOK: ALSO VERY HANDSOME. very like. he reminds me of spock so much because he's extremely bitchy but also very dialed down about it. i like that leonard nimoy was like yeah im gonna go stupid crazy and all vulcan will be like this from now on, including my funny little eyebrow thing, in which girlies will still see spock long after i'm dead. like what misha collins tried to do with cas but it actually worked. tuvok strikes that perfect balance of dignified and kind of above everyone else without feeling stuck up or prissy (though his scene where he tries so hard not to look at neelix's junk was great, he was justifiably a little prissy there), and with that undercurrent of wryness that nevertheless doesn't truly betray any emotion - you don't get the same sense of repression/unease with the self from him (at least in the pilot, who knows what will happen later) that you do from spock so it doesn't feel like voyager is copying tos's homework, and it feels nice to get to know another vulcan who's gonna be a main character instead of a one-off. i hope they are more normal about a black vulcan than they have been about chakotay so far bc we have got to get out from under all of that. i am a little worried janeway might kill him. i feel like i see people on reddit criticizing her all the time for killing some dude who i am pretty sure is tuvok and like. can someone tell me if he dies if he dies i will be SO mad

B'ELANNA TORRES: she is stupid hot. i'm a little "lol" when she's like yeah my klingon half is HARD TO CONTROL!!! (super saiyan scream of rage) bc like worf does fine (most of the time...) but i will never turn down a chance to watch a beautiful woman be insane with rage. i like how she calls harry kim "starfleet" derisively and then goes out of her way to give him breaks when he needs them and help him up the stairs when he can't make it. big tsundere energy. also like that she was questioning janeway's decisions. not that i disagree with janeway's decisions necessarily i just like that janeway will have to earn her respect from some people the way any male captain would. equality. also, potentially, girlfights.

NEELIX: i forgot to add him to "the things i know about voyager" post because i had only heard him mentioned a couple of times and got the idea he was just a horrible little gremlin there for comic relief. a rygel, if you will. a quark, if you won't. was pleasantly surprised to like him better than rygel and quark combined, though that's a pretty low bar. not only is he clever enough to outsmart the slavers, he was brave and caring enough to go back and rescue his girl. HE RESPECTS WOMEN. also, his water indulgence was pretty hilarious, as was, again, his scene with tuvok. i feel like those two could do straight man funny guy all day long. a dynamic duo. i hope they wind up having screentime together. i don't mind horrible little gremlins so much when they're charming and when they aren't trying to take holosuite videos of kira.

KES: i feel like kes hasn't done much yet except lecture her people on the dangers of having a cult-like mentality. but i like her! she's sweet and compassionate and pretty brave. she does a lot to humanize neelix, at least! maybe it's just me but i feel like she was barely in this. for now i am trusting that they do more with her later. or, idk, maybe they don't. we DO have janeway AND b'elanna AND seven eventually so i can't be too mad about it as long as they're not turning her into a holodeck sex toy like poor deanna

other things of note:

BANJOS? i counted three different southern accents in this section. it would have been offensive if it wasn't so funny. the people holding hands and jumping around in a circle like animated robin hood characters was a great touch. so was the corn on the cob. the emotional whiplash from an otherwise very serious episode was. certainly something.

the empty barn reminded me of this side of paradise <3 i love, in general, how voyager just FEELS a little bit like tos. certainly more than tng did, even more than ds9 does. like this FEELS like it's set in the same universe, it kind of bridges a mental gap between ds9/tng and tos for me, worldbuilding wise.

water thing reminded me of mad max. really good.

slaver aliens.......are these guys really our antagonists?? i thought our antagonists were the borg but maybe we don't do that until seven gets here. i feel like possibly a bunch of semi-primitive people in the desert who enslaved and beat (potentially raped, depending on how you want to interpret that dialogue) a pretty blonde girl is maybe um. not the best idea. maybe they'll get written down into side villains and eventually just guys. like the ferengi. siiigh, the ferengi.

that said, i kind of loved the story of the caretaker and the ocampa, enough that i almost forgot the caretaker was choosing to appear as a banjo-playing hillbilly. i like to think him and his wife were from andromeda like those guys from tos...and it's very nuanced that even after he fucked their planet forever he still didn't really learn to value life because he's kidnapping people and letting them die or stay stranded in order to attempt to procreate. NONETHELESS he is filled with remorse, and janeway's scene with him, comforting him that children could learn to grow on their own, was really sweet. i also like that when he died his little horrible goop body shrank down until it looked like a hunk of dried snot. do not take that to the ocampa.

i just like the PREMISE of voyager. a 75-year journey that they have to cut down by any means possible...it's like the odyssey, but it space. in tos and tng they wandered from place to place but always over the same stomping grounds in general. we have the same old players, like klingons and romulans and vulcans and andorians etc etc. in ds9 we stay in one single place and it's to our benefit because we get deep character work. but voyager is going in a straight line back to earth, and we've never been out here before, so whether or not it lives up to the potential right now it feels like anything truly could happen. we don't be running into the neutral zone and we can't call the klingons for help or stop by quark's for another cameo. we are just out here. it's VERY neat.

major concerns so far include of course tom paris and potentially him being handcuffed to chakotay as banter buddies. racism in general but also with chakotay in particular. and perhaps a lack of interesting points re: kes. rip girl.

stuff i'm looking forward to is janeway getting to be a person instead of A Woman, seven eventually, getting to know chakotay and tuvok better, and the salamander episode, someday.

okay. this concludes my voyager pilot write-up. TONIGHT: "parallax" and "time and again."

[lavenderstobins]

who's who in the dragon age au?????

Bear with, this might get long, so I’ll try and break it down by game.

Dragon Age: Origins

Chrissy is the Warden / the Hero of Ferelden, recruited by senior Grey Warden Ser Robert Buckley. I haven’t yet decided her class. Jason had been one of the recruits too but he either didn’t survive the Joining or was killed when trying to back out of it.

Jeff is the other Grey Warden, essentially filling Alistair’s role. Haven’t yet decided whether to incorporate more of Alistair’s plot for him yet! He’s a warrior.

Eddie and Wayne live in the Wilds. Eddie fills Morrigan’s role initially, with Wayne able to save Chrissy and Jeff at Ostagar—not as Flemeth, but as a passerby. Eddie’s a mage!

Nancy fills Leliana’s role. She’s a former chantry sister and a bard. She and Mike are fleeing from Lothering when they meet the trio. Nancy’s a rogue, Mike is a warrior.

Freak joins them at Redcliffe, where Jeff was raised. I’m thinking Freak is a warrior.

Gareth is a Crow (assassin) sent by Brenner to take out Chrissy. Nancy takes him out with ease and he offers to join them on their journey. He’s a rogue.

Barb also lived in Lothering, but she died in the darkspawn attack. She’d been a chantry sister same as Nancy.

Chrissy makes the ultimate sacrifice in order to end the Blight, leaving Jeff as the only Ferelden Grey Warden. He’s the one who goes to find the cure. The group separate after Chrissy’s death, which brings us to:

Dragon Age 2

Steve and Robin are both simultaneously Varric and Hawke. Steve finds his passion in storytelling and writes about their adventures and Robin ends up with the title Champion of Kirkwall. Steve’s the one with the family estate, Robin’s the one with the blood connection to seal away Henry Creel.

Vickie fills the role of the surviving twin, having escaped Lothering with Robin back when the Blight broke out. She contracts the Taint during the Deep Roads expedition and is saved by Jeff and recruited to be a Grey Warden.

Tommy and Carol fill Bartrand’s role, being behind the Deep Roads expedition. Tommy finds the lyrium idol and it eventually drives him mad, which prompts Carol to seek Steve and Robin out years later (after she and Tommy had abandoned them in the Deep Roads prior).

The Byers run the Darktown clinic. Will’s the apostate healer, with Jonathan and Joyce running the clinic with him and keeping him secret.

Max stole a Qunari relic and is trapped in Kirkwall, just like Isabela.

Lucas and Erica are two rogues who live in Kirkwall, friends with the Byers. Dustin’s also friends with them and has far too much of an interest in runes and magic despite not being a mage.

El’s a former circle mage, now apostate, who escaped the circle with the help of a Templar named Benny. Lucas, Erica, Dustin and El imprint on Steve and Robin like ducklings; I think they’d be getting into trouble in the city and Steve & Robin would intervene once and they’d immediately latch on.

Billy would be Meredith I think, I haven’t thought too much about it. I also don’t have anyone specifically behind the chantry incident at the end of the game yet.

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Nancy’s a nightingale now, still filling Leliana’s role.

Eddie’s the Inquisitor rather than Morrigan, having been at the wrong place at the wrong time. He has the rift anchor in his hand.

Steve, Dustin, Lucas, Erica, Max, El, Jonathan and Joyce come to Skyhold once Skyhold is established. Steve claims to have no clue of Robin’s whereabouts, intending to keep her safe.

Hopper I think would have Cullen’s role, being a templar and an advisor. The other advisors are Mr Clarke, Nancy and Murray.

Briefly mentioned prior, I’ve got Henry Creel/Vecna as Corypheus. Robin’s father (Ser Robert Buckley) sealed him away years ago and Steve & Robin accidentally unleashed him while ironically trying to prevent his release.

Argyle is the potions master. I think Jonathan would become the stable master.

Vickie reappears as the Grey Warden contact for Here Lies the Abyss.

They don’t all fit the characters 1:1, more their roles in the plot, and as you can tell there’s a lot of overall changes! It’s SO fun though I’m having a blast

[paragons-luster]

The thing I have always vibed with more re: Dragon Age vs Mass Effect is that it is a story about diaspora, migration, and trauma, and the ways people deal with that.

From the beginning, Dragon Age has been about displacement and exile and the loss that comes with that, personal and cultural: every Warden origin but especially Tabris and Mahariel, the Blight in Ferelden, Lothering. It is a story that starts with loss and then just ramps up from there: Cailan, Duncan, Loghain.

One of the things Dragon Age 2 got right is the grief of diaspora and cultural loss. I'm still so mad we didn't see Merrill in Inquisition (and are probably not going to see her in Veilguard), because she really was a compelling character. Certainly other Dalish are also working to rediscover some lost knowledge, but it feels extremely silly to have a character who knows so much about eluvians and has a vested interest in reclaiming cultural knowledge for their people to, uh, not be there at all.

(I have no beef with Morrigan, and I honestly don't know if the Veil Jumpers are aware of her connection to Mythal/Flemeth, but it still feels weird to have the daughter of a literal elven god be human. I've always suspected Morrigan is a foundling and not Flemeth's biological daughter, but I have no evidence, just Vibes.)

I'm also not far enough into Veilguard to know whether we have any city elf perspectives in the story, but I think it's an incomplete narrative if we don't. (See also my rant from Inquisition having just Sera's perspective among the companions.)

Harding is an interesting person to give the Stone Sense on steroids to. As a surface dwarf, I don't really know what her relationship to underground dwarven culture is, or if she even has one. It's not something she talks about in Inquisition.

Obviously a lot can change in a decade! She appears to have learned enough Dwarven to understand not just the linguistic but also cultural nuances of what she was saying when she grabbed the lyrium dagger. And the way she keeps talking about feeling "whole" or "complete" makes me think she's the perfect person to have this particular power, and I hope they explore that more.

[poll-age]

post last updated: september 22, 2024 | ko-fi

hi hi! my name is salem (they/she/he). this blog is dedicated to polls centered around the dragon age universe. hope you enjoy your stay!

before you ask:

my inbox is always open to oc rambles or facts! i love hearing about people's characters. i think it's fun.

i am always accepting poll suggestions. if you've got an idea you'd like to see a poll of, please don't hesitate to send it to me!

speaking of the queue, all poll posts are queued. the queue is set to post 3-5 times a day (depending on how many posts are backlogged in the queue) from 8 PM to 4 AM UTC.

other accounts:

art blog: @salemelas

main account: @crawlingpossum (i only list this one because sometimes i slip up and reply to people from this account on accident. whoops)

elder scrolls poll blog: @the-elder-polls

tag directory:

#salem chatter is my tag for any post that isn't a poll. if you don't wanna see any non-poll posts, just blacklist this tag.

#oc chatter is the tag for posts where i or other people are talking about our ocs.

#poll age is the tag that each poll is tagged with.

game specific polls are tagged with the associated game (#dragon age origins, #dragon age 2, #dragon age inquisition, etc.)

polls pertaining to protagonists are tagged with their titles (#hero of ferelden, #champion of kirkwall, etc.)

polls that are focused on characters are tagged with the name of the character(s) (#zevran, #varric tethras, #flemeth, etc.)

trying to find a tag and can't find it? please feel free to send me a dm or ask about it and i'll gladly help you find it.

terfs, radfems, and racists are not welcome.

[hubristicassholefight]

Still working out how to construct the bracket but: official contestant list below the cut!

Mother Gothel (Tangled)

Lady Dimetrescu (Resident Evil: Village)

Regina (Once Upon A Time)

GlaDOS (Portal)

Lusamine (Pokemon)

Prospera (Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury)

Salem (RWBY)

Cersei Lannister (GoT/ASoIaF)

Mommy Mearest (Friday Night FUnkin')

Administrator (Team Fortress 2)

Talia (DC Comics)

Queen (Deltarune)

Isabella (The Promised Neverland)

Mrs. Coulter (His Dark Materials)

Queen Marika (Elden Ring)

Roodaka (Bionicle)

Old Lady Odin (The Bifrost Incident)

Mirror Georgiou (Star Trek: Discovery)

Rowena (Supernatural)

Hindriach Keh (Caves of Qud)

Shauna Sadecki (Yellowjackets)

Manizeh e-Nahid (The Daevabad Trilogy)

Zira (The Lion King 2)

The Other Mother (Coraline)

Elesh Norn (Magic: The Gathering)

The Diamonds (Steven Universe)

Stilwell (The Boys)

SHODAN (System Shock)

Flemeth (Dragon Age)

Xenomorph Queen (Alien)

The Condesce (Homestuck)

Raiden Ei (Genshin Impact)

[zombiebcit]

norman reedus. 50. cis man. he / him. ― i see you meet WILLIAM "WILL" GRIMES, huh? they are around for… well, it will be 1 AND A HALF YEAR, now. time flies when you are busy and as part of THE MILITIA, they are. if you want to meet them, they live in B1A2A, i think. people say they are ADAPTABLE + PROTECTIVE, but don’t piss them off, okay? because they can be also UNTRUSTING + UNREPENTANT, so be safe.

BASIC INFO

⸻ FULL NAME: William Daniel Grimes

⸻ AGE: 50

⸻ GENDER: cis man

⸻ PRONOUNS: he / him

⸻ ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: biromantic

⸻ SEXUAL ORIENTATION: bisexual

⸻ SCARS / TATTOOS: many scars & tattos along whole body ;

⸻ OCCUPATION: before: many things ; now: militia ;

⸻ FAMILY: tba grimes ( child, wc ) ;

⸻ PLAYLIST: apologize by grandson ; i come with knives by iamx ; f.w.t.b by yonaka ( grandson remix ) ; 20 precent cooler by ken ashcorp ; devil by shinedown ; play dirty by kevin mcallister + [sebell] ; kill our way to heaven by michl ; devil's backbone by the civil wars ; follow you by bring me the horizon ; no one but you by every avenue ; ;

⸻ INSPO: carol peletier ( the walking dead ) , michonne ( the walking dead ) , ada wong ( resident evil ) , chris redfield ( resident evil ) , tess servopoulos ( the last of us ) , morrigan ( dragon age ) , flemeth ( dragon age ) , zaeed massani ( mass effect 2 ) , urdnot wrex  ( mass effect ) ;

STORY tw: child neglect, drugs, alcohol, discussion of abortion, mention of starvation, allusions to prostitution ;

will's parents didn't cared where he is or what he is doing at all. thye might not have raise their hands, but they didn't loved him either ;

it wasn't a surprise when will got caught up in the wrong crowd and everything that follows one - wild parties with poping whatever was there to just shut his mind off ;

and then, it happened. barely out of the magical line of finally legal age, will's one-night stand, a nice girl from good family who just wanted to have a go at the bad boy came to him with a positive pregnancy test ;

the easy way, the ' right ' way for them would be to go and end it. damn, will even said that to her face and sadi he will pay for it & drive her there.

and he did, but siting there, waiting and see her flinching at every little sound... looking at her stomach and thinking ' there could my kid grow ' made him feel weird.

so will blur out quick ' wait, just wait ' and they had a long and heavy talk about this all ;

she didn't wanted to get rid of kid, but didn't want to be a mother too, having to care about child when she just "started" her life and will... will wanted it now ;

so for the next months, he did everything to get clean, to get better, to find job, any job, and save a little for his kid ;

and then he hold his child in his arms for the first time and that was it. he was a parent.

it wasn't easy, even with the money the girl shoved in his hands few days after brith, with a quick ' just tell them i died. ' ;

he did his best to be a good father, remember what his own father did and did the opposite - care about his kid, telling them he loves them often, showing interest in any littlie thing they showed him ;

he was jumping from job to job, going hungry more often than not just to make sure his kid wasn't, that they had anything they needed ;

working as bartender, he began getting offerts and at some point, he started to accept them. a quick bj there and there was enough to put the food at the table and while he wasn't proud of it, he wasn't ashamed either ;

and then will meet him ;

will know the name man give him was false, he was too clean, tooo charming to be honest ;

but the job offer was too good to pass on, the money could get them out of the shoebox apartament and put his kid in college if will would be smart about spending ;

so he took it and then it was 'take this packcage there', ' keep this person save for evening ' , ' make this person talk ' ;

will did thing, clean out whatever was on his hands - blood more often than not - and go back to being loving father ;

he never told his kid what he did, now or before, just made sure they are as happy as they could ;

he was so proud of them, watching them groing into young adult and starting their own adventure in life ;

and then, the fucking apocalypse happened. at the start, he tried to call, desperate to get in contact with his kid, then he traveled to them just to find them gone ;

rationally, he knows they might be dead, but refuse to acknowledge it ;

it was hard for will to get used to safety of the domus spei, still is. but anytime he is out there, he is still looking ;

WANTED CONNECTIONS

⸻ 01. ' 𝚂𝙾 𝙵𝚄𝙲𝙺𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝙿𝚁𝙾𝚄𝙳 𝙾𝙵 𝚈𝙾𝚄, 𝙺𝙸𝙳𝙳𝙾 '

child. ( main wc ) open. will had them very young, a result of one-night stand when he was 18-20yo, and he raised them alone. at the time when apocalypse happened, they were separated & will spend years looking for them without success. i would say they had pretty good relation but i am open to suggestions. this muse would be here for max 1-2 weeks.

⸻ more tba.

[chadsuke]

most of my dragon age ideas are basically like. things i get from a GAME creating perspective but.

like im sorry my warden would be all up in that nonsense. 'they're researching the calling' you think they CAN'T do that from this cult's headquarters? they hear from leliana that the enemy is a fucking ancient tevinter magister and they have the architect on speeddial immediately and just show up at skyhold.

'hey- stop screaming he's a friend- i have great insider intel'. absolutely fucking clocks solas's bullshit. gets into a fistfight with flemeth. lectures hawke 2 make sure anders/justice is eating right. gets rip ragingly drunk with leliana and traumatizes half the inquisition. josie is having an assassin problem well they have an assassin who is a SOLUTION. morrigan there's no way ur running away this time they want to see their NEPHEW RIGHT NOW.

why would there be any ally problems here. they've got both the fereldan king AND the arishok on their besties list, king of orzammar is their BROTHER, and as aforementioned, ancient tevinter magister darkspawn. 'architect ur not gonna believe it i have a GREAT way to give the darkspawn good PR. have them fight rift demons.'

[fenharel-apologist94]

WIP Whenever

I was tagged by @idolsgf for WIP Wednesday and while I did miss Wednesday, I have a degree in philosophy and I'm not afraid to use it to say time isn't real :3 Anyway, tysm for the tag! I'll add an actual writing piece at the end, but some of what I've been up to involved stuff that doesn't produce a "work", per se, but it's all part of the process!

I think most of everyone who I would tag has been tagged by someone else, so I'll leave this as an open tag to anyone who wants to do it for today :)

What's Icy been doing???

Organizing

With suspicion of Google Docs growing, I figured it was time for me to consider an alternative. I'd been thinking of it anyway and so this was a lil nudge for me to make the switch to Scrivener! After the initial mass export, I've been spending some time getting oriented to Scrivener and organizing all my documents and notes. I am absolutely enamored with Scrivener so far!!

Planning

While writing NADAF, I learned a lot - and as a result, one of the things I want to get better at is plotting/planning my fics. NADAF helped me really fall in love with writing as a hobby, not just in the actual putting-words-together writing but in the thought process behind it as well. What will these characters struggle with? How will their histories and personalities affect the story? What do I want to tell my readers, and how? So I've been having some fun thinking through those things for Tea Leaves and Sweet Dreams, as well as NADAF's future sequel, Yet Another Dragon Age Fanfic.

Writing

The last part of NADAF is underway!! I'm trying to get what I can written but its slow-going. I also may have gotten derailed by Tea Leaves and Sweet Dream again cause ya girl's got shit to process and this is how we do it. What can I say, I needed a bit a fluff (and a bit of angst) in my life. So below the cut is a sneak peak of Chapter 6: Honey Chamomile (pt. 2)!

TLSD fic summary:

There are four things Kieran knows about Solas: (1) He’s Professor Flemeth’s infamously irritable and reclusive TA, and tears his essays to shreds (2) He’s Kieran’s new labmate in one of the most difficult academic programs in Ferelden, under the supervision of one of the most mysterious professors alive (3) Solas hates point (2) (4) Solas hates tea When Solas makes his distain for Kieran clear, Kieran decides to fight fire with tea. Will Solas survive this tea war? Will Kieran find the one tea Solas can tolerate? Is there more brewing beneath the surface that neither of them want to confront? (The answer is yes.)

He’s probably going to stay in the room, Kieran repeated firmly to himself. He glared at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. You need to get a grip.

Unfortunately, the rim of the sink seemed to be the only thing he could get a grip on. His heart hadn’t slowed from the moment he left Solas sitting on his bed, and Kieran couldn’t shake the sense that this was going to be a long night.

He caught sight of the bedraggled state of his ponytail and grimaced self-consciously. Creators, he was a mess. He was halfway through fixing it when he caught himself. Who was he trying to impress? Solas?

As if, he snorted to himself, dropping his hands. He was in his pajamas, for crying out loud. There was very little appeal to be found in his gray t-shirt and navy, ‘Denerim U’-emblazoned pajama bottoms. That is, if he were trying to impress anyone. Which he wasn’t.

He quickly redid his ponytail into something a little neater before he could think too hard about it. It couldn’t hurt.

Once Kieran felt reasonably adequate in his appearance, he took one last, steadying breath before venturing towards the kitchen. As he drew closer, the sound of laughter greeted him alongside the tempting scent of warm pizza. Was that... Solas laughing? Kieran squinted. There was no way such a carefree sound was coming from someone so chronically solemn. Skeptical, he rounded the corner into the kitchen.

[zombolouge]

31 Days of Dragon Age

Decided to do the 31 days of Dragon Age prompts (original post here)

Oct 2: Favorite Origins romance

Under a cut because it got long (and nobody was shocked)

I mean, I gotta go with my canon romance, Alistair. It sort of rankles in me a bit that DA consistently reveals me to be a basic bitch deep down inside, but it keeps holding true XD

I just love the poor guy. He's basically been given BW's every narrative plot disease. He's got trauma. He's got secret dragon blood. He's secretly royalty. His sperm could theoretically cure the blight. He's got an old god baby. He's running Ferelden. He just wants to be Some Guy but he's the specialest boy in the land.

In all honesty, I think what attracted me to his romance as a canon ship was the way it intersected with the politics of both the party companions and the world. I was really fascinated with the way his attitude with Morrigan develops, and it gave me brain worms about how I could push it a little further. I also spent a lot of time wondering if there were ways to put him on the throne where he wouldn't hate it, if there were things that could be said to him to make him a little more comfortable with the idea.

Of course, I also accidentally gave him more trauma than canon does, so I wasn't all benevolence and peacemaking XD (see the fic if you wanna know my crimes)

Plus I got to the fade decision in DAI and was like ABSOLUTELY NOT, MY BOY IS KING NOW. Though I'm quite pleased with how my canon shaped up after making that change.

Morrigan is obviously my second choice, and SHE SHOULD HAVE BEEN BI, BIOWARE. But she's been so removed from society and the Warden is her first real, tangible friendship, and I'm SUCH a sucker for how much that lets the warden sort of shape Morrigan. She's also got the requisite trauma that usually lures me to a character, her relationship with her mother one that fascinates me endlessly. I love writing Flemeth/Mythal and doubly love some of the scenes I wrote with the two of them together. Morrigan is also the star of one of the DA stories I've written that I'm most proud of, Pieces of Us, which tells the story of her giving birth to Kieran. I did so much research for that! And I'm really pleased with the result.

I also have a real soft spot for Zevran, and sometimes I toy with the idea of writing another series with different romances (maybe picking all elves this time), but haven't yet been gripped with enough ideas to make it function. But Zevran is ALSO traumatized and has a lot of misconceptions about feelings and connections with people, and I could gnaw on that kind of juicy angst for months. I definitely tried to give him some space for that growth in my fics, but never really got to spend as much time with him as I'd like. *sigh* maybe someday. When I have no other WIPs haunting me.

[sqbr]

ID: Hydrogen bomb vs coughing baby

This got me thinking about a fairer match-up and I ended up at Fenris vs Karlach (Fenris reaches into her chest to crush her heart and burns his hand) and Astarion vs Isabela (they stab each other a few times with their hidden knives then agree to have physically satisfying but emotionally distant sex instead), and these pair-ups also have some interesting character parallels even if I wouldn't describe them as overall similar.

Trying to match things up further I realised... Dragon Age 2 just has. Too many rogues?? Varric, Sebastian, Isabela, Tallis, and kinda Zevran and Nathaniel. Astarion can't fight all of them! He can only use 'make them question their sexuality as a distraction' so many times! I guess you could kinda pair up Sebastian and Shadowheart, which would end in a heated theological argument, assuming he could bring himself to even think about punching a girl.

Meanwhile technically I think all DA2 mages are sorcerers under D&D rules so that's all of them versus like... Default Dragonborn Dark Urge, which would definitely end badly for someone.

But otherwise it's like...

Halsin vs Anders: Halsin initially holds back out of a sense of fair play, it ends either with intense makeouts or Justice vs Bear.

Gale vs Bethany: They both completely fail to land any effective blows, give up, and start nerding out about magic systems.

Merril vs Wyll: He lightly boops her on the nose and says "I win" and then they team up to defend innocent elf children from injustice.

Jaheira vs Flemeth: Ok this doesn't really make any sense but just imagine it with me for a moment.

And then of course there's Aveline vs Laezel: Aveline is stronger but Lae'zel fights dirty, and they're both incredibly stubborn. So whoever wins, injuries will be heavy before anyone's willing to quit. And... Minsc vs Carver, I guess, I haven't recruited Minsc yet but I feel like he'd win but be nice about it and Carver would be grumpy until he got to pet the hamster.

i've seen a poll about gale and anders but i feel like this one is a more difficult one to answer