#everyone but lucanis and davrin are up for consideration

[watcher1ngellvar]

Maraas talking down the first warden vs Louisa punching him, did I just do the exact character moment but in reverse? Yes I did.

Louisa who has tried and tried and tried to he diplomatic but is just done with everyone's shit vs Maraas who was taught to answer every problem with violence from birth finally deciding to take a chance and put her faith in herself rather than her fists.

Also perfect stage to actually do an emmrich or Bel romance.

[utilitycaster]

speaking of regrets considerations for a second runthrough:

This time I'm actually doing the fucking puzzles and finding all the chests and mementos and codices and candlehops. It's funny bc I've had a draft in my notes reminding me to talk about why I like the crossroads as a concept. but also once I found everything I needed there I was like GOTTA GO GOTTA DO QUESTS AND STORY so I feel like I can't really write it. I also ended the game with a truly stupid amount of gold I hadn't used because I have zero interest in decorating things and I was good at finding valuables but like, I realized very late in the game that money can be exchanged for mementos. I may be stupid.

Relatedly, pacing out sidequests better; I got locked out of a sidequest and had to complete For The Love of Treviso first and it was kind of silly to go back to the Venatori/Crow couple after like. killing the Butcher. I also did the Solas Regret Sidequest very early.

Related to that, I played Rook as fairly trusting and honest and open in part because I was trying to romance Bellara, who appreciates a very positive and grounded touch, and in part because that sort of All Rook Knows Is 1300+ Necrotic Damage, Throw Her Shield, Hopeless Romanticism, Be Bisexual, And Tell The Truth character emerged eventually. I must admit as someone who leans very...well, Neve's flavor of "I assume this will go badly but deep in my heart despite it all I hope for the best" IRL it was a fun thing to explore, but I also really want to know what the more pragmatic decisions lead to. Again I know that technically I got the happiest ending but like. my heart really does say Dump Him Inquisitor. Anyway. I looked it up and apparently if you turn in the Venatori/Crow couple, the Crows like you more for it, and while the Crows liked me plenty and I don't even know if this happens still in a blighted Treviso, if it does, I'll need all the cred I can get.

Wait does this mean I will do a good job with Mythal all for naught. Much To Think About.

I was not good at checking for eavesdropping conversations early on so I missed almost all of Harding being suspicious of Lucanis, for one.

I ALSO fucked up the wisp conversation with Neve which is funny because again, what emerged later in the game was someone who absolutely would be down for a wisp stakeout. writing this off as "Rook was way too smitten with Bellara at the time to remember her Mourn Watch duties, and Emmrich arriving jolted her back into place there."

Did not realize Hezenkoss was in Emmrich's room until relatively late. Actually, if one of my mutuals (not @-ing anyone bc idk if they're done) hadn't posted about this I wouldn't have found out until the part of the game where you check in with everyone, which would have been EXTREMELY funny in the darkest way. going to find Emmrich standing on his sad moodlit balcony mourning Davrin and getting jump scared by. the skull.

Not a regret, just something I'm excited for: There were a few combinations of companions I rarely brought out either because their abilities didn't dovetail super well (Lucanis + Harding overlapped with my damage types and both had potion-based healing so I rarely brought them out together) or due to lack of healing abilities (I really only would ever bring out one of Davrin, Taash, or Neve; I paired them all pretty frequently with everyone else though) and now that I know which quests are unlikely to straight up murder me without a healer I'll try to do more, plus if I save Minrathous Neve will be one of my healers this time and Lucanis won't. Which is sad because Lucanis and Taash were actually The Best Combo Ever. I literally brought them into every endgame combat except for the ones where I explicitly couldn't because they were occupied with another task, and I still brought Taash for the final Isle of the Gods combat.

Also just something I'm excited for: exploring different options for the endgame; obviously Neve and Lucanis's will by default probably differ but I think Davrin and Taash's might be different as well in a different playthrough. I'm kind of hard to sway on Harding's and impossible on Emmrich's admittedly but Bellara's could go a different way, maybe.

[serenityfails]

datv update the second (slightly farther but still in the very early stages i think)

the game is gatekeeping davrin, taash, and emmrich from me when all i want is a full house but WHATEVERRR FINE I GUESS I'LL PROGRESS THE STORY OR SOMETHINGGGG

i'm warming up to bellara though she's still not really My Taste In Blorbos. she's like peak cringe millennial but i'm looking at that as her charm point. she's "aaaaanyway heeeeee's.... right behind me, isn't he 😜" in physical form with bonus survivor's guilt. she's saying the word "squee" and asking if she can glomp you.

i'm not a fan of how... nonchalant everyone is about the major lore drops. i'm aware that since time has passed people have gotten to process some of these lore drops but it feels like there's no consideration for how reveals that big affect people whose ironclad beliefs have been tossed out the window? and this is very much how i feel about harding's storyline right now. but i'll see how it plays out.

starting to get more charm from neve- i get what the devs were saying about "big sister" energy. she and lucanis were having some flirty banters and i liked the vibes they were bringing with that. she's also always walking around with her shirt hanging open. 👍 thank you neve

and remember when i said i didn't expect to like lucanis that much? well fuck me because he's moe. he's cute. i like him. he's a hardened killer and he wants to grocery shop for the gang. on god he shouldn't have been at the club he should have been in the kitchen barefoot and pregnant. i flirted with him a couple times. when the game actually allows me to recruit more people we'll see if they can sway me away from him.