#hopefully this makes sense and is coherent

[broodwoof]

mythal, flemeth, or flemythal?

my opinions on this incredibly complicated woman. nothing here is like... hard canon i can firmly prove, i'm just extrapolating based on what we see (mostly in dai tbf)

i don't even have a super strong read on what her deal is, these are just some of the thoughts i'm having about her tonight

note: this is NOT character hate and if u add character hate to this post you WILL get blocked. but i'm not softening her either - she is pretty fucked up and i'm not going to ignore that

cws: abuse

flemeth and mythal

flemeth: a (human?) woman who was betrayed, whose love was killed

mythal: an elvhen woman, an evanuris, who was killed by her family

when mythal was killed she found her way to flemeth because they were similar. something in flemeth drew mythal to her. there's a lot of options here, although i tend to think it's their shared personal histories and experiences that drew them together, particularly their shared pain. they bonded in some way, some physical manner of becoming one, inseparable, inexorably connected

early on, they might have been more distinct. sharing a body, but still with an individualized sense of self. however, i believe that over time that separation became smoothed, blurred. it's like how very wounded people can sometimes come together and find resonance in their shared experiences, a sense of familiarity, and let it go too far. into the territory of codependence, but so extremely literal in this case

maintaining their body

i'm not sure how they manage this. the way i see it, there are two main options, with a lot of branching details:

body hopping through her daughters, or

literally any other way

#1 is of course possible, but i don't tend to lend it a lot of credence. but let's say it's true, and that what flemythal tells morrigan in the fade is true, that the hosts need to be willing. in that case, her daughters - throughout centuries - would have had to consent to having their selves taken over to host their very complicated mom. i can buy that some of them would have consented; maybe flemythal twisted them into feeling like they had to perform a function, that they had a fate, a destiny, and then revealed what it was. but all of them?

perhaps some did deny her. maybe she forced them to accept - threatened their loved ones, maybe - or else gave them up and started again with a new child. but it's still a lot of finding a new body throughout a massive period of time. it just doesn't feel very likely to me

so, that brings us to option #2. there are many particular ways this could go - the men she brought home and drained, perhaps they sustained her single body, flemeth's original body, that she has always worn. perhaps she uses blood magic, or elvhen magic, or elvhen technology, or- like there are a LOT of possibilities

but i also think #2 is more likely because that would mean the grimoire was a total lie. and why would she lie to morrigan in that way? perhaps because morrigan was curious, intelligent, inquisitive, and flemythal had to throw her off the truth? so she provided a horrific lie, let morrigan "discover" it, let her live in that horror, all the while it just... concealed how she actually continued her existence. give morrigan an answer that was appropriately awful and horrifying so she'd think she found the truth, because it fit what she thought she knew of her mother. and if she found her answer, then she'd stop looking for the real answer

that feels more in line with flemythal's character. she's very much a chessmaster, positioning people throughout the centuries. which leads me to my next point...

flemythal and feelings

first off, i think that both flemeth and mythal have suffered abuse at the hands of people they lived with, perhaps people they loved. i think in both cases that led them to being closed-off, cynical, and self-centered

in the case of body-hopping, i think she would have developed a very thick skin regarding her children which would limit - or even eliminate - any real feelings she might have had for them. if she doesn't body-hop, i still think she'd be tempted to keep herself apart, and in either case she enacts some of the abuse she(/they) were subject to

in the body-hopping scenario, she's used so many of her daughters, in some manner or other. but in both scenarios, she's existed so far beyond a normal mortal lifespan. if she did care about people, she'd inevitably see them die. again and again and again

both mythal and flemeth were abused by the people around them (in mythal's case she was literally killed by her family - the fact that it didn't take is intriguing, but doesn't lessen what they tried to do to her or the emotional toll it would take)

so all this is to say... i don't think she'd really care about mortals. maybe she did once, maybe not; maybe she's too mired in her pain and anger to care about anyone else, or maybe she's lost too many people she did care about and hardened herself to avoid more suffering

but yeah, idk if she cares about morrigan, or about kieran, or even necessarily about solas, although with him if she's scared of losing the people she cares for, he's safe. but if she's just closed off, then it wouldn't matter that he's (possibly/presumably?) immortal as well

she fascinates me. we know so little that's absolutely beyond a shadow of a doubt true about her - and we know that some of what was presented in-game as truth turned out to NOT be. flemythal is keeping secrets. she always has been

and final note: the line to morrigan about a willing host, about her never being in any danger from flemythal... that could've been her referencing her own act of coming together. perhaps the only willing host in their entire joint history was flemeth herself

[me-myselfandziall]

If I see anyone post on here about how annoying or stupid or whatever else it was to cancel all Broadway shows indefinitely, I'm gonna be pissed. The actors would've had the make the decision to put themselves at risk of covid or not get paid. Which do you think they would choose? Broadway actors dont have the option the work from home or work remotely. They come in contact with all kinds of people on their way into work and while on stage. And yes, I get that most of these people are in amazing shape and in the prime of the lives. That doesnt mean that they cant get it and pass it on to someone more vulnerable, like their parents or grandparents.

So, if anyone is pissed off about this, get off your high horse and think about other people for one second of your life