#i become besties with solas again

[kissingagrumpygiant]

I mean I also hate the chokehold that Cullen has on the tiktok girlies but can you really talk about ugly when you romanced Solas? 🤔 Egg looking ass.

His ugliness is literally part of the appeal what's not CLICKING! Cullen girlies lie to themselves he's ugly inside and outside, IM realistic

[brekkie-e]

I think the reason that the lack of multi-dimensional relationships within the party, and for Tav, is eating away at me so much recently is because it’s significantly affecting BG3’s replayableness for me. It’s a huge game, and I’m ever guilty of taking a completionist approach. Now, there are many branching narratives in BG3 which means there’s endless new content to explore by taking different approaches. Personally though, that’s not quite enough of a reason for me to want to keep revisiting a story. I don’t feel compelled to replay hundreds of hours worth of content just to see what happens to Sazza if you rescue her in Act 1 instead of leaving her in the cage. But if I’m invested in a story and the characters in it- I will replay a game 10,000 times just to rewatch my oc become ride or die besties and trauma bond with their companion. Thinking of Liara’s relationship with an unromanced Sheperd in ME3. Tali declaring herself Tali’zorah vas Normandy?? Gut wrenching. Garrus taking you out on a friend date and making fun of your go to catch phrase in the process? Iconic. Varric writing Cassandra a book to bury the hatchet between them? Unforgettable. Solas and Varric co-parenting a kid together? Can’t get enough of it. Those are the interactions that keep me coming back to replay a game over and over again. Seeing the effect my character has on the lives of their friends, and the effect their friends has on them. Absolutely, I adore the romance aspects of these kinds of rpg’s. It is also a reason I will replay a game. But I don’t want to replay a game as massive as BG3 if the only real significant connection my character develops during it is with their love interest. There’s too many hours that have to be invested to just be playing for a couple of scenes with their boo.

Same goes for trying different romances! If I want to try out the game taking a different approach, and exploring a different character’s romance- I’m dedicating a significant amount of time just to get a handful of scenes over the course of the entire game that focus on an emotional connection for my character. If replaying the game with a different oc meant that I could explore their friend dynamics differently as well? Heck yeah. But as it stands, it just feels like you pick your romance option and then have to stand awkwardly while you’re surrounded by acquaintances who want to bang you.

[doctormage]

ok i know this was literal months ago but genuinely curious what your actual answers are for dai romances: which do you think is the best narratively, which is the most fleshed out, which do you like the best, which has the LI you like the best? also bonus q which do you think is the best written as a contained story vs best written as it meshes with the broader narrative/themes? whichever of those isn’t already covered by “best narratively” :o) bonus BONUS q: best kiss superlative???

this made my WHOLE day tysm :') as expected this got incredibly long so under a read more it goes lol

[insert general disclaimer that these are just ~my thoughts and opinions~ and i won't pretend they're inarguable/objective]

best narratively: SOLAS. SORRY

this comes as a surprise to absolutely no one but I SWEAR I don't just have solas fucker glasses on. like I do have them on but I am capable of being objective I prommy

for one, Solas himself is a critical part of the narrative! i've gone on this rant a trillion times so I won't go full throttle here, but I will go slight throttle. every single companion serves as a foil or mirror to Solas, including the inquisitor. Solas watches the inquisitor go on the exact same path that he did in becoming Fen'Harel—the loss of self, the sacrifices for the greater good, the impossible decisions that have long-standing and international impact. it HAS to be brutal to watch. extremely juicy to intertwine this with a romance.

for another, I am just. destroyed by the fact that the inquisitor can come SO CLOSE to getting him to abandon his task. they don't know who he is, what he's done, or what he's trying to do; just by virtue of being themselves, they make the world around him come to life. he is an immortal being that sees the separation from magic as the most tragic and unnatural thing possible. so much so that he doesn't even view the people who walk this earth as people at all. they're NPCs in the bad timeline to him. he's just waiting to reload his save.

and literally without even knowing any of this, the inquisitor makes the world around him come to life. they make what he sees as tranquiled husks into people he cares about. they turn a fallen, lifeless world into one worth appreciating. and, for a time, into one worth saving. (both in the sense that he stays to close the breach / save everyone from Corypheus, and in the sense that he nearly abandons his plans.)

"you're real, and it means everyone could be real. it changes everything, but it can't." like. are you serious. i'm eating drywall rn

i find it absolutely insane that his romance was a last-minute addition. it is the sparsest of the romances as far as in-game content for main game, so that part I understand, but it works so well in the overarching narrative (and presumably that of DA4 as well) that it really blows me away that we almost didn't get it. as annoying as solasmancers can be—and I know we really can be—it makes a lot of sense to me that so many people were sucked down this rabbit hole

solas is a devastatingly lonely man for a multitude of reasons. he is immortal in a world where not everyone is anymore. nearly everyone he ever knew is dead. the thing he did to prevent the Evanuris from destroying the world still, in his eyes, destroyed it anyway. it is his greatest regret and it literally surrounds him at all times and he can't talk to anyone about it. through the inquisitor he is able to know what it is to love and be loved, and it shakes him so thoroughly he nearly abandons his entire purpose. and because of that—assuming from what we know of DA4 so far—he refuses to get close to anyone ever again. for fear of laying down his burden. I FEEL INSANE!!!!

i do want to throw in a disclaimer that I think most of these things are still true with a high-approval, non-romanced inquisitor as well. my first lavellan was a Solas bestie and I maintain that the overall themes that I love in the romance are still present in the platonic arc. but we don't get the crestwood scene without the romance, and FOR ME PERSONALLY(!), that is the most crucial part of the relationship's role in the story and what it says about both his and the inquisitor's character arcs.

last thing I swear. I also think inquisition has a lot of untapped potential as a story about what people can accomplish when they work together and care for one another. I acknowledge this isn't really explored in-game but TO ME! it is an important part of the story overall and solas's place in it. he altered the fabric of reality because he wanted to help people, and eons later he stuck around to knit back up his greatest mistake...to help people. I am gutted by the fact that this might be the only time in his entire, immortal life that he had the relationships with the people around him like he does while in the inquisition. AND by the fact that rather than see what caring for one another accomplished, he sees it was a weakness. completely misses the point because his shame and regret is just too suffocating. again i'm extrapolating a lot here but I couldn't not mention it in an answer about why I find his romance the best narratively lol

i'm so sorry this became literally an essay but academia never leaves you and I will also never not be deeply unwell about Solas. I hope this answered your question and wasn't just me losing my mind for 7 straight paragraphs (jesus christ) dksfjsdk but yeah. i'm done now

most fleshed out: CULLEN

this is a Bit hard for me to say bc i've only fully romanced 3 LIs in inquisition (Josie, Solas, Cass). i've read through/watched the others but imo it's not quite the same as experiencing the major beats of the relationship alongside the rest of the game. ANYWAY

to me the cullenmance seems most fleshed out, and I would be surprised if it didn't since he's been around for 3 whole games. they're able to rely on the players' past experiences with him as a kind of shorthand to develop his character (imo) and that history makes it feel a little fuller than romances with people you've only met this game. and he's the only other LI you can marry in trespasser and i am naught but a bitter josiemancer at the end of the day

also it pisses me off tremendously bc EYE think if they had actually put any effort or thought into his "redemption" he could've been one of the most impactful romances in the game! perhaps even second after solas! they had such a juicy opportunity w him (character-wise AND romance-wise) and they just. fumbled the absolute shit out of it. but idk why I expected anything else tbh slkdfjd

romance I like best: JOSIE <3

i'm taking this to mean the one I would like best for myself, and i'm sure i'm at least partially biased bc she was my first EVER dragon age romance but I really, really love Josephine's. I find it so sweet and such a great extension of her character <333 I love being able to go smooch her in the gardens whenever you want, I love that you get her to unwind a little, and I love the whirlwind fairytale drama of it all when you literally duel for her hand. is it unrealistic that the other dude would just give up? perhaps but idc it's TRUE LOVE and it CONQUERS ALL

I also personally find the leliana shotgun talk endearing bc it gives us a glimpse into their friendship. genuinely one of my only complaints is that I can't marry her/didn't get a romance specific scene w her in trespasser. like you just go to the opera. but whatever it's fine bc I love her so much. Josie deserves the world and, as someone who has spent her life taking care of others, she deserves someone who wants to take care of HER. I love that the inquisitor can be that for her :') additionally the epilogue slides (at least if you disband the inquisition idr what the others say) are fucking adorable bc her family loves you!!!

LI I like best: JOSIE AGAIN <3

antivan girllll I love youuuuu!! Solas doesn't win this title bc honestly he annoys me sometimes and Josie never annoys me lmao (I do still like him and think I would if I was a person in-game, but I gotta be realistic). I wish I had a deeper answer to this but I just think she's sweet, funny, interesting, beautiful, smart, sexy, and cool. I love that she's aggressively organized and that she can diffuse almost any situation and that she loves to talk shit and that she has regular tea parties with the other advisors. she is so cute and I love her!!! just in case I haven't said it enough times already!!!

best written as contained story + best written as it meshes with broader narratives/themes: I'M BALD/NUANCED ANSWER

tbh. the josiemance is probably one of the best ones (imo) as a contained story. you could completely remove it from the game and it would still make sense and be cute. it CAN mesh with the broader narratives/themes but it really doesn't have to and I haven't thought about this at all until just now! wow!

actually maybe i'll sort it this way. of the ones that could function well as standalone: Josie, Cassandra

ones that didn't NEED to happen during inquisition but still fit in well thematically: Blackwall, Dorian, Bull

ones that mesh best with the game's broader narratives/themes: Solas obviously, Cullen, and...Sera, actually, I think!

given that inquisition is about losing your personhood and being treated as a symbol, I appreciate that Sera is someone who tries to stay grounded and keep the inquisitor grounded. pretty sure the inquisitor actually says so verbatim to her in the scene after the post-corypheus party. she loves you for YOU, and reminds you that you are "a people" and not just the inquisitor, and that becomes a rare and beautiful gift by the end of the inq's story arc :')

i reserve the right to switch these around w more thought but for now I think i'll leave it there lol

best kiss(!!!): STILL BALD/NUANCE

to get the obligatory solasfucker brain rot answer out of the way: when he kisses the inquistor while removing their arm. I won't write another 7 paragraphs about it but just know that I COULD. lmfao

i love the Josie kiss after you duel for her hand ;_; and the one at the very end of the scene where her foot pops like mia in the princess diaries ;_; wah

i swear i'm not exclusively picking ones that i've personally romanced!! there are many good kisses those are just my favs

ANYWAY!

thank you SO MUCH for this ask I had an incredible time answering it this was extremely fun for me. and a good excuse to go back and watch all 8 romances via YouTube lskdjfslkdjf but fr thank you <3

[greypetrel]

What is the first thing each of your OCs does when they wake up?

Hi Mo! ✨

Ok, this got me thinking a little and it's become a morning routine description, oops? xD Alyra on top and the rest under the cut!

(hi, if you're reading, feel free to ask me about my blorbos! :3)

Alyra: Grabs the knife under her pillow better. Just to be sure, she checks she's alone in the room. She found out three assassins this way, don't blame her. She gets up, get dressed, has a quick breakfast up to her room as she reads her mail and reports. Cleaning up takes longer, she has a very precise routine (she's the one that in a modern AU will go fully Korean routine), carefully braids her hair so by the time she walks out she's in pristine condition. If she's with Morrigan, the first thing in the morning is greeting Kieran and teach him to wield a dagger. Mages can use some self-defense too, keep that dagger straight, you don't want to cut yourself. (it's a real dagger? Yes. He'll pay more attention like this). If she's with Alistair, the ritual includes waking him up when she's done with her hair. "You can't braid anyway, why would I wake you up sooner?" "You're so romantic, my heart is melting." "Don't let it trickle on the carpet, please."

Raina: Rolls over, groans loudly, begs Beowoof to let her sleep and to go to her brother (but scratches his ears anyway because he is a good boi). When said brother arrives and free her from the dog, she falls back asleep for some times more, if she's not particularly stressed or anxious. Stays in bed anyway. When she wakes up for real, it's a kiss to Merrill and one to Bela, and then she goes kick Fenris out of bed (he's very happy about it, yes, only besties threaten each other of very painful deaths. "Yes yes you can take my uterus first, please do if it'll free me of periods. Here, I'll raise my shirt for you, suit yourself.") and get some exercise together. He was the one to train her with some better form with her daggers, they kept the habit. By the time Garrett is back, everyone is ready for breakfast.

Garrett: Stretches and smiles to the new day, kisses Fenris good morning, dresses, retrieves Beowoof from Raina's room. Goes jogging as he walks the dog, enjoys the city in the hours of dawn when just the bakers and fishermen are up and about. He won't really miss Kirkwall, but he will remember fondly running around with the dog, greeted by the early workers and enjoying the sky painting in nice colours, enjoying the quiet and be able to think better than in the house. Plays some with the dog, buys some baked goods for everyone and then heads back home for breakfast.

Aisling: Rolls over and cuddles the person she sleeps with as she rests for 5 minutes more. When she's alone she fights her maid, Frida, that gets her out of bed each morning and scolds her because she stayed awake to the wee hours again and she is surly and groggy now and she left her room a mess. The scolding task was officially left to Cullen with a relieved sigh when he moved over to her room. A pity he sleeps as little as her, so poor Frida now has to wake up TWO people who slept to little and are groggy. After then it's breakfast time. Post Trespasser, she'll walk the dogs and go feed the animals as Cullen cooks breakfast for them.

Radha: She wakes up naturally each morning at the same hour. Doesn't stand too long in bed and gets up. She's very grumpy when she's just awake, and the first thing is always going to get some tea to wake up, which she sips while reading. After she has her tea, she is functional and can be spoken to and can properly start with her morning activities. The clan knows she's even less talkative in the morning, she makes herself scarce in Skyhold until she's functional. Solas learnt quickly that every greeting before tea is only met with a "No." (he finds her cute).

Max: Switches off her alarm clock, wakes Liara up if she's there with a horribly cheesy pet name. She uses a new one each day. Feed the fishes and hope they won't die, feed the hamster and then some light exercise, a shower, get dressed and fix her make-up. Then she goes to the kitchen to brew some coffee herself because nobody is allowed to touch her moka pot anymore after Gardner washed it with soap, and coffee is the only one thing her petty-italian gene will run strong about (she eats pineapple on pizza and breaks the spaghetti, would live on junk food and fizzy drinks, but coffee? Espresso or death). A cup of coffee, some biscuits as she reads the news, and she's good to go to.

[wardencommanderrodimiss]

Wait, something occurs to me, Esti takes a while to warm to Dorian, but he was Ena's bestie? Please elaborate on this, I am very curious.

Yep!

First, Esti again. Part of the problem for her is how insecure she is, especially pre-Skyhold. She can't stop second-guessing herself, which includes her judgment on people. She has her Traumatic Time-Travel experience with Dorian, which sees her put some trust in him - she has to trust him, he's all she's got - but once that is over and they're back in Haven, I think she's upset with how much she let him see her lose her composure, and then they have a conversation about slavery that goes ass-up, and she kind of goes oh, it was stupid of me to think we could be friends - and she very much tries to puff herself up to look bigger. And I think Dorian would see that (and her, in a sense) as ridiculous.

After the battle of Haven, after Esti manages to survive that, to manage on her own, to chase off Corypheus and make it out, by the time they've settled into Skyhold - like, she's not comfortable with this Inquisitor thing, but she's past her initial fear responses and is trying very hard to pull herself together instead of letting that fear and anxiety keep getting the best of her. Part of that includes working on her relationships with the inner circle - trying to get to know Vivienne and Bull despite being intimidated by them, trying to get to know Sera better despite the nothing they have in common, trying to have a functional working relationship with Dorian... And then Mother Giselle comes to Esti and asks her to lie to Dorian, and Esti's like "I'm not fucking doing that", and that whole thing means that Esti has to spend some time with Dorian and work her way back to stable ground with him. And having to see Dorian vulnerable when they meet his father and he tells her what happened does actually help Esti feel more comfortable with him, knowing that there's more to him than what he outwardly shows, and knowing that she's seeing him at what might be his worst, the way he saw that of her in Redcliffe. They do become friends, and I think are quite close by Trespasser.

All that and I haven't even gotten to Ena yet.

Ena is a lot more secure and confident in herself, even in this incredibly bizarre and unstable situation she's found herself in. Though, when she's uncomfortable, depending on the situation Esti either shrinks or puffs herself up; Ena goes flat and transforms herself into the most featureless, inoffensive version of herself. The Inquisition is on rough footing with the Chantry and indeed the whole world, and Ena is walking a tightrope within that. She determines the best way to survive this is to not piss anyone off - she denies being the Herald of Andraste, because she doesn't believe it, and also because she has the hope (in vain) that the Chantry will be a little less of a threat to her and the Inquisition if they're not riled up about that heresy. Of course, nothing Ena says in that regard really makes a difference. But through the early game, she defers to the Inquisition's experts, argues politely with the likes of Mother Giselle and Chancellor Roderick if she must argue at all, and tries to be nothing more than the hand that closes the rifts, in the hope that she'll get out of this soon and this "Herald" nonsense will stop.

Varric and Solas get to see a little more of her actual self, beneath that plain facade she's throwing up, because they're at the edges of this "Inquisition" thing. They're not the ones with power. Varric's a dude who got dragged here and doesn't seem a whole lot more comfortable with the likes of Cassandra and Leliana than Ena is; Solas might have a poor opinion of the Dalish and not consider Ena one of "his people", but he's an elf and an apostate, and Ena is still going to consider him as one of her people no matter what.

But that said, they're just two people of many, and Ena is well on her way to smothering most of herself by the time she meets Dorian. And he's easy to banter with - Ena has a wit and a sense of humor that she's been swallowing - and that makes her feel a little more like a person than she does much of the time, nowadays. And then they have their Traumatic Time-Travel experience that bonds them together, and when Dorian says afterwards that he'd like to stick with the Inquisition, Ena is genuinely happy to hear that, because she felt they clicked pretty well and she is not going to turn aside someone she felt comfortable with in this whole mess. She's only got a few of those.

They still have a conversation about slavery that goes ass-up, of course, but Ena, being more confident in herself, her judgment, and her ability to handle problems than Esti is, tells him he's stupid, and then she thinks to herself, still, what the fuck's he gonna do? If he was malicious, I never would have made it back alive in Redcliffe. If I ever find out he's done - what's he gonna do? Say some stupid shit to the servants? I'll smack him if he does. That conversation sticks in her mind, of course, but there are so many things that so many people have said to her that stick in her mind. She is willing to accept that Dorian means well, which she is not willing to accept of everyone. (She's so fucking sick of the Chantry hemming and hawing.)

The other thing is that Ena, past her muscles, her protective streak, and her big sword, is a nerd. She wants to know everything she can about everything, and she's especially interested in magic, history, and creatures. That's another part she's start to smother out of herself even before the Conclave; she was taught a lot about magic from an early age with the expectation that she would be a mage and grow up to follow her mother to become Keeper. But she is not a mage, she will never be Keeper, and much as she loved learning about magic, there was no point to continue teaching her. So she buried that part of herself, focused on being a good hunter and warrior for the clan, and used her little free time to continue absorbing all she could learn about Dalish history. That at least would be relevant to her.

Then she ends up in the Inquisition, with a strange magic mark on her hand, a hole in the sky, and tears in the Veil, and she has a reason to know more about magic again. There are mages around who have not been taught in the traditions of Clan Lavellan. They have different areas of expertise than her Keeper, they know things about magic that would never have been relevant to the clan, and Ena pounces on this opportunity. I think Solas, Vivienne, and Dorian would all have things to criticize about the way she was taught, but they could all agree that she keeps up very well for someone who is not a mage and was generally taught about magic with a specific focus on practicality. (The Arcane Knowledge perk was one of the first ones I picked up.)

And Dorian is the guy who helped Alexius figure out theoretical time travel that the Breach allowed to be put into practice, Dorian was able to open a portal to send them back through time, and that is all so far afield from anything Ena ever considered was possible - anything that any Keeper of Clan Lavellan would ever consider possible, because that kind of crazy academic theoretical is not what they are concerned with - that she spends a lot of time picking his brain about how that worked. She isn't able to grasp a lot of it, but she really tries to. And he would be more than happy to let her tell him how smart he is in exchange for some time spent trying to explain things to her.

And then when he needs a break, he shoos her off and she goes to ask Solas about the Fade.

So, between "sense of humor that she likes" and "also a nerd even if he thinks he's very cool", Ena spends a lot of time with Dorian, enough for them to become close very quickly, and for Mother Giselle to very quickly become concerned.

[lae-zels]

tagged by @faarkas (thank you, my oc’s badly needed sorting and updating)

tagging (those who i know have ocs) @cryptcombat @beemot @vilkaas @cultistbase @minthara @virmire​ @malefiicarum​ 💗

» favorite oc

my favorite not because he’s interesting. not because he’s got a complex backstory. no. he reminds me of the good ol’ days back in 2017 when i would play with my friends at 4am because all 6 of us were in different timezones. he’s a reminder i’ve got pages upon pages of destiny 2 fanfics and lore that i need to expand on. and i just think he’s neat

» newest oc

two weeks ago i installed gw2, created kel, played for 2 hours and uninstalled. relapsed two days later and reinstalled again. now i’m 18 hours in and i can’t stop thinking about him. he’s named after the word cauliflower

» oldest oc

created on december 30th 2010. helped me realize i love women, aliens/monsters and introduced me to an incredible world that i’m invested in till this day. she’s the closest to a self-insert oc, provided i was in the military commiting warcrimes. her family is my family. i can’t thank jennifer hale enough

» meanest oc

most of the gods in the dragon age universe stay silent because this motherfucker walks the earth and his ears are always perked up. he’s a plague. a flood. the disease. it’s either his way or the axe. leader of, what is essentially, a cult and the reason solas is actively balding

» softest oc

my cutie pie. my babygirl. she loves helping others and is a devoted friend/ally, which usually leads to people taking advantage of her. tali’s hatred of johnny is only rivaled by vincent’s but for completely different reasons - johnny is too selfish and self-centered for her liking

» most aloof/standoffish oc

years of arasaka-issued meds and hormones lead to him becoming very distant. he won’t socialize out of his own volition and you won’t see him out during the day. most likely he’s already ghosted and doxxed you. he’s living and breathing the netrunner lifestyle every day. only recently, he started to open up after leaving arasaka and abandoning the corpo life (did he really?)

» dumbest (affectionate) oc

a mage-hating elf, a mage rights activist, and two blood mages walk into the chantry - what happened next will NOT surprise you. he’s actually the smartest person playing the dumb guy but he’d never admit it. uses humor and quips to keep his friends on their toes. thought it would be funny to pursue a man that hates mages only to find the love of his life. just a silly guy here to tell horrible dad jokes

» smartest oc

born to constantly play 5d chess, juggling her republic and imperial alliances even in her sleep. she’s what i wish i was at school, a big ass nerd that manages to pull the baddest princes and outlaws in the galaxy. also, one of the oldest oc’s i’ve ever made. the archetype for all my other oc’s that i inevitably turn into hidden agents or information brokers

» oc i’d be friends with irl

my sleep paralysis demon, my bestie, my lover, my hater and my pal. chaotic neutral that i would love to follow just to know what shit they end up stirring. not the smartest but has the sharpest tongue in faerûn. i think he’d make me laugh a lot and we’d get in all sorts of trouble and we’d kiss and make out under the apple trees like friends do...

[shivunin]

Hullo!

Here's some characters for you too!

Sera, Flemeth and Anora :3

Thank you, Arja! 💗Ooh these were interesting ones c:

(Character Ask thing)

Sera

First impression: Alas, at first glance I thought she was a manic pixie dream girl.

Impression now: Soooo much more depth than anyone gives her credit for. So much internal tension and so many contradictions. I think her struggle with her own identity as an elf is so fascinating, especially through the lens of the way she talks to a Lavellan at the beginning of the game vs the things she says in Trespasser. The way she talks about the "little people" is so necessary and at odds with the opinions of the rest of the inner circle, her relationship with Dagna is precious to me, and some of the things she says to a befriended Inquisitor during Trespasser bring me to tears. I don't know that she will ever be one of my favorite characters, but I respect and love her anyways. So glad she is a companion.

Favorite moment: Her monologue after the Winter Palace is soooo good, I love it every time.

Idea for a story: Hmm I've thought about writing some things about her and Elowen, actually, because I think their dynamic is interesting. They love each other, they don't want to be around each other, when they're sad they want to hang out, Sera gets her drunk when she's being mopey...they're a hot mess and at some point I'm going to explore it better. Eventually.

Unpopular opinion: Errr idk. I think Sera fans have big brains and nuanced opinions (from my limited exposure). I'm not sure what the popular opinions are?

Favorite relationship: Sera and Dorian. They have some of the funniest dialogue, and though the companions do not exist solely to entertain me (or, wait, i guess they do) the dynamic between these two is so goddamn funny.

They fascinate me

Favorite headcanon: Idk how much is headcanon and how much is canon, but this is twofold: 1) Sera takes the painted box from you in Origins for the Jennies and 2) when Amethyne (the little girl sitting on the ground in the alienage, whose mom dies in the Cousland origin) talks about Sara going away she is actually talking about Sera and they were besties before Sera was adopted by human woman (whose name escapes me)

Flemeth

First impression: OH MY GOD??? AND SHE TURNS INTO A DRAGON?? WHO THE FUCK IS THIS LADY? SURELY SHE MUST BE A MAIN CHARACTER (and then she wasn't)

Impression now: Terrible mother, but oh my god is she serving cunt

Favorite moment: The scene between her, Morrigan, and Keiran. I just think it's an illuminating aspect of the dynamic between the three of them.

Idea for a story: Hmmmmm so....someday I might go back to the Scourge of Sundermount AU and if I ever do there will be a sort of apprenticeship thing with her and Ilriane. Otherwise, I don't necessarily feel the urge to write her.

Unpopular opinion: I think her weird, cryptic manner of speaking in Origins is hilarious and I wish she kept doing it.

Favorite relationship: I mean, limited options, right? Morrigan by default (we see so little of her and Solas/Fen'Harel). Very fucked up dynamic. Morrigan becoming the mother she never had is *chef's kiss* so good though.

Favorite headcanon: She taught Morrigan to talk Like That on purpose because it reminded her of a more familiar time OR for the lols. Her speech patterns aren't super similar in 2 or Inquisition, so it seems like an intentional affectation to me.

Anora (Arja, if you love Anora, I am so sorry in advance)

First impression: Oh, interesting! I guess maybe she's supposed to represent the conflict between having power, keeping it, and doing what's best for the country. I wonder if she'll act against her dad on the Wardens' behalf. Also, great outfit/nice hair.

Impression now: :/ Unfortunately, I take fictional betrayals very personally, so my opinion is clouded by blind rage at being sold out to Cauthrien and then again at the Landsmeet. I'll leave it at that.

Favorite moment: When Loghain is about to die and he says the thing about her being a little girl with skinned knees and for a moment she is just a daughter watching her father about to die. Extremely effective moment of storytelling.

Idea for a story: Well! If I finish writing the scene where Wen breaks her out, Anora will inevitably be there. So probably that.

Unpopular opinion: Oh geez. Well. Idk what the prevailing opinion on Anora is because most of the people I follow seem to like her in general. It's unpopular with myself that I dislike her so intensely, if that isn't a total cop-out to say? She's all the things I usually find compelling (calculating, kind of heartless, extremely competent) and yet...in my first playthrough she fucked me over so thoroughly that I can't get past it or see her any other way. She cannot girlboss, gatekeep, or gaslight her way out of pissing me off.

Favorite relationship: Her and Loghain. No idea what's going on there, but I want to squish them into a glass slide and look at them under a microscope.

Favorite headcanon: 😬 (Again, I'm sorry if you like her, but in my head Zev kills her post-game to avoid any succession issues and as a gift to Wen, who promised Alistair she wouldn't do anything herself. Not that it was a "won't somebody rid me of this upstart priest" situation; I think he also took Anora getting Wen thrown in prison personally, so it's sort of a win-win for him. So by Awakening she is definitely dead; that's the headcanon. But really she poses an issue to succession if she's not queen or dead, because she refuses to forfeit a right to the crown)

[liaswills]

Elariel Lavellan; Warrior Elf Inquisitor

Recruited all party members before Haven got destroyed

Romancing Solas (IM TRYING THIS AGAIN CUZ I WANT TO SEE THE HAND SCENE, trust me inquisitor Arthur Trevelyan has beat the shit out of him too, we just back with egghead for the time being because trespasser)

Recruited Mages and formed an Alliance. Magister Alexius is jailed.

I've never seen what happens when you try to restore the Circle with our favourite bitch Vivienne so I'm going to try doing that.

I'm thinking of making Leliana Divine in this one; Cassandra is becoming Divine in the Trevelyan save already.

Like in all saves, we either romance dorian or he's our bestie and this bitch a female so we besties with our favourite tevinter hoe. Besides Krem.

I'm going to make all decisions based on the fact that I'm a sword wielding dalish elf and see where that takes me. Ngl hoping Thedas gets destroyed by all elves and mages. #teamdaielves

[infiniteanalemma]

So, this is about Dragon Age, which means it's a long essay of a post. The question was which companion was my favorite.

Okay, so first of all, asking me to pick only one favorite? In a BioWare game? Cruel. 😞 How can I pick just one across three games and multiple dlcs? Impossible. I'm too indecisive for that.

Instead, I'll do one per game, which is still hard. Long post ahead. You've been warned.

Origins first, as God intended. If I have to pick only one (*sob*), it has to be Sten. Don't get me wrong, I love Alistair and he was my canon Cousland's romance. But as the player, Sten's my guy. I love a strong, silent type who'll talk philosophy with me, so what can I say? Maybe we don't always agree on everything, but that's half the fun of a philosophical debate. It was through talking with him and hearing his thoughts that I started to be interested in the qunari, which wound up causing me pain in DA2, but I don't regret it. Plus, my dude likes art -- truly a man of culture and taste.

It was a little bittersweet at the epilogue, knowing he would return to Par Vollen. Despite the Warden becoming his kadan, if he ever did see any of them again, it would probably be in war. However, they had a mutual respect and the hope that any war would be pushed back beyond their lifetimes.

Honorable mention goes to Nathaniel Howe in Awakening. Although the Warden killed his father, in the end even he could agree that his dad had it coming. Despite the shortness of the story, he actually had a fairly nuanced character arc. It felt especially satisfying to me to have him and my Cousland become friends. Something something, healing of old wounds, something something, found family.

DA2 is probably the hardest for me to pick just one. I loved them all, and all for different reasons. It comes down to a three-way battle between Varric, Fenris and Carver. But, since only one can win, it has to be Fenris. Sorry, sometimes I am just a basic bitch.

The thing I really appreciated, especially in Fenris's rivalmance, was the exploration of trauma and coping. My canon Hawke is a mage, and their relationship really showed how two people can hit each other's vulnerabilities and trauma, but still love and care for each other. It really shone a light on Fenris's character flaws, but also showed him grappling with them. That's how real-life trauma works. It wasn't an immediate "love conquers all" situation. It was a deeply wounded person lashing out and hurting someone they care about (and who cares about them) because that person inadvertently stepped on their trauma. Fenris winds up being very cruel to Hawke at times, which he later regrets, but it was a dysfunctional coping mechanism that he has to unlearn. And that takes time. He screws up, regrets, and tries to do better. Not just once, but many, many times. That's real.

Really, that's the thing that makes him win out for me over Varric. I love Varric, but no matter what happens, he's still Hawke's bestie. They never really have any serious conflict. While that's great for Hawke, it also means we never really get to see Varric's flaws and insecurities in action or have him overcome them. This makes sense, as Varric is the one telling the story -- a story that isn't about him, but it also slightly flattens his character. Carver (and Bethany), on the other hand, never really gets the screen-time to build up their relationships in the same way. I love them both to pieces, but there's so much with them that we never get to see. Really, I wish we could have gone more in-depth with everyone, but I guess that's what fanfic is for.

Inquisition is another game where I could write an essay on every character and, once again, I'mma be a basic bitch. Solas, Solas, Solas, my beloved egg, my problematic fave. Like with Sten, I enjoyed the philosophical bent to his conversations with the Inquisitor. Also, as my canon Inquisitor was a Trevelyan mage who gained his respect, I enjoyed the meta knowledge of how much their friendship was tearing Solas apart.

I liked that, once you know what he is, you can literally see the anguish he experiences as the story goes on as he grapples between what he personally wants and what he has to do to achieve his goals. I find it a satisfying thought-experiment to try to delve into a character's mindset and understand their motivations, and Solas is an interesting character for that. It's a fascinating window into his character to realize that his pride is such that he can't give up on his goals, because to do that would render all he's done and sacrificed to be in vain, and he can't allow that. He's doing it all "for the People", so he can't allow himself to "be selfish" enough to stop, so he condemns himself and tells himself it's noble to martyr himself this way. He's fascinating to me, and I want to pick his brain and study him like a bug.

Second honorable mention goes to Cullen, who is technically a companion, if only briefly. I know Curly is divisive within the fandom*, but I feel like that speaks to the complexity of his character. Personally, I'm glad he's not the unproblematic, idealized love interest. Perfect people in fiction are boring, anyway. Granted, the fans have to fill in a lot of places where BioWare could've handled things better. That said, I do think you can love someone and also be critical of their actions. I think you can care about someone, want them to grow and overcome their traumas and indoctrination, while also pointing out that they've said and done things that were really messed up. Even someone who wants to change can still have subconscious, problematic views that they don't even realize are still affecting them. I wish BioWare had leaned farther into that aspect, actually, instead of trying to smooth things over and make him less problematic.

*I do kind of find it funny that the range of opinions on him go from "I love him sm" to "he's terrible" to "he's the most boring, generic white guy of all." The Dragon Age fandom is ... definitely something.

[thedeadthree]

🖊🖊🖊 for each of your da ocs please im begging

HIIII AJ DEAR AND OF COURSE <3 and not emotional at all bc of u wishing to know more about my da babies AHH..! since i finished absolution they've been on the brain again.....! <3

SEND A 🖊 + I WILL GUSH ABOUT MY OCS <3

🖊 - the small folk of ferelden named her the ashen queen! for her ashen hair but as she saved the temple of sacred ashes, and she was reborn in the fires of Highever from lady to warden to queen to hero of all Ferelden from the blight. <3

🖊 - in highever, like the dear girl she was "the teyrnir's delight" she had more than a few paramours and requests for her hand (there was even talk of a tourney for her hand jahsbnjh) but her heart was on her sworn knight, sir roderick gilmore, before the tragedy of highever that resulted in his passing. alistair reminded her a lot of him when they first met in ways of their personalities. and he helped her heal from that and she's grateful to ali for that to this day <3 speaking of ali though <3 he still gifts her roses to this day every year on the day of their anniversary (bc of course he does <3) and had a garden commissioned in the palace for her! was it costly? yes! was it needed? not really! but he loves her and she loved him for it so!

🖊 - this hit me like an epiphany last month? i think? but i thought of having an old amell oc be her lady-in-waiting and childhood bestie! her name was rhiannon but i think i like alicent better? following her successful harrowing (with flying colors mind thee <3) she returned to highever to be the court sorceress of teyrn bryce cousland! alphonsa played wingman to her when ali showed interest in nathaniel howe <3 to be honest i adore natie too much and was going to set him up with alfie in an au but as i was thinking of fun facts it HIT ME and so! wingman alfie to her bestie was born! <3

🖊 - originally his name was faron! but i wasn't into the name and how it flowed together and in browsing the silm/t*olkien tag the plural for the f*eanor came up and i liked how it sounded as a name <3 and so his name was changed to feanorian!!!! his vallaslin and his patron was falon'din for a time as the mother of him and his sister lhysa was at one point a patron of the elven god of shadow <3

🖊 - for his relationship history if i remember reading right, he has been happily married to dorian for about a decade now at the start of da:d and (maybe) absolution <3 he had a short lived relationship with merril back in the day as a companion of hawke. he’s also had more than a few other lords and ladies as partners in the past before he met dorian <3 get ur rich man feanorian!!!!!!

🖊 - other than solas, he is the foremost scholar of elvhen lore and ancient sorcery <3 rivals that of the tevinter archon in terms of power and knowledge of the arcane <3 LOOOATHES using staffs and prefers the tried and true hands to dish out an arcane hind end whooping hehe! the chantry threw a FIT when he refused a staff they offered him but he “assured” them he hasn’t become an abomination.. yet <3 he was also invited to attend the temple of sacred ashes as a dignitary! his extensive knowledge totally doesn’t stem from the fact his biological father was an ancient elf himself and now the left hand to the dread wolf <3

���� - NOW FOR MY BABY <3 she has another verse she’s in!!!!! her other verse is the witcher where’s shes lhysa aep lonán, an aen seidhe of nilfgaard <3 also an assassin, she was the premier kingslayer and left hand of both emperor emhyr, his son maxen (an oc of minee <3) and jan c*alveit!!!!! in her da verse she was once an assassin for her mothers order based in nevarra the nahkriin, but went her separate way from it and became freelance!

🖊 - she never meant to be the inquisitor, and for sure never meant to touch the orb it sort of…… happened. her motivations for her presence there was actually that she was on a contract. and who was the contract for you say? it was the divine justinia herself in fact! <3 she hoped to kill her and draw attention to a few important things and people. you know, the chantry because of it was more than obvious that the only way to draw attention was to force their hand when it came to matters pertaining to them, and of course, a particular rebel leader of an unknown but known to someone……. VERY dear to her:

🖊 - WHICH LEADS TO MY LAST ONE!!!!! she and felassan were an item in this verse! i need to read the book he’s in bc she’s also in it for more lore but! he and her! his ideals and charisma captivated her. which was WEIRD for her bc well, in her line of work u know it is neeever a good idea to become close or attached to anyone u know? and uhhhh well……. he dies in the fade right.. bc well bestie rebel leader totally not an elven god right. SO HE WAKES UP AND HE WAKES UP TRANQUIL RIGHT SO HE WAS ZEROED IN THE FADE RIGHT! *cue the tiktok “she knows” song* AND ALSO *cue bloodlines will burn from the hotd soundtrack jsjshx* bc she SWORE to kill the one who killed him u know? it’s only right! an eye for an eye a soul for a soul u know? which makes it MORE inch resting that the whole time it was solas right? and even worse is he fell in love with her and she fell in love with him.. ✨😵‍💫🤍😳

[monstersandmaw]

How is your Trevelyan inquisitor in Trespasser? Is he still with Dorian?

Oof, I have so much self-indulgent angst lined up between the end of the main game and the start of Trespasser… Also, THANK YOU for asking about him! Haha. You made a rather miserable evening 100% brighter.

Breif mention of unhealthy alcohol habits, painful breakup (temporary), mental struggles, and physical pain & acquired disability.

Adam is… not doing so well, physically or mentally at the very start of Trespasser. He supported Dorian’s choice to return to Tevinter, but they broke up before he went back, and it left Adam absolutely devastated.

He masked it by throwing himself into sealing leftover rifts and spending as much time out in the field as possible. He was very reckless with his life, but no one except Sara and Bull seemed to notice or really care.

His hand/the anchor is slowly killing him, and he’s in private agony with it. He’s isolated, frightened, and has no idea what to do about it. He wants to disband the Inquisition as soon as possible, and after speaking to Varric at the start of the council, is planning to retreat to his new estate in Kirkwall (he’d been vaguely thinking of buying somewhere in the Free Marches before that to do the same) where he plans to drink (healthy), tinker with his traps and explosives, and retire from private life until the anchor kills him. He knows it’s going to kill him, but he doesn’t like Vivienne much, and he can’t contact Dorian (doesn’t want to bother him) and Solas is nowhere to be found. (His twin sister is a mage, but he doesn’t want to worry her).

The events of Trespasser see his plans change and his life turned upside down again, but he was especially hurt that Dorian didn’t tell him he was going to be at the talks as the ambassador from Tevinter, and seeing him again stirred it all up again. After it’s all over, he and Dorian talk. Tears are shed, and the two vow never to make decisions thinking they know what’s best for the other or their relationship (that was fundamentally why they broke up - Dorian couldn’t allow himself to believe that Adam truly was devoted to him, and Adam thought Dorian was too good for him. Ugh).

After Trespasser, Adam spends a lot of time recovering from his injuries in Kirkwall before acquiring a funky prosthetic from Dagna and joining the Red Jennies, but inevitably heading to Tevinter to help Dorian (while still with the Red Jennies). There’s a lot he can’t do in Tevinter because he’s still relatively well known, but he knows he’s helping Dorian even if it’s just being a welcoming partner at the end of the day… He also might or might not be involved with smuggling slaves out of Tevinter to freedom…

In Tevinter, becomes besties with Maevaris, and the two of them lovingly gang up on Dorian whenever they can.

He almost never goes back to his family in the Free Marches, but he does visit his twin sister when he can, who is now teaching at one of the new colleges of enchanters, and his older sister, who has an estate outside of Val Royeaux.

Thanks for asking! I’ve thought about Adam a lot lately, and you made my evening.

[hustlemeanokay]

Like, so I know a lot of people are getting hyped over DA4 and I'm so one of them. But... like it's important to understand something.

Solas is set to be the antagonist. The villain. Now, we have no idea how they plan to handle any relationship stuff with Solas because they've specifically said, time and again, that they considered his relationship with Lavellan complete with Trespasser.

So, yah - gonna be cool to see the Egg again but don't think he's gonna be a bestie and then get pissed when he isn't.

It's becoming a trend in the gaming world where fans/players/consumers have this idea in their head of how a game is going to be because they've been waiting on it and then when it isn't like how they had imagined? They get pissed and call it a shitty game. Even though it's fine. So like... just don't for this one, kthnxbai.

[anderfels]

hey lol saw ur post i wanna talk abt my babies :,)

maria hawke - her name is marian but her dad calls her maria bc i hc he had antivan parents. she’s a humorous hawke in the beginning but slowly becomes more and more aggressive. after carver died, she lost her bestie and that rlly beat her up, but she kept hiding how she felt with jokes and a smile. then bethany died in the deep roads which was her fault, and throughout the years it took her a while to get over her grief and be herself again. then mama hawke died, and she was tired of pretending. after the fight with the arishok, she is completely different - no more jokes and smiles. a shadow of who the champion used to be

danavas lavellan - i have so much to say on her i’m going to simplify it as much as possible 😭 a former crow with daddy issues. she found clan lavellan five years before the conclave happened and also found out she was a mage with them as well. she’s not the best mage but give her daggers and poison and she will deliver (sadly u cant do that in da:i ☹️). she knows how to read people, is an excellent spy, uses sex to get what she wants and also tends to be humorous but in a i’m-laughing-at-u-not-with-u kinda way. in the beginning the idea of being a prophet has her a bit conceited and she loves the attention, but after cory comes in she humbles herself and thinks on her want for power and greed. still, she is an amazing info gatherer, uses death as little as possible despite her background, and studies studies everything in her free time. or plays wicked grace with varric and throws pies at people with sera. she also had her right foot smashed in accident so she uses her staff as a cane, and has her own special one she uses in skyhold that can be popped in half to reveal a dagger and short staff. but being herald did change and humanize her even more than clan lavellan did, and she is a better person after all these events.

SORRY THIS IS SO LONG

NEVER APOLOGIZE FOR TALKING ABOUT YOUR DRAGON AGE OC'S! Make them as long as you want, I really do enjoy reading these!

Maria hits me straight in the heart :( Did her personality changes end up changing her relationships with some of her companions (I hope this question makes sense)? How did she feel about the entire mage-Templar conflict? What about the Qunari conflict? How did she deal with the events of Legacy, considering how family-orientated that entire thing was? If she could go back and save only one family member, who would it be?

Danavas sounds really interesting! How did she react to finding out that she had latent magical powers? How does her Skyhold cane look like (also, it sounds hella cool!)? Was she able to keep clan Lavellan alive? Besides Varric and Sera, does she get along with any others? What is her reaction to Solas' plan? How did she end up becoming a Crow?

Thank you for telling me about them! They're fantastic!

[grasslandgirl]

okay this is truly too many questions but for the fic asks, #1 + whichever of #2, 9, and/or 10 you want to answer for "and at least in this lifetime, we're sticking together" and "on this winter's night with you"??? (also i hope you're having a great day sav!)

sola there is NO such things as too many questions i am DELIGHTED and HONORED

1. Of the fics you’ve written, which is your favorite and why?

this is. the impossible question lmao!! i've written so many fics and i love a lot (not all) of them for different reasons but uhhhhh one of my top favorites is probably and in my chest, you knew me best (fig/fabian lounge singer au) just because it really was a labor of love and borne out of a very niche idea and endless encouragement from my lovely friends and i really think it came out how i wanted it to and its something I'm really proud of and like to reread <3

[and at least in this lifetime, we're sticking together]

2. Which scene was your favorite to write in [title of fic]?

this fic is so short i don't know if it counts as a scene (and I don't remember writing it well enough to know which was my favorite to write) but this paragraph always hits me in my feels bc of the deep found family of it all.....

Mario was a dick, but she has Pete, who offered her his shoulder to cry on and his room to crash in any time she needs, no questions asked. Her father was a piece of shit, but Kingston promised to help and advise in any way he could, as vox, as a nurse, as a voice of wisdom. Her aunts and uncles and cousins avoided her like the plague, but Iga’s hand is warm on her shoulder, and Sofie saw how she was with Jessica and Nick, knows that Iga can help her though all the pitfalls of young motherhood. She has Rowan, a real life fairy godmother, and future (former? both?) Broadway legend to boot. She has Ricky and Esther and even Cody (who she won’t ask to babysit until the kid is old enough to know better than to break into the mall). She has her mom, who will love this baby until the end of the world. She has herself.

Motherfucking I’m here, she hears, echoed on the wind.

9. Which idea came to you first in [title]?

i don't really remember! this was a prompt (day F- Family) for the d20 alphabet prompts back in febuary and i think i liked the idea of leaning into sofia's feelings on being estranged from her biological family, but finding a much better and a much more supportive family in the unsleeping city w the rest of the dream team <3

10. What are some facts readers may not know about [title]?

uhhhhhhhh I don't know? this one was really short and written really fast for the d20 alphabet prompt for the day and so there isn't a lot of secret lore lmao <3 i just love sofie bikes and specifically the scene w her and pete in the bathroom in nod in s2 where she's taking a pregnancy test and he's flushing drugs is just. so dear to my heart

[on this winter's night with you]

2. Which scene was your favorite to write in [title of fic]?

again, not technically a scene but.... ohhhh.... they <3

Sofie twisted around in his arms, pressing her hands against his chest- god he was buff- and smiling up at him, washed in pale white moonlight. “Wake me up,” she interrupted, ever so gently. “Next time, you can’t sleep, you see deer, whatever it is; wake me up. I wanna-” ach, god, the paranoid voice spat, don’t be so vulnerable, that’s how you get hurt- “I wanna see everything with you. That’s what this is, right? We’re all in?”

Dale’s face was impossibly gentle. He slowly raised a hand and traced her cheek with his thumb. “Yeah,” he said, sounding almost breathless, “yeah. I’m all in, Sof.” She leaned up on her toes without a second thought, catching his mouth with her own. It was good; it was always so good, like they were meant to fit together like this. “You know I love you, right?” Dale broke off after a few minutes, definitely sounding breathless this time. Sofia nodded, pursing her lips against the cocky, proud smile she felt rising up in her chest. She loved it when he said it, even a hundred times later. It always sounded like it was the first time, like he meant it with everything he had. “You’re it, Sofia. You’re it for me.”

Oh.

9. Which idea came to you first in [title]?

this was prompted by the ever wonderful jack @gendermybeloved to write sofiedale + "why are we whispering" and i remember immediately knowing I wanted to write something with them quietly watching the deer in their yard in the middle of the night! and the rest of the fic (sofie waking up alone, discovering dale, their quiet conversation) came from that!

10. What are some facts readers may not know about [title]?

this is kind of inspired by my real life! i mean, nothing this sweet or romantic like this has ever happened to me, but I live in a really quiet, heavily wooded neighborhood and there are ALWAYS herds of deer coming through our yard from the woods that surround it- its like a daily occurrence and has become so normalized that it's always kind of funny when friends come over and see the deer and are like "oh my GOD savannah look at the DEER!" and it always feels to me like they're saying something like "oh my god look at the TREE IN YOUR YARD" like. yeah bestie i know.

but! its fawn season and there have been a handful of the TINIEST BABY DEER coming through our yard this year and they're SO sweet and its always kind of lovely when someone in my family sees a really big buck or a little baby fawn and calls the family to the window or to the door to see and we all kind of. awwwwwww. abt it anyway this got wildly out of hand but tldr yes. seeing deer together is something that can be so personal actually <3

send me fic author asks!!

[crackinglamb]

001 for dragon age?

Did you really want an essay?  Cuz you’re gonna get one.  I’ll stick with DA:I, since that’s the only one I’ve actually played.  I have passing familiarity with the other two games, but not enough for details.  And as always, it got really long while I was writing it out, so under a cut it goes.

Favorite character: Probably obvious.  But it’s Solas.  Love him or hate him, no one can deny that he’s a complex, intricately written character with lots of facets we have yet to see all of.  Plus, he has a delicious voice and I’ll own that kink, no one can shame me.

Least Favorite character: *sigh*  Vivienne.  I wanted to like her, I really did.  She’s a powerful, ambitious woman in her own right, a successful mage, an adept at the Game.  She has strong motivations of her own, even if they’re written with a bit of a cliche.  But that’s also part of her problem.  She’s willfully blind to the suffering of her peers.  She’s bought into the propaganda of the Circle and the Chantry.  She’s like a political centrist and I find that distasteful.

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Solas/Lavellan; Dorian/Iron Bull; Varric/Hawke; Krem/Maryden; and finally a headcannon one: Solas/Ghilan’nain.  There are a wealth of layers to a relationship between them, and a bucketful of explanatory suppositions for why he is the way he is now.

Character I find most attractive: Do we really need to revisit the voice kink?  Are you gonna make me spell it out?  *snort*  Of course it’s that damned Egg.  No, I don’t sound too happy about it, do I?

Character I would marry: None of them.  They are, every single one of them, a hot mess disaster that I would never tie my life to, even if marriage wasn’t a convenient religious construct.

Character I would be best friends with: Varric Tethras.  That dwarf is bloody loyal to a fault and he deserves nice things and people who care about him just as much as he cares about everyone else.

 A random thought: How did I get here?  I wasn’t supposed to be here.  I just wanted to write the aforementioned happy ever after for Varric.  How did this happen?

An unpopular opinion: *nervous laugh*  My bestie is gonna kill me, but...Cullen isn’t as changed as people tend to think he is.  The overall arc of his ‘redemption’ falls flat imo.  I mean, all we really get from him is recognition that he has an addiction, has seen some shit and his attempts to deal with those.  He falls under ‘forgiveness doesn’t equal another chance’.  For a man who has been through as much as he has, his worldview is still pretty narrow.  Having been on the receiving end of someone like that irl, it simply doesn’t appeal in my fiction.

My Canon OTP: Hah!  Solas/Lavellan.  And not just because I’m writing about it to the exclusion of everything else right now.  I think it’s also the most in-depth view of Solas as a character.  His romance gets the most information about him by sheer numbers.

My Non-canon OTP: Varric/Hawke.  Hands down.  You cannot tell me that a man like Varric, over protective and loyal, would not lay down his life for Hawke and tap that ass while he was at it.

Most Badass Character: Leliana.  That woman is terrifying and yet all I want to do is give her a hug and a mug of hot cocoa.  She has the strengths of her convictions, the agility of her mind, she will fuck you up before you know what hit you and yet...she’s vulnerable under the surface.  But she doesn’t allow that vulnerability to break her.  Aside from a single instance, she never even lets anyone see it.  She’s remade herself over and over.  She probably could use a nap and a snuggle from her nugs.

Most Epic Villain: IMHO, DA:I doesn’t have a strong villain.  It has a series of boss fights.  The story isn’t finished, and the game is basically a placeholder in a franchise.  It’s too soon to know whether or not Solas counts (I don’t think he does, though, and if he does, I will be extremely disappointed in the writing team).

Pairing I am not a fan of: Cassandra/Varric.  I’ve yet to see it portrayed with proper application of enemies to lovers.  The start of their relationship is frankly abusive.  She holds him prisoner and repeatedly threatens his life in close quarters and she never makes amends for it in canon.  Bad tempers that lead to interpersonal violence are not cute or romantic.  I love Cass, I sincerely do.  But I do not ever see that ship as doing anything more than sinking to the bottom of the Waking Sea.

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): Bianca Davri.  There was so much hype.  So much.  And she was astoundingly underwhelming when we met her.  Love is truly blind, because given the portrayal we got, I have no idea what the ever loving fuck Varric sees in her.

Favourite Friendship: Solas and Iron Bull.  Now, this is assuming one saves the Chargers and Bull becomes Tal-Vashoth.  They go from butting heads on every single blessed thing to playing mental chess to pass the time and prove several points to themselves and to us, the players.  They learn so much from each other.  I get the warm fuzzies.  Runner up to this is Solas and Dorian.  Two men who are frighteningly similar but can’t see it.  Or won’t admit it, anyway.  And again, they learn so much from each other.

Character I most identify with: Okay, it might be a cheap cop out, but the Inquisitor.  I too am not getting paid enough to deal with the shit life throws at me while simultaneously being responsible for the well being of both myself and a person dependent on me.  Granted, my little person isn’t all of Thedas, but I wouldn’t say that makes it any less important.  And I too am canonically disabled by the end.  It’s rough being a spoonie.

Character I wish I could be: Ack, I don’t think I’d want to be any of them.  They all need therapy.  Possible exception is Cole.  I like to help, just as much as I like to be left to my own devices if no one needs me.  Speaking in riddles?  Unleashing a torrent of compassionate wrath and disappearing before anyone makes me bleed?  Having a deeper connection to the world around me?  Sure, I can get behind those.  I’m a Gemini.

Thanks for the ask.  You know I love it when you make me think.

[lavellane]

for the inquisitor ask meme: 2, 7, 11, 15, 23, 30 😏

thank u bby !!! 2 and 7 both answered here 

11. Where would you hang out in Skyhold?

id be in that easter egg area w the creepy carnival music that u can only access when u clip thru the floor <3

fjkfdkjf maybe........... that tiny little library in the lower levels of skyhold? this one!

its incredibly sexy and since my social anxiety would be thru the roof id probably want a place to hang out by myself and.... this is the sexiest place to be antisocial that i can think of so :3

15. Who would be your friends at Skyhold?

oh EVERYONE <3 i dont think i’d actually dislike a single person, tho maybe id be intimidated by a few. i’d completely love josephine, blackwall, varric, iron bull, cassandra and cole (josephine in particular id be besties with fjgkfjk). sera and leliana and vivienne i would still like but id be nervous around bc id feel stupid and dumb in comparison dfjkfdjkfd (also id be such a easy target for sera lol). ironically as much as i love him, solas i probably Would like, but only in small doses bc again. id feel like The ultimate dumbass around him lmao. cullen..............im on the fence abt. i think his personality and mine would work Extremely well together, but i wouldnt like him bc of his past and whatnot

23. What would be on your tombstone in the fade (What are you afraid of)? 

“Was A Burden To Everyone” 

F...............................................

30. Where would you go if the Inquisition was disbanded?

oh my god i have NO idea i feel like i would go downhill if that happened like i wouldnt be able to cope djfkdfjk..... id probably become an eccentric hedge mage who receives No visitors except varric and josephine on occasion to bring me shiny trinkets and tell me about the world. thats the ideal i think !