#im afraid he lives in my mind rentfree

[icharchivist]

So i reread The Wigmaker's Job (Lucanis' introduction) and The Wake (DA day 2020 short story about Lucanis' whereabouts) the other day and i have been buzzing with thoughts since, here's a post about it

On Lucanis's wings

I think it's VERY interesting that the story puts a lot of emphasis on Lucanis being anxious of missing jumps, and on failing those jumps. There's a lot of mention on how Lucanis specializes in doing things in the heights, Illario says "if they learn to look up, you're screwed", and Lucanis is anxious about missing his jumps, and when he does during the final battle he's wounded seriously and he damns himself for being too cocky.

and it's the man who ends up getting wings???

if anything that confirms his wings is a new development, but this is so fascinating to me. the story really emphases how good Lucanis is at his job: his senses are ultra developped, he can hear the slightest of sounds from a room away, he sees very keenly (it's also very clear that Caterina, his grandmother and leader of their Crows' house, abused him physically until he had basically all of this covered and a numbness to pain), so by all account, him risking to miss his jumps is his own biggest weakness to become the assassin he wants to be.

And he gets fucking wings. like DAMN.

There's also the focus on how sensitive his eyes are to the Fade and Magic to the point it gives him headaches in contrast to his tarot card showing him covered in Pride Demon's eyes. Also the devs mentioned coffee helps close you a little to the fade, and we know Lucanis is a coffeeboy, so there's definitely that playing.

On Lucanis' "The Demon"

Lucanis gained his nickname "The Demon" after he murdered his mark in The Wigmaker's job, and while i'm sure people would assume it means he's just that bloody, i offer the other reading of how Lucanis *genuinely weaponized actual demons from the other side of the veil to mass massacre people at that party*.

Actually it's another thing i find fascinating. so, Lucanis was asked to kill this guy, Ambrose, really quickly, at a Wig's show he was putting on in a private party only his closest associates participated to. Except Lucanis sees that the Wigs are made from slaves being fed Red Lyrium, who had their legs amputated so they couldn't move, their mouths sewed shut, while kept in Ambrose's lab of horrors. And Lucanis pretty much snaps when he sees that and he refuses to just kill Ambrose quickly - he's going to turn his whole factory against him and make him wish for despair before killing him - and free all the slaves he possibly can.

So Lucanis' big plan is literally to tear the veil open so demons start to possess the slaves he cannot save, and those slaves will tear into pieces all the people at Ambrose's party.

Ambrose himself has to turn himself into a massive abomination to fight against Lucanis when he's basically refusing to kill him so he can torture him more, and it's after Ambrose was turned into an abomination that Lucanis makes sure to kill him.

But a few things were interesting to me on reread:

First, the fact Lucanis knows for a fact that the situation attracted a Demon of Vengeance and that it won't leave until Ambrose is dead. Because the desire for Vengeance of the slaves is just that big, it must be so. Lucanis identifies it right away for some reasons which i find very interesting because this is a rare type of demon??? "Rage" are lower level demons but Vengeance is a higher type. Even if Lucanis had some information about magic (from where?? did he develop it from being that prolific in Tevinter?) this is highly specific.

But Lucanis also knows for certain that once Ambrose is dead, the abominations made from the slaves will turn to dust because "they will have had their vengeance." -- and he's proved right as it happens. Which is WILD because i don't think we've ever seen a case like that before??

Which leads to my conclusion: Lucanis is savy with spirits and demons and knows when he can get help from them. I suppose it's something you pick up when your main field of killing is Blood Mages in Tevinter, but it's fascinating to me.

and i think it adds to why the Vints start to call him The Demon. It's not just that Lucanis can kill even the most prepared of mages, that he can leave a bloodbath behind him and move on-- it's that he still knows enough of the Fade and spirits to turn the very demons the blood mages are used with manipulating against them.

(there's also the possibility of Lucanis being possessed but he earns this nickname BEFORE any possibility of him being possessed and i think that's the most important part)(i also have opinions about that in particular especially due to recent spoilers but i decided not to go into it this post to focus on the pre-game content.)

Lucanis the Freedom Fighter

Another thing about Lucanis that is really interesting especially as it's contrasted with Illario is that Lucanis actually feels strongly about social causes but he believes himself trapped in his position as a Crow and he can't do anything about it. He knows a lot about Elven Alienage Culture. He makes Elven friends. He befriends the slaves at Ambrose's house. He's genuinely gentle with one of them, Effe, even when Illario himself, as a good Crow, tries to remind him to keep his distance.

I think it's really interesting because the Crows are NOT supposed to be involved at all in this type of things. They are here for the mark and the money. They're not heroes. They shouldn't let their morals guide them.

But Lucanis is all about his morals. If you upset his "delicate sensibilities" like he says, he will go around his mission.

And Lucanis balances both wanting the safety of the people he wants to protect and the pure vengeance he wants to offer.

I think one dialogue that illustrates it well is when he talks about wanting to free the slaves and Illario tells him they're not Freedom fighters and he need to stop, and Lucanis replies "at least we can give them vengeance." Lucanis priority was safety, but as a Crow, as a person made for killing, the only path he can really see is the one of destruction. He wants to help, to be benevolent, but since he's not made for it, he'll find out what he can do.

There's also a line i love from Lucanis when he decides that it doesn't matter to him if Ambrose's guests get killed in the massacre Lucanis unleashes to punish Ambrose, because they're all aware of Ambrose's machination or blissfully ignore it for their own comfort, and he thinks "Ignorance is bliss, not innocence." To him, if you end up profiting from the suffering of others, you're just as much worth punishing as the people he found out they could profit from it.

He has a strong moral compass and can put himself into the position of Judge and Executioner, but at the same time he wants reparation for the people who were hurt.

Like i said it's also interesting he knows about Alienage culture, about how the guards of Vyriantum burnt down the Alienage Tree to crush their rebellious spirits, but Lucanis knew of the customs and still commented that it had had the opposite effect, obviously. He cares about how people try to battle the system.

He's happy being tasked to murder racist blood mages because he hates racist blood mages.

(sidenotes: he's called Mage Killer in the trailer because he's getting this reputation in Tevinter, where he kills BAD BLOOD MAGES, VENATORIs. He doesn't hate mages on principle. He's just specialized in killing powerful mages in Tevinter. Stop acting like he's a mage hater, he's not!!)

And at the end of the story, when he comes, covered in his own blood to see Illario again after he tasked Illario to save the slaves while he dealt with Ambrose, when Illario worries about him Lucanis brushes it off and goes "it doesn't matter. what about the slaves did you manage to bring them to safety?"

And i think there's a layer of interesting when you know the Crows are known for using slavery. Lucanis and Illario are BORN Crows. They're the grandsons of the First Talon of the Crows, the most powerful house of the Crows and they're born in it. They weren't slaves who were bought and then unable to ever leave, like Zevran. Sure in a way they're also not able to leave but they're tied by the abuse of their families and duty, which is a form of Slavery, but not pronounced like Zevran's. And especially, Lucanis thinks nothing of it. He's okay with being a weapon, he's okay with Caterina's abuse since it means it got him to survive this far. He doesn't see his position and there's questions to be had on how he sees the others Crows who come from Slavery.

But thing is that Lucanis is really on another level caring about freedom and safety even if he has to put his work on hold for it.

Lucanis the Assassin

One thing that actually interests me in regard to what i just wrote is that Lucanis wants nothing to do with the Crows' leadership.

Illario and Lucanis are both considered as possible successor to Caterina, the First Talon of the Crows. The Crows are organized by specific houses which are all led by Talon and their number shows how high in the hierarchy they are. Basically, Illario and Lucanis are Crows' royalty. They're the grandsons to the highest ranking member of the Crows all around.

Lucanis is considered the Favorite though, Caterina favors him openly. And Lucanis hates it. He doesn't want to lead the Crows. He thinks Illario is better for the job because Illario is much more of a tactician, someone who's much more set on the rules of what it means to be a Crow, someone who knows how the Organization world.

Lucanis considers his talents are only on how he's good at killing and good at withstanding pain. He doesn't see himself as a leader no matter how much Caterina pushes him.

And considering Lucanis' thoughts on Slavery for instance i wonder if this is one of the things that play into it, especially with how one of his conversation with Illario about it (Illario who rEALLY wants to become Talon) happens right after they got into an argument because Illario had to free the slaves for Lucanis despite the fact it's not their job, and that Lucanis endangered the mission by getting guided by his desire for vengeance.

By all account, Lucanis knows Illario has a clearer mind about it, to respect the rules of the Crows. Did Lucanis ever think about how being a leader of the Crows would mean having to grapple with the way their Order resolve this much around Slavery? He goes insane the moment he sees the slaves suffer, even before seeing the worst of it he gets very protective of Effe just because he sees her master has torn her hair out, which while horrible probably barely compare to the torture Caterina pushed them through. I doubt Lucanis could actually reconcile the way the Crows work, and the way he actually sees the world.

I feel like he makes an exception for his upbringing because it's all he knows. He's thankfull for Caterina's abuse because it prepared him being the best Crows, but he never had any alternative proposed to him. He resents seeing other people's Abuse, but he doesn't even process the fucked up situation he's in, nor the fact he has no escape. And i think avoiding the leadership is the best he can do to not address the hypocrisis the Crows left him into.

All in all he's also pretty established as someone who can withstand all sort of pain because of the multiple torture Caterina pushed on him, and he also can just as easily conduct this judgement on people. In the story, they manage to arrest a Venatori who was spying on them and Illario ties him up to torture him and asks him who sent him, but when the Venatori says "even if you torture me i won't talk" Lucanis just shrugs saying he won't bother and he kills him instead, looking through his stuff instead to get his answer. And i'm not even talking about how Lucanis even managed to arrest that Venatori, this was insane.

Lucanis doesn't hesitate to kill, he doesn't hesitate to bring pain. He also tells himself the "child song" that Caterina taught him and Illario about how to kill multiple people, which Illario teases him about.

But as said before even as an assassin he cannot fully close his heart to the suffering of people around him : thus he believes Illario is much better fitted than him for that.

Lucanis, the Brother

Lucanis and Illario are cousin, of the same age, who were raised together. In The Wake, Illario says "He was my cousin, but we were more like brothers, really.". They were much closer than anything else and were raised as siblings.

It shows in their dynamic. They bicker, but it's always out of care about one another or mild annoyance. There's never any animosity between them even though Caterina set them up as rivals for the title of Talon. Even when they discuss it, they're level headed about it, fully about how Caterina perceive them, not about each other's faults. They're important to one another.

Lucanis' voice actor actually mentioned reading the Wigmaker job because voicing his character and immediately connected to Lucanis because he has a brother that he bickers with as much as Lucanis bickers with Illario, but they would die for one another, and it made it really easy for him to get into Lucanis' role.

Lucanis calls out Illario for looking like a tourist, full of gold, for a party in Tevinter, but he also mentions that he dragged Illario shopping (while he, himself, didn't buy anything), only because he always liked the finer things and some fashion, but especially because Illario felt excited about it. When Illario flirts around at the party Lucanis is so exasperated with him but in a very "that's my idiot of a brother" type of way and it's really sweet.

The Wake totally destroyed me with the way Illario talked about Lucanis. All of those talks about Illario wanting to lead the Crows, of not wanting to lose it to Lucanis even if he was the favorite, and the moment Lucanis is believed dead, Illario totally crumbles and says:

"And I was always right behind him, you know? Always.” Illario’s voice suddenly grew thick with emotion. “Now there’s nobody for me to follow.” [...] “It should have been me.”

Despite the competition, despite thinking he could himself be the good Talon, despite Lucanis constantly reassuring him that he believes Illario is the better leader of the two - once Illario believes he lost Lucanis, his thoughts go to how in the end, he was the one always following Lucanis. That without Lucanis Illario doesn't know where he's going. That in the end, he would have rather died than losing Lucanis.

It's very touching reading The Wigmaker's Job and The Wake back to back because you see their very serious conversation about who could lead the Crows, but once Lucanis' die, none of it matters for Illario. He just wanted to be with Lucanis more.

DESPITE the fact that Illario warned Lucanis multiple times about how HIS behavior was going to get him enemies; Illario fuss over how Lucanis makes himself known to his preys, he knows it's LUCANIS' BEHAVIOR that is getting him into trouble. And yet in the end he still thinks "it should have been me.". Illario is aware it's all in Lucanis' hands yet he cannot even process it this way because he misses him so bad.

Also idk where else to put it but in The Wake we learn that as a kid, Lucanis was the type of people to get hyperfixation and ramble for ever about them. He read about Wyvern once and it's all he could talk about for weeks, which Illario is lovingly annoyed by, while also mentioning later that they went Wyvern hunting together, implying that despite being annoyed, Illario was more than happy to indulge in Lucanis' obsession. It's very cute because it shows just how close they are that something was both annoying and endearing, and it shows how Lucanis was as a kid before the training of the Crows made him more quiet and reserved in general.

Yet Lucanis would drag Illario into all sort of troubles, and Illario thinks fondly about all of this because those were always worthwhile for him.

About Lucanis' hyperfixation i wonder if the focus on coffee in every promo material shows where his new passion is at. They mentioned it's canonically to block out his sensitivitiy to the Fade, but it'd be cute if he rambled about it. Please.

On his Fate

So. Back in 2020 when i read Tevinter Nights, i was convinced Lucanis will come back because his story ends on a cliffhanger. Then, The Wake came out and i was devastated it might not be the case, that Illario was going to take over from where Lucanis started. So my excitement about seeing Lucanis in the trailers can't ever be compared because i KNEW his story was unfinished and i'm so happy about it.

In The Wigmaker's Job there's focus over the fact the Crows' personal identity are not supposed to be well known. People aren't supposed to know their names. But the Venatori learnt about Lucanis' name, and they know his reputation, and it's why they're keeping an eye on him. Illario is really alarmed by what it means, though Lucanis doesn't care because if he kills them all it'll be fineeee.

But when meeting Effe, one of Ambrose's slave, who sees their face and knows they're the Crows, Illario starts to argue they should kill her because they can't let her know their face. Lucanis brushes it off, says "no she didnt. Right you didn't?" and Effe confirms, seeing Lucanis is saving her life.

Illario however panics more and fuss over Lucanis. Lucanis just shrugs that if someone sees his face, he'll just grow a beard.

indeed in the book he's described with only a 5 o'clock beard type, so him growing one in da4 is probably a direct call back to this specific line. continuity. Also Blackwall's school of "don't be suspicious".

But indeed Illario's concerns were correct. The story ends on seeing a Magister willing to hunt down Lucanis, and she mentions specifically that now they know how to get to him:

“Don’t be. I’m not a fool like Ambrose. A true maleficar knows demons cannot be killed, only controlled. If this Crow fancies himself a demon, then I look forward to using him to his full potential.” “How?” Crispin asked. “Never underestimate the power of observation,” Zara lectured. “I’ll keep a low profile. That should entice him to move on to more exciting prey.” “But he’ll continue killing Venatori,” Felicia pointed out. “For which he’ll be duly punished. In the meantime, we practice patience.” Zara paused to marvel at herself. Every feature and proportion were in perfect symmetry. And yet, when she smiled, there was something ugly behind it. “Freeing Ambrose’s slaves already tells us this Crow has a heart. He will reveal other flaws. And we will exploit every last one of them"

First of all, terrified about the fact she wants to control him, re again: Lucanis' relationship to freedom and the paradoxal situation of his position within the Crows. Him leaning more and more into Demon/Spirit territories make him also more prone to be seen as a potential slave (as Blood Mage often do, after all).

But yeah, the thing is, freeing the slaves IS coming back to bite Lucanis in the ass. It showed that he cared, that he has weaknesses, that it can be used against him.

I can imagine Zara can have tracked down the slaves that were freed to have information on his face. And it's probably also because he cared so much that he ended up in a situation that led to him seemingly die. He may have been trapped because he has a heart too big and people found a way to use it against him.

so we know Zara is hunting him down (and one of the trailer shows Lucanis fight about a woman mage, and considering the big worldbuilding effort they do to show us how nasty Zara is in particular, she definitely feels like a minor antagonist in the game). She probably tried to kill him once, and probably will try to use him again once the game starts.

The Wake showed that Lucanis seemingly have died. We know he's still alive - whether it is because he faked his death or became an abomination himself, he's still alive but had a brush with death.

We see Viego and Teia in the trailer. They both appear in Eight Little Talon and comment about Lucanis on here, and they also have a physical appearance in the Comics The Missing, which is how we can recognize them. Most importantly, they're the two people who take care of Illario when he's grieving madly for Lucanis in The Wake.

So i'm assuming Lucanis will be able to tell his closed ones that he's still alive, or at least Viego and Teia may alert Illario about it.

I hope they do, i hope we see all of them back on screen, reuniting all together.

Final Thoughts:

My head have been buzzing with thoughts about Lucanis for the past 4 years, while feeling like i was fooling myself with "here's how Lucanis can still win" after The Wake came out. And in the end, i win. I'm the one who wins. And now being able to reread Tevinter Nights and The Wake really gives me even more perspective on him.

I loved him then, i still love him now, even more than i did before, and i'm so excited to see how his character will be utilized more.

Finally, this one line that still lives in my brain rentfree:

I can't wait to kiss him after all those years thank you DA4 for your services.

[themoodyestj]

your problem is that you are a fan of some dude you made up on your mind, and whenever the real Jensen steps out of your mold, you flip out.

you just don't like him, you don't like that he's a laid back dude who stays away from pointless conflicts, but runs right into a burning building if somebody needs help. you don't like that he's a sweet guy who is a fan of his wife and who relies on her for a lot of things, who treats her with respect and gives her credit for all the work she does as a family caretaker.

you don't like that he's a weirdo who loves the characters that he plays as if they were real. you don't like that he loves to dress up and have fun with his wife, or that he doesn't mind being affectionate with his male friends, because he's not afraid of being vulnerable and he's not so fucking insecure on his own sexuality that a fictional gay ship would make him uncomfortable.

If there is something that I really enjoy, is when delulus forgo all sense of safety and decorum and come to my inbox to tell me about my problems. Because then, I feel completely justified on being as shitty as I possibly can to tell them about their problems. So here's the tea.

Your problem, Anon, is that I live rentfree on your head. Your problem is that the things I write in my blog are based on things Jensen said himself, and you can't rebute them, except for the pathetic clutching of ears while you sing lalalalalalala. And because you cant rebute them, it stings. And you feel justified to come here and tell me about my problems. Big mistake. Big, huge mistake. Your problem is that your idols are rotten. You stan a vapid queen who never did much for herself, not even sit and look pretty when she was supposed to shut up. Her biggest accomplishments were to associate with someone who did bigger accomplishments. And all the things she does herself are surrounded by controversy and bad juju and never ever ever work. You stand a man who is the human equivalent of a weasel, coming into coops and basking on other one's eggs, because he has very little to show for. Your idols are a has-been and a never-was. And yes, Jensen. But since you love to associate him with those people, I would say you dont love him very much. Your problem is that, no matter how much projection you try to use here, Im not the one who flips... its you. I simply write my opinion, in a blog you are welcome to block. But no, I represent such an discomfort to you that ignoring me isnt enough, you need and try to control me, bully me, like you do with your fave. You are the one who needs to see him in a certain light and will harass anyone, including himself, to get your way. But your biggest problem, Anon, is that in the midst of all celebrity drama and other problems you have (who could probably use medical attention), you forgot that you do have a life outside of Tumblr, and that you should live it. And apparently, you also forgot the importance of values and a spine. I wish you an awesome weekend. Glad I made you squirm.