#miralla aldwir

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I noticed Rook and Davrin can parrot each other in two of their late game romance scenes, depending on your dialogue choices.

Rook (before Tearstone Island): I'm game. Davrin (after Tearstone Island): I'm game if you are.

I've included a video and transcripts below if anyone's interested.

BEFORE:

Davrin: And him, too. Our half-bird, half-cat kid. I want all that. ↳ (Humorous): We can handle it. Rook: C'mon we can handle one baby griffon. Davrin: It'll take two of us to corral him. Rook: I'm game.

AFTER (Intimate scene):

Rook: And that talk about our future—do you still mean it? Davrin: 'Course I do. Only question is, what sort of future? ↳ A simple life of adventure. Rook: The Davrin and Rook kind. Whacking monsters in the head and stealing their treasure. Davrin: The open wilds, full rucksacks, and each other. Rook: Nice and straightforward. Davrin: I'm game if you are.

These two are full of small little moments like this, inside jokes and back and forth references. There's "the road less travelled", "our half-bird, half-cat kid", "gingerwort truffles (tea and worms)", "I'm game", flying with Assan, "old-fashioned fun", "whatever comes (next)" and the whole hunt-chase-bait metaphor.

P.S. Rook's "nice and straightforward" line is a small nod (maybe unintentional?) towards Varric's line* at the beginning of the game—which is bittersweet when you consider the timing of the intimate cutscene :') *about a non-Shadow Dragon Rook: "One of the strongest pieces on the board, but [they tend] to think in straight lines."

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I wanted to post the whole exchange. This was too cute 🥹

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Whatever comes next...🥲

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Oh god, I think I hurt myself. The dialogue choices I picked this time around are so much better... I'm gonna break my own heart later 🥲

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Narratively, I think I prefer this choice 😄

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Last hug

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Thinking about how out of all my canon DA protagonists, Rook is the only one to get a straightforward romance (with a hint of HEA).

Mahariel/Alistair: She dodged a bullet by never finding out that Anora would throw her under the bus without a second thought. So she crowned Anora, didn't encourage Alistair to become king because he never seemed interested, and took the "easy" way out by (reluctantly) agreeing to Morrigan's ritual. If she had submitted to Cauthrien, well, King Alistair definitely would've left her heartbroken.

There's also the whole "Creators, do I really have feelings for a shem human?" crisis, y'know feeling like a traitor to her people for daring to love a human. And later on feeling immense (survivor's) guilt for not performing the ultimate sacrifice and irrationally believing she robbed Alistair of a better, more stable future. Which is why Alistair's romanced dialogue in DAI had me giddy, swooning and relieved:

"Happier than I ever dreamed possible. She's more than I deserve... And I hope I make her days easier as well."

Oh and let's not forget the Calling. That kind of puts a damper on the future.

Hawke/no one/the fade: RIP my Hawke. She had a fling with Isabela but the game bugged and didn't properly register their breakup... She couldn't romance anyone else or experience the full Isabela romance. If I had known that bug would happen I would've committed to Isabela lol.

In the Keep, I had her in a relationship with Sebastian for funsies. Except she's a mage and I personally don't believe a Sebastian/mage Hawke romance would end happily. Not unless he gives up the throne to Starkhaven, which I doubt either of them would want. Even by 9:52 Dragon I'm not sure Starkhaven or the rest of Thedas would realistically accept a mage as their Princess (he'd probably give the same speech as Alistair heh). So off to the Fade she went during Here Lies the Abyss.

Lavellan/Solas: It's Solas. He makes things complicated just by existing lol. Y'know as a quiet, not-humble, tea-hating, fade-obsessed dreamer apostate scholar. Not a god but still an absurdly powerful immortal elven mage straight out of Dalish legend. Maker of the veil. Sunderer of the titans and the Elvhenan of old. Leader of the elven rebellion against the Evanuris, liberator of elven slaves. The guy who played a hand in creating both the breach AND the blight. Who is "kind and wise and sad" and terrible at loving someone and being loved in return.

"The course of true love never did run smooth" is THEM. Ten years, man.

Rook/Davrin: Felt straight up like a Disney or Pixar romance - lighthearted and cute. I appreciated how level headed, grounded and confident he seemed. How he had a sense of humour but knew when to be serious. How he didn't have any overwhelming angst or drama in his life (after ten years with Solas yk...a girl needs a break!). It felt like Davrin truly understood what was important during all those round table discussions, like he and my (humorous) Rook were on the same page, that they definitely had inside jokes of their own. In a way, it felt like Davrin became a "rock for Rook".

Also ASSAN. My absolute favourite, my adopted baby griffin! While I would've liked to learn more about Davrin (which clan is he from? Does he have any siblings or surviving family? How'd he get his scars?), I was fairly pleased by this romance and all the cute family moments. Except for y'know that barely anyone in the game acknowledges it - it's only Emmrich, Davrin himself and Ghilan'nain of all characters lol afaik.

(Neve absolutely does not count! Watch/read the banter again. Only Rook responds to Davrin's comment about their future; Neve doesn't even offer anything like "I'm happy for you two" FKSDLAFJ;LSAKD;LKF)

When it came to the scene where they discuss their future together(!), it felt only appropriate to allow at least one of my DA protags to have a happy ending. (At that time I had no idea about Solas/Lavellan.) I liked how the game followed up on the "settling down and raising our half-bird, half-cat kid" later in Act 3. Plus Davrin referencing an earlier cutscene, coming around and suggesting they "go flying one day"... That really warmed my heart <3

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[Spoilers for Bellara's Act 2 Lighthouse Cutscene - Non-romance vs. Romance]

Me (at first): Hey, it's Bellara writing! Me: ... Me: Oh! 🤭

Okay, I loved the body language and animations here - for both Bellara and Rook. So huge(!!) incoming screenshot dump:

I wonder who Bellara means by "people like me"? 🤔 Several possibilities come to mind.

Aww Bellara's voice acting made me feel bad for rejecting her 🥹😣 So I HAD to reload to see the other route!

ROMANCE ver.

Above: [Top left 👍] I enjoyed the humorous dialogue more, but Bellara appreciated the compliment on her writing 😄

Below: [❤️] Flirt option in response to "You're all so interesting."

If you do flirt with Bellara in this scene, she'll briefly raise her hands in front of her face when asking Rook if they're interested in an "us".

She's more embarrassed to ask Rook this question after they've just flirted with her! D'aww.

The music that plays near the end of this cutscene is cute too <3

-

Bellara is cute... But I won't be romancing Bellara with this Rook. I don't think they really match each other, despite belonging to the same faction and having the same class... Maybe with another Rook, someday!

P.S. Bellara was actually my intended romance for my planned Veil Ranger / Veil Jumper, but I scrapped that Rook on Day 1 and rolled Miralla instead. (Miralla would've romanced Lucanis if things had been different.)

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[Spoilers for Act 2 Lavendel]

Surprise Veil Jumper dialogue option? 😯 (I'm posting most of the conversation so it makes sense)

Kudos to Antoine for actually understanding Rook's train of thought here

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Listen, I'm readying the adoption papers.

Make me Assan's next of kin, please 😭

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[DA:V Ending Spoilers]

Finally finished my "bad timeline run" - where I sacrificed a romanced Davrin rather than Harding - and also got the platinum trophy.

According to my save files, I hadn't touched the game for over 2 weeks 😅. But that checks out; Dragon Age Day and the AMA / interview were really demotivating.

Surprisingly, 4.8% of DA:V players on PS5 platinum'd the game (at the time of writing), which is higher than I expected. Not because it's difficult to plat, but I assumed less people would bother.

Anyway, I slapped Hawke's armour on Miralla, turned on the "depth of field" setting for CS (to test it out) and rolled on with Act 3.

Spent a LOT of time in photo mode, pretending I was Prompto and taking silly shots like this:

(But most of my photos are still on my console /lazy)

About the two "meaningful" choices in Act 2 (Point of No Return) and Act 3:

Davrin vs. Harding: Did Harding enjoyers feel robbed by the ending CS or nah? I thought there was going to be a Harding equivalent of Davrin and Assan's victory wave, but nope. The devs literally cut out Davrin's part AND the short group shot after it, making the ending even more anticlimactic! Like wtf BW

Going to pick Davrin > Harding every time now, if only so the ending doesn't feel incomplete 🤦 (Nevermind that Davrin is one of my fave datv characters while Harding is...not)

I will say Harding has a better last stand

Funnily enough, I got Harding's slide, Davrin / Assan's slide AND the Davrin!mance slide in the epilogue this time. I thought they might exclude the Davrin slides but no?? Weird.

^ I would've liked to see more of this in the game (emphasis on people)

Bellara vs. Neve: I picked Neve the first time, so Bellara got her turn today. While blighted!Bellara looks cooler, I feel Neve's cutscene in the throne room was more moving.

Maybe it's bc I've played a number of JRPGs where killing god(s) is the final goal, but Bellara's "You are not my god" line didn't live up to my expectations... :'(

I'll probably flip a coin in future PTs lol or pick whomever Rook trusts more.

Some shots of my Inky, Solas, Rook, etc.:

Lastly, those masked guys in the secret ending...

They referred to Ghilan'nain as "the storm, quelled". Which begs the question, is Ghilan'nain related to the Devouring Storm? 🤔 But Mythal says the Qunari didn't exist in her time, so the timeline is a bit off... Unless, enough time had passed between Mythal's death and Solas locking the Evanuris away for Ghilan'nain to meddle with the Qunari's creation...? Hmmm

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Extremely self-indulgent elven posting

DAI

DAO / DAV

Bonus

The Evanuris

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Mr. "I-am-not-a-god" looks like he's defying the laws of physics here

My Rook looked like she absolutely wanted to shank him lol:

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Yep. He's not sorry

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Lore accurate reaction to seeing the Dread Wolf