#my intention is making an inquisitor and developing his character

[harrycollins]

I always have to convince myself about not installing and replaying DOS2 whenever I see something related to Ifan.

[cldhrbour]

important portrayal notes

below are just some canon divergencies or nuances that i want to make explicitly clear are important to my development of serana. these are all pieces i've built over the years that, if we're writing together, and especially if it's in any high fantasy verse where serana's backstory is a bit more in play, that i'd appreciate you know and accept. hell, these matter more to me over you knowing her general plot to begin with since that's easy for me to summarize to you. there's just stuff in the game i've gotten sick of as far as how it was handled and i want to make sure we're on the same wavelength when it comes to writing and plotting together.

most importantly: your character (mainly if you're an ldb or tav or inquisitor - esque character) does not get to kill harkon. i'm glad we're all finally at a point where we want characters to have agency in their story rather than playing 'side-piece' to main player characters and this is something i've harped on for literal years. this is serana's story, this is her trauma that she has to come to terms with and make the final decision that her father can't live any longer. you don't get to take that away from her. it's a perfect character arc for her to go through and thus, all other characters will play a side-role in the final battle at castle volkihar. you don't have the history with him. you don't have the memories she has and the emotions she's had to go through to get to this point. do you understand how much it takes to get to a place where you know you have to kill your parent and not only just that but actually do it to begin with? it's stupid to think that serana has all this rich backstory with her clan and parents just to have someone she met maybe a couple months ago come in and sweep it all away. give her agency, my fucking god. you got your hero moment defeating alduin, the absolute, corypheus, etc. let serana have hers.

in my canon harkon does kill serana in kind. their final moments together are supposed to represent not only serana finally needing to accept her father's megalomania will never be cured and that he isn't the same man who raised her, but also she needs to see that in his final moment of taking the plunge and killing her. it's one thing to battle with him and try to continue to reason with him, it's another to stand there seeing he actually staked you through the heart at a final grasp of power. this happens within seconds of each other, there's nothing anyone can do about it. granted, it's a cop-out for me that her mother is a notorious necromancer and can bring her daughter back over a couple of days, so her story can and will continue, but for all intents and purposes, these two kill each other.

this blog is castle volkihar favorable. i'm staunchly against the dawnguard, but more importantly against the extermination of serana's entire family leaving her with no one once the dust has settled. it's fine if your character is a part of the dawnguard, but understand that if there's no compromise between the dawnguard and serana to keep the rest of the coven alive if the vampires agree to follow her instead, then you abandon any further 'friendly interaction' with her once the battle at the castle is over. you don't get to have your cake and eat it too because 'vampires = evil' in this godforsaken, lack of nuance game. as long as the coven continues to live, serana will then take over her parent's role and lead the volkihars.

serana will canonically have two sets of scars. and only two, considering her ability to heal. one is a pair of burn marks at her hips from when she became a daughter of coldharbour and was assaulted by molag bal. this is something, in my own canon, every vampire with the title of daughter of coldharbour has. it's a mark the prince of domination wants to have on his property. the second will appear after being resurrected by feran and valerica, a pitted scar at her sternum where harkon attempted to kill her. both of them bleak reminders of her deaths.

as she continues to develop, and metas i have become more solidified, i will be adding to this list and i'll make sure to make a post/update everyone when it's been adjusted to reflect my current canon.

[sanctifisol]

important portrayal notes

below are just some canon divergencies or nuances that i want to make explicitly clear are important to my development of serana. these are all pieces i've built over the years that, if we're writing together, and especially if it's in any high fantasy verse where serana's backstory is a bit more in play, that i'd appreciate you know and accept. hell, these matter more to me over you knowing her general plot to begin with since that's easy for me to summarize to you.there's just stuff in the game i've gotten sick of as far as how it was handled and i want to make sure we're on the same wavelength when it comes to writing and plotting together.

most importantly: your character (mainly if you're an ldb or tav or inquisitor - esque character) does not get to kill harkon. i'm glad we're all finally at a point where we want characters to have agency in their story rather than playing 'side-piece' to main player characters and this is something i've harped on for literal years. this is serana's story, this is her trauma that she has to come to terms with and make the final decision that her father can't live any longer. you don't get to take that away from her. it's a perfect character arc for her to go through and thus, all other characters will play a side-role in the final battle at castle volkihar. you don't have the history with him. you don't have the memories she has and the emotions she's had to go through to get to this point. do you understand how much it takes to get to a place where you know you have to kill your parent and not only just that but actually do it to begin with? it's stupid to think that serana has all this rich backstory with her clan and parents just to have someone she met maybe a couple months ago come in and sweep it all away. give her agency, my fucking god. you got your hero moment defeating alduin, the absolute, corypheus, etc. let serana have hers.

in my canon harkon does kill serana in kind. their final moments together are supposed to represent not only serana finally needing to accept her father's megalomania will never be cured and that he isn't the same man who raised her, but also she needs to see that in his final moments he will take the plunge and kill her. it's one thing to battle with him and try to continue to reason with him, it's another to stand there seeing he actually staked you through the heart at a final grasp of power. this happens within seconds of each other, there's nothing anyone can do about it. granted, it's a cop-out for me that her mother is a notorious necromancer and can bring her daughter back over a couple of days, so her story can and will continue, but for all intents and purposes, these two kill each other.

this blog is castle volkihar favorable. i'm staunchly against the dawnguard, but more importantly against the extermination of serana's entire family leaving her with no one once the dust has settled. it's fine if your character is a part of the dawnguard, but understand that if there's no compromise between the dawnguard and serana to keep the rest of the coven alive if the vampires agree to follow her instead, then you abandon any further 'friendly interaction' with her once the battle at the castle is over. you don't get to have your cake and eat it too because 'vampires = evil' in this godforsaken, lack of nuance game. as long as the coven continues to live, serana will then take over her parent's role and lead the volkihars.

while devs did confirm their intention was that serana was sealed away during the interregnum, we never get solid proof of how old exactly serana is. community discussion and some small crumbs of lore ( the existence of 'vingalmo's treatise on the altmer antecedent', no information about harkon's reign as a 'king', talking about 'previous owners' of the castle they reside in, her confusion on why the state of the dwemer, durnehviir in general ) have me settling on the family existing in the late merethic era, turning into vampires, then following ysgrammor down into skyrim where they took up residence in the sea of ghosts. this places her at around 4000+ years old. in other verses, just figure she's old as hell. ancient.

serana will canonically have two sets of scars. and only two, considering her ability to heal. one is a pair of burn marks at her hips from when she became a daughter of coldharbour and was assaulted by molag bal. this is something, in my own canon, every vampire with the title of daughter of coldharbour has. it's a mark the prince of domination wants to have on his property. the second will appear after being resurrected by feran and valerica, a pitted scar at her sternum where harkon attempted to kill her. both of them bleak reminders of her deaths.

as she continues to develop, and metas i have become more solidified, i will be adding to this list and i'll make sure to make a post/update everyone when it's been adjusted to reflect my current canon.

[n7punk]

found my old dragon age notes lmao

(i have actually played every da:o origin and romance, just didn't attach much to anyone but those three. i've actually played niera twice, once without and once with the marriage-unlock alistair mod LMAO)

she's my favorite child i've played her at least two maybe two and a half (unfinished) times

i love hawke so much but da2 is definitely the game ive replayed the least because the gameplay just needs so much more polish. hopefully da4 is solid since it's the furthest thing from rushed development

casc is actually my least favorite of the wardens ive latched onto because she's kind of boring lmao but she made a lot of great choices to set up the rest of the world with. i thiiiiiiink she was an arcane warrior because fuck yeah arcane warriors.

for my nobility playthrough, i love hollicity but it looks like my notes for her are mostly blank, probably because she was my newest/last warden playthrough. she's like 16 and just fighting for her life out here. she was raised for political power though and that gives her enough wits to outweigh her naïvety. she didn't romance anybody. ended up backed into a corner with not enough favor so she was forced to take up a political-ONLY (seriously she's like his baby sister but also would be a more competent ruler than him lmao) marriage with alistair in order to rule because the nobility's fucked like that 👍 no actual romance even as she ages. she says it's because she's not about to risk the stability of the crown for that if she's caught but she honestly finds she never has interest.

there comes a certain time where you spend enough time in canon you start throwing it out and my trevelyan twins were the start of that, bleeding into the elves playthrough (even though i played nyer first shhhhh). i think i played through inquisition once with both of them as the inquisitor, but the intent was that denal was the inquisitor and his sister was one of his companions/inner circle

niera is actually a fucking gremlin don't let this fool you. she's my "immoral" playthrough. i actually played her twice (one making horrid choices like using blood magic to sacrifice the slaves and one making less-bad choices), and the personality from the second playthrough ended up being the one sticking. she's a duel-wielding rogue so she can stab you in the front and back at once!

you can't play an elf in da2 which kind of ruins my "elves fuck shit" playthrough line, but i did my best with garret hawke. i dont have any notes on him but he's my red hawke because again, this is the immoral characters timeline (my canon hawke being purple). since this is my "fuck canon" playthrough i think the headcanon was that hawke was half elf here.

we don't need canon anymore 🥳 okay fun fact about Selain: the way i spelled her name changed dozens of times. other fun fact: i only romanced solas as her to get the vallaslin off cosmetically since she wouldn't have any with her lineage but then i liked the angst of the romance just for her. generally i think solas is an egghead.

and then some randoms:

I think Raya might have been my nightmare difficulty playthrough for the trophy? no actually i did that with Anerra Again. oh yeah she was actually exclusively to romance sera LMAO. I don't have notes on aeducan but yes he was named after That aeducan and he was my Challenges trophy playthrough with all the difficulty modifiers like getting x2 disapproval from companions but keeping them through the first act or whatever that achievement was. he only managed that because he's a pathological liar - otherwise he would have driven everyone away a lot quicker. i didn't finish him but i did play raya through to trespasser for the seramance.

[inquisitorius-sin-bin]

One of my favorite things we know about the Grand Inquisitor is that he was a Temple Guard. I noticed them in the show but I never payed that much attention? It's really great that they chose this major antagonist of season 1 of Rebels and made him a face on one of these background characters that we know nothing of you kow?

I like that too because it's a fun playground for storytelling. How does one so devoted to the Jedi Order end up so burned out, jaded, turned, that they then seek to hunt down and destroy the only thing they've ever known? How does someone specifically tasked with protecting the Order end up so brutally violating that trust?

We know very little about the Temple Guard and how it works, but I like developing different scenerios for this downfall because it's interesting.

I think what has been done recently in showing motivations behind the Fifth Brother's descent and even Count Dooku's is fascinating. By acknowledging them as fallen Jedi, we assume at one point they were good and had just and noble intentions. But what starts as perhaps a small, legitimate criticism of the Order is allowed to spiral into something heinous. The Darkness takes root, attaching to the worst parts of their personality and bringing out those negative characteristics until it physically becomes them.

I have several I play with for him but one in particular I'm using in my Ride or Die series because it fits the themes of that work particularly well. I like the idea that maybe as a Temple Guard he was tasked with protecting Younglings, watching over them and tending to them while they were too young to be learners yet. As the Clone Wars happen, he watches young people he guarded in youth come back in caskets or not at all.

This level of attachment he feels is unhealthy, but he can't help being concerned. Perhaps he attempts to use the Jedi Archives to look into the fate of one of these former Younglings, and that's why he is banned. That's why Barriss' speech is so moving for him. Not only was the Temple bombing something that surely deeply affected all Temple Guards (as they were the ones who allowed the accident to occur, THEY were the ones responsible for securing the Temple), but he sees one of these young Jedi speaking out against the war, and starts to get his own ideas.

I think it's perfect for what he ultimately becomes. He wanted to "save" the children, so he takes them away from their families and turns them into monsters. They won't be killed. The torture is simply part of the shaping process. Perhaps it was unfortunate or uncomfortable at first, but it saves them from death. It's the exact opposite of Reva's philosophy, and it makes what he says at the end of his own life so uncomfortable as well.

In the very end, when he is given the choice to "save" himself as he did all those Force-sensitive children and face Vader's torments, or yield to death, he chooses death.

[kaaras-adaar]

How has he changed when he first became Inquisitor vs near the end of it all? What is one thing you love to go over more him as an Inquisitor?

Random asks || always accepting

Kaaras is a very complex character, and a lot of the time, his reactions can be entirely due to WHO he is interacting with. He's already been through so much in his life BEFORE becoming Inquisitor, he has learned some very valuable lessons on loss and cherishing those that you now have within your life.

I think most of Kaaras' character development has already seen itself BEFORE he became the Inquisitor. He had turned inwards a lot and hurt himself, as well as those that cared about him because he'd distanced himself. But when he took the role of mercenary captain, THAT changed him. And this is why he was able to step into the role of Inquisitor as easily as he had.

He had responsibility, he grew a LOT in those years, and he put those he cared about before himself. He became very selfless in many ways, but also soooo duty filled. His people, his men, became his family, and he'd do ANYTHING to protect them and make them happy.

Kaaras became a bit of a mother hen, in a sense. But he became one with purpose and also a sternness to him. I think people strive to keep Kaaras happy because they know he's a good man, because he's out to help. I think people don't like disappointing him, and oddly enough... that's never been intentional! That's just the aura he puts out there, he's this kind, supportive loving man and others can FEEL that, and somehow, they want to be better FOR him. And that's something I've learned over my years of RPing him with others, and I honestly think it's so damn precious.

Kaaras' personal growth as Inquisitor doesn't feel as impactfull as BEFORE, because he's already gone through that major change in his life pre Inquisition. I think, if anything, it only opens his mind even more, to how much the world needs to open their hearts to each other. He learns SO much just about other cultures and people, and he embraces it, and he wants others to embrace it. He wants Thedas to be one, big happy world, but he also knows that it can't happen overnight, it needs to be small changes over time.

But Kaaras also hides his pain away from most people, which can give them the illusion that he's okay and everything is fine when he's actually struggling (that's entirely his fault tho, no one else's lol). He's learned to cope so much on his own, to be this really independent person, that sometimes... he's as stubborn as an goat. And BOY is he stubborn lol. He needs to know it's okay to take his own advice and be weak in front of others. But he has this big illusion that if others see him crack, then they will lose hope in the Inquisition, and that can't happen.

[conquerorworm]

spoilers ahead for veilguard, including endgame!!!

okay so i just finished dragon age: veilguard and as a longtime fan of the franchise i'm of the pretty popular opinion that it was the weakest dragon age in terms of story and player character.

i work in game development - i know that making a huge AAA game like dragon age is ultimately about compromise between developers and publishers, that people who gave no idea what the fans want or what is good game design often times get to make final decisions, and that anything made by committee with as much time spent in development hell as this game was is going to be a mess. frankly, i'm happy it wasn't much, much worse.

that being said, here's how i, in absolute retrospect and with a fictional unlimited budget, would have changed dragon age: veilguard

the name. to my knowledge, no one ever fucking says veilguard, and if they do, it's like, once or twice. it truly seems like "dreadwolf" (also a bad title tbh) didn't test well and they had to come up with a dumb name for the team, a la inquisition. just call it dragon age 4. or something that more accurately represents the actual meat of the game - the game is not about protecting the veil, because solas spends the majority of the game locked in your brain, unable to fuck with the veil. the game is about killing false gods! call it dragon age: false gods or dragon age: godkiller or smth. -

origins. i know i was THRILLED when i heard the player character was getting custom backstory based on faction - all dragon age fans have been clamoring for the return of origins. it's such a fantastic way to establish a character and motivations BEFORE the weight of the games stakes are on their shoulders. imagine my disappointment when my characters SUPER COOL SOUNDING recruitment by varric was told me to me through text on a card. i have a feeling there was an intention to do a full faction intro a la origins, but it was cut for time. rook as a character feels wildly underdeveloped because they receive a battlefield promotion in the first five minutes of the game to world-saver. one can argue this also happens to the inquisitor, but the inquisitor is accidentally imbued with world-saving power and cant get rid of it, even if they want to, and the game spends a long time allowing the inquisitor to feel a whole host of complicated feeling about suddenly being the savior of the world - from power hungry excitement to religious fervor to reluctance to pure terror. there's no good reason for rook to be in charge, even less so when its revealed varric has been dead the whole time and now advocating for rook's leadership to the entire team. in order to fix this, i would have included playable origins for each faction in which rook experiences directly the negative consequences of the holes solas is tearing in the fade. i think it would be cool if the arm of whatever faction rook is a part of was completely wiped out by demon activity, and make it their fault when leading said arm, leaving rook with no "family" and no home, giving them perfect excuse to 1) find and stop solas 2) pick up and go with varric when recruited to join the veilguard and 3) have reason to step up lead the team when varric cant as some kind of redemption. -

solas. i think the game leaned quite heavily on the player knowing solas from the previous game, and failed to reintroduce him properly. i think new players would have absolutely no reason to try to redeem him, and old players wanted to spend more time with him for closure. solas' regrets and the missions in the crossroads where you see his past were among my favorite parts of the game - i think i would have spent a lot more time exploring the descent of the gods into madness and the hard, painful decisions solas has always had to make in his well-meaning effort to make the world the way he thinks it ought to be. the game also seemed to absolve him of a lot of sins by saying "well, actually mythal asked him to do these shitty things, and he was her puppyboy lapdog", which i thought was kind of a cop-out. he never seems truly sorry to rook, or a romanced inquisitor, for trying to destroy the world they love and the people in it they care about. he doesn't back down until his ex girlfriend shows up and says "i actually don't want this anymore". while i was happy to get my kiss and my closure, i felt that the PLAYER deserved to be the one to talk him down, either as rook or as the inquisitor. i felt like ultimately it wasn't about all of my efforts, it was about solas' relationship with mythal, a relationship the player is not a part of. -

important choices. i think the davrin/harding choice and the neve/bellara choices fell flat for me because they didn't feel informed by anything that had happened in the game up until that point. i think i would have made the choice to sacrifice themself to distract ghilan'nain should have been between davrin (who has already made a pact to give his life for the greater good as a warden), and whomever's city was destroyed by the blight, so either lucanis or neve (for vengeance). harding dying at this moment doesn't tie up her plot even a little bit - what about her magic? her connection to the titans the stone? it all just evaporates and we never talk about it again? especially playing a dwarf rook, i was desperate to see how those issues would resolve and they kind of didn't - solas promised to try and soothe the titans? it makes much more sense to me to change the ward trap in such a way that harding can be taken, and her rage about the loss of the titans manipulated to turn her against solas. choices just dont feel meaningful in veilguard, and the ones you do make are just choosing who's gonna kick the bucket, so you of course choose your favorite to live. there's no deeper political implication, which is why the decisions in previous games were so difficult, complicated, and had impact not only on the rest of the game but on the sequels as well. i think the faction quests should have had much more A or B decisions, which would impact companion approval and faction affiliation with the veilguard. i think you should have had to choose factions over other factions - doing something illegal for the crows that would cause you lose reputation with the wardens, or strike a blow against the magisters in tevinter but it has anti-mage implications that echo in nevarra, and the mourn watch is pissed. -

loose plot threads. WHATS GOING ON WITH SPITE? WITH HARDING'S MAGIC? IMPLICATIONS OF LICHDOM? THE REST OF THE ELVEN GODS? THE WARDEN WHO SURVIVED THE BLIGHT? ANTOINE KIND OF HEARING THE CALLING AND THEN...NOT? AUGH. -

the inquisitor. i did the solavellan route so my experience is not universal but if you're going to bring a romanced lavellan into the game, what the fuck is she doing just kind of standing around? if the lavellan i played in trespasser is any indication, the inquisitor would be elbowing people out of the way for the opportunity to get at solas, not just kind of standing in a room being like "have fun, rook! try not to kill him!" the anger and pain i experienced at love being obliterated by pride at the end of trespasser brought me to tears. a romanced inquisitor deserved a real confrontation with solas, an angry, shaking, screaming confrontation about WHAT. PRIDE. HAS. WROUGHT. not being second fiddle to the ghost of mythal. it made me feel sidelined in the game, both as rook and as the inquisitor. -

varric. i think we all knew varric's time was up. i think the solas-mamkes-you-believe-he's-alive thing is interesting, but doesn't hold up to scrutiny. are you telling me rook never mentioned "varrics' healing up nicely on the infirmary" to a companion, or neve never said "hey, you okay after watching varric die painfully in front of you?" i think it would make much more sense for varric to be someone else rook can talk to in the fade. he's there, waiting for something, and he can talk to you as actual varric, no solas wearing varric's face. at the end, the thing he's waiting for appears - hawke, if you sacrificed hawke in inquisition, or bartrand, free of red lyrium madness, and, reunited with a loved one he couldn't save, varric fades away, having helped write one final story. also in what world is the inquisitor not going to beat the shit out of solas for killing varric?

okay those are the things i could think of off the top of my head i love you if you read this, please let me know your thoughts.

[blind-alchemists]

you ever sit and think about how Solas, by his very nature, is just ... very far from fitting into the trickster archetype. and the Evanuris used exactly that to paint him as a scheming liar whose only goal is destruction, mayhem, and chaos until he had to fit himself into that role because he was left with no other choice if he wanted to accomplish his goals.

like. Solas is honest. even when he shouldn't be. it would have been much easier to lie to the Inquisition so he'd seem less suspicious, or just to cover his tracks. it would have been easier lying to the Inquisitor. so that no one would ever know his true character, his goals, his motivations, but he just - didn't. (yeah, yeah, lying by omissions still lying, yes, but also some sort of compromise the way I see it.)

and, yes, he knows how to play political games. he's enjoying them. he can hide the truth in plain sight, in a way that doesn't make you question him, but that's because he managed to survive in Elvhenan. you can't tell me he didn't get directly involved with the Evanuris and their court antics at one point and did not learn how to imitate them.

but, also, he's compassionate. he truly wants to help people in need. he doesn't approve of cruelty/violence when there is another solution. all of his emotions are genuine: his sorrow, his guilt, his anger, the appreciation he has for a high approval Inquisitor, the disdain he has for a low approval Inquisitor. he cares about his friends.

he's stubborn and prideful but he's open to change and reflection - evident by basically all of his banters. (Cassandra, Varric, Bull (if you save the Chargers), Blackwall. Sera, at times. given more time and opportunity I can totally see how he'd grow close with Dorian and Vivienne (+ Sera) as well if their character development got reflected in their banters. or if they went through as major an arc as Bull or Blackwall can. Cassandra too, kind of.)

my point is: for all his flaws and strengths, he's not the fool he believes himself to be. he's capable of getting along well people who are extremely different from him, he's capable of accepting their differences and embrace their similarities (as long as they're reasonable). Solas' fatal flaw isn't that he's too proud to ask for help or too foolish to look for another option; he knows he's not doing the right thing. but he does it anyway. his fatal flaw is his sense of duty (and his heart he could never harden enough).

and, yeah, he can be charismatic (proof being several scenes in his romance route) but it strikes me as something profoundly natural because he falls apart just as easily in Trespasser. I don't read him as charismatic in a way that leaders are often described, more in a raw way in which some people just draw others to themselves because they shine so brightly. the kind of people who make friends easily. (this also plays into my 'Solas is an extrovert' hc, which makes everything worse if you think about his fear and his line about betrayal and how lonely he is, but anyway-)

he's smart and passionate, like all people are about the things they love, without any ill intentions. he's calm (if he isn't about something upset) and gentle with the world (do you hear how soft his voice becomes when he talks about the Fade. the emotion. the feelings.).

but people remember his figure as a beast with slavering jaws that wants to swallow the world, as a trickster laughing maniacally about the demise of gods, as a liar and a cheat and a threat - as someone he never was, and never can be, without corrupting himself.

because. yeah. I sometimes make myself sad thinking about it.

[smhalltheurlsaretaken]

Hey! I literally love your last post so much but I'm confused about the rebels bit (never watched it). How does Rebels criticize the jedi? Thanks!

Aw, thank you! (Lol, this is such an old ask I don’t remember what that post was, but here goes).

Well in s2 Ahsoka, Kanan (a survivor from Order 66) and Ezra (his Padawan) all go to an old Jedi Temple to talk to Yoda about Vader and his Inquisitors (Darksiders who hunt the few remaining Jedi and kidnap Force sensitive kids). Yoda is only there spiritually and the three of them get different visions. Ahsoka sees Anakin as Vader, and Kanan has to fight several enemies and eventually admit he can't protect his Padawan from the world, only guide him (which prompts the vision to finally make him a Jedi Knight, as he survived Order 66 as a Padawan.)

And Ezra... Ugh. Ezra had a previous encounter with Yoda, in which he got his lightsaber crystal. Basically Yoda asked him why he wanted to be a Jedi, and Ezra had to do some self-examination and eventually realized that helping and protecting people made him feel alive, which greatly pleased Yoda who told him he might become a Jedi after all. That's a really great exchange and I love the character development Ezra gets, as he starts by saying he wants never to feel powerless and eventually realizes that's not the right answer.

But in this second encounter, as Ezra asks how they can defeat the Inquisitors, Yoda basically says that fighting is rarely the right path. And to illustrate that, he says that line about the Jedi being arrogant and joining the war swiftly "in their arrogance," which really bothers me. He also says they were "consumed by the Dark Side", which is why they're now gone. In all fairness, he also mentions that they were motivated by fear, which is partially true. 

Now, I write analyses and I try to be intellectually honest about them, because ignoring contradicting stuff weakens your argument instead of helping you. Except this time, I really can't accept this quote. I have an excuse, Lucas wasn't involved in Rebels so it's not the highest canon in my opinion (the 6 movies + TCW are, here are the quotes justifying my position), and I feel like that assertion is out of character for Yoda, ignoring his ST ghost appearances, and also plainly factually incorrect.

I understand that Ezra really needed to be taught not to always seek to fight. At this point, he's still an emotional kid who occasionally struggles with the Dark Side. Not fighting is important to a Jedi's path, so I can understand Yoda's intention. But the example he uses? According to Lucas, the Jedi were drafted in the war. That's not jumping into a conflict out of arrogance, that's literally being dragged there against your will. And sure, there’s Geonosis, but how exactly is rescuing a bunch of your people that’s getting slaughtered by a Sith Lord the same thing as arrogantly jumping into a fight? Like, what’s the option here? Not go, and let an innocent Senator and a bunch of Jedi be murdered?

It's like Rebels!Yoda isn't acknowledging that the war was fake and that a Sith Lord engineered it as the perfect trap (which is recurring problem in Rebels; at one point Ezra, Kanan and Rex have to fight an old Separatist tactical droid and Ezra "solves" the Clone Wars by pointing out that nobody won except the Empire, so really they were on the same side all along, and he gets praised for doing what "a bunch of Jedi, senators and Clones couldn't do," ie getting both sides to talk to each other – except wtf??? setting aside that the Jedi and Rex were aware of the war being fake by the end of it, and that the Separatists were openly led by a Sith Lord and attempted to commit genocide several times in TCW and did commit mass murder, and reduced like several worlds to slavery or starvation and were backed by the worst big corporations you could imagine, the war would NOT have ended if the two sides had tried talking it out. 1) The Senate made it illegal 2) the big corporations arranged for terrorist attacks on both sides the one time they tried to negotiate so the war would drag on and they'd get more money out of it 3) Sidious. Was. Controlling. Everything. What. The. Heck. Would. Have. Been. Accomplished. By. Negotiating.)  Plus the question of whether or not the Jedi should even fight is like... constantly raised by the Jedi during TCW, so I really can’t see it as “oh wow we didn’t even take the time to think and we got killed because of it, we really sucked.” 

Seriously, there’s this S6 quote: 

MACE: Are you sure we are taking the right path? YODA: The right path, no. The only path, yes. Designed by the Dark Lord of the Sith, this web is. For now, play his game, we must.

Like yeah, totally rushing in and being eager to fight lol. Nothing to do with being boxed in and having no alternatives. 

So yeah that's bothers me and I don't think it jibes with the rest of canon. I don't remember Yoda telling Luke (who, in the beginning, is as eager to fight as Ezra is) that the Jedi "disappeared" because of some fault of their own, or because of an eagerness to fight. (Seriously, pussyfooting around the fact that the Jedi were slaughtered grates me.) The OT never, ever, ever implies that the destruction of the Jedi Order was their fault - and unless you assume that the OT is “pro-Jedi propaganda” (*laughs in dumb youtube comments*) then I don’t see Rebels weaving it into its narrative as legitimate.

Again, choosing alternatives to fighting is a great lesson on a personal level, but it doesn't work on the scale of the Rebels/Empire conflict - or the Jedi/Sith one. Ezra should often choose not to fight because of what it'll do to his soul. The Rebels should not stop fighting because there is no cohabitation with something as evil as the Empire. Imo Yoda is always presented as wise enough to know the difference.��

The last thing that makes me think it's out of character is Yoda's spiritual journey in TCW s6. He gets all of his flaws thrown into his face and has to conquer them – he has to face his literal Dark Side and he wins. And yet at no point during that arc is he ever made to conquer his ‘Jedi arrogance’ or whatever. He has to face his worst fear (first vision, all the Jedi dying), let go of his attachments (second vision, him having to accept that he can’t live in a perfect world where everything is beautiful and no one is dead), and reaffirm who he is as a Jedi (third vision, refusing to give up on Anakin and trying to save him rather than to kill Sidious) but at no point is he ever made to recognize that wow, the Jedi are the worst for fighting. 

I’d argue that the very purpose of the visions showing him Order 66 and Anakin falling are to make him accept that these things are completely beyond his control - and as such, not his fault. He doesn’t get to fix things, because the fate of the Order is not in their own hands. It is, in fact, in Anakin’s (from a thematical/narrative standpoint). Yoda has a hard time with it (actually he almost shuts down when he first sees everybody dead and his first reaction is to say that he failed them, so I can’t accept Yoda blaming his grandkids for dying) but he accepts it in the end, when he tells Mace and Obi-Wan he’s not certain one ever wins a war, but they might still find ‘victory for all time’ (referring to balance aka Sidious’ death in RotJ). 

So anyway that’s my beef with Rebels!Yoda. Not hate on Rebels though, there are many parts of it that I really, really love - but some of them kinda infuriate me, and this is one of them. 

[melisusthewee]

WIP Wednesday - Let’s Talk Music

Thank you to @cleverblackcat @kittynomsdeplume @noire-pandora and @morganlefaye79 for tagging me!

I don’t have any writing to really offer today.  I’ve been trying to work on that Haven fic but unfortunately Aloysius hasn’t been co-operating with me despite all my best efforts to make him speak.  I may take a break from writing and pivot towards completing some art memes, but Wednesday just sort of crept up on me and here we are.  So instead, I’m sharing something that both is but also isn’t a work in progress?

It’s “in progress” because while I’m happy with where it currently is, I’ve said that about playlists and soundtracks before and later changed them.  I’ve worked hard on this and talked several friends’ ears off about songs I’ve heard or artists that seemed to work and thanks to their feedback I think this is a really good one.  It’s gone through several edits as well, and may potentially even go through more down the road.  So I’m saying this counts for today.

If you give it a listen (and I hope you do because I’m very proud of it so far), I hope you enjoy it and maybe discover an artist you didn’t know before.  It clocks in at around 51 minutes and features 13 tracks which span Quinn Trevelyan’s story and important events of the main game through to Trespasser.

If you are interested, below the cut is a list of tracks and a brief blurb or description about who or what they’re meant to represent.  I was going to go into things in more depth and talk about how I built it, why I picked the songs I did, and the B-Sides that were left on the cutting room floor, but after realizing I had written nearly 4 pages about just as many songs, I realized it was too much for anyone to read.  So below is just a very brief summary and I think that most of the music would speak for itself, but I’m happy to expand more on anything that anyone finds either interesting… or confusing.  (There is also Solas content because I knew a few of you love that.)

You have to click on this sentence to go to the playlist because Tumblr’s coding for “Read More” seems to be conflicting with the HTML code to embed a functional playlist.  Because of course it is.

Quinn’s tarot card is the Wheel of Fortune as his story is a series of unpredictable highs and lows.  What the Maker giveth, He also taketh away.  The playlist follows that trend of highs and lows with upbeat songs followed by darker or more mellow ones.  Whenever I create a playlist, I try to think of a general tone or sound that I want to be carried through the soundtrack.  I want the overall genre or sound to tell the story as much as the individual songs.  Because of that, you’ll see artists repeat a couple of times, and when they do it’s always intentional.  You’ll also notice that most of the vocalists are male.  This was again intentional because this is Quinn’s story, and he’s a man.  They are his songs and I wanted the vocals to reflect that.

The Cult of Dionysus - pre-Conclave Quinn

Quinn at his most basic and stereotypical before any character development happens whatsoever - poppish, upbeat, and maybe just a little obnoxious.  He smokes, he drinks, he fucks, and nothing else matters.

The Sound of Silence - Aloysius’ Theme

I like Aloysius as a more practical view and examination of Quinn and the cult that grows around him.  He affords an opportunity to look at Quinn both as the Herald but also as just a person.  He is stoic and mild-mannered, a dutiful soldier, and an excellent foil for Quinn.  This is also absolutely a reference to an Arrested Development joke.

Isle of Dogs - Quinn’s true theme

Quinn is a walking disaster constantly falling victim to his own hubris.  There’s a morose sort of resentment to the lyrics, of someone who is constantly struggling against the tide.  In a lot of ways, this is basically a reaction or push back to all the crap I have put him through.

Providence - “In Hushed Whispers”

There are no Templars here.  The first few lines relate a lot to the dismissal the fledgling Inquisition receives from what remains of the Chantry, but the rest of the lyrics are very much about the mages and Fiona’s dealings with the Venatori.

Seven Devils - “In Your Heart Shall Burn

No male vocals in this one to symbolize the change in perspective.  This is both a bit of an easy and obvious choice for this story beat.  Female vocals for Corypheus might seem strange, but when I created my Warden’s soundtrack I tended to use powerful choruses and female vocals for anything related to Blight, Archdemons, or the darkspawn.  I carried that idea over to this as Corypheus is one of the seven Magisters.

Caesar - becoming the Inquisitor

This is a softer and quiet interlude in the wake of the loss of Haven and struggle through the snow.  If the previous song marks the end of the first act, this song marks the beginning of the second.

King - “Here Lies the Abyss”

In my written world state, Alistair is both the king and the Grey Warden contact (this goes back to that longform fic I am working on).  I suppose it’s a bit unfair because in the end that has a major impact on why Quinn makes the decision he does at Adamant (a rather threatening letter from the Warden helps too).  Think of this as a duet between Quinn and Hawke.

My Type - the love interest

“Here Lies the Abyss” was completed first, then a romance triggered, then “Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts”.  This is that sort of inbetween interlude and is very much inspired by how I may have flirted with multiple characters a little too much and basically triggered several romances at once.  I also went into Quinn’s playthrough having no idea who I was going to romance and just let him shop around.  And it came down to a coin flip in the end, so “you have a pulse and you are breathing” is pretty much the only standards he has.

Boheme Supreme - party at Halamshiral

All I have to say is that I love techno swing, every single lyric in this song is perfect, and I want you all to picture Quinn Trevelyan walking into the Winter Palace with his Inner Circle entourage around him, dressed up in that outfit I drew with that peacock feathered cap and having a drink in his hand throughout the entire night’s affair.

Hell’s Coming With Me - “Doom Upon All the World”

This is the climax of the main game, the rematch between Quinn and Corypheus which I have to imagine is more impressive in concept than it was in game.  I chose the dialogue option when Corypheus calls Quinn an imposter, “I am the Maker’s chosen” as his final challenge.  Sometimes it’s easy to forget that this main is actually very Andrastian.  But he is, and the lyrics, “I am the righteous hand of God/And I am the Devil that you forgot/And I told you one day will see/I’ll be back I guarantee/And that Hell’s coming with me” are the perfect declaration.

Paradise - Jaws of Hakkon & The Descent

Another interlude song.  If the previous one is triumphant than this one is the beginning of a bad turn.  In the interim between the events of the main game and the Exalted Council, things begin to go wrong in little ways.  His relationship with Cassandra begins to break down, eventually ending in the two of them having frequent spats and going their separate ways after returning from the Frostback Basin.  This song is deceptively sarcastic about how good things are.

I Still Love You, Judas - Solas’ Betrayal

Solas… oh, Solas.  Does this song indicate a very complicated and layered relationship between Quinn and Solas?  Yes! Have I attempted to unpack any of this?  Nope!  Have fun with this one!

Tagging for this week: @kita-lavellan @silvanils @nivenor-krosis @drag-on-age @rosella-writes @inquisitoracorn

Battle Cries - Quinn and Cassandra

I saved this one for the very end because it is a story within a story.  It is sad and bittersweet, but also not.  This entire thing feels to me like a duet between Quinn and Cass on what was good, what could never last, and that it’s all over now but that’s okay.  Because “this isn’t a breakup, dear heart, it’s a season finale.”  Does this mean that Quinn sounds like Joey Batey when he sings?  Sure, why not.

[isk4649]

Chapter 2: Sunday, May 30: Hiyoshi (日吉)

Second chapter of Where the Waves Crest (波の上り詰める所)!

Lots of thanks to @kemvee​ for the amazing fanart to accompany this chapter! Have a peek at our boys having their first date!

Chapters: 2/19

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings.

Relationships: Male Inquisitor/Cullen Rutherford Characters: Cullen Rutherford, Male Trevelyan (Dragon Age), Josephine Montilyet, Rosalie Rutherford, Mia Rutherford, Sera (Dragon Age), Blackwall (Dragon Age), Varric Tethras, Rylen (Dragon Age).

Additional Tags: Bisexual Cullen Rutherford, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Japan, Tokyo (City), Fluff, Angst, Healthy Relationships, Slice of Life, Smut, Gay Sex

Summary:

“You know, I’d given up on you. You texted me to check if I got in okay, and then nothing.”

“You could’ve texted too.”

“I didn’t think you liked me.”

Stationed in Japan, Cullen Rutherford is a lonely American enlisted sailor living in Yokosuka barracks. Tharin Trevelyan is a gregarious English teacher in the neighboring Kawasaki. One chance online encounter leads to many adventures in and around Tokyo, bringing the two men closer. But will they let this develop into a lasting relationship, or will they resign themselves to their many differences as well as the limit of their time in Japan?

I love Josie. Who doesn’t love Josie?

The only other customer turned around to face Tharin and Cullen. It was another foreigner, having an omakase sashimi plate for supper. She was in a simple mustard yellow jumpsuit, looking stylish in that distinctly haute couture way. Her skin was tan and smooth, and her curly black hair was pinned to a tight bun.

Her face broke out in a delight as she shouted in a thick Spanish accent, “Tharin! What are you doing here?”

Tharin halted so suddenly that Cullen almost bumped into his back. Cullen walked around to find the hulking man completely flustered. The young man stuttered, “Uh-um… Just here for dinner and some drinks, Josie.”

Intrigued by this development, Cullen greeted the woman and extended his hand, “Hello. I’m Cullen.”

This “Josie” woman took his hand and shook it quite firmly. There was a glimmer of recognition in her eyes as she introduced herself, “Josefina Montilyet, but please call me Josie. All my friends do. It is indeed very nice to make your acquaintance, Mr. Cullen Rutherford.” Did I mention my last name? Cullen thought, feeling somehow naked. She turned to Tharin, put her left hand against her cheek, and stage-whispered, “You didn’t tell me how pretty he is.”

Cullen furrowed his brow and looked to Tharin, who looked like he was about to die from unmitigated embarrassment. He asked, “How do you know Tharin?”

Josie chortled blithely, “From this izakaya, of course. I live near here.”

“Ah, so you two are neighbors.”

“Precisely,” nodded the woman.

They all sat down at the bar. Cullen on the left side, Tharin in the middle, and Josie on the right. She slid her plate and her drink over, clear in her intent to stay and chat with them.

Josie leaned toward Cullen and asked with an inflection that didn’t seem natural, “So… How’s it going?”

Cullen wasn’t entirely sure how to answer that. But the woman seemed to know that they were on a date. So, he just answered plainly with a faint grin, “It’s going well. Tharin’s a great guy.”

The young man, however, was not amused. He soughed, all the while eyeing at Josie disapprovingly, and stated, “I apologize for Josie. In addition to being a bigwig at the Spanish Embassy, she is a huge busybody.”

“Excuse me, I am the Economic and Commercial Affairs Attaché, thank you very much. And I’m also the one who introduced you to all the watering holes around Kawasaki and Minato Ward. I think I deserve to know some things about your… personal life,” winked the woman in the least subtle manner possible. Cullen felt his face flush.

The young man rolled his eyes extravagantly. “Alright, don’t you have your dinner to finish? The sashimi’s getting colder.”

To this rather unfriendly invitation to get lost, Josie kept chortling. She twittered gleefully, “Remember, I’m just a seat away from you two. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

[dgcatanisiri]

The toxicity comes, really, in the careless way her writing treats her - I recognize that we’re talking about a young woman, barely out of her teens, if not still in them (meaning like nineteen or so), and who lived in the margins of the society she lived in, which is inherently damaging to ones options and abilities to interact with others. 

But I watch things about her romance - that she will lash out and blame the Inquisitor for things that she dreamed, the ultimatum, even something as little as her refusing to call the Inquisitor what they prefer (”go on, whisper your secret name to me. Nah, that’s stupid, I’m sticking with Inky.”)... I’ve been fortunate enough to not personally experience an abusive relationship, but I’ve been on the sidelines as friends have been, made the effort to be supportive of those friends while they’re in them so that they know to have a safe space  

And I see the parallels to those relationships with Sera, to the point that I refuse to recruit her because of them. Because I see the same signs as those abusive people, the people who hurt my friends, and yet weren’t actually laying a hand on them. The narcissism, the focus on her wants and needs to the exclusion of her partner, the lashing out for perceived slights, the demand that the Inquisitor give up something about herself to make her feel better about what she thinks will happen... I’ve seen that erode the self-esteem and self-confidence of people I care about. It’s not as visible as bruises and broken bones, but it’s no less destructive.

So yeah, based on my experiences, I can’t view her as anything BUT toxic. I don’t begrudge anyone out there who doesn’t, but... I see that pattern of behavior repeated in her, and I want nothing to do with it, so I don’t recruit her.

And what’s worse is that I wouldn’t even say that this was intentional - but that’s because I’m sure that her writer viewed her as no more than comic relief. Like, I look at things surrounding Sera on paper, and I find a deeply sympathetic character. Loaded up with internalized hatred, and everyone in the Inquisition basically seems to look down on her and particularly the relationship with her and the Inquisitor, she is clearly alone and isolated, wanting desperately to connect in some way to the people she cares about. 

But, because her writer wrote her as a frat boy’s idea of a lesbian, as a girl who acts like “one of the guys,” just with boobs, he (and we could talk about how a straight guy writing a lesbian is another Issue™ here, but I’m going on enough as it is) just skipped past how BAD all this behavior is.

Actually I do need to address that Issue™ a moment - this is a pattern of behavior in her writer’s handling of lesbians, since he was involved in both the Branka-Hespith AND Leliana-Marjolaine writing, so he’s written three lesbian relationships and all of them feature abusive behavior. That’s a concerning pattern, even if he’s not been the sole writer responsible for the decisions going in to them - that the F/F relationships that happen under his pen are abusive? 

And it bothers me that when it was spoken about to Gaider, back when he was on Tumblr, he waved it off. 

You know, I really do hope that, with DA4 taking the better part of a decade in development, BioWare has been given the chance to look over their patterns in writings and learn from them, learn how to be better. I want to believe they want to be better. It’s just... Well, it’s a pattern of behavior, and, that this is something that keeps happening with him speaks to a blindness on BioWare’s part. A blindness that, based on how David Gaider responded to people when he was on Tumblr telling him about their issues with Sera, BioWare doesn’t even realize, even when people are pointing it out to them.

[common-blackbird]

Started!

This is my Inquisitor (so overjoyed you can be a qunari), her name is the default Herah and I decided I’m going to approach this game by staying true to a character and not looking to do everything and be on everyone’s good side u_u

I want to make a good background for her so i’m not telling anything. Yet. I’ll just say she’s a qunari mercenary and prefers using two-handed weapons.

Highlights from today:

Studying history does pay off! This was a reference to the famous book in environmental history - Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. So proud i recognised it x)

Also i don’t have a good shot of solas but he cracks me up so much.. The guy has a posture of the typical retired grandpa (the only thing missing is to have him walk with his hands on his back). And there’s a scene where the party sees the rift and there’s the inquisitor facing it, cassandra bracing herself and solas... just standing like an old man

On a side note, Cassandra is so gorgeous and good and i already love her, i just keep taking shots of her TAT

As for varric, it’s so different than from da2, this is so much more “official” and you can see he’s the same as ever, but you’re not hawke, hawke’s not here, the gang’s not here and there’s nothing casual about the whole situation T-T

And lastly, my inquisitor has a horse now, i didn’t know that was possible in the game ;__;

played some more...

Let  me start with.... The advisors! (+ cassandra... or is she also an advisor too?)

What a bunch. I love Cassandra’s and Leliana’s faith having a crisis bc they believe that Inquisitor is the Herald of Andraste and the way they deal with it. It’s really interesting. Leliana is completely opposite than what she was in origins and i’m surprised it doesn’t bother me at all! I love seeing this whole darker side that was only hinted at in origins, though it’s also sad when i think how she used to be. I wonder how she’s gonna overcome her doubting of faith. 

Josephine is a delight. I keep using her for almost every war table mission for now. She radiates capability. She reminds me of those bureaucrats that are super nice and helpful and chill and even if you’re doing everything wrong she’ll just smile and say “it’s ok, we can fix it” and then goes and fixes everything herself (and you feel this insane amount of gratitude you send a whole separate email to thank her for her patience and help )

As for Cullen... It’s interesting... I got impression from what i saw in the fandom that he’s supposed to have had his allegiance changed and him rejecting the templars should have been him ultimately siding with the mages (or at least being anti-templar(?)), and that turning point that could have been a great way to show his character development during the game. Which i agree, only... i did not get that impression from the game so far at all. I mean, so far everything that i can remember him saying is totally smth he’d say in da2... He didn’t leave kirkwall bc of his disappointment with the templar order, he doesn’t seem to have any issues with the templars except those who go full war mode instead of trying to balance the situation. And it’s a really chaotic situtation, i love how they did it.

This line was amazing, i wish there was a special cutscene for that.

I’m loving the way they made this huge religious organisation in crisis have a complete collapse with the death of a key figure. I love the concept of inquisition and problems that it poses. I love you can see everyone’s reasoning and doubts reflect their background, but also see why inquisition can be understood as another power-grasping organisation trying to topple the templars, the mages and the chantry. Everything is divided. We got templars leaving the chantry, seekers leaving the chantry(?), rebel mages, loyal mages, rebel mages gone rouge, templars gone rouge, and suddenly there’s another organisation forming that you can totally believe is just another powerhungry force trying to get the piece of the cake by taking advantage of the power vacuum left by the sudden lack of the religious authority. (and only we know we’re The Good Guys). I love that we have characters who need to believe in the greater plan, characters who question the greater plan, and characters who want to utilise the power of belief and characters who don’t care for divine plans. The chaos is real and it feels real. I love that the centre figure of the whole holy business is a heretic of another culture. For the chantry this is the lose-lose situation (unless the inquisitor becomes religious by the end of the game). Which is why this line works so well. 

Ok, now shorter updates:

Red Jenny! I know it’s not her actual name but it is in my head. Where’s that box i delivered ages ago >_> Anyways, she makes my brain work on 150% capacity. I can understand what she means only after i go over it for 5 times.

Forgive me but oh my god, i can’t believe that i can recognise one voice actor and now i have another mental image whenever he speaks. Like, he’s really good at bringing out a new character, but when he gets more casual he sounds like kanan jarrus from star wars rebels and i’m just “what are you doing here, space dad” ;__; Hopefully it’ll get old and i’ll be enjoying more iron bull. he seems nice...

Vivienne on the other hand is like a reverse Josephine(?) She seems insanely capable but hates customer service, however somehow she likes you very much and will do everything you need for reasons you can’t fathom. Have a screenshot. So classy. I already feel humbled.

and lastly, BREAKING NEWS: aveline finally hired carver ;__;

Tbh Kirkwall is still a mystery and i have so many questions but i don’t think i’ll get any answers... If a powervacuum of the divine cause this much chaos, how’s kirkwall faring without a new viscount? Like, yeah, aveline can keep in check, but umm it’s in a very vulnerable state which makes it a good target for any invasion... didn’t sebastian promise bloodshed?

That’s all for now, bc otherwise i’ll start writing an essay on cassandra.

We befriended a bear in the hinterlands!

lets start with this cool shot

so, i have been to the mages and to the templars and... i sided with the templars.... First i was all for mages since they offered negotiations while the seeker just walked away, but then it turned out that was a trap, there’s also tevinter mages there (which is a red flag for my inquisitor) and then there’s some time magic involved (which is a big no for me), and i just walked out. Felt bad for the mages but my inquisitor comes from a culture where mages have their tongues cut so...

Also this guy deserves a medal for putting up with corrupted superiors and annoying nobles.

And i met cole ;__; Where are Rhys and Evangeline ;___;

the templar mission was ok i guess... I was surprised that red lyrium was apparently circulating around for some time, not sure if that means since meredith or even before. I love the stories of corruption tho and to imagine what it’s like to be trapped in this organisation that just keeps breaking everything it stands for

As for the important mages, i’ve Dorian twice since i bailed out on him in Redcliffe :I I love the guy, he seems arrogant yet so kind (like, no one would have carried that annoying priest and yet he did, after he ran from his own people to warn us after i ditched him in Redcliffe? man ;A;) Every time i go with “ok the inquisitor fears tevinter and distrusts this rando who just popped in” i am marinating in guilt.

and then we fight some mages and die several times but we succeed and we meet the bad guy...

Is it an unpopular opinion to say that i like him as a villain so far? i saw so many jokes on his incompetency. Idk, i like that part where he said that he reached the fade in someone’s name, it makes me think he’s not just power-hungry person(?) who’s just evil,but was originally serving someone, and he said that the gods were either gone or corrupted and he spent hundreds of years thinking what to do with whatever happened so he seems like he knows what he’s doing and maybe(!just maybe) he is trying to fix things that are wrong but we can’t see that? And of course he hates the inquisitor, he has to redo his stuff all over again, i’d hate the inquisitor too. im probably looking too much into it. My wish is that, if he’s evil, he became so gradually, but originally had good intentions? Or there’s more to things going on that we just don’t know and he does... Maybe this was his tragic attempt to fix things but he would ultimately fail and be branded as a villain etc etc. I’m getting carried away

If it turns out he’s just evil for the sake of being evil then feel free to tell me so now so i don’t embarrass myself further with plotting myself lol.

A side note, is he the Architect? Or the same? In DA2 he says he’s a tevinter magister, right? and he ceased to be a human. Also in DA2 it seemed like he was the boss, and here he said he reached in the name of someone (probably more important than him). But what is the Architect then?

And with that we reach the skyhold.

in skyhold

I didn’t know you meet hawke so soon ;__; i thought that was like, somewere more to the end of the game, since the big decision and all. But the mission is already opened and i am going to procrastinate on it until i finish every side mission :<

Also he is so sad ;__; i understand, but at the same time... all that humour now bitter sarcasm :’(

(also, very shallow remark, but i really really prefer his looks in da2 than here... it’s like they softened him. He’s more...oh god idk bearish(???) than hawkish(????) you know what i mean? the nose isn’t as sharp anymore, the beard is... what is it with the beard... anyways i get the game has its limits so it’s fine. it’s fine! fine.)

then there was the fight that i remember since twitter >:D

It’s what made me want to play dragon age and i finally reached it T-T so good! I love how you can see the both sides and everything they say is true but they’re so angry at themselves they’re taking it out on each other TAT

Cassandra later says Hawke probably wouldn’t have joined the inquisition even if she found him, and i wonder now if that’s true... At first i thought, nah, Hawke has too much of a hero complex, he would feel too responsible to just say no. Besides, he’s with the inquisition now (tho i can’t find him anywhere anymore!). But at the same time, the way da2 ends was such an iconic walking away from everything, and not taking into account the hocus-pocus rift stuff, i can imagine him refusing, especially seeing how bitter he is now. It’s also a question of how much would have cassandra told him i guess. idk, what do you think? Would he lead or nah?

another person i want to find but can’t in skyhold are the templars with ser barris. i can use them on war table missions but otherwise they’re non-existant? i forgot to talk to him back in haven but now i wonder if it was even possible and if he was even available there, since he isn’t here. I spent hours just running around skyhold looking for the guy :(

and then everything becomes unimportant bc aaaaa!! she! is the arcanist! Dagna! im so happy and proud(?) she went and reached her goals x)

anyways that’s all for now, laters

some random updates:

so i did the halamshiral and gave up to my “stick to the character” mode, and nothing went my way, but that’s life. Met morrigan! i almost forgot she appears lol. And, despite also jumping on the wagon of give-morrigan-better-clothes train, i have to admit seeing her in her old clothes was a relief after that dress at the ball. It’s not the way the dressed looked, but the way she moved in it... god im shallow

i also initially didn’t like morrigan being at orlais court of all places, but after the conversation that’s supposed to explain why she’s there i’m kinda ok with it. I mean, i still need some more info. Wouldn’t Tevinter be better? she’d practically become a magister overnight if she got this good in the game so fast. It’s also unconvincing how everyone knows everything in orlais but somehow nobody connected that the random kid that has no bakcground whatsoever with morrigan who keeps checking on him? But at skyhold she’s just “hey i have a kid, he’s no trouble, right?”  but hey, it’s morrigan. She can do anything. I’ll just have another story idea in my head.

Then there was news of the new divine that could be either cassandra or leliana and i don’t honestly know whom to choose. I’d prefer leliana over cassandra simply bc cassandra is more of a military mind, while the position of the divine would be more political. But lately every mission with leliana was spy spy, kill kill... Do we really want that for a religious leader? On the other hand, it would nicely round up her story from origins to inquisition... But cassandra is more of a public figure than leliana is...

when cassandra said:

“I want to respect the tradition, but not fear change. I want to right the past wrongs, but not avenge them. And I have no idea if wanting any of them makes them right.”

great moment. She’s usually so convinced and rash, i forget she’s more doubtful and open minded than what she looks like. Everything about cassandra is different from the impression she gives ;__; I love her so so so so much. (when she says she considers the inquisitor her friend i melted, next time varric pulls up the “seeker has no friends” joke, my heart will no longer be breaking).

I did a bunch of personal missions. Some were cool, some were ????. Also there were war table missions with zevran, that was cool. Also i love the codex entries in skyhold. The archery competition with varric banned? Dancing lessons failing bc lace harding is on the move all the time? Perfect.

And i met chargers, i like them, and aaah that staff-bow from the trailer is such a cool idea ;A;

What i don’t get with bull’s chargers is - they’re a mercenary group right? But isn’t swordselling seen as the complete misunderstanding of the qun? I get only bull is qunari, but he’s the leader of them? How is that not frowned upon?

And lastly, i don’t think i’ve said this, but i love that they added codex entries in the loading screens. love it.

update

After months of procrastination, i have faced my fears and have met alistair. it was very anticlimatic beating 11 level monsters when i was level 21...

but.. ALISTAIR TAT He’s changed... but not changed... but changed! Like, his personality is the same, but he’s more serious, doesn’t run from responsibilities, isn’t as bitter as hawke (also, why do i get impression that i am supposed to get the impression that they’re friends? they’ve met like, once, and talked for less than a minute.. whatevs. let’s pretend they’ve met again when on the run), i really love the inquisition alistair ;;__;;

Also, i managed to get that awkward demon baby family reunion :D

 know that morrigan says the vaguest generic thing “i told him his father was a good man” bc of various world states, but i also think she’s come a long way not to mock alistair, and then when he notices that she didn’t use the opportunity he mentions that the kid changed her and she’s like “pfft, yea right, you wish”....

... when she was the one who said that in the first place ;;__;;

Awwww :> I love that they bicker but softly. Kids have grown up :’) Anyways, when will alistair start paying alimony

The only weird one is Leliana bc when morrigan was introduced she was like “danger danger” (smth i’d sooner think alistair would do), and when alistair is (supposedly) in skyhold, Leli doesn’t even mention him, only hawke.  bruh, what were they to you, you almost died together ;;__;;

oh i also slayed a dragon.  I didn’t even want to fight that dragon. It was a hillarious feat of inquisitor, solas, cole and blackwall, all on level 21, having to chug all the health potions right at the beginning while fighting a dragon that was... level 13, after which i just let go of controls and suddenly everyone was hella good at fighting and slayed it (only cole needed revival several times).  

And, befitting the wild-dream feel that it had, when i got back to skyhold and visited companions, suddenly i was drinking pelin with iron bull, and he’s reminiscing on that fight with the dragon and i’m like

it was awful and you weren’t even there.

i forgot to update

but last time i was playing i finished the hawke/alistair sacrifice and all the torture i went through with deciding whom to sacrifice vanished bc frankly, at one moment, i wanted to sacrifice both of them, but in the end it was much more easier to sacrifice hawke bc inquisition hawke just didn’t feel like hawke to me, while alistair improved since the origins!

and now i remembered why i didn’t update, in the same day cassandra rejected me so i was sad and didn’t continue playing since then (i think last time i played it was around easter?)

new update

BLACKWALL!! or should i say Thom Rainier? Wow, what an arc! It was also so fun bc i was all strict mode, picking the third option, telling him his life is in inquisitor’s hands and all that, but in the end i set him free. He’s so good, a true knight T-T

Also i romanced sera. we’ll see how that goes.

Also, fave point in the game so far, i wanted, for so long, to sit at that val roeayoux (can’t spell) cafe and finally did it with cole’s personal mission. THANK YOU COLE YOU TRULY CAN READ PEOPLE’S MINDS.

another interesting thing was that after specialising as a reaver, cassandra said that drinking dragon blood makes you grow scales and become mad. Iron Bull said that inquisitor smells better bc dragon blood and that qunari generally smell better than humans. So i’m guessing qunari have fractions of dragon in them? ok...

and now i started that mission with morrigan and the puzzles are killing me lol, i am this 👌 close to just go chase calpernia and give up on a well of sorrows.

[your-shield-of-love]

I wanna write or see an AU where Varric notices Hawke and the Inquisitor having similar mannerisms and speech. Like exact copies and their priorities are similar, he doesn't know how to think about it and wonders if it's a hero thing.

But then one day, Inquisitor tries to protect him from a really bad attack, similar in a way Hawke did years ago. When the two are communicating, it's like they're the same person. And that sticks with Varric, he starts noticing more and more similarities between the two. The Inquisitor often coming to him for advice or just a simple chat and seems to be a bit sad when they do.

Varric doesn't know what to believe until Cole says something, (Okay so I probably am not the best at doing a Cole impression, but here goes).

"Playing the game, a new story, a new cast. Except him. But different, no longer a pair. Have to watch from afar, still caring for him so. Wish a pick pocket would come. Hoping, wondering,

Why can't I fly like the Hawke?"

Varric, understanding the ramblings of Cole, goes to Hawke, always ending up with Hawke. He checks on them, they're the same, but something is missing, maybe it's the time spent away from Kirkwall that's changed Hawke or being away from (Romantic interest). Maybe they're different because - somehow - it's not the same person as before.

Sitting at his desk, the Inquisitor approaching to chat but waiting till he's done writing his letters. Varric deciding to test the waters a bit.

"... You know what would help me find red lyrium? Dog. It was always helpful in sniffing out the bad shit."

Hawke would've responded, "*Dog isn't here to smell your shit, Varric! He's at home with (Love interest).*" Followed by some sarcastic humour.

"A dog would be useful, shame we don't have one around here. Solas would probably hate it, seems to dislike dogs quite a bit. Which is odd, since he seems to like wolves..."

Varric laughs softly at the idea of Chuckles being scared of dogs. "That would be a sight, I could make it happen, if you like."

Inquisitor leans closer, a sparkle in their eye. "You would?!" They seem happy, maybe at getting a dog, maybe about having a relaxed conversation where they weren't just the Inquisitor, perhaps both.

Varric pauses for a moment, thinking on how Hawke could get easily tricked into saying things, with the right words and hints. "Maybe a dog isn't a good idea, though. Especially with all this weird shit going on."

"Aw c'mon!!" The Inquisitor, out of character, raises their arms into the air, "If a dog can fight dark spawn and endless blood magic stuff, why not have one to fight Corypheous!" (sp?) They groaned, leaning on their own in a huff with a pout on their face.

Varric stared, his mouth agape slightly, the exact same mannerisms as Hawke. The same way of talking and- no, more proof. Something else. Something to get them to practically admit it. "Inquisitor, have you read my Tale of the Champion?" They looked at him, pout still on their face.

"Yeah, I've asked you a bunch of questions about it before, remember? Are you alright, Varric?" They sat up, real concern on their face.

Hmm how was he going to play this? "Well, I wanted to talk about... stuff. After fighting with the Seeker, things are still... awkward. I was thinking, opening up to you.. would be a lot easier?"

Inquisitor's eyes raised up, in concern for him and their eyes seemed surprised and confused. (My idea being the player is like, okay weird that I've never seen this dialogue before etc). "Varric, I'm here for you if you need me." They held his shoulder, their face all serious and.. the grip was familiar. The same grip and look as Hawke when they comforted him. Shit, this is getting weird.

"Let's talk somewhere more private, don't want unwanted ears listening." Varric rose out of his chair, walking towards the throne, Inquisitor following. He had never seen the Inquisitor's room and now gave him the perfect excuse to let him. They headed to the Inquisitor's room, no one ever came up here apart from the Inquisitor and *love interest's nickname*.

The two sat on the couch, Varric across from the Inquisitor and thinking how to start.

"It's nice to hang out with my friends up here." They said, tilting their head sideways, like Hawke did when they were shy or embarrassed. Sometimes angry too. "Believe it or not, I feel like myself here more than anywhere else in Skyhold. I can.. talk more freely here." They smiled nervously, itching at their nose. Another habit Hawke had until they began painting their face, then it was always their cheek, neck or forehead. Varric wasn't sure what to make of his suspicions. What did he think? A spirit that found itself inside Hawke and now the Inquisitor? If that was it, as long as it doesn't do harm, then it could be fine. Just don't want another blondie scenario to happen-

"Varric?" Inquisitor broke his inner ramblings, "Don't be afraid to talk, I'm here to listen and no one will hear or interrupt us. This is my space and right now, it's ours."

Varric stared at them, watching the way they fidget and thinking about how intent they were on listening whenever he wanted to talk. "I've said it before but, I want to apologise for not contacting Hawke soon-"

"And there's no need to. You've already apologised and I can understand." Hawke pushed a plate of biscuits towards him. Most of the chocolate ones were gone, he thought for a moment if it was a Hawke thing but everyone likes chocolate.

"Thanks, I- Hawke has been through so much. I just wanted them to be safe, happy. They were away with *nickname of love interest* and when they wrote me, they seemed genuinely happy but... different." Varric takes a look toward the Inquisitor, "I wouldn't take Hawke away from that, away from happiness. They lost so much and-" He had to stop, he wasn't actually trying to open up to them about Hawke.

"Varric? Can I ask you something? About the champion." They stared at him, unblinking and fidgeting, they were nervous. "Were you and Hawke- .. Are you and Hawke together? Romantically?" The Inquisitor blinked, laughing softly at their awkward phrasing and rubbed at the back of their neck. Varric wanting to move on from the question, so he said.

"I never found out why you started rubbing your neck after we met. I remember (Sunshine/Juinor) saying you hadn't until after we met. *They* said it was a nervous tick thing." Varric smiled softly, a grin growing on his face.

"Oh yeah, (Bethany/Carver) pointed it out once or twice. Dad often rubbed his neck when he was around Mum, it's one of the few things I remember about him. A habit he had when he was admiring M-" They stopped, wide eyed and looked to Varric in surprise. "I uh, I mean-"

"I don't believe I ever told you *their* nicknames. (Sunshine/Junior)." Varric leans forward, a small smirk on his face. "Odd that you would know about them, Inquisitor." They looked away, covering their mouth in shock.

Inquisitor's fingers started softly scratching at the couch, "I uh- Talk to Hawke. A lot. And that's what they-they said to me." They cringed at their daft excuse. Letting in a shaky breath and returning his gaze, they looked- sad, scared even.

"I need to know. Are you... are you Hawke?" Varric questioned, such a fucked scenario.

They looked to the ground, hesitant at first before turning serious. "Yeah. I... I was only Hawke since running from Lothering to leaving Kirkwall." They looked up slowly.

Varric leaned into the back of the couch, taking in what they said. "So what are you? A spirit or...?" So he- he became friends with this person and.. what of the Hawke he knew? Was he still their best friend and soulmate? Or was the now Inquisitor, his best friend?

Inquisitor looked sad for a moment. Unsure of what to say. "So there's- okay, you choose." They turned serious again, but looked scared. "I can tell you the truth. The complete truth. It's going to be hard to hear and honestly, might break your heart... I don't wanna tell you the whole truth. I don't know if you'd like it. Or I can tell you a story. One where it makes sense to you. Where I am both Hawke, the Inquisitor and... someone else. Where I have powers that... allow me to do many things. I'd be like Cole. I'm just not sure what I am."

Varric took a breath, thinking. This truth, they seemed uncomfortable with. The story however, they were happy to open up about despite being unsure of. Similar to him. He stared in their eyes, a familiar look. Hawke's gaze but with different eyes.

I want...

The Truth:

"I want the truth. If you're Hawke, I need the truth. It won't leave this room." Varric leaned forward, arms leaning on his knees and his hands gripped.

They swallowed, looking down, taking a breath and looking back up. "So you know books?" They smiled gently, "I'm... *reading* a book. This book, let's me make choices-"

"A make your own adventure book. Hawke loves th- *you* love them..." Varric caught himself. This was going to take a while to get used to.

"Yeah so um... The book is the third of the series... It let's me make choices, develop relationships and take part in a whole new story.

The first book, Dragon Age: Origins." They smiled brightly at Varric, showing a happiness and excitement he hadn't seen before. "In this book, you play a Warden whose thrust into the role of a leader. Who has to not only stop a blight but make choices that will effect the rest of the...*series*."

Varric blinked, "Wait. So you're-"

"Let me finish, I'll explain. Any questions you have, leave for the end please." They laughed, making Varric smile. Hawke only smiled like that with their (love interest.)

"In the next book, you play a refugee just trying to survive with their family, losing some on the way..." They looked sad, small tears forming in their eyes. "In this particular book, you make 'friends' with this amazing dwarf, which may I say in my opinion is the *best* relationship across the series?" They grinned and a small blush formed, *probably* out of embarrassment. "The plot twist is: your adventure is actually said Dwarfs book. So... if it's any form of comfort, I'm not *your* Hawke. But I'm the Hawke you *wrote*." They smiled nervously, "All the personal stuff, all the time's Hawke broke down or any *tension* that happened," The Inquisitor wiggles their eyebrows and snorts in laughter, "I don't know anything about. I'm literally the Hawke Cassandra knows of."

Varric rubbed his head, taking this all in before removing his hand, waiting for them to finish.

They pause for a moment. "The last book... is Dragon Age Inquisition." They look around the room, "You're playing as a character who got *lucky*. Or *unlucky*, I suppose it counts on your thoughts about it all. You receive a magical-portal-closing power that gains you political power and many friends... I've seen where this story ends but haven't finished the book for myself yet. I- There are many friends who you get along with, many who you can choose to fall in love with. But there are a few things about this book that... don't *sit* well with me." They laughed loudly for a moment before quickly regaining their composure. A joke Varric noted to himself he would ask about later.

"There are moments when I look back to the second book and miss the relationship I had with y- a *dear friend*. And when Hawke, the real-but-kinda-not-real Hawke on the battlements... I get jealous. Because I can't be close to you like how I used to be. And I'll be honest, I haven't really found a character who I can just be myself with, unlike in the last book. Where I got to be myself around you..." The stop. Hesitating. "I really miss you."

Varric stares at them, their sincere and pained eyes. "It's the chest hair, everytime." They look down at his chest and back up again, before cackling loudly.

~~~

I didn't think I would do this much writing, I really miss writing haha.

Anyway, hope you liked this so far, sorry for the cut at the end. Just ran out of energy.

If you or if you know someone who could like this little short story about Dragon Age, feel free to let me know your thoughts and feeling on the comments. ^^

Some of the opinions and things were mostly taken from my opinion or feelings. There were a few taken from others as well.

I'd love to see an artist draw their Inquisitor/Hawke in this AU. Or make their own interpretation. Maybe your AU is that all the heroes have a spirit that helps them or anything you want haha. Also feel free to write a HawkexVarric romance in yours, BECAUSE I'm trash for HawkexVarric TT-TT)/

Feel free to tag anyone you think would be interested and feel free to add to this ^^ I hope you enjoy this AU idea.

I may tag some friends who could be interested ^^

[worldevoured]

MORRIGAN B. 9:03 DRAGON || COMPANION

STATISTICS

FULL NAME Morrigan.

DATE OF BIRTH 9:03 Dragon.

PLACE OF BIRTH Unknown, suspected near the Fallow Mire.

RACE Human.

GENDER Cisgender woman.

PRONOUNS She/her/hers.

SEXUALITY Bisexual.

NATIONALITY Fereldan.

RELIGION Agnostic.

POSITIVE TRAITS Discreet, individualistic, knowledgeable, resourceful.

NEGATIVE TRAITS Amoral, manipulative, secretive, vindictive.

PHOBIAS None.

MENTAL HEALTH Relatively healthy, situational anxiety.

AFFILIATION Orlesian Court, Inquisition.

TITLES Arcane Advisor.

SKILLS & ABILITIES

CLASS Mage.

SPECIALIZATION Shapeshifter, battlemage.

WEAPON Staff.

COMPANION STATS

Follows most Origins canon regarding approval and disapproval.

CONNECTIONS

FAMILY Biological parents unknown. Flemeth ( adoptive mother, estranged, alive? )

WANTED SHIPS Morrigan/Warden, Morrigan/Hawke, Morrigan/Isabela, Morrigan/Inquisitor.

NOTES

ON CHARACTERIZATION I follow Morrigan’s characterization in Origins more so than in Inquisition. This means that I won’t tiptoe around Morrigan being petty, occasionally cruel, frequently vicious, and intentionally unkind. I also won’t ignore Morrigan’s capacity for compassion and love. Morrigan does berate Alistair for his grief; Morrigan does belittle the Warden if they try to save the mages ( even saying that the mages deserve to die in front of terrified children ), and Morrigan does withhold vital information from the Warden and Alistair with the intent of manipulating them later. Likewise, Morrigan does show intense and emotional gratitude when considered a friend by the Warden; Morrigan does care very deeply for the Warden; Morrigan does feel immense guilt for withholding information and manipulating them. She’s a fascinating and nuanced character for her flaws as much as, if not more so than, for her virtues.

ON FLEMETH Morrigan’s behavior in Origins — her willingness to goad her mother into fights, her flippant and insulting commentary about Flemeth — certainly speak to a level of dislike between them, but Morrigan shows very little, if any, indication that she’s frightened of Flemeth until Inquisition. In Inquisition, Morrigan’s fear of Flemeth is used primarily to emphasize that she is a better mother, and to make her more sympathetic, in a way that doesn’t quite feel natural. Morrigan, in Origins, is her mother’s foil in much the way that Leliana is Corypheus’ foil later on, and this is the characterization which I think makes the most sense, which I prefer, and to which I will default.

ON THE DARK RITUAL Morrigan is influenced by Flemeth to manipulate the Warden and Alistair to complete the ritual, and by the time Flemeth is “dead” ( either after the Warden kills her, or when she is believed dead ), Morrigan feels that she’s in too deep. She makes the choice to continue withholding vital information that can save the Warden and Alistair — if she has a good relationship with the Warden, she tells herself that it’s for their own good; if she does not, she tells herself it’s for her own good. Either way, Morrigan’s behavior is manipulative, and though she is not wholly at fault, she does bear some responsibility for making that choice. I will not gloss over that. I also will not write Morrigan as having taken part in the Ritual with a Warden or Alistair who is unwilling — which means that the Warden or Alistair must know all the details, and must make the choice on their own. Since Loghain cannot complete the ritual without being coerced or intimidated, I won’t write Morrigan completing the ritual with Loghain without significant divergence in this regard.

ON SHIPPING I will be extremely selective in shipping Morrigan, and will only write ships with her with writers I know well and am comfortable with. I also will not write Morrigan and Alistair involved in a relationship. They may become slightly friendly during an Inquisition timeline, if Alistair is Kieran’s father, but that is the extent of it.

ON MORRIGAN AS ARCANE ADVISOR Morrigan has been stealing from elves at least since Witch Hunt, possibly longer, to learn of their magic and to take from it. She has very little interest in to whom a culture belongs, and she does believe herself to be the only person fit to drink from the Well of Sorrows, despite her limited knowledge of or respect for elven history and religious practices. Morrigan as the expert on Eluvians works much in the way that British museums are “experts” on artifacts that have been stolen from indigenous cultures. If we write following canon events and choices, Morrigan’s “authority” on such topics will and should be treated as being questionable at best. ( For alternatives, please consider: Velanna or Merrill as the expert on Eluvians, and present at the Temple. )

PLEASE READ!

It’s totally okay if this isn’t your scene! I won’t be offended if you’re not interested in my portrayal of Morrigan, and I encourage you to blacklist her tags if you don’t like what I’m doing with her. I also encourage anyone who wants to have a discussion on this topic to reach out to me; I love talking about my inspiration for Morrigan, how I develop her, and the historical analysis and theory I use for the character’s backbone. To me, the most interesting things about Morrigan are her many faults, and how she weaponizes the very things for which people dismiss her, especially her womanhood. That means examining, as honestly and critically as I can, the manner by which Morrigan takes part in oppressing the elves of Ferelden, all of which is supported by canon material. I have studied medieval and early modern imperialism to some extent — but am always learning! — and am drawing from not only canon, but from the historical influences from which canon drew. Please be an adult about this; nonstop vagueing and accusing me of misogyny when I point out Morrigan’s canonical racism isn’t the gotcha anyone thinks it is.

[metalgearkong]

Jedi: Fallen Order - Review (PS4)

11/24/19

Developed by Respawn Entertainment

Up until now, Electronic Arts has taken the wrong direction with their exclusive Star Wars license. So far they created not one, but two awful Star Wars: Battlefront games, both overstuffed with microtransactions and unethical loot boxes. Sure the graphics, sights, and sounds of Star Wars were present, but when the entry fee was $60 and the base game had so little to it, I wasn’t a fan. Jedi: Fallen Order is an answer to all the rightful criticism EA has taken, and they have finally funded developer Respawn Entertainment to make a dedicated single-player, offline, action/adventure game that Star Wars fans have wanted for years. Jedi: Fallen Order is an enormous step in the right direction with the Star Wars license, and shows the potential on what a lot of money and talented people can create when backed by passion.

This is yet another game taking place place between episodes III and IV, a few years after Order 66 and the fall of the Jedi Order. I don’t know if the Force Unleashed games are still considered canon, but I certainly hope not. We play as Cal Kestis, a young Jedi Padawan who survived the purge, and has been hiding out for years as a scrapper taking apart old ships from the war. The Empire has established itself firmly as the dominant superpower of the galaxy, equipped with all the classic Star Wars stuff I love, such as AT-ATs, AT-STs, Stormtroopers, and TIE fighters. A few additions include the Inquisitors, apparently Dark Jedi not following the "rule of two,” who seek out and kill the remaining Jedi in hiding. I guess they come from a TV show or something, but I’ve never watched any of those. Accompanying them are Purge Troopers, who use electro-magnetic melee weapons and can be a struggle to take down. I think the Purge Troopers should have just taken the role of the Inquisitors because I think it would be way cooler to know that the only experienced Force-users left alive now are Obi-Wan, Yoda, the Emperor, and Vader.

The gameplay could be described as a combination of Uncharted exploring, and Dark Souls combat (although it more so reminds me of 2018′s God of War, also inspired by Dark Souls). I didn’t give this game enough credit in the beginning. I decided to play the game on the hard difficulty option, but a few a few hours, I bumped it back down to normal mode. I underestimated the combat and how tough even simple enemies could be. Encounters involve locking on to one enemy at a time, and timing attacks, parries, and dodges. Even low level bad guys can take down your health, especially because they usually appear in small groups. I quite enjoyed fighting members of the Empire, especially basic Stormtroopers, but fighting creatures was much more annoying. Space bugs, space rats, and space crabs feel like a chore to kill as they leap backwards and avoid your lightsaber strikes, and its often harder to read their telegraphs. 

Coming across a squad of Stormtroopers is always where I had the most devilish fun. I appreciate how the game gave the troops a lot of personality. You can hear them chatting to each other before a fight, and they make sarcastic comments as you slowly dwindle their numbers. Laser bolts can be reflected back at the shooter, making ranged combat pretty easy. It’s when the game mixes melee enemies and ranged enemies where it gets a little more tricky and engaging. Every melee trooper is a Scout Trooper and I found that a little hilarious and inconsistent compared to a Scout’s role and ability levels from the films. I didn’t realize they can stand toe-to-toe with a Jedi using their electric sticks and block plenty of lightsaber strikes before being killed. I also liked the detail that when an AT-ST is defeated, you then get to brutally execute the pilot as he scrambles out and fires his pistol as a last ditch effort before his merciless death.

Bosses range from the aforementioned AT-STs, as well as large indigenous creatures found on different planets. Each world, from what I could tell, also has an optional, semi-hidden boss. These didn’t draw my attention much because they’re basically clones of other tougher creatures, only with a greater damage output, higher speed, and more health. You do get experience points for defeating enemies, but I lived happily without taking down these frustrating side-bosses. The most blatant rip-off of the Souls-like formula is the fact that when you rest at meditation spots (save points), it resets all the enemies in the level. This makes more sense in a game with tighter gameplay, such as Hollow Knight or Dark Souls, but there’s not as much of a need for experience points, and the gameplay isn’t reliable enough to warrant farming XP from regular enemies over and over again. I nearly gagged when the game warned me that meditating resets the enemies around you. I’m sick of seeing this mechanic, especially if it isn’t necessary.

I wish the gameplay was a little tighter and snappier. Enemies telegraphy their attacks well enough most of the time, but if an enemy is about to do an unblockable attack, the game doesn’t let you react quick enough to go from blocking to dodging. Many times I’d be blocking or trying to parry, and when an unblockable attack was coming, I couldn’t quick-step to the side fast enough. This means your reflexes not only have to be good enough, but you have to give the game a head start because it takes some time to go from one thing to another. This would happen often enough to get me frustrated. Another annoyance was Cal falling to the ground when the block meter isn’t depleted, and getting hit repeatedly as he’s trying to get up. I get that you can’t block forever, but you shouldn’t be “stunned” when the block meter isn’t empty yet. I don’t know if some of the clumsiness was intentional, but I would get pissed off during tougher fights because I felt like I was fighting an enemy as well as the mechanics.

This all has to do with combat, but I found the traversing to be more reliable. Respawn Entertainment definitely borrows heavily from the Uncharted and rebooted Tomb Raider series. Cal can’t do a lot at first, but as he remembers powers over time, you unlock more abilities such as Force push, Force pull, wall running, double jumping, and more. Sliding down icy or muddy slopes is always fun, especially when combined with other traversal obstacles such as gaps and the need to wall run at the beginning or end. If you die in combat, your brought back to a meditation point, but if you die while adventuring, the game resets you quickly and with a small loss of health. The animations were great as well. I really did feel like a character in the Star Wars universe climbing rocky terrain, jumping over ledges, climbing, and all sorts of stuff like that. It gave the game a cinematic feel even during gameplay. Same goes for combat which can be a little imprecise, but at least looks great. It’s funny, however, that a lot of what prevents Cal from going to new places is the game, is him simply not “remembering” how to do something, especially when he will recall one of his skills out of the blue.

One of the greatest strengths of the game is also it’s greatest weakness: the level design. Each planet you visit has its own interconnecting environments, of which short cuts can be unlocked so you can loop back around easier in the future. The map is also extremely helpful as it gives you a 3D view of the environments, shows where you haven’t explored, shows where places are locked, and shows things like meditation spots. But there isn’t one bit of fast-travel in the game, so when you find yourself deep in a tomb or canyon, you have to hike your way all the way back to your ship. Granted, the developers have tried their best to make the way back interesting with new enemies or new ways to get back to the start, but when some of the environments are as large and twisting as they are, it can be a grind to get from A to B sometimes. Regardless, I’m impressed with how big and detailed each location is (my favorite being the lush jungles of Kashyyyk). It also gives you reminders of places you can re-explore once new abilities are unlocked.

The story itself is one of the worst aspects of the game. While the settings and storytelling itself can be quite good on regular occasions, the overall plot is extremely basic. When Cal is forced to use his powers to save his friend during an industrial accident, he draws the attention of the Empire and the Inquisitors. The game becomes a race between you and the Empire to find a hidden list of Force-sensitive children left in the galaxy. This list (Holocron) has been hidden by a former Jedi who simply has put it in a difficult place to get to simply as a test, so that anyone who finds it would be “worthy” or something. We don’t necessarily see the Empire taking steps to find this list, but they pop in and our during cinematics when it’s convenient for the game. It’s basically an excuse to hop between a handful of planets and get slightly further and further as we unlock new abilities (a la Metroidvania). We spend a vast amount of time in deep tombs, putting Lara’s recent adventures to shame. It got old after a bit, even if the graphics and designs were gorgeous. I also think the game had one or two many giant ball puzzles.

The acting can be hit or miss as well. The most annoying character was Cere (Debra Wilson), one of the members of your small crew, who is a former Jedi Master, but has cut herself off from the Force. I think on a technical level, Wilson plays this character like a seasoned actor, but I found Cere’s character to be like one of those teachers or supervisors who is more dramatic than she needs to be. Cere comes off as condescending and a bit self-important, making excuses for herself while holding Cal to a very noble and high standard. She just comes off as endlessly melodramatic, and I don’t see a lot of need for her to have been a former Jedi, especially because she’s nothing but a co-pilot, quest-giver, and expositioner.. Cal Kestis (Cameron Monaghan) is a very vanilla hero who isn’t too bright, but is very altruistic. He has to have everything explained to him, even though I think he could have easily been telling other characters information, rather than being so clueless as a Jedi Padawan. Monaghan does a pretty good job playing him, I just thought the character itself was a little bland and typical.

Instead of the main Inquisitor chasing you around (called the “Second Sister”) I think being pursued by Darth Vader would have been way more fun. How much cooler would it have been to be hunted by THE Darth Vader, him doing exactly what his job was during this time period? Another inconsistency that irked me was that Cal is a Padawan, yet he’s proficient in single blade, staff, and double lightsaber combat. I know this makes the game more “fun” but it doesn’t make sense to me that a teenage Padawan is an expert in three forms of lightsaber combat, each of them needing nearly a lifetime to master. I was annoyed I could switch to a lightsaber staff at any time with no background or explanation for it. I would have liked it much more if the story and game stuck to single blade combat, and not felt like it would have been too basic or boring for most players. But I think the larger thing to blame is the Star Wars canon and Force-using, lightsaber-using people don’t get much of a technical explanation on how much the Force aids you or how much training you need to do on your own.

It may not seem like it, but overall I am actually pretty happy with Jedi: Fallen Order. Not only does it eschew the practices EA has become notorious for, but it’s a game in a genre I really enjoy. Aside from some combat imperfections, flat story, and average characters, I had a lot of fun exploring this game at every turn. Finding chests with cosmetic collectibles and playing with the Force powers kept me going from one corner to the next. I also enjoyed the music which was done by composers Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab, instead of relying too much on the famous John William tracks (although they are heard far and few between). They evoked a Star Warsy tone and atmosphere without outright copying existing works. I loved moments like my first AT-ST fight, or climbing and piloting an AT-AT. Most of the set-piece moments were exciting and unique for a Star Wars video game. It certainly has its blemishes, but definitely not things that couldn’t be ironed out in a future sequel. I really hope Respawn Entertainment and EA continue on this path of coming up with semi-original stories with their Star Wars license and make single player driven experiences.

7.5/10