#neve and harding had a really good amount of banter and neve being a city girl in her ambient dialogue made me love her even more

[zahra-hydris]

okay lots of stuff in this gameplay video looks great but

the facial animations are... really off. especially on npcs and rook but even davrin had janky animations and his mouth didn't move in time with the dialogue. it bugs me only a little, but I worry specifically that we'll see another andromeda situation of people just constantly memeing on it. and bioware doesn't need another andromeda situation.

on that note, I really hope there's options to minimise this blurring they seem to have over faces. it's just excessive and makes all the characters feel... idk rubbery.

I really don't understand why they had a death caller/necrosis build for a darkspawn quest, considering they keep telling us that the darkspawn are resistant to necrosis damage and weak to fire? it made the mage look underpowered and they also seem to have slowed mage basic attacks down so it didn't look as impactful as the past warrior and rogue combat. ultimately, mage didn't look as fun as it should be and that really disappoints me.

why did they change the warden armour again? the old armour was sexier :(

[invinciblerodent]

5, 13, and/or 17 for the rook + partner ask game(hi this is dissonant verses) please!!

Aww, hi! ❤️ Thank you for asking dear!

Question list here

I think I'm going to choose Verbena and Davrin-

5.) Do they have different cultural backgrounds (e.g. a Rook who was raised in Antiva with Harding who was raised in Ferelden)? If so, do they ever share parts of their culture with each other? If they're similar, how do they celebrate their culture together?

I love this question, because I love toying with this divide between them and how they bridge it!

Ver is a human and a Minrathous native, a city girl through and through (I alter the canon backstory slightly and say that she's originally from one of the many heavily Soporati- and Liberati-populated residential districts, but lost her family at around 8-10 years old in a fire, and moved into the thick of the city when the Mercars adopted her)- and not only is she most in her element in the city, it's specifically the nightlife of her part of the city that she's most immersed in. (She was pretty much nocturnal before she met Varric.)

Ever since she started living on her own at ~19, her usual haunt was one of the lower-income areas' entertainment districts that I'm calling "the Redbrick" (or Catsbane to the locals): now at 32, she's a security guard, a bouncer, a boots on the ground type of enforcer (and occasional double agent) the community turns to, and very much an "I know a guy who knows a guy" type of person within that bubble, which made her decently good at her "job" as a Shadow Dragon too.

Contrasting that with someone like Davrin who is of Dalish heritage, someone who doesn't feel very comfortable in the more densely populated areas (a la that banter with Bellara), and has little experience with the "city nightlife" that is most her comfort zone, I really like how they can relate to one another on the fundamentals, but still show each other something entirely new, no matter where they go.

Like, yes, initially she feels as out of place in Arlathan as he does in Minrathous. But people are people everywhere, your average Warden and Minrathous construction worker aren't entirely dissimilar (both have secrets, duties, people to protect), and there is beauty to be found in how backgrounds so disparate could still come together, and make them people who are nevertheless on the exact same wavelength a genuinely surprising amount of times.

I like to imagine that, partly because they're secure in the other's understanding and willingness to just roll with it, they get a kick out of showing each other things they've never seen before. In the same way as he shows her how to care for halla and shares about Dalish philosophies (like the Vir Tanadhal), she can also take him by the hand and show him things like... how to get people what they want so they'll get you what you want, where to get the best street food you've ever had, how to cheat at cards (and who not to bet money against), and, yeah, how formal Imperial military training (courtesy of her adoptive parents) and Warden training line up more than many would think.

It's like that perfect way, where on the surface they don't -or shouldn't- have much in common, but coming together, those differences make them stronger, better, wiser.

And, well, the sky over a Minrathous rooftop is still the same sky as the one over Arlathan forest. (Plus, I really like how that artbook illustration that seems to put them settled into a more remote cottage then kind of creates a little thesis-antithesis-synthesis moment, by placing them post-game into an area that's kind of perfect for them both by not being perfect for either. ❤️)

13.) What song(s) do you associate with them?

Not very many as of yet, but to continue with the "Ver is a nightlife girlie" theme lol, there is a kind of silly pick that always makes me smile-

I like to imagine that while Neve seems to like Cida Ciconia (with how she hums one of her songs at one point iirc), Ver's favorite lounge singer is a bit more ~dynamic~, someone who sings in seedier bars than the Swan (and in Trade, instead of Old Tevene), to rhythms you can actually dance to.

So I have this little pet thought I like to rotate in my head, that's just... her taking him out to her usual spot at one point, for a date (after getting past the "friends with benefits" beginning, and starting an actual relationship)(he showed her Arlathan and introduced her to Eldrin, she better show him her little slice of the city, and introduce him to her mentor-figure from her youth!), and this sort of thing being the moment when he most feels that the rug's been pulled from under his feet with this woman.

I don't know if I want to consider it "canon" for them that she'd half-guide, half-drag him to the dancefloor, but I do like the idea of maybe using that to toy with how dancing, it's a bit like sparring: the steps of the other may be different, but the goal and underlying rhythm is the same, and there's a lot of fun in just moving their bodies, together. (And, the lyrics are fun and bold, so I can imagine her mouthing them at him "jokingly", partly to just entertain him, and partly because it carries truth, which I like.)

17.) What is your Rook's favorite thing about their partner? What is the partner's favorite thing about Rook?

The first thing that comes to mind is that I think humor is really important to the both of them, and they are very straightforward, and more physical people than most. His teasing, ribbing sense of humor was one of the first things that grabbed her attention ("Not bad! ..... for a Shadow Dragon."), and immediately this sort of goading of each other on became a foundational element to their friendship first, then eventually their romance.

I think besides that, some of her favorite things about him are his determination, his quickness (and willingness) to reassess a situation, and his adaptability. (I mean, was it on the day they met, that he didn't even hesitate to follow her into defending her city against a dragon?- with the emotional intensity of that whole thing, I wanna say that she kind of imprinted on him like a baby duckling then and there, lol.) She only discovered his dutifulness, his hidden softness, his creativity, and his caring nature later, but, yknow, finding all new things you like about your crush as you get to know them is kind of how it tends to go, lol. (Though she didn't let herself think further about those twinges of feelings until after Weisshaupt.)

And I like to imagine that it was largely the same for him: the introduction to Ver that Davin got was one of a woman who is willing to, blade out, jump to the defense of baby griffons against some ancient monster all of maybe five minutes after learning about their existence, and then drag him into a dragonfight in the heart of the Tevinter Imperium immediately afterwards. She's a whirlwind, always surprising, adventurous, bold and fierce but playful, she keeps him on his toes and off balance, but never in a way that'd be uncomfortable: she's not unkind, unjust, or cruel, and she can take a joke as well as she can give it. (And he kind of learned that all within the first two quests together, so he kinda speedran developing that interest in her too, lol.)

She makes him want to impress her, to push himself harder, and vice versa- and I really like that about their dynamic, how they make each other better just by being present, but also they bring out each other's softness and warmth that maybe (out of necessity) took a backseat before now.