#romancing morrigan this time around…. i will literally do whatever the hell she wants

[artoflevity]

"the mages always betray you!!" NOT morrigan. not with that attitude

[flowerflamestars]

Hey hey hey. I hope you're doing well!! With A court of Silver Flames coming soon, I was wondering what your opinion is about it. Personally I'm rather worried with how the book will go and I just really don't want Nesta to go to the Illyrians Mountains. I want her to say fuck it and whatever happens she does on her own terms. But I don't believe that's very likely and well, 😔. Here's to hoping that Sarah is going to do a great job with the book.

Hope you had a great Christmas and New Year!! ❤️❤️

Hey! I had lovely holidays, I hope you did too :)

I am of...so many minds about the next book. Overall, I really do think its going to be a lot like reading acowar: I’ll enjoy reading it in a light way, but retrospective awareness of plot holes/weird character stuff will keep me from loving it. Fun book not...a masterful book that holds up?

I have MANY wishes for how Nesta’s story would play out, but the ground work for a very different series of events is where acofas left us. 

I’ve talked at length about how the Illyria thing seems...bad. I initially tried to be excited?? GOD do I want a nessian book! an Illyrian revolution! But the framework is just..fucked? I’m not down with a romance starting with the woman in the pairing (who has already told her male counterpart to leave her alone) being passed like a recalcitrant pet into his custody. 

Do I love a situation with strife and limitations that forces people to see each other? Yes. Do I like this one? Eh.

In particular the setup of this one is functioning on multiple bad levels. Feyre, sending her sister away because she’s decided personal offense? Is the response? To someone clearly at rock bottom and suicidal? Taking away another home, this one Nesta was always sure didn’t want her, proving to Nesta that her sister can’t stand to have her even in the same city.

Rhysand, who I’ve talked about before in this instance. Who wants Nesta gone. If Nesta dies in Illyria, fine. She’ll probably take out some of rebels when she goes. She’s Cassian’s mate? Cool maybe she’ll kill whoever inevitable comes at him. It’s sending an armed nuclear weapon into a failing peace talk. Rhys knows Illyria is on the edge of rebellion.

Cassian. Just- jesus christ, Cassian. It’s like he can’t get it right because he doesn’t trust himself enough, ever, to just go with his first impulse where Nesta is concerned. (See, following Rhysands threat to the letter and NOT SAYING A WORD TO HER AT SOLSTICE, BUT THEN FOLLOWING HER OUT INTO THE DARK BECAUSE HE DID, IN FACT, WANT HOLIDAY TIME WITH HER). He’s maybe hurt her the most? 

Which leads me to something else. I am very, very excited to have both of their canon POVs. Because I have questions! 

Like, okay, the big failure is obviously the end of that last terrible battle. We see them decide to die together. The kiss. The bloody embrace. Hybern’s death. The promise that probably meant quite literally everything to Nesta.

And then...all we know, from like, a little throwaway sentence is that somehow, the next time we see Cas, moments later, he is a)well enough to stagger off the field (did Nesta try to heal him?), and b) arm in arm with Morrigan.

Mor was, I think, supposed to be protecting Elain? It’s her only action through the entire war, and we never see it happen, and then she.... showed up somewhere behind her charge, who’d just stabbed Hybern...to... rip Cassian out of Nesta’s arms and heal him? Once again be a physical, vicious barrier, while Nesta is too in shock to say anything and Cassian...lets her?

And lets be clear, he had to have let her. I know he’s half dead, but one book before we have Cassian unconscious, scrabbling in a pool of his own blood, completely unaware but still trying to respond to Nesta being tossed in the Cauldron.

He’s aware. Present. 

And I want to know why it happened! I want someone to reveal this terrible break, that is, I think, quite literally where Nesta fractured. 

Illyrian promises are a Big Deal in-universe. Cassian promised her- and then, does it just not count, because they did not, in fact, die? 

He’s not stupid, or cruel- though Cassian’s pride and wounded ego temper does cockblock him CONSTANTLY- what the hell happened?

I’m getting way off topic- but the thing is, as much as I want them together, I think the best outcome for Nesta is to have an ally that isn’t Cassian. 

Hello, Emerie. 

But! Much like the mountain set up at all, that’s also totally fraught? I’ve said it before, but could there be any bigger insult to Illyrian ladies denied their power, fighting unsuccessfully for rights, for the privilege to be Illyrian...than yet another High Fae lady, this one clearly unwilling, living in their mountains, learning their techniques, from a legendary general???

So yes, I agree, Nesta’s banishment was a pretty shitty call on all accounts.

I like the idea of the Queens being her enemies. That it wasn’t just done, what happened to her and destroyed her life, with Hybern. That Nesta has to face what else the Cauldron made. 

(A note though, on power: the narrative needs to decide, SO BADLY, what Nesta’s powers are. Primordial? Deadly? Cool, then Rhysand shouldn’t be pushing her around. The Cauldron canonically made the world, and Nesta canonically took so much of its magic she permanently damaged its function.)

What I would do, if I were writing it, is this: I’d have Cassian let Nesta go. 

He takes her out of Velaris. Away from Rhys and Feyre, from everything, and says, you don’t have to come with me.

And it’ll mean- you don’t have to come with me, because I know you don’t want to. I won’t trap you. Now or ever. I love you, I love you, I love you.

Cassian, going in one direction, free in the sky. Nesta, going another, unmoored but choosing it. Cassian handles the Illyrian rebellion, and figuring out what he needs. Nesta heals slow, falls in with the Band of Exiles, whose closeness to human causes leads her back to helping her people, to eventual collision course with the Queens.

SEPARATE journeys in parallel that come together in peril. They meet again strong. Free of the Night Court. Trying to do what is right.

And then, they fight. Because it’s still the easiest language they both speak. But they ALSO still love each other- and isn’t this, after all, so very nearly another life? It’s time, to fight side by side.

But what I think is going to happen is a lot more...painful? They’re going to go to Illyria and Cassian is going to make Nesta train. They’re going to fight and fuck, hurt each other with both those things way before they’re ready for something real. The rebellion might not happen? Nesta’s going to get a Feyre 2.0 fighting course. It’ll empower her...but it’s still not her choice. 

She’s then either going to a) go rogue and go after the Queens herself, b) get kidnapped again, or c)Rhysand is going to send her and Cassian after them, banishment matchmaking vol. 2: the assassination assignation, maybe with backseat Azriel, who has also had goddamn enough of everything.

Love is, of course, going to prevail, but really at this point, what I want most (aside from ANSWERS)is just...Nesta’s health? For her to spend time around people who treat her with even the slightest modicum of respect?

And I do have hope! The advertising has emphasized found family specifically. I hope, so badly, that that means Nesta gets her own family. That her journey takes her to a place she chooses. 

Cassian needs to heal too- and really, really, decide to live for himself and make his own choices. My greatest hope isn’t just that it’s a sexy love story, but that they end up better, freer, and more appreciated by the end. 

[happywitch416]

Ok, now do Leliana, Merrill, Iron Bull, and Blackwall. I love your opinions.

I have lots of opinions and some of them are even good ones so I appreciate the love for them lol

I already did Blackwall here.

The Iron Bull

How I feel about this character

Look, when I discovered I could romance The Iron Bull, 6-year-old me found her prince charming dreams come true. Why? Tim Curry as Darkness in Legend. My tastes have been odd forever. Pretty boys are exactly that and usually boring. And he's disabled, yet tall and strong. He finds himself a family? Also BDSM but that is probably more info than anyone has ever wanted from me. There is just so much? He is a big character, not even because of his size but because he takes up metaphysical space and does not apologize for it. And he's a spy! You would expect all spies in the Qun to be like Tallis and instead you have this motherfucker that could bench press a wagon and the horses. Also, his love of dragons mirrors my own. Spiritual bonding.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Dorian and tiny Cadash inquisitors because I am easily made happy. So much tall and small.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Sera. Mayhem.lace Harding. Viv, I love their dynamic. She mother hens this giant and he's just? So down for it? He's cool with being adopted.

My unpopular opinion about this character

I love him as is. Folks who say he's abusive I will meet in the pit. And I will win. Dealt with that in real life, get your purity brownie points elsewhere. Far the fuck away from me. Triggering? Sure. But that's a personal issue you need to work through, not take it on people who are fine with it.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

More of life after the qun. I want him to grow past that. There is just so much shit packed into that way of life and I want him to unpack it. Show your emotions! Feel them! With less sticks! Or more sticks bc honestly that makes sense.

And maybe make his relationship with Dorian without those sketchy bits. Like why the fuck were those even there. why.

Leliana

How I feel about this character

It took a long time for Leliana to grow on me. That whole chosen by god thing just grates. But it makes sense storywise! So I'm okay with it really. Hardened Leliana in DAI? Where is the sweet girl who sang around a campfire? Like I get it, she was in the game and the left hand but they idk. It really bothered me to see her so cynical and harsh. People change sure. But I don't like how it worked with her. Now her feelings of failure in regards to divine justinia? Yes, good. Also her becoming divine and basically razing it to the ground? She is probably the truest follower of the chant since andraste. Her reaction to morrigan being in orlais was...fucky. why make them enemies. Where is the setup for this. Wtf. I also dig that she's a redhead and an archer. I am shallow okay. But we do not see a lot of the fun Leliana in dai and I think thats a disservice. 

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Female wardens, any race are brilliant. I just can't picture her with a dude beyond using him to get something done. I like her with Josie and Morrigan as well.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Iron Bull and Sera, hold with me here, because she needs fun and to remember she can have it. Same for Lace. But I also see her being friends with Viv. And of course Josie and I kinda dig her friendship with Cassandra. She could be friends with anyone, until she stabs them I guess.

My unpopular opinion about this character

I think they wanted a hardass spymistress and almost neglected everything else. We get bare hints of the Leliana we met in dao in dai. Once again people change, but i think its fucky.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

No to the lyrium ghost? What the fuck? She fakes her death if the warden kills her. Boom done, and keeping in line with her Bard status. You can't tell me the chantry allowed a god damn ghost. Although, a lyrium based ghost could be corrupted by blight and thats scary. An evil Leliana, scary but hot. 

Merrill

How I feel about this character

She is adorable and performs blood magic. She's my one of my top 5 characters in this realm. She goes around picking flowers out of random gardens? Her pure excitement at seeing a mugging. I however despise her clan. The people who should have cared for her the most, betrayed her the most. And she restores an Eluvian, just how powerful of mage is she? Like yes i know she has a demon or whatever but she has far more control of that deal then Anders does with justice. It seems to be a healthy deal.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Isabela! You know she brings home all the exotic flowers she can find while shes on the sea for Merrill. 

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Also Isabela. They have such a good friendship in game? Puts marbles in her boots. 

My unpopular opinion about this character

Every time someone writes her as a sweet little pushover i want to sacrifice them to the seven circles of hell. She's arguably one of the strongest mages we meet, and not necessarily spell wise. The will power she must have, she has a successful partnership with a spirit. She laughs at near muggings? You think balls that big would be a doormat? Gtfo.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

She should have been brought in as an advisor, arcane, elven whatever, in dai. Morrigan? The elven expert? Eluvian expert? A lot of that was based off well flemeth is her mom and she just felt a connection with research into elven magic. Sure jan. As a Daughter literally never do you listen that well to your mom. She could have been a knowledge buddy with Merrill. Even with Solas, they literally trust some rando that wanders in. A total unknown that spouts off about the fade that is suspicious use of elfroot sounding. There was an opportunity and they missed it.

[a-friend-of-red-jenny]

i think an indication of the light (i.e. the talented writers.......) leaving the da series is that like origins is, in a lot of ways, a type of game i’m not usually into. i hate the way everything looks, i hate a lot of the mechanics, i have adhd and the idea of reading all that warden dialogue makes me want to take a nap and usually would really break illusion for me but i loved the game and i got so attached to my surana...i played through it twice with her to explore different options and romance leliana and zevran, and then when i got it on pc i made the same character, because i couldn’t think of playing it without her tbh, and modded the game to romance morrigan like i’d always dreamed of lmao. bioware made me create and live through this character and go through an expirience that for me, always culminated in a dramatic, fitting, emotional sacrifice. i am still touched by the story of my surana, who finally went out into the world and really got to know it and make friends in it for a short time, and then ultimately made the decision to die protecting it. nowadays i dont remember like..anything abt it except for the characters, but thats msotly because it got way overshadowed in my heart by 2

dragon age 2 is a rushed and broken piece of shti with half its story missing. i’ve probably played it all the way through about 9 or 10 times?? i made a bunch of different characters this time because i wanted to explore all the options (in a game where you explore the same caves 800 times and have the same argument through the entire storyline lol). i cared more about that game than i maybe ever have about a game? it made me love the series, somehow, even though i hated so much stuff about the da world bc its boring as hell tbh, because of the life in the characters. i romanced them all at least twice. i did everything i could other than side with the templars, and i like tried, multiple times, but i couldnt. the game made me feel strongly enough about it that i couldn’t bring myself to /pretend/ to agree with a socio-political stance in the game world because it went too strongly against my morals. a lot of the ‘choices’ you make in biowares are illusions of choice that mean nothing, but in da2 i feel like they were the best at both 1)hiding that, and 2)making some choices matter if only because YOU know what YOU did, even if it doesn’t effect anything.

and the kicker is like, this is dorky as hell lol but in my mind’s eye i picture my surana in a relationship with zevran, leliana, and morrigan, because they were all characters i got invested in and stuck with me and i feel they made an impression on the character i created and put into the story to an extent that it would feel wrong picturing that character without any of them. she’s best friends with sten. she wishes her and wynne could get along better, as fellow mages. she...wishes the best for alistair. hawke is the same deal; the four og romances were each affecting and important enough to me that i end up deciding ‘my hawke’ is just dating everyone lol. i like all the characters too much to choose. i’ve thought so so so much about the hawke i finally settled on. about her relationships with her family and their past, things she feels guilty about, how she handles and expresses that guilt, how she feels deep down about every important character and plot point.

when i first got inquisition it was the most hyped i’d ever gotten about something. i would gush at my brother about the lore of the world for literal actual hours at a time in the months before the game came out. i borrowed money to buy it the second it came out. I played through the whole thing, like, 99% completion, the only achievements i was missing were ones that required a second play through or specific story choices i didn’t know about. I freaked out at my friends not to spoil anything because they’d finished the game before I’d gotten to the winter palace. I never finished a second playthrough. I started several other characters but I know on a few of them i never even got to the fight at haven (or past the pride demon, but that was as a mage on expert mode which i’m pretty sure is actually just not possible so rip i guess) I don’t really have a ‘canon’ inquisitor? I don’t really feel anything about the one I finished the game with. Even as excited as I was I spent the whole game annoyed that the inquisitor didn’t seem to have personality at all, let alone the choice of a personality that you could make with your warden or with hawke. I romanced sera.....and I actually felt bad about myself because of how they wrote everyone else to treat her. It actually made me feel unwanted and wrong as a young lesbian. I cried when sera was confirmed pre-release as a for sure, specifically Lesbian love interest. I loved her before the game even came out. It made me feel accepted in a time and place where I very actively was not, and when I was struggling, within finding myself as a Gay Youth in general, with the idea that being a lesbian, specifically, was a bad thing that I should choose not to be in lieu of a better, more progressive form of Gay. Cue a proud and unapologetic lesbian character, the first in the series, that everyone fucking hates and that you can kick out of the game at any time with little consequence. With a romantic story line that seemed like an afterthought, and to have less care and attention put into it than two straight options that actually WERE afterthoughts, because they weren’t even going to be in the game until mid-development. A lesbian with an opening quest for her romance arc that is basically just you running around to every other companion and listening to them list everything they hate about her, at worst telling you you’re making a mistake in associating with her bc shes stupid and disgusting and at best giving an obvious “well....whatever you think is best....hope that works out for you..........OUO;;;.....” That quest, if you keep romancing her, culminates in what is supposed to be both of you deciding “fuck what all of society thinks, we’re all we need” because, lesbians, right? thats the lesbian narrative? except homophobia doesnt exist in this world so we had to make everyone hate sera Herself in order to fit it in and that doesnt have any implications at all. and then you have sex; sera’s very sexual, because,,,,,,,,,,not because men think lesbians are hot umm........its because........uhhh........its empowerment!!! but i digress like i love sera despite bioware lol. and i tried to spend time daydreaming and fleshing out my inquisitor and her and their relationship and lives with each other and shit but all the thinking i did on it was forced. unlike my surana and my hawke, my inquisitor isn’t poly w/ everyone because i couldn’t bare to choose between characters i loved. i didn’t even romance most of them. i don’t even have a specific character in mind as ‘my’ inquisitor. the characters i liked the most, that felt the most well-written and fleshed out, were established characters from pre-existing da content. and the game even fucked up my hawke that i cared about and loved because they wanted to capitalize on how much people love hawke, and love Their hawke, but put in a weird hawke-puppet that had none of Any of the personalities you could give them, and that just said dull bullshit about how theyve seen what the corruption of blood magic can do, etc. etc. etc. like.....................................the magic is gone and their left with good characters they don’t know how to write and i mostly boring world with some interesting aspects they decide never to touch on.