#second playthrough are for rogues!!! lmao

[ustalav]

your pathfinder posting inspired me to actually start playing the game that's been sat in my steam library since december!

i ended up remaking my DA2 hawke as a rogue, so he's now having a bad time and being grumpy at people (and missing every other attack TT_TT) v excited to see what the hell this game is actually about

Oh yay!!! I’ve been having a ton of fun with Wrath of the Righteous. I already have an alternate MC locked and loaded for a second playthrough lol

I hope you enjoy it (combat gets less frustrating past the early levels lmao) the vibes are soo much fun

[essentialthyme]

By the laws of mutualisim, I must now know ur every thought and opinion on ur DA ocs and playthroughs! the audience craves knowledge and information 😌🫶

Valley, I take so much liberties with my Dragon Age stuff 😩

I have a tendency to keep things boring and make human characters, so heads up.

In Origins, I played through all the intros and ended up going with Cousland. She grew up sheltered and kinda of introverted, but polite and respectful, and her brother taught her how to fight and they figured out she was fast and sly, so she is a rogue, basically. Never gave anyone any troubles until she turned like 17 and started hooking up with every woman she possibly could. Then, tragedy strikes and she kinda shuts down, and becomes very serious and just... angry. She abandons her (already flimsy) beliefs. She is still respectful to those she feels deserves it, but diplomacy is far from being her go to. Still wants to do the right things, but achieving it through violence. It is her companions (especially Leliana) that bring back her spark, her will to live, and she never goes back to who she was, but she goes back to interacting, smiling, talking, opening up.

Here the timeline splits into "canon" and "non-canon'', but the truth is both of then are non-canon, haha:

Canon: She romances Leliana.

Non-canon: She romances Morrigan.

In both cases, she performs the ritual with Morrigan (because the restriction is stupid lmao). She... really wants a family, so she is unable to pass up the opportunity given to her, but there's a bit of a fight between her and Morrigan, because Cousland negotiates her way into being a part of Morrigan and her child's life. Well, children, as Morrigan gives birth to twins: Kieran, with the old god's soul and Nora, without.

Hawke is simpler. A blue rogue who is super extroverted, charming, polite, diplomatic and funny but like, in an appropriate way. Very eager to please, very loyal to those she cares about. The problem is she cares about a lot of people. She takes on the role of caretaker, and it takes a toll on her, but she never quits. None of the trauma she goes through break her like they did Cousland.

Hawke falls first. She is head over heals for Isabela from the very beginning. Hawke never resents Isabela for the end of act II, one of the things she is adamant about is that she would NEVER tie Isabela down. Lucky for her, Isabela fell harder.

Fun facts: My ONLY character to ever have blue eyes, they remind Isabela of the sea. The iconic mark over the nose is actually a scar.

Inquisition is tough, I have not played it, but I know a lot about it. I have barely any interest in any of the companions. So I made two characters: Trevelyan and Lavellan. Lavellan is super shy and timid mage, but very fierce and grounded, down to earth, but a complete powerhouse. Trevelyan is a mad woman. She is purple Hawke turned up to 11. She flirts with everyone, cracks bad jokes at bad times, resolves personal issues in the worst way imaginable. Drinks more than she should, and gets into fistfights at taverns. Bit of a fuckboy. But she is a formidable warrior, and an excellent strategist, so everyone kinda puts up with her because well, she is a genius when it comes to battles. She is also a mage supporter, hates the Chantry, and clocks prejudiced people in the face without a second thought. Lavellan and Trevelyan were together during the events of the intro, both survive, so who is the Herald depends on my mood.

For the "canon": Lavellan is the Herald, and she takes one sniff of Cullens's racist ass, sends him to rehab and puts Trevelyan in his place. Trev isn't as bad with Lavellan, they go through most of the stuff at the beginning together, and they rely on each other, so Trevelyan has a soft spot for Lavellan, and shows a gentle side no one else gets to see. You see where I'm going with this? Yup, my oc's romance each other. Lavellan has a crush on Cassandra at the beginning, but that goes away eventually, and bam.

For "non-canon": Trevelyan is the Herald, and Lavellan is a companion. But Lavellan ends up falling for Josephine after the Cassandra fiasco, and so Trevelyan, being the chaotic entity that she is, falls for none other than Leliana. I just couldn't pass up the idea of romancing her yet again. Trevelyan has to take on a more serious role here, and Leliana is the one who sets her straight, basically.

I promise I tried to be brief 😭

[danielnelsen]

The Veilguard Q&A thing: Which location are you most excited/hoping to explore in-game? Do you have your Rook(s) planned out to any degree? If so, would you share some details or ideas you have? Do you have any unpopular opinions about DAV so far?

answered the first one here

6. Do you have your Rook(s) planned out to any degree? If so, would you share some details or ideas you have?

only very broadly. definitely a grey warden, but i havent decided between elven mage and dwarven rogue. every time i think im leaning more towards one over the other i realise im actually not lmao. i think there'll be the most extra dialogue and story content for elves and i dont wanna miss out on anything (obviously it will be a complete story either way, but yknow), but dwarves are my favourite race. the only reason i dont play dwarves very often is because i love playing as a mage. i think my choice will probably come down to what the actual backgrounds of the characters are: if we can play a dwarf with like..a dwarfy background, rather than a surface dwarf from a mostly human population, then that might tip the scales. i dont think i could resist playing a dwarf from the ambassadoria or kal-sharok (not that the latter is gonna happen).

i think my rook will be nonbinary, but i havent decided between he/him or they/them. im interested in how well the game will handle neutral pronouns, but my characters are also always somewhat an extension of myself, especially on my first playthrough. i'll most likely stick with a default name and face, but i'll definitely play around with the body customisation. hopefully you can be real-life fat, not just popular-media fat (aka not fat). today's article also revealed that you can adjust 'glute and bulge size'. so. we'll see where that takes me. if im already making the rest of my body bigger, then.........

im going into the game expecting to romance davrin, but we know nothing about anyone's personalities yet so that's very easily subject to change. second choice is emmrich. i think my rook will be a bit more serious than i usually play my dragon age characters, especially since we're starting out already having had some real-world experience (im a grey warden, after all), but who knows, maybe once i start picking dialogue options i'll just feel the need to be sweet to everyone.

this is all very surface-level stuff, which is the only planning im gonna do. maybe i'll be more sure of my race option by the time the game releases, but everything else will just evolve based on how the game goes. i dont wanna get too attached to a character that wont end up fitting well into the story.

15. Do you have any unpopular opinions about DAV so far?

ok it took me a while to think of something because whenever i see a lot of people disagree with an opinion i have, i also see plenty of people who share my opinion... but i dont really want the inquisitor to have too big of a role. it makes sense for them to be there, and i especially understand people who romanced solas feeling like their inquisitor should have an important part in the story, but i think this is a bit of a limitation of having the plot directly follow from the events of dai. it wouldnt make sense for the inquisitor not to show up, but this isnt their game, it's rook's. id argue that it would make sense for them not to show up much because solas knows them already, but we've got harding as a companion, who solas is also very familiar with. that said, i expect the writers have probably learned from the reaction to hawke's cameo in dai and will do a better job of writing the inquisitor than they did with writing hawke lmao

[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.

[decadentmousse]

What is rogue trader about?? Every post i see from you about it im like 👀

Well, first of all, it's a Warhammer 40k game. idk how familiar with you are with the setting, but that should give you some idea of its overall flavor. (I only knew a bit about Warhammer 40k via friend osmosis before I played this game, so it's been a wild experience lmao)

But what Rogue Trader specifically is about is you inheriting a sort of merchant dynasty from a distant relative after she has an…… accident..... and since you didn't even know you were related to this woman until the start of the game, your character is super ill-prepared to suddenly be put in charge of anything, much less managing the economies of the literal planets (plural!) that you now find yourself owning.

And of course, since this is a role-playing game, all manner of other bullshit decides to happen at the same time that this happens to you.

A terrible cult is on the loose and spreading all over the place. Before you even fully figure out what's going on with all that, some bdsm space elves show up and start stealing suns and just harassing you and your people in general. So basically you go around exploring various planets doing both major quests and sidequests and solving various problems (including your party members' personal problems, of course 😂) while trying to figure out what the hell is going on, like, on a grander scale.

I honestly love it a lot and I've been having a blast. I'm already planning my second playthrough and I'm not even done with the first one yet.

One thing I will say, though, is that it's kinda glitchy still rn. Before I got the game, I saw a lot of people saying it was so glitchy that it was borderline unplayable and, honestly, that hasn't been my experience. I'm like halfway through Act 4 (out of I think 5) and have had some issues but nothing life-ruining or game-breaking. BUT I also can acknowledge that maybe I've just gotten lucky? So you know, your mileage may vary djfklsfjs (Also they've been working really hard on patching the worst of the glitches, so I'm confident that a lot of the problems will be fixed in the next couple of months.)

[icharchivist]

I'd definitely love to see the character you create

omg....

all my screenshots are on my harddrive so i can really access only to them

and also yeah the designs look similar enough lmao i'll def try to do different things next time. maybe.

Dragon Age: Origins

Kurai Mahariel, a Warrior Dalish Elf who romanced Alistair. Headstrong but gentle, she took into her new job as the Warden diligently, head standing high as the remembered her people back home.

Laven Tabris, a Rogue City Elf who romanced Zevran. Cocky and impulsive, her circumstances made her more abrasive and she won't hesitate to intimidate people rather than taking the peaceful route. Punch first ask question later type.

Lyra Amell, a Circle Mage Human who romanced Leliana. Teasing and calculating, she approaches most situations lightly, going at the beat of her own drums, unless it is about magic where she takes the severity of everything very seriously.

Ellaria Cousland, a Human Noble Apostate. (i used a mod to make it possible), who romanced Alistair. Ngl i did this specifically because i kept hearing the Cousland and Alistair's romance was so good. And i hated every second of it LDKJFKDLFJ Ellaria came out as extremely ruthless and angry, bloodthirsty in her revenge. She doesn't care much for what is at hand as long as she can screw over the people who screwed HER family over.

They're all about 20yo.

Dragon Age 2

Mara Hawke, A Human Rogue who romanced Anders, Diplomatic Personality. Trying to do everything to keep her little sister safe, she involved herself with the mage rebellion trying to navigate every situation analysing how much she needs to nudge people in the right direction. However she will be cutthroat and not tolerate it if people try to use her. Let's say one of the final choice of the game didn't go well with her temperament.

Ariel Hawke, A Human Apostate Mage who romanced Fenris, Charismatic Personality. As the illegal mage, Ariel takes everything lightly in order to lay low. Invested in the Mage Resistance still and really caring for her friends, she still puts her family first even if there's tension with her brother. Personification of "if i make jokes through a bad situation at least this would turn into a joke."

I replayed Ariel many time lmao both are 22 when the plot starts.

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Leana Trevelyan, Ex-Circle Mage & Human Noble who romanced Cullen. Careful and Anxious, the whole burden of having to lead the Inquisition is just one alarm after the other to her. basically *screaming inside* type of person.

She's 28 at the beginning of the game. I replayed this route a few times.

Ithena Lavellan, Mage Dalish Elf and Ex Apprentice Keeper, who romanced Solas. As an apprentice to the Keeper she always tried to stay level headed and trying to approach every situation with wisdom and curiosity and also a huge respect for her culture. She wears the Vallaslin of Mythal as a reminder of being understanding but also Just.

She's 30 at the beginning of the game. I keep replaying this route lmao.

Renan Lavellan, Mage Dalish Elf and Ex Apprentice Keeper, who i was planning to romance either Dorian or Cassandra with, but i didn't go far into this specific playthrough. I don't really know the grasp i have on his personality because of that. Probably teasing and Charismatic considering who i decided he should date but mhmmmmm i'll see if i ever continue this playthrough. IDK his bday but since Dorian is 29 and Cassandra 36 i'll probably have him stand in the middle until i sort my things out

Other Things

And that's my characters for ya 🫡 in term of beliefs i keep choosing my own morality level lmao, so it's still mostly Pro-Mage/Pro-Elves and all sort of things like that.

Also i heavily use mods, esp for the haircuts, so don't worry about it.

My Main Timeline when i go into DAI is Lyra as the Warden and Ariel as the Hawke, but i've planned for my first DA4 playthrough to use as a background Laven, Ariel, and Ithena.

so yeah 🫡 the more u know!

[gimjarack]

Dragon Age: Back to the Past

Codex Entry #2: Various Origins pt 1

I played through every origin but one (already saw the Dwarven Commoner on the let's play series by Mapocolops-check him out he's really underrated) and I want to share my experiences. My second reason for this is because my game initially bugged out and I was softlocked out of Ostagar, so I thought I might as well playthrough all the Origins lmao

My first origin was the City Elf, played a female rogue named Hunnigan. My wedding day was very shockingly disrupted by a local noble brat KIDNAPPING ME AND MY MAIDS OF HONOR TO FORICBLY BE HIS WHORES- not a great day, ended up killing him and thanks to ma boi Duncan I get drafted into the Grey Wardens. I was FLABBERGASTED to see this as my first taste of the game, and was excited for more to come next.

My Second Origin was a Dalish Elf named Jimalithor naturally, as I was always curious about them from my brief contact and knowledge in DA: Inquisition. The ruins bit reintroduced me to DA giant spiders, but thankfully I am more tolerant to spiders in general now (checkout my Children of Time book review post to explain my cured-ish spider phobia). First actual Darkspawn fighting, and then a strange cursed mirror I later recalled encountering several during the DA:I mission Here Lies The Abyss. Duncan saved me, best friend died, Duncan recruited Jimmy as I called him at first, and we were on our way!

[spiteless-xo]

Gamer anon here :)

I have a PS4, Nintendo Switch and a newly-built PC that has been collecting dust. I’m about to start Cyberpunk 2077 any day now though! Starfield is coming out in a few days but I have so many games on my to-play list and general life duties so I might wait til next year. 😅

In no particular order (the first 2 are PS4 games but you can find them either on PC or the Switch):

• Yakuza: Like A Dragon, probably one of my favourites I’ve played in the last 5 years. It’s cinematic, very weird and goofy but has a lot of heart. I loved it so much I’m working my way backwards. Currently on Yakuza 0, it has the same vibes and I’m loving it so far.

• Persona 4 & 5, but I’d suggest starting with P5 Royal. I love this series because it combines my love of strategic RPGs and anime. There is a complete remake of P3 coming out in February and I’m so excited for that.

* Fire Emblem Three Houses was my first Switch game, my profile says I clocked in around 200 hours on it since last December. 🫣 Lots of great characters, an amazing story and different routes so you have at least 3-4 unique playthroughs to enjoy.

If you do check these out then I’d recommend the English dubbing but they’re all great regardless of what your choice is. They’re turn-based JRPGs so there is a learning curve to them. The Witcher 3 is more action-oriented in comparison so I’d add that to the list as well.

Sorry, this message has gotten so long. ;_; There’s probably more I’m missing so I’ll send another ask in the future. Let me know what you like about BG3! I might check it out, it reminds me a lot of the Dragon Age series.

i’ve heard so many good things about the yakuza series!! i’ll have to check it out!

i played persona 5 for the ps3 during covid and i actually had a hard time getting into it because of the combat. i really loved the story and talking with all of the characters but i HATED having to go through the dungeons and fight the bad guys 💀 maybe i’m just bad at it idk

i LOVED fire emblem three houses!!! my bf is really into the fire emblem series and he got it for his birthday when it first came out and i watched him play for a bit before i got into it myself. i’ve done the edelgaurd route and the claude route but i’ve never done dimitri’s.

i also watched my bf play fire emblem engage and i liked that but i haven’t played it myself.

i tried playing the witcher on pc but i got so overwhelmed with all of the different controls so i gave up. i’ve been told it’s easier with a controller but i had such a miserable time that i’m hesitant to go back lol maybe i’m not cut out for those real-time combat games.

bg3 is a lot of a fun so far!! it’s got lot of roleplay elements and it really makes you feel like your choices matter. it reminds me of the fallout series in that sense.

character customization is not great but you can download mods if you’re playing on pc to help with that.

i like the turn-based combat as well but i get annoyed with spellcasters because i don’t have the patience to learn/look through all the spells lmao i pretty much just spam firebolt w my spellcasters and maybe do something fun if i see a cluster of baddies.

i play tabletop d&d too actually! i was a barbarian in my first campaign, rogue in my second, and now i’m playing a sorcerer.

[slimy-eye]

DAI Controversial DLC Opinion

The Descent was, by far, my absolutely favorite dlc, and I say this as someone who romanced Solas my first playthrough and really wanted to know what was up with him. Now, don’t get me wrong, Trespasser is an amazing epilogue for the game. It’s very emotional, the music is an utter masterpiece, but I think it made the whole Dread Wolf thing a bit obvious. As you’re going through the level, there are big ass murals on the wall, among other things that you can find and investigate, that make ending rather obvious. Even more so if you have Cole with you. I knew Solas’ secret before I even reached the end.

Meanwhile, I feel as if The Descent is the most underrated of the DLCs. The music is incredible in that one as well, and quite frankly, while Trespasser makes the ending obvious before actually reaching the ending, The Descent keeps up the secret until the final stretch, with vague clues stretched between the dlc that don’t really add up until you reach the end and get absolutely blasted by that bombshell of a lore and truth drop. Quite frankly, the ambience is incredible. The dlc isn’t horror themed, but it is extremely haunting, creepy, and ominous in the most gorgeous way, at times. The part where you reach the tight, narrow, nearly pitch black tunnels with the bright glowing eyes watching you from the shadows? The whispers? The scrabbling against the stone that tell you that you are very obviously being observed. The fear of being ambushed from the shadows is an ever present fear, and for a long time, you don’t even know what to expect. And the enemies? You’re like, ‘what the hell are those?’ and your companions do their best to explain what just happened, including your dwarf companion, who is absolutely dumbfounded, and I was too! Who are these people?! And you don’t find out until the end.

Then, you round a corner in the pitch black tunnels and suddenly, there is light! The Bastion of the Pure was one of the most gorgeous underground levels I have ever seen in any game. It was hauntingly beautiful as the lyrium crawls up the walls and ceiling like starlight. Even more so, you can actually hear the lyrium sing, for the first time in the games that I can recall. The dwarves have always been the ones who claimed to hear the lyrium sing, but even on a human, or elf, or qun, the lyrium in this cavern is so concentrated and healthy that literally anyone can hear it’s song. I don’t even know how to describe the wonder I felt, and the goosebumps across my skin at hearing that haunting tune from the lyrium. At the very end, when you see where you are, and what this place is... it’s jaw dropping. And the boss fight was actually a challenge, while Hakkon and the Qun from Trespasser were... fairly easy to me. At least on my rift mage, and tempest rogue. I will say that the Descent boss was a lot easier on my tempest and artificer rogues! I died several times on my mage. Be aware, all of your companions are going to die (in terms of being in combat, I mean), lmao. You’d better be ready to solo this thing. I wouldn’t recommend it on the weaker classes, like necromancer, or any warrior class that isn’t Champion. It might be easier on lower difficulties?

There also appears to be some mechanic in the tunnels with the glowing eyes, where you can barely see anything, that only kicks in rarely. On my tempest elf rogue, I kept hearing whispers, separate from the background music with the occasional whisper chant. I was hearing something in clear English, directed at me from deeper within the darkness, where there was no discernable physical form, prompting me to continue on through the tunnels. I can’t remember the exact quotes, but I remember that my blood froze when I heard it, because this was my second character, and I didn’t hear it on my first (my elf rift mage). And that was one of the reasons why I was so desperate to go through it again on my Artificer playthrough, to see if I heard these creepy whispers again, but my Artificer rogue (again, an elf), did not get any of those whispers. Although I’m fairly certain the dwarf character you’re with claims to hear whispers at some point too.

People keep insisting to me that the whispers are an actual thing, but that only dwarf characters are able to hear them. Again, my character was a dalish elf. So either the whispers play for everyone, but are just very rare and don’t always trigger, or my game bugged, and I got the dwarf whispers on my elf on accident. That said, I do want to warn you with this DLC. As I said before, it has an amazing horror vibe without actually being horror themed. Please be aware that if you have claustrophobia, this dlc may trigger you. There are very tight tunnels that, in some places, are almost entirely pitch black with only pin pricks of light ahead of you to guide you in the direction you need to go. If you have a fear of heights, there are huge crevices with bridges you’ll need to walk across, and if you were to look over the edge, you’d only see a black void, because it goes down so far you can’t see the bottom. If you don’t like being underground at all, well... the entire dlc takes place underground.

That said, The Descent is, to this day, my absolutely favorite DLC, with Trespasser in a very close second. I just... love the lore so much. Titans, and dwarf, and old world lore has barely been touched on in any game, and getting to learn truths that not even modern day dwarves know? Incredible. I love lore like that. 

Every time I ask people who their favorite dlc is, they almost always say Trespasser. Every now and then, I get Hakkon. I have yet to get The Descent. I feel as if this dlc flew under the radar, or perhaps people gave up on it because the first half of the dlc is literally just The Deep Roads, dark, boring tunnels filled with dark spawn that you have to fight through before reaching the really deep underground parts where the wonder starts to set in. But if you have not played this dlc, I highly recommend you give it a shot. Push through the dark spawn infested caves, and you’ll end up in the most mind boggling landscape you’d ever seen in a Dragon Age game, with a lore bomb that will make your head explode. It also presents a very interested foreshadowing for the next Dragon Age game, in addition to the elf stuff. Now we got dwarf stuff going on, and it is huge, in more ways than one. ;)

[fuckyeahzevranarainai]

8, 14, 32, 37, 40, 44 for 101 DA Questions!╰(✧∇✧╰)

8. Preferred class overall?

Definitely rogue! It’s just always the class I default to in rpgs because lockpicking is such a useful skill to have.

14. Favorite DA:O party combo?

Zevran, Morrigan, and Wynne or Zevran, Sten, and Wynne I can’t decide but they’re both very powerful with my tank rogue warden

32. Favorite DLC mission overall?

I haven’t yet gone through all the Dragon Age DLCs so for now I’ll say The Exiled Prince just because the Act II quest was very memorable. I enjoy occasional creepy shit like that.

37. Bloodmagic: yes or no?

Yes! Especially if it’s Merrill doing it because she knows what she’s doing. Since there’s not much lore digging into the intricacies of blood magic, it gives me room to explore and headcanon ways in which blood magic could be a helpful thing to make use of. It currently looks as if it’s the only way to cure tainted creatures and objects, which makes sense.

40. A moment/action you regret in-game?

I think my biggest regret is never recruiting Isabela tbh Since I play mostly on console, she just appears so late into Act I that my first few playthroughs I just forgot to recruit her because her quest triggers upon going into the Hanged Man and I don’t check there often. I did, however, install an Isabela ASAP mod so now I can recruit her the first time I step into the Hanged Man. I don’t think I’ve fully played through the game with her in my party because Varric is my main rogue, but it’s on my to-do list.

44. One romance you just can’t stand/doesn’t make sense/etc?

Oh boy, you’d like to see me just rant about Leliana huh lmao She’s the one character I’ve consistently hated. I have tried to talk to her, but she will NOT shut the fuck up about the Maker, and when she does, she’s openly racist against elves. I get that you can change her mind but it’s still fuckin gross as hell. I have really tried to be nice to her, did her quest and all, but apparently because I told her “Don't punish yourself for doing something you enjoy.” I ended up accidentally hardening her, which I absolutely loathe. Specifically, I loathe it because when she’s hardened, this dialogue occurs with Zevran:

Zevran: I must say, dear woman, I rather like this change in you.

Leliana: That's nice, but I'm not sleeping with you.

Zevran: Oh, I can think of many other things we can do other than sleep.

Leliana: Oh? Then let's see what's in those trousers. I like to make informed decisions, after all.

Zevran: That's rather saucy of you, isn't it? You really have changed!

Leliana: Yes, yes. I don't see those trousers coming down, however, do I?

Zevran: Err...you just want me to show you? Right here?

Leliana: Why not? Aren't you the shameless lothario you claim to be? There are rumors about you elves and I intend to see them proved untrue before I even consider a tumble.

Zevran: On second thought, perhaps you've traveled to an awkward place where I dare not follow...

Leliana: I thought as much.

As much as I dislike some of Zevran’s banter with Wynne, she has never sounded nearly as uncomfortable as Zevran sounds in this banter. I just absolutely cannot stand Leliana in any way, shape, or form, and would never romance her.

[chacusha]

Trials of Mana remake liveblogging (4/...)

New game plus liveblogging. My new party is Charlotte, Kevin, Hawkeye.

This is my first time doing a real run-through with Charlotte as the main character. Her opening is unique among the main six because she doesn’t actually go to Jadd where the other five converge. The Meridian Child credit roll also doesn’t go over a sea voyage like it does with the other five because she’s already located in Wendel.

Having Charlotte and Hawkeye in the same party is pretty wild because Charlotte is the most immature of the six and Hawkeye is the most mature (Charlotte is also the shortest and Hawkeye the tallest, if I’m not mistaken -- yep, this confirms it). It definitely gives off the impression that Hawkeye is her babysitter rather than a teammate, lol.

Kevin is also pretty immature, but it’s a bit offset by the fact that he’s level 70-something and 1-jab KOing everything...

My partner is so amused by how everything Hawkeye says/does is accompanied by a model shot.

Finished up the last Li’l Cactus sightings. Li’l Cactus’s accessory and the Love of Mana chain ability are incredible. Makes it easy to speed through the dungeons.

I’m already at the Windstone and level 20-something due to the Love of Mana exp booster. So I upgraded Charlotte to Priestess (light), Kevin to Brawler (dark side this time -- with Charlotte, we won’t need his healing anyway), and Hawkeye to Ranger (light, since in the Collection of Mana playthrough I went dark).

Me: We should go light since we went dark last time. My partner: Ninja looks cooler, though... Me: I agree, that’s why we picked Ninja last time, lol. (But seriously, Hawkeye’s light classes look so dorky.)

That scene where Hawkeye rescues Riesz from Bil and Ben was very shippy.

Charlotte has the CUTEST reaction to being turned into a ghost.

There is also some very slight Charlotte/Kevin shippiness after being rescued by Vuscav where Kevin calls Vuscav cute and then Charlotte says Kevin needs glasses if he doesn’t think she’s a hundred times cuter than Vuscav.

Kevin’s Brawler costume is very cute. I like it a lot.

It’s weird how if Angela isn’t in your party (especially if Charlotte is the main character and therefore misses Jadd), she just... never shows up in the game??? That seems so odd.

This is the first time I’ve ever gotten Flammie and Riesz *wasn’t* in my party. It looks like Faerie will recall the existence of the Winged Guardian and your character will point you toward Laurent.

I like Charlotte’s voice. She sounds confident but also cute. “What can I say? I’m a natuwaw.” Hawkeye’s voice is also pretty good, but he has a deep voice and a high voice and seems to switch between them suddenly in a way that’s jarring. Playing again has made me realize I don’t like Faerie’s voice. In terms of pitch/tone, it’s fine, sounds like a cute fairy, but in terms of the delivery and emphasis in each line, the choices are really odd and never sound like how you’d expect that line to be read -- for example, timid and lackluster when it should be determined, or cheerful when it should be serious, etc.

There seems to have been a bug with the ??? Seeds -- I got both of Kevin’s and both of Hawkeye’s items, but none of Charlotte’s, and then started getting repeats at random from there. Welp, time to farm these again.

Oh wow, Kevin’s ending that I got last game, I encountered after giving the Sword of Mana to Goremand in Ferolia. I followed the king out behind the throne room and Kevin confronted him like he did in his ending last game. Curious to know what his ending will be like, then.

I got my second class change. I went with Sage (Light Dark) for Charlotte, Enlightened (Dark Light) for Kevin, and Rogue (Light Dark) for Hawkeye (because Nomad looks SO BAD OMG, but also because Rogue’s skillset seemed interesting to me).

OMG, Kevin’s Suzaku Aerial is amazingly badass, especially when he’s in wolf form. He howls at the end of it, too. So cute ToT

It took a while, but I finally got Lightgazer to turn my party into moogles. Awww.

If you go Charlotte/Kevin’s route, Dryad gets to be useful. Neat!

I like the look and enemy set of the Jungle of Visions. This rabite maze is quite cool too. The Darkstone / Zable Fahr isn’t very congruent with the jungle, though.

Oh man, this mirage Astoria is DARK.

So is this plotline involving Heath and the Masked Mage!! Poor Charlotte! She’s so cute but her storyline is so sad!!!

Okay Kevin’s ending in this branch is much better. It’s still not great but at least it doesn’t spring “Karl is alive actually” on you and then leaves it at that. And Kevin here does come to challenge his father but decides not to.

I like how Charlotte is a bit of a crybaby. So CUTE. Also, the way she refers to the rest of the party as “recruits”, lmao.

*sees Angela in the ending credits* I don’t know her.

Was Heath also in the ending credits in my last playthrough...? I don’t remember. It’s interesting that a lot of the scenes in the ending could be seen as either set after the game or set before everything Goes Wrong in each character’s storyline.

Revisiting Kevin’s orb quest: “I have a wife and kid to get back to in Mintas after all.” -- I just realized this is the husband of the woman in Mintas complaining that her husband joined Gauser’s war.

“Ludgar let us rampage through the human towns and I hurt a lot of people...but it didn’t help my anger. Now I just feel empty inside.” -- this extra coda really does help flesh out Kevin’s ending.

“Ludgar’s never around anymore. I guess he’s off training in the woods some more. Isn’t he strong enough already?” -- the other Beastmen don’t know what happened to Ludgar!

I like how Kevin doesn’t get angry at people calling him weak but gets angry when people call Ludgar weak.

Oh cool, last time, I didn’t even notice this statue at the base of Chartmoon Tower that teleports you up to the top. How convenient!

I was a bit worried about this boss battle because Kevin no longer has healing spells, but with Moon Saber, he’s a self-healing machine so nothing to worry about after all.

Hawkeye’s orb quest: I like how Hawkeye’s quest involves more Jessica and Eagle content. You get to see so little of them at the beginning.

I like how Kevin was the one to impetuously poke at this trapped treasure box. This whole cave and trapped treasure has a very Arabian Nights vibe (maybe helped by Hawkeye’s Rogue costume).

I’m getting a shippy Hawkeye/Eagle vibe from Hawkeye’s quest. I wasn’t expecting that!

Charlotte’s orb quest: I thought it’d be in Wendel, but looks like it’s in Dior / Wandara Woods.

I like how Charlotte has two fairly pre-eminent grandpas.

Riesz’s orb boss: giant bee. Hawkeye’s: giant mimic box. Charlotte’s: giant zombie (kind of random).

The High Priestess tech, OMG -- Charlotte’s poses, her dorky dancing, omg. It’s... it’s perfect. 🤩

Hawkeye’s Wardenkeep tech is okay but single target so not so useful for clearing mobs. Kevin’s Annihilator tech is also okay (I like how he gets blasted backward at the end of it), but it’s not as cool as Suzaku Aerial.

I started playing as Hawkeye for a while because Charlotte’s strength is too low and her attack magic so limited that it was making killing stuff quite tedious. The Wardenkeep look suits him, and I like how elegant all his movements are, from jumping and landing, to running, to using his daggers.

I’m not having very good luck with getting the equipment I want from these seeds...

It’s interesting in this game how close light/dark holy/unholy elements are to each other: Charlotte able to be a holy priestess or a necromancer; Heath/Tainted Soul having both holy and dark spells; there being a Priest of Light and a Priest of Dark; a lot of zombies and undead showing up in dark versions of Wendel; etc.

Okay! Finished this playthrough. What party will I do next...

[vecna]

Oohh for the fandom meme! Dragon Age?

Send me a fandom!

Oh boy, this is going to be spicy.

It’s also very Anders-negative, so apologies up front.

The character(s) I first fell in love with:

I’m actually not sure which was the FIRST, but it’s a tie between Morrigan and Alistair. I saw fanart of them going around at the time Origins first released, and that’s what got me to try the game! 

Alistair was a breath of fresh air, because at the time, I was used to warrior men in games being all Edgy and Rough, and he was the total opposite and a sweetheart.

And Morrigan was just instantly my goth wife, and had Claudia Black as a VA, so I was sold immediately.

Both still hold a special place for me!

The character(s) I never expected to love as much as I do now:

Loghain is the main one. He does a lot of truly reprehensible shit in the first game. But once I sat down and read the prequel novels about young Loghain, plus saw what he’s like if you recruit him, he grew on me A LOT and now he’s a top fave.

Nathaniel I expected to hate as soon as I saw his name + who his father was, but then the expansion came out and I ended up loving that dude almost immediately. I really wish he was around more after Awakening, and also really wish he’d been a romance option, especially for a Cousland haha.

Merrill is a weird one because she was totally uninteresting to me in DA:O, so when they announced her as a companion in DA2 I was like, “Ehhhh.” Then they punked me by making her adorable and sweet and now I love her.

Plus a bunch of side-characters like The Architect? I liked him a bunch in the novel + Awakening – although I found his Plan in the novel much more appealing. But as the years have gone by, I keep surprising myself at just HOW disappointed I am he’s never appeared again haha.

The character(s) everyone else loves that I don’t:

There’s a few, and all of them will get me yelled at, but here we go.

First: Isabela. This one’s a bit complicated, but it really just boils down to her attitude towards how you play your character. I actively dislike characters who are super sexual – regardless of gender. But Isabela in particular bothers me because she’s constantly pushing her lewdness and sexual humor on you, and when you try to discourage it, she admonishes you with, “Well, you’re no fun.” Her whole character is just… like that for me. Super pushy, overly lewd, gets uppity when you don’t have the same ~liberated~ opinions she does, and this is all played up in the writing like she’s this Empowered Woman the player absolutely must love, especially if they’re playing a male character lol. I hate her for the same reasons a lot of people hate Liara in Mass Effect, but with the addition of pushy lewd jokey characters always rubbing me the wrong way.

Second: Iron Bull. I’ve written a lot about why he makes me more uncomfortable than any fictional character I’ve ever encountered, and I just outright hate him, he makes my skin crawl. If you want details, feel free to DM me, I don’t really want to rant about it again publicly.

Third: Anders. Again, I’ve written a lot about him before, but. I hated him in Awakening, for a lot of the same reasons I hate Isabela in DA2. But the changes they made to him in DA2 are just kinda :/. While I absolutely agree with him about Mage Rights, the level of preachiness they added to him drove me nuts, and the fact that you’re painted as a Bad Guy if you don’t like him blowing up the chantry. And from a purely OOC standpoint: He’s become a figurehead for all the aggressive Discourse people in the fandom, and if I see someone list Anders in their sidebar bio, I know pre-emptively that their blog is going to be full of 6 page long essays of meta about how everything is Problematic, and no thanks.

To a lesser extent, I’m also not fond of Zevran. But in his case, it’s not anything major like the others, I’m just tired of Bioware’s habit of making the bisexual characters overly lewd sex-focused rogues/deviants.

The character(s) I love that everyone else hates:

Loghain, lol.

But also Sebastian Vael? There’s so much about him that I find genuinely fascinating, especially regarding his backstory, and his struggles between his feelings of responsibility to his family vs his dedication to the Chantry and bettering himself. He’s such a dear character to me, and such a pivotal part of any playthrough, I’m always blown away when I remember he’s a DLC character and many people don’t have him.

HOWEVER Anders being the fandom darling means that people tend to unfairly shit on Sebastian for reacting poorly to the Chantry explosion. People also like to label him as a poster child of a White Straight Church Boy, while refusing to acknowledge he’s… not straight, and not exactly a church boy either lol.

Also Vivienne, but I think that one’s really self-explanatory. I love her, and she gives a really needed perspective on the Circle, since most of the mage companions previously were apostates. But of course, she gets written off as a Chantry apologist, and an uppity bitch, when people would def love her for the same traits if she was not black lol.

The character(s) I used to love but don’t any longer:

Justice. And by extension, Anders. A lot of people like to rant about how Justice ruined Anders, but I always saw it the other way around.Justice was my favorite character in Awakening. The whole concept around him, that he was a Fade spirit who took human form and was experiencing life for the first time was SO fascinating. I felt like there was so much to explore there with his character.

Buuuut then they had him merge with Anders. With the narrative being that he WAS a spirit of Justice, but the moment he connected with Anders, it corrupted his entire spirit into something he wasn’t anymore. So essentially, the character I used to love no longer exists, thanks to Anders. And it reminds me of that phrase recently, about how the destination is so terrible you can no longer enjoy the journey? I can’t even appreciate Justice in Awakening anymore, knowing what happens to him.

To a lesser extent, Corypheus. He was SO COOL and the premise of him was AMAZING when he first appeared in the DA2 DLC, but then Inquisition had to go and turn him into a weird shallow mustache twirl villain.

The character(s) I would totally smooch:

None? Idk I don’t really have the Smooch Fictional Character gene.

The character(s) I’d want to be like:

MAEVARIS TILANI. May I one day finally have the confidence in my identity that she does, and also marry a sweet bear man who adores me.

The character(s) I’d slap:

Too many to list, really. Probably Anders.

The pairing(s) that I love:

THERE’S SO MANY. And most of them are with the PC, because I generally don’t ship NPCs together. But my top 3 are:

M!Hawke / Fenris is my ultimate OTP in the Dragon Age series, by a long-shot. Not even sure where to start on how much I love it, but two damaged guys leaning on each other to work through their respective loneliness and trauma is MY JAM. And lmao I love silver-sideburned Hawke chillin in retirement somewhere but being a supportive husband while Fenris goes off hunting the Bad Guys, it’s great.

Solas / Lavellan is a close second, with the caveat that I increasingly prefer it with a male Lavellan. Having the Inquisitor in love with Solas just changes the entire tone of the game for me, for the better, and him actually being the villain trying to end the world while in love with this normie elf is just (chef kiss). Too bad I’m burned out by how overly spammed it is.

Dorian / Inquisitor is in third, I will just always be fond of how it’s a story of the Inquisitor helping Dorian be happy with who he is, escape an abusive family, and realize that he’s allowed to be loved. Good shit good shit.

Some others:

Warden / Morrigan is probably my favorite Origins ship, and that only intensified with the way she talks about the Warden in Inquisition, esp if they’re Kieran’s other parent. What a cute goth family, regardless of the Warden’s gender, cause you can pry Bi Morrigan from my cold dead fingers.

Cassandra / Inquisitor might have a lot of Romance Cliches, but I adore it – although, similar others, I increasingly prefer it with a female Inquisitor. I actively dislike the weird no-homo rejection with her, and come on, a lady Inquisitor being her Knight In Shining Armor is just good storytelling.

Cullen / Inquisitor, for a lot of the same reasons as Cassandra. I love me a cliche romance, but I’m also fond of the narrative w/ him of someone he loves helping him heal through the lyrium withdrawals and take time to rest.

Josephine / F!Inquisitor is just adorable all around, and wholesome, and great.

Varric / Hawke COME ON HOW WAS THIS NOT AN OPTION.

On the rarepair end:

Sebastian / Hawke doesn’t seem like it would be a rarepair – you’d think everyone who loves Cullen/Inquisitor would love this one too. I do! But alas. That said, I’m also pretty aggro about this one with a male Hawke because SEBASTIAN IS CANON BI. WHY WAS HIS ROMANCE STRAIGHT.

Maric / Loghain is a rarepair I will take with me to my grave LOL. Never forget the scene where Maric thought Loghain was leaving, and bolted across the camp with almost no clothes on to beg Loghain to stay. Come on.

Nathaniel / Cousland is dear to me, and I love it so much more than Alistair / Cousland haha.

Greagoir / Wynne, I can’t believe this got validated in canon ahhhh.

The pairing(s) that I despise:

Again: THERE’S SO MANY.

Iron Bull / Dorian is my least fave by a longshot. Again, I have written about why I hate this pairing a great many times, but it’s awful and toxic and makes me deeply uncomfortable, and I could happily go the rest of my life without seeing anything about it ever again. Please keep poor Dorian away from that man. He deserves someone that doesn’t sexually harass him until he’s finally worn down into dubious consent (while drunk) and then outted to everyone about it.

Isabela / Fenris. Sorry, but it’s just bad writing that Fenris bails on Hawke because the physical intimacy triggered his PTSD and he needs space to process, but then will turn around and have a casual sex relationship with Isabela instead. Yikes.

Anders / Fenris. Aveline / Isabela. Alistair / Morrigan. All of the DA2 Hawke/companion rivalmances. I don’t enjoy “these two people hate and antagonize and want to kill each other… but they fuck” in any form.

Cullen / Amell. Yikes.

And basically ALL of the canon wlw pairings in this series suffer from the fact they have men writing them, and as a result they’re almost always some kind of abusive or racist, and skeeve me out. See: Celene / Briala, Leliana / Marjolaine, Branka / Hespith, etc. Please Bioware, I’m begging you to consult some actual queer women. It’s insane how badly they’re treated compared to how the canon mlm couples are written.

FINALLY, I recognize this will be the most unpopular of all, but. As much as I love M!Hawke/Fenris, I just honestly cannot stand seeing F!Hawke/Fenris. There are some pairings where I’m so attached to the m/m or f/f version, I cannot deal with the m/f version anymore, and that’s one of them. (The others are mainly non-Bioware.)

[alewyren]

final fantasy!

I wasn’t sure if I should include Bravely Default or not because ohhh man I have some fuckin Thoughts, so I’ll just do one for mainline FF and one for Bravely Default.

The first character I first fell in love with: 

Tidus left a strong impression on me as a kid due to the way FFX ended, and I still really like him, but I wouldn’t say I was ever in love with him. On the other hand, Fang from FFXIII turned me gay.

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: 

Kuja, I think? As much as I will maintain that he is the objective best FF villain until the day I die, and as much as that outfit is IC for him, it’s still, uh. Not good. It’s not even that it’s too feminine, it’s just fucking ugly, lmao. Doesn’t make for a great first impression. But god fucking damn, he is very, very good. Maybe at some point I’ll whip up a meta about him, but I’m not sure what to say that hasn’t been covered already.

The character everyone else loves that I don’t: 

Sephiroth. He’s got a cool design, a great theme song (those chosen by the planet, not one winged angel), and a phenomenally intimidating presence. But the thing is, as far as FF7 itself is concerned, he’s barely a character. He’s long dead by the time of the game and exists only as an echo of the past and a manifestation of Cloud’s psychological problems. By the end, he’s more Jenova (who herself is more a force of nature than a character) than himself imo. He works because of what he represents, and the mystery surrounding him, not because of who he is. Hailing him as the “best FF villain” misses the point. I feel like Squeenix themselves don’t get what was great about Sephiroth, since we keep getting these immensely fucking bland villains like Vayne, Caius, and Ardyn that are clearly trying to recapture the Sephiroth magic by focusing on the cool factor or the relationship with the protag or whatever when none of that is why Sephiroth worked in FF7 to begin with.

The character I love that everyone else hates: 

Vanille. Yeah the English voice direction was awful, yeah the noises she makes when riding her eidolon are immensely fucking uncomfortable, but she’s actually a really interesting character who deserved more time to shine, and I maintain that she should have been the protag of FF13 rather than Pink Squall. Since she has like, y’know, a much more direct hand in the entire plot of the goddamn game.

The character I used to love but don’t any longer: 

uuuuuuuhhh I really don’t know. Maybe Kain. I used to think he was the shit but now I’m just like “haha, mr. friendzone at it again.” Or maybe Cloud, thanks to Advent Children taking a steaming dump on his personality in the name of fanservice.

The character I would totally smooch: 

FANG. SHE IS SO FUCKING HOT GOOD LORD I’M GAY. Also Rydia. Uh, adult Rydia, that is.

The character I’d want to be like: 

Fang is pretty goals, but she’s a bit more butch than I personally see myself, haha. Maybe Celes, sans heterosexuality and poor taste in dudes. She’s very cool, strong, and sexy.

The character I’d slap: 

Squall I guess? Cheer Up Emo Kid!

A pairing that I love: 

Kuja/Terra! I’d toyed with the idea before thanks to Dissidia 012, but NT sold me forever. There are a lot of reasons these two work so well, the most important being that their interactions are absolutely fucking precious. The reason he freed her from Kefka’s control in the first place, apart from wanting to stick it to the asshole clown, was because he empathized with her, but when she thanked him later he downplayed the hell out of it. Terra genuinely tries to reach out to him, and he’s receptive, but aloof, and acts so theatrical about it (”If that is what Her Highness wishes.”) It’s… cute? Like, they’re both pretty damn emotionally stunted due to their, uh, irregular upbringings, and there’s so much potential there! *slams fists on table* GIVE ME MORE

A pairing that I despise: 

Come to think of it, I don’t think I have a single genuine notp in the entire Final Fantasy franchise. Even ships I don’t really care for, like Cecil/Rosa, Locke/Celes or Wakka/Lulu, I wouldn’t say I hate them, just think they’re lame and poorly written. I guess Kuja/Zidane? Yeah, yeah, I know, rich as fuck coming from me, but I just don’t like them romantically at all. The most important reason being that they’re ugly as sin together.

and now, the bravely default hot takes nobody asked for but that I will rant about at literally any given opportunity.

The first character I first fell in love with: 

EDEA!!! I love her SO MUCH! She’s an adorable, precious ENTJ child who’s so headstrong, but naive, and so endearing. Her design (in the first game–blue is not her color) is great, and she has some of the best class outfit designs as well. She’s also the main melee bulk of the party, which I find immensely refreshing in a franchise where the girls are usually mages or rogues. 

Her character arc is pretty basic, sure, but it works. For starters, she’s the best handled rebellious princess I’ve seen, in that she just flat out turns on Eternia–everything she’s ever known–with scarcely a second thought. Not because she feels trapped by the burdens of being royalty or whatever, she’s just stubborn and willful and has an iron sense of right and wrong that she’s willing to fight for above all else. Which, I mean, yeah, evil empire, but it’s not that simple. Which is why her arc is about reconciling with the fact that it isn’t all black and white, and embracing her role as eventual queen of Eternia. 

The writing is pretty hamfisted, what with her literally calling things “black and white,” but she’s 15, so I’ll give it a pass. Yeah, I know the American version aged her up to make the fanservice shit less gross, but it doesn’t really work when her character is about overcoming her childish worldview, lol. Like, she’s a babbu. You can’t just change a number and make her less babbu. Her theme song is literally called “Baby Bird.” Maybe just don’t fucking sexualize characters who are meant to be read as childish in the first place? She deserved so much better than the writing she got in Bravely Second, which I’ll… get to later, but she was still an absolute delight. Did I mention she’s also hilarious? “Oops, my foot slipped.” “You just DROPKICKED ME!”

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: 

Yew. I mean, I don’t love him as much as Edea, but Bravely Second was kind of a hot mess, if fun, and his arc pleasantly surprised me. He kind of had a similar arc as Edea in the first game, but in the opposite direction. Over the course of the game he gradually overcame his rich, upper class nerd privilege worldview and became Woke ™, and then used his privilege to help people. By contrast, Edea still had to go through the journey of getting past her simplistic worldview, but whereas she was quick to recognize the fact that her world was wrong and had to learn not to see things in extremes, Yew had to work to claw his way outside of that box in the first place. The plot twist about his brother was obvious as hell but like, whatever, it was fun. His mask didn’t even cover that much of his face, how did he not know,

The character everyone else loves that I don’t: 

Tiz. He’s boring, not much else to say there. Except, his design in Bravely Second had me excited as hell because he looks so emo and ow the edge and I was really excited to see what they were gonna do with him, but his personality is… exactly the same as the first game? Why bring him back at all? For that matter, why kill him off in the first place? I know they were going for some meta shit, but like… why?

The character I love that everyone else hates: 

Airy, but idk if that counts because I love her for precisely the reasons everyone else hates her. Even if I think the good end should have been obtained by seeing through her ruse and blowing up the crystals rather than just going along with what she says and repeating the same fucking sequence of bosses over and over…

The character I used to love but don’t any longer: 

Ringabel. Mainly for shipping reasons and because I’m increasingly exhausted with the whole chivalrous pervert trope, especially when Edea was very much underage in the first game, lmao. He’s a good character objectively speaking, but a lot of his potential wasn’t capitalized on and I still don’t get how Alternis did a complete 180 from his brooding initial personality, to… that. Or why there were AU Ringabels in the ending sequence of the first game when I thought the whole point was that he was a spanner in the works who shouldn’t have been part of the party in the first place, and that’s how they managed to foil Airy? Or, it should have been, if they didn’t literally just go along with what she said until the end despite his very clear warnings that she was up to some shady shit. The final stretch of Bravely was a fucking trainwreck, nothing new there.

The character I would totally smooch: 

Edea. But like, a forehead smooch, because she’s a babbu. Though she is 18 for real this time in Second, isn’t she? And she’s matured considerably by then too… hrm.

The character I’d want to be like: 

Edea post-character development. She’s got her shit together, and she’s still strong-willed, outgoing, and adorable as all hecke.

The character I’d slap: 

Yulyana. Fuck the quirky pervert trope, seriously. It’s not funny, it’s never been funny, and it never will be funny.

A pairing that I love: 

Well, Agnes/Olivia is the only pairing that I straightforwardly ship, and I’ll never not be mad that they just, like. Forgot about Olivia in the final stretch of the game. Like they really just killed her off for shock value, huh? Okay Sure.

I like Edea/Alternis a lot too, but it’s complicated. Reading through D’s Journal during a blind playthrough left way more of an impact on me than Ringabel’s dumb flirting, but they definitely have a lot of shit to work through before they get together. They obviously both genuinely care about each other, though Edea’s got other shit on her plate to worry about rather than Alternis being a lovelorn, emo weirdo. But like, he’s not only so emotionally distant from her despite his feelings that she doesn’t even know what his face looks like, but he’s got a weird possessive streak towards her? It might be a translation thing but the phrasing “I would have taken you as my wife” is a bit. Iffy. Especially considering a. the age gap and b. she outranks him. Of course she’s having none of this shit, but I do like the idea of them both maturing, actually bonding like human beings, and getting together when they’re older, ie: when Edea is queen and Alternis has learned to accept his fate as a permabottom. Childhood friend loyalty kink is my passion, and like, while Edea is very much a take charge no nonsense lady, she struggles with personal relationships and emotions. They both do, and that’s why their relationship is so complicated and interesting. I’d love to read slowburn of them.

A pairing that I despise: 

Rindea. But wait, you say! Didn’t you just write a whole paragraph on how you like Altdea? Well, yes. I do stand by that, and I enjoy the ship because of its problems rather than in spite of them. Rindea is. Not that. While Altdea is  a flawed relationship that I’d love to see mature into something functional along with the characters themselves, Rindea is a disgustingly written trainwreck that shits on all that potential, as well as Edea’s entire fucking character, constantly.

I don’t hate the very idea of these two as an item. The problem is how badly said item is written. Even though Rindea has the same problematic base as Altdea, which is treated as flawed, it just completely fucking glosses over all of that, everything that actually makes their relationship interesting, in favor of generic hetero pervy slap slap kiss tsundere bullshit. Yes, Ringabel’s feelings for her run deeper than that, but that’s basically all that their dynamic, their actual interactions, amount to. And for some reason she’s into it? Like, I’m sorry, but fucking when and why did she develop feelings for him? Was it before or after she learned about his true identity? Is it because he’s Alternis or in spite of it? Hell, how did she feel about that revelation in the first place? All of that is very much worth addressing, but they LITERALLY NEVER DO.

Did she just secretly like his annoying flirting all along because no obviously means yes? Like, Ringabel still fucking carries all the baggage associated with being Alternis but the game doesn’t give a fuck! It’s overbearing and weird when Alternis comes onto Edea, but when Ringabel does it it’s peak romance! He loves her so it’s okay! And we don’t know anything about Edea’s feelings for him because the game just never fucking goes into it! It’s just assumed that she must like him back! Hey, here’s a thought! Maybe if Ringabel actually loves her so much he could respect her feelings and lay the fuck off! Oh wait, no means yes, right. And don’t even get me started on Bravely Second, jesus fucking christ. You seriously mean to tell me that, according to Yoko, my girl’s only personal damage is being tfw no bf? Nothing about the stress of ruling a nation or any of her other relationships? Nothing even about how her feelings for Ringabel might actually be more fucking complicated than dokidoki take me with you ringabel kun? Absolutely Fucking Disgusting.

Listen. I like problematic ships, but Rindea is just fucking bad, and it’s made worse by the fact that canon thinks it’s good. At this point they’ve missed so many opportunities to actually expand meaningfully on Edea’s side of the relationship that it’s a lost fucking cause and I want it to die in a fire. Good lord I hate this ship and it’s exhausting being an Edea main when it’s the entire fandom’s OTP. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

I ranted more about this ship as well as the other canon Bravely ships in this post and will probably do so again when presented the opportunity.

[nilesdaughter]

Dragon Age Questionnaire

Tagged by the ever-lovely @lakambaeni​! I’m sorry it always takes me forever to get to your tags.

Tagging: @battlefox​, @tyishi​, @aurianavaloria​, and any other DA fans that follow me! But, as always, there’s no obligation to fill the tag :)

01) Favourite game of the series? I think DAI is my favorite in the series, because it was the one that really pulled me into the fandom.

02) How did you discover Dragon Age? As is usual for my entrance to fandom, it started with blogs I follow starting to share content about the game. (This was a little bit before DAI dropped.) It seemed cool, and @likhoradka​ had made a quick Handers comic that amused me, but I didn’t really get into it until @battlefox​ lent me a copy of DA2 so that I could see what all the hype was about.

03) How many times you’ve played the games? I’ve played all three games through to completion once; with DAO, I played most of the DLCs that were concurrent to the base game, but I only played the vanilla games for DA2 and DAI. HOWEVER, I have started several additional playthroughs, to the point where I have a small army of characters.

04) Favourite race to play as? Elves! Though, to be fair, this is a bias I generally have in fantasy settings.

05) Favourite class? Mages, because, again, the bias followed me from the fantasy setting in general.

06) Do you play through the games differently or do you make the same decisions each time? I try to play to each character, but I still usually end up making the same decisions (so far).

07) Go-to adventuring group?

DAO: Alistair/Dog, Leliana, Zevran

DA2: Varric, Fenris, Anders

DAI: Since this is the one that I have the most characters in, this is more varied depending on the playthrough, but my PERSONAL favorite combination is Varric, Dorian, and Iron Bull.

08) Which of your characters did you put the most thought into? Definitely Enansal, even though she’s just a glorified self-insert. I just write about her the most.

09) Favourite romance? Probably Cullen, but that’s because I’ve done that one twice.

10) Have you read any of the comics/books? I haven’t got a chance to, yet! I did buy myself a copy of “Asunder,” but I haven’t had time to actually read it.

11) If you read them, which was your favourite book? TBD ;)

12) Favourite DLCs? I mean, I do love “The Stone Prisoner,” because it gives you Shale, and I love them so much.

13) Things that annoy you. Mooostly the fandom. This is why I keep to myself and my little corner amongst the lovely people behind @dadrunkwriting and @asiansofthedas.

14) Orlais or Ferelden? Ferelden, because it’s always given me Celtic vibes and therefore reminds of Ireland :)

15) Templars or mages? Mages.

16) If you have multiple characters, are they in different/parallel universes or in the same one? I personally have them existing in parallel universes. However, I like the idea that all of the DAO characters end up joining the Wardens at some point or another. I also do have two separate Tabris playthroughs that have become my “Tabris twins” headcanon.

17) What did you name your pets? (mabari, summoned animals, mounts, etc)

Veleda’s mabari is Rowan. Since my first playthrough with Sylvia was with the vanilla game, she didn’t have her mabari, so I still haven’t thought of a name. Enansal and Cullen name their mabari Buster. Most of my other playthroughs have named mabari, though, but I have way too many to name them all haha I also never named any mounts, probably because I didn’t know that they could be named!

18) Have you installed any mods? I wish I could, but I definitely don’t have the space or know-how to install them.

19) Did your Warden want to become a Grey Warden? Veleda definitely did not. She was actually more than happy to stay in the Circle, because she definitely started out as a huge Loyalist, and was upset that she was basically forced into leaving with Duncan. She was eventually glad for the opportunity to live in the “outside world” though.

20) Hawke’s personality? Sylvia ended up being true blue lol

21) Did you make matching armor for your companions in Inquisition? No. I usually prioritized stats (and sometimes individual colors).

22) If your character(s) could go back in time to change one thing, what would they change?

Veleda: She wouldn’t have betrayed Jowan. Being away from the Circle made her realize that she should have put more value in his friendship.

Sylvia: Even if it ultimately spared his life, she always regrets NOT taking Carver to the Deep Roads with her, because she hates the time that they spent apart.

Elera: She never would have left her Clan prior to the events of DAI.

Enansal: She wishes she never had gotten involved with Aaric.

23) Do you have any headcanons about your character(s) that go against canon? Not particularly? I’d say my biggest canon-breaking content is my Tabris twins and my Kremquisitor playthrough.

24) Are any of your character(s) based on someone? Aisling Tabris, Sylvia Hawke, and Enansal Lavellan are all self-inserts, technically >_> Nan is the one that is most like me, though. Ash is my go-to persona when I make new characters, and Sylvia is really only a self-insert in the sense that all of her dialogue choices were based on what *I* would do in that situation.

25) Who did you leave in the Fade? Stroud, because holy frick, I could not break Varric’s heart like that.

26) Favourite mount? N/A

[knifey-shivdarks]

i wasn’t tagged but i saw this dragon age questionnaire thing and wanted to do it so  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

also i play so many playthroughs that most of my wardens/hawkes/inquisitors don’t have great well thought out lives because i literally forgot everything i ever made up for any of them lmao

also i tag all of you so yea

1. favourite game of the series?

da2 and i aint even gonna pretend to feel shame for it

2. how did you discover dragon age?

so i got my first console of my own when i was like 17, it was an xbox 360 and for a while i was living off my bros hand-me-downs and he gave me origins and i had seen commercials and wanted to play it and he didn’t really like it so he gave it to me. at this point the game was maybe a year old. i literally could not even make it to the tower of ishal, i tried so hard man but inevitably i rage quit. about a year later or so, like before da2 was really announced (cuz i remember already being a fan and following news on da2 sooo) i tried to replay it and i demolished the game in like four days playing every single second out of it and here we are

3. how many times you’ve played the games?

so....many....i have AT LEAST 15 completed games for each game but i know theres like. way more. i think i finished dao over 20 times so like. yo.

4. favourite race to play as?

elves and qunari tbh

5. favourite class?

it was rogue at first but i seem to be making a lot more mages now

6. do you play through the games differently or do you make the same decisions each time?

i mean ive played so many times that some games are essentially the same but when i first replay i make choices i dont usually so that i see all outcomes ya feel

7. go-to adventuring group?

this is highly dependent on who my inquisitor is. i tend to have one mage, one rogue and two warriors tho. the characters i almost always have w me are leliana, zevran, shale, fenris, merrill, isabela, blackwall, solas, sera

8. which of your characters did you put the most thought into?

i had a cousland once named eliana that had...so much history. so much. i put a lot of thought into her but never did anything with her outside the game and now i dont have her playthrough so

9. favourite romance?

i can never choose just one lol. for dao its leliana or zevran for da2 its fenris or isabela for dai its sera and blackwall

actually all the dai romances are my fave fight me

10. have you read any of the comics/books?

ive read all the comics and one of the books. i have two of the books but havent finished asunder yet

11. if you read them, which was your favourite book?

the stolen throne is the only one ive completed so

12. favourite DLCs?

out of all of them i think trespasser is my favorite tbh

13. things that annoy you.

how vivienne and sera were basically made for people to hate like. miss me with that bullshit. 

14. orlais or ferelden?

i find orlais to be more interesting but also in game orlais sucks

15. templars or mages?

mages all the way

16. if you have multiple characters, are they in different/parallel universes or in the same one?

i mean ive never had any of them...meet or anything. i dont put much thought into it

17. what did you name your pets? (mabari, summoned animals, mounts, etc)

i used to try to give them real names but the only name i remember giving to one is asschabs so theres that

18. have you installed any mods?

i only have dao and da2 on pc and they are both modded

19. did your warden want to become a grey warden?

lol no

20. hawke’s personality?

purple hawke is my fave

21. did you make matching armor for your companions in inquisition?

no i go with colors n schemes based on what i think the character would choose

22. if your character(s) could go back in time to change one thing, what would they change?

dont make me think

23. do you have any headcanons about your character(s) that go against canon?

i mean not really? i dont make headcanons a lot but i like...see others that i like? like i like the fenris is trans headcanon i can fucks with that

24. are any of your characters based on someone?

i based one of my inquisitors on my friend bee once

25. who did you leave in the fade?

i have left every single person possible in the fade 

26. favourite mount?

nuggalope!!!!!!!!!!!

[eledritch]

Who are your preferred companions? Who do you always ride with?

such a good question!!! In DA2, I generally took Isabella, Anders, and Fenris along (THE FUNNIEST PARTY BANTER. OH MY GOD.), since I prefer to play as a mage with a force specialization. 

In DAI I had lots of different party make-ups bc I’ve played that game through like....8 times lmao. My first party was Cassandra, Iron Bull, and Dorian, and I was playing an Inquisitor Lavellan rogue archer with assassin specialization. I had no idea what I was doing in this playthrough (we basically had no healer except for Cass’s Templar powers) so it was interesting but very fun ahaha

Let’s see, my other parties...I had the GirlSquad for awhile with my second Inquisitor, Adria Trevelyan, who was a mage with lightning/necromancer specialization, so that was Cassandra, Sera, and Vivienne. Also great party banter.

My third Inquisitor, Mae Lavellan, was a mage with fire/Knight Enchanter specialization, which is a super op combo and very fun to play. Her party was Blackwall, Solas, and I think Cole. Good times. Their party banter was definitely the least argumentative, still very funny.