#spoilers for Lucanis romance route

[agentwashingcat]

Yours (1376 words) by agentwashingcat Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: The Veilguard (Video Game), Dragon Age - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Lucanis Dellamorte/Rook, Lucanis Dellamorte/ Female Rook Characters: Rook (Dragon Age), Female Rook, Rook De Riva, Neve Gallus, Lucanis Dellamorte Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, First Kiss, Emotional Hurt/Comfort Summary: After Lucanis and Rook almost kiss, Rook tries to sort out her feelings and get to the bottom of why Lucanis ran off.

[lvllns]

prettiest screenshot i've taken so far

[kirkwallguy]

i don't know if you would like davrin's romance because it's quite healthy and sweet. He's not insane is what I mean.

that IS kind of a problem for me with all the romances in the game tbh, i miss the insanity :( davrin is a little too nice for my tastes but im at least drawn in by the chemistry and warden4warden vibes

[postcardsfromheapside]

I need to be salty for a hot second about people who are upset about aspects of Lucanis' romance.

I'll put everything else under the break for spoilers, but in general, I am so disappointed in a large portion of this fanbase who apparently thought "disaster" meant "romantasy," but also it's in keeping with how a lot of people seem unable to put things in context.

One of the complaints I keep seeing run past is that the scene where you commit to a relationship with Lucanis seems pefunctory, or out of the blue, there's nothing really romantic about it, it's too similar to the platonic route, etc, etc, ETC.

I romanced Emmrich, but I've seen other people's versions of romancing Lucanis. I'm just going to kind of word vomit here, and hope I can come up with something cohesive.

As someone who id's with Lucanis for "generational abuse" and "dumpster fire disaster bi" and "using socially acceptable drugs as coping mechanisms in place of addressing your problems" reasons, it's been really fucking annoying watching the almost deliberate misinterpretation of his character even after Mary Kirby dropped several explanations on social media. It's like a large part of the fanbase saw all that and turned into the "yes yes, very sad...anyway!" meme and went right on fetishizing him...then got mad when he didn't turn into the seductive Dom with wings they were hoping for.

You commit to Lucanis after (what I consider) a very intense scene inside his "mind prison." He's struggling so much internally that Spite wrests control of his body from him in front of witnesses and begs Rook to help them. Lucanis would never ask Rook to do so on his own, he's terrible at asking for the help he truly needs. Spite drags Rook into the Fade Ossuary and demands they free Lucanis from his self-imposed prison. And whether you're a friend or would-be lover, Rook slowly talks Lucanis out of a host of self doubts regarding his family and friends. Can he trust himself not to hurt other people, now that he's saddled with this affliction? Has he disappointed the people he cares about most? Do these new people he's coming to care about actually trust and care about him? The rooms are filled with fragmented thoughts that peter out into regrets. You're literally seeing Lucanis' fractured and complicated emotions.

One of them tore a hole straight through me: "You'd have to kill me...And Spite would die."

You'd have to kill him to get rid of the demon. And he'd regret the death of the demon that's protected him and given him strength, through a brutal year of betrayal and torment. I don't know if y'all remember the scenes in the Ossuary of the failed experiments and the corpses you had to pass to get to his jar of blood. It wasn't fun.

When you break out of the mind prison after helping him bond with Spite, it's intimate and momentous, even on a platonic route. You've seen desperate and lonely parts of him he'd never willingly show anyone.

As you're convincing Lucanis that it's okay to leave his mind-prison, you tell him you understand that it's easier to deal with problems like the Ossuary and Zara than healing and living with Spite, potentially hurting people he cares about. But he wants to. It's Rook's job to help him see a path out, a way for him to make the struggle easier so he can begin to heal himself.

I need to stress: you aren't "fixing" him. You're acting as his lighthouse, regardless of whether you're a friend or a lover. Sometimes people need help. He's still going to have to do the work to get there.

As a friend, it was extremely rewarding to come back to the kitchen and see him doing exactly as I'd hoped: moving on with the business of *living*. He made a nice dinner for everyone he's come to care for, and a special dessert for Neve. Cooking is where Lucanis finds creativity, and comfort, and connection with his friends and family. He isn't very good with words, but he will note everything you consume, and try to make you feel loved by expressing it that way.

Which is why I think it's important you don't dismiss the commitment on the romantic route. He remembers YOUR favorite drink and makes YOU a special dessert if you're romancing him. Lucanis isn't going to get poetic. You've already made him feel raw. You've seen the ugly, embarassing parts of him. What is he supposed to say? Usually it takes Spite reaching through his body to actually be direct. Instead, Lucanis reaches for food, his favorite medium, to try and apologize for inadvertently showing you those things, to thank you for helping him despite seeing what he considers the most shameful parts of him. Your commitment is letting him know that you value him, that he has nothing to be ashamed of, that you understand what he's trying to express with his struggling communication skills, which appear to get better as your relationship progresses from there.

It's weird that some of y'all don't feel that this is heartfelt and important, because you'd rather him act out some sensuous fantasy trope. It's also weird that some of you haven't figured out that many scenes in RPG's can be similar on platonic and romantic routes with tweaks to shade context.

(Also just in case this comes up: cooking is not his "love language" - that whole concept was invented by a misogynistic weirdo and we should remove it from our ideas of communication)

Anyway, this guy is my Rook's bestie and I'll go down swinging for him, you should appreciate the fuck out of him and stop acting like his writer didn't craft a perfectly funny little weirdo who is bad at showing people his tender parts and terrible at interpersonal relationships.

[shieldmaiden-tabris]

Dragon Age the Veilguard Spoilers (Lucanis romance route) under the cut!!

I just got the first scene where Lucanis actually flirts back and EXCUSE ME, SIR????

THE WALL LEAN????

THAT LITTLE SMILE???

THE WAY HIS VOICE DROPPED????

EXCUSE ME???? HELLO???? SIR???? WHO GAVE YOU THE RIGHT????

I am legitimately lustered over here, oh my god

[usuallydyinginside]

Dragon Age Veilgard Spoilers 👇

TLDR: I never want to hear anyone criticize Neve about “the choice” in Act 1 ever again.

I’m on my second play through for DAV, and one of the things I was most curious about was how the Act 1 choice changes the game. I’ve seen endless hate for Neve and the way she acts if you don’t save her city, and was curious if Lucanis is like weirdly graceful and forgiving about it by comparison.

lol, NOPE.

Here’s the thing, friends. Yes, Neve’s upset when you don’t go to her city, but Lucanis is so much worse about it AND HAS SO MUCH LESS JUSTIFICATION?!?

If you save Treviso:

You’re told upfront that the Venatori will take over if you don’t save Neve’s home. What you aren’t told is that their first order of business before you can even show up post-dragon is to immediately find and wipe out the Shadow Dragons. When you next visit the city, you’ll find a bit of damage from the dragon but there are literally corpses and gallows littering every street—many wearing Shadow Dragon uniforms. Every NPC that you meet at the Shadow Dragon headquarters is either dead or only shows up very occasionally for quests. The entire SD base is deserted, and they basically tell you that everyone but like four people have been killed. Keeping in mind, of course, that this is an org made up primarily of regular and poor people who are fighting against a corrupt regime to end slavery. That was their crime.

Oh, and to top it all off, Neve tells you that her own m little apartment was destroyed too. She has a whole conversation about how the Lighthouse is her only home and your team is most of her remaining family.

Even with all of this, even with how angry and grieving and hurt Neve is, she still forgives you. You can still fully romance her or raise her friendship high. You just have to work for it.

MEANWHILE…

If you save Minrathos:

To me, it sounded like it would be way worse. They put up a big show of how it’ll be mostly civilians who are harmed and how the water will be poisoned. Hence, the first time I did it, I went the other route and saved Treviso.

Except it’s comparatively not nearly as bad?!? The Crow headquarters is, by my count so far, missing only 3 people (Fletcher, Heir, and guy I am suddenly blanking on name who gives a couple quests). All the important Crows are not only still alive—they’re still exactly where you expect. They talk about how empty it is, but it’s really not very and outside in the courtyard it’s downright crowded with crows. Illario is alive and well (haven’t gotten to other surprise family member but I will be shocked if they aren’t also just fine). Teia and Viago are fine. Even Jacobus is so far just fine.

Lucanis still has a giant ass mansion, a fortune, his family, and the majority of the Crows. The Blight is presumably fixable by the end of the game (unlike the Venatori taking over), and the city shows a lot of signs it’ll recover just fine. The only corpses are from the dragon attack which would have really been there anyway despite what the game shows cause either way a big ass dragon attacked.

However, Lucanis becomes immediately dropped as a romance option if you don’t save his city. He reacts objectively more severely after losing far less.

To be clear, I don’t even mind him reacting that wqy! It makes sense if either of them do. What I mind is how many fans are channeling their internalized sexism into dissing my girl Neve.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

[alaztheri]

I finished Dragon Age: Veilguard. I am finally free. Some thoughts below the cut if you're interested. It will contain major spoilers.

Overall, I have mixed feelings about the game. I did enjoy playing it, the scenery was gorgeous, and the exploring and treasure chest hunting were really fun.

The main story and lore reveals were also fascinating to follow, but I do agree with a lot of people who said it was heavily sanitized to avoid controversy or not make people uncomfortable. Which I find odd because you can depict problematic themes while also NOT glorifying them.

I was curious to see more of the Titan lore and the Dwarves, but maybe future games. I think Hardings' quest was the most lore-heavy for me.

I can't speak for all romance routes, but for Lucanis' one it was cute, I love a good slow-burn. But this also felt like it needed some extra lines, cutscenes or reactions/facial expressions/body language. Spite is the best thing ever, Bioware will have to pry him from my cold dead hands.

I'm not a big fan of how most of the dialogue was written. Very VERY shallow in some scenes, and sometimes it felt like the characters just had to say their lines instead of talking to each other. Also, can we collectivelly please move on from stupid one-liner jokes every 3 second of a conversation? thx Davrin and Lucanis' bickering is 10/10 tho, kept me entertained the whole game.

The ending felt a bit all over the place, but this could just be me. LOVED seeing Solas in his Dread Wolf form battling that Archdemon. I thought that was really badass. I personally chose the Solavellan ending, because my Inquisitor romanced Solas in the previous game. And honestly, I quite liked this ending. Got very emotional thinking back on all the things my Inquisitor went through to get her to this very moment.

To be honest, I do see myself replaying this in the near future, even if just for the map exploring and listening to party banter while I roam aimlessly through Arlathan or Treviso.

[thatapostateboy]

a ramble about my current planned Rook (and other Veilguard OCs) below the cut

(some spoilers for information released by Bioware thus far)

Evanura / Eva / Rook - elf, rogue, Shadow Dragon, romancing Davrin

city elf, taken from Denerim as a child during the Blight, along with her mother, and sold as a slave in Minrathous

spent years as a slave to a magister with only her ‘brother�� Ash as true company

she would take comfort in humming/singing songs from the Alienage, retelling the stories that her mother taught her to Ash. One day their master caught her singing, and she thought that she would be punished, but he became enamoured with her voice and would have her perform for him and guests

he saw potential in the young elf, and arranged for her to be trained to be used as a bodyguard and spy, in the ways of an Orlesian bard

after years of being enslaved; killing and spying on rival magisters just to survive, she had finally gained his trust enough to get his guard down was able to kill her master

in their attempt to escape, she and Ash were caught, and Ash took the full blame, stating that he had killed their master to protect her

she planned to help him escape prison before execution, but he was conscripted into the Grey Wardens

she used her newfound freedom to fight back against the corruption in Minrathous, eventually joining the Shadow Dragons

she looks for her mother everywhere she goes, not knowing what happened to her once they reached Minrathous

does not want to save the world, desperate to leave it to someone more qualified, until Varric convinces her otherwise

she and Solas are going to annoy tf out of each other, until they finally reach an understanding of two people who know what it is like to fight against a corrupt power system and be willing to do whatever they can to help people; peak unwilling dad/grumpy adopted daughter dynamic

aggressive/sarcastic toned to begin with but rediscovers her softness

is bad with animals, but manages to charm Assan almost instantly

thinks Davrin is honestly the most beautiful man she has ever seen, but she knows it probably will not be wise getting involved with a Grey Warden

huge fan of Lavellan (will use this to annoy Solas), has complicated feelings about the Hero of Ferelden (Tabris was a true hero, but damn, why couldn’t she have returned a few weeks earlier and saved more of their people?)

doesn't think the Champion of Kirkwall is a real person until she actually meets her

Ataashi / Ash - qunari, warrior, Grey Warden, undecided romance (possibly Harding or Lucanis)

remembers very little of his early childhood, believes he was taken from his father unwillingly (was in fact sold to slavers to pay off a gambling debt)

grew up as a slave in a Magister’s household, his naturally tall and strong form even from a young age making him an intimidating presence beside his master

despite being bigger than her, Eva became his older sister, protecting him from anyone’s ire, teaching him the stories and songs of her people, singing him to sleep with as many lullabies as she could remember

and when she was able to kill their master and give them a chance at freedom, he didn’t hesitate to take the blame and allow her to run

he was ready to face his death, knowing his sister was free, but fate stepped in when a passing Grey Warden had heard of his arrest and recruited him

he passed his Joining and found a new purpose among the Wardens, ready to stand and fight alongside his new found family, especially his friend Davrin

one day hopes to be worthy enough to have a griffon of his own

ndecided what route to take with romance as yet, will see who vibes with this wholesome himbo, possibly Harding or Lucanis

Beric / Bear / - dwarf, warrior, Lords of Fortune, romancing Emmrich

Not fully fleshed out his backstory yet, but some headcanons;

'Old gay dwarf seeking riches in local area'

Has been adventuring since he was big enough to swing a hammer

Has travelled most of the known world, and seen things beyond belief

Enjoys a good fight, a good drink and a good bed partner

Didn't expect to fall in love with a necromancing mage, but here we are - years later when they are settled and married, Emmrich will joke that Bear heard the 'rich' at the end of his name and fell instantly in love

[mocksfate]

choices, choices ... these are not definitive, as i do need to play the game with abrielle a second time to be sure, but here's what i have so far ! (spoilers under the cut)

she talked down the barkeeper. ( she's charming and often uses her charm. if there's a chance to talk rather than choosing violence, she will. )

agreed to let varric try to talk solas down.

asked harding to come & help her disrupt the ritual.

sassy -> sympathetic attitude given to solas almost until the end.

left the mayor to his fate. ( believer of karmic justice )

saved treviso ( no brainer. despite being born in orlais, antiva is her home )

reasoned with the first warden ( talking over violence as mentioned above )

helped with everyone's problems: - harding: stayed true to herself. - bellara: buried the secrets of the ancient elves ( after character development, abrie believes one's past shouldn't dictate one's future ) - lucanis: saved illario (?) ( i'm. so torn on this one bc luc and abrie both had/have a caterina, except the caterina is the one who betrayed abrie. yet she still loves her!! like she loves emil, right? so idk. idk im v torn ) - neve: became the hero minrathous/dock town needed ( highly suggested not to make her same mistakes ) - emmrich: unromanced - pursued lichdom ( it's her high risk & high reward mentality ) romanced - brought manfred back ( because she became mushy :\ ) - davrin: the griffons became arlathan's new guardians ( again, promoting new beginnings and second routes ) - taash: embraced their rivaini side.

bellara got caught by elgar'nan but survived in the end.

davrin lead the other team since she believed his expertise against darkspawn could have given them the upper hand. his death devastated her. davrin was the member of the veilguard whom got the 'fils/son' nickname. if abrie ever had a child, she'd want them to be like davrin. SO YOU CAN IMAGINE.

whilist devoided of hope at first, the fade prison is what gave abrie the push she needed to move forward. facing her regrets and coming to terms with herself, who she is, what she did and what she will do got her outta there.

had a feeling about varric in the back of her head, but always pushed that thought away because she didn't want to face the truth.

all factions helped & everyone else survived till the end.

okay. nora is a s0lavellan and nora wanted to see solas & lavellan be happy.............. but abrielle would choose the tricking him ending lmfaooooooo no regrets whatsoever. karma, baby!

[butterflydm]

DAV: emotional impact of second playthrough

I am finding it much harder not to take the damage in Treviso more personally and more of a failure for Rook - and I think that's because I saved Treviso in my first playthrough, so seeing the impact of it blighted now is emotionally devastating because I (the player) know these specific minor characters.

[endgame spoilers below]

And the game makes you personally need to kill them -- Heir, Fletcher, and Chance all die by your hand, because they've turned into darkspawn and need to be put down. In my first playthrough, I had no idea of the full extent of the consequences that would happen as a result of the Minrathous vs Treviso choice. I had no idea what I was losing by saving Treviso over Minrathous. In this playthrough, I know exactly what I'm losing.

Jacobus coughed the last time I talked to him in Treviso and now I am worried he will also turn into darkspawn. Every single time I stopped by Treviso in my first run, I always talked with Heir and Jacobus before I went out on whatever mission I was doing. Every single time. I wanted to keep track of him, and how he was doing after Dareth's death, and how he dealt with his pain and grief.

Looking at the blighted landscape of Treviso is so horrific because I played a whole game where Treviso stayed gorgeous -- with issues that needed to be fixed, of course, but such a beautiful city, full of vibrant life (I actually went over to my other save for a while just so that I could hang out in unblighted Treviso; sad but true).

My interactions with Lucanis have been breaking my heart. I think I read that the "Inner Demons" quest doesn't happen if you save Minrathous? So... so Lucanis will never leave the Ossuary, not in his head. He and Spite are gonna stay stuck in there together. Trapped.

(he's not even mad at you! he's just exhausted and resigned and somehow that is so much worse)

I have found that this choice really impacted the way that I'm playing my second Rook mechanically, which I did not expect -- she is much more aggressive in battles now (using the orb & dagger more often than the staff & I went the Deathcaller route instead of Spellblade as I'd originally planned), and in the scene with Solas after the dragon attacks, she was much more laden down with guilt (and lashed out at him a bit because of it). I think because she knows she chose Minrathous not for practical reasons but because it's her city, and so she feels like she made the selfish choice, especially seeing how destroyed Treviso has been as a result. It weighs on her.

My first Rook (elven Gray Warden rogue) chose to save Treviso for reasons that weren't particularly personal (since it was my first run, I didn't know, as a player, that choosing Minrathous would cut off Lucanis's romance path, so that wasn't a factor in their decision) -- they made the calculation of "vulnerable merchant city" vs "magitech powerhouse city" and figured that Minrathous had a better chance of defending itself. So while they deeply regretted that they couldn't help both cities personally, they felt like they made the best choice they could with the information that they had. This Rook (human Shadow Dragon mage) worries that she made a choice with her heart and that Minrathous would have been fine without her, and that she doomed Treviso by choosing to save her home. Needing to personally kill blighted Crows has not helped with her guilt.

otoh, I now get to learn what I gain by saving Minrathous. And Minrathous really does suffer more frequently than any other city in this game, in the sense of being ground-zero for attacks three different times -- at the start of the game, then during the Minrathous vs Tresviso choice, and again at the end of the game.

And I do love getting to talk more with the characters in Minrathous. I just went back and was able to talk to Maevaris and Tarquin. Very good conversations, especially with a Shadow Dragon Rook. I learned my character's backstory! That was exciting!

I also learned that Neve and Davrin have met before - that came out during a conversation between the two of them at the Lighthouse before Lucanis returned to us, so I'm guessing that's why I never heard that banter before. Their respective jobs intersected! That's so cool!

But, yeah, the second playthrough is rough because you know more of the consequences. I imagine that the Harding vs Davrin choice way down the line will be the same. I didn't know the distraction team leader would die in my first run, and I was playing a Gray Warden Rook, so of course I picked Davrin to run the second team! I trusted him more than anyone except my love interest (Lucanis). But now I know the distraction team leader is going to die, so that choice is more weighted now, for me as a player.

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, this is my 'testing all the options' run, and I have a tentative plan in place. There are also a couple of things that I missed in my first run that I definitely want to make sure that I get to experience at some point here (Lucanis & Neve get together if you aren't romancing either of them, I believe, which obviously I didn't get to see in my first run, since Lucanis was my LI; and apparently Strife and Emmrich can get together if you have Emmrich stay mortal, so I want to check both of those out. Taash & Harding were so sweet together and I loved seeing their courtship, so I'm very interested in seeing Lucanis/Neve & Strife/Emmrich).

This little sidequest really got to me this time around. Because of Varric reasons:

[rhunae]

Veilguard Spoilers

For my HoF playthrough, I'm not going to romance Lucanis this time, so to be sure he and Neve hook up, I brought her along to save him. Already some flirting from her before we left the Ossuary.

I'm also going to save Minrathous instead. I don't think that's the "better" route, because a city full of mages should save themselves. In my first play through, Lucanis was far more convincing, mostly because it will directly impact their water table. But I need to see the flip side. *sigh* It will also force me to not romance my birb boyfriend.

The plan is to romance the old man, and save our skelli son (letting him go lich in the 1st play through was all sorts of wrong lol).

[sunsetwaltz]

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

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

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

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

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

ROMANCE ver.

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

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

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

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

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

-

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

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

[crossleft]

**VEILGUARD SPOILERS**

Finished the game last night and had some thoughts. Overall I really enjoyed it! Would definitely recommend playing it but it's also fun to nitpick lol.

Did my standard first run where I go in as blind as possible playing a dwarven warrior. Went with the Warden background because duh and it was really solid, seems like they referenced it a lot throughout so interested to see how other origins will go. Don't think I missed too too much but I know for sure I accidentally missed at least one mission when I saved Treviso too early...anyways:

As usual dwarves got the short end of the stick (hah punny). 18 codex entries to the 43 elven ones and roughly half were just letters and stuff from Lace to her mom, hell one of them was just about the basics of the fucking chantry! Seriously?? I romanced Lace so I don't mind the letters much but damn yall couldn't do more with the deep roads or with Kal-Sharok? Entire chunks of lore breezed over like nothing, and having the thaig and the titan only being one off missions where you can't even go back to the area was the cherry on top. Disappointed but unsurprised.

Liked the companions, overall no big complaints. Up until the end where you find out he's dead the whole Varric always being in bed and not super upset about Bianca being destroyed thing definitely threw me off so that was a big surprise.

Taash was fun think I'll romance them next play through but acting like Qunari are weird about gender after very specifically having Bull say it's no big deal was a bizarre writing choice.

I liked it but Laces romance felt a little underwhelming, curious to how it'll stack up to the others.

Davrin/Assan and Lucanis/Spite were perfect no notes on them, keep up the good work lol.

Bellara felt kinda like they were trying to redo Merrill, which like...ok...then why not just bring back Merrill at that point? And the stuff with her brother felt very paint by numbers. She felt underwritten I guess idk.

Emmerich was a fun surprise since I went in blind I was expecting a standard evil/gloomy necromancer but he ended up being one of my favorite characters. Went the Lich route out of curiosity but haaaate that Fred got killed, for sure keeping him around next time.

Neve grew on me a little by the end but she was overall my least favorite. Felt like someone's OC getting shoehorned in with a bunch of cannon characters. Like the entire first half of the game she and other companions will allude to cases and interesting sounding stories but never expound on them. Every time Rook talks to her she's like "oh it's a long story, maybe I'll tell you some day 😏" then proceeds to never tell it lmao. Maybe it's alluding to comics or something I haven't seen but again, coming in blind it just made her a very boring 2D character outside of the eventual romance with Lucanis which I liked a lot.

Gameplay reminded me a lot of ME3 but with swords. Pretty low bar but as far as a dragon age game goes I'd argue it was easily the best combat in the series.

Leveling system was fine, nothing inspiring. Not the biggest fan of the companion leveling but being able to respec easily with no cost balanced it out.

Inventory was great, massive improvement over all the prior games. I really liked how stuff levels itself up and being able to change appearances easily and early was awesome. Wish you could do a little more with companion armor but that's not really a big deal and they all had decently broad options.

Was worried about only having 2 party members but it worked pretty well I thought. Between that and the bond system it does a good job encouraging swapping them out more. Felt like a lot more ambient dialog too which was a good touch.

Crows retconning into basically a mob family was...a choice. I kind of get it though and imo you can headcannon them being so different as chalked up to Zev having come in and made big changes over the years. Is what it is.

Was initially kinda pissed about the loss of prior choices but having played it now I think they did ok. Bringing the inquisitor in and getting their letters still made it feel like those choices mattered. And like in game it's been years and it all happened in other countries, it makes sense for a lot of that to be old news that most people don't discuss especially given the drama of their own current events. Would have still been nice to get a few codex entries at least.

Bringing Morrigan back felt like a bad choice to me. She's my cannon origins romance and they changed her up a bit too much post inquisition. Like where is Kieren? Where is the HoF? She doesn't mention them and nobody asks?? Just weird. Hot take but her taking Mythal's knowledge made perfect sense for her character, she always sought knowledge like that and her main objection with Flemmeth was that she would be taken over. So now she gets the knowledge and also keeps her mind, classic Morrigan work around imo.

Didn't like the direction they went with the Antaam. Had potential but making them all faceless with super deep voices felt overly dehumanizing. And them going in with elven gods made zero sense at all, like their leadership doing it secretly sure but there at the end why the hell would those footsoldiers follow them like that when they are so distrustful of magic?

Loooooved the Wardens but what's with the changes to the blight? My headcannon is the gods have made it more directed so that's why it's not infecting people so indiscriminately. But based on prior knowledge literally every non Warden character and most npc should be dead or darkspawn waaay before the end of the game. Doesn't feel like they explained it very well. Digging the new darkspawn look though, best appearance change since Origins.

Dorian, Isabella, and Solas felt very in character, no big notes on them.

Hawke not being mentioned unfortunately makes sense to me. They were pretty important 20 years ago in one city on the other side of the continent. Think of it like this, without looking it up who was the mayor of the next city over from you in 2004? They were important but why would you bring them up now decades later to people who have no way of knowing them, even if you were buds with them back then. Varric is the only one who might but he's kinda dead the entire game so again makes sense you don't hear about Hawke

Gifts are back! :) wish there was more than 1 per companion I'm trying to redecorate yalls rooms lol.

Why are there random Wardens telling everyone about the joining????? Just casually too like what the hell yall this is supposed to be secret and you're saying "wow this shitty ale reminds me of the joining where I drank darkspawn blood magically enhanced with archdemon blood" BRO??? SHUT UP this shit is top secret what the fuck???

Liked the redesign on spirits with the sole caviat that I liked rage demons as sentient lava...them having legs feels weird

Super minor gripe but why is the special dwarf armor just like form fitting stone abs now??? The bad ass blocky tank look was so cool! The elven armor having form fitting feet and stuff fits the culture why would dwarves do that? Wouldn't know since there's barely any lore on Kal-Sharok 🙃

Kal-Sharok being set up as this mysterious, secluded, hyper competent thaig where they likely formed their own society of impromptu Wardens cut off from Thedas for hundreds of years was fascinating. They expounded on this precisely not at all....bro why. EVERY thaig gone but them and traditional Orzammar and they only survived because they changed! Seemingly still in touch with Titans, was this only since Valta connected or sooner?? Such a cool story and they didn't do shit with it? After 10 years!? Losing my mind dude they just refuse to do anything with this lore and it's so fucking frustrating.

Aaaaanywho starting a second playthrough. Going with a rouge elf shadow dragon, gonna romance Taash. Probably do a qunari mage next playthrough but we'll see. Curious to see anyone else's thoughts but mostly this is to vent mine.

[lizziekilgannon]

it's been so weird seeing the reaction to datv on reddit (I know, I know), but there was a post recently that genuinely gave me pause because. what the fuck.

spoilers for the act one choice below the cut!

I genuinely love the choice between helping Minrathous or Treviso, because there is no good choice! either way, you choose to help one at the cost of the other, which sucks. whatever you choose, people suffer. there's no way to have your cake and eat it too, and I love that because it really made me stop and consider what the hell to do

in my first playthrough, my Rook was a shadow dragon. I'd been planning on romancing Lucanis, and making that choice was hard! it sucked! I chose Treviso, and while I ended up going a different romance route, I don't regret saving Treviso because it ended up being a really impactful decision for my Rook to make, fail at, and learn from. (also Neve was SO MEAN to me and it was understandable, but I felt SO BAD for quite a long time, it was great reactivity to choosing Treviso over her home.)

on reddit, though, I'm seeing people talking about how choosing Treviso is the logical choice, as in the right choice, as if it is the only option that makes sense, and it's so frustrating. I feel like every discussion I have around media like this nowadays boils down to 'media literacy' and comprehension, and it's true here too!

my own stance, like I mentioned, is that there isn't a good choice; Rook is between a rock and a hard place, and either choice leads to death. there might be a better choice, but even that depends on how you define it! is it better to keep Minrathous out of the Venatori's hands, keeping that power away from the elven gods? is it better to aim for greater humanitarian salvation? that changes which choice is 'better'! what's the better approach, logic (Minrathous) or emotion (Treviso)? it depends! it fucking depends!

it's so frustrating seeing people be unable to even imagine how both choices can make sense from an RP point of view, how people are so limited that they can't imagine the choice they didn't make being cohesive in the larger narrative as well. it's so short sighted and so sad! to not be able to look at it from a different perspective!

anyway this is sort of a ramble but the post genuinely bugged me so much