#the debate with Dorian about slavery | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

aicosu · 2 months ago

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Hey, just saw your post about Veilguard - do you mind me asking what it is that put you off? Thanks!

I can start by saying I've not played it. I'm not going to at this point. But basically, every cutscene and dialogue option and plot point I've watched. And for those of you that don't remember I was hugely critical of Inquisition despite my love for it. And I downright hated Trespasser. So this shouldnt be shocking.

And its a lot of stuff I dont like. I can make a short list of major things below, obvious spoilers.

Please dont read this if it will make you angry okay? This is a lot of angry ranting.

1. I said this with inquisition and trespassers but veilguard seals my hatred for the decision to center the entire plot of ripping apart the dalish culture and religion. I'm sorry I just don't think this is compelling. It's icky to create an oppressed and marginalized race with parallels to most indigenous cultures in the real world, and basically call them wrong and stupid for clinging to their culture and history. I don't care that validating the Enuvanris existance means also invalidating the maker and the tevinter reiligions too, or even the dwarven: the game centers this narrative on the DALISH. The entire implication that its their fault all along or they sold themselves into a cult and slavery is gross. The game could have easily done this but centered it around the Maker. Andraste as the blight corrupted crazy deity or spirit whatever the fuck. Makes more sense with how much Chantry has been shoved down our throats since origins, and given how much wider spread it is after literal genocides of the dalish, qun, etc it would just mean a lot more to target the oppressors/majority religion directly. And look listen, I'm a pretty hardcore athiest and even anti thiest. I hate all religions, I find stories about dismantling religion compelling but to couch it histories of marginalized people like... its just not great. Not to mention twisting their gods into systematic greedy people or shoving their "bestest god" into a human woman and trying to make her prostheltize at me. I don't like it!

2. I get why old decisions dont matter. The world is too big, sure. I dont mind that at all, actually, even with all the problems, it gives people invested in those choices. Im happy to accept it. But then... make the actual plot less beholden to it. Why bring in cameos at all, then? Fuck man set it 50 or 80 years later. But if you cant cause everyone wants closure in the DA fandom then give us closure. If not personal closure with wardens and hawkes and etc cause its all too variant — lore closure. We arent going to talk about how darkspawn were thinking and talking? Blight was always just a random elvhen weapon? What apparent the tevinter magisters then? What about the architect? What about the idea of darkspawn becoming their own race and culture? What about the old gods themselves they were just always enuvanris? How do magisters actually feel about that? Why did those who worshipped corypheous or the black church follow Elvhen gods, their most oppressed and hated enemy aside from the qunari?

Speaking of, what about all of us who wanted to confront Minrathous and Tevine for the atrocities we've built up about it for 3 games. Slavery? Off screen solved before we get there? Dorian fixed it all? I had a heated debate with Dorian about him saying how slavery wasnt all that bad "They like being slaves!" And so many conversations with Fenris about how horrible it is. Rape and murder and submission? We don't as players get to finally confront that?

How about red lyrium being sentient. How about it being a tool the elvhen then used to murder titans, but not its alive and unstoppable? How can anything be unblighted? Because plot?

What of the calling? What of it really? What of those in The Calling who were unblighted? nothing?

Not even a deep conversation about the murky ethics of liberation/slavery when it comes to the Antivan crows stealing children? I'm to forget that?

How about anything all to do with the Qun? How about that burnt in memory I have of Saarabas immolating himself in service to not just the system of his culture but his belief in his faith. We're writing him off as a terrorist and not as an example of the Qun? Lets be really real; they have been retconning the Qun every game till now them being a fully gender and sexual accepting society.

How about the changes of mages vs templars if and maybe they walk free now? As if that entire conflict wasnt the brewing boiling point for three games?

What about the elvhen rebellion they so rightly started after centuries or murder and racism? Can we stop pretending that rebellion isnt an act of violence and has to be? Can we stop erasing the idea that systemical upheavel can be anything other than radical? Hello? Anders is one the phone asking for you?

How about that ending, the veil isn't even torn? Spirits don't walk the earth as intended. Why not solas' plan? Why not restore order. Why not join or dissuade him as he asked us to in trespasser?

It just all feels washed off, Thedas. I'm allowed to be angry and upset that they spanned all of these topics and asked me to engage with them on a deep ethical and moral grounds only to never mention them again. I dont think making your player base feel stupid for caring is great.

3. On personal levels, Solas has been ooc since trepasser. And frankly, the explanation of his relationship with Mythal is disgusting. Made the first slave and turned from his true nature into a tool of war—and reaffirming his subservance by making it that only Mythal could stop him? How is that not a toxic dynamic, and they fram it as loving and romantic? Imagine them trying that Fenris who can only be talked down by Danerous. Come on. It should have been Lavellan — or it really should have been not at all. Let him. The devs want to destory Thedas and start over? Let solas reset time and recreate the earth and tear is all down and erase most of the history. Do it you cowards. Give me an unrecognizable DA5 where spirits and mages rule and the elvhen thrive and war with each other. Give me slaved humans and a topsy turvy all that changes remains the same reality. Why not if you want to illuminti titan everything anyway.

4. I dont believe in the veilguard, I should have a choice not to. I should have a reason to care about it or my companions or fewl some sort of reason we must all work together aside from "theyre adorable". All the other games you had companion parties in organic and believable ways. Rook is leader cause.... ? What if I dont want to be? At least my Dalish inquisitor fought tooth and nail not to be called a christian messiah. Hawke had FRIENDS. And the warden found those who knew what a blight meant. And many of all of us disagreed. Vivianne got not sympathy from me. Why should Neve? Fenris will leave your party if you waste your time when the Magister comes to town. I dont want to coddle Harding about her stupid chantry. I do not to talk to Lucanis happily about the crows. Maybe I dont want to be friendly all the time. Maybe I hate everything Bellara is doing. Or taash.

5. The writing was on the wall in inquistion hoenestly. What with Iron bull letting me decide is he mass murders his found family or not. But jesus these new companions are like 10 yrs old. I don't know you decide. Your a fucking adult. I cant take a single one of them seriously. Even Sera screamed and yelled at me if I challenged her. Solas and I almost broke up mutiple times arguing about tradition and purpose or that damn Mythal well (again and no wonder he would object to doing anything akin to being emslaved by her, only to submit himself in this game. As if the well mattered at all. As if morrigan matters at all.) I just don't feel as though I'm bonding with anyone, I'm babysitting. Im being told what a great person I am that I can teach everyone elementary school behaviorial learning. I dont want to, I dont even want to be "good".

6. Petty stuff:

I hate the art style both in the UI and the models. I hate it. And the expressions are so poor compared even to Da2.

I hate all the armors. Everyone is bulky. Hate it.

Ugly combat.

Cant control or walk around as my companions and try out other classes.

CC cant change eyes or facial structure much so all rooks heads look the same and kinda... everyone looks like a dwarf. Sorry. Imo, imo, every rook I have seen looks like a dwarf.

Dont like the music.

Dragons are ugly.

Morrigans outfit makes it look like she has 4 titties.

I hate this elvhen "steampunk" tech when so much of their magic was shown to be earthen and mystic. Dumb. No explanation as why it would become this way it just is now.

Blood magic erasure cause the devs are scared of us being cool I guess.

I hate the humor. Every joke doesnt land for me. And there are simply too many.

#in the long run i just think they dropped the ball #the romances arent steamy #the coversations are dull #the politics are akin to a 6th grade civis class

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crossdressingdeath · 3 months ago

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I finally figured out why Vivienne rubs me the wrong way. To paraphrase she is a lottery winner telling the underpaid workers that capitalism works.

As throughout the Dragon Age series we see how circle fails mages (In Orgins there is books about blood magic in hopes of catching desperate mage in the act of a crime, Awakenings the templars setting a entrapment for Anders despite being a grey warden and then there is Kirkwall).

Then in the game in which mage independence is a big issue our only circle mage perspection that is a main character is Vivienne who is fine with the current system. As Vivienne will tell us the player that while the system has flaws overall is fine. Which is really ridiculous considering the last game.

What Dragon Age Inquisition needed was a Kirkwall mage who saw the worst of the circles to be a counter argument that the circles are flawed

And what I mean by Vivienne being a lottery winner is that her position is almost a miracle. As while a young mage in the circle she had to be powerful enough to be allowed to do her harrowing but also not too powerful to make the templars afraid (as I believe it is implied that mages that are too powerful are nipped in the bud in Orgins), then in a party she is charming enough that a noble takes a fancy to her which then allows her to charm the Empress and gain political power.

All of these aspects feels like sheer luck. So when Vivienne tells me the circle works I want to eat my face in frustration as I remember Jowan and Anders and Hawke's parents desperately trying not to be in the circle.

(Sorry for the rant)

I think Vivienne is ultimately a very notable victim of a lot of DAI's poor writing choices. Both in terms of character writing and in terms of the overall themes.

See, DAI doesn't want us to get any perspective that doesn't prop up the Circle and the Chantry. It doesn't want us questioning the necessity of either institution. It's not just Vivienne; think back on the mage characters we see in DAI, the ones that aren't in the Circle mostly just don't talk about it. Not even Quiz, and if Quiz tries to argue that the Circles aren't great the Circle mages go "Well you're wrong because it was great for me" and Quiz isn't allowed to say anything back. See also Minaeve going "Well the Dalish are shit and the Circle is great because the Dalish threw me away and the Templars rescued me and that doesn't contradict anything in the preexisting lore and also it definitely doesn't say anything about the Chantry that my clan couldn't support an additional mage in their life on the run and also I'm just going to blindly assume the Templars were telling the truth" while Lavellan is forced to just stand there, smiling and nodding and not arguing back at all even though they logically would. DAI needed a counterargument to the "Circles are good" argument, it needed a character who'd seen the worst they had to offer, but we were never going to get that because DAI didn't want it to be a debate. It wants us to blindly agree that the Circles are good and mages wanting freedom is bad. Which is a wildly stupid decision but someone made it anyway!

DAI also does not like character growth. Not in the slightest. The most DAI's companions get is their character growth popping in all at once in Trespasser after a full game of them being completely static. Just like how Sera refuses to acknowledge how awful she's being to Lavellan until Trespasser where she suddenly asks how they're feeling about the Evanuris stuff without using it to make them feel like there's something wrong with them for having non-Andrastian beliefs or how Dorian defends slavery and then that's quietly never acknowledged again until he mentions in Tevinter Nights that "someone he met in the south" changed his mind on the subject or how Cullen... is Cullen, you're never allowed to challenge Vivienne on her beliefs because if you did that then she might change and grow as a person and DAI does not want to deal with that. Especially not when challenging Vivienne means challenging the argument that the Circles are The Best Option. Poor Vivienne gets hit hard by DAI's refusal to accept that the Chantry's bad and the fandom does not want to side with them, she's probably the single biggest piece of collateral damage to DAI's bad choices.

And the thing is it's not that Vivienne doesn't know she's lucky! It's not that she doesn't know the Circles fail people! She recognizes there's a lot of flaws, and she does genuinely want to improve things for her fellow mages! Her intentions are good! Plus honestly if you work to get her approval up she's actually one of the better companions in terms of how she treats Quiz (seriously, look at some of her high approval conversations, she cares so damn much) and she'll defend even companions she doesn't like from unjust attacks (she's got a very good banter with romanced Dorian about how she got a letter from a magister she knows somehow about how disgusting Dorian and Quiz's relationship is and basically told him to fuck off with that). Vivienne really does care and really does want to make things better, she's just been so poisoned by her life in a world very heavily controlled by the Chantry and the Templars that she can't see past their way of doing things. The problem isn't that she doesn't see how lucky she is; she knows she got a lucky break that a lot of mages don't get (although it's important to note that she didn't just get lucky, Vivienne absolutely worked her ass off to get to where she is), and she knows that not everyone could get to where she is even if they'd gotten as lucky as she did. What she misses is that you need to be insanely lucky just to be more or less content in the Circle, never mind happy or powerful. Lucky enough to escape the worst of the Templars' abuses, lucky enough to be in a decent Circle, lucky enough not to be too weak or too powerful, lucky enough to get a manageable demon in your Harrowing, lucky enough to be the sort of person who won't be completely miserable trapped in one building your whole life... The thing Vivienne misses is that she got out, she doesn't have to spend her whole life in the Circle praying the Templars are good to her, and that's not an opportunity a lot of mages get no matter how smart or skilled they are. It drives me nuts, because if we were just allowed to push her to see that her story would immediately be so much better. As it is it's a lot of potential and a strong start that never really get paid off.

#dragon age inquisition #vivienne de fer #asks #anon

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realfinemood · 6 months ago

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Bringing Dorian along on Bull's personal quest immediately after Dorian's romance quest is a trip.

Dear, you know how you're determined to repay me for the whole necklace thing? How about you try it right now by not making me have to debate you on the merits of slavery versus brainwashing, thanks ever so.

#i did not think through bringing him on this #eh its not like i hadn't already planned on pissing off the qun #maybe not immediately tho #oc: bastan adaar #.gaming #dragon age inquisition

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ausetkmt · 2 years ago

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Among Kanye’s West’s defenders, the thinking goes like this: He is a genius, a freethinker, an elevated conscience. They may not like or agree with everything he does, but they applaud the man.

There is a cult of Kanye, and I came to the opinion long ago that our society confers a special allure on cults, particularly when they are tied not to religion but to pop culture or politics. In those arenas, they feel fun, innocent, like rooting together for a favorite team.

So I’m not here to argue about whether West is a genius, although when anyone refers to themselves as such, it tends to undercut the appellation.

This newspaper itself has repeatedly called West a genius, so it would behoove him, I suppose, to run with the branding.

But it has always seemed to me that West is aching to be considered a modern Mozart: the tortured genius. Of course, Mozart was a genius beyond dispute, but the idea that he was a tortured one may be a myth. As Jan Swafford wrote in his book “Mozart: The Reign of Love”:

While Mozart had his share of sorrow and loss and frustration like the rest of us, he was fundamentally a happy man. He wrote for public consumption, which is to say that he was a professional in a way few composers are anymore. Still, on the whole he did what he wanted to do the way he wanted to, and when he was done he didn’t worry overmuch about what the public thought of it.

West is no Mozart. West is a brooding, narcissistic attention addict and praise junkie. He attends his torture. He curates and employs it. Some of it may come naturally, but some is manufactured, to enlarge the legend.

I will let others debate whether his talents as an artist, which are remarkable, rise to that of genius. I want to focus instead on West as a cultural chaos agent, as a purveyor of dangerous politics. In this arena, he is no genius; he is a gussied-up gimmick. West’s latest brushes with thoughtless provocation came this weekend when he was kicked off Twitter and other social-media platforms for a series of antisemitic posts. But as noted, these are merely his latest brushes with thoughtless provocation.

West is often described as a “freethinker,” but in the political space, he isn’t. He’s simply a Black artist willing to regurgitate conservative — sometimes bordering on white supremacist — talking points as if they were his own.

Coming from the mouth of an international superstar, a rapping fashion designer, oppression starts to sound like freedom to those who shy away from or openly reject a serious analysis of politics and current affairs.

Last week, West caused a firestorm by wearing a “White Lives Matter” shirt at his fashion show in Paris. The Anti-Defamation League labels “White Lives Matter” a “white supremacist phrase” and has written that, since 2015, “white supremacists in several states, especially members of the Texas-based white supremacist group Aryan Renaissance Society, have promoted the slogan” as part of “a loose campaign to popularize the phrase.”

Well, last week, West gave the white supremacists a boost.

West is the same man who in 2013 was selling merchandise with Confederate flags on tour. As he explained to a radio station that year about people’s appalled reactions:

“Any energy is good energy. The Confederate flag represented slavery in a way. That’s my abstract take on what I know about it, right? So I wrote the song ‘New Slaves.’ So I took the Confederate flag and made it my flag. It’s my flag now.”

Kanye pitches it as co-option, but it is, in fact, basic shock-value antics that promote and normalize anti-Black hate symbols.

There is nothing genius about this. It is bargain basement exploitation. As West put it himself, “any energy is good energy,” which is just an almost spiritual, if jargony, way of reinterpreting what Oscar Wilde wrote in “The Picture of Dorian Gray” in the late 1800s: “There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” The spirit of that idea led to “all publicity is good publicity.”

After the latest outcry over the “White Lives Matter” shirt he wore at Fashion Week, West continued his publicity seeking by going on Fox News to elaborate. The interview was a jumble of themes in which he attempted to weave together godliness, artistic inspiration, personal persecution, disdain for institutions, anti-abortion talking points, an inversion on the ideas around racism and his support for Donald Trump. You know, core ideas of the modern right wing.

West says of the shirt, “The answer to why I wrote ‘White Lives Matter’ on a shirt is because they do.” He plays oblivious to the obvious.

West is the same man who said in 2015 that “racism is a dated concept,” and that “it’s like a silly concept that people” use “to separate, to alienate, to pinpoint anything. It’s stupid.”

He is the same man who said in a TMZ interview in 2018: “You hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400 years? That sounds like a choice. Like, you was there for 400 years, and it’s all of y’all?”

West later apologized for the slavery comments, but even in the apology he could not control his narcissism, saying: “You know in a relationship, maybe somebody will do something just to see if you still love them. One thing that I got from the TMZ comment is it showed me how much Black people love me, and how much Black people count on me and depend on me. And I appreciate that.”

None of this, in the political sphere, is genius. It’s shallow and dull. Kanye is just a Black man who discovered Black conservatism and thinks it’s enlightenment. There is nothing complex or mysterious about it. He’s a Black man parroting white supremacy, while far too many brush it off, continue dancing to his music, and wear his clothes.

West is a Black man sampling vintage anti-Black racism, remixing and releasing it under a new label: the tortured Black genius.

#The Exploitative Anti-Blackness of Kanye West

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moontheoretist · 2 years ago

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Damn, what I would do for more content.

You know what? I love Dragon Age games, but they are not without flaws. Some are more glaring than others, but the flaw I want to talk about today is... lack of background specific content. Ok, Bioware doesn’t want to invest time into origins anymore. Fine. I think it is a stupid choice, as origins are like sessions 0 in DnD, where you can playthrough your own background instead of come to session 1 with the fully written out character. And even then Origins were not exactly the same. Some facts were already pre-established, but it was fun to have them, to spend some time IN the place you come from, in order to immerse yourself in the character. I cannot stress how interesting it would be to actually see invasion of Lothering from Hawke’s perspective at the end of a very normal, very peaceful day, instead of skipping it and go straight to running away. Or how nice it would be to actually be part of Lavellan clan and see how much similar and different it was from the Dalish clan we could start in DAO. Or how Tal Vashoth’s mercenary life or Carta’s life looked before they headed to the Conclave. Speaking about Tal Vashoth, they are actually what sprung this post to be, as I just sat today and randomly thought “How nice it would be if Adaar and Bull could ACTUALLY discuss living outside the Qun after his character quest”. The game gives all the main characters some opportunities to say something about themselves, but most of those things are quickly shot down by companions, who literally in some cases tell you your own customs as if they knew better. Those opportunities that we were given, never felt good enough to me. They felt small, as if the game wanted us to forget that avatars are distinct characters in their own right and overwrite it with the Herold of Andraste. Small dialogues here and there, some hidden special options... to some it is enough. To me, it feels cheap. My Adaar, Lavellan, Trevelyan and Cadash could have SO MANY interesting conversations with companions, best if all were turned into cutscenes specifically about that one topic we were discussing, instead of always being just an afterthought, some addition to the other topic, more important topic, that we were discussing. Solas has probably the most conversations in which we can talk with him about the Dalish, but it is because he is an elven god, born in times long past. Most other companions are not given the same luxury to discuss topics of identity, beliefs and culture with us beyond some random conversations here and there in which, like I already said, we are never allowed to actively tell the companions that they are wrong about the customs they just told us about to our face.

If you ever were angry that you couldn’t just start a discussion with Dorian about Alienages and Tevinter Slavery, to draw similarities and differences, to talk about what the status of elves is derived from (human hatred and bias), or if you wanted to sit with Bull as Adaar and comfort him about not being part of the Qun, and tell him everything you know about how Tal Vashoth live, their life philosophy, where and how they find fulfillment without the shackles of the Qun, you will understand what I am talking about. I am aware there is content. I just think there should be more of it, that it should be treated as important too, to make players more willing to replay the game and try to play as every avatar they can, beyond some small hidden dialogue options. I want to be able to correct companions when they’re wrong, just like an elven Warden could with Leliana for example. I want more, and more meaningful conversations with companions. I want us to discuss topics, relate to one another. I want Carta Cadash to talk with Varric and reminisce about stuff they share, and argue or debate about stuff that make them different. I want to be able to tell Cassandra as Trevelyan that no, mages are not whining and asking for more than they deserve. I want to scold her for treating people who were prisoners all their lives as if they were a bunch of whiny brats who are unhappy that they do not have satin linens on their beds, instead of a group of people who actively feared they will be murdered in their sleep by Templars at Haven. Give me those disapprovals Cassandra, I don’t care! You need to hear that mages are not willingly standing in the fire. That being born in the fire is different from consciously stepping into it and staying there and complaining it is hot. I want to be able to talk to all the Chargers, beyond Krem. I want to be able to chat with Dalish about dalish clan differences and similarities, and what they discovered and where they went last with their clans as Lavellan. I want Adaar to compete with Chargers about which group of mercenaries was better, the Chargers or the group that Adaar originally belonged to. I want them to have a drinking match, screaming who defeated more opponents or survived more deadly encounters! Yeah, I know I want a lot. But it is just the world building that I feel is lacking. The connections forged in camaraderie, arguments and debates. I don’t understand players who skip dialogues, or whine about “cutscenes / story arcs being too much talk, not enough action”. I am sorry that the dialogues that are the foundation of RPGs and writing, are standing in the way of some mindless slaughter, dudebro. Maybe they should have picked a different game then, if RP in RPG is bothering them so much.

#dragon age #i like cutscenes too much lol #i would make SO MANY

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blarrghe · 3 years ago

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2, 12, and 25 for the otp asks. For Taren and Dorian? 🥺

2. If they could each describe each other in one sentence, what would it be?

Why is this one so hard? Had me thinking of Taren as a companion being asked his thoughts on Dorian bc I was trying to fill out that template earlier so.

"He's... very charming. And handsome. Smart, too. But... well he's here for the right reasons, and he says what he means. You can trust him."

INQUISITOR: Sounds a little like you're in love with him.

Taren: Yeah, guess I am. And Dorian looks dreamily into the middle distance and says "Great ass, great mind. And Maker, that hair."

12. Do they have differing political opinions?

Not... really? I think Taren radicalizes Dorian a bit. I mean his whole arc is definitely about finding his drive and his sense of responsibility to go back home and push for change, and canonically I think the inquisition gets credited with that no matter what you do but I do think that Taren very much inspires him to be more responsible and think deeper about some of his more entrenched views/the values of his home. Also they argue about slavery and Taren wins it pretty quickly lol. I don't think they like politics the same way, Taren kind of hates the bureaucracy and manipulation but he's good at speeches and negotiations and (even if he hates it) doing the rounds of friendly handshaking at fancy events. Dorian is good at bureaucracy and enjoys the manipulation and schemes and the fancy events, but I think he appreciates having someone to rant to who takes things seriously. If they disagree they proceed to have like a six hour long civil debate about it until they don't XD

25. What moves do they know work on the other?

On Taren: the absolute worst lines. Start with bold flirtation, end with something syrupy and self-aware and deliberately too much so that it's funny, proceed back to bold flirtation. Also straight-faced dirty talk whispered in his ear in public. just saying.

On Dorian: There's a look, and a certain tone of voice, but also, tell him you love him.

#Taren just listing attractive qualities like #ask me things!

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dimancheetoile · 4 years ago

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I read your tags for dragon age and like I n DA4 we'll be in Tevinter. Mages already rule and they actively subjugate and even enslave people. Do you think you would still side with mages? I have always sided with mages bc yeah but Tevinter isn't like the rest of Thedas. What do you think bc I've been struggling with this thought since the first teaser...

hey there! so first, i’d like to say that it’s very likely i won’t pay da4. I hated DAI on many, many levels, and though I did enjoy some things, it’s overall a game I don’t like and wouldn’t recommend to anyone. So if da4 resembles DAI more than it does DA2 or DAO, I probably won’t play it.

But for the sake of argument, and just in case I do end up playing it, here’s what I think:

1. I don’t think they’ll have us side once more on the mage/templar debate. They’ve done that for the past two games (and arguably in DAO too, although it was a less prevalent plot point) and I don’t think that conflict has the same weight in Tevinter. Templars are basically useless in that context, because mages have such a different societal rank, place, and power, that you can’t think of them as mages.

I’m going to give an example that I think is fitting. See how black people are treated in north-america, and the power law enforcement has over them? Let’s say black people are mages, and law enforcement are the templars. In that context, siding with the templars is a terrible thing to do, considering the oppression and the power they have over mages. Now let’s say you suddenly move to Mali, or Ghana. The population will be an overwhelming majority of black people, with law enforcement being of the same ethnicity. Now, every disparity in power between citizens and law enforcement will come from the inherent inbalance between those two groups, and the civil rights breaches will be limited to human rights, and not racism anymore. Does that make sense? I hope it does. So if your Ferelden, for ex, is the US, then Tevinter is Ghana. Suddenly, siding with the mages doesn’t make sense anymore. It’s like being in Ghana and saying you side with black people. I sure hope you do, it’s their fucking country!

So that’s why I think the devs won’t write in the mage/templar conflict. I personally think the conflict will be more in line with Fenris’ storyline in DA2. I think they’ll have you choose between siding with the Magisterium, the people in power, in order to gain an alliance or something to fight the big bad threat, and between siding with, most likely, either a slave rebellion or the mages of lower class Tevinter, who aren’t Magisters, just mages (I know there’s a canon word for it but I can’t remember).

In that case, I’d personally side with the slaves, all day, every day. Now, what they could do to make that choice very interesting and agonizing, would be to be unequivocally brutal about the consequences. For ex, because you pissed off the Magisters and sided with the slaves, the Magisters won’t join you in the big battle. You therefor have so little forces that the losses you suffer in the battle are tremendous. I’m talking companions dying permenantly, civilian death, many slaves dying if they join you, etc. Now, your choice is interesting. Do you free the slaves or aid the lower class mages, in exchange for most of their lives? Or do you side with the Magisters, keeping the slaves alive but still in slavery?

Anyway, that was me fantasying about the writers having balls and finally writing consequences for their so-called “big choices”.

But let’s actually answer your question.

2. I would still side with the mages, if the mage/templar conflict was maintained. Here’s my reasoning: all the bad shit we hear about Tevinter comes from the Chantry, who hates them, ex-slaves or mages who suffered under their power, or templars who are basically just the Chantry 2.0. Now, the bad shit you hear about the Templar is, imo, so much fucking worse. Because to me, slavery is NOT related to the Magisters being mages. It’s related to them being awful fucking people, bigots and racists and morally bankrupt. I don’t believe that to be an inherent quality of mages. So, in a matter of civil rights, should I refuse black people rights because there are looters in BLM protests? Fuck no. My hope is that the writers will be clever about this and siding with mages won’t mean siding with slavers, because that would undermine the message they tried to get across in the last three games (as awkward as it was). Forcing us to side with the templars because suddenly mages are assholes will be an empty-ass choice.

3. Magisters don’t equal Mages. I’m pretty sure it’s Dorian who makes a point of this, but my memories of DAI are fuzzier than those of the other two games so I could be wrong. So we could side with the mages without siding with the Imperium, depending on how the writers handle it

4. Templars are just so fucking terribles, and that includes to themselves. Samson is such a sad character, seriously. Not only do they destroy mages’ lives, but they destroy the lives of their own recruits. I will never not be angry whenever I see that cutscene with Cullen where he’s such an abusive asshole to Willmord in DA2, after the poor guy was tortured and abused. And when you free the other recruit, he’s punished and set back years if you select the right options, and down-right expelled or killed, which will lead to his sister dying of starvation too. So the “good” ending is this guy stuck in the same rank for 10 years because he was tortured? WTF??? And Cullen is like “oh yeah this is such a good thing i’m doing for him” like fuck this guy omfg i hate him. Ahem. anyway.

5. In the end, I think it comes to this: the conflict is different in Tevinter because the culture is different. If the writers do their job right, the conflict should reflect that. If they don’t, it’ll suck ass but I’d still side with the mages. Putting up Templars to replace Magisters in the Imperium won’t be what frees the slaves or gets the lower class mages out of poverty, trust me on that. On the contrary, even. When have they shown an ounce of compassion or kindness, and especially for slaves, elves and mages?

Wow that got very long, but I’m passionate about this. Hope that helps! Feel free to ask other stuff if you want to keep discussing this, I think it’s a very interesting topic. Thanks for asking and have a great day, my friend.

#mako talks #da #dragon age #dragon age meta #mages & templars #Anonymous

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crossdressingdeath · 4 years ago

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So thinking more about the whole Thing in DA (who's right, who's wrong, which characters are monsters, which ones are heroes...) is that it shouldn't matter which side you're on in the mage/Templar debate or whether you like Anders or hate him or what you think about Cullen; what Bioware did with the story post-DA2 (and honestly even in DA2, especially towards the end) is... a problem? It's a problem! Like, even if you think Anders really is a "crazy mage terrorist blowing up the Chantry because he wants a fight", the fact that the game forces you to take that viewpoint and only shows things that agree with that viewpoint even if you agree with him at every possible opportunity to the point of Hawke at best not being sure if he's a hero or a monster even if you specifically make the choice in the Keep that Hawke supported him all the way is an issue! Even if you think Cullen is the goodest boy to ever exist, the fact that Inquisition won't allow you to disagree with him or talk back to him (beyond letting him remain addicted to lyrium who the fuck decided that was a good idea) is bad! Because Bioware has proved that in this game about choice and grey morality they are prepared to tell you which side they've decided is unambiguously right no matter what you try to do.

And here's the thing; the mage/Templar storyline is winding down. Cullen's probably not going to be in the next game and Anders's chances are pretty slim (please don't let them drag him into DA4 we all know how they'll treat him). Who's to say which characters and positions Bioware will decide are right or wrong in the next game? I mean, Dorian has that painful conversation in Inquisition about how maybe slavery is okay if you really think about it that you're not really allowed to argue with; I'd say that's a pretty bad sign! Especially since we're going into Tevinter, slavery central!

And it's important to keep in mind that Bioware could easily have gone the opposite direction, made it impossible to say a word against Anders and had everyone call Cullen a mindless monster who only wanted violence. Sure, it's great when their position of choice agrees with yours, but... that's not always guaranteed to be the case. I mean, they pretty much did a 180 on the mage/Templar issue after Origins; you're pretty clearly not supposed to side with the people arguing for murdering children without even trying to help them because they couldn't do their one job of preventing demonic possession, but by Inquisition it's a lot more positive towards them to the point of forcing you to pretty much treat the mages like children if you side with them at all while your commander berates you for not picking the Templars and you're constantly told that the Templars are the real victims because the job that most of the ones we meet chose (with the only one I can think of who didn't choose wanting out from the moment he saw what was required of him) came with some nasty side effects (not to disparage the lyrium addiction thing, it's fucked up that the Chantry does that to them, but it's important to keep in mind that most of them wanted the job; the mages didn't even have that much freedom).

Basically... even if you like that you can't say a kind word about Anders or an even slightly harsh word to Cullen and Inquisition pushes you to side with the Templars until the moment you lock in your choice (and then scolds you through Cullen if you picked the mages) after two whole games of showing Templars as either incompetent or malevolent, it's important to keep in mind that Bioware's chosen Correct Path matches yours this time... but it might not next time. And of course a game about choice and freedom and grey morality shouldn't have a chosen Correct Path to begin with, because that's not the writers' job.

#dragon age

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loghainmactir · 6 years ago

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I think it’s ridiculous the amount of fans Anders has in comparison to loghain, like Loghain saved thousands from being killed at Ost, saved ferelden from Orlais, etc but he’s forever bad because one act of slavery, but Anders blows up hundreds of random civilian people mages and elves and humans and Dwarves that’s okay and super justified - people can be freed from slavery, people can’t be freed from being dead yet it’s more controversial to defend loghain than Anders?

I’ve been thinking about how to respond to this since I woke up. Usually I don’t get involved in this sort of thing because I think it’s probably one of the reasons fandom’s SO toxic these days– character hate isn’t my thing and it never will be, because realistically everyone gets different things from different characters and that’s fine unless it’s cullen, we oppress cullen stans in this house

BUT this is a Take that i’m willing to discuss because the more I think about it the more I find myself disagreeing with it. And in a good way, not a “boo you’re wrong fuck you!” way. So, here’s my Thoughts™:

First off, I think you’re looking at Loghain’s actions in a really, really flippant way, bordering on Loghain Did Nothing Wrong. I’ve absolutely said it before, and I’ll say it again: personally, I think Loghain was a lot less involved with that slavery business than Origins makes it out and it’s largely something Howe manipulated into action, BUT like Loghain says in Just You And I to Padril: that doesn’t matter. He still participated in it. That’s still really fucking bad. (And it especially doesn’t matter in Origins’ narrative, where it’s never really explained why he did it and he’s portrayed as the Main Perpetrator)

I think you’re missing the Point of “why slavery is really fucking bad”, which… y’know, could be for a number of reasons, but I digress. The alienage elves are never actually mentioned again, and it’s probably for good reason: they were sold to Tevinter, for christ’s sake, the “we use slaves regularly for reason and we’ll actively debate about Why Slavery Isn’t That Bad! :)” country. They are almost undoubtedly lost among the hundreds of other elven slaves, if not actively being hidden and abused, if not straight up dead.

(Upon this thought, I was like “oh fuck, what if DA4′s protag is one of these slaves? What if it’s a child of one of Ferelden’s slaves and we run into Loghain and the Warden?” oof. good fic idea.)

Anyway: “people can be freed from slavery, not from death” is… bad. It’s like, look at it this way: even IF someone were to free those elves, they’re still suffering from the trauma of abuse. That shit lasts a lifetime, and we don’t even really know what they’d be subjected to: considering Fenris, we don’t know how far that treatment is spread across Tevinter. Fenris believes ALL magisters do this, Dorian says otherwise.

It’s also important to note that Loghain didn’t just do that. “What Loghain Did Wrong” would be an entirely different, far bigger post, but “Loghain saved thousands from being killed at Ostagar” is a much easier point to tackle: he also was, indirectly, the death of thousands at Ostagar. Logic says that withdrawing DID save thousands of soldiers’ lives, but you also have to admit that we also don’t know. Maybe the plan COULD have gone well, and Loghain’s advance might’ve saved the day and Cailan and thousands of other soldiers would still be alive. Maybe they all would’ve died, Loghain and Cailan and Cauthrien and all of their soldiers. We just don’t know, but it’s important to recognize.

My other thought was that this ask got me thinking about Anders and Loghain in comparison! So, Anders: severely traumatized and abused. Spent months, iirc, in solitary confinement, years being abused by templars, and in DA2, he’s looking to free his fellow mages from oppression. Anders suffers from pretty severe mental illnesses. Loghain: severely traumatized by the Orlesians, him & his country are abused by them. In Stolen Throne, he’s looking to free Ferelden from oppression. Severe mental illness. Same character!

I’m kidding, but the comparisons are there and they’re super interesting. Someone smarter than I could probably delve more into it. I was gonna say something else but I got super distracted so this’ll have to do for now (and it kinda turned too big anyway lmao). All this being said, I actually enjoy Anders’ character as well, I think he’s super interesting but probably needed better writing (though, realistically, considering he’s so polarizing as is, that probably speaks to how he’s written, huh?). I think they’re both really complex characters with complex motivations.

Have a nice day!

#loghain mac tir #anders #dragon age #long post #asks #anon #but that's basically it

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dalishious · 6 years ago

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(1/?) hi! i sent an ask about this before, idk if tumblr ate it or if u just hated it fklfsljf but i have 2 q's about my elf quizzy's backstory. she grew up in the hasmal alienage + her parents were escaped slaves, then let to find the dalish when her magic appeared and i was wondering: 1) having grown up in the alienage she was obvs exposed to the chant etc. is it ok to have her believe in elven gods AND the maker or do u think that reinforce bw's bs that assimilation is the cure to bigotry?

(2/?) question 2: obvs as a child of escaped slaves she feels v strongly about slavery and dorian's attitude towards it pisses her off. to preface i am whitey mcwhiterson; her original incarnation is ethnically tevene so SE asian and im debating whether it'd be more or less Problematique to have her backstory so closely tied to slavery if she was white... given that the oppressors in this situation are POC. i dont want it to be the white lady teaching the savage brown ppl the evils of slavery

(3/3) BUT i also don't want the tired "character of colour = slavery angst" trope?? BUT BUT then you have characters like fenris and the fact that most of the tevinter slaves we've seen have been POC? add in the fact that she's a brown woman written by a white woman yelling at a brown man written by a racist white man about how slavery is bad and it's just uhh confusing. since i really like + respect you i thought i might as well ask.

1) I think it’s a different situation when your character grew up Andrastian but then left to join the Dalish, than a Dalish elf growing up Dalish but then having everyone around them shove the Maker down their throat. I personally would not call that assimilation in the same way.If that’s how your character feels, that’s their prerogative, right? But they shouldn’t be going around telling other Dalish elves that they too should believe in the Maker, and otherwise trying to insert Andrastianism into what they believe! Because that would be falling under BioWare’s BS IMO.

2) Oh man, this is indeed a tough case because of all that shit. I think it’s a good sign that you are looking at things with a critical eye--to me that says that you’re trying your best to be conscious of what you’re saying directly and indirectly. (If only Gaider himself did that...) IDK if this is in a story your writing, in which case, would it may be be possible to just write Dorian a little differently in that aspect? I think that’d be the easiest way around things...But as the game stands, I mean, I personally would suggest just treading carefully and make sure that the fact that her parents were slaves is her entire defining trait, (but I’m guessing that’s not the case by your message).I would also suggest being especially open to hearing from South East Asian fans, and be sure to support their own stuff!

#advice #fit for a queue #Anonymous #ask

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90363462 · 2 years ago

Link

Among Kanye’s West’s defenders, the thinking goes like this: He is a genius, a freethinker, an elevated conscience. They may not like or agree with everything he does, but they applaud the man.

So I’m not here to argue about whether West is a genius, although when people refer to themselves as such, it tends to undercut the appellation.

This newspaper itself has repeatedly called West a genius, so it would behoove him, I suppose, to run with the branding.

“While Mozart had his share of sorrow and loss and frustration like the rest of us, he was fundamentally a happy man. He wrote for public consumption, which is to say that he was a professional in a way few composers are anymore. Still, on the whole he did what he wanted to do the way he wanted to, and when he was done he didn’t worry overmuch about what the public thought of it.”

Last week, West caused a firestorm by wearing a “White lives matter” shirt at his fashion show in Paris. The Anti-Defamation League labels “White lives matter” a “white supremacist phrase” and has written that, since 2015, “white supremacists in several states, especially members of the Texas-based white supremacist group Aryan Renaissance Society, have promoted the slogan” as part of “a loose campaign to popularize the phrase.”

Well, last week, West gave the white supremacists a boost.

West is the same man who in 2013 was selling merchandise with Confederate flags on tour. As he explained to a radio station that year about people’s appalled reactions:

Kanye pitches it as co-option, but it is, in fact, basic shock-value antics that promote and normalize anti-Black hate symbols.

After the latest outcry over the “White lives matter” shirt he wore at Fashion Week, West continued his publicity seeking by going on Fox News to elaborate. The interview was a jumble of themes in which he attempted to weave together godliness, artistic inspiration, personal persecution, disdain for institutions, anti-abortion talking points, an inversion on the ideas around racism and his support for Donald Trump. You know, core ideas of the modern right wing.

West says of the shirt, “The answer to why I wrote ‘White lives matter’ on a shirt is because they do.” He plays oblivious to the obvious.

West is a Black man sampling vintage anti-Black racism, remixing and releasing it under a new label: the tortured Black genius

Among Kanye’s West’s defenders, the thinking goes like this: He is a genius, a freethinker, an elevated conscience. They may not like or agree with everything he does, but they applaud the man.

So I’m not here to argue about whether West is a genius, although when people refer to themselves as such, it tends to undercut the appellation.

This newspaper itself has repeatedly called West a genius, so it would behoove him, I suppose, to run with the branding.

Well, last week, West gave the white supremacists a boost.

West is the same man who in 2013 was selling merchandise with Confederate flags on tour. As he explained to a radio station that year about people’s appalled reactions:

Kanye pitches it as co-option, but it is, in fact, basic shock-value antics that promote and normalize anti-Black hate symbols.

West says of the shirt, “The answer to why I wrote ‘White lives matter’ on a shirt is because they do.” He plays oblivious to the obvious.

West is a Black man sampling vintage anti-Black racism, remixing and releasing it under a new label: the tortured Black genius.

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lcgacyofages · 4 years ago

Text

I’m going to class, but I was going through old documents and found this old Rajmahel x Dorian drabble I felt like sharing.

Dorian had rarely seen Rajmahel as relaxed as when they were with the Dalish camp in the Exalted Plains. He couldn’t help but find a bit of amusement as the younger elves gathered around Rajmahel as he spoke of what his clan knew, having discussions and debates with the elder members of the clan, but all the while, seeming more at ease than he’d seen him with the Inquisition.

He supposed it made sense, this was the world Rajmahel had been raised in. Not anything with fancy buildings, courtly intrigue, and shiny things, like jewels and gold. Instead, he watched as Rajmahel gladly helped mend wagons, tend to the Halla, and be...A part of a community. Sure, he’d done similar things with the Inquisition on and off. But there was a homey charm to his features with the Dalish, whereas with the Inquisition, Dorian had noticed there was some uncertainty in his face, seeming to not be sure how people would react.

Rajmahel had settled by the river, splashing some of the water up onto his face and Dorian couldn’t help but take in the view of the shirtless elf. He’d been working hard with the Dalish people to prepare their camp to move. He watched as Rajmahel rubbed a sore shoulder, noting how his back muscles moved. Dorian sucked in a breath, amazed at how much the man before him could affect him, make his mind run wild, even with the simplest of gestures. He’d have to do something about that—and soon.

As if feeling eyes on him, Rajmahel turned and caught Dorian’s gaze with his bright amber-orange eyes and Dorian’s grey eyes softened slightly. Maker, how could he have made someone as beautiful as Rajmahel.

“Something on your mind?” There was a playful tone in Rajmahel’s voice, something Dorian found enticing and wanting to hear often.

“Merely enjoying you in your natural habitat,” he purred, pushing off of the tree he had leaned against and making his way over to Rajmahel. There was an amused, quizzical look on his face as he looked up at Dorian, seeming to want him to elaborate. “I’ve seen you happily bound about mountain sides, move swiftly through the woods, know what plant to pick and what plant to avoid...Yet here, with your people...You seem even more confident than back at Skyhold.”

“Can you blame me?” Rajmahel asked. “This is what I was raised with.”

“Hard labor? Moving place to place? Uncertainty?”

“Yes.” Rajmahel turned back to the river, scooping up some water and brushing back his hair with it. He looked at his reflection for a moment, Dorian coming to stand behind him. “I was the Keeper’s First, training to eventually be a leader for my clan. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s you can’t lead while sitting on a cushion and barking orders. You lead by example, by being there for your people. At least...That’s how it is with the Dalish. Shemlen—humans—still confuse me at times.”

“Do you trust us?” The longer it took Rajmahel to answer, the harder that was for Dorian to swallow.

“I’m...I’m trying,” Rajmahel finally confessed, still not looking at Dorian. “My clan is more open than other clans are about dealing with humans but that doesn’t mean we entirely trust them. Not after slavery and poverty...It’s hard for an elf to gain a standing in the human world.”

“Yet here you are,” Dorian countered. “Defying the odds, leader of the Inquisition...Perhaps you’re the turning point for your people.”

“Perhaps.” It was short and the tone was wistful. “I won’t hold my breath, though.”

“And here you’re usually the optimistic one,” Dorian grumbled, leaning against a boulder.

“I have to keep you guessing, don’t I?” The playful smirk Rajmahel threw at Dorian caused a fluttering sensation and he had to take a breath.

“And how do you plan on doing that?” Dorian playfully retorted, watching as Rajmahel rose to a stand.

“I have a few ideas,” he countered, moving close to Dorian and placing a heated kiss to his lips. Dorian gladly returned the kiss, moving to rest his hands on Rajmahel’s hips, pulling him closer to him.

“That’s not fair, now you’re trying to distract me from the conversation,” Dorian murmured against his lips.

“Is it working?” The heat in Rajmahel’s tone only added a thrill to Dorian.

“Perhaps.” The way Rajmahel chuckled only enticed Dorian more and he pressed a new kiss to the other’s lips, running his fingers through his rich, red hair. They’d talk about it later, right now the feeling of Rajmahel pressing against him, the sound of the river, the cool breeze brushing against them…

Well, that conversation would spoil the whole mood.

#Character: Rajmahel Lavellan #Drabble: Rajmahel Lavellan #Ship: Rajmahel x Dorian

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the-jade-goblin · 7 years ago

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Odd numbers from the most recent ship meme for Pavellan!

AAAH THANKS SIS ;

1. How do they fall asleep? Wake up? Any daily rituals?

They fall asleep mostly like how they wake up, and that’s curled up in each other’s arms ^//^ Assan’s usually the one bundled up against Dorian’s chest, but on occasion Assan will shimmy his way to hug Dorian from behind. He likes to wake Dorian with kisses down the side of his face.

Assan is an early-riser, he wakes with the sun, so he’s usually sitting on the balcony drinking his morning tea by the time Dorian wakes. He likes to watch Dorian get ready for the day, and he especially loves helping his button his tunics and buckles (sleepy grumpy Dorian is adorable and Assan loves it)

Dorian’s a night owl, so he’s in bed later than Assan. Oftentimes Assan waits for him, but usually falls asleep before he comes to bed. Before bed though Assan does yoga stretches like he does in the morning, and Dorian will indulge himself to watch over his book.

3. Are they open about their relationship? How do they feel about public displays of affection?

At first no, if only because Dorian was so hesitant about being public. Assan hardly kept it secret, but he did Dorian the courtesy of doing no big public displays of affection until he was ready. Once he’s comfortable with their relationship, they couldn’t care who knows. They’re usually touching in some form whenever they’re in the same room together, even if it’s just brushing up against each other’s shoulders.

Dorian loves public displays of affection; it means he can be free to be who he is, and is free to express his love for the amazing man next to him without being afraid of judgement. Assan loves them too, he adores Dorian and he wants people to know that, and he wants Dorian to be assured that he loves him always

5. Nicknames? Pet names? Any in-jokes?

I’ve answered this one but I’ll answer it again here

Assan calls Dorian ma’arla which means “my home” in Elvehn, and of course Dorian calls Assan amatus.

Other names by which Assan calls Dorian are; emma lath (my love), ma sa’lath (my one love), and variations of my darling/dearest/dear Dorian

Other names Dorian calls Assan are; my wild wood elf, handsome, my dear

Most of their inside jokes are sexual haha

7. What annoys them the most about their partner? Would they change it if they could?

Assan’s damn selflessness is what annoys Dorian to no end. That man will burn the very ground he stands on to help others regardless of his own safety. Making sure he doesn’t kill himself is a full-time occupation.

Dorian’s dismissiveness on some issues, and arrogance on others, irritates Assan sometimes. They communicate well however, so it’s not usually much of an issue.

No, they would never change each other even if they could.

9. Do they discuss big issues? Religion? Marriage? Children? Death?

Death came up frequently during Inquisition, since they seemed to be walking into it ever other day. Religion is also a big topic for debate for them, since Dorian is Andrastian and Assan is very devoted to the elven gods. They have a mutual respect for each other’s beliefs.

Marriage came up but once, just after Trespasser. It just sort of happened, unplanned but not unwelcome. Assan was depressed at the time, moody and unresponsive to any effort to cheer him up, very unlike himself. He was convinced Dorian would leave him now he was, as he put it “a husk of a man” and a “cripple”. He wouldn’t let anyone into his rooms for days, until Dorian forced his way through to try and talk some sense into him. He talked for hours, Assan barely responding, until eventually, he just asked Assan to marry him right then and there.

It was the only thing that got a response from Assan. Dorian wasn’t leaving him, now or ever, and that realisation made Assan cry for an hour. They got married the next day, before Dorian left for Tevinter.

11. Do they celebrate holidays? Anniversaries?

They do!

Their first Satanalia was interesting, Assan had never heard of it before so the date snuck up on him; he heard it in passing around the Keep, and immediately panicked about finding Dorian a suitable gift. He went to Varric for help.

Of course Assan took it upon himself to find the Perfect Gift, and that made him extremely distant for many weeks, so much so that it caused fights between him and Dorian. On one such fight Dorian just walked away and Assan was so scared he wasn’t coming back, but Varric snapped at him in the tavern about what Assan was actually doing, and Dorian came back red-faced and touched.

They almost missed their first anniversary, being so busy with the Inquisition the fact that they’d been together a year nearly passed them by. They try to out-do one another every year.

13. What do they do for fun? Do they have a favorite activity or do they like to switch things up?

Reading Swords and Shields or Hard in Hightown aloud is always fun, especially over wine. Assan can’t read so Dorian reads and drinks while Assan lounges on his lap and smiles up at him.

Speaking of wine, they love to drink wine and talk about whatever on the balcony. They don’t usually train together, but Dorian loves to watch Assan when he trains.

Assan also likes to take Dorian on little adventures in the wilderness and teach him stuff about the flora and fauna around the place.

15. How adventurous are they?

I’d say fairly adventurous, though they both like to indulge in the familiar too

17. What would make them break up? Would it be permanent?

Only one thing could break them up, and it almost did. Dorian wanted Assan to stay away from Tevinter, for his own safety if nothing else, but a year after he returned to take his father’s place in the Magestirium, Assan followed.

Assan spent that year in Kirkwall building up his spy network and contacts, and when he was ready he travelled to Tevinter to establish the Vhenallin, and all-elvehn network to free elves across Thedas, and establish an army to combat Solas’ own forces. Their mission; to break down Tevinter’s slave system from within. He neglected to tell Dorian about his network or his intentions, and Dorian only found out when he literally ran into him and his agents during an attempt on Dorian’s life.

He wasn’t happy. Assan was defensive. Dorian walked away. Assan let him go, but he still kept his agents outside his manor to combat any threat that came his way. Dorian eventually cooled down, his two apprentices also helped him see reason, and he called Assan back to apologise. The two made up, though it was a near thing.

19. What do they fight about? What are their arguments like? How do they make up?

Pretty much what I’ve already talked about. They only fight occasionally, and the topics they’ve fought about to date are; slavery, putting themselves in harms way, the Tevinter-fiasco, and one of them trying to protect the other too much despite the fact that they can take care of themselves.

Their arguments usually include a lot of shouting, the occasional knife-threat from Assan, and a lot of slammed doors. A lot of crying on occasion too.

Their makeups involve a lot of crying too. And hugs.

21. Do they share any interests or hobbies?

Not exactly, but they encourage each other’s hobbies and are always interested to learn more about them from each other.

23. How do they hug? Kiss? Tease? Flirt? Comfort?

Very often,and very sweetly, that’s how. Teasing/flirting generally involves Dorian smooth-talking Assan, Assan being coy, then Assan getting shy and flustered, and Dorian falling that much more in love with him.

Comforting involves hugs, hand-holding, and soft kisses (not on the lips though). Kissing with them is more often than not, very passionate, and very emotive. They say a lot through their kisses. Sometimes Assan will kiss Dorian for no reason at all, though it still says a lot - mostly utter adoration.

25. How much time do they spend together? Do they share their feelings, or hold things in?

Since they became friendly in the Inquisition, there wasn’t a day where they weren’t together. It was strange for Dorian to leave alone for Tevinter, and hard on both of them.

Assan is very free with his feelings, Dorian tends to bottle things in.

27. Do they have kids? Grow old together? Split up?

They don’t have kids per say, but Assan’s kid sister becomes Dorian’s charge in Tevinter while she’s studying in the Circle there, and the two do more or less raise her.

They do grow old together, forever a power couple too

29. How do the handle disasters or emergencies? Minor injuries? Sickness?

Ughhhh Dorian worries so much about Assan for the smallest things! It’s honestly so very endearing, Assan is never bothered by it, besides he’s kinda the same whenever Dorian’s hurt too.

31. Do they finish each other’s sentences? Pick up any phrases or habits from each other? Know when the other is hiding something?

Haha they’re not so in-tune that they finish each other’s sentences no, but they do pick up a few habits from each other. Little things, like the way one makes the bed in the morning, to how they drink their wine, to swearing in each other’s mother tongue.

They always know when one of them is hiding something; Assan’s an open-book, his emotion’s written on his face, and Assan knows Dorian too well for him to hide anything from him.

33. What kind of presents do they get each other? Do they only do it on special occasions?

Assan does it whenever and wherever, it can be anything from a pressed flower from a far-off location to a book he thought Dorian would like. He likes giving Dorian things. Dorian usually only gives gifts on special occasions, and they usually have very special meanings.

35. Do they bring out the best in each other, or the worst? Do they have a fatal flaw?

Dorian likes to say Assan brings out the best in him, that he’s a better person for having him in his life, and Assan would say the same about Dorian. But Dorian can also bring out the worst in Assan; and that’s his vicious temper. No one can rile up his notorious anger quite like Dorian save perhaps the Venatori and slavers.

37. How much would they be willing to sacrifice for the other? Any lines they refuse to cross?

Assan would sacrifice anything for Dorian. There would never be the question; just whatever the cost he would pay it. Dorian honestly doesn’t know how he inspires such loyalty, but he’d willingly do the same for Assan.

If one of them died, Assan would draw the line at blood magic to bring Dorian back - Dorian would not, even if he knew Assan would revile his methods, he’d do anything to bring Assan back to him.

39. Who initiated the relationship? Who kissed who first? When did they realize they were in love?

Dorian. Assan is a very cautious person, with his only prior ‘experience’ being abuse from his master, so he waited. His freak out when Dorian did proposition him confused him, but Assan’s stuttering explanation and hurried apologises only served to endear him even further to the man. They took things slow.

Assan kissed Dorian first though, he expresses himself through physical affections and early on he wanted to make his intentions towards Dorian clear with innocent kisses that developed into more...well, involved kisses let’s just say

Assan realised he was in love, shortly after the experience with Dorian’s father. He wanted nothing more than to take the sadness out of Dorian’s life and give him nothing but love and happiness.

Dorian didn’t realise he was in love for a very long time, though he probably fell in love with Assan sometimes after their first night together, or just before, it didn’t really hit him until the Fade when Assan sent him ahead of the Nightmare and didn’t follow. Thinking he lost him...hit something inside Dorian, made him realise why he couldn’t lose him.

41. Are they party-goers? What are they like when they’re drunk? Does it happen often?

Assan loathes parties, but Dorian enjoys them so he’ll suffer through them for him. Plus he’d never turn down an opportunity to see Dorian all dressed up.

Assan is a giggly drunk, while Dorian is an affectionate drunk. They’re drunk often when they’re drinking just the two of them, but in public they keep more or less sober lest they do something...inappropriate.

43. Do they talk often? What about?

They talk all the time. About everything.

45. Any special dreams or goals they have as a couple? Any heartbreaks? Regrets?

Reforming Tevinter remains a big dream of both Dorian and Assan, and its a goal they work towards together. As a couple the only true heartbreaks they’ve experience are when they had to say goodbye to each other.

Regrets? I’d say no. To regret is to wish to change something, and and if they changed something in the past, they may not have ended up where they are now, and they’re quite happy with where they are.

Whew this took forever! My psychology textbook is glaring at me for not picking it up all night, but worth it!

#pavellan #assan lavellan #dorian pavus #otp asks #dragon age #dragon age inquisition #galpalaven

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dgcatanisiri · 3 years ago

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Well, fandom is no monolithic whole and it’s past time we acknowledge that - fandom is a confused beast that actively moves in one direction as it claims it wants to go the other, and the moment it turns around, it says the same thing as before.

However, I think there HAS to be a compromise with the characters who challenge us and the characters getting along - it’s not “bowing down and kissing my ass” to want to find common ground between characters.

Like, I’m gonna take some low-hanging fruit on this topic - when it comes to Vivienne, I respect that she has her opinions on mages’ rights and freedoms. My problem is that, in a character all about nuance and layered meaning, the Inquisitor can’t debate her and see her acknowledge their points or even give ground. She says “mages were hardly the underdogs in the eyes of the people of Thedas, the rebellion was foolish,” and I WANT to say “with the vote passing by such a narrow margin, if Fiona had refused to honor it, wouldn’t there have just been a thousand scattered uprisings anyway? That by having an organized rebellion, there could be disavowal of the mages who run around, burninating the countryside, rather than an outright free-for-all?”

Or when we have Dorian brush off the comments about slavery - I would want to argue with him the difference of poverty and slavery. Bring up the expanded cast - Varric knows an escaped slave who spent a lot of time on the run from slavers who would return him to a man Dorian and his family may well have dined with, Krem’s father sold himself into slavery because slave labor undercut his business, Gatt was an escaped slave who chose the Qun over remaining in slavery. Hell, let Lavellans speak on slavery and have the ability to bring up having their own brushes with those who would kidnap Dalish, or Adaars bring up that, as a merc, they’ve seen what life is like for the poverty and the slaves, and they’d take poverty over slavery any day. Make this a front and center conversation with him, not something he brushes off and we just accept.

The problem isn’t asking for characters to worship the PC as perfect flawless beyond compare. It’s asking to be able to engage with the characters and see them have an arc, be able to see them give ground, rather than just demand to take it from you. The Warden and Hawke could nudge characters in certain ways, or encourage certain responses from them if they did the work. The Inquisitor gets no work to see their companions grow and develop and change over time, not unless it can be some grand gesture. But actual growth and development and change is the result of a dozen moments, not one big event.

CONFESSION:

When it comes to characters I think a lot comes down to, whether people want a game full of characters they only like? Or do people want a game with a variety of characters (where some of them they won't like, just like in real life)?I've seen posts from the fandom claiming they want flawed, imperfect people but to me it doesn't seem this way. I see people wanting characters/companions to be flawless and likable only which for me feels ridiculous and contrived

I prefer interesting flawed characters with their own opinions (sometimes unpopular) that challenge me and the other companions/characters rather than having everyone bow down and kiss my protagonist's ass.

#dragon age #confessions

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jamiedodgerart · 7 years ago

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if you're happy to tell us, i'd love to head more about ur inquisitor :00!! his debates with dorian sound fun

:DDD yeah sure! soz this is late

pica’s 1/6 of an inch tall

(im kidding. his name was originally a pun, but not a typography one - he’s a rehash of an old oc i had way back in the day, who was based off a magpie. hes actually on the short side for a dwarf, i want to say around 4′3″)

he was a lyrium smuggler before the inquisition, and specifically was the front man who sold it. he’s a champion liar and man of many faces, and knows how to disappear in plain sight (which is easy if you’re a dwarf and most law enforcement on the surface are humans. to a human guard dwarves all look the same and theyre too short to really get a good look at their faces). he had a pretty transient lifestyle- he didn’t get tied down, didn’t get too attached to anyone or anything, had pretty few posessions. he was 26 (or the dwarf equivalent of 26. hows dwarf aging work in dragon age anyway) when the carta got him to spy at the conclave, and you know how that went

look ok. the first half of his career as inquisitor was just. wingin’ it. no one really knew what the fuck he was supposed to be doing, least of all him, so he just pretended he knew what he was doing till, i wanna say the end of into the abyss. after talking to mal hawke some he learned that, hey, everyone’s always winging it, and also that his decisions kind of really mattered. (and that those decisions he makes can. kill people) for the first time in his life, he realizes hes actually important, and what he does changes things on the large scale

so after that, he got to thinking. the world kinda sucks. and it sucked before the war. and the leaders of thedas are really not doing all that much about it, except trying to kick each other in the nuts while their enemies are weak and completely forgetting that politics Cannot Survive as a practice if theres no farmers able to make food for diplomats to eat. so, orlais, if your farmland is all gunched up with battlefields, then you need to fix that, don’t you. but the inquisition is really, really good at providing stability! it’s good at establishing patrols, safe trade routes, providing local employment, and is a fairly reliable consumer of local goods. so pica capitalized on that, and quietly spread inquisition presence all over southern thedas. this led to immense inquisition influence, with very little fanfare.

you can guess why the rulers of thedas tried to get rid of him as soon after corypheus was taken care of as possible. they branded him a tyrant and like. ok. they werent like. super far off. bc at this point he was kinda trying to see how much of the world he could take over before anyone noticed/tried to stop him and also figured he could do like, a way better job at leading it than the current rulers could. and he wasnt beholden to anyone either (not like empress celene! elected to her throne by… uhhhhhhhhhhh divine providence or something. i mean shes doing an ok job but like i didnt vote for her) so if he really really wanted to he could go full dragon reborn

ive got off topic but point is he figures humans have had their go and they fucked it up, so it’s a dwarf’s turn and he’s going to put the world back together himself. (ps hey bioware can we have some dwarf stuff in the next game. im js. weve had a whole load of elf nonsense and its nice and all but dwarfs had a cool ancient society too yknow)

after trespasser he elects to keep the inquisition around, because he worked hard to make this glue keeping the bits of thedas stuck together and he’ll be damned if he’ll let solarse and his minions screw it up. but it gets nerfed heavily and hes pissed about it

he romanced cassandra! i really like their relationship- they look to each other for moral guidance. pica knows he can get flighty and relies on her to keep him in line, and always asks her for advice when he sees her in the courtyard. he usually doesn’t follow it but he feels it’s important to have her perspective on things

they disagree on a lot of stuff (like he made celene and briala co-leaders but she was in favor of gaspard) but he trusts her judgement, and supported her in becoming the divine

he’s a little weird about religion, specifically relating to the stone. the surfacer part of him that hates caves is like pff hippie garbage, but the bit that’s generations old and wants to belong to a larger whole of a culture is Super Into It. cole said he felt the stone’s presence around pica one time and externally he didnt react but internally he was yelling WHAT THE FUUUUUUUCKKKKKKKKKKKKK I LIVED IN SUCH PEACEFUL IGNORANCE I DIDNT NEED TO KNOW THAAAAAT and after the mythal thing hes like fuck believe what you want. whatever floats your boat. we live in a world where nugs have little people hands so if it comforts you to know a god did that then live your truth

re mages he figures theres a way better way for them to fit into society than the circle. its dumb. they can LIFT THINGS WITH THEIR MINDS. USE THAT FOR BUILDING. they can HEAL WOUNDS WITH THEIR MINDS. THEY CAN TALK TO SPIRITS AND SHIT THEY CAN PROBABLY FLY WHY ARENT WE USING THIS THEY’RE WASTED IN TOWERS LEARNING TO SHOOT FIREBALLS OR WHATEVER people who fear magic are cowards. chantry more like sham-try.

hes big on research and development. he sent samson to dagna for research and in the au where mal lives he sent anders to her too. cos. like. dude COEXISTS WITH A SPIRIT. thats cool as SHIT how does it WORK.

(im gonna make a post abt the mal lives au soon. its good)

hes largely responsible but he has also impulse bought at least three stuffed dragons. also, if the textiles technology were available, hed have dragon jammies. it’s the little things in life.

he collects notes he’s found talking about him and hangs them up by his desk. his favorite is the one samson wrote calling him a damnable rogue. he says hes doing things right, if he’s making people mad

hes trans! im not sure how thatd be regarded in dwarf society, in undergrounders i doubt it’d be very acceptable given their emphasis on reproduction, but house cadash has been on the surface for generations and has probably adopted more liberal views on lgbt stuff. either way hes not very open about it, and it’s really easy to pass when he’s around humans (i get the feeling dwarves and humans look for different things, when they’re trying to guess gender. for example hes got some beard scrub, which in human terms means male but in dwarven terms probably either means very young male or unkempt female) (the added implication to this is that varric might keep his beard to stubble so he looks younger) he met krem and had an instant Trans Solidarity moment, which also comes with the Trans Fear that the person Knows that you’re trans and could out you. it’s a weird kind of trust and for me feels like that one performance art piece with the people holding the bow and arrow. anyway hes cool w krem but doesnt talk to him all that much. theyve got pretty different interests.

his best friends are probs cole and dorian! he’s very curious, and likes to hear different perspectives on things. he and dorian often play chess and discuss all sorts of stuff. they end up yelling a lot because they both want to talk but the other started saying something before they were done with their point, which they started saying before the other was done with their point, and so on. he doesnt get very far in the slavery argument until hawke starts chillin at skyhold more regularly and can adequately school him on the state of tevinter slavery (fuck i gotta make a post about that. mal’s had a lot of development since i last talked about him)

he listens very seriously to cole’s observations. he can really appreciate the input of someone who watches so much more than speaks, and heartily supported his ventures in becoming more human.

he also gets along very well with josephine and likes to trick her into taking days off. hes also always down to chat w dagna and scout harding! and varric, of course. it’s always nice to talk to someone without having to crane his neck up at them all the time

(this is the reason he doesnt usually spend time w bull. hes just too tall and its uncomfortable knowing your face is at your friend’s dick height while ur trying to discuss battle strategy)

uhh trivia, at one point i thought i’d fucked up cassandra’s romance by not flirting with her enough so i meant to go for dorian’s instead, bc while i had wanted to romance cass since uhh i dunno one of my mutuals first reblogged a picture of her, i underestimated how charming and cool of a guy dorian ended up being. so in canon i say pica had a crush on both of them for a little while

its late and i think i got mostly everything so enjooooooy

as a parting gift, this is him

youtube

#crownsnbirds #dragon age #pica cadash

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