#yes despite having played DA2 more than the others I only have 2 canon Hawkes

[esseastri]

Ok, like 20 hours stand between me and DAV, so I finally got around to establishing my final worldstates and naming Rooks.

Canon: -Liarora Cousland (dual-wield warrior, romanced Alistair) -Aliena Hawke (archer rogue, romanced Isabela) -Nyeni Lavellan (knight-enchanter, romanced Cassandra Josephine) -Tetalya Mercar (human, Shadow Dragon, mage, romancing Lucanis)

Wardenquisitor (The Tragedy of Ro Cousland): -Liarora Cousland (dual-wield warrior, romanced Alistair) -Aliena Hawke (archer rogue, romanced Isablea) -Liarora Cousland (champion, romanced Alistair) -Genilise Thorne (human, Warden, warrior, romancing Taash?)

All(ish) Dwarves (The Arrow Squad): -Bal Brosca (archer rogue, romanced Zevran) -Aliena Hawke (archer rogue, romanced Isabela) -Gydha Cadash (archer rogue, "romanced" Varric) -Thova Laidir (dwarf, Lord of Fortune, rogue, romancing Harding)

All Dudes (How Did That Happen?): -Faron Tabris (dual-wield rogue, romanced Morrigan) -Ren Hawke (force mage, romanced Anders) -Tieran Lavellan (rift mage, romanced Dorian) -Serisio de Riva (elf, Crow, rogue, romancing Bellara?)

All Mages (The Higher Difficulty Nightmare Runs): -Elarien Surana (elf, arcane warrior mage, romanced Leliana) -Ren Hawke (force mage, romanced Anders) -Renan Lavellan (knight-enchanter mage, romanced Solas) -Evithali Aldwir (elf, Veil Jumper mage, romancing Davrin?)

[crossdressingdeath]

Okay yes I will ask your thoughts on Anders :D

Well, to start with something simple (and I assume not particularly controversial): the sequence of events we’re given for how Anders ended up in Kirkwall makes no fucking sense. I mean, it makes sense that the Chantry would ignore the Right of Conscription and try to drag him back to the Circle, but where the fuck is the Warden in all this?! If memory serves in some piece of the canon it’s implied or outright stated that the Chantry went over their head to get Templar agents into the Wardens, but they’re still the Warden-Commander? We’re expected to believe that the Warden, someone who will in most saves count Anders and Justice as dear friends and can be adamantly against the Circle, the Templars, and the Chantry as a whole, would just let a bunch of Templars run the two of them out of Amaranthine? The Warden would permit the cat they gave Anders to be taken away from him without so much as a fight? They may have to answer to Weisshaupt but even so! If Weisshaupt was interfering in the running of the Ferelden branch that much I’d expect it to be at least mentioned! If you played your Warden as someone who cared about the people under their command Anders and Justice getting forced out by the Wardens makes no sense. Honestly even if they don’t give a shit about their people Anders has friends! At the very least there should have been some mention of how exactly this was allowed to happen (maybe the Warden and the Awakening companions minus Anders and Justice were called away for some extremely long mission or something), or preferably Anders and Justice should have been chased out of Amaranthine through means entirely unrelated to the Wardens; you could have a bit about Anders being scared that after merging with Justice he’d bring trouble down on the Wardens that they couldn’t weather, it would be good and give him an element of connection to the people we spend the entirety of Awakening watching him bond with, and most importantly a connection to the previous player character that both Oghren in Awakening and Varric in Inquisition get but he doesn’t. Like, think about that for a second; Oghren obviously already knows the Warden and Varric pretty much waxes poetic about how great Hawke is every time they come up, but Anders doesn’t even react to learning about a fucking assassination plot against the Warden! Give me some friendship points for dealing with that, at least! And when you run into Nathaniel if memory serves Anders doesn’t even ask about the Warden, who Nathaniel is presumably still serving under! He doesn’t ask Zevran about the Warden either, even if you romanced him in Origins! Basically just the fact that DA2 doesn’t acknowledge your approval value with Anders even while remembering such things as whether or not you slept with Isabella in the Pearl irks me. This is your carryover companion, Bioware! Try a little harder to remind us of that!

Anyway, moving on. Honestly so much about Fenris and Anders’s dynamic bothers me? I remember seeing a post about how maybe actually after a while they settled into actual discussion and learning from each other but Varric decided to spice it up by keeping them super aggressive in his storytelling, which I do like better, but in the canon story? I mean, they’re just playing hot potato with the misery poker at this point. And do not get me started on the guy with the spirit of justice in his head approving of selling someone into slavery. I don’t care how much he hates Fenris, Justice disapproved of having a pet cat in Awakening! And Bioware seriously expects us to believe that the guy with, again, the spirit of justice in his head would wave off fucking slavery because “mages have it worse”? I do not buy that. It makes far less sense now than it did in Awakening, where Anders had spent most of his life in a tower where elves were at least nominally on equal footing with humans and was only just getting out in a way that was likely to be permanent.

And of course, the big one: the whole thing where the narrative flattens Anders forcing a confrontation by blowing up a building that’s closed at night and only really has a couple people in it even during the day to kill the woman signing off on the mass slaughter of innocent people with the expectation that if the Templars are really interested in justice they will execute him instead of killing the mages of the Circle to just “crazy mage blows up a building and kills huge numbers of people to force everyone to go to war” pisses me off. This is a series that allows you to justify abandoning an entire town to be killed by skeletons! In this game you can sell your friend to slavers! And yet there is no serious moral discussion about Anders’s actions. It’s bad, case closed, no possible justification for it. And... other people have made this point more eloquently than me, but it seems pretty obvious that they made it a big, dramatic (and incredibly nonsensical, what the fuck is even happening with that explosion, was the point not to do it without magic, why did it look like that) explosion to set off that knee-jerk “explosion = terrorism” response that most people have; a public killing didn’t have to involve blowing up a church, now did it? I don’t believe for a second that a man who could plant a bomb in the Chantry without anyone noticing despite being a known apostate couldn’t find a way to get Elthina out of the Chantry and into a public area where she could be killed dramatically and without any risk of collateral damage from his own actions, especially with the situation reaching the point where she was having to directly interfere to keep the chaos from going too far. Hell, even burning it down would’ve been better (and honestly more satisfying I think, given how much time every other part of Kirkwall spends in flames)! Note also that in Trespasser, which would’ve been written well after 2 came out and people started talking about how Anders had a point, they have a bit where Varric talks about massive death tolls and enough rubble to change tidal patterns in a port city. The destruction of one building cannot do both those things! I don’t actually think it could do either given we’re shown that it is practically empty when it goes up, but it certainly couldn’t do both! We were not supposed to actually... think about this explosion. We were supposed to conclude that Anders was wrong because explosions are Bad and then when people didn’t come to that conclusion they crammed in a bunch of nonsensical bullshit about death tolls and tides without considering whether that made any sense from a logic standpoint in an attempt to push us to stop questioning it. And... in a series that put so much thought into complex morality in the first game, that was just a massive disappointment and step back in the complexity of the morality. And almost certainly the first step towards Inquisition’s “Well actually in this conflict where one side wants to be allowed to imprison and torture people and the other side wants to not be imprisoned and tortured both sides are just as bad as each other” bullshit, which just makes it even worse.

Basically at the end of the day Bioware took a complicated character with every reason to hate the Chantry and a brilliant plan for exposing just how uninterested the Templars are in justice (a plan that works, may I add; the Circles didn’t rebel because the Chantry blew up, they rebelled because the Templars proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that they would use anything as an excuse to murder their charges even if they had the actual perpetrator of whatever they were using as that excuse right in front of them) and flipped the narrative to “crazy terrorist mage who killed infinitely more people than logic would suggest was possible while still doing all the other shit they claim that explosion did”, and I hate that.

[salamanders-please]

Author Interview Tag Meme

aaaaahhh tagged by the super cool @ljandersen​!! >///<

Name: I go by multiple names online, but my pen name is salamanders_please

Fandoms: Oh hecc... I haven’t written anything for a hot minute. I’m scattered across fandoms, but the three most populated are Tales of Zestiria, Hibike! Euphonium, and Noragami

Where You Post: AO3 and FFN. But FFN is kinda a shit hole. I still get traffic/reviews from FFnet though, so I’ll probably still post there just for my own ego if I can ever complete anything again.

Most Popular One-Shot:  Two Truths and a Lie . A smutty Noragami Yatone one-shot written for Yatone week some years ago. This got way more attention than I ever expected. Like I honestly was shocked. I know I’m probably a disgusting person for writing that ship, but I am only mildly ashamed. Very, very mildly. So mildly, i wrote 6 other fics for it :o

Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story:  Within These Walls . More Noragami. It’s a Yatori porn with plot written for a big bang a few years ago. I’m actually pretty pleased with how most of it turned out. It was not originally supposed to include smut, and I initially estimated it’d be between 6-7k words. But I guess my hand slipped and I accidentally a whole 27k words. In my mind it is a one-shot, but technically it’s two chapters because I had to split it up in order to make the big bang deadline.

Favorite Story You Wrote: Stress Relief . A Mystic Messenger Jaemin fic that’s (also smut lel) that I had fun while actually writing it which is pretty rare. It was a wild ride and I really enjoyed it probably because it’s borderline - if not fully-blown crackfic. However, it’s a two-parter and while most of the second and final chapter is written, I’m really struggling to finish it.

Story You Were Nervous to Post: Uhh. I don’t think I’ve ever been truly nervous posting a fic. Though I’m always a little nervous no one will read it or like, I guess. But I don’t think about it too much.

How You Choose Your Titles:  I generally try to have simple titles that are thematically relevant to the story. For example, Legacy relates to Alisha’s legacy as royalty and Rose taking up the mantle of Shepherd. And Within These Walls is a metaphor for even if Yato doesn’t have a proper shrine, he will always have a home in Hiyori.

If it’s a ship week or drabble-length thing, it becomes harder to title and I usually just pick something literal as that is easiest.

Complete: 27.

Incomplete: 1. Stress Relief. I really do want to finish it one day, even if the fandom is dead and no one reads the last chapter. I’m so close and yet so far. I’m not counting stories I haven’t formally posted as incomplete, as there are a lot of those.

Do You Outline?  Generally, I’d say yes, even if I only do it in my head. It depends on the length and complexity of the story. For Legacy, a novel-length sequel fix-it fic, I absolutely outlined and actually wrote it out. I outlined almost the entire story, and the outline itself went through many revisions. And yet despite outlining, new stuff would just crop up as I was writing and I’d have to go back and revise my outline again to incorporate the new element I introduced to make sure everything was consistent. For most one-shots, I do not outline and just write it as I go because the path to the goal is usually pretty clear. But for example, I did have an outline for Within These Walls because getting to the end wasn’t a straight line and there were certain story/emotional beats I wanted to be sure to hit. For Stress Relief, chapter one did not get an outline because it’s very straightforward, however chapter two gets more complicated and required an outline for me to remember everything I wanted to include.

The other reason I outline is because my memory is bad lol

Coming Soon/Not Yet Started: I do want to write more... but it’s just been so hard. I feel like I get burnt out and sitting myself down and getting the words and ideas to flow is so damn difficult. So I can’t promise anything is coming in the future, but the most likely ideas for me to work on are two Dragon Age fics and an original fic idea.

One of the DA fics is for Origins. I don’t really think it’s a complete story on its own, but I want to explore a more realistic approach to some things that happen in the game. I want to explore the cast getting real character development and establishing relationships with each other. I want to watch Morrigan grow more. I want to explore a Dalish warden who never wanted to be a warden, and can’t escape his burden because everywhere he goes people see an elf with vallaslin outside his clan and immediately know him to be the warden. How do people react to that? How does the warden? What if Alistair and Morrigan became friends? What if they fucked? Am I a good enough writer to make it work?

The other DA fic is for DA2. And it’s also a “what if these people had more character development?” fic but with canon divergence and more of a complete story on its own. It’s a fem!Hawke/Fenris fic where Hawke is a mage and somewhere in the middle of Act 2, Hawke gets sent to the Circle. How would the conflicts in the story play out differently with someone on the inside? I dunno.

The final story, my original fic, is probably most succinctly described as a post-apocalyptic sci-fi-fantasy fusion with “magical girl” elements. It’s mostly action/adventure/drama with sprinkles of other genres. Its main themes are heavy criticisms of capitalism and a giant middle finger to bigots.

Do You Accept Prompts? Nope. I can barely start and finish my own ideas, let alone anyone else’s.

Most Excited to Write: My original fic actually. But it’s a rather complicated story with a lot of twists and turns and I don’t have an end in mind which makes it hard to even start writing or outlining for it. I do have a bit outlined already, but not much. It’s mostly just a mess of ideas.

:x i don’t know who to tag who hasn’t already been tagged by LJ, so i’m just gonna tag all the bugs fucking flying around my room right now. and landing on me. vile motherfuckers. i figure they must wanna do it because they keep landing on my monitor as i write this.

[thejourneymaninn]

What are your top 5 DA ships and can you tell me why?

Hi there :) Ok, thiswas a tough one…so here it goes:

1) Fenders

Ok, this one’s easy, Fenders is my all-time favourite DA ship. Both characters mean a lotto me, and I love what they could be together. They truly are more alike thanthey think; there is just so much potential.They have a lot in common, not just when it comes to similarities in theirrespective pasts, they also have similar struggles with self-worth, a desperateneed to be loved (while at the same time being afraid of it); they both feelvery deeply, are stubborn and blunt to the point of being rude and althoughthey express it in different ways, even their sense of humour is similar. In away, they are both giant dorks. They could have a lot of fun together, and Ifeel the parallels in their backgrounds could help them understand each otherin a unique way – if they manage toactually listen to each other. Because yeah, their in-game relationship is(mostly) horrible; they start off on the wrong foot, and it only goes downhillfrom there. While there are some banters where one of them tries to reach out,they keep misinterpreting each other’s intentions, until they are so set intheir ways that there’s more or less nothing left but lashing out. Some oftheir behaviour makes sense for theircharacters/situation, but in many cases, Bioware played it up to ridiculousextremes, to the point where it’s rivalry at all costs, with the two of them beingreduced to mouthpieces for Templars/mages. Which is extremely frustratingconsidering the story spans over seven years (you know, general “let’s pitoppressed people against each other” frustration aside). I find it very hard tobelieve that in all that time, they never manage to have even one non-hostile,genuine conversation. They could have done so much more with these two; there’sso much wasted potential, and I love exploring all the ways things could have gone. I love charactersovercoming differences, realizing misconceptions and how much they have incommon, and one of my favourite things istheir bantering dynamic intact but turned affectionate, still poking each otherwith dry humour and fond teasing. Also, thesetwo teaming up would be a nightmare for their friends - they’d be unstoppable.

2) Fenhawke

Funnily enough, as much as I love Fenders, I didn’t evenconsider it as a pairing the first time I played DA2; I completely fell in lovewith the Fenhawke romance. I don’t read that much fic about it these days, butit’s still a close second. Seeing Fenris heal and grow, taking back his life -there’s a power to it that I just can’t resist, and the dynamic with a Hawkewho truly supports him, listens to him and takes him seriously is simplybeautiful. I love the way he reacts to Hawke, his shy little giggles and jokes, how he comes to trust Hawkedespite never having known friendship or love – and most of all, I love that heallows himself the time to heal. I know some people dislike the three-yearbreak in the relationship, and the distress he’s in after his memories cameback truly is hard to watch, but that he takes a step back and says “no, thisis too fast, I’m not ready for this” is actually one of my favourite things aboutit. I also really like that he doesn’t immediately move in with Hawke, becauseas beautiful as the romance is, they are some “you are my only friend and themost important thing in my life” tendencies in the dialogue that have thepotential to be really unhealthy, which makes the fact that he has come tovalue his independence enough to realize that and try to take precautions especiallyimportant to me. Also, the fucking puppy eyes. They shouldn’t be so effective,but the way he looks at Hawke, his face is just so expressive…there’s just somethingabout Fenris that makes me want to see him happy and loved.

3) Merribela

I just love their dynamic, everything about their banter,from Isabela teaching Merrill cheatingand body shots to Merrill’s excited questions about Isabela’s life as a pirate,and I love that Isabela is so protective of Merrill, but that she is alsopretty much the only companion whorespects her and realizes how smart and capable she is. They have such abeautiful relationship, and I really wish Bioware had made them canon. I knowthere’s Carver/Merrill and Fenris/Isabela instead, and I actually do reallylike those pairings too, but there’s something about Isabela and Merrill thatjust really stands out to me. Both of them are such wonderful, complexcharacters, and both tend to be underappreciated by their friends; Isabela isconsidered selfish and shallow, while Merrill gets waved off as naïve andstupid, none of which is even remotely true. But Merrill and Isabela supporteach other, without judgement, and cometo understand each other despite coming from very different backgrounds. I justwant them to see them together, happy and in love, sailing away and shankingpeople.

4) Handers

I am not that fondof the in-game version of the romance, mainly because it’s pretty obvious Biowaretried to frame it as a tragedy - which to be clear, I don’t think it is at all.As far as I’m concerned, the fact that Anders has his own convictions and goalsand Hawke is not always his numberone priority is what makes it one of the best romances there is; it’s notsomething Anders needs to apologise for,it’s exactly how it should be. I also firmly support the Chantry boom, and needlessto say, any Hawke I ship with Anders is fiercely,uncompromisingly pro-mage and would have gladly blown up the chantrythemselves. And I just love Anders realising that, that Hawke truly supportshim, that they will stay with him - he can’t believe it at first and it’s so heartbreaking, but it also makes it all the morebeautiful when it turns out that yes, he is loved, he does deserve it, mages are people, they deserve to be free andsomeone believes in that as fiercely as he does. So I might not be that happywith how the romance is treated in game (among other things, Anders doesn’teven get an endgame kiss unless you rivalmancehim, which: no, absolutely not), but when it comes to fics, I loverevolutionary couple Anders and Hawke running off together, freeing mages and giving the Chantry all the middlefingers, because Anders was right, and he deserves to be loved by someone whowholeheartedly, 100% supports his cause.

5) Zevran x Warden

Turns out the top four were pretty easy, but I really hadtrouble deciding on the fifth. There was some strong competition, in particular, Isabela/Hawke or Leliana/Warden,but I’m gonna go with Zevran/Warden here because as my very first DA romance, Zevranwill always hold a special place in my heart. While I generally prefer theatmosphere and group dynamic of DA2, I absolutely adore his character andromance arc, and I just want him to be happy, travelling/livingwith the warden, murdering crows, knowing he is loved.

[bisexualsatan-blog]

Dear Creator

First of all, thank you thank you thank you! I am sure I will love whatever you create and I promise I am easy to please. Also, this is my first time participating in the femslash exchange, and thus my first dear creator letter, so please forgive any inadequacies. 

To find out more about me and my likes you can check out this blog, or my AO3.

I don’t have any specific prompts, but below I’ve listed out my general likes, as well as my absolute do not wants. I’ve also tried to go into a bit of detail on my requested fandoms/ships. All of these apply to fic and art, and I will be thrilled with either.

Likes - Found family; happy endings; hurt/comfort; magic, space/scifi, and super power AU’s; fix-it fics; ladies kicking ass and saving the day; heists, pranks, and other capers; rebels/revolutionaries; funny fics; nontraditional families; friendship; lots of affection; power/battle couples/moresomes

Do Not Want - Anything related to rape or sexual assault; no dubcon; no lifestyle bdsm and only the lightest of such dynamics in the bedroom; no A/B/O; no slavery; no pedophilia or significant age gaps; basically nothing that has questionable consent or unhealthy power dynamics; also no deathfic or super heavy angst/misery

To my followers: If you want to know what this is all about, check out http://femslashex.tumblr.com! Signups are open until the 23rd!

Fandom One - Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Buffy was the first fandom I had where I actually got involved in fandom and it will always have a special place in my heart. Buffy herself was and is my favorite kickass lady of all time and I love her strengths and her flaws and her dedication to protecting the people she loves, along with the world that has often treated her horribly. 

I am a lifetime Buffy/Faith shipper, and love to see all that they could have been if they’d been allowed to be true partners instead of rivals.

I also love Buffy/Tara, and the idea that Buffy could have helped Tara find and affirm her own strength, and Tara could help Buffy find peace and safety.

Buffy and Willow had an amazing and mutually supportive friendship and it had potential for so much more.

And I’m also requesting and would love to see the dynamics with Buffy/Willow/Tara, and Buffy/Faith/Tara.

Fandom Two - Teen Wolf

Much newer fandom, but loved for much of the same reasons as Buffy: a found family of teenagers who have to save the world in between classes and family drama. Fair warning, I have not seen the most recent seasons (whichever one ended with Kira going off to the desert to learn is the last one I saw) but feel free to include later seasons in your writing/art. 

Allison/Lydia is one of my all time favorite ships. Their friendship, loyalty to each other, and genuine affection all make perfect sense as romance, and they make an excellent power/battle couple which is a favorite trope of mine.

Allison/Kira didn’t get a lot of interaction in canon, but is a relationship I think has all sorts of potential. They’re both incredibly loyal, incredibly sweet, and incredibly badass, and both have had to deal with coming to terms with their true natures/heritage and the fallout of their actions.

Lydia/Malia have some great canon moments and I’d love to see their friendship fleshed out into full romance. They have great chemistry, very opposite views/approaches to things in many ways, and surprising similarities. This is a relationship I see having the fun/healthy kind of friction.

Fandom Three - Power Rangers

I grew up loving the original Power Rangers, the worst punishment I ever got in daycare was having to take a nap when it was on. The reboot had everything I loved and more. It’s diverse, modern, and fun as hell. It also has some of the most believable behavior for a group of teenagers getting random super powers I’ve ever seen. And yes, I am 100% on the Trimberly bandwagon. 

This fandom already has most of the things you see in my likes up above, and I’ll be happy with anything you create for those two.

Fandom Four - Harlots

Very different from the above fandoms, but absolutely amazing. I was hesitant at first to get into this fandom (sex work is very rarely handled well by the media) but this show is ragingly feminist, historically accurate, absolutely gorgeous, and delightfully queer. 

Amelia Scanwell/Violet Cross is a wonderful canon pairing that resonates a lot with me personally because my mother isn’t all that different from Amelia’s in terms of religious fervor and I love how Amelia is able to move past that and accept her feelings for Violet without self-loathing. I can’t wait to see their very sweet relationship continue in season 2, and would be happy with any fic or art of these two.

Charlotte Wells/Caroline Howard are not canon but have SO much potential. Both women who’s lives were controlled and harmed by the thankfully dead George Howard. Both women who have found ways to have power and freedom in a world that denies both to women. I’d love to see them finding/exploring that power and freedom in and with each other.

Fandom Five - Harry Potter

The ultimate fandom, the one we never truly leave even when/if we’re not particularly involved. I love the fandom for Harry Potter (sometimes more than the canon itself) and especially love the women of Harry Potter and the way we continue to give them more life. Hermione Granger remains one of my all time favorite characters, strong and brilliant and loyal and utterly ruthless, I adore her. Luna Lovegood is kind and brave and also strong and brilliant and loyal and has a gentleness despite hardship that I admire so much. Ginny Weaseley is amazing, so stubborn and clever and capable, with a fierceness of spirit that’s hard to match. I am requesting every combination of those three characters, and will be thrilled no matter what if one of these relationships is chosen.

Fandom Six - Dragon Age

My one true fandom love, it consumes me, as you can see by the majority content of this blog. I have played and loved all the games, and Origins and DA2 are tied for my two favorite games of all time. 

I don’t even know how to begin to start describing what I love about each character and relationship I’ve requested, especially since so much of the characters are subjective based on player choice and experience, so feel free to browse my blog/tags to get a feel for what I like and I’m sorry I couldn’t write more here. (It would be a novel if I even tried.)

Hawke/Isabela/Merrill, Warden/Warden, Inquisitor/Josephine, Leliana/Warden, Morrigan/Warden, Inquisitor/Sera

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Thank you again and happy creating! I cannot wait to see what you make.