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i am normal about dragon age and can be trusted to talk about it in a cohesive manner.

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Lucanis Dellamorte 🤍

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man I wish we'd been able to learn more about june. 'his will hides in the actions of others' is such a tantalizing phrase to just drop in there what does it MEAN what was he up to

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Shoutout to kremy lecroux to being the most character ever. Like genuinely just a fucking genius creation. He loves unicorns. He can’t help but just use all the people around him for his gain. He says whattadoo. He lies and manipulates so much that getting cursed to not lie for a few hours gives him a panic attack. He’s a fucking alligator. He somehow manages to be in the messiest situationship with his bodyguard slash best friend slash goon slash maybe the only person he really trusts in the world while also being Literally Married to him but STILL failing to communicate his feelings to. He’s a fucking alligator. He looks like this

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Rook: What did I have to worry about? You were there watching my back :) (*rye voice* you're my dad boogie woogie woogie)

Varric, who knows there's a very decent chance he's not going to be around to watch their back for much longer, thousand yard staring into the camera: Yeah......... yeah.

AOUGH. also the implication behind rook being the one to cut this last calm lovely moment between just the two of them short while varric seems to want to linger -- because rook doesn't KNOW rook doesn't KNOW this is probably going to be the last time!!!! and varric doesn't have the heart to tell them. hey kid. let's walk through the market nice and slow huh. the end of the world will find us soon enough.

I'm. bereft. the way rook's eyes just... soften. nothing is ever going to be okay again etc.

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Note: those were ripped directly from the game files, as they aren't included in the OST. You can also listen to them in this playlist on PinkyJulien's Youtube channel or in this playlist by Slow Walkthroughs.

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mission gone wrong (then right) for the shadow dragons

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Im rooting for all knights/bodyguards who are in love with their charge/the one they are sworn to protect

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lucanis 'for a moment I was so high and drunk with elation over rook's very existence and also their baffling insistence on seemingly actually liking me for my personality (??!?!) that I forgot I have no idea what the hell I'm doing' dellamorte I'd do anything for you.

cue rye running off to emmrich's office in a guilty panic to have a watcher to watcher talk pacing around the room frantically like 'that was SO unprofessional of me I'm a Watcher I should have more sense than this and he'd just woken up and spite was trying to say something and I think it could be really important but then I got um ah distracted and and and -- oh maker emmrich did I fuck up did I let them both down??? :'( *unspoken ever-present anxiety right under the surface* would I be able to help him better if I liked him less?' until emmrich forcibly sits him down and has manfred put on a pot of some nice calming tea so we can maybe all take a moment to chill out and breathe and talk about this rationally fhdakj. (emmrich has presumably dealt with many a spiralling mourn watch grad student equivalent in his time I think he'd have a handle on it I trust him. thank you emmrich). it takes some respective staring into the fade void and breathing into a paper bag under emmrich's kind professorial eye, but you know. I mean. hey. they do figure it all out eventually between them and I think that's all that really matters in the end right lol.

("Lucanis made a deal he hasn't kept -- to live" spite pls I cannot. i cannot deal with this right now you cannot be saying stuff like that. I mean it's true and you should in fact be saying it but also stop stop I'm already sad. and the fact that it's rook he tells this to, has been WAITING to tell this to. he'll listen to you. what the helllllll. hey. what if both halves of my new fucked up frankensteined together oroborous soul trusted you more than anyone in the world. but like in a real casual laidback kind of way that wouldn't make it weird or anything if you're not into that. would that be totally wild. or what. also spite's desperation to make itself understood with the limited tools and understanding of the reality it finds itself trapped in because lucanis is so shut down he's no longer really answering at all no matter how spite shouts... breaks my heart for both of them every time.)

as a fandom we have (rightfully! correctly!) dissected all of lucanis' microexpressions in this scene down to the millisecond and I think it's up to your own interpretation and the vibe between him and any individual rook what you read into them (I've written out my take on it already if you're interested in checking it out), so instead I'm going to show some appreciation for rook's expressions specifically in this scene under the cut!

the way you can actually see the sadness/sympathy settle over rook's face at the end of them saying "I don't think he ever leaves, actually" after the slightly deflecting smile!! Can't believe we have a PC with such levels of expressiveness in this game, it knocks me to the fucking ground every time. also needless to say I love taash so much. in this scene and in general and their relationship with lucanis and spite as well. prime they're a little confused but they've got the spirit (ehehe) and a huge well-meaning heart of gold.

you know what lucanis I understand why you had to go stare into the void for a while the rare open longing on rye's face would haunt me forever too after that. I also really like that rook moves themselves more under lucanis' arm when he does the wall lean -- the animators did such a good job of making their drift towards each other here feel mutual and playfully collaborative.

rook seemingly does not glance down at lucanis' mouth the way he does with them -- their eyes are focused on his right up until they slip shut in anticipation. aw. also probably part of why they're so surprised when he pulls back, since they were watching his expression the whole time and it seemed pretty safely In The Cards right up until the moment it. wasn't haha. they're just so...hm. much ado about the act of seeing and looking in this scene huh. lots to consider. some of the same feeling/sense of recognition that gets brought directly into focus in the 'you're here. you're really here' path of the main romance scene alive here too from rook's side. I really really love how you can find so many call and respond thematic/emotional moments throughout the companion storylines in this game; it feels so much like everything is talking to and in relation with itself, and you get to choose what notes you particularly heighten and play on for any specific rook to make their main melody among all of that, as it were. there's usually something that will echo back to them in there. and lucanis and rook both experiencing compromised senses of reality, self and memory -- for heighened magical reasons (possession, blood magic, solas being a huge dick (grudgingly affectionate)) and very recognizable mundane trauma reasons -- and yet being able to find each other through that and help each other feel safe and be real again together... well it does things to me emotionally, you see. can't be helped. as this scene shows, not necessarily going about it gracefully every step of the way, but that's alright. since when has love ever been terribly concerned with dignity.

also i'd just done bellara's deep conversation about her brother and her fear that she could end up falling to the same temptations he did out in the main dining hall before this scene this time around, so she was literally sitting there on the couch as these two dumbasses came stumbling out of the pantry in various states of despair and disarray fhdskja. sorry bel I didn't mean to leave you smack dab in the middle of All of That. but you have to admit it's also quite funny. front row seats to the fumble of the year

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rookanis bird yaoi . like if u agree

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im still having too much fun on MS paint so here's some MS paint dishonorloop studies

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Rook: The meditation bells. I used to know the right order to ring them in.

Lucanis: Strict training. Sounds familiar.

Rook: I need a moment. It's been a while.

Emmrich: Take your time.

cute detail/called out parallel between ingellvar and lucanis in the necropolis memorial garden! :)

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Lucanis something something, half a dozen Venatori while stuck inside an elevator.

I like that one banter with Davrin

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was thinking of making victor say something different but I figured him saying cowabummer like the original meme was funny

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Little Mr. Adventurer

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lucanis' last question when interrogating zara's corpse -- whether illario also asked her to kill caterina -- is so telling. because if illario had done that, I actually do think lucanis would have killed him. (his standards are predictably wild and hilarious in a dark sort of way. listen I can forgive you for killing me that's fine understandable even but there's a limit to everything illario.) which is why he saves that question for last: it's the one thing he really does not want to know the answer to. because if the answer is yes, it's going to need action from him that would be so psychologically catastrophic that nothing the ossuary could do to him would compare, that would have been the end of him too, I feel, even with rook and the team there to try to catch him or pick up the pieces. I love how if you pay attention you can trace out the underlying hurt/logic already here, before it gets spelled out in inner demons. the logic lucanis' brain operates on is very sad and very consistent the whole way throughout the game.