#Discussions with Dragon

[baba-is-blog]

Baba like dragons?

DRAGON IS FAVORITE

[pit--rat]

kind of surprised at how much people romance alistair when i feel like every warden (but especially cousland) has very good reason to resent him

that conversation when the party first arrive in lothering always bothered me. "i don't know where we should go. i dont want to lead" you are the SENIOR WARDEN, alistair, even after being recruited, the warden was kept in the dark about so many things. they weren't with the wardens long enough to learn about the dreams, or the shortened lifespan, or the loss of fertility, or anything. I know even alistair didn't know everything (a fundamental failure of the grey wardens, imo, how much they insist everything should be a secret) but he had six months at least. the warden had. a day.

secondly, its having all that responsibility thrust upon them, then having to comfort alistair through his grief when they have likely recently exoerienced their own loss (and, in the case of cousland, leave their parents to be murdered)

i kept seeing takes of how nobody cares about rook, they have to help everyone with their problems when no one will help with theirs, but that has always been the lot of the da protagonist, and i feel it most keenly with the hero of fereldan

[thatwavephenomenon]

Do not think about Anders having to write copies upon copies of his manifesto by hand. His manifesto has to be sent or handed to people, as many people as possible, in order for things to change. He has to convince them. They have to read it, they must. So he makes copies to hand out. By himself. Because he could never afford to have it printed. Printing is way, way too expensive. He knows it. One of his best friends, Varric Tethras, is a writer who keep having books published, but Varric is also well-off enough to cover any unexpected cost. Still, Varric isn't interested in his fight, and any printing shop who would dare to risk being under templar's scrutiny for helping him would surely ask an exorbitant fee, and Anders could never repay such a huge favor. So he write all those copies by hand, for hours. Because people has to read them for things to change. But they do not in the end. They do not read them. Not even his own friends read them.

[wolfsong-the-bloody-beast]

He gets it.

[rookamell]

Bellara and Lucanis both cook for the Veilguard BUT I can say with 100% certainty that they cannot cook for the Veilguard at the same time because deep down in my soul I know Bellara is the most chaotic person you've ever seen holding a kitchen knife and Lucanis Cannot Handle It.

[teyrnacousland]

With a new Dragon Age game out I am once again begging people to stop citing "Project Elvhen" when you're trying to figure out what in game elven phrases and words mean. That's just some thing some guy made up. It's not correct, it's not trying to be, it's fanmade.

Good Alternatives:

Bitter Gossamer's Elvhen Cipher (it is literally amazing! I highly recommend this one) Katiebour's Best Guess at Elvhen (very outdated, but still a good resource!) Dragon Age Wiki's Elven Language Page

[maagisterpavus]

not everything is about murder, lucanis.

[mohntilyet]

about illario working with the venatori, we can't forget that elgar'nan gifted him blood magic, so I do think that he somewhat influenced him and that's why he's so much more vindictive and jealous in comparison to tevinter nights. I don't mean that he's being mind controlled, but it's a bit like cyrian, a god just amplifying those negative emotions in you and promising power and glory can push a person to that edge and to make stupid af decisions.

im also not forgetting that zara line in inner demons where she talks about an envy demon. like. why an envy demon in specific...there's THINGS between zara and illario that were not shown

no literally if you get me talking about illario + envy + the possibility of getting him possessed, you will have me here for fucking ever. a non mage doing blood magic (any magic at all) is really weird and interesting to me and i don’t remember an example of this happening before (feel free to correct me tho lol. i’m discounting possessions and dwarves)

i had started wildly theorising after bloodbath that he had been possessed and he was tapping into the fade using an envy demon. especially like you said, zara mentions it, AND because i swear there’s a codex in the ossuary where it mentions an envy demon whereas spite is obviously determination, right? so i thought it was a breadcrumb trail to a big “illario is being influenced and doesn’t even know” reveal— same as you anon like great minds am i right— but i’m not sure there is actually any evidence of that lol. like maybe if you squint but i do believe it was explained away by “oh yeah, and elgarnan let him do special blood magic”

it does also make sense to me that illario can only control lucanis, due to being part of the same family. a bloodline thing, and it is very poetic to me that their shared family connection in caterina is what allows him to control lucanis, even for a moment lol. spite being the extra magical boost that lucanis needs to block that out ALSO makes sense to me so i’m not too fussed abt these details lol🤔

the envyllario in my heart also gets spectral weapons for himself. lucanis gets wings, illario gets talons, PLUS green-purple are complementary colors so it would have been really fun to see them clash with their spirit/demon-powers. the talon thing is also a kind of reflection of his end-goal desire, how envy demons already have those freaky hands, and it manifests as claws and is a much more aggressive, strength-augmenting manifestation (as opposed to manoeuvrability and speed-augmenting that spite’s wings give lucanis.) anyways that's what the diagram above is supposed to be (this is extremely hot to me)

[helaenamyqueen]

I found this on Reddit and it perfectly explains my problems with the show and the direction it has taken

[abyssalbathwater]

Haven’t seen much discussion on this but I think there’s a lot of potential in examining Solas through the lens of a war veteran struggling to re-adapt to civilian life. When you consider that he was put to war almost immediately following his ‘birth’ as an Elf, and that he spent an unfathomably long time embroiled in one conflict after another, it makes perfect sense that he wouldn’t know how to stop or how to adjust to a world he no longer recognizes. On top of which he would be dealing with severe PTSD at a time when psychiatry and the concept of mental health care is non-existent.

Just something I think about sometimes. Curious to hear if anyone else has thoughts on this.

[shartanscanticle]

the je ne sais quoi i miss most from the early dragon age games is a certain ethnographic/anthropological interest in how individual’s societies and living conditions shape both their worldviews and their politics, and I feel like that’s missing from Veilguard.

There are many symptoms of this: the companions not having interesting conflicts between each other, the morality of the factions feeling very simplistic/black and white, the way that there really is no follow through on everything the previous games told us about the Tevinter Imperium (slavery! Legalized caste system! Natalist/reactionary Make Tevinter Great Again political movement), etc etc etc

But i feel like it all comes down to the fact that the Veilguard writing is generally incurious towards how the characters exist within their context in the fictional world. Every social issue or cultural setting created feels like it was written for twitter discourse or a corporate pride post, not that it exists in the world of Thedas that has been built up for years and years and years.

[vaguely-concerned]

nothing makes me roll my eyes quite like people making a big deal out of lucanis being 'the magekiller' while mostly being perfectly chill with mages in his personal life as if that's some huge objective flaw in the writing. like yeah it's his professional specialization not his personality or strongly held ideological conviction or anything. mages are tricky to kill and he's real good at it. that's why they pay him the big bucks. it's like saying a pest exterminator can only do his job if he's motivated by a deep personal vendetta waged against the entirety of rodentkind. the fact that he genuinely treats assassination like his 9-5 is, y'know. half of the whole guy, and this tracks with that wonderfully.

(honestly it's so perfect that the reason he specialized in that is, literally and canonically, that caterina looked over the books and went 'huh. we should diversify our murder portfolio, there's an untapped market here' and assigned it to him. he didn't even get to choose his own murder major, his grandmother decided that for him largely for straightforward economic reasons. dunno what to tell you, crows gonna crow. they're just merchant princes with extra knives at the end of the day, that is exactly why they'd make a choice like that, they're providing a service not going on crusades, even though lucanis manages to carve out some personal satisfaction in taking down especially shitty targets within that. I'm sorry you guys didn't get your angsty enemies to lovers arc or whatever but please understand that that only existed in your head to begin with and also that what we actually get here is infinitely funnier and MUCH more interesting, once you actually engage with the text earnestly. ssssh I didn't say that)

[hallabun]

commentary on the inqusitor's anchor in trespasser from vivienne and dorian

commentary on the inquisitor's anchor killing him in trespasser from dorian

commentary on the inquisitor's well being in veilguard's finale from dorian

the inquisitor (especially when taking the stoic dialogue options) has always been someone who terminally "puts on a brave face", so the one (1) interaction we get with him and dorian in veilguard is like. so unbelievably in character.

dorian, who knows his amatus HAS pulled this bullshit in the past. the inquisitor, who has had character growth over the last eight years and now, like dorian, allows himself to be honest and vulnerable.

even the voice acting in veilguard sells it. dorian has noticeable worry in his voice. this is something that has lived in his mind for the past eight years, and is something he will desperately try to prevent from happening again. and the voice acting for the inquisitor too! in inquisition, any claims of being fine always felt forced or unconvincing. but here? yes, he is actually fine this time. no brave faces. he promises.

[flowersforthemachines]

Regrets of the Dread Wolf || Demon's Bargain

For Bellara Week over at @datvcompanionweeks - Day 1

[blackcat419]

Rhaena should have had the arc of overcoming the Targaryen exceptionalism propaganda she’s been fed her whole life that tells her the Targs are gods because they have dragons but her not having a dragon makes her lesser. She should learn to be a political leader from Jeyne Arryn. A female ruler who doesn’t have a dragon and who’s fough her male relatives for her seat of power! And when Morning finally hatches, she won’t be a weapon used to oppress the people, she’ll just be an animal, a friend. Someone could say ‘oh you’re finally a Targaryen’ and she’d respond, ‘I never needed a dragon to hold power’

Instead we get rich kid who doesn’t have a dragon is sad about not having a dragon and gets a dragon. That’s just Aemond’s story. Will Rhaena turn into a villain too now?

In contrast, Baela’s arc is about embracing power through her Targaryen side but once she loses her dragon, she loses her power. She marries her uncle (remind you of anyone?) to escape an arranged marriage but ends up in an unhappy marriage where her husband cheats on her often.

The twins are a story of the traditional Targaryen power dying and the new age of Westeros emerging from the dragon flames. They are contrast, morning and moon, the two sides of the Targaryen coin.