goron-moron

[goron-moron]

"Nothing could be worse than the thought of living without you."

(commissions open!)

[goron-moron]

It fascinates me that Alistair gets lumped in with the “Chantry Boys” in discussions about Dragon Age Archetypes because it’s just. Very untrue. But it’s an idea the text actually pushes you to connect with in a way I think is purposeful.

This guy introduces us to the lore of the Blight by asking if we want “the chantry version or the truth.” If we ask if they’re not the same thing he smirks and says with some attitude “they rarely are.”

He sums up his religious beliefs saying he’s “not especially” Andrastian, and that “believes in the Maker well enough.”

He’s actually LESS religious than Zevran, who describes himself as fully Andrastian with a regular prayer routine in optional conversation branches.

The things that people use to categorize Alistair’s supposed “Chantry Boy” boy status all have non-religious motivations.

For example, the big one, his virginity, is because 1. He’s nervous around women, which is the gender he finds most attractive 2. He’s actually the youngest Party Member, being freshly 20 years old. 3. And most importantly, he correlates sex with love and was brought up to see them as requiring the other and so feels uncomfortable having sex without what he sees as “true love.” And he just hasn’t been in love yet.

Another example would be his reaction to the Urn of Sacred Ashes. He reacts with wonder akin to Leliana where many others react with a contrasting blasee attitude. Even the Andrastian Zevran.

But you gotta read between the lines here. Zevran doesn’t hold remains as sacred. He’s an assassin. So his prophet’s body is in that urn. It’s a body. The least remarkable and most mundane, perhaps even the hardest to swallow, thing she could ever be to Zevran is a corpse. Kinda takes the wonder out of faith for an assassin if she dies and rests just like any one else.

But Alistair is fascinated, in awe. 1, probably because the Chantry he doubts so much now has some kinda proof that something they said was true, unlike what he previously believed. 2, Alistair is WAY more patriotic than he is religious and we gotta remember that the Fereldans pride themselves on Alamari heritage, and Andraste was probably the most powerful and influential Alamari person to ever live. 3, he’s actually a giant history buff. He info dumps history on you often, with the memorized readings of whatever question you ask. If asked about the King and Loghain before the betrayal at Ostagar, he shows respect for Loghain’s service in the War for Independance, and knowledge of his tactics. And when speaking about his time in training with the chantry as a child, he says the education was actually what he liked most. And a lot of his gifts are things like replica soldiers, Fereldan historical things, maps, (along with his interest in magical artifacts but that’s for another day.) etc. Given his patriotism and love of learning history, yeah, the Urn is a big deal to him.

I have more things I could say, but really, I just find Alistair to be one of the most misrepresented by fandom characters. His character has a TON of subtext that challenges you to look beyond what others represent him as and the low opinion he holds of himself.

The perception of him as Andrastian and devout is one pushed on him by people like Morrigan (and others to some degree) who fights Alistair more like a straw man representing society than she engages with him as himself. She sees him as a Templar even though he left the order specifically because they abused him And he fundamentally disagreed with their practices, The Harrowing specifically being what pushed him to fight to leave.

There are, textually, two ways to interpret Alistair. Through face value aesthetics and symbolism pointing to association with the Chantry and by observing other’s opinion of him. Or through actually listening to what he says and watching what he does.

And it’s just interesting to me that a lot of people get caught in the trap of what he represents aesthetically rather than who he is.

[goron-moron]

i drew the DA:O LIs as little kids once a long time ago and i wanted to do it again because sometimes the very thought of it makes me wanna cry

[goron-moron]

alistair ft. philomena cunk

[goron-moron]

Save a horse 😮‍💨

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survive the night

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I miss Claire, Capcom bring her back

[goron-moron]

Reblogging for pride month… fun fact Edith is a deeply closeted bisexual who had the obligatory homoerotic best friendship with Amata 😎 that’s all

I like to imagine she’s giving Butch a death stare after he insulted Amata or something.

In game he says the LW and her are girlfriends and he was so real for it

[goron-moron]

Danny is watching...

[goron-moron]

what if dragon age was cowboy age

file was too big for tumblr so i had to take a screenshot 😭 prints here!

[goron-moron]

Being a hopeless romantic actually does pay off btw

[goron-moron]

edith facts? 👀👀

YIPPEEE thank you for asking!!

My notes doc for her is astronomical bc I’ve had it going for 8 years… we’ll be here forever if I share everything so here’s a few lil fun points that are the very basics of her character!

- in the vault she was ABSOLUTELY known as a goody two shoes because she excels academically and is loved by a lot of the adults; but the thing is she’s actually NOT, she’s just very good at not being caught breaking rules. She’s absolutely broken into the vault’s liquor supplies on more than once occasion and stolen a bottle or two that she and Amata have hidden away and drank on their sleepovers

- perhaps because I’m half Irish myself or because Liam Neeson is, I decided VERY early on that James is American-Irish. She actually owns a claddagh ring that’s been passed down in James’ family since before the war, and it’s one of her most prized possessions. She was absolutely beside herself over the fact it was left behind in the vault during her escape

- she’s silver tongued to HELL (charisma was her highest SPECIAL in my canon playthroughs for her). She’s always been super good at blagging her way out of trouble, telling people exactly what they want to hear - this probably helps play massively into the whole “good girl” act in the vault, but it serves her sososo well in the wasteland

- she is also VERY sarcastic and quick witted. It always made her feel a little bit like people in the vault couldn’t quite keep up with her mentally/conversationally, and unfortunately for her (she says), Butch was actually always really good at going back and forth with her. This irritates her to no end

- she’s assigned as the vaults nurse after the GOAT (because of course) - it’s a job she LOVES but she hates that everything she gets to do is very superficial; common colds, a cut or broken bone here or there. She’s always kind of wished for the chance to actually feel like she’s making a difference and saving lives, doing something that actually challenges her

[goron-moron]

Ghosti

[goron-moron]

desperately need more fallout mutuals... i love yapping about ocs with eachother

[goron-moron]

Mmmm thinking about them…

[goron-moron]

Я желаю всем такого гостя

[goron-moron]

lil edith doodle to warm up