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omfg this bug sjdjsjsj

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from Shelley’s The Revolt of Islam (1818)

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you know this meme

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Happy October 1st, I think we can all relate with Reyes on this one!

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this is a terrible comic but it’s totally canon, fight me

(Look he really likes butts OK)

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Dragon!Hawke and his knight

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I did a thing. Have thing, friends. That grid is based off of the bar scale in the corner of the map, drawn using 1px lines. Map is from the RPG Guide (Set 2). This has been downsized by half, if you want it at its original size, as grabbed from the PDF, here’s an imgur link to it.

A few stats possibly of note: the side of each square equals 70 miles, the total area of each square is 4,900 miles square or 12,691 square kilometres.

Ignoring the partial squares on the left and top, the total area of the entire map is about 1,915,900 miles square / 4,962,151.1730 square km. Some hasty counting and subtracting of the area of pure or mostly pure water tiles gives a (very rough!) land area total for Thedas of 1,533,700 miles square. (Converting to km2 gives 3,972,265 square km but because 70 miles equals 112.654 km, the actual km2 would be little bit smaller. Like, by maybe 30km2 or so.)

And if you’re curious like me as to how this lines up with countries IRL - comparing the total area of the Thedas map to total areas of countries as listed on Wikipedia puts this map between Australia and India in size. Australia is (quite a bit) larger at total area of 2,969,907 mi2 / 7,692,024 km2, while India is smaller at 1,222,558 mi2 / 3,166,414 km2.

Rough land area total compared to RL countries total land area is in the same place - Australia is 2,947,336 mi2 and India is 1,105,805 mi2. So in a pinch, I’d say that if you want to look at a real country to compare to Thedas, India would be your best bet.

Link to Wiki image highlighting India on the globe: here

India geography with map link: here

Physical map of India: here

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someone please put him to bed 

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look i finally did that thing i said i would do 3 weeks ago

based off this post by me

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You almost mentioned Cullen as the best written character, but tbh he is written quite bad, his abuse and hate is never confronted in Inquisition and he is made victim by narrative, while he was the very problem why Chantry sucks. Even his fans admit that. He is mostly liked because of romance.

Ugh.

I was waiting for that moment when admitting I like Cullen’s character and story arc will bite me in the ass.

TL; DR (for those who don’t want to get through my long rant) 

Let everyone enjoy any characters/romances/game choices they want. I have my reasons for having Cullen as a fav DA character and liking his story arc and I don’t think there are more problems with writing of his character than the majority of other companions in DA games. 

Full answer below

First of all – I don’t want to argue that everyone should like or dislike the same elements of fiction as I do – it would be stupid. We all have different tastes, like different character archetypes and have varying opinions on what makes a good story. I’m trying to keep my blog character positive and unless someone asks me directly to share my opinion on a certain character or plot element I prefer keeping my critique to myself. I also don’t feel entitled to confront fans who, in their own posts, state they find Cullen boring, unredeemable or overrated, even if I personally disagree with all these statements. 

If your ask, anon, stated the words “i think” or “in my opinion” I wouldn’t probably bother with such a lengthy answer, HOWEVER, you write your personal opinion like it was an objective statement, like you were in position to tell me how I should view the certain character. What did you expect, that I would suddenly realize “oh crap, NOW I see that a character and plot I had liked for my 200 hours of gameplay is actually bad, I was just too stupid to notice it!”.

Haha, no.

So, let’s go through your comment.

“tbh he is written quite bad”

In. Your. Opinion. There are people who don’t like Cullen’s character development. Some like the general idea but would make some changes if they could. Others (like me) don’t have problem with his story arc and just like to add some headcanons to fill the gaps.

It is understandable that when years pass between games, fans have time to develop their opinions and wishes of what they’d like to see. And because none of them actually writes the story it is very easy to feel disappointed and say “well, I would do it better (= my way)”. But the truth is - your way is not necessary a better way. It may be the case that “your version” would be even more hated by the fandom. Some opinions are just more popular than others and therefore may seem like they are objective but it’s an illusion. A well designed pool, with large sample size and good statistics may be objective. Opinions, on the other hand, are like farts – you always think yours are less stinky than the others’ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But I digress.

Yes, I think Cullen is a well written character and yes, I like his story arc. Cullen’s redemption works for me because I see it not as much about atonement for his actions as for his lack of action.

Let me explain.

Anti-Cullen fans tend to assume that he personally did a lot of atrocities, but when you look not at fandom assumptions but at his actual actions we see in games or WoT, you can see that he caused most evil by not doing shit.

He should have protected the mages.

He didn’t.

He should have questioned Meredith’s actions.

He didn’t.

He should have noticed she’s going mad.

He didn’t .

He should have stopped her before she evoked the Rite.

He didn’t.

He was very passive and basically let either Meredith or Hawke make all the choices for him. If he let Meredith decide – people died. If he listened to Hawke (based on player’s choices) he voted for whatever Hawke had proposed.

Why was he behaving like that? Probably because he had lost faith in his own judgment so he put all the responsibility on authority figures (Templar Order and Chantry teachings). Cullen’s core motivation throughout all games was to protect people and it never changes. What changes is his belief of what methods are moral or necessary to achieve that goal and whether he, as an individual, should be in a position to decide it.

In Inquisition Cullen does the opposite. He is a workaholic. He makes his own decisions (leaves Kirkwall, stops taking lyrium) and takes full responsibility for them. He doesn’t follow his leader blindly but openly states his own opinions and advice (whether they are correct or wrong is another topic). He gets really furious when someone in position of power lie to or sacrifice people under their command (like in case of Samson or Rainier). Finally, he dedicates his life, health, skills, basically everything, for a cause - to stop the war that can be blamed mostly on his former organisation, without complaint or asking for forgiveness.

And I love that aspect of his character.

In Inquisition Cullen is still a work in progress. He tries his best but his templar past comes back sometimes - and it’s good. If he was completely free of his biases, it would be damn unnatural. 

I would never say that Cullen is a flawless ray of sunshine. He can be stubborn, biased, narrow-minded, hypocritical, bitter, aggressive and vengeful. But guess what – so can all the other characters. That’s why they are interesting.

“his abuse and hate is never confronted in Inquisition”

It is, at least for the standards of this particular game. DA:I doesn’t have full developed friendship-rivalry mechanics like DA:2 and you can’t even get approval points from advisors. The Inquisitor basically has far less options to condemn the Inner Circle’s actions or change their worldviews than Hawke (you don’t really argue with Dorian about slavery or with Iron Bull about Saarebas or Reeducators either).

But even if the Inquisitor has limited dialogue options to confront Cullen’s actions directly, Cullen himself brings the topic to the player. Cullen’s dialogue and actions in DA:I show that

he is ashamed of the person he became after Uldred’s uprising    

he knows he needs to atone for his actions and he wants to work for it

but doesn’t really believe he can fully atone for what he did

supports the reform of the Chantry, Templar Order and Circles rather than agreeing to their traditional methods

That man already hates himself, give him some rest.

And if you still think he needs an extra punishment for his crimes - Cullen is actually one of only 3 companions/advisors in DA:I whose life you can literally ruin through your choices (the other two being Blackwall and Iron Bull). If your Inky thinks that Cullen’s actions are unredeemable and he deserves nothing better than to forever be chained to the templar life he has chosen as a kid - they can order him to take lyrium again. For me it’s a heartless and morally wrong choice, but anyone can play their game however they want.

„he is made victim by narrative”

Ok, that part really bothers me. Are you saying that it is a bad thing that a narrative treats a person who has been physically, mentally and sexually abused for weeks as a victim of that abuse? Or encourages empathy towards a character fed drugs, manipulation and propaganda? Acknowledging Cullen’s PTSD doesn’t automatically result in ignoring or diminishing traumas and abuse that happened to Anders, Carl or any other character. Empathy doesn’t have to be reserved to people you personally agree with, just saying.

„he was the very problem why Chantry sucks.”

I’d say he was an example showing why Chantry sucks. A symptome, not a cause. Chantry benefits only high ranking members of that intitution + some nobles and rich dudes. Mages are abused and denied most of the rights because of the Chantry. Templars are drugged and brainwashed because of the Chantry. Common folk can’t freely benefit from things like healing magic because of the Chantry. Non-humans are treated like heretics and barbarians - because of the Chantry. The Chantry, as we see at the beginning of DA:I is a corrupt, powerful institution that has forsaken almost all ideals it had been built upon and desperately needs a reform. Everyone can see that. I have NEVER met any fan who said „yeah, Circles, Templar Order, the Chantry – they were perfectly alright, no need to change lol”. Same goes to characters labelled by fandom as pro-Chantry (like Cassandra, Cullen or Vivienne). They all see that major changes must be done, they just believe the reformation is better than abolition.

„Even his fans admit that.”

Some, yes. Others don’t have a problem with his arc. Personally I don’t think there are many Cullen fans that would agree with every single point you made.

„He is mostly liked because of romance.”

Um, no. The reason why the game developers even bothered with making Cullen a romance option in DA:I is that he was already quite liked and popular among fans, despite being just a secondary character. I’d agree that the romance plot made Cullen even more popular, especially among players who didn’t play previous games, but it is wrong to assume that the only reason people enjoy his character is because he’s a pretty boy. I played the games in order and Cullen was one of my fav characters in DA2 - I just like paragon anti-villains with redemption potential. Fight me. 

To conclude this overly long rant - I’m generally under impression that some DA fans tend to point certain aspects of Cullen’s character and story as “stupid excuses made by Bioware and fans to redeem a son of the bitch” and then use almost exactly the same arguments to defend their own favs. It’s the topic for maybe another discussion, but I think it’s a good thing to confront your own biases sometimes.

P.S. I also recommend watching this video about writing redemption arcs. Just for fun.

I rest my case. 

(thanks, Ania, for the high quality picture to sum up my feelings)

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so this post yeah?

one of you should make it so it's cullen having to explain this shit to the inquisition's forces bc id love to do it but i cant draw

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*wheeze* So there I was trying to draw backgrounds, and instead I drew Cullen Rutherford from Dragon Age....

I've been trying to think of a place to put some guilty-pleasure fanart to keep it off my Instagram, and then I remembered Tumblr! Tumblr will appreciate my garbage art XD

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Commander Cullen by jennytan

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I know a lot of people will disagree with me, but I don’t think that Alistair is out of character in DA:I.  Aside from the whitewashing, Alistair’s character  was handled remarkably well.  Imagine how disappointing it would have been for Alistair, who is now eleven years older than he was a the start of Origins, to be exactly the same as he was in DA:O.   It would be pretty hard to believe that Alistair, who has lived eleven more years than when we first meet him, has not been changed by the life that he has lived in that time.  A King Alistair who hasn’t become shrewd and wise to the ways of governance, who does not know how to be stern or make decisions that may be unpleasant.  A Warden Alistair who has not seen his youthful idealism fade into cynicism as he watches the Order he’s dedicated his life to come apart at the seams.  An Alistair who hasn’t become weary with being separated from the person he loves for longer than he has been with them.  It just wouldn’t make sense. 

He’s grown up in hardship and managed to still be a kind and generally selfless person.  He still has a big heart.  He still cares about people and believes in a purpose.  However, just like anyone else, he’s had to adapt to keep going, to not be hurt so much, whatever it might be.   That doesn’t mean he’s not the same person anymore.  He’s just a person who has lived more life.  

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Might sound silly, but I had NO IDEA of the geographic situation of Thedas before seeing this map. Because, really, it’s not like the map of the war table, in Inquisition, as any form of precise geographic indications.

Great material for fanfiction writers, by the way

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I imagine that Cullen is tired just all the time, is coffee a thing in the Inquisition? Between Cullen, Josephine, and Leliana I bet they could single-handedly drive the coffee trade

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@gowombat83 More swordtwirling :)