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replaying origins and i just maxed out sten's approval so naturally i thought of this tweet and had to make it

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DRAGON AGE: INQUISITION → 9/?

Sweet Maker, can both of you please shut up? We can argue once we've escaped the giant Fear demon.

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You know what’s insane to me about BioWare not giving a fuck about the Qunari? It’s that. That’s the race they created that’s specific to the setting. Like, yes, the elves and dwarves in DA are very unique and distinct from other elves and dwarves in other medias. But the Qunari are a da-only thing as far as I’m aware, right? Like, even they’re inspired by other stuff, you don’t get Qunari from anyone else.

Like you made them. Why do you keep putting them in the back burner 😭

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EPILOGUE: QUEEN ANORA

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quick ref study with Zev

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vigil's keep gang 💀💅✨

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Anders being concerned about Hawke.

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that one banter in da origins be like

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"Sten bowed once before Solona's remains and then left without a word, returning to his homeland. His honor had been restored, and when fellow qunari asked if there were worthy people outside Par Vollen, Sten would answer that in all his travels he had only met a single one."

very normal about this not sobbing at all

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Dinosaur, Richard Siken

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it's unfortunate that dorian often gets characterized as just kind of a Generic Best Friend™️ for the inquisitor, bc i feel like he's actually SO odd. juvenile delinquent child prodigy mage who kept getting into fights and dropping out of various schools. refuses to take the well of sorrows on moral grounds. progressive by tevinter noble standards, but still throwing in clunkers like "well... slavery isn't THAT bad" in conversation. but still has enough conflicted feelings about it to wallow in Tevinter Guilt about arlathan and slavery, and genuinely discusses it with solas? and then if given a few years, he does decide to do something about it. only for solas to go "sorry but i have to destroy this world :/ try to enjoy your remaining time i guess :/"

and, if you recruit him at redcliffe, there is the angle where his first major introduction to the party is... them all dying horribly of red lyrium in front of him. because of the actions of his own mentor, whom he respected a lot. while he tries to do advanced theoretical fade physics calculations in his head. i can only imagine he goes "well! we don't have time to unpack all that. where's the nearest bar" after coming back to the normal world, but jeez. he is so bizarre and i love that.

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how it feels taking javik on missions with you

(am i too late to this meme? no?)

original: sweepswoop_ on twitter

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Grown ass man btw

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Anders and Fenris, my two fav trash heaps from DA2.

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A thing I wish DAO went into more: the way Alistair is in some ways incredibly selfish. Like, the way he refuses to take charge of the group is treated as kind of endearing in the text, but the game doesn't really get into what a massive burden he just... drops on the junior Warden present with no warning or discussion. Think about it: the Warden is heavily implied to be very young (possibly younger than Alistair, definitely around the same age), most of them have no real experience in leadership, several of them have no experience in the world outside their small corner, all of them have only been Wardens for a few days. And Alistair dumps leadership of the group on them and refuses to take any of that weight. Does your Warden like leadership? Are they any good at it? Is it exhausting and difficult for them? Alistair doesn't care! He doesn't want to lead, and that means you have to lead, and whether or not you want to lead has no bearing on that. It's not a discussion, there's no suggestion of sharing the responsibility of leadership as the Wardens of the group; Alistair metaphorically throws the responsibility at you and runs.

But if you go for low approval with Alistair it's basically all about calling him childish and immature, even though I think a much more compelling low approval dynamic is the Warden despising Alistair for putting so much on them with no hesitation, but being stuck with him (because they know as well as he does that they need all hands on deck Warden-wise) and stuck with that burden of leadership (because a Warden kind of has to be in charge of the group and even if one didn't no one else in the group would be very good as a leader in this situation, and Alistair has made it very clear that he won't take it). Even at high approval it would be very compelling to have this sense of resentment at how Alistair just assumed they'd take on the burden of leadership and refuses to take any of it for himself. But that aspect gets completely ignored in the story, you don't really get the chance to raise the matter aside from asking why you're in charge despite him being the senior Warden present a couple of times.

It also adds something really spicy to the fallout of sparing Loghain, though, because... Alistair forced the Warden to take on leadership. He made them be the one to make these hard choices. It's never been a discussion, it's never been the Warden's choice whether or not they take on responsibility for these tough decisions, Alistair always just expects them to do it. And now they've made a call he doesn't like, and he abandons the group on the eve of battle because of his wounded feelings? I'd argue that's as much a betrayal as sparing Loghain if not more so, and certainly more of a betrayal of Duncan's memory; Duncan understood that a good Warden must be driven by necessity, not emotion or even morality, and I feel like in the Warden's place he likely would've made the same call. They need Wardens around to kill the Archdemon, as many as they can get, and even one more could make the difference between victory and defeat. The Warden and Alistair may not know the details, but with the most senior Warden present saying they should make Loghain a Warden instead of killing him a logical assumption would be he has a very good reason for saying so and maybe they should listen to him! I would've loved it if during the argument with Alistair after sparing Loghain you could really get into that "You forced the responsibility of making these decisions on me when I never wanted or asked for it, you don't get to throw a tantrum now that I've made one you don't like" aspect of it, but you... don't. And that's a shame, because it takes a lot of depth away from his dynamic with the Warden.

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Sebastian, stop this madness! The Chantry cannot condone revenge, Sebastian. ↳ THE EXILED PRINCE

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really i think one of my favorite character dynamics is “i don’t actually like you but we’ve been through so much together that i’d trust you with my life and know that we will always back each others calls. but i still wouldn’t trust you with my car keys.” like “we aren’t really friends but we’ve been thrust into an intense situation where you are the only other person i know so now we’re besties.” and “if it weren’t for our years of history i would have literally nothing to talk to you about at this work dinner.” Enemies to lovers has NOTHING on general disinterest to begrudging acknowledgment to discovering that this person is now an inextricable part of your life