I'm sorry, but why don't we talk about Witch Hunt more? Seriously, I think it might be my favorite DAO DLC. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the hell out of Awakening. Leliana's Song is good. The Golems of Amgarrak is... eh, bad. I didn't really like that one. The Warden's Keep, The Stone Prisoner, and Return to Ostagar are all amazing and I love them.
But Witch Hunt??? Y'all. I can't. I'm too emotional right now.
I have at least one dynamic from each game that I'm obsessed with. For DAO, it's the dynamic between romanced!Alistair, Tabris, and Morrigan. I've talked before about the dark ritual and stuff in this post, so let's just say that my Tabris, Rose, very much has unfinished business and a score to settle with Morrigan.
Tabris and Morrigan grew so close throughout the entire journey of DAO, y'know? Close enough that Morrigan claimed she thought of her as a sister, and Tabris felt the same way... and then in one single moment, it's just shattered.
There were signs that Tabris ignored, like the way Morrigan dismissed all the circle mages and claimed they should be left to their fates since they "allow themselves to be caged like cattle." Or how she disapproved every time Tabris wanted to help those down on their luck. Or, worst of all, when Morrigan disapproved when Tabris chose to kill the Tevinter slaver instead of making a deal with him to use the lives of the remaining elves to grant her more power... one of those caged elves being Tabris' father.
But she gave Morrigan the benefit of the doubt; she's sheltered and only had Flemeth as an influence and teacher, of course she's unempathetic and selfish, but there is good in Morrigan's heart. She can learn to be more empathetic and to care for others.
At least, Tabris believed that until Morrigan confessed that she's known about the ultimate sacrifice and the dark ritual from the beginning, that Flemeth sent her with the wardens with a purpose that Morrigan intends to follow through with. It's devastating and it broke Tabris' heart.
She just learned that a warden has to die to stop the blight, and that warden could be her or Alistair. Not only are they romantically involved, but they've been through all of this shit together, they're the only ones who fully understand what being a grey warden is like. They carry the burden on their shoulders, and they're probably going to lose each other to the archdemon.
And Morrigan waits until she's at her most vulnerable to ask that of her.
Again, I've gone into more detail about that before, but at this point Rose is done with people deceiving her. She's done with Morrigan... except she's not. It's the betrayal and knowing Morrigan got what she wanted that causes Rose to go searching for her.
To Morrigan's credit, she does give some answers. She claims she didn't thing the archdemon would show itself so soon, and she did what she had to because she didn't wish to see Tabris hurt or die. I believe her, and to an extent, Tabris believes her... but Morrigan still doesn't get WHY it's a betrayal.
Morrigan's right: She will never understand Tabris, and Tabris will never understand her. She can insist it's not a betrayal all she wants, but it absolutely is, and Tabris has never allowed anyone who crossed her to just walk away... except for Morrigan.
Until now.
Hearing that Morrigan manipulated her way into the trust of this Dalish clan so she could steal their book and run is just further evidence in Tabris' eye that she hasn't changed. Maybe it was always foolish to believe she could.
So... she stabbed Morrigan.
She didn't do it to kill her; Morrigan is the daughter of Flemeth and a powerful mage with healing magic, a mere stab isn't going to kill her.
No, it's about what the stab represents: "I am done with you."
And how the scene plays out? It's so dramatic and good, just the way everything slows down, the music, how they make eye contact as the stabbing happens just....
I know it sounds really bad, and this is the part where I remind everyone that I ADORE Morrigan, but the stabbing ending is so satisfying from a story-telling standpoint for my playthrough.
It's so tragic and it hurts and I hate it.... but I love it, y'know?
I love Witch Hunt, like I haven't even talked about Ariane and Finn, or how the circle just has all these books on Dalish artifacts and translations of elvhen, or how other eluvians can be found with a shard from the broken one in the dalish origin.... like you're telling me that Merrill had a piece of the puzzle? If she had the knowledge, she could've found a working eluvian to study?? I'm going to gnaw my own leg off--
Listen, I could gush about this all day.
But now that I've completely finished DAO, it's time to replay DA2.
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Hi! How are you!? I just came across your Waterpark AU and let me just say, I am soooooo ready for some summer fun!!! /silly
Also, I love the background designs for all the sketches you have made! They are so detailed and immersive! And your designs for Sun and Moon are so cool! I'm curious about their personalities! I'm very excited to see what other story snippets/crumbs we might eventually get! <3 <3 <3
Hi hello!!! I’m doing good thank you :))
Yayyyyyy glad to hear it and I hope you’re also ready for the summer fun to find you!
Munching on your compliments, my goal for this au was to make it feel as immersive as possible! Every time I discover someone’s DCA au I feel drawn into their world (written or illustrated) and I absolutely love it! So so happy to hear I am able to accomplish this effect from you guys it really motivates me to continue working on this au and develop more content for it <3
Also thank you for the compliments on their designs haha it’s comedic at this point that I don’t have their ref sheets completed though, worried their color pallets will surprise everyone.
Ah yes their personalities that is something I am still learning on how to portray. It’s in my head but how do I show this??? Through written interactions and dialogue? Through text of their personality traits and habits? Idk I’ll hopefully figure something out soon.
Again thank you for your kind words! I’ve been hoarding quite a few of my inbox messages to help inspire me!!!
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[ i sit on the edge of my bed, my eyes half open as I sleepily look around my room. Same boxes of stuff near the closet that I haven’t put away, my laptop plugged in, and my nightstand full of figures which had toppled over. Probs just my cat, yet it was odd that my Pac-Man toy was still upright. Oh well, I’ll fix it when I get home. I go towards my closet to grab my uniform, hearing some movement. What’s with the cat and hiding in my closet?! Groaning, I step over and lean in, trying to find her admist all of my darkly colored clothes. Imagine how startled I felt when I saw something bright yellow petting Elvira “Who THE HELL are you?!” I grab one of the curtain rods laying on the box and bring it down on the figure, which oddly made a “Waka?!” Type noise and fell over, my cat running out of my room. “The fuck…? Did- did i just-?!” I mutter as I stare down at what looked to be Pac-Man himself…. Okay. No way. He can’t be real. This can’t be happening. I’ve gotta be hallucinating! Right?! How did a video game… thing get into my closet?! I reach out to touch it, you cant hallucinate feelings right?!]
(Shares story with you <33)
Hi taikoer j <333 very cool :3
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Did you have plans for what Mei's role in your modern au would be? Since it sounds like Ling lives with his dad, I'm assuming Mei is there too, but there probably aren't 43 siblings in one house huh?
I've thought about it a little!! Ling does live with his dad, who is more or less supposed to be the equivalent of the emperor (though we don't get much characterization for him or Ling's mom so I'm kinda making shit up)
Ling's family situation is complicated and I haven't decided which is better: his dad has remarried a bunch of times and had a lot of kids through those different marriages (plus some extramarital pregnancies), or Ling's mom is the only Official spouse but his dad has had a Lot of affairs and has a number of illegitimate of children. Either way, I think Mei was one of those illegitimate children, and Ling didn't know about her for most of his life! Mei might have known about him, I'm not sure
A lot of these details I'm still figuring out -- either she was given up for adoption as a baby, or she was raised by her mom for a while until her mom passed away, but either way she ended up being adopted by Scar! Because I cannot resist him being a father figure to her. She and Ling eventually meet (I think Ling figures out his dad was hiding siblings from him and he tracks her down) and it is Super Fucking Awkward at first because she resents him for being the "legitimate" heir and benefiting from their father's wealth. She eventually comes around to him though, especially since he's willing to stick up for her when it comes to their dad's bullshit and general neglect
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Thinking about how during the battle royale in NMH2, that Henry tried to protect Shallow from becoming ‘nothing but ash’ but as he tries to protect her, he’s essentially ‘han solo’d’ and frozen into carbon much to Shallow’s horror and at that point she’s like the only person left standing up against Dr. Letz Shake, who’s this big machine supercomputer with a human brain that says stuff like ‘do you agree with this situation. Question mark.’ (He’s literally a robot kind of??)
Obviously it seems a bit inconvenient for Letz Shake do to this, but as a means of getting revenge it makes a lot of sense. You see, during the Battle Royale, Dr. Letz Shake took the time to analyse and compute the dynamic/interactions between Henry and Shallow. He was able to piece together that the two are always fought together and protected each other from enemies, and realised that it cross references with a concept know as “love”. Letz Shake decided to exploit that form of love by placing Shallow Candy in a dangerous situation that essentially forced Henry to come to her aid, but actually it was a trap for him all along and that she wasn’t really an actual target of concern for Letz Shake (like every assassin who underestimates a pastel goth assassin with blue hair and pronouns.).
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