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so separate from the fact that Hawke's grandfather left the estate to Leandra and Gamlen gambled it away, I don't actually know that the conversation they're having when Hawke walks in with the will is unreasonable, as terrible as his framing is.

"You sold my children into servitude and now you're asking me to pay rent?"

"maybe just something toward food"

I mean, maybe it comes out later that Gamlen is wasting the food money or whatever, I don't remember.

But Hawke and Carver binding themselves to the smugglers or mercenaries came about because they didn't have the coin to bribe the Templars. That would have been kind of necessary without Gamlen anyway; at least he had the contacts to make it happen?

and I mean... yeah, if you're a grown adult living in someone's house and there's not something actually impeding you, like an illness, I don't think it's unreasonable to help with the bills or contribute to the family's survival? especially if the family is in a generally precarious situation?

it would be different I think if he was shaking down Hawke or Carver, who are trying to find work and coin to help with long term survival, but I don't get the impression that Leandra... well, ever did anything particularly proactive or exercised much agency in her own upkeep or survival.

She relied on Hawke to do the hard parts of leading the family, Carver and Hawke worked off the bribe and looked for work to keep the family going after, she expected Gamlen to take her in no questions asked after running off years before but mostly seems to complain about her standard of living without actually doing anything to help?

she has the line about "I had better get started" when Gamlen tells her that she needs standing for an audience with the Viscount... but that only goes anywhere because Hawke goes on the expedition.

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three fools does not make a wise man i fear

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[id: expanding brain meme that goes “Thinking Leia is feral because she’s Anakin’s daughter” > “Thinking Leia is feral because she’s PADME’S daughter” > “Realizing Leia is feral because there’s an entire TCW episode where the plot is that Padme calls Bail and says “BAIL MEET ME AT THE DOCKS BRING GUNS” and he just fucking does it because he’s insane”]

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BITING AND CLAWING AND TEARING AND GROWLING AND MAIMING AND KILLING AND COOKING SOLAS IN A PAN

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I feel like I have changed a lot as a player and a story consumer since I first played this game. Isabela was in my party so little when I played this game as a teenager that it became a problem for her quest, but I'm very much spinning up a compare/contrast arc for her and Rowan right now. Might do her romance or Merrill's?

I don't want to do Anders' again (aka what I did in my only two complete playthroughs) and Idk that I'm up for romancing Fenris with a pro-Mage Hawke. (I don't like the rivalmances from what I remember.)

But Rowan and Isabela are giving me some ideas about both characters being motivated by *an* idea of freedom... But it doesn't look the same for both of them.

Rowan is overly responsible for her family and it's made her bad with boundaries to her detriment, generally does want to talk her way out of things first, but she so far doesn't seem to have much problem getting her hands dirty to keep them all from starving or out of the Templars' grasp when bloodshed or crime become inevitable. She pushes back on the Templar situation because she resents both her lack of control/lack of options as an Apostate AND she resents the amount of control she has to and is expected to take for the sake of her family.

From what little I remember of DA2 Isabela, I feel like she would understand some of that, but be utterly baffled by how much Rowan lets herself be chewed up by Leandra's expectations and her responsibilities?

Idk, just spit balling at the moment. We'll see where it goes.

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the key I need to advance Fenris's recruitment quest won't drop, so I'm off to figure out how to use the console and/or mods to add items.

still thinking about that poison though. It feels like over kill.

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Varric gives you +5 approval for giving the quest giver the location of this "legitimate cargo" anyway after Hawke calls him out on it being poison and the man is unrepentant. +10 if you make him bribe you first, but I had Aveline in the party.

Which is kind of fun to think about as a Rook de Riva player.

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Don't let anyone tell you that seeing someone like you on television isn't important.

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:3

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I love ds9 it's like. Here's a recently widowed single father grieving but now he's a major religious figure to an entire planet. Here's a woman who spent her girlhood as a terrorist and has now lived to see liberation and doesn't know how to stop fighting. Here's a doctor hiding a secret that could ruin his life if it's revealed. Here's a spy for the fascist former occupiers with a horrible cover story. Here's a person bonded with a symbiont living their eighth lifetime. Here's an alien who has no idea what he is or where he comes from.

And here's Miles O'Brien thinking he was getting a normal job.

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For a beloved mutual. I hope she gets to see this 😌

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My protip of the day if you know someone with a dietary restriction. Picking up something that person can't eat and going "Oops!! Haha, sorrrry, guess you can't have this." is, generally, not very funny. "Haha, look away!!" same thing. "Oh who ordered this? I bet it's [person with the dietary restriction against it]" same.

Either, you're mocking someone's moral/spiritual conviction, or you're jokingly threatening their medical safety. Neither of which, in my experience, make for a good joke. With the double-whammy of singling out the person to make fun of them.

"Okay but my specific friend actually loves these jokes."/"That's not true I have a restriction and I think these are funny." That's good, and I'm happy for you, and glad you have this communication about what you find funny with your friends. If you're cool with it then let your friends know.

But I've found that, as someone with a dietary restriction, these jokes are constant and come from all sides, and from people who never seem to want to know whether I find it funny.

So I'd say it's better to err on the side of caution of "maybe mockery should not be the default state with which I approach this person's restriction."

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my weird hang up in video games:

even if there's a specific stat I want to raise, if I would run out of points and leave that stat on a number that isn't either even or a multiple of 5, I can't do it.

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... can people stop making random sex comments about Isabela already? I've had her in actual gameplay terms for less than an hour.

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even in video games I hate people.