zoneofsmites - Tumblr blog

[zoneofsmites]

“…his name is Kieran”

Alternatively titled ‘First Meeting’

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Saw some folks chattering fave DA2 elves on Twitter and I’m just over here with this guy.

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The dichotomy of bringing Cole out with romanced Dorian vs romanced Bull is so funny to me because with Dorian it's very sweet and gentle and "You're smiling! It's good" and more about how Dorian is absolutely dumbstruck and delighted by Quiz choosing to stay with him and then you bring Cole out with romanced Bull and it's just "Why do you call the Inquisitor babygirl" "How about we stop talking for a little while" the whole way through.

[zoneofsmites]

origins is set in ferelden because if you tried to explain the mere concept of orlais to a freshly out of dust town brosca they'd let the darkspawn win

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You wouldn't last an hour in the asylum where they raised me

[zoneofsmites]

Lava Rivers & Streams l jvn.photo l Iceland

[zoneofsmites]

tbh i like torturing them by dragging vivienne and blackwall around together all the time because they’re actually pretty similar characters. both are lowborn marchers who managed to claw their way up the brutal orlesian social hierarchy. both are obsessed with the concepts of class and power. both grapple with the need to sacrifice personal (esp. romantic) relationships in order to abide by the obligations of their roles.

the divergence between them comes from the fact that while they’re familiar with the pitfalls of making yourself a tool of the nobility, blackwall’s fallen victim to them while vivienne’s bootstrapping has been comparably successful. he’s the “bad end” to her own story, which is why his criticisms of her are the most cogent of anyone’s. and vivienne, for her part, immediately recognizes what blackwall is because he’s so much like her.

it’s such a good detail that their animosity only kicks off when blackwall tries flattering her and she offends him by pointing out how obviously fake his chivalry is. blackwall uses this act frequently, and it works well on nobly-born characters like josephine, but vivienne isn’t a noble. she antagonizes him because she wants him to know that she’s used the same tactics herself, but against more difficult targets and to greater effect. she’s implying that she’s him but competent, and blackwall spends the rest of the game mounting the counter-argument that he’s her but with principles.

[zoneofsmites]

I got too excited while playing chess and told my opponent that I was going to slit his throat and slaughter him like a hog. something to work on for next time

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stolen from this

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i believe in fade-sensitive!carver, it is true and real to me.

[zoneofsmites]

Caves are weirder and more varied than you think

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yknow solas from dai right and forgive me bc im sure other ppl already knew this but i just found out about this just now and now i have to say it

so i was scrolling reddit and someone was asking how come they can't seem to write solas dialogue correctly for fanfiction and someone in the comments pointed out that he, not always, but very often, speaks in IAMBIC TETRAMETER? and that's why he SOUNDS LIKE THAT?

[zoneofsmites]

Let’s talk about half elves in Dragon Age (May contain triggers and spoilers)

So this is a topic a lot of fans -including myself- are unsatisfied with and have put a lot of thought and effort into creating their own concepts of half elves.

Let’s get to know the canon in game concept of these individuals: Half elves or as the game calls them elf blooded are offspring of a human and an elven individual. Usually the mother is elven, while the father is a noble who, after seducing the elf, of course turns around and ceases every conection to mother or child. Often and sadly elf blooded children are the product of rape. The resuslting children are phenotypically human, undistinguishable from other humans, unless they tell you about their heritage. Curiously other elven traits don’t seem to be carried over either. An example are the way the crossroads are perceived in comparison to elves. Elves see the crossroads as a colourful, beautiful place. In The Masked Empire it lets elves even move faster, while humans have difficulty progressing forward. Even Ser Michel de Chevin who is a half elf perceives the crossroads like ordinary humans. No in between or a slightly lesser resistance from the place. Even the magic treats half elves like full humans.

I have to say that I find this concept of half elves lazy. I can see that in a way it is diffrent from the typical fantasy trope of the bearded handsome man with the slightly pointy ears and a tendency towards the magical, but completely erasing the elven side? I am not even talking of a shitty representation for biracial people as it is entirely possible that the outer appearance may favor one side only. I can’t help but think that bioware wanted to escape from designing another npc model, ranging somewhere between human and elf. Even Faynriel who. the only one visibly elf blooded was rather a mistake than actually making another kind of half elf.

So rather than making every elf blooded character entirely human and their children, and their children and their children thereafter and forever I propose this:

- Phenotypical appearance may range from a majorly elven appearance to a majorly human appearance.

- In regards to elven magic like the crossroads the elven heritage should be a factor on regards to perception of the place. Patrick Weeks missed a golden opportunity to write an interesting scene about Michel de Chevin in The Masked Empire in my opinion.

- Depending on their social surroundings individuals may identify as entirely elven, regardless of their human heritage or the opposite. There should also be those who actually do view themselves as neither or both.

- In terms of their social enviroments the game needs to explore the topic a bit further. It is true that half elves are a small minority but given the number of elven servants in palaces and estates not uncommon. The game states that they are treated like scum and are often not accepted by neither humans or elves or will often live as humans keeping their elven heritage a secret. With the Dread Wolf’s rising it could even be interesting to explore how these individuals are affected by  Solas’s plan. Half elves living among elves is also a thing I want to see explicitly shown and not as some unimportant side gimmick.

- Showing exceptions from the example: half elves don’t have to be the result of a short lived affair between an elven woman and a human man. They may be the result of a loving relationship, perhaps of a human woman and her elven husband (I want to see Soris’s big biracial family).

- Phenotypical appearance may range from a majorly elven appearance to a majorly human appearance.

Feel free to add more to my wish list for elf blooded characters. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[zoneofsmites]

I love drawings of Alistair where he’s visibly half-elf, but I can only think of it as an AU, since, considering what Ali’s story line in da:o is, if he was visibly of elven heritage it would DEFINATELY have come up. So, it wouldn’t work in canon.

BUT.

Oh man an au where Alistair looks elven is so much fun to think about.  So he was told his mother was an elven servant right? which adds layers to the idea of a human noble being the one to get her pregnant, and even more emotional nuance to Goldanna’s whole deal.  Isolde’s dislike of him as a child would almost certainly have racial under(over)tones, and him being accepted into the templars would have been highly unusual (perhaps a bribe was involved), and the way his fellow trainees treated him would for SURE support his hatred of the whole affair.  The Grey wardens with their more laissez-faire attitude towards anything not darkspawn related would have been such a relief.

And the LANDSMEET. For me it was always pretty cut and dry that Anora should be on the throne, Alistair had no interest and she was obviously a more effective politician, plus girl power or whatever. She was somewhat of the underdog once Alistair’s name was put in the ring. But if Ali was a known half-elf? That would complicate the HECK out of things. Not only is there more incentive to put him on the throne because imagine an elven ruler of Fereldan and what that could mean, but it would also be harder and involve more work. It would put Ali and Anora on more even footing in the race for the throne. It would just be so cool. 

Aaaaa anyway. sorry. rambling. Point is visibly elven Alistair is a really cool concept and I wish it was in the actual game. thank you and goodnight.