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melancholic cheese guy and a random ass cat that reminded him of ser pounce-a-lot

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Quick little thing

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

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couslands descended from werewolf hunters and mac eanraigs rumoured to be descended from werewolves. to Me. what’s the point of calling eleanor a sea wolf if not

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one of my absolute favourite tiny details is cousland’s nan insisting the warden start the telling of a childhood story, and instead of, i don’t know, “once upon a time”, cousland’s cultural go-to is before our fathers’ fathers came down from the moutains. cousland has chantry tutors but at their nanny’s knee it was alamarri folk tales, not andraste and the wyvern. i think that’s so interesting and it’s one of the jumping-off points for my take that highever let andrastianism colour its culture and traditions more so than change them, in contrast to a centre of pilgrimage and of royalty like denerim, which is more closely interlinked with, and perceived by, andrastians outside ferelden’s borders. cousland to me is always saying some slightly off brand stuff they don’t realise is weird (read: heresy) while alistair and wynne raise eyebrows at each other

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at work and all I can think about it loghain swearing a knights oath to f!cousland after she spares his life

#a talkative qunari.tag #loghain x cousland #in theory #i think it would fix him tbh #ideally he’d not be made a warden but lady cousland is #so he’s not a warden but also not /not/ a warden #he’s sworn to her in life and death and he’ll follow her into the deep roads just as he did maric #only this time she’ll stay she has to there is no other end for her this is how it will always be #and now he can follow her the way he couldn’t with maric #two walking ghosts orbiting the life they lost and finding comfort in each other

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Haven has fallen.

Dragon Age inquisioner, Arlen

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Having more dragon age thoughts- this time about my dwarves, and partially about Varric.

So, hot take to lead with- Oghren is actually a much better and more insightful character to criticse dwarven cast system and culture then Varric. The best dwarven companion we ever got is obviously Sigrun but I feel like this one is pretty much self-explanatory, so I feel much more compelled to talk through our two lovely dwarven gentleman.

First thing I want to say is that, while I usually feel need to say that I do not hold anything against Varric as a character, his disdain for dwarven culture is something that bothers me a little. Especially since he is one of 3 dwarven companions we get across whole 3 games, and by far the most popular one. He is actually pretty similar to Sera at times in a way he views his own heretige but the games refuse to address it. Which is a shame because I think his view on the culture he was basically excommunicated from before he was even born should be a bigger deal then some quips about beards and getting antsy any time he steps near a thaig. Like Varric clearly has some very very complicated feelings about all things dwarven- something that no so subtly is a mirror of his very very complicated feelings on his brother who was much more of a 'real dwarf'. It feels like in an attempt to distance himself from what his brother represented Varric also felt a need to distance himself from anything too dwarven. But at the same time we see that it's something he never really let's go off- he is moved by his ancestor's fate in Legacy dlc questline, he keeps up with dwarven politics, he will get a bit miffed at mere mention of him not looking your standard dwarf.

However since dwarven culture doesn't come up half as much as elven one in later games we never really get to do anything with Varric's internalized issues. It's just sort of becomes a running joke that he is "not like other dwarves, that guy he HATES deep roads and he doesn't have a beard". And while that in itself is fine, not all characters have to focus on their relationship with their culture it becomes an issue when Varric is the only companion representative of said culture through 2 out of 3 games. It means the game has much less opportunities to present us with fun lore in an organic fashion because Varric is too busy making sure we know he hates it here. Like why I am more tempted to take Iron Bull to a dwarven ruins the Varric.

Oghren was ultimately a much better point of reference for dwarves because he is a product of this environment and he is surprisingly insightful and self-aware about it. And despite the multitude of ways in which Orzammar failed him he still cares about it. He still takes a lot of pride in his heretige even if all it really brought him is being rejected for becoming the thing it wanted him to be- a killing machine.

And now I am stuck on one hand wishing that there will be SOMETHING done with Varric's not feeling dwarfy enough- on the other however if Varric will be the only dwarven companion in DA:D I am going to scream. I am sorry all the Varric fans, he is either coming back in an advisor style role or I do not want to see him . It sometimes feels like the writers are not comfortable with writing dwarves and they use the 'least dwarfy dwarf' Varric as a get out of jail card and I just want something new.

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you wouldn't last a day in the asylum where they raised me

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My very sardonic Dragon Age: Dreadwolf BINGO board. (A few of these are lighthearted predictions, while most are concerns based on historical precedence.)

I will be playing along with this when the game is someday released.

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i love dao because theres always a templar corpse in some fucking situation

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one of my favourite takes about the kirkwall hightown chantry is when people act like because it’s the only chantry they actually put in the game, it’s the only chantry in kirkwall

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the baby hawke btw if you even care

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hawke having a kid from the start of da2 wouldn’t even be weird

#I fuck with this hard #you’ve opened my third eye #da2.tag

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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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replaying ostagar is so tiring ever since the flemythal reveal, it makes listening to her and morrigan just exhausting

#a talkative qunari.tag #origins.tag #I hate the flemythal thing with a passion #and i can only really see morrigan as a petulant child doing her best to be a grown up #no matter how hard I try I just can't get myself to role-play characters that would earn her approval anymore #inquisition kinda ruined this part of origins for me #like I understand and sympathize with morrigan's character I just don't like her anymore #I roll my eyes every time she talks