#it's an Alistair move | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

aces-to-apples · 1 year

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Frankly I think Alistair being mildly shitty to that mage in Ostagar seems pretty in-character for the guy he is before the massive, life-altering trauma that is the Ostagar massacre wherein he sees all of his Grey Warden comrades, his beloved mentor/father figure, and his beloathed half-brother/convenient-target-of-projection absolutely torn to shreds by literal Thedas boogeymen. IIRC Morrigan and Flemeth both comment on his wack behavior after Ostagar and then by the time we get to Lothering Alistair just fully surrenders any and all responsibility (and, frankly, agency) to the player's Warden for the foreseeable future. It can then take anywhere from a couple IRL hours to the entire second act of the game for him to retake almost any amount of it back. And depending on the player's choices in dialogue, and especially whether or not they choose to romance him, we may only see flashes of that guy we met at Ostagar before he potentially morphs into almost someone else entirely (hardened!King!Alistair). All that to say, I don't actually think it's a useful criticism of "characterization" to bring up Alistair's glibness as compared to his behavior in the majority of the game because from where I'm standing (looking directly at his snottiness about Cailan, his complaints about being assigned to the Tower of Ishal, his Templar-esque focusing on Morrigan and Flemeth being apostates, his generally pretty brusque manner with the Warden recruits) it seems fairly in-line with the rest of his behavior at Ostagar.

#like seriously he's a bit of a dick (more than what becomes usual) while at ostagar #before his world is shattered and his brain (and personality) is completely rearranged by seeing everyone important to him slaughtered #he clings so hard to the warden as a lifeline that he kind of goes full-on fawning mode for a little bit there #just giving up the reins completely and following orders as (imo) a method of coping with massive loss and trauma #throughout the course of the game he recovers somewhat and goes back to being kind of a dick #and/or growing up pretty extensively and becoming a much better and more tolerant person as a whole #but the idea of him being a dick to a mage because he's being moved around like a chess piece rather than a person #by someone who should NOT have the authority to do that and that fuckin ANNOYS him and then this dude's getting all up in his face about it #as if this was HIS decision and then being accused of harassing this random ass dude he could not give less of a fuck about for funsies #and thus him going full obnoxious shithead teenager about it is somehow OUT of character?? for ALISTAIR??? wack #like nah bro i know we all love ali but our vision is being obscured by that love and also how sweet he is in a romance #just being besties with him unlocks an incredible amount of unfiltered BITCHINESS that is fully in-line with ostagar!alistair's shenanigans #dragon age: origins #alistair theirin #by apples #da meta #anyway there's been disk horse on my dash for the last couple days and this is my take on it

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emmavakarian-theirin · 4 months

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was taking alistair screenshots when my computer decided to crash the game and uninstall my mods so here's said screenshots

#i forgot how much of a PAIN it can be when you spend 15+ mins getting a good angle after careful planning of where the character will move #then 30+ mins in reshade getting the colouring to your liking only for the lighting to change dramatically immediately upon unpausing #i might throw together a random collection of shots i've taken over the years because i don't remember what i've posted #and god forbid i try search up things i know i've posted on my own profile #alistair theirin #dragon age inquisition

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riteofthorns · 5 months

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Alistair as Howl I made for Halloween with a rough sketch ft Shadowheart as Sophie

#my art #original character #oc #alistair fee #tav x shadowheart #shadowheart #screencap draw over #howls moving castle #baldurs gate 3 #bg3 #ghibli #fan art #baldurs gate oc

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stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage · 1 month

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Are there any companions you can't stand?

I wouldn't say I have any that I can't stand. Something that's so engaging to me about DA is that the companions have good, bad, and a lot in between. Honestly, I don't hate any of them. There are companions that I have more issues with than others, but I like them all; even, and sometimes especially, the ones that tend to be heavily hated on by the fandom.

The only companion that might fall into this category for me is Sebastian, but I totally acknowledge that I've yet to make an effort to use him when I play DA2. I legit just forget about him. How am I supposed to have a good grasp of his character when I don't engage with him outside of his companion quests? Plus I usually romance Anders so Sebastian always leaves my party in the end with threats of bringing an army down on Kirkwall for not killing Anders, soooo... yeah. Not the greatest impression he's left me with.

I would like to have a more well-rounded opinion of Sebastian because the concept of him is interesting; he's this chantry brother who is also a prince, but his family was murdered so he puts up a bounty on the chantry board [which admittedly is SO funny] and his companion quests are about avenging his family and helping him decide if he should take back his lands or remain a chantry brother. But then I talk to him, I listen to him talk to the other companions, and it's like... oh, the chantry has become his entire personality because the dude was brainwashed and now he's saying shit like the maker was actually the one who freed Fenris from slavery, and when Fenris tells him a story about how Denarius killed a child in a ritual for more power, Sebastian just doubles down that the maker has his reasons, like....babe, c'mon now.

I feel like I've read pieces about him written by fans who love him that are more compellingly written than he is, if that makes sense. Really, I would love to be educated by those who love him, especially Sebastian romancers because of all the love interests in all of DA, he's the one I look at and go, "....okay but why?" I have a lot of fun with character discussions and other perspectives so I mean that sincerely.

Also I think it's worth noting that when I play, I tend to get super into the roleplay of my warden/hawke/inquisitor, but while they have party members they can't stand, I have opinions that are separate from them, y'know?

For example, since I've talked about it a lot recently, my mage Hawke and Aveline butt heads constantly. By the end of Act 3, they're rivalry is heated and Ed's surprised Aveline even sided with him in the end because THAT is how much their relationship deteriorated over the course of the game... but then there's my warrior Hawke who adored Aveline. The two of them were best friends and Aris always gave her the benefit of the doubt, like she had Aveline's back through and through.

I've complained about Aveline a lot in my posts so it probably does sound like I can't stand her, but that's not true. Aveline's actually a companion that fascinates me, like she makes me go, "God, you're such an asshole, tell me more right now." and it drives me crazy how she and Carver are foils, like I love it so much, I could go on and on about how foiled they are, it makes me want to bite something.

It's very easy to look at Aveline and think she's just a bitch, she's a cop, she's a bad character, #Aveline-critical, bad companion, etc. I see it all the time, and not just with her, but with every companion in dragon age, y'know? I'm not saying that's wrong or anything; some characters just don't vibe with you or you have legit reasons for hating them and that's fine. I'm just saying some of it's very surface level unless you make the effort to elaborate.

If you don't like a character, you're less likely to make an effort to understand or see anything positive about them. You're more likely to have confirmation bias, so whenever they do or say anything, you go looking for the worst interpretation. I try not to do this just because for me, that's the "boring" approach to games like this but as we've seen, I'm not immune either... y'know, Sebastian.

But Carver gets this a lot, too, and I think I've made myself clear that Carver is my favorite, I love him, the Hawke twins are S-tier companions and I would throw everyone in Kirkwall into the ocean if it meant Bethany and Carver's happiness.

Now that I'm thinking about it, the characters a lot of fans can't stand are some of my favorites?

Like a lot of people shit on Sera, and I'm like "Nah, that's my girl! Listen, she's got a LOT of internalized issues, but we're working through them okay! She's getting better!"

And Vivienne? Oh, don't get me started on Vivienne, I have a whole deal about her. She's also an asshole and I love her.

My canon inquisitor is Surana who escaped the circle and joined the dalish, becoming Lavellan. Vivienne is a reflection of what Ash could've been if she hadn't run away with Jowan. She played the game of the circle, she stepped wherever she needed to step because Ash knew she was at a disadvantage by being an elf, for one, and for two, not coming from a family with wealth that would give her special privileges. Her downfall was buying into her own hype and believing she couldn't be wrong about Jowan, believing that she could either prevent them from making him tranquil or help him and Lily run away, and believing she was above punishment because she worked her way into being Irving's favorite. Yet it all bit her in the ass and she had to run… so then years later after living outside of the circle and realizing just what the chantry is, how it conditions and abuses mages and shit, she meets Vivienne who also played the game well and came out on top, who now spouts the same shit Ash used to spout and it's makes their dynamic sooo chewable.

Then there's Cullen who's not a companion but I lump him and Josephine in with the companions anyway. They're advisors, they're in the inner circle, they count.

He's such a spineless ass in DA2 like believe me, I get all the criticisms he gets... but he's also fairly polite to Hawke even if they're openly anti-templar, he's softer spoken, and he's unwell after what happened to him in DAO and Meredith's clearly taking advantage of his state... but then he becomes an advisor in DAI who is so done with people's bullshit and blatantly honest about it, like he looks at Chancellor Roderick like "this fucking guy again" and he's so ready to just go for it, y'know? Well... unless you're a pretty lady who bats her eyes at him, then suddenly he doesn't know how words work. Like sometimes I feel crazy because I find him to be so funny in DAI, and overall a compelling character that I enjoy interacting with even when he's being a total asshole. Yeah, there's issues in his writing but I appreciate the vision the writers were going for, even if they stumbled... except for Sheryl Chee, I don't appreciate her contribution of those few posts on the DA forums that everyone uses as a smoking gun to "prove" awful things about him. Nothing gets under my skin more in character discussions than bad faith arguments and there's so much of that when it comes to Cullen.

Actually, while we're on that, can I just add a note that when I first got into this fandom, I saw someone's post about Chee doing an interview where she said all those bad things about Cullen wanting to assault the mage warden and I was like, "What? An interview? What interview?? Where??" and I couldn't find shit until much later when I read another anti-Cullen post that cited a DA forum as the source for her saying those things... so not an interview. I went digging for the forum, went into the way back machine to find it.... only to discover that this smoking gun comes from a fanfiction forum where Mary Kirby was also talking about Sten and catgirls and y'all expect me to take that seriously?

We can have discussions about whether or not Cullen's a bad person or a bad character, but the moment you bring Sheryl Chee into it, I know you're here in bad faith and your argument is void.

Sorry for the tangent and the long answer but this is the stuff I enjoy. I could talk about the characters of DA for ages unprompted that when someone does throw me a bone, I will discuss and gush about them all.

#asks #dragon age #dao #da2 #dai #sebastian vael #aveline vallen #carver hawke #dai sera #cullen rutherford #vivienne de fer #i have to stop myself before i go on tangents about morrigan and wynne and anders and isabela and merrill and dorian and varric and-#literally everyone sksksks i can't help it #also on the flip side of this type of discussion i also love looking at characters that most people adore and discussing their flaws #like i love alistair he's my favorite companion in dao BUT it's easy to forgot that he can be just as petty and selfish too y'know?#if you don't execute loghain he can straight up just abandon you and leave and you'll find him in da2 as a drunk like... babe really left #and let you deal with the blight because he was so blinded by revenge and thirst for loghain's death and that's not great??#not really something that gets brought up because it's unflattering it's an ugly part of his character but it's there mingling with the goo #and if you have a good relationship with him but don't know how he'll react when you spare loghain that can be devastating too #but it's also super understandable WHY he reacts like that WHY he leaves even if it's a selfish move on his part and hurts you #i dunno i think sometimes we're scared to talk about the ugly parts of our favorite characters because we love them #and don't want them to be wrong especially in fandom with a lot of pissing matches and bad faith arguments y'know?#i dunno this is my spiel of the night: i love all my companions except sebastian who is just a character that exists to me #i wasn't joking when i said i'd like to be enlighted about sebby and his romance like....... explain elaborate educate

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kind-hufflepuff · 5 months

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AI GENERATED TWILLIGHT CHARACTERS

#twillight books #twighlight #bella swan #edward cullen #jasper whitlock #alice cullen #rosalie hale #Emmett Cullen #Carlisle cullen #esme cullen #Edward bashing #Cullen bashing #jasper x bella x alice #ai art #ai generated #don't like it move on #rosalie x emmett #esme x alistair

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apricote · 8 months

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roe's tiny little garden. 🌱

#simblr #ts4 #ts4 gameplay #tjolc #tjol challenge #f: vickers #vickers: 1 #s: roe #q #fun fact: adelia took that gnome with her from her first house in copperdale when they moved :")#his name is alistair

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tuxedo-rabbit · 1 year

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Does anyone have fic recs that involve a warden!Loghain?

I am finally doing a playthrough where I recruit him and I realize I've literally never read a fic that included him.

Preferably set during DAO, but any type of warden is fine!

#dragon age #loghain mac tir #dragon age origins #i have read a very good 'romanced!alistair left the wardens and Brosca had to move on' fic set in the DAI timeline #but it never got to the point where Loghain came back into the story :(#it was a really good fic though

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sun-marie · 9 months

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Thinking about bg3. And the prevalent themes of being taken advantage of by trusted authority figures and stuff. BG3 spoilers ahead.

Nearly every companion in this game is suffering from being taken advantage of, often by someone they trusted. Some, like Karlach with Gortash, Astarion with Cazador, and Wyll with Mizora, feel it keenly, so so keenly. They can't escape from that betrayal and the consequences of said betrayal are ever present and devastating.

Others, like Shadowheart and Lae'zel, have yet to realize the dangerous way they have/are being manipulated, and when we meet them are utterly devoted to Shar and Vlaakith respectively. The nature of these relationships changes depending on the direction of your game.

Then... there's Gale.

Seemingly the odd one out. The Wizard Prodigy with the tragic flaw of hubris, carrying in him a physical, permanent consequence and reminder of his failure. Because what he did was wrong. Right? He tried to please Mystra, his goddess and his lover, by committing something unthinkable, and in his mind he is being rightfully punished for it.

Except. Why was Mystra, the goddess of magic itself, in such a relationship with a mortal in the first place?

Gale's relationship to this concept of being taken advantage of is so interesting to me, because for the most part it is much more subtle compared to some of the other companions, and much of it is left up to to player interpretation. Because, yeah, ultimately it was his mistake, but when you hear him speak it almost sounds like he was *primed* to make such a mistake, to think he could handle something like the Karsite Weave. (He gives me big big "gifted child left with no true support system bc they're seen as being able to handle themselves at too early an age" energy)

He shares in common with Karlach that unlike the other companions, who *are* being taken advantage of, Gale and Karalch *were* taken advantage of. Past tense, over and done. And in both cases, the one with the power in the relationship (Mystra and Gortash) go on their merry way, basically unaffected, while the one without power (Gale and Karlach) are left holding the bag.

Mystra also differs in how she's presented by the game, bc unlike the others mentioned she's presented as neutral to a fault. But she wields her forgiveness like a weapon, and she manipulates Gale to make him fee like *she's* the one who truly suffered for his prideful crime, he *deserves* all the pain that's come from it, and that he *owes* it to her to just die. For her. And for the most part, she isn't *wrong* per say, she just pushes it very far. Farther then someone who had Gale's best interests at heart would.

And I just. I find it interesting.

#bg3 spoilers #baldur's gate 3 spoilers #this got ramble-y #hopefully there's still something semi-coherent here and I'm not completely misunderstanding Gale or Mystra's character #but it's has been rotating in my head like a microwave #i don't want to constantly compare this game to DA #but Gale speaking about Mystra does remind me a lot of Alistair talking about Eamon #in that they both don't really hear how bad what their saying sounds #but thankfully Gale can actually realize and come to terms with how he's being treated #and move forward #and I just think that's neat

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