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anneapocalypse · 1 year

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I think for the first time I'm faced with an Actually Difficult decision when it comes to who to leave in the Fade. Between Alessandra and Loghain it was a no-brainer; that was always the ending I had planned for Loghain. Between Sabine and Alistair it was Sabine because Sabine romanced Merrill if anyone can either find Hawke in the Fade or be compellingly obsessed with finding her in there it's Merrill. Between Cillian and Stroud it was always going to be Stroud because Cillian is truly too ride-or-die for Anders to leave him hanging that way. And between Emilia and Stroud it had to be Emilia because she's truly kind of a monster to the point that even milquetoast pro-Chantry Theodore Trevelyan was unsettled by her.

Between Mallory Hawke and romanced Alistair, it's actually kind of a tough call! On the one hand I've got Mal who did her absolute damnedest not to give a shit until the very end and then surprised everyone by defending the mages and for whom voluntary self-sacrifice would be a massive leap of character growth, and on the other hand I've got Alistair who is not King specifically because benevolent-but-still-kind-of-selfish Warden Jolene Cousland didn't feel like sharing him and for whom losing him would probably force some kind of character growth as well, though in her case it wouldn't be her choice.

Also worth factoring in is that Mal is in a polycule with Merrill and Isabela and while they'll be crushed, they'll have each other to get through it. Jo likewise will grieve Alistair hard but she'll survive it.

It's not even an easy choice from my Inquisitor's perspective because on the one hand Calla likes Varric. a lot. and isn't eager to feed his best friend to a demon. but on the other hand she's a dwarf and brutally pragmatic, and she gets that whatever shit the Grey Wardens have done, we probably still need them.

This game is like "Which one of your OCs do you want to hurt more?" and I'm here like "Is there any way I can hurt them both?" 🤔

#calla cadash #world state: rogues gallery #mallory hawke #jolene cousland #I'VE NEVER HAD THIS MUCH TROUBLE DECIDING #anne plays dai

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frees-erotic-writings · 1 year

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Official muse list

Note: A name that's been italicized is an oc that belongs to someone else, a name that's been boldened, and italicized is mine.

RWBY: Team RWBY, Team CORS, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie, Coco Adel, Velvet Scarletina, Fox Alister, Team NDGO, Jaune Arc, Sun Wukong, Glynda Goodwitch, Ilia Amolita, Kali Belladonna, Ghira Belladonna, Sienna Khan, Winter Schnee, Willow Schnee, Raven Branwen, Summer Rose, Vernal, Emerald Sustrai, Cinder Fall, Salem (Human/Grimm), Grimm, Hozukimaru Wukong, Lyon, Jade, Meryl, Jade, Baelz Zirconia, Zephyr Nikos Zirconia, Lupin Nikos Zirconia, Scarlet Nikos Zirconia, Bast Belladonna Zirconia, Shrike Branwen Zirconia, Desmond Caine, Pewter Pegasi, Wes Goldmane, Terra Firma, Rose Crimson, Crimson Wilde, Sable Leone, Jade Inaba.

Naruto: Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno/Uchiha, Ino Yamanaka, Hinata Hyuuga/Uzumaki, Hanabi Hyuuga, TenTen, Temari, Anko Mitarashi, Kurenai Yuuhi, Tsunade Senju, Konan, Sarada Uchiha.

Bleach: Rukia Kuchiki, Yoruichi Shihoin, Orihime Inoue, Tatsuki Arisawa, Rangiku Matsumoto, Soi-Fon, Retsu Unohana, Isane/Kyone Kotetsu, Nanao Isei, Tier Harribell, Neliel Tu Odelschwanck, Apace, Sun-Sun, Mila Rose.

One Piece: Nami, Nico Robin.

Attack on mid: Mikasa Akerman, Annie Lionheart, Potato Girl.

Hellsing: Seras Victoria, Rip Van Winkle, Zorrin Blitz.

Overloard: Albedo, Narberal Garma.

DragonBall: Bulma Briefs, Mrs Briefs/MILF/GILF, Chi-Chi, Android 18, Future 18, Android 21, Majin 21, Launch, Videl Satan, Frieza Force goons.

BNHA: Izuku Midoriya, Tsuyu Asui, Mina Ashido, Ochacko Uraraka, Momo Yayorozu, Jirou, Nejire Hado, Mitsuki Bakugo, Rumi Usagiama, Midight, Mt Lady, Nomu.

YU-GI-OH: Teá Gardner, Ishizu Ishtar, Mai Valentine, Black Magian Girl, Alexis Rhodes, Jasmine, Mindy, Akiza Izinski.

Game of Thrones: Denerys Targeryean.

Harry Potter: Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Parvati Patil, Padma Patil, Ginney Weasely, Luna Lovegood, Cho Chang, Fleur Deacour, Nymphadora Tonks, Narcissa Malfoy, Bellatrix Lestrange.

Pokémon: Delia Ketchum, Jessie, Nurse Joy, Officer Jenny, Cynthia, Arezu, Nessa, Bea, Nemona, Penny, Sada.

Sailor Moon: All inner and outer Senshi

Cyberpunk: V, Panam Palmer, Judy Alvares, Lucy, Joey Brass.

Claymore: Clare, Cassandra, Jeane.

Rosario + Vampire: Outer Moka, Inner Moka, Mizore Shirayuki, Tsurara Shirayuki, Kurumu Kurono, Ageha Kurono, Ruby Tojo, Nokonome.

Jojo's Bizzare Adventure: Jolene Cujoh.

Ghost in the Shell: Motoko Kusanagi

Avatar/TLOK: Toph Beifong, Katara, Suki, Azula, Zuko, Mai, Ty-lee, Ju Dee, Korra, Asami Sato.

Familiar of Zero: Kirche Zerbst, Henrietta de Tristain, Tiffania Westwood, Tabitha, Longvelle.

Helluva Boss: Millie, Loona, Verosika.

DC comics: Starfire, Blackfire, Raven (Rachel Roth), Terra, Wonder Woman, Batgirl (Barbra Gordon), Catwoman, Power Girl, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy.

Marvel Comics: Gwen Stacy, Marry Jane Watson, Felicia Hardy/Black Cat, Rogue, Kitty Pride, Storm, Mystique.

Scooby-Doo: Velma, Daphne, Hex Girls.

Dragon Age: Cousland, Hawke, Inquisitor, Morrigan, Lelliana, Anora, Merrill, Isabella, Cassandra, Bethany Hawke, Sera, Josephine Montillyet.

Mass Effect: Sheppard, Liara T'Soni, Aria T'Loak.

Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks: Princess Jasmine, Esmerelda, Arora, Belle, Ariel (human), Kida, Chel, Helen Parr/Elastigirl, Violet Parr, Pocahontas, Nani Pelakai, Moana, Mavis Dracula, Jessica Rabbit.

Star Wars: Ahsoka Tano, Shaak-Ti, Barriss Offee, Luminara Unduli, Ayla Seccura, Bastilla Shan, Mission Vao, Juhanni, Kira Carsen, Vette, Vaylin, Lana Beniko, Darth Talon, Rey Palpatine.

Ben 10: Gwen Tennyson, Charmcaster.

Final Fantasy: Yuna, Rikku, Payne, Tifa Lockheart, Yuffie Kisaragi, Aireth Gainsborough, Ashelia B'Nargain Dalmasca, Fran, Lightning/Clair Farron, Y'shtola Rhul.

LoZ: Link, Zelda, Imp Midna, Twilight Princess Midna, Urbosa.

Fire Emblem: Lyndis, Minaeva, Shiida, Robin/Grima (M/F), Cordelia, Tharja, Olivia, Corrin (M/F), Camilla, Hinoka, Kageru, Dorothea, Edelgard, Lysithea.

Overwatch: Tracer, Dva, Mercy, Pharah, Sombra, Widowmaker, Ashe.

Elder Scrolls: Aela the Huntress, Mjoll the Lioness, Serana Volkihar.

Fantasy/D&D: Pike Trickfoot, Vex'ahlia, Keyleth, Delilah Briarwood, Nott the Brave, Yasha, Beau, Jester Lavorre, Imogen, Laudna, Werewolves, Mind Flayers, Orcs, The Devils of Emon, Nadûr, Korrin.

Kuroneiu: Olga Discordia, Cloe Discordia.

Action Taimanin: Ingrid, Oboro, Asagi Igawa, Sakura Igawa, Yatsu Murasaki.

Kingdom Hearts: Aqua, Anti-Aqua, Kairi, Xion, Namine, Larxene, Arlux.

This list is subject to change, as there may be muses I've forgotten, or decide I don't want to write for anymore.

#official muse list

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squidmayo · 5 years

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Jolene: it's like pissing me o-

Jolene: ALI. The DOG. Get the dog off the table!!

Alistair: The dog's always on the table!

#OC: Jolene #alistair #king alistair #dragon age #Jolene Cousland #SirBorksalot #alistair x warden #dragon age origins #I've been watching too many tiktoks

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thefoxesraven · 4 years

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Get to Know Me!

Tagged By: @elgar-somniari

Rules: Tag 9 people you'd like to know better/catch up!

Tagging: @iigingerspice @damien-art @a-daedras-best-friend @indoril-nerevar-mora @oyarsas @awesomenarwhal @deenomilk @marinmuffins @littlevoidpuff

Top Three Ships:

All right I'm going to expose myself, because I don't just have Three top ships, there is multiple- so I'm going to bend the category a bit.

Magnus Chase × Alex Fierro (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard), this ship was so well done. The fact that Alex is a gender fluid individual and Magnus didn't even think twice about if his feelings were wrong was so refreshing to see. Literally all Magnus thought was "Oh- okay cool". Plus their relationship dynamic is super sweet, for two einherjar.

Zoey Redbird × James Stark (House of Night), Zoey should of had her Guardian/Warrior from the beginning. He's so good for her and I am not upset that they ended up together. However I really do wish that P.C Cast and Kristine Cast didn't have Zoey go through SO much boy trouble. Not to mention the Loren Blake plot is a bit sus.

Alistair × Valentina × Chione (Dragon Age Origins), I don't talk about my actual cannon for my two wardens Valentina Cousland and Chione Tabris. But! Their stories exist in the same story and they are in a polyamorous relationship with Alistair. I've been meaning to actually write their stories because their dynamics with each other is adorable. I mean each of them has two hands!

Marie Hawke × Merrill (Dragon Age 2), Okay so this is gonna be a "oh of course" this your favorite ship response. But, Marie is my cannon Hawke. I have self projected on to her that it's not a suprise that I actively worked to romance Merrill with her when Merrill reminds me so much of my own girlfriend. Sweet, Kind, really smart but comes of naive. If my girlfriend could do blood magic it would be a perfect fit! Anyway this is definitely a self projected top ship.

Last Song: Dolly Parton - Jolene

Currently Reading:

I've been reading the House of Night series to get a good feel for the plot line. I really like the take on vampires and the fact it's whole premise is a Vampire Finishing School. Plus the man character is a native american women. Granted I'm not sure how accurate the representation is, as I am not native american. But I'd definitely recommend the House of Night series to anyone looking for a vampire series that's YA and not Twilight.

Currently Watching:

The last thing I actively watched was Netflix's She-Ra and Oh boy! I might make some people upset, but! She-Ra has the best LGBT+ in any series. Why? The biggest couple's ark Can Not be censored. Because if they do censor Catra × Adora they censor a BIG part of the story. They take away part of the story. Catra and Adora's ark is so ingrained into the story that censoring them would take away so much from the story. Catradora cannot be censored, it wont be censored.

Currently Consuming:

The Dragon Age Games! I recently finished a play through of Chione's solo route in DAO. I made another Female Hawke to romance Isabella and completeled DA2 and now I'm playing through one of my twin inquisitors (Thanatos) Levallan in DAI. Oh! I'm also working through Persephone's route in DAO as well. I really love the Dragon Age series.

Food I'm currently Craving:

I haven't though of this one- but as I'm thinking of it Thai peanut noodles sound really good at the moment. It's 9:30am.

#tag game #tag meme #get to know me #if you want to know more feel free to ask #ill answer!

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corvidaedream · 6 years

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@alterac hello welcome to my tedtalk

my favorite son is malcolm cousland. hes never had to do anything dangerous in his whole darn life. he didn’t even climb trees as a kid. he does practice swordfighting, but he’s terrible in battle at first because he doesn’t know how to handle an opponent who is actually trying to kill him. he collected insects as a hobby until all his dead bugs got lost in the attack on highever. morrigan scares him shitless, but after she leaves, he never stops thinking about the fact that he’s got a little son out there somewhere. he eventually meets kieran at skyhold and cries a lot.

cordelia aeducan named her dog trian after her brother as a weird combination of memorial and sick joke. she’s intensely jealous of alistair’s position to take the throne, when she lost her own right to orzammar’s, but she only ever brings it up as a joke. her first week on the surface, she discovered sunburns and didn’t take off her helmet during the day for a very long time afterwards. she still feels some resentment towards the sun. her favorite thing in the entire world is slicing a darkspawn to pieces with her sword.

flora brosca spends most of her time during the blight trying to heal from her time in the carta, relieved to be doing something noble and good for once. she has severe moral difficulties killing wolves that attack the party because they’re pretty much dogs. she listens to leliana recite the chant over and over again, trying to feel less afraid because she’s so close to death, but never allowed to be reassured that she was going to go back to the stone when she died, but maybe the maker will take her in.

eoin mahariel has had a tough time getting past his bf getting eaten by a creepy mirror, but he’s trying. he and leliana hit it off right away bc of their love of storytelling, swapping folklore and history but also gently correcting each other about details. he’s not particularly concerned by individual shemlin, and he’s definitely okay w very, very pretty, angry human witches.

niamh tabris is a gangly, freckley bundle of rage. she won’t take her wedding dress off for months, until she gets an infection from the dirty fabric being stuck to a wound, and zevran coaxes her into something cleaner he found on a dead guy. she will kill anyone given so much as half a reason. she spends every coin she can on pretty shiny things for morrigan, but is sickened by the idea of asking alistair to take part in the ritual and takes the final hit to the archdemon herself.

jolene surana has been in the tower too long to remember anything before that. she prefers practical application of magic to study, and ends up dabbling in blood magic when she feels its necessary. she’s average sized by human standards, but self conscious about being a little wider than elves usually are. she’s happiest sitting by the fire, laughing, sandwiched safely between leliana and alistair. she WILL fight arl eamon with her bare hands.

leon amell is a quiet guy who has mixed feelings about the circle and then isn’t really sure what to when he’s out of it. he initially can’t make food or fight very well or make friends on his own or figure out how buying things works. he falls in love painfully easily, mostly with people who will never reciprocate. one time he hit himself in the achilles tendon with his own staff during a battle.

#messages from the ouija board #sorry this is long ur question was vague eloise #please ask me about my wardens #sadies ocs #cordelia aeducan #malcolm cousland #jo surana #leon amell #flora brosca #niamh tabris #eoin mahariel

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thekorcariwilds · 7 years

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Besides Zo, do you have any other OC's? (Sorry if I'm bothering you with this but I'm really interested in DnD! Also your characters and posts are superb!!)

u aren’t bothering me!! and yeah, altho no other dnd characters (im kinda working on rolling a new one for some future campaign tho). my fav most developed ocs are jolene shepard, rhiannon ryder, brynn cousland, & sylvia trevelyan!!

#jolene is probably my like. fav of all favs she's my daughter and i LOVE her #anonymous #answered

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brattern · 7 years

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making a list of my da kids so I can investigate my past notes for them/ not forget them -reia amell -heather amell -falafel mahariel -Bernice cousland -Jolene hawke -Georgie Hawke - Roscha Hawke - Rowan Hawke -Marae Lavellan - Sascha Cadash

#da bloggin #save

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anneapocalypse · 2 years

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For my current Dragon Age playthrough, I decided it would be fun to recreate the very first character I ever made for this series, Jolene Cousland. Human noble, rogue, archer, flaming locks of auburn hair, coming to steal your man, etc. I played her on console and never kept any record of her sliders, so I had to recreate her face from naught but a grainy photo of my TV screen, but I think I nailed her.

So, some fun anecdotes from that first playthrough, and things I'm doing differently for this one:

I played Origins not long after it first came out. Mr. Apocalypse was playing it, and said, "I think you'd like this game," as I was just getting into RPGs and had already fallen down the Fallout rabbit hole. I picked it up and was hooked. I could not put this game down. I loved the story, I loved the characters, I loved the romances (this was my first game with romances), I loved everything.

I was also terrible at it. I'd never played this type of game before, I didn't understand tactics or damage types or most of the abilities. ("Why didn't you just read the descriptions, Anne?" I was playing on console. Bold of you to assume I could read any of that on my TV screen. :P ) On my first attempt, I specced Jo as an archer... and got as far as the Fade. Where I ran out of health poultices. And promptly got my ass kicked so badly I finally quit and restarted the whole game. This time, I split Jo's abilities between archery and dual weapon, so I would be better prepared to fight without a party.

I got through the Fade.

I got all the way to "Nature of the Beast" before I got stuck again. I could not win that battle against Zathrian. I even looked up a walkthrough, and realized I'd be in a much better position if I had given Alistair Cleanse Area, buuuuut I hadn't. I had been playing on Normal, but I finally swallowed my pride and dropped it to Easy so I could get past that battle.

I made it to endgame, and then I got my ass kicked again... by the Archdemon. I had been avoiding looking up any spoilers or walkthroughs ahead of time, and I had no idea what I was doing wrong, but my whole party kept dying and we were barely doing any damage to that stupid dragon, so I looked up the strategy page on the wiki, and that's how I learned that the Archdemon is immune to basically everything except nature damage, and deals massive spirit damage with its blue fire breath.

Okay.

I had not planned for that at all. As mentioned above, I hadn't even really understood damage types, never mind planned my builds around them; I hadn't stocked Arrows of Filth; I had not stacked spirit resistance; I had not payed all that much attention to my mages' spells. I was in no way prepared for this battle.

I restarted the game again from the beginning.

This time I saved all my Arrows of Filth for the final battle, and gave Morrigan a bunch of nature damage spells. (And also, by this point I was starting to understand how to use tactics and keep party members alive.)

I beat the Archdemon! Finally!

And though I pretty ready for a break at that point, I just knew I was going to come back and play all the other origins at some point. And I did.

So, coming back to Jolene now, I have beaten Origins... five more times (maybe six? there might have been another old console playthrough I'm forgetting about). I've gotten in the habit of playing on Easy or at the most Normal with my newer characters so I wouldn't be constrained by the difficulty levels of the main quests and could mix up the order all I wanted, but I know this game pretty damn well by now and I felt like it was time to give myself more of a challenge.

So I'm playing on Hard! And I went back to Jolene's original archery-only build.

I was really curious to see if I could get through the Fade now as an Archer. I didn't bother planning ahead either--I went in with like one health poultice. And I did indeed get my ass kicked in the initial battle with "Duncan" and the other "Wardens," but with some strategic use of bombs, I got through it. I also learned the hard way that Summon Creature doesn't work in the Fade.

Once I got past that part, I realized that it was possible to stealth past most of the enemies (particularly the ones that were clustered, making for very difficult solo battles) until I started to collect the transformation abilities with their different abilities. Once I had those, it was mostly a matter of figuring out which form had the best attacks for the enemies in question, and switching back and forth between them until everyone was dead. I genuinely don't know what I would have done without Stealth; that ability was the real MVP in the Fade.

My primary party on this run is Dog, Alistair, and Wynne. I have a tendency to really under-utilize Dog and I decided that Jo was going to be a very attached to her mabari and take him everywhere. I'm actually getting a lot of mileage out of Dread Howl (which stuns enemies in its radius) and Overwhelm, which knocks an enemy to the ground and attacks repeatedly. Alistair is the Boyfriend, so he gets to come too. And Wynne is the healer. She can deal a bit of damage, mostly in the realm of knockdowns and immobilizing, but mostly I'm keeping her there to heal. This time I'm trying not to focus so much on hoarding health poultices but on using Wynne's abilities as much as possible to keep everyone alive. This also means that I spend a lot of time micromanaging Wynne in battles, but I'm basically micromanaging everyone in the tougher battles. It's such a different experience, rather than just clicking to attack and letting everyone do their own thing until something goes wrong, instead manually directing every turn and constantly watching the health bars. The added difficulty also gives me a lot more reason to actually use bombs and traps and so forth; I've always made use of poisons with my rogues because they're relatively easy to make, but on Easy playthroughs I tend not to both much with the other stuff and sell a lot of unused crafting components I pick up along the way. Now I'm buying recipes instead of poultices, and experimenting with traps (which so far I don't love, but maybe I just haven't figured out their ideal applications yet).

I'm having a lot of fun. This game has given me so much enjoyment over the years, and I'm both nostalgically enjoying revisiting my first character, and loving the fact that after all these years, this game still has new things to offer me.

I don't know who my Hawke's going to be for this world state! My first two playthroughs of DA2 were the default Hawkes (very unlike me, I know; it was around the time I first dipped my toes into the fandom and I think I sort of caved to all the "default Hawkes are best" mindset that was floating around at the time, and yes the default Hawkes are cool, but I do ultimately prefer to make my own characters). The first Hawke that was really "mine" was Alessandra. So... maybe someone new? I think I'm going to be romancing Isabela, but beyond that I have no idea.

Once I get to Inquisition, though, I'm going to be picking up Calla Cadash again. My first Inquisitor, and the one I never finished. I'm going to remake her on PC, and give her the full playthrough she deserves.

I'm really looking forward to that.

#bless you if you read all this rambling lol #i'm having a good time #anne plays dragon age #jolene cousland #anne ocs

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anneapocalypse · 11 months

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They’re all pretty related, so in case you want to merge or skip some: I’m curious about 9, 20, 21, and 22 for 🔥 choose violence 🔥

For the 🔥choose violence 🔥 ask game!

Disclaimer: provocative name aside, I am not actually trying to be mean here, these are just my opinions offered for Entertainment Purposes™️, and I’m not mad at anyone who has a different opinion.

9. worst part of canon

The lack of forethought about representation when the series began. The first game was like, "Seven skin tints! The dark ones looks Bad in our engine! Your family is white no matter what! Brown people are from Over There somewhere! Asians????" Since then, I think the games have each improved on that situation, with increasingly better character creators, more diverse companions, and a more diverse world generally. But I think that there's still a lot lacking, and part of that is because the first installment laid a pretty weak foundation, so all subsequent canon is having to correct for better representation rather than building on a strong start. A few big things I would love to see in DA:D are a better variety of hair textures and styles, a better variety of Asian features in the CC, and more Asian (coded) characters in the world generally since that's an area where it's really been lacking. (Lighting that doesn't wash out medium skin tones to ghosts wouldn't hurt either 😉 but when it comes to video game lighting I assume that we'll just be trading one problem for another. I look forward to experiencing a New Problem.)

20. part of canon you found tedious or boring

Inquisition's Too Many Collectibles. I don't mind collectibles, especially when there's an actual reward for collecting them, but Inquisition just has too many. Was it really necessary for us to discover landmarks and regions? Like, could those not have been the same thing? It's fun to treasure hunt and everything but did we need to hunt for astrariums and shards and mosaic tiles and bottles? None of those things are bad on their own, but there's such a thing as Too Much, and I think Inquisition crosses that line somewhere.

21. part of canon you think is overhyped

Marrying Alistair to become Queen! Like, that's fine if that's the ending you want. Me, I've romanced Alistair multiple times and I've never felt like becoming Queen Cousland was like, the Ultimate Ending to that story. My first ever Warden, Jolene, was a Cousland who romanced Alistair, and while I'd watched Mr. Apocalypse play parts of the game, I was unspoiled for the romance, so I wasn't gunning for any particular ending, and because Alistair clearly didn't want to be king and because he seemed so uncertain of what would happen to their relationship (despite her being a perfectly valid candidate for queen), Jo ended up deciding to let Anora keep the throne and ride off into the sunset with Alistair. I wanted a happy ending for that first run and to me, that seemed the happiest for both of them.

Since then I've also done a tragic Alistair romance with an Aeducan, who starts out a real asshole and has kind of a redemption arc as a Warden, culminating in her giving Alistair the throne because she believes it's his destiny, and sacrificing herself to kill the archdemon because she knows she can never be his queen. I loved that one too! It was so juicy.

I'm not opposed to Queen Cousland or anything, I just remember a time when it was so venerated as the ending for Origins. Really, I just don't think of any outcome in an RPG that way. What I enjoy is exploring all the possibilities.

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

Once again, consider "everyone" to be a bit hyperbolic, but I am really, really interested in the politics of the setting, something I think maybe a lot of fans consider to be boring or "not that deep." 😂 Dragon Age does not always handle its power and oppression narratives perfectly, for sure, but I also think a lot of the worldbuilding shows a level of understanding of structural power that it maybe doesn't always get credit for. When a group is marginalized in this setting we can identify actual systemic barriers to social advancement for that group, not just "people being mean" on an individual level like you sometimes see in lazier narratives. Orlais isn't just fancier and snootier than Ferelden; it actually has more barriers to upward mobility in place! Society is more stratified, and power is more concentrated, even though both nations are monarchies.

I love the fantasy politics--of people in day to day life, of factions, of nations, of religion. I love it because, at its best, Dragon Age does have some interesting things to say about the nature of power. It's easy to say "Chantry bad" or "nobility bad," but to me it's much more interesting to explore why these institutions function the way they do, the ways in which they concentrate power, and the means they employ to keep it. And controversial statement, maybe, but you can't effectively explore the politics of revolution and social change without understanding the structures you're trying to change. Sera's right about one thing: it's not as simple as just lopping off the top.

#ask anne #peforby #ask meme #choose violence ask game #dragon age critical #blunders of thedas #thedas politics

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squidmayo · 5 years

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