After my last post I decided to sit down and rank all the possible companion pairs. here is the tierlist, should you wish to fill it out yourself.
This is a "ship" chart, but it's important to clarify that I am interested in how the dynamic works overall, not just romantically. I am very invested in how the stories of different characters overlap, and how they could mesh together to change both people involved. so the more interesting I find an individual character, the more likely they are to be higher in the chart.
How interesting I find characters also usually translates to my desire (or lack thereof) to draw them. So my likeliness to draw a pairing is the scale I used to describe each tier, rather than a nebulous "S," "B", or "F." This way, I feel it is better understood exactly why each pair is placed where it is.
Once again, sorry to those who enjoy miss SH. I do not hate her, I just do not find her to be an especially compelling character. I like the voice acting for her, but I don't care for her design, and I feel any element of her story is simply better explored in those of other characters.
*Special Exception 1: I have to split this pair off specifically, because I've thoroughly disparaged it in the past, based on erroneous judgments of halsin's character. when I first played the game, I locked myself out of a lot of Act 2 dialogue with him, which meant I missed the parts of his character that I do find interesting. I will say, it does still deeply bother me how much of his character revolves around sating the sexual desire players might have for him. I also hate that, as far as I'm aware, he can only acknowledge the player's relationship with astarion in the context of having sex. But after spending an entire campaign playing the game correctly, trying to learn as much about halsin as I could, and thus romancing him, so that I could properly judge him, I have grown attached to my rewritten version of him. so I'm not so much fond of the star/halsin pair as it is in game, as I am of that dynamic in the context of corydalis' campaign.
*Special Exception 2: after what happened with halsin, I feel it would be unfair to judge how interesting I might find minthara's relationship with most of the other companions, given that I've not yet had the opportunity to recruit her. despite this, I can safely say that I have no interest in whatever would likely play out between her any of the men, bar gale. gale is the exception because I've seen snippets of dialogue between them. I do not necessarily think they'd work together romantically, but again, it's more that the potential dynamic between them is interesting to me, regardless of the type of relationship they have. also, I do not categorise all other minthy x male companion pairs as bad because I am of the belief that she is not bisexual. I have faith that this game would make an effort to show us that she was a different identity, were she, because it already does a great job of affirming every other companion's bisexuality outside their potential relationship to the player. what I do not have faith in, however, is that minthy has as beautifully written a story as lae'zel does, where she learns to abandon the cruel and bigoted beliefs her society indoctrinated her to have. not when origin companions like wyll & karlach still lack material, and not when halsin's writing is as inconsistent as it is. I do not think that either halsin or minthy have, or will ever have, fully fleshed out narratives.
if you've interesting commentary about a particular pairing that you like, that you feel I might benefit from reading, do feel free to share it! even if I dislike a pairing, I am usually willing to read someone's thoughts about why they do find it interesting, granted it's not like...something utterly foul. I just ask you keep any commentary you choose to share to companion/companion pairs or companion/companion pairs in the context of polyamory with a tav/durge. NPC romance is another conversation.
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Same anon here, a lengthy dissection is exactly why I came to you tbh! And you delivered, as always <333 What you said about not starting with a character already in his final stage makes perfect sense, still the idea of changing the character that much doesn't sit right with me. (Part 1/4)
Since the series has been announced years ago I always thought we were going to see a Cassian that was voted to the rebellion but kinda "fresh faced", less jaded (the series is set five years before Rogue One, he's 21 in here, so it makes sense to me that even tho he has been "in the fight" since he was a kid, being recruited by the Rebellion is a big change and he might be kinda lost and new to the rules of the Big Game they are playing) and we would be shown how he descended into the stiff and aloof spy we know through story points, or we could have gotten a series that wasn't character focused but more story driven were Cassian was more or less the same we see in the movie. "Self-serving nihilist into a selfless martyr" is Jyn, Cassian was supposed to represent a different aspect of the war and the Rebellion.
I'll probably watch it regardless but this whole thing really curbed my enthusiasm. :/ Thank you for "listening" and hosting these thoughts of mine on your blog, I hope you have a nice day! 💖💖💖
(Sorry I'm just now getting to this, I've had a very busy and exhausting week or two 🙃🙃🙃)
In all fairness, I don't think they entirely expected Cassian to be the a breakout character when they first penned him. (Though that would arguably be odd, considering that nowadays, companies put a lot of pressure on film productions to make any and every person or thing franchisable. I would LIKE to believe that when Cassian was first created, they just wanted to make a man made cynical after years of chasing hope and no longer in the fight necessarily because he believes in it, but because he's already invested so much time into it that he sorta HAS to see it to the end. But that's just me.)
I do think, though, that he can start of cynical and still progress. It's hard for me to explain, at least through writing, but try and stick with me here:
Cassian is meant to be human. Meaning he can fluctuate at any given moment, so long as it aligns with who he is as a person and who he can potentially be as a person.
He starts of a child who is taught to be distrusting, either through the people around him or by his own experiences. However, because he is a child, he can still have hope because, well, children are often humanity's purest source of it even after being colored by jadedness. He sees himself as a Rebel, regardless of how indoctrinated he may be because he's been brought up to believe that every thing counts -- including throwing rocks at Imperials.
He's a rather rigid child, as anyone experiencing a forced exodus would be. But he's still a child who has wants and needs like comfort and the chance to play safely.
But as he grows up, the hope starts to dwindle. He comes less certain: This thing has been going on for his entire life and yet no real signs of progress have happened, at least not on the side he's in support of. But he sort of has to keep trying because it's all he has.
But then he gets deep into his teenage years. And teens, by nature, are kinda just . . . moody. Apathetic. And what's not going to help is realizing your entire life has been overshadowed by war, and that you've spent the entire time being pressured into fighting in it. You never really had a childhood and given the trajectory of things, you can't exactly see yourself as having an adulthood, either.
But he's already devoted his entire life to it so he's sorta going through the motions. He rises up the ranks, catches the attention of the actual Rebellion. There's no point in saying no, so he carries on.
But something has to happen that makes him genuinely want to hope again. Something strong enough to make him want to believe in the cause again, but fragile enough to have been worn down some by the time Rogue One starts to take shape. Kinda like how when you're depressed, you have a break where you want to still continue going, even though that feeling may wear off after a bit.
He's still Cassian. He's still changed, yet stayed the same. He can still be hopeless while fighting for a hope he doesn't actually believe in. There's a reason I stress "investment" in my writings about him: It's because it doesn't matter how much he feels for it, he's already in the fight. He's given this war everything, from his time to his thoughts to his blood and so on. He sorta doesn't have much of a choice but to go all in, even if he doesn't necessarily want to. He just sorta HAS to because that's what's expected of him and it's what's been drilled into him.
He's the side of war where people put in the time not necessarily because they WANT to but because they HAVE to. They go through the motions because even if you're fighting for "good", you still have to do dirty things and put your own personal wants aside.
And given that Cassian's been doing this a lot longer than Jyn, he could easily claim that he has more skin in the game than her, regardless as to whether or not he took a break or tried to distance himself from it at one point.
. . .
Buuuut that's just me. I could be very wrong. Like I said, I'm still gonna watch it to see what they decided to go with, but I'm frankly mostly just hesitant on the grounds that they handled TBOBF so poorly. I'd be glad if they gave Andor the respect they give The Mandalorian, but I'd admittedly also be a wee bit skeptical of their reasons as to why. Suffice to say, there's no real way Disney can win this unless they give TBOBF a second season and actually make a damn effort. That's on them.
Anywho, I feel I've rambled long enough. All we can do now is wait until August and see what happens . . .
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one time i told a guy with a huge punisher decal on his car that i loved the punisher but that i'm too scared to have any of his merch because in the current political climate i wouldn't want people to think i support killing police and the man had. no response whatsoever. he was smiling and completely frozen in place. i'd never seen anyone bluescreen that hard
do with this information what you will
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