#softened!leliana state says evil doesn’t worry about being evil

[solasfenheral]

I feel like I’ve talked about this before but Origins!Leliana is a really interesting character for me because while I enjoy her arc for what it is, I’m personally infinitely more gripped by the arc happening in Inquisition. And I’ve always wondered why I felt like that.

I think, after some pondering, it’s the fact that while Leliana’s arc is perfectly functional as is (two big points in exploring her faith and running from her past = how they intersect with one another around the question of how do you determine if you are a ‘good’ person), the extra zing for me is in the temple of sacred ashes quest. Because it calls into question some of the rhetoric specifically sitting behind the dao softened!Leliana outcome.

That quest drops the absolute grenade-like revelation that Leliana thinks the rejection of her ideas by the Chantry to be in some way comparable to Andraste, to have her visions be comparable to her. That a part of her relishes the thought of that purpose! And this is an idea she violently rejects even considering!!! It’s so interesting and you can never even bring it up with her, where every other companion comment is stuff you can infer from their arcs!

#softened!leliana state says evil doesn’t worry about being evil #you choose to do good and that makes u who u are #and then THAT bombshell says there are elements to WHY you do the things that u do that ur actively ignoring self reflection on #and they DO contribute to the why of you doing such actions #tunes titters #idk if this makes any sense #I like origins leliana a LOT I just don’t connect w her the way I do in inquisition funnily enough #like. I CRY when I get the softened leliana ending in dai #it’s so moving to me to see her forgive herself #but I just don’t get the same breadth of emotion in origins