stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage - Tumblr blog

stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage · 23 days

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no listen you don't understand- I am obsessed with how differently Anders reacts to Hawke hitting on him after completing his Tranquility quest depending on gender.

He talks about how he hopes he didn't come off as selfish for keeping Justice a secret, and Hawke has the flirty option of "at least he got a nice body."

With a lady Hawke, his response is a dramatic, "Noooo, don't do that~ Don't go there, I don't want to hurt you~ That's not going to end well~ I'll break your heart~" like he's so serious about it, and when Hawke tells him to do it, that she doesn't mind a little pain, he gives a hard no; "I'll break your heart and that might kill me as surely as the templars."

But with male Hawke?? Anders is like, ".....So y'know, in the circle everything is about rules and order so we apprentices found ways to make it bearable, if you know what I mean, hint hint wink wink. Karl and I? Yeah, he was my first. I've always believed people fall in love with a whole person, not just a body. Why would you shy away from loving someone just because they're like you? Soooo.... does it bother you that I've been with other men??"

Like.... Anders, babe, it's so interesting that you're out here warning a lady Hawke against getting involved with you but then with male Hawke suddenly "nooo don't do that~" is tossed out the window in favor of making sure he knows you're interested.

#da2 #dragon age 2 #da2 anders #da2 hawke #handers #i've always romanced anders as a male mage so he never warned me against pursuing him so then i eventually play a warrior lady #and i find this out and i'm like..................babe??#it's so different sksksks like i didn't romance him as my warrior lady because that felt super wrong and she ended up flat out rejecting hi #but my male hawke was so *ready* the moment they met in the clinic for the first time and took every opportunity to be like #'well heeellloooo there~ handsome mage~ [eyebrow wiggle]'#all while carver's standing there trying so hard not to collapse from the cringe and grumbling 'i dunno who's more desperate-you or him!'#i dunno i just find it interesting that it's that dramatically different and surprising that he does tell a lady hawke about karl? why not?#hmmmm hmmmmmmmmmmm interesting very interesting tell me more anders

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stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage · 26 days

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A lovely Warden Tabris x Alistair commission from a little while ago for @redplaidtrenchcoat ✨

Commissions (OPEN) I Patreon I Ko-fi

#beautiful art

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stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage · 29 days

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

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yeah i'm never fuckin finishing this one

#beautiful art #screaming crying on my hands and knees #your honor i love them and think they should hold hands

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

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is there a universe where the three of us are together?

#sobbing choking screaming biting-#is it too much to ask for the hawke siblings to be together? apparently so #beautiful art

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

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Replaying DA2 again. Missed these freaks

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

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One of my favorite things that happened during my last mage Hawke playthrough was during the final battle against Meredith. Everything's going well. We're kicking her ass, she's got just this much health left, we're so close... but then everyone gets stunned dizzy.

Hawke is stumbling around all confused, seeing stars. The rest of his companions are stunned. I'm annoyed because I just want to end this fight. Don't know how or who did it, probably Meredith, but the situation's dire.

Meredith's standing by herself at the center of the Gallows, shouting nonsense and smugly believing the Maker's going to come down and make her his new bride after she murdered a bunch of innocent people.

Truly, this is the part of the story where Varric says they all thought hope was lost, that in the end, Meredith would pull a fast one on us and claim victory...

Until the REAL hero of dragon age 2 comes storming at her. I don't know why Carver was the only one to not be affected, but he literally jumped out of no where and just started bashing Meredith with his sword while everyone else was too dizzy to do anything until she was dead and the cutscene played.

"Hawke defeated Meredith-" LIES, VARRIC. I know the truth! I was there! Hawke didn't do shit! Carver Hawke was the main character all along! He got shit done and Varric gave Hawke all the credit!

I bring this up because last night I finished my warrior Hawke run and when we got to the fight with Meredith, I kind of hoped the same thing would happen where Bethany dashed in all heroic and got the killing blow on Meredith.

She did not.

She got squished by a statue.

But it's fine, Bethany Hawke was the true main character in my heart.

#da2 #dragon age 2 #carver hawke #bethany hawke #da2 hawke #varric tethras #da2 meredith #listen i have so much love for the hawke twins they are the main characters in my heart like yes fine hawke you're there too #but THE TWINS aaaaaaaauughghghghhhhhh #seriously though i'll never forget being annoyed that ed was bumbling around and then watching carver be the only one unaffected #and he's the only one beating meredith and tbh i was cheering him on yes baby brother get her show her how you do it back in fereldan #honestly doesn't it figure though? carver would be the one to deliver the final blow and then be completely overshadowed #because varric has such a hard on for hawke BUT I KNOW THE TRUTH #and it's the same with bethany like this entire run i was so invested in her and i wanted her to set meredith on fire #though this time the fight was actually super easy because i was way more prepared and at a higher level so hawke never got stunned?#i dunno but i wasn't keeping track of bethany during the battle and somehow she did die once... but it's fine she got better #siiiiiigh.... do you know how much i want a playthrough with just the twins? so badly like listen hawke you're neat #but maybe this time you could let the ogre eat you instead? just this once? i love both of my hawkes but the twins??#hawke twins hawke twins haWKE TWINS HAWKE TWINS #i guess i have to settle for au crafting and fanfic...

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