On the topic of the previous post, I've been having some Thoughts about Varric and my (pro-mage, Andersmancing) Hawke lately, let me see if I can get them down into words.
Like... okay, let's start at the beginning. Varric meets this refugee who he's heard a lot about, hires him onto an expedition. They start working together and Varric realizes this guy is pretty funny, always down for a laugh and a drink at the Hanged Man. They have very compatible personalities and quickly become good friends.
Varric is settled in deep in Kirkwall, and over the years Hawke gets settled in pretty well too. His family retakes their estate, he starts doing jobs for and around the Viscount, and he seems to be the only one the Arishok will talk to which is pretty important for the overall wellbeing of the city. This culminates in Hawke becoming the literal Champion of Kirkwall, the savior of their city. That's about as entrenched as you can get.
Alongside all of this is Anders, who is also friends with Varric and generally down for a joke and a good time, but who can get a bit too serious about mage rights for Varric's tastes. It's not that Varric has a huge difference of opinion on the matter, it's just that he'd rather not have to think about difficult things like that. He's happy and content in his life, and he has everything he needs right where he is. What happens in the Circle stays in the Circle, it doesn't affect Varric.
When Hawke begins his relationship with Anders, Varric jokes about it. "Are you sure about the possessed mage?" It's taken lightheartedly, because Hawke is his best friend and he supports whatever weird relationship choices he makes. "You do you, Hawke, but that's probably gonna end badly."
And then The Last Straw happens. And then the Chantry is destroyed, and fire rains down over the city, his city, and Varric watches his best friend side with the man who did it, his lover and partner who he has supported all of these years, and for the first time Varric is forced to actually recognize that Hawke and Anders share the same values. "I'm not sure we should be doing this" he says, in some vain hope that, I dunno, maybe Hawke will turn around and say, "You know what you're right bestie, let me just put the lid back on this stewing mage rebellion and then everything will be normal again and we can forget this ever happened".
Instead he watches Hawke put a different cause above the wellbeing of his city--their city, the one he thought they both cared just as deeply for--for the first time, and then he watches Hawke and Anders and all the newly freed mages leave.
Years later when the Inquisitor asks Varric about all of this and he reminisces about Hawke and scoffs about Anders, it's in this almost longing, mournful way of someone who lost a friend and blames their significant other for it. There's a part of Varric that, even then, is still thinking, "if only Hawke had never gotten in bed with Blondie, then maybe he'd have made the 'right' choice and we'd all still be together having drinks at the Hanged Man." But he knows that will never happen again, because he knows even when Hawke comes to Skyhold that when he leaves he's going back to Anders.
When he tells stories of Hawke's adventures and leaves out the parts about Anders, or actively talks shit about him, it's because it's easier to blame everything that happened solely on Anders rather than admit Hawke was a different person than Varric thought he was.
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meeting Foul Legacy during an expedition to the Chasm.
you're an experienced adventurer in your own right, having gone through many trials and tribulations to become as strong as you are today, so your journey was mostly done alone. of course, you needed a little help getting permission to access the vast mine and acquiring a Lumenstone- no matter how good of an adventurer you are, you cannot see in the dark. but from that point forward you were on your own, exploring every nook and cranny of the cavernous underground with sharp eyes and ears. it was fascinating to see the wonders of Teyvat, from lush underground gardens to caves full of clear, fresh water to a simply enormous mushroom, glowing as bright as a star.
you're investigating a set of crumbling ruins when you first see it- a gleaming eye, watching you from the darkness. unlike some of your more weak-hearted colleagues, you aren't scared at all, merely holding your Lumenstone higher to get a better look at whatever- or whoever- was staring at you. the eye approaches at the same time, your light falling on a creature almost twice your height, mask a bloody crimson red with twin horns curving upwards. you take an instinctive step back- many species in the Chasm are attracted to light-carrying humans as prey- but the monster shocks you by crouching to your level, gaze flitting from your Lumenstone to you and back again. a soft, gentle sound comes from the beast, which you can only describe as a croon, its claws open like it's trying to catch the light from the crystal in your hand
a small smile forms on your face as you step forward and carefully place the Lumenstone in the creature's hand for it to examine. it chirps in delight, turning the stone over and admiring the light that emanates from it. then the monster's gaze softens, its eye a faceted sapphire blue; talons extend and gently wrap around your hand, treating you as if you're made of fine porcelain.
you squeeze your new friend's hand and are met with a joyful trill.
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there’s a question to be asked i think about to what extent “getting out” can be conflated with “being saved” in this show, and what freedom actually means to any of these characters.
like you can argue that shiv saved ken by voting against him on gojo, but what if your intent behind saving someone is to inflict a worse punishment than if you’d just left them trapped? can a child weaned on poison survive on milk, or are you just sentencing them to a death by inches, starved of the only thing they know? and if you save someone specifically because you know that being saved is the worst thing that can happen to them, is that kindness or cruelty? at what point does a good thing become a malicious act?
and you can say that roman is finally free, but what exactly is he free from? the company? his father? does unlocking a cage mean saving a dog, or are you allowing him out on the street knowing there’s a kill shelter nearby? if the driving anxiety behind roman is that he’s an idiot and a failure—that he’ll never amount to anything, and trying will only lead to pain—and he’s finally cut loose once all of those anxieties have crystallized into cold hard fact in his mind, what has he actually escaped from? if the cage is in your mind, is it even possible for somebody else to unlock it?
the fundamental truth of a tragedy is that even being saved can be a death sentence, if the characters are incapable of escaping the thing doing them the most harm (themselves and their childhoods)
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Sometimes I think, Shinigami King!Light. He'd revolutionize the Shinigami world, bringing in 'jobs', 'money' and internet from the human world. Suddenly, the Shinigami realm is so much more lively that even Ryuk finds it interesting to live there.
Dead!L can go to Hell and take over there. No one can tell him what to do. L has the demon king who tried to order him around over thrown. There isn't food he likes to eat. So, L funds culinary revolution in Hell, including sponsoring air cons, refrigerators, mixers, ovens, etc. Now no one wants to escape Hell because its better there than the human world.
Eventually though, L ends up dealing with the sudden influx of souls caused by Light bringing 'jobs' to the Shinigami Realm. L is once again on the hunt to stop Kira.
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"I don't want to make you uncomfortable"
And
"Do whatever you want, you're good at that" WITH THE LITTLE FACE.
And then, at dinner, you can clearly see the moment Ed stops being uncomfortable, and starts feeling like he does want to die after all, and someone should put him out of his misery because he can't take it anymore.
This is close to the breaking point:
Very close, really!
But this is it:
This is his thirteenth reason.
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We could make Sqq a transformer in his past life. Like optimus prime sorta transformer. Cybertronian.
He'd be the only surviving seeker (winged guy) on the autobots side (I don't know all the canons but I don't think they have, like, any). Pretty young when the war started - unfathomably ancient for humans, the kiddie of the group to them.
And he arrives on earth. Discovers the Internet. Immediately gets hooked on critiquing stupid Web novels in every language, which being a sentient machine he can do at great speed without forgetting anything. Decides to read the final chapter during a battle because he's so close to the end and airplane had better pull SOMETHING good. Is so infuriated (distracted) by the ending he messes up and immediately gets killed by some low level decepticon. After FIVE MILLION years of war he gets offed by some loser over a stupid human story that wasn't even very good. He dies SO furious.
And then he gets reborn a human.
He is, as the kids say, big mad.
How by Primus do they do anything??
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