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stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage · 5 months

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This week on "CJ needs to gush about DAO": Morrigan's dark ritual.

I adore Origins because depending on how serious you take roleplay, every decision you make is a thread that leads back to your origin, and in this case of the ritual, who you choose to romance can have a major impact on how you handle this choice.

For context, my canon run is with a female Tabris who romances Alistair and keeps him as a Grey Warden, and is close friends with Morrigan. It's more in character for my Tabris to reject Morrigan's ritual and not even bring it up to Alistair, which would result in her leaving him behind while she makes the ultimate sacrifice in killing the archdemon... however, agreeing to convince Alistair to do the ritual with Morrigan is the only choice in the entire game where I break roleplay because I'm selfish and weak and I want Tabris to live.

I have a lot of strong feelings about the ritual, like it hurts me. It makes me want to chew on furniture. I can talk about it until I can talk no more. I so badly want to be strong enough to remain in character and reject the ritual.

Let me explain: Tabris survives an origin that deals with sexual assault. She gets kidnapped on her wedding day, she watches the other kidnapped women and her husband get murdered, and then is too late to save Shianni from being assaulted... and Tabris carries that trauma with her throughout the entire game.

If the way to save her life is to ask the two most important people she cares about; one being her lover and the other being her best friend; who she knows hate each other, to have dubiously consensual sex in order to make a baby to absorb the old god soul... she's saying no. The last thing Tabris would ever do is put someone into a sexual situation where consent is at all dubious after what she saw happen to Shianni and nearly happened to herself. She'd rather die than force that upon Alistair and Morrigan.

That's what I mean when I say origin affects everything; I know some will side eye that with "Really? Your warden would rather die than let Alistair sleep with another woman? It's one time, and Alistair agrees to it, so no one needs to die?"

Let me be clear in saying this isn't a "Morrigan slept with my man" issue. Sure, that part's awkward and it sucks, but that's not even breaking water tension, let alone diving into the deep waters to the core of the issue.

For my Tabris, this is about betrayal, consent, and accepting fate.

The person offering Tabris this deal is someone she thought of as a trusted friend who has actually been lying to her the entire time. It doesn't matter what Morrigan's intentions are now or if she genuinely wants to save the wardens. She knew from the beginning why Flemeth sent her with them, she admits as much. She knew a warden would need to make the ultimate sacrifice and then leveraged that to get what she wants. Morrigan waited until the night before, when Alistair and the warden learn one of them has to die to defeat the archdemon, and took advantage of the high running emotions and possibly the fear of dying to make the warden agree to her ritual.

At least, that's how my Tabris interprets this confrontation. She feels betrayed by someone she came to love like a sister and went out of her way to help Morrigan with her mother upon learning what's in Flemeth's grimoire. And then that someone tells her no one needs to die, she just needs to convince Alistair to sleep with her... which is a huge fucking problem.

The Alistair and Tabris romance is slow; it took a long time for either of them to be comfortable with being emotionally vulnerable and trusting each other with basic intimacy, let alone sex. Tabris is mortified at the idea of putting Alistair in this situation. Not only would it feel like a betrayal on her part to ask that of him, but she knows the last thing Alistair ever wants to do is father a bastard who then goes on to grow up without him. How could she possibly ask him to do that?

Then you consider that ritual or no, there isn't a guarantee that they'll survive anyway. Say they do the ritual and Tabris dies anyway; she made Alistair sleep with Morrigan in order to save her and then she died anyway. Or if Alistair dies then Tabris gets to live with the fact that the last person Alistair was with was a woman he hates because she asked that of him… and either way, Morrigan gets to walk away with what she wanted.

Tabris led the group, and she's accepted that if Riordan dies [which he does] then she'll be the one to make the sacrifice, even if it means breaking both hers and Alistair's heart.... except she doesn't because I'm a coward who doesn't want to lose her because my worldstate isn't good without her in it but I also refuse to lose Alistair so I just pretend it plays out differently in my head it's fine-

But... that's how I play Tabris and view the situation. My friend @pi-creates and I have discussed the dark ritual at length. While I play a Tabris who romances Alistair, Pi plays a Mahariel who romances Morrigan, so we have vastly different interpretations of the ritual itself and Morrigan's intentions.

Which yeah, it makes total sense that someone who romanced Morrigan with a different origin, and has the option to do the ritual with her rather than asking someone else to do it, wouldn't see this the way I do.

To quote Pi: "Playing as a male warden in the Morrigan romance makes the whole situation feel different, and maybe it’s because she’s presenting it differently due to the emotional connection, but it feels more like she’s opening up about her initial instructions (that she had been given by Flemeth) and offering a solution to avoid the possibility of death. And for my Mahariel, the constant threat of sudden death has haunted him from the start – he caught the blight and was ripped away from his clan (something he did not want to do in the slightest), got forced into a Grey Warden ritual that could kill him, was forced into a battle that could kill him, going on this whole quest that he never wanted but has now become responsible for regardless of his thoughts on the matter… the dark ritual may be one of the few moments where he is presented with an option to decide if he wants to walk into certain death, or take actions of his own volition to stop it.

"The idea of the ritual still feels like a dodgy thing to do since the ultimate outcome is unknown at that point, he’s taking Morrigan at her word that it will save the warden and that this child would be unharmed, just with an old god soul that she isn’t exactly clear on why she wants that and is determined to runaway immediately after the battle to secure it properly. It could be interpreted that it’s purely a preservation thing, but I’m biased to wanting Morrigan's intentions to not be power based.

"But also, taking part in the ritual isn’t as outlandish for my warden since he and Morrigan have already been involved in an intimate relationship. It’s the future of the ritual that is scarier – the idea of this old-god baby, and the idea of Morrigan insisting that she’s leaving afterwards when Mahariel and her have a loving relationship. He’s hurting, but he doesn’t want to die, he doesn’t want Alistair to die, he doesn’t want Morrigan to leave, he definitely doesn’t want pregnant Morrigan to leave on her own… it’s complicated, but for completely different reasons."

And I find that fascinating. I want to know how other players approach this part of DAO, what origins they play, and who they romanced. Seriously, this is an invitation to anyone reading to share their thoughts.

What about a warden who doesn't even have Alistair in their party because they made Loghain a warden? Is there anyone out there who has Loghain do the ritual with Morrigan and why? What about male wardens who don't romance her? Do you choose to do it with her anyway, or do you ask Alistair or Loghain to do it? Do you tell Morrigan to fuck off with the ritual? Why? Who makes the ultimate sacrifice in that case? And what about Morrigan herself? How do you interpret her intentions/motivations? I want to know.

I'm telling you, this is a discussion that gets me excited, as most discussions about DAO do.

#dao #dragon age origins #alistair theirin #dao alistair #dao morrigan #da morrigan #tw: sa mention #long post #i love origins so much #every time i replay i end up on discord having this discussion with pi because it makes me *emotional*#and yes this is why i was looking up alistair's dialogue about a dead warden before #also want to clear up that while i am harsh on morrigan based on how my tabris feels i don't hate her or anything i love her #morrigan's one of my favorite characters and that's why the whole thing hurts like... tabris was happy for her to come along with them #since she still didn't know alistair well and felt more comfortable with another woman around even though she never felt threatened by him #and for them both to be her closest companions like.... it's a lot to take in #and its not like tabris is totally in the right here- she doesn't tell alistair it's an option when it could be argued that she should've #but like i said i've never actually turned down the ritual because i love my warden too much... i just close my eyes #and pretend there's an alternate solution where Alistair and Tabris do the ritual and they have the old god baby instead sksksks #that way no one has to sleep with someone they hate and alistair gets to be there to raise his child. it's fine everything's fine sksksk #i don't care if it doesn't work that way okay it's the only way this works out better for everyone... except maybe morrigan but still

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todayisafridaynight · 5 months

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i cant explain it but daigo being subtitled to just be like 'you're making me look like i have no balls' feels so illegal and wrong. hilarious but something's off

#snap chats #WAIT I HAVE TO INTERRUPT THIS POST WITH THE FUNNIEST SHIT #SO I WAS GETTING FOOD FROM MY SCHOOL'S DINING HALL AND YOU CAN WRITE DOWN WHAT YOU WANT ON A SHEET YEAH #AND I SAID I WANTED A SAMMY AND FRIES OK BUT WHEN I GET MY PLATE ITS JUST FRIES #AND YK W/E OK I'LL JUST EAT THAT BUT THEN. WHILE IM LIKE. GETTING PIZZA TO SUB IT YEAH #I HEAR THE COOKS BE LIKE 'yoo why do we just have a sandwich here' AND THE BIN IT #AND I WAS LIKE 'was that a chicken sandwich cause uhhh <:)' AND THE WOMAN WAS JUST ':OOO IM SO SORRY'#LIKE DAWG /IM/ SRRY I FEEL BADLKAJLJ but yeah. they were nice enough to make me another one 😭#ok. back on topic with this fuckin post SORRY. i just have all these potatoes and a pizza to eat with this sadnwich now #i didnt eat breakfast or lunch so its ok. moving on #watch me explain it lol. i think its just cause its hard fr me to imagine daigo even saying balls like that. in jp or english #like he just doesnt have the Oomph to do it like the kansai bitches #see this how i know jo from kansai.... that easy as balls to imagine...#LIKEIM TELLING YOU THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO CAN SAY BALLS AND MEAN IT ARE KANSAI/EAST COAST BITCHES #in regards to eng its the accent... you just put a heavy mphasis on the b yk... any east coast bitches know what im talkin bout #or am i insane.it could be both idk #its cause in context he looks so meek like no !!!!! you dont be shy about balls talk !!!!!!!#I JUST IMAGINE HIM SAYING IT SO POLITE LIKE NO !!!! YOU HAVE TO SAY IT WITH FEELING. WITH YOUR BALLS #anyway daigo bb ily and i care for you but youre not hard enough to say balls #which is the most insaane thing i could say considering Daigo And His History but yk... im right...

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craycraybluejay · 3 months

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its rly fascinating that when i want to talk about a specific brand of transphobia im an asshole for not phrasing it like a PR team.

but when baeddels are actively transphobic its "just talking about the transmisogyny they face" and its actually just fine that they use slurs meant to degrade and misgender to refer to trans men + use porn terms to talk about us despite saying that using porn terms to talk about them is transphobic and evil + oh they didn't mean it like that.

if i try to talk about transphobia its immediately "piss on the poor website" where every word is under criticism. but on the opposite end even using slurs or being openly transphobic earns some cheers and, well, rare opposition.

i didn't even tag my post with common searchable tags,, y'all just want to be mad because it's a lot more comfortable to see trans men under attack.

if you criticize a few trans women for transphobic behaviour that makes You transphobic for criticizing them. if they call you slurs and other above mentioned things they are not transphobic bc ofc its impossible to be transphobic to trans men.

#i legit dont know any of these people #yet they want to tone police a random fucking post i made after seeing something super fucked up #it is so frustrating #i literally have not seen this happen on any of the wildly transphobic towards trans men posts #like it genuinely boggles my mind that #they can use 'theyfab' as a slur but if i tried something like 'theymab' or 'dickgirl' i'd be covered in angry internet mob for weeks #why? because even people who aren't being blatantly transandrophobic just don't care about transmasc people #because it's not fashionable to care and it won't give you internet virtue points #i know a trans woman who's seen shit in baeddel spaces and talked about it. i know what i am talking about #honestly? she probably knows more than i do. and the things ive heard are dismal #im fucking tired of transmasc and trans men issues being treated as trivial and unimportant #and transfem and trans women issues being treated as most important to the point that No One Is Nearly As Oppressed Or Matters

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coffeemira · 9 months

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need an age regression/de-aging fic where a post-KH4 riku has to take care of a younger sora, and bb sora is just completely awestruck over how strong and kind and pretty (and tall!!) his best friend riku got… and is so transparently smitten that riku, who is actually dating present-day sora, is just like: wow we really were oblivious how did either of us miss sora’s glaring crush on me??

#soriku #i’m picturing like… sora right before kh1 or post-kh2 #old enough to have butterflies over this other riku but not quite old enough to know what it means yet #just a puppy crush #there’s angst potential too if it’s kh2 sora before he found his riku #so he throws himself sobbing at older riku #but a BBS sora bouncing around teen riku would be very cute also #anyway i would write it myself but i don’t have the time #also am not confident about writing children #i just want riku getting to see firsthand that he wasn’t the only one pining for years and years #and that sora always loved him even at his worst #8yo sora doesn’t care that his riku teased him sometimes he still wants to play games with big riku #10yo sora doesn’t understand why his riku said they’re too old to hold hands #and is thrilled that big riku is happy to give him hugs and ruffle his hair #kh1 sora doesn’t care about their old ‘rivalry’ or that his riku was working with maleficent #he is just overjoyed to learn that riku came back to the side of light and that they get to be friends again #kh2 sora is loud about how much he missed him and very impressed by how far riku has come as a keyblade master #(also blushes when he sees him working out and then is confused as to why)#(i am thinking of that one manga panel where sora talks about riku’s “big arms” and how he can carry big logs by himself lmfao)#any of these soras would follow a cool older riku around like a duckling and be wowed by everything he does i am convinced

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gelthefunkyblob · 2 months

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Why is Le Quack cute in the movie (ignore the red guy next to him in some of the images I don't want to crop him out)

Flying :3

#courage the cowardly dog #ctcd #straight outta nowhere: scooby doo! meets courage the cowardly dog #le quack #I am only gonna tag katz because even if he isn't the focus of this post #he atleast appears #katz #gelchatter #no one on my twitter cares about ctcd so why not post stuff here instead lol

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good-beanswrites · 3 months

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I mentioned this in the AO3 comments, but:

What does Fuuta think about how Es treated Amane at the end of her interrogation? (Still not completely sure what happened)

And in trial 2, what does he think now that Kotoko has joined the ranks of "people who have been hit by Es" while he has not? (And Amane, if she didn't already count)

Yessss thank you :3 I always enjoy LCSyS questions (even if I take forever to reply to comments and things LMAO) Though, some details apply outside of the au too

Well. I don’t know if it really needs to be said for Fuuta, but yeah, he is pissed 😅 Even if she wasn’t directly hit, he would be just as riled up that she was treated so roughly. (Ah, I’m once again tempted to write up my mv machine post, but) basically I picture the machine itself locking the prisoner in place with sudden restraints. There were reactions of shock and fear, as if it were affecting them immediately, and prisoners like Fuuta and Muu would definitely run from it if they could. So I believe that moment in Amane’s first interrogation is just Es standing over her and rubbing it in. There’s no direct harm, but the fact that they are so smug about her helplessness is just as psychologically painful.

I don’t know if Amane would really go into detail about her interrogation (the others who were hit seem the type to come right out and say it), but she mentions it during the trial hiatus debriefing. Fuuta is furious: “why didn’t you say something sooner?? I would have kicked their ass right then and there!” His outburst is the very reason she doesn’t tell him that she was hit in T2. She knows he’ll get himself into more trouble, and she feels pressured to bear it on her own. She ends up pulling him aside and telling him during the second hiatus. He has to tone down his explosion a bit to focus on comforting her more than cursing Es. Though I don’t know exactly what will happen, the knowledge that she was hit drives him to stand by her side in T3 and defend her every chance he gets, affecting whatever changes we already are getting hints of.

He feels equally upset when Kotoko mentions getting hit, and Kotoko's nonchalance allows him to do a full rant. She doesn’t seem that phased, and admits it makes sense they would have an extreme reaction to her violence. She says that she deserved it, and Fuuta of all people stumbles over his words to tell her that she didn’t – violence does not deserve more violence. (He’s learning, folks!) In the privacy of his own thoughts, the poor guy is mortified. He would be grateful if he didn't keep comparing himself with the others who didn't get hit. “Do I look as fragile and girly as Yuno, Muu, and Mahiru?” “Do they not see me as a threat?” “Do they pity me or something?” He makes up his mind to be a big, manly threat in T3 and be taken seriously enough to get hit. (He can only learn so much at a time, folks.)

#milgram #lights camera sing your sins #thanks for the question! im glad you asked on here too because i probably wouldve held back on ao3 #also right after im done posting these i am sitting down and writing my mv machine post!!! no one else will care but i keep wanting to!!!#outside of the au fuuta would think kotoko getting hit Was deserved but i think hed think twice about it #hes starting to pick up on the whole cycles of violence thing: es hurting kotoko for hurting fuuta for hurting killcheroy who was doing har #but he cant fathom why amane gets caught up in all of this and hes LIVID #it draws him closer to her even without the religious aspect #they both just want to protect the other in the way they think is best :')#and yeah even in canon i think kotoko isnt too phased by the hit -- her language is force after all #she may not think she deserves it per se but she respects es for showing their power like she did #and hey who knows! maybe fuuta comparing himself against the girls is what finally kicks off her transition <3 #fuuta kajiyama #amane momose #kotoko yuzuriha

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waterfallofspace · 4 months

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For the first time in a while, I had myself a snz dream~

Sadly wasn't completely focused on the snz, but it was starring D/azai (feat. C/huuya as a supporting role) and man... I'm gonna be replaying it for days in my mind... >//<

All the surrounding details aren't important but... let's just say D/azai chose to be tied to a suspect, and have his loyal assistant C/huuya (who did not care for that title) place the cat in his lap, D/azai's eyes watering within seconds.

The results were... itchy <3 and through some wonderful ~dream logic~, each time D/azai let another powerful, desperate, itchy sneeze out, the chains he'd tied himself to the suspect with would pull tight, and the suspect would find himself crashing into D/azai, powers being stripped each time (something that, in this dream world, was highly unpleasant)

A lot of it was fairly dream logic-oriented, so the plot itself doesn't make a ton of sense, but the image of a hitching, smirking, sneezy D/azai, with an eye-rolling, cursing, but slightly concerned C/huuya... yeah that's gonna be on repeat for awhile~

#waterfalltalks #waterfalldreams #that's now a tag- i dont know if I'll have many to share but I'm gonna share this one #I just... they were SO well voiced you guys like- that was literally a key moment in the dream #where even in my subconcious i recognized “wow- those are well voiced. i wonder if he was REALLY sn--zing??”#why did i censor snz when i didnt in the post? no idea i got self conscious i think #since its so dream logicy i probably wont attempt to fic or wav it or anything #but i am gonna share it just incase anyone wants!#my dreams are always SO intricate and vivid so this was a chapter in what must have been like a 20 chapter dream #but it's still the ONLY one i care to replay and will be replaying for dayyysssss #i also usually find myself watching my dreams either AS one of the characters (not myself)#or just a third person spectator point of view (like this one) so in the dream i didnt react but #ohhhhh i definitely have thoughts now that im out of it <3

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