Ship Tournament — Round #1 / Match 2 of 88
Loghain/Maric
"it has that huge, mythic dragon age quality to it - friendship, loyalty, war, nation-building, and then all the ways that kind of devotion can curdle into something tragic. they are so bound up in each other’s lives and in ferelden itself that it’s almost impossible not to read a kind of overwhelming emotional intensity there. loghain doesn’t just believe in maric as a king, he believes in him as a person with this almost frightening level of loyalty, and that makes everything about their story hit harder. it’s love, devotion, resentment, grief, and history all tangled together in a way that feels basically designed to ruin me."
"the loyalty. the history. the whole absolutely insane level of personal devotion wrapped up in politics and country and destiny and whatever else they had going on. loghain is soooo normal about maric if by normal you mean fundamentally shaped as a person by him. and that’s what gets me!! this isn’t just “oh they were close,” this is life-altering, narrative-defining, giant tragic feelings territory. old man yaoi with nation-state consequences my beloved"
"There's no real way to read The Stolen Throne and listen to the way Loghain talks in Origins and NOT come away shipping them. Everything in Loghain's life has centered around Maric since he joined the rebellion when he was twenty. Maric makes Loghain promise to leave him behind if he ever faces the choice of saving Maric or the army again, and Loghain never does. Every time Loghain wants to leave the rebellion, Maric is the reason he stays - even when he blames Maric for his father's death. And Maric, in turn, defends this farmer's son who saved his life, a man who has no status or lineage, to the rest of the rebellion. He trusts Loghain with his life - and in The Calling, trusts Loghain will rescue him from the Circle tower even though it should be impossible. And Loghain DOES rescue him. When Maric disappears, Loghain nearly bankrupts the country looking for him and has to be called off by his own daughter and Maric's son. Loghain's combat dialogue in Origins has three separate references to Maric, including the absolutely insane, "By Maric and the Maker!" Maric has at this point been missing/"dead" for five years. Loghain says that if Maric had ever tried to conquer the Fade itself, he would've led the charge. Everything he's done for thirty years has been for Ferelden or for Maric."
""Keep him close and he will betray you, each time worse than the last." Maric is told this by Flemeth at eighteen, his mother died just days ago, betrayed by those she should have trusted. He JUST MET Loghain. Yet even with every proof that Flemeth speaks the truth, Maric spends the next TWENTY NINE YEARS with Loghain at his side, with almost nothing separating the two. When Maric is lost at sea Loghain - who has always put Ferelden first - almost BANKRUPTS the nation trying to find him, only giving up finally because Maric made him promise to put Ferelden before him. "What would Maric do if he found out Loghain let Cailan die?" Forgive him. Forgive him without hesitation. Look at this man's track record. They decided to be ride or die at eighteen and never stopped."
"go read the Stolen Throne"
vs. Carver/Merrill
"he’d be sooo grumbly and defensive and merrill would just keep being merrill and somehow that would make it worse AND better for him. i can totally see him acting annoyed while being ridiculously obvious about caring what she thinks. and merrill would absolutely find him kind of endearing under all the attitude. the vibe is bickering + accidental sweetness + carver being in way deeper than he planned"
"He is just so timid and sweet about it all. And she'll feed into it or he completely oblivious. Its like the Hawke siblings only have one mind for who they're into and it's great."
"They're just so cute. Merrill doesn't need protecting, but carver would in a heartbeat, but also his crush on her so pure and obvious. There's something so sweet about a Templar whose willing to fuck up his entire life for a dalish blood mage."
"cute cute CUTE!!!!! also it being interfered with by the narrative (Act 1 outcome) is good soup"
"They are such a case of opposites attract. Carver falls for her cleverness and Merrill falls for his hernesty. His straight forwardness would be so refreshing to her very autistic missing of all human societal cues. Her sweetness is something Carver needs, too. And I think he would see a little bit of Bethany in her."
Which is the better ship?
Loghain/Maric
Carver/Merrill
