Can you tell us more about your rook? What's their personality like, what gender are they, what choices did they make ...?
Of course! This is Gennaro, he is an elf from elfinage, who became a Crow as a child against his will. He is a very religious man, believes in Andraste even despite everything that is happening around the elven gods.
He's traumatized and paranoid, like all crows. He is terrified every second of the plot, especially when encountering Darkspawn. He tries to stay away from them, and takes great pleasure in solving cases in Treviso and Minratous. The urban environment is much closer to him.
Gennaro is a serious and gloomy man who has learned to look for the weaknesses of others rather than go into open combat. He will use manipulation, deception and poisons to put pressure on mental vulnerabilities. This is his way of defeating enemies, because he is a weak little elf.
If we talk about the elections, then one of the main ones is worth noting that he saved Treviso - but not because he loves this city or Crows. He just hates choosing, and in a stressful situation, he went to the most familiar place.
I don't know what else to add, but I'll be happy to answer any question about him!
Was anyone going to tell me that Rook and Neve mirror each other's phrases depending on who you choose to dismantle the ward? Or was I just supposed to find that out myself after my 2nd full playthrough?!
First of all, I'm ill. Thank you writers. You deserve so much better than you get. To make up for that, I'm going to gush about the writing and more importantly the performance of the actors I got to experience said writing through. I think this post I want to specifically focus on Rook, since so many people have taken apart the Category 5 event that is Neve's full romance plot. But trust me, at the end of this analysis I plan on touching on something I haven't yet seen from the Neve romance takes. And if it is out there, it's not getting nearly the attention it deserves.
I think it's absolutely fascinating the character development that happens for Rook specifically if you choose Neve and subsequently she gets blighted. Despite all the personality choices you can make in regards to the romantic scenes. (Shout out to the Stoic option breaking my heart every time during the Eclipse scene.) One thing Rook is for Neve, always, is there. Rook makes sure to let Neve know, out loud and through their actions, that they are there. They'll always try to be there, even when they might not be fast enough, when the tables turn or when gods break promises. Now I'm not sure about the other VA's performance because I've just been running through this romance as one character, but Bryony Corrigan does an absolutely phenomenal job of breaking my heart in the aftermath of Tearstone Island. Through her performance you can really begin to see the flipside of this coin. The other reflection in the mirror.
If any companion speaks to you about Neve, Bryony does a fantastic job of letting the emotion come through her small lines just enough that it sounds like Rook is really on the edge of tears. Ask Rook about their plans, or what they have to do next? Fine. Can handle that. She will get the job done. But ask her about Neve? Reassure her that they'll find her? Suddenly Rook is the smallest person in the world. Her voice cracks, she's hardly even able to thank Davrin or Bellara for their support because she is actively choking back what sounds like tears.
Don't even get me started on the animation rigging for Rook when you DO find Neve and she reveals just what happened while Rook wasn't there.
Look at that devastation! I can tell they turned up the rigging specifically to make sure that no matter what your Rook looks like, you will KNOW just how broken they must feel in that moment. (Regret Prison could never.) Rook wasn't there and Neve had someone in her head. Someone who used her to break her own city.
(Important note that this animation will NOT play for just a normal companion rescue. Rook is only going to be this devastated when it's someone they love. In a normal run you'll get more of relieved and happy grin rather than whatever pathetic, wet beast looking thing this is.)
Moving forward, the very next time you can choose the 'Romantic' option, Rook will reflect in some way that they 'lost' Neve. That is not something you can change. You, as a player, CANNOT change the fact that a romantically involved Rook will see the time spent apart as an overwhelming loss. They lost Neve. Once you do click the 'Romantic' option however, the dialogue will change to some variation of 'found'. Which reflects exactly what Rook has dedicated themselves to proving to Neve. That they will be there. That they will always try.
That spoken dialogue doesn't stop the choices from showing what Rook is really feeling however. In their mind, they lost her. Neve is desperate to remind Rook that they can't even consider her being there as a win. Not while they still have so much left to do. And yet? It doesn't stop Rook from believing it anyways. That is the win in their eyes, no matter what comes next.
The only thing that can come close to getting that final win now is killing Elgar'nan, and I'm feral for the fact that Rook's view of killing the last blighted god can, canonically, become revenge for what he did to Neve. (On top of saving the world of course)
You'll get further 'lost and found' references in the dialogue after. Again, I feel like it's really important to see that it is Rook saying all of this. It has nothing to do with your choices beforehand. If you choose the romantic option, this is what Rook is truly feeling. It becomes canon to whatever kind of Rook you're playing. They wouldn't know what to do if they hadn't found Neve.
(Bryony Corrigan you have me on the floor with this entire sequence. From the line above to: "Every moment." To "I'm right here. I promise." It knocks me to the floor. Every time. Insanely heart-wrenching delivery.)
Lastly in the post credit scene of the Blighted Neve storyline, 2 of your 3 options can include one final instance of the 'lost and found' wording that is so prevalently a theme for Rook in this version of events.
(Fun fact, the non-blighted version of the same scene will of course, also throw a nod to the theme of 'lost and found'. "Finding you was a lost cause.", As well as an option to tap into Rook's own feelings in regards to that theme: "That place, I was so lost...")
So why is this so interesting to me? Why does the mirrored dialogue from the very moment that scene starts mean so much to me? It's pretty simple.
In Neve's experience, lost things don't just come back. I think it's absolutely fascinating that her storyline, romance or not, has a nebulous theme around the idea that lost things don't just come back. In Neve's experience, once something goes missing, it's gone. The city will move on without a spare thought. That's why she tries to be the difference. To be the one that finds things. If you're hunting for people who are taken she will always make sure to slip in a line about the fact that even if you're too late, she intends to find them anyways. She will provide closure, a follow-up to whoever might need it. It's about the small temporary wins. It's the cynic with a heart of gold that's so deeply imbedded in her character.
You're supposed to play as the one that helps slowly change that idea. Rook is meant to be the exception to the rule Neve has held tight in an attempt at survival for so long. (Along with all of the other companions of course.) Rook is the 'found' part of lost and found. They're going to find a way through any situation. Whatever it takes.
So yeah, when Neve comes in to Rook's room during the non-blighted storyline, of course she's completely shaken by the fact that Rook is actually there. That they came back. That they found a way to come back.
But on the flipside, what you can discover through the writing and through the incredible work by the VA, is the fact that without Neve? Rook can also become lost. The fact that the other came back at all means the world to them BOTH. The fact that they will mirror each other's thoughts, the very idea of coming back at all being a parallel to being lost and found, it's a payoff to something that gets set up at the very start of the game.
When they needed to find someone, Varric went to the best damn detective he had ever met. Neve Gallus, the local expert, the one person in Minrathous that people turn to when things or people go missing. In the same breath he'll introduce Rook as their expert on trouble. The very same kind of trouble that Neve knows to avoid and yet always finds her anyways.
Because lost things are always meant to be found. And Trouble isn't always a bad thing.
Neve is an emotional person. You can tell immediately when she lets her guard down with Rook (up late, I think we caught a wisp). As your relationship/trust level with her progresses, more and more of her vulnerability leaks through. She is simply used to keeping her emotion to herself because it’s a coping mechanism because she feels loss so deeply and she hates to be hurt. She also doesn’t want to carry around the guilt and heartbreak if anything happens to Rook, especially if whatever happens is intended to hurt Neve.
Clearly she’s been emotionally detached for a while, but Rook has the audacity to show up being the shitshow they are and it ruins all of that. She has no time to deflect, to shore up her defenses. It’s just one disastrous event after another and Rook just keeps showing up and saying words and well…being Rook.
The straw that broke the camels back is when Rook gets sucked into the fade. Neve cannot process that because the person that’s been by her side acting as emotional support for who knows how long, has vanished and everything is escalating and she cannot even catch her breath.
It makes sense Neve can’t say I love you until Rook comes back. Rook being gone made her realize that not saying it didn’t change anything. She was still going to hurt, she was still going to feel pain. Rook just didn’t get to hear the words.
I want to post these two more versions of the art, because I still can't figure out which one I like best
The first one is beautiful, but the second one looks like an ancient fresco, i think
Which one do you like?
thinking about one of the first times rook flirts with neve and says “trouble’s not always a bad thing.”
then in the codex entry of neve’s notes after the dock kiss, neve writes “…but rook can back it. some trouble isn’t a bad thing. we really should get that supper sometime.”
MEANING that neve has been thinking about rook saying that since before the first major decision of the game.
rook, to me, is a person who has constantly gotten pushed away because they cause too much trouble when they try to do the right thing. their faction pushes them out of their home when they try to help people. varric gets killed hurt partially because rook tried a risky plan. and rook still tries to keep going and “causing trouble” in the eyes of some people because they know it’s right.
and here’s this woman, neve gallus, who chases trouble for a living and yet is terrified to let anything close to her because of how dangerous it is for both parties. neve gallus calls rook Trouble like it’s a good thing, because it is.
rook causes trouble and gets pushed away. neve chases trouble and tries to push people away who get too close. and somehow neve is still perhaps the first person (romantically) who likes that rook can cause trouble, even if it scares the part of her still trying to construct her emotional walls.
tldr: rook gets sent away for being too much trouble. neve gallus kisses them and calls them Trouble. the neve romance is everything to me
thinking about romanced neve’s comments on tear stone island…
“just…find a way out. can you do that, Trouble?” is neve gallus choosing to put her faith in rook and how they always seem to claw their way past trouble and danger. it comes out clumsy because she’s not used to doing that. she trusts that rook is rock steady and reliable and has been in the past and can be in the present but in this moment she’s trying to believe that rook will be there in the future.
(how she must have wrestled with herself the whole time. torn between her heart and her head as per usual, neve chooses a compromise. she won’t say “i love you”—not yet. did she tell herself that she would say it after? did she not let herself think it at all?)
neve offers an olive branch here—i want to believe that we can find our way out. tell me we can find our way out. and of course rook delivers. “i can if you can.”
and then bellara is taken by elgar’nan himself.
and then someone dies stopping ghilan’nain.
and then rook disappears.
and then minrathous, her city and home, is taken and blighted.
neve gallus quite literally lost everything in such a short period of time that it’s a wonder she was functional at all in the weeks where rook was missing and so much was just wrong.
but then rook comes back.
and then they find bellara.
and then the blight is killed in minrathous along with elgar’nan.
she’s proven completely right and then completely wrong nearly immediately.
(and even when she only has rook back, she tries again. to believe and let herself feel rather than fighting against it the whole time. because rook makes her feel brave, and rook died, and rook broke out of a prison built to hold gods.)
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