⬛⬛⬛⬛мarтyr @inthegallows-blog - Tumblr Blog

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volpestarks

#ι'м a мage noт a мιracle worĸer. ( crack )#anyвody need нealιng? ( misc )#❝ aт тнe clιnιc ❞ ( queue )

edeer-moved

#❝ caged вιrd ❞ ( self )#❝ aт тнe clιnιc ❞ ( queue )#❝ ѕιgнтѕ oғ тнedaѕ ❞ ( photo )

lingering-nomad

I wish this fandom would stop crying ‘ooc!’ for every interaction players don’t like. When you’re talking about characterisation, you need to step out of the game for a sec and dig a little deeper. You need to consider the inter-personal history and context that precedes that interaction. Handing Fenris back to Danarius is HAWKE’S decision. Hawke is the one to make that call and if that kind of choice is IN-CHARACTER for your Hawke, then their impact on the other companions’ arcs are going to be shaped by that same way of thinking. How would a hand-Fen-back-to-Dan Hawke have treated Aveline, Varric, Isabela, Merrill, Anders and their family in the 6 years leading up to that choice?

An Aveline who was forced to live with a ruthless, manipulative asshole while grieving the loss of her husband in a new city for a year, who is constantly reminded of how much she ‘owes’ Hawke for ‘making her Captain’ and lives under the implied threat of having her career end in disgrace with a few words to the wrong people, is very different from an Aveline in a strong, secure friendship with someone she knows has her back. A Varric who helped Hawke make it to the top, only to watch them exploit people for their own gain while still coming to Wicked Grace and making barbed jokes about their sibling’s death in the Deep Roads, is a very different person from the Varric who bonded with a decent, compassionate Hawke over shared grief.

A bloodmage Hawke who flaunts their power and happily destroys anyone who opposes them, sets a very different example for Merrill than one who constantly strives to protect others and do what’s best for the people who rely on them. Same for an Anders who is pushed to let his rage consume him, whether in the yes-burn-them-all sense or you’re-delusional-and-should-be-made-Tranquil, versus an Andy who’s getting sympathetic, yet cautionary support.

Would Isabela even be around for the type of Hawke who’d hand Fenris back? I doubt it.

So no, if it’s in-character for Hawke to be a backstabbing piece of shit, then it’s in-character for their companions to be wary of pissing them off when they do something horrible, because what if they’re next? A Fenris living under that kind of Hawke probably didn’t reach out, didn’t build strong friendships with the gang, didn’t learn to read and isn’t much more than a tool to Hawke anyway. What are the odds of the other companions knowing his story? It’s not even far fetched to assume he’ll be better off with Dan.

One of DA2’s strongest points is it’s writing. It’s a ROLE PLAYING game, which – when done right – means having the companions’ reactions correspond to whatever role Hawke is playing. If Hawke is static, it’s no longer an RPG. The story isn’t linear and the companions evolve accordingly. It’s like a bunch of parallel universes. That’s how it’s supposed to be and DA2 did a brilliant job of showing the cause-and-effect of Hawke’s choices on the people around them.

Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if the fandom’s inability to appreciate this is why we ended up with as much disjointed, player-insert ‘Who’s Mythal?’ nonsense as we did in DA:I.

#meta #okay meta spam is over #anyвody need нealιng? ( misc )

fozmeadows

What pisses me off about Anders is that he ONLY reacts (points-wise) to decisions/convo options Hawke makes regarding mages. Executing a rebel mage, killing the child killer, any interactions with the Qunari, none of those decisions ever cause him to change his opinion of Hawke. I'm not expecting him to take up every other worthy cause, but it would be nice if he cared at ALL about anyone but mages.

Agreed. Whereas, by contrast, something that struck me strongly about Fenris is that, even though you can win approval from him under a variety of conditions, he doesn’t give it easily. Doing a blandly decent thing that costs you nothing doesn’t make him like you, but if your Hawke does anything past that - if they offer more than platitudes, or give real help to children and elves in particular - Fenris responds to it. Which is, I think, really important in understanding his morality. He doesn’t reward you for doing the bare minimum to acknowledge the humanity of people like him: he rewards you for actually proving it, valuing actions over sentiments. This is only really inverted when it comes to mages, but even then, there are key moments in the plot where, if Hawke makes a mage-sympathetic decision or uses magic in some disreputable way - notably around Leandra’s death and attempting to rescue her - Fenris doesn’t penalise you for it.

For me, a really telling moment is if you offer to employ Orana after rescuing her. Fenris, raw from confronting Hadriana, leaps furiously to the assumption that Hawke means to keep her as a slave, and has to be gently told that no, she’ll be paid, it’s okay. And he just kind of deflates and goes quiet, like it genuinely hadn’t occurred to him that anyone would give a shit about what happens to her next if they didn’t mean to exploit her.

I just. I have a LOT of feelings about Fenris, okay?

lingering-nomad

Agreed on Fenris. Anders is…possessed, though? By something with one, single purpose and literally zero grasp of relativity. His approval system reflects that flawlessly – yup, even when he approves of giving Fenris back to Danarius.

This happens in Act 3, after 6+ years of having his thought processes distorted by Justice/Vengeance’s singular focus, mixed in with the chaos of mortal experience and emotion.

Even categorising the cat’s fate as “slavery” in DA:A eludes to why Justice (nope, not just Vengeance) would have no issue turning Fenris over. Ser Pounce-A-Lot is an animal, completely under the control of a human. The fact that there’s a symbiosis there and that the cat actually benefits, is completely lost on him. What would happen to Ser Pounce-A-Lot if you gave him the “freedom” Justice insists on? He’d become a stray, with a significantly shortened lifespan, that’s what. According to Justice’s view of the world, Fenris is free the moment he is out from under Dan’s control. Anders says this in-game: Justice has no concept of time, or grief, or trauma. It’s all down to balancing the scales.

Filtering the world through Anders’ experience, Justice actually “feels” the injustice done to mages. He cannot “feel” Fenris’ (or any elf’s) experience in the same way, so it’s simply not real to him. To Justice, Fenris “approves of enslaving mages” (which is a vast oversimplification of his views) and therefore, it’s only “just” that he should be enslaved by a mage. The fact that Fenris’ misgivings are a result of valid, personal experience while actively enslaved, is not something the spirit can perceive while confined to (and in the process of being corrupted by) the experience of a single host.

It’s not Anders’ fault, though, and it’s not Justice’s either. They both had good intentions when they merged. It just really didn’t go like they planned.

#meta #❝ caged вιrd ❞ ( self )

manicpixiedreamweeb

i think that the one thing i can never defend anders against is the (+5) approval that he gives if you hand fenris back to danarius

lingering-nomad

So, Fenris is my bae. He is the bae and I’m really not keen on ‘justifying’ any kind of positive response to him getting screwed over, but I love Andy too and the way ppl interpret this really isn’t fair to him, so here’s some nuance to that scene that’s easy to miss:

First of all, the relationship score in DA2 is not based on approval and disapproval. It’s based on friendship and rivalry. When you do anything pro-mage or anti-templar, Anders feels a stronger kinship toward Hawke. In his particular case, friendship cuts closer to flat out approval than perhaps any other companion, but it’s not exactly the same thing. That +5 means, “you see the world the same way I do; you’re my friend” as opposed to the “we don’t have the same opinion on this,” which is what a rivalry gain indicates. Fenris has a great scene with rivalled Hawke where he says, “You and I don’t always agree, but you have earned my respect.” In other words, even if he would’ve handled some choices differently from Hawke, Hawke does not actually forfeit his approval.

In the 99% of play-through where Fenris is not given back, Anders doesn’t yield rivalry, which means he doesn’t not agree with the choice to defend Fenris, either. He’ll follow Hawke’s lead and the thing that everyone seems to forget is that for Anders to yield that +5 friendship, Hawke – i.e. the effing protag of the game and catalyst of every major plot events – first has to make the choice to stab Fenris in the back in front of everyone he knows.

Here’s the post on that and the effect on each character’s arc and why it’s not quite fair to judge a character on responses that depend entirely on the pc’s decisions.

As for Justice/Vengeance’s influence and why it makes sense for Anders to see the world that way, here’s the post on that.

Anders is a highly codependent character. That is his arc. He’s set up to be emotionally labile and heavily reactive toward Hawke. That’s who he is. Fenris is far more independent. This is shown by friendship/rival gains through out the game, and especially by his’ lack of reaction if you try to turn Anders in to Cullen on the templar path. Hawke is most likely his friend. He’s handing over someone Fenris doesn’t especially like and considers a threat, but he doesn’t feel any surge in personal loyalty when Hawke takes the matter to Cullen. Whether or not he approves of the choice is up to player headcanon, Fact is, Anders and Fenris are very different characters with very different stories and influences (even if fandom is determined to reduce them to flip-sides of mage/templar conflict) and using loyalty gains that really require a certain type of Hawke to trigger isn’t especially fair to either of them.

#meta #❝ caged вιrd ❞ ( self )

necroarchived

We have OTPs and OT3s and BroTPs, but I introduce a new idea to you guys:

FoeTPs.

It’s those two people who just perfectly antagonize each other. They’re the epitome of enemies. They’re the two people you just love to watch hate each other. They don’t specifically have to be the hero and the villain, just two people who cannot stand each other, and their mutual distaste makes them so entertaining to observe.

I feel that we really need this in our lives.

#anyвody need нealιng? ( misc )#yes this is perfect #I need a fenris tag

🍞

SEND ‘🍞’ TO THROW A LOAF OF BREAD AT MY MUSE.

“I don’t find that very funny, Dorian.”

#ѕer poυnce ѕayѕ нello ( ask )#vishantekaffass #❝ тнe caged вιrd ѕιngѕ oғ ғreedoм ❞ ( v. default )

‘🍞’

SEND ‘🍞’ TO THROW A LOAF OF BREAD AT MY MUSE.

“Oh, that’s endearing, Fenris. I’m going to eat this now. Thanks for the snack. Glad we could be civil.”

#ѕer poυnce ѕayѕ нello ( ask )#fenrirtevi #❝ oυт oғ ѕιgнт oυт oғ мιnd ❞ ( v. tbd )

sheathedlightningarchive

“How was using bees going to help us, Anders?” @inthegallows

inthegallows-blog

“Nobody expects bees. They expect a mage who is spewing fiery balls from their hands, but bees?” A laugh. “They’ll never see it coming.”

#xpraedator #❝ oυт oғ ѕιgнт oυт oғ мιnd ❞ ( v. tbd )#❝ aт тнe clιnιc ❞ ( queue )

reapir-archive

Are you ready to help me find evidence of the “Tranquil Solution”?

#❝ caged вιrd ❞ ( self )#❝ aт тнe clιnιc ❞ ( queue )

johnnykitten

Anders knitting

#❝ aт тнe clιnιc ❞ ( queue )#❝ caged вιrd ❞ ( self )

agentbb8

little Fenris and Anders friendship things that we missed out on:

• Fenris waltzing up into the clinic and Anders bracing himself for impact when Fenris mumbles, “Do you have a cure….. for hangovers.” Anders giggles and shakes his head. “No one can know about this, mage.” Anders ultimately helps him with his alcoholism.

• After they set up camp for a night, Fenris stays on watch first, but Anders can’t sleep of course so he sits near the fire and writes. They both keep glancing at each other. “What are you writing?” “My will for when you finally kill me.” “Fair enough. Where’s your negative amount of coin going?” “All to my cat.” Fenris chuckles, and clears his throat.

• Either that same night or another, Anders asks, “Do you mind if I try something?” “What, like stay quiet?” He reaches out for Fenris’s neck and naturally Fenris gets in an aggressive stance, but Ander’s raises his hands, “Healing magic. That’s all, promise.” Fenris clenches his teeth as Anders lays a hand on his neck and illuminates the tattoos. “What’s that… what’s that feel like?” Fenris sits back down and gazes forward. “Get back to your writing, which is also too loud, by the way.” Anders grins. It had felt relaxing.

• Them getting tipsy with the crew in the Hanged Man and what starts as an argument turns into them doing impressions of each other, which turns into them making fun of themselves and everyone can’t stop busting a gut laughing. Before they leave, Anders comments, “We sound… ridiculous, most of the time, don’t we?” Fenris smirks. “Only you.”

• They get so used to each other’s movements in battle, for whatever reason Fenris blurts out what he’s expecting his comrades to do, and that includes Anders. “BURN THEM TO ASH, ANDERS.” Afterwards Anders just, “Did you…… did you really scream ‘burn them to as–’” “No one can know about that, mage……….. ” Varric from the sidelines, “Literally everyone knows about it, broody.”

• Anders apologizing about saying anything regarding Fenris and Hawke’s relationship. “Happiness… is something we both haven’t had much of.” “Well… thank you, mage.”

• Anders asking how Fenris carries his massive sword. “I’ve carried a heavier weight for years.” “I… I get that.” “Also my seething rage fills me with might.” “I… also get that.” Fenris asks what’s it like twirling a pole around. “Well… Hawke doesn’t seem to mind my skills.” Fenris slaps Anders upside the head.

• Justice expressing his intense opposition to slavery in front of Fenris, sparking a long, involved discussion between Fenris and Anders about their beliefs, where they came from, why they did the things they did, do the things they do, and coming to somewhat of an understanding of each other.

#anyвody need нealιng? ( misc )#fenris #important #❝ aт тнe clιnιc ❞ ( queue )