Neve and Lucanis: Great characters, terrible couple
*I would like to start off by saying these are just my opinions. You do not have to agree or disagree. If our don't like what I am saying that is perfectly fine but please keep all negative opinions to yourself. Thank you!*
I love both Lucanis and Neve and find them to be such interesting characters. As individuals.
Neve is just everything I aspire to be in life. She's elegant, charming, the picture of grace and poise. She's cool and levelheaded, but then you get to know her and see her complicated relationship with Minrathous and her softer, more vulnerable side that reveals a women who just wants to see the best in things but has been so done over by life so many times that all she's able to take is the bare minimum because that's all she can risk taking. But then you romance her and you see her come out of her shell, dare to be more hopeful, dare to want more then just the scraps she's used to getting. Her character is one of my favorites within the Dragon Age series.
Lucanis is everything to me, I would die for this man. On the surface he's suave, focused, loyal to a fault, somewhat cold and closed off, everything you'd expect an assassin to be. But then you romance him and see the disheveled, bashful, almost giddy man underneath. If Rook romances him, he honestly seems like he melts, he softens and opens up in a way he doesn't if you don't romance him. He's so interesting to me because of the all different angles to his character and how those different angles make you see him differently depending on what relationship you have with him.
As their own characters, Neve and Lucanis are complex, compelling and layered. Which is why their romance with each other doesn't work.
I just want to be clear, there is nothing wrong with two characters with similar personalities or hobbies becoming a couple, it's a very common romantic trope and has in fact been in some of the most well known and loved movies and tv series over the years.
But to break down why this trope works and why it doesn't work with Neve and Lucanis we need to know when it's appropriate to use. Often at times the two characters with the same personality trope who end up together is used for comedic reasons. Sometimes the two characters matching personalities make them clash, they constantly fight and squabble because they are exactly alike, that's what makes their dynamic and relationship so enduring and hilarious, they hate each other, but they are mirrors of one another. And when they do finally get together, it's satisfying, they have found common ground and their personality's have finally fitted together like a puzzle piece.
Now the other way the two characters with mirror personality tropes can work is when it's done in a more tragic way. Two character's who's pain and trauma reflects each others, they could be on opposite sides of a war but their personalities couldn't be more the same. There's the whole "no body understands me like you, no one understands my pain like you." The two character's could be heaped with a burden that no other character within the story could relate to but the two characters, they are each other's shoulder to lean on, their each others rock.
You can even see this trope within the Dragon Age series with the Solas and Inquisitor Lavellan romance. Both had a great responsibility they never asked for or wanted thrusted upon them and had to deal with the guilt and blame that came with that responsibility.
To quote Withering Heights here, "whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same."
Neve and Lucanis don't follow either of these tropes. The worst part is they could have, they could have fallen under the latter. Neve is desperate to protect Minrathous, to live up to the image people see of her as this beacon of hope, writer of wrongs. In turn Lucanis is desperate to be the perfect assassin, the perfect Dellamorte, to live up to the requirements set by his grandmother.
Both strive to meet an expectation, both hate when they fail and fear letting those they care about down, both are in dangerous lines of work that make it hard for them to trust and both are used to getting the rotten end of the stick. They could have bonded over this, found solace in each other's despair and brought out the light in one another.
But the story doesn't go that way and just has them bonding over...coffee. Nothing deeper, nothing meaningful, just coffee and food. And yeah that can work, but not for these two characters. Not for two characters who have such thick walls that, you can see when you romance them, are very hard to get threw.
There is a throw away line that Lucanis says if Neve is the one taken by the God's where he states that Neve restored his faith in people. Okay, where did this happen? Would it really have been so hard for them to show us this, maybe replace the coffee and food scene and instead have a scene with Lucanis in Neve's office with her as she rambles on about a case she's trying to solve to help a family. Have Lucanis see the side of Neve that believes in justice, helping people, fixing things that were broken.
But as it is and what we saw of their relationship, and what we know of them both being withdrawn and closed off it's hard to believe that the two even got together. Because without that more intimate relationship, there's no way either of them would have let their walls down to let the other in simply because of coffee and food.
2. Treviso or Minrathous:
We all knew this discussion was going to happen. There are many layers to this issue, especially regarding both Neve and Lucanis as romancable companions.
If you choose saving Treviso over Minrathous regardless of what faction your from, Neve will Harden, but Rook can still romance her.
Yet for some reason if you save Minrathous over Treviso, even as a Shadow Dragon, you still get locked out of a romance with Lucanis.
This writing choice doesn't make any sense when you compare it to previous games where you can harden your companions and still romance them. In fact in the past when you've done so, it can actually be a benefit to your romantic relationship with them if you do Harden them. (Example: Alistair from Origins. If you are romancing him as an elf, dwarf or a mage and you choose for him to be king and he's been Hardened, he does continue a romance with you as his mistress. But if you don't Harden him, he will end your relationship if he's to be king.)
I could understand this writing choice to an extent. Neve, despite her pessimistic outlook, is far more forgiving and as we have seen, deep down, she does long to see the best in people, so it does make sense that she would still be more open to continuing a romantic relationship with Rook.
Lucanis being more inclined to end a relationship with Rook if they choose to save Minrathous also could work. He's infused with the literal demon of Spite, so he's going to be influenced in some way by Rook's lack of support for Treviso and take it more personally. Lucanis also foreshadows this nature as early as his introduction into the game when your helping him escape the Ossurary. "Demons don't forgive." It's also clear Lucanis, even without Spite's influence, is clearly a grudge holder (Throughout the whole game the man's one second away from pulling out a knife on the next person who so much as breathes the wrong way in his direction).
It could also be argued that he has to put on a bit of a front for the Crows, he's the grandson of the 1st Talon and the Crows demand nothing but the utmost loyalty. So continuing to pursue a romantic relationship with Rook, the person who "abandoned" their city for another, could feel like a betrayal for the Crows. And given recent events, becoming an abomination, I think the last thing Lucanis wants right now is to put himself on even more uncertain footing with the Crows then he's already on as we know that deep down, Lucanis biggest fear is failing those he cares for.
Except this logic completely falls apart with a Neve and Lucanis relationship. Now granted, this situation only really becomes a problem if you romance Lucanis and save Minrathous but it's enough of a glaring that it's worth discussing. I also feel that it puts a damper on all the characters and their romances regardless of what you choose.
When we first find out about the two dragons attacking Minrathous and Treviso, both Lucanis and Neve make cases for why the team needs to go to their city. While they don't blatantly put the other's needs down, they do urge Rook to choose their city over that of the others. You'd think Lucanis "Grudge Holder" Delamorte would feel a little slighted about this and perhaps hold a little resentment for Neve, especially if Rook chose Minrathous. I'm not saying Neve deserves this treatment, but from a character stand point it would make sense.
He clearly doesn't of course hold any resentment towards her. But this just raises the question, why was this energy not kept for Rook? If Rook is a Shadow Dragon and rightfully chooses to save their city over Treviso, Lucanis still ends a romance with you. Why? Why does Neve, a Shadow Dragon, get a pass but a Rook who is also a Shadow Dragon does not? It makes no sense and is really unfair.
If you come from another faction, excluding the Crows, and save Minrathous I could understand Lucanis still feeling hurt by their decision. But I feel like this would have been a good opportunity to have him Hardened, to explore that dynamic of a Lucanis torn between his heart desires, Rook and his desires to fulfil his duties, to the Crows and Caterina.
I feel like the only real reason that you should be blocked out of his romance is if you play as a Crow and save Minrathous. He has a right in this regard to feel betrayed and cut things off, it would be in character for him.
But honestly, all of these arguments mean nothing because when he ends a romance with you he doesn't say he feels betrayed or hurt by Rook choosing Minrathous over Treviso, Rook choosing Minrathous over him. He says he doesn't have the heart or the time for anything else besides helping his city. And you know what? That would have been fine. It's in character for him.
But what completely contradicts this statement and destroys any meaning behind it is Lucanis pursuing a romantic relationship with Neve right after he tells Rook he didn't have time for a romantic relationship. And I think this was a bigger blow to Neve and Lucanis's relationship more then it was to Rook's and Lucanis's blossoming romance. Because it made one half of the pairing, Lucanis, now look like a massive hypocrite and an asshole. He dumps Rook after they had to make an impossible decision, a decision he knows was difficult as he literally states this to you after getting back from Treviso. He then goes on to all but lie to Rook's face and states that he's ending things because he doesn't have time for a romantic relationship, only to go on to romance Neve and do it so blatantly and callously in front of Rook.
The whole situation paints Lucanis in such an unflattering light and even does a disservice to his romance with Rook. Because now his love feels...conditional. We either save Treviso and in turn our relationship with him, or risk losing both.
This whole messy situation greatly sours the Lucanis x Neve ship in lot of ways and it feels like the only one that made it out of the shipping massacre alive was Neve (my queen, they could never make me hate you).
Lucanis and Neve's romance is incredibly one sided. From the very start, it's Lucanis who hints at being interested in Neve, Lucanis making the romantic gestures, Lucanis making the grand declarations of love and affection.
Neve meanwhile gives no indication that she even likes Lucanis, romantically speaking. There are no cut scenes when she's talking to Rook and mentions Lucanis or their relationship or her feelings about him (unless you count the one where she discusses hiring him), she hardly has any cut scene interactions with him and the ones they do have, Lucanis is the one always going to and seeking her out (their romantic cut scene when they officially get together literally takes place in her room).
If Lucanis and Neve are together and Neve is the one taken by the Gods, Lucanis has a bunch of dialogue where he talks about how desperate he is to get her back and when we do get her back, he proclaims how he wants to give her everything that she needs and can't wait to have a future with her.
And then we talk to Neve after rescuing her and...she acts like she don't even know this man. She doesn't mention how much she missed Lucanis or how happy and relieved she is to see him, in fact she entirely focuses on her relationship with Rook. She talk's about how Rook is one of the few people she can rely on, how Rook is someone actually feels like she can trusts. She could have mentioned how Lucanis is also one of these people but nope! She doesn't mention him at all.
It really just seems that if Lucanis never made a move, the two of them wouldn't be together. When you look at the banter surrounding a romanced Lucanis and Rook or a romanced Neve and Rook, Neve is the only one to have anything to say about it. She comments on Lucanis and Rook's relationship, states that Rook's good for Lucanis and makes him smile. But when it comes to Rook and Neve's relationship, Lucanis is silent on the matter (as far as I'm aware, perhaps someone got some dialogue on him commenting on their relationship, but I haven't come across any).
Neve and Lucanis never should have become a couple, there's no chemistry, any that exists is one sided, no party comes out of it looking good, especially Lucanis and especially if he cuts off a romance with Rook if they don't save Treviso.
The relationship is such a derailment to both of their characters and even their romances with Rook. The worst part is their romance could have been great, there were plenty of ways to hint at a deeper connection between the two, the potential was right there!
But with what we got between them, the relationship was not thought out and lacked any effort and the only way to have salvaged any of this was to just not have allowed the two to get together at all.
