Hissrad

Decrepit 20+ hater, tired of living, a place to house my (eventual) writings, BioWare, lying men enthusiast, tall women simp, come talk to me :)

[mythicsprite-deactivated2023071]

can i crawl into your arms at the end of the day can i play with your fingers while we tell each other what happened since we last saw each other can you kiss the top of my head and tell me how much i mean to you can we just lay there for hours listening to each other's hearts beating can i drown in your scent and your voice and your touch and you can i become consumed by you

[fresh-prince-of-denmark]

Literally went in to screenshot this came specifically bc it’s like sliding into home base if the other players were bears and also there were bandits and also home base means nothing

[speremint]

my adaar can benchpress blackwall’s stinky ass. we love them both for it

[speremint]

why is there no blackwall fanart 😤😤

[wabart]

[mmthemayoarts]

sketching Zev while sick, so I can feel a bit better u.u i tried to silver fox him but he's not there yet

[fresh-prince-of-denmark]

Dragon Age Incorrect Tweets (1/?)

[thecollectibles]

Art by Дарья Аваева

[crossdressingdeath]

A thing I wish DAO went into more: the way Alistair is in some ways incredibly selfish. Like, the way he refuses to take charge of the group is treated as kind of endearing in the text, but the game doesn't really get into what a massive burden he just... drops on the junior Warden present with no warning or discussion. Think about it: the Warden is heavily implied to be very young (possibly younger than Alistair, definitely around the same age), most of them have no real experience in leadership, several of them have no experience in the world outside their small corner, all of them have only been Wardens for a few days. And Alistair dumps leadership of the group on them and refuses to take any of that weight. Does your Warden like leadership? Are they any good at it? Is it exhausting and difficult for them? Alistair doesn't care! He doesn't want to lead, and that means you have to lead, and whether or not you want to lead has no bearing on that. It's not a discussion, there's no suggestion of sharing the responsibility of leadership as the Wardens of the group; Alistair metaphorically throws the responsibility at you and runs.

But if you go for low approval with Alistair it's basically all about calling him childish and immature, even though I think a much more compelling low approval dynamic is the Warden despising Alistair for putting so much on them with no hesitation, but being stuck with him (because they know as well as he does that they need all hands on deck Warden-wise) and stuck with that burden of leadership (because a Warden kind of has to be in charge of the group and even if one didn't no one else in the group would be very good as a leader in this situation, and Alistair has made it very clear that he won't take it). Even at high approval it would be very compelling to have this sense of resentment at how Alistair just assumed they'd take on the burden of leadership and refuses to take any of it for himself. But that aspect gets completely ignored in the story, you don't really get the chance to raise the matter aside from asking why you're in charge despite him being the senior Warden present a couple of times.

It also adds something really spicy to the fallout of sparing Loghain, though, because... Alistair forced the Warden to take on leadership. He made them be the one to make these hard choices. It's never been a discussion, it's never been the Warden's choice whether or not they take on responsibility for these tough decisions, Alistair always just expects them to do it. And now they've made a call he doesn't like, and he abandons the group on the eve of battle because of his wounded feelings? I'd argue that's as much a betrayal as sparing Loghain if not more so, and certainly more of a betrayal of Duncan's memory; Duncan understood that a good Warden must be driven by necessity, not emotion or even morality, and I feel like in the Warden's place he likely would've made the same call. They need Wardens around to kill the Archdemon, as many as they can get, and even one more could make the difference between victory and defeat. The Warden and Alistair may not know the details, but with the most senior Warden present saying they should make Loghain a Warden instead of killing him a logical assumption would be he has a very good reason for saying so and maybe they should listen to him! I would've loved it if during the argument with Alistair after sparing Loghain you could really get into that "You forced the responsibility of making these decisions on me when I never wanted or asked for it, you don't get to throw a tantrum now that I've made one you don't like" aspect of it, but you... don't. And that's a shame, because it takes a lot of depth away from his dynamic with the Warden.

[stonesense]

sending a mage adaar to the conclave was objectively such a funny move. what could possibly go wrong

[pickleforstony]

R U FKING KIDDING ME VARRIC TETHRAS

[dragonologist-phd]

Man I miss the DAO specialization methods, I hope they bring back that type of thing in DA4. I wanna become a blood mage by making a deal with a demon. I wanna become a reaver by joining up with a dragon cult. I wanna become a duelist by meeting a pirate in a random brothel.

Even the less wild ones are really good! Getting close enough to your companions that they teach you their unique skills? I love it!

It’s just so much more interesting and engaging than doing random fetch quests or being purely mechanical

[plaguebeasts]

[crossdressingdeath]

Having thoughts about Hawke and Quiz as opposite ends of a spectrum of heroism, and Hawke's end is "You couldn't save anyone but yourself" and Quiz's end is "You saved everyone except yourself" and like. I can't really articulate them but they exist.

[bluerose5]

Do you ever think that, by Act 3, the majority of the crew gets really protective of their mages? This was mostly prompted because I went to the Viscount's keep with just Anders and Hawke in the party, and I was acutely aware of the fact that there were templars everywhere. To the point where I could even see my Hawke getting into a panic over it if he's not careful. I just imagine that, after once or twice of this happening, the rogues and warriors insist on at least one of them accompanying the mages at all times. Not because any of them are defenseless —far from it— but because all it takes is for one templar to be in a bad mood, one templar to dispel their magic, and they're being hauled off to the Gallows. Possibly made Tranquil. And maybe it's my personal bias speaking but, for all his distrust with mages, I can definitely see Fenris being the main enforcer of this rule in the group. No matter the mage. He's just obviously quicker to get frustrated with or scold Anders and Merrill. Doesn't mean he's gonna abandon them though, especially after knowing each other for years.

[apostacism]

the circle mage origin is so wild like you can prove yourself completely untrustworthy to any authority and duncan will be like "you know what? i like that. shows initiative. also blood magic isn't even that bad you're all pussies."

[orion-the-onion]

Ditto on loving him for this.

[ryuichifoxe]

It's been a Varric kind of week