having living working body parts must *really* weird him out. like the first day he merged with anders one of the first things he felt was probably his vessel's empty stomach. It might not have registered with him that that means "hey, we're really low on mana." fortunately for him though hawke's got his back now.
YES. or the first time he’s low on sleep and starts nodding off. Like, “wait, is this normal or is something seriously wrong?”, haha.
and also the sensory overload, god. like, before merging with Anders, he was inhabiting a dead body, which means no hunger, no pain, no need to sleep, probably limited sense of touch, taste, and smell because of dead nerve endings -- I can imagine him being hypersensitive to different textures and sensations, scents, tastes, etc. it’s probably more tolerable filtered through Anders’ consciousness, which is probably the case most of the time, but when Justice takes control he probably gets overwhelmed pretty easily, especially when it’s still all new to him.
somehow I imagine him also being appalled the first time he experiences an itch he can’t reach or that won’t go away. like “why is this even a thing bodies do, who authorized this”
i wonder if justice ever has those moments of "mortals are fucking WEIRD."
he DEFINITELY does, I’m sure
like, he said in Awakening he never bothered paying attention to the physical world before he got stranded there, so if living at Vigil’s Keep in close proximity to mortals didn’t make him think Mortals Are Weird, then being merged with one almost certainly started making him think that. regularly, I imagine.
also, I imagine a lot of “wait is this an Anders thing or is this a mortal thing” (because lbh, Anders is weird as hell as far as mortals go)
also, for some nice mental imagery: anders and a siberian cat
how much you wanna bet Mr. Wiggums was a big fluffy orange Siberian cat??
(image source)
really ornery and aloof, hated everyone except for Anders, attacked templars’ feet from the shadows, and Anders was the only one that he would allow to groom the mats out of his fur, anyone else would get a face full of hissing and spitting and claws
NOT HAVING MERRILL IN INQUISITION IS KIND OF A WASTE TBQFH I mean imagine her in morrigan's position. IMAGINE HER MEETING SOLAS. OR COLE. OR DAGNA.
I WANT HER TO MEET SOLAS SO BAD, and oh my god she’d get along fantastically with Cole, and DAGNA, omg they’re both soooo enthusiastic about the things they’re interested in, they’d both be total nerds together.
Arrrrgh there was literally no reason not to have Merrill in Morrigan’s role, or at laest have Merrill have SOME sort of role in the Temple of Mythal questline. I kept waiting for Velanna and Merrill to bust down the door like “hello, actual elves here, move over”. The elven ladies in this series deserve so much better, omg -- Velanna, Merrill, Fiona, Shianni, Ariane...
Even Feynriel would have been an interesting person to have involved, given how he’s somniari -- i mean, idk, maybe the writers have future plans for him. but I just wanted someone elven to have precedence over a human character like Morrigan.
I actually headcanon that that Pride demon you face at the end of Act 3 is a corrupted Spirit of Wisdom. Merrill looked to the spirit for the knowledge she needed, but her judgments were clouded by her own pride and belief that she - specifically *she* - would be the one to save her people. This does also kind of make me wonder what a conversation between her and Solas would sound like.
That’s an interesting way to look at it, I never thought of that. Solas does say something to Cole about how demons and spirits aren’t dissimilar, and Merrill seems to look at it the same way, judging from some of the things she says in DA2.
And pride definitely does cloud her judgment sometimes, and it’s probably her main character flaw. I think she’s totally justified in wanting to reclaim her people’s history, but the desire to save them is where the pride comes in. Her clan didn’t want to be saved, especially not in the specific way that Merrill wanted to save them. (Though, I also think that her actions also had something to do with her desire to prove herself to the clan, because I get the feeling she never really fit in and felt alienated and misunderstood even before she started dabbling in blood magic and working on the eluvian – I don’t think that experience of rejection and alienation was anything new for her, and after awhile, her self-esteem started to hinge on her ability to do something for the People and prove herself to her clan.)
After her Act 3 quest, though, she seems to finally realize that she was misguided in trying to ‘save’ her people – Hawke can tell Merrill that she can’t help people without their consent, and Merrill will admit that’s true. She also realizes that the entire time she’s lived in the alienage, she’s been overlooking her fellow elves: “The Dalish always say we’re the only true elves. And I’ve lived here for years, and never thought… I’ve barely even looked at them. I feel like such a fool.” So, she eventually realizes she had tunnel vision and that she was too fixated on doing things her own way.
I always think it’d be so interesting to see Merrill and Solas interact. Solas doesn’t condemn blood magic, he thinks of spirits as people, he regularly explores the Fade, he knows a lot about the ancient elves – Merrill shares a lot of the same beliefs, and she would probably really like picking his brain, haha. They also both have the pride theme going on, like you said. They might clash a little over Solas’ disdain for the Dalish, but at the same time, by the end of DA2 Merrill is kinda disillusioned about the Dalish and seems willing to criticize them where due, so she might be flexible about that.
And can you imagine her reaction to finding out his real identity? I’m thinking like, a combination of ‘WHAT? ARE YOU SERIOUS’, excitement, fascination, regret that she didn’t know earlier because she would’ve asked him so many more questions, and laughing nervously about the number of times she said ‘by the Dread Wolf’ in front of him. (I’ve been tempted to do an Inquisitor Merrill playthrough of DA:I at some point, haha.)
I love how so many people's stories of what convinced them to be anti-choice revolve around them personally. "Oh, what about MEEEE?" I swear to cheese, the next time someone tries this one on me, I am going to say "Well, it would have spared me this conversation..." in the most deadpan way possible. Not the most polite response, but anyone who's coming from that angle is blatantly fishing for feelings, and I'm having none of it.
animadiscordia replied to your post: lmao I don’t trust anyone who uses “ma...
the one point they maybe might have is that mages can set shit on fire with their minds…but the way the chantry is handling this is like trying to keep a fire contained with a picket fence
the way the Chantry handles it is like throwing gasoline on embers, honestly.
magic is more likely to be dangerous when a mage cannot or does not know how to control it, and lack of knowledge and fear/hatred of oneself only makes that worse. and the abusive atmosphere of the Circle only makes mages more emotionally vulnerable -- the kind of fear, despair, and anger that it instills in mages just makes them easier prey for demons. like, if the Chantry wants to protect against the potential dangers of magic, the Circle does the exact opposite.
on the other hand, showing compassion and genuine support might go a long way in helping mages deal with the challenging and dangerous aspects of being a mage (e.g. coping with demons). but the Chantry isn’t interested in helping mages or in protecting against the dangers of magic, not really. the Chantry sees mages as useful tools and is more interested in keeping mages dependent on the Circle and frightened into submission and compliance.
plus, like... even though magic can be dangerous, I never understand how that justifies treating mages as non-people?? like, ‘being potentially dangerous’ doesn’t automatically make someone undeserving of compassion or personhood and it’s always scary to me when that’s implied.
it’s also such bullshit that mages are subject to special scrutiny? like, non-mages can be plenty dangerous. templars are incredibly dangerous (but mostly to mages, and apparently it doesn’t count when it’s mages being abused and killed) -- and honestly, mages are often helpless against templars in large numbers because templars have dispel skills that render mages’ abilities temporarily useless. the Chantry as an institution, as well as the aristocracy/monarchy/nobility, are very dangerous and cause a lot of suffering -- and can cause more (and more far-reaching) damage than any one single mage can, between the structural inequality and poverty they reinforce and the wars they wage for the sake of power.
hell, Celene purged an entire alienage; the nobility in Denerim regularly committed violence against the elves in the alienage, subjected the alienage to slavery, and abandoned the alienage when it was faced with plague and darkspawn; the Kirkwall Chantry left refugees and homeless to die in Darktown and the Grand Cleric allowed one of her own to incite violence against the qunari and personally enabled mass violence, abuse, and murder of mages in the Gallows; the Chantry as a whole committed and continues to commit genocide against elves and mass violence against mages -- but no one advocates locking up all the nobles and Chantry officials so they can’t hurt anyone.
because the difference is that mages don’t have any real social or political power, so they’re made into an easy scapegoat by the people who DO have the social and political power to define ‘right’ and ‘wrong’.
yikes. i’m rambling again. but yeah omg the “they’re dangerous” argument is so disingenuous. and it falls apart so easily snice the Chantry and the Circle only increase the danger.
