#quest meme

[sapphim]

The landsmeet for the ask thing

oh realizing that gwendolen cousland and anora could get married in the multi-warden worldstate (and that it was the outcome with the most substantial logical backing behind it, even) was an incredible moment. like.

gwen’s not even a warden in that worldstate, she’s just been allied with them for the majority of the game, so nobody can throw a fit about them putting a warden on the throne

eydis aeducan doesn’t care who’s on the throne so long as they feel they owe her somehow, so she’s happy regardless. (also, she thinks these backwater human politics are charming)

sulina mahariel would vastly prefer a compassionate and empathetic ruler on the throne over a technically competent ruler, and gwen’s been around and seen enough of the tragedies visited upon ferelden’s most vulnerable subjects that she trusts her to. you know. be baseline conscientious.

gwen is easier to talk into marrying anora on account of they’re both gay for each other and have been trying to hide it since they were teenagers.

eamon guerrin is big mad if alistair’s not on the throne and that sparks joy

eamon guerrin is big mad if anora’s on the throne, and that sparks joy

eamon guerrin is big mad both at the reminder that not only were both bryce cousland and loghain mac tir more popular than he’ll ever be, their daughters are also individually and collectively more popular than he’ll ever be, and that sparks joy

ferelden’s lesbian queens sparks nothing but outrage for eamon guerrin and nothing but joy for me

the sob story about how rendon howe betrayed the couslands and attempted to murder them all and then kidnapped anora with her father’s permission and locked her away and then gwen cousland murdered the shit out of him to avenge her household and whisked her lady love away to safety played really well for the onlooking crowd of banns. they ate that shit up.

leliana should write a heroic ballad about it

leliana should write a heroic ballad about it and have the final verse resolve “also I’m the mistress to the queens of ferelden now don’t hate me ‘cause you ain’t me"

still undecided what happens to loghain after the landsmeet! well, he’s imprisoned and taken away to be dealt with after the landsmeet, but, like, after that. the options range from “he dies in when fort drakon is overrun during the blight” to “the wardens recruit him over alistair’s protests and so alistair spends the rest of the blight glaring at him across the camp” in terms of hilarity factor.

[sapphim]

Champions of the Just or In Hushed Whispers? Or did your Inquisitor manage both?

¿por qué no los dos?

champions of the just is sadly just objectively a better/more lore friendly/more narratively coherent quest than in hushed whispers. but I also can’t leave fiona and dorian hanging like that ToT

so Alden Trevelyan (the guy what with the glowy hand) and Leliana go recruit the mages while Kataara Adaar (the apostate what will eventually become inquisitor) and Cassandra go ferret out wtf is up with the templars and disband and conscript them.

is alden kind of hoping to find his missing brother among the rebel mages? yes. does alden think dorian has the kind of pretty face that he just can’t say no to? yes. is kataara kind of hoping for an excuse to hit some high-level templars with her staff? yes. did kataara find lucius corin to have a particularly hittable face when they saw him in val royeaux? yes.

[sapphim]

return to ostagar?

I think I slotted in time for return to ostagar between redcliffe and the landsmeet, but like, if there’s any one quest I desperately wish I could take both alistair and loghain on, it’s return to ostagar. maybe I should make up a convenient excuse just to do that. it would be the perfect worst family road trip ever can u imagine. alistair and loghain are both already feeling some sort of extremely complicated way about the battle of ostagar and cailan’s death, but then at the same time standing mere yards away is loghain or alistair also feeling some sort of way about it but like in an antagonistic manner. I don’t think I can justify squeezing the trip in between the landsmeet and the battle of denerim, and I don’t think either alistair or loghain would voluntarily agree to the worst family road trip-slash-impromptu memorial service of all time if they had any choice in the matter whatsoever but. oh man. i crave that.

[sapphim]

Did you choose sloane or reyes in me:a ? (and have you read the nexus uprising book? I loved it)

I haven’t read any of the mass effect tie-in comics or novels

I sided with Sloane (and tbhhhhhhhh bioware did her dirty in how they framed that choice - and the fandom response to both characters was excessively predictable). At least with Sloane, you know exactly what you’re getting. Reyes? Woof. Nah. No idea. No thank you. I don’t need to find out the hard way.

Casper had been flirting with Reyes pretty hard too bc he’s a big gay disaster. Couldn’t do it. I mean, I did save beforehand and play it out once siding with Reyes just to see what would happen before reloading to side with Sloane and, even already knowing that I wasn’t going to stick with that choice, it did not sit particularly well. Casper just isn’t a “stand aside and not warn someone they’re about to be assassinated” kind of guy. RIP to Reyes but he’s different. 😔

[sapphim]

the Broken Circle quest?

oh *places head in hands* oh i haven’t revisited broken circle since i decided to swap rafael from the surana origin to the tabris origin. oh it’s different now that’s so weird. it’s no longer his personal lil psychological torture chamber. oh, arl of redcliffe plays differently with jowan now too. this is what i get for letting spiro and rowan gallivant off into the sunset with anders for the duration of the blight instead of being forced to stick around and reap the consequences of irving’s actions. I’m having a moment wow both these quests vibe so different without raf there.

I guess they... say fuck the templars and... recruit wynne... and that’s it I guess. it’s a perfectly normal quest that no warden is deeply emotionally attached to. wynne still regrets all the life decisions that lead her to horny twentysomething jail.

i feel like the psychological torture that is the tabris origin is a fair trade for the psychological torture that was the surana origin but reading this ask immediately after waking up sure threw me for a loop. it’s just a perfectly unemotionally involved quest now. that’s so weird.

[sapphim]

ive heard it before but id LOVE to hear how eydis became queen of orzammar and also how she handles the blight after her crowning :eyes emoj:

Oh yeah!! Orzammar is a blast because, at the end of everything, considering I moved Orzammar after the Landsmeet, everyone finally gets some insight into why Eydis happens to be Like That jkdjs;s

Cut for length!

So Eydis Aeducan is. Terrible lmfao. She’s privileged and snotty and ruthless and selfish, and was originally created for the purpose of having a Darkest Timeline worldstate. Transplanting her into the multi-warden worldstate has been, transformative. Because going up against some of the personalities of the other wardens, she is actually forced - forced!! - to undergo character growth. Whereas in her solo worldstate where she is free to be as bossy as she likes she learns approximately absolutely nothing whatsoever.

So Eydis is, an expert at playing the stupid games stupid dwarven nobles play. She actually quite respects that Bhelen was able to pull one over on her even though she was aware that he was planning something. He may be a little shithead, but a clever one, apparently. Credit where credit is due.

So when they return to Orzammar, she’s riding the high of having overthrown the government of Ferelden and is absolutely determined to lay claim to the throne that is fucking hers by right, whatever it takes.

Immediately she launches on the offensive. Loudly accuses Bhelen of Trian’s murder and publically cozies up with Harrowmont’s camp, like, “obviously I have lost my caste so you are my option of choice to seek revenge on Bhelen for the deaths of my father and brother and I will support your claim in my father’s name.” Secretly goes to Bhelen like “look, don’t get me wrong on this, fuck you for everything, I don’t forgive you, but you’ve proven you have what it takes to play politics in Orzammar and I won’t let the throne fall out of Aeducan hands, so I’ll double cross Harrowmont to support your claim to the throne.” And then goes back to Harrowmont like, “hey, I told my shitheel brother I’m double crossing you but I’m actually triple crossing him mmkay.” They both know they’re both being played but they can’t quite figure out what her agenda is.

Paragon of Her Kind, blah blah blah. She makes grumpy dissatisfied noises about the group consensus to destroy the anvil, but she’s not gonna, like, fight them. Returns to Orzammar with crown in hand, bursts into the assembly chamber, great big dramatic showboating at length blah blah blah blah and both Bhelen and Harrowmont get the sinking sensation that they should probably stop her before she gets to her point but.

Eydis: And the great magnificent paragon caridin declared that the throne must remain in aeducan hands blah blah blah Bhelen: hopeful :)? Eydis: And said that none are up to the task of ushering in a new age of prosperity other than me blah blah blah Bhelen: >:oc

Yeah so anyway djkld;s they probably should have seen that coming at some point but they were powerless to stop her big dick energy. Eydis claims the throne, Harrowmont begrudgingly backs her. Bhelen and his men try to fight, but they’re swiftly put down and Bhelen is arrested. He’s so sure she’s going to execute him with extreme prejudice but she’s like “but fratricide is wrong dear brother (:” and has him banished to the deep roads instead. jkdjl;s;

Rozi Brosca for her part, has been, excessively anxious this entire time, because it took Eydis a long goddamn time to stop being a total fucking classist bitch to her, and seeing Eydis back in her element she gets, real worried, that she’s just going to revert back to being as awful as ever. But! Eydis is like, idk what you’re so concerned about, after all, you’re my sister in law now and I’ll be grooming our nephew to be my heir, calm down. (: Hey, I said that she’s learning, she’s by no means perfect, but like, one day at a time.

[sapphim]

Priority Rannoch!

man I canNOT think about priority: rannoch without remembering how my roommate at the time full-body yeeted themself across the room to power off the XBox when they failed the reputation check and [SPOILERS SPOILERS]. that paragon interrupt is brutal. had to go all the way back to a save halfway thru me2. what a good quest, tho.

xena shepard started out very paragon and slid increasingly paragade/renegade throughout the course of the trilogy as her field of fucks grew barren. she was about a micrometer from losing her shit with the entire quarian admiralty over their unceasing bullshit so like. good thing she was able to talk them down lmao.

[sapphim]

How did Juniper handle all that remains? What did her partner(s) do to comfort her in the aftermath?

This is a delightful question actually because when Tabitha (my first girl) was my canon Hawke I decided to ignore All that Remains so long ago that I often forget about it completely. (Leandra lives happily, marries Bodahn, becomes viscount, and lives a long life in her beautiful house with her beautiful daughter Bethany and her wife, Merrill) This is because I think the women in refrigerators trope is boring and offensively lazy and I hate that DA2 potentially pulls it twice in a single playthrough with Bethany as well as Leandra.

That said! Rethinking it in the context of Juniper (my worst girl) I’m totally gonna kill Leandra. Gonna cut this for length here.

Juniper has always been her mother’s least favorite child. (Leandra: “I love all my children equally” Leandra, five minutes later: “I don’t care for Juniper”) And I think that rift only worsened over time, so in the immediate aftermath, Juniper actually feels quite a lot of guilt over her mother’s death, as if she hadn’t been so willfully distanced from her and checked in with her more often, she might have been able to prevent it.

All that guilt gets channeled into trying to kick the shit out of Aveline, who she holds substantially more responsible. She has to be dragged out of the viscount’s keep kicking and screaming. Junie already has a pretty rocky relationship with Aveline at that point - she’ll take the mercenary work she offers but they're more, like, acquaintances than friends. Leandra’s death is the final nail in that coffin.

wrt June’s relationships, she’s not particularly renowned for being open or vulnerable, so this would be a big step toward tearing down the walls she has up. Juniper and Isabela have had a casual friends with benefits situation off and on since act 1, but neither of them are ready to admit to themselves that they may have caught feelings for each other until the end of act 2. Isabela’s like “I know there’s nothing really I can do, but I’ll be right here for you” and this might be the first time they really just. quietly exist in the same space without diversions like drinking or gambling or fucking. And, it’s kind of... nice, actually?

Sebastian, as a fellow member of the My Mother, Whom I Feel Conflicted About Because Our Relationship Was Not Simple Or Easy, Was Recently Violently Murdered club, he’d get where her headspace is at better than anyone else. So he’s not gonna come at her with platitudes because he knows those don’t mean anything. He’s like “well I keep saying I’m going to learn to cook and there’s no time like the present” so he helps himself to the estate’s kitchen and busies himself learning favored recipes from Orana and helping her cook. Juniper wouldn’t, like, starve without him, but at the very least it’s something concrete that he can do for her.