isabela is fenris' zevran to me. like what zevran was to isabela is what isabela is to fenris.
isabela was this v young person who was looking down the barrel of a lifetime of misery dictated by being under the thumb of someone who viewed her as an object to control, and her attempts at thrashing free weren't rly accomplishing much. then comes zevran. he teaches her how to defend herself, he's presumably the first sexual partner she has who seems to genuinely matter to her (evidenced by their years-long friendship), and he's the one who assassinates luis and then gives her two of his knives before she leaves. zevran cares abt her wellbeing in a way that isn't abt a transaction.
two options here: first one is, zev scoops up the contract bela takes out on luis' life REAL fast after either convincing eoman to let him bid for it or just of his own accord as not even a master. he, taliesen, and rinna are by that time an established trio, but only zevran is mentioned as having been involved in luis' assassination. i think that's an interesting thing to play around with if you land on the side of 'isabela out-antiva'd luis.' all of this has to happen prior to zevran completely losing it in the wake of rinna's death and the reveal that he and taliesen were manipulated into doing it seemingly for no reason.
maybe luis had gotten on the crows' bad side somehow so it wasn't a big deal! however this is incredibly unlikely to me bc he was close w claudio valisti, who is talon of house valisti and the person who made the deal w eoman to have rinna taken out by arainai crows in exchange for house arainai once more becoming a talon rather than a cuchillo. yes i am playing incredibly fast and loose w the comics bc some of it is interesting to me but i have zero interest in engaging w the actual plot of the silent grove even a little bit. lore rather than canon. like alistair is not king in my worldstate. stay with me.
second option is that zevran kills luis on the house, as it were. that's a significant risk for him to take, i think, esp given luis' status as a wealthy merchant and crucially, someone w an existing business relationship w the crows.
isabela claims both of these options as the truth to varric and a romanced hawke, respectively, and why she does that is also smth to consider.
anyway whenever she and zevran meet up it's clear there's a lot of fondness and established intimacy, but they also don't get serious w each other. there's some ribbing under which there is a badly hidden undercurrent of 'you're my best friend.' for both of them, years-long relationships that are positive seem incredibly rare. but they'd rather express that by being silly, tho notably zevran always plays the part of effusively adoring lover and isabela the dry, witty skeptic. 'ah, isabela, i did so miss you' vs 'that's bc you've got piss-poor aim.'
so that's isabela and zevran.
fenris, meanwhile, is freshly free and learning how to flex his agency after a lifetime (both the one he can remember and the one he can't) of largely being unable to do that. suddenly there's this wildly hot and independent and worldly woman who's comfortable w sex as well as violence and doesn't need a firm commitment in exchange for intimacy, and she's flirting w him. she's not scared to talk abt the things other ppl find frightening or awkward or maybe, at least certainly from his perspective, shameful abt who he is. she's direct the way he is — but she's able to be playful abt it, too.
fenris recognizes in isabela, however often she laughs him off, a heroic streak. by act 2, they have an extremely comfortable rapport. by act 3, if neither of them are romanced, they start sleeping together. that's a solid decade (or close to it?? i can't keep the da2 time range straight tbh) of building trust, being able to both bring up difficult or painful topics w each other and then deescalate if needed; learning how to signal to the other when a boundary is approaching and how to signal that the message has been received, they're backing off; and just being friends without needing hawke as a buffer.
while the game is occasionally clumsy abt this, they seem to genuinely care v much abt the other's wellbeing — isabela in particular is like hey you can come be a pirate w me, just say the word. she's the one with the resources to help this time even if those resources are limited.
i think zevran, as someone who at the time was trapped in his own cage, saw in isabela this person who deserved so much better than the hand she got dealt, so much so that he stuck his neck out for her without asking anything in return. without dictating the terms of the relationship at all!. i don't think he's ever the one to initiate sex, actually, i'm p sure she's always the one who brings it up. if that's not right, then i can at least say w confidence that most of the time, that's the pattern. that can be, i think, interpreted as zevran understanding what isabela needs re: intimacy, i.e. she is in control.
and i think isabela sees fenris and is like this person never smiles. this person has been so miserable for so long. and she pokes and prods bc she's curious, but she's playful. and fenris is someone who rly badly wants to be playful, i think. his dry little aside abt dancing thru his mansion captivates me. he's someone who wants to practice having agency until he's not so much practicing anymore as just having it. so when he indicates to isabela to tone it down for real, she does — but when he entertains her silliness, even abt vulnerable and heavy subjects, he seems to genuinely enjoy himself.
isabela lets fenris kind of set the terms of their intimacy. she might tease him, but he gets to take the lead on a lot of it in terms of actual action.
like zevran is a safe person with whom isabela as a rly wobbly, scared person could playact at being confident and sexy and deadly until that's just who she is. isabela is a safe person with whom fenris can test out being someone whose life is not completely subsumed w tragedy, somebody who can be teased without that meaning no one takes him seriously anymore, somebody who gets to be a person — all that + being a person someone like isabela would be interested in.
and absolutely none of this means that fenris gets why isabela likes zevran so much, and if he ever noticed this parallel, he would be mortified. and zevran is sooooooooooooo nice to him (while still continuing a casual sexual relationship w bela), and fenris, who understands that also having a sexual relationship w bela doesn't mean monogamy, is mainly irritated that every so often this fucking guy shows up and acts like the funniest person at the dinner table.
pixelskylines
germansingergirl
theartofmadeline
baratheonpilled
andulkaphoto
yousharknotpass
kaledo-art
