We Finally Semi-officially Got The Confirmation For Which Tattoo Stands For Which Faction, Thanks To

I see halla-coded Lavellans and wolf/predator-coded Lavellans everywhere — and I love them! I love all of you!

Today I wanna talk about shepherd-coded Lavellan. The one who wanders, guarding her flock. Because she has so many people she loves, and who love her in return, but they don't understand. Not the way she does, seeing what she has seen. Looking the Dread Wolf in his eyes, watching him turn away, every line of his form cusping on turning back, coming back, coming back.

They are her flock, and so she must tend to them. Not because the shepherd is worth more than the sheep, but because their roles are different. Without them, she would not be herself.

But no shepherd is a shepherd without the wolf, either. The shepherd may guard her flock, but that is not where her eye must remain more often than not.

Always, the shepherd must watch the shadowed treeline. Always, she must await the wolf. It is her purpose: to be of use to her sheep, she must turn away from them, again and again and again, to watch for the monstrous. To warn them away.

To convince the fanged beast, whether with word or weapon, not to attack.

To be the shepherd is to be the in-between, as inextricable from the flock as from the wolf. And, if she does her job well, the sheep will never understand why she watches for threats that never seem to befall them.

But the wolf—the wolf will always know.

Galadriel is having a hard time getting over the breakup 💔

actually. 🫷😀🫸 THOUGHTS ON AVELINE

i think aveline is a CORE da2 character, and her relationship with hawke is super super interesting. she’s hawke’s oldest friend in the game & by act 3, maybe the only enduring connection to their homeland & childhood besides the mabari. her voice, her bearing, her stated values are all very noble & movingly fereldan—but her actions both as guard captain & as a party member should be so profoundly disappointing to hawke almost no matter how you play them, which generates a powerful tension. imo it’s really poignant and adds a lot to the game’s central tragedy.

because how can hawke cut her off! but look at how she behaves: ignoring the serial killing & sexual assault of isolated older women and elf girls, baiting the arishok, slut shaming isabela, condescending to merrill. but how can they cut her off? the question is a privilege and a torment!

in this way i think she strikingly complements gamlen. like no matter what gamlen does and says to you, your love interest, leandra, the surviving hawke twin—he’s family and the only way into kirkwall. hawke is not permitted to sever those ties. and no matter what aveline does and says to you and all the women in your party, she remains your oldest friend and the only way back to ferelden, emotionally.

both aveline & gamlen will maintain a warm relationship with hawke as long as hawke tolerates their picking on those in proximity to hawke—but if hawke pushes back with aggressive dialogue options, both will tone match and became sour and hostile. aveline can be really quite awful to a red hawke, and will throw them to the ground and beat them at 100% rivalry. so there’s kind of an underlying challenge in both of these characters: how much will hawke, as gang leader & player character, put up with when it’s not directed at them?

of course, for all the nostalgia that seems to occlude av’s wrongdoings in kirkwall, she’s not really a childhood friend of hawke’s. she was a grown woman when they met, lothering was lost, and the moment was pretty heated thanks to aveline’s hostile templar husband.

and yet hawke is no more reliable & objective in their treatment of the past than varric is. and aveline is what they have! she’s standing in for all of ferelden, all of the past before the blight!

and likewise hawke for her! hawke is the only one left in act 3 who remembers wesley! aveline is the only one who remembers the dead hawke twin!

and as reprehensible as some of her decisions are, aveline’s grief for wesley and her enmity toward the old corrupt guard captain are sympathetic and her voice is sexy and husky and beautiful enough that. well im sorry i just lost the plot for a minute. uh

there’s also the act 3 subplot of the templars trying to take over the city guard, which sets up aveline as the only thing standing between kirkwall’s mages & absolute templar authority in the city. it’s literally her or cullen at his most brainwashed & violent. (to cullen’s credit he also thought it was a bad idea. but i won’t give him so much credit that i believe he’d turn down the position if aveline was removed.) between a knight-commander and a hard place, a pro-mage hawke has to choose the hard place.

so both of my playthroughs i’ve felt like hawke’s friendship with her is at the very least strained, if not completely ruptured, but they have to back her. how much that feels like fucking sandpaper may vary from hawke to hawke.

ultimately i just think she brings a lot to the table. i don’t necessarily understand why she’d be anyone’s all time #1 favorite companion, but you know.

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON – Season Two

Thinking about how the leader of the Shadow Dragons is called The Viper. Thinking about how Dorian’s clothing and all three of his tarot cards have a viper on them. Thinking about how in the gameplay trailer a friend told Varric that Shadow Dragons are people he wants to know. Thinking about how Dorian returned to his home to fight against the oppressive system he benefited from for so long and how the Shadow Dragons fight that same system

there’s something so beautiful about the wolf/halla symbolism of Solavellan. the game is constantly beating us over the head that wolves are considered Dalish guardians. not only does Solas watch over the Inquisitor when they’re unconscious after closing the first major rift, he fights with them, dines with them. a romanced Solas continues to watch over the Inquisitor when they sleep long after he breaks off the relationship. they have an unbreakable bond and there’s just something remarkably beautiful and heartbreaking about that 😭 I love them so much. I’ll never not be over them

M.L.Rio, “If We Were Villains.”

DRAGON AGE: AWAKENING (2010) ↳ the turnoble estate

Dragon Age Worldstate: All Their Words For Glory

Lyrics references: Marja Aeducan: Yellow Flicker Beat - Lorde Darvis Brosca: Thank God I'm Not You - The Himalayas Thalia Hawke: Nightmare - Halsey Genevieve Amell-Trevelyan: Youth - Daughter

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