0:00 - 0:40 = Preamble
0:41 - 1:25 = Fenris consoles Hawke
1:26 - 7:20 = Last Resort for Good Men
7:21 - 16:52 = Mother.
16:53 - 28:04 = Finding Solas
28:05 - 28:19 = Outro
I definitely didn't forget DAday was a thing until last night...
But yes, I really wanted to do something extra today, and I didn't have too much time to do it. So, here's a few of my favourite scenes from Dragon Age (I couldn't include everything I wanted, we'd be here all day).
So, explanations.
4 - Fenris Consoles Hawke
The consolation scene after Hawke's mother's death always hit pretty hard, since I've had to deal with being on both sides of that kind of situation (not with a parent, but over the last 5 or so years of my life, let's say I'm not unfamiliar with loss/grief, and how lost/powerles it makes you feel). I just really appreciate this scene, particularly with Fenris, because it reminds me of a similar situation I've had with my boyfriend, and it's oddly comforting to be reminded that it's okay to not have it all together, to know that it's not enough and to feel like you're to blame somehow, and be reminded through this character that no, sometimes life is hard, but at least you have someone to get you through it.
tldr: it's just incredibly touching to me.
3 - Last Resort for Good Men
I loved it. Dorian is a fantastic character, and I just want to say it's pretty sad how some people do just see Dorian as the sassy gay friend in the series, when he's got so much more going on (smart, snarky, ignorant, brave - this guy left his country to go south - where no one will like/trust him, perhaps even harm him - just because it was the right thing to do).
So this quest happened, and it broke my heart a bit. I don't want to go into any details, but I get it? Like, he loves his father, clearly, and his father loves him, and both of them want to mend this broken bond between them, and it's hard- you might argue impossible. But it felt so visceral to see this kind of situation handled with so much nuance and understanding, and I appreciate both the fact that it was Dorian affirming that he's gay, but that shouldn't be this whole thing if it's not anyone's business, but to have it forced on him as a label (and painted in a negative light, too), it's raw and it just hurts knowing what that feels like, and then the fact that they don't paint Dorian's father as some sneering homophobe - and they could have easily done it, but they gave the situation depth and heart. It's just a father and son, struggling with themselves, with each other, and with how the world portrays them, and the mistakes they've made. It was a beautiful and heartbreaking quest.
tldr: onions have layers.
2 - Mother.
Okay. Seeing how far Morrigan has come, slayed me. Morrigan as a mother is just the perfect lead through in her character arc. "I am many things, but I will never be the mother you were to me", this woman broke my heart. The voice acting, the writing, the whole thing was just *chef kiss*. Obviously, there's a lot to unpack with implications of the Old Gods, and Flemeth, and Mythal, and all of that, but to focus on this dynamic of mother and daughter.
To see a character like Morrigan, who's biggest fear I'd argue is her mother, or becoming like her at least, love someone (and consequentially love herself) so much to break that cycle of abuse, insofar as self-destruction, just makes me so proud of her. It makes me cry every single time, and it definitely throws Flemeth off with what she says.
She's come so far, she's grown as a person and she's better for it. I love these games so damn much.
tldr: breaking the cycle of abuse is neat
1 - Finding Solas
So trespasser was an amazing dlc, and Solas was (is) an amazing character, and the romance was *dies*.
There's a lot I could say, but the long and short of it is I'm a hopeless solasmancer.
I think what I love most is the fact that a game told me "no" when I wanted to do something.
Like, it adds so much to Solas, the fact he's doing what he's doing, and he loved you so terrible, but he's completely unwilling to drag you down with him, or to go so far as to use you. He absolutely could have, but it adds so much depth to his character the fact that he tells you no, especially when you read things like The Masked Empire and The Missing, and you know how far he's willing to go to reach his endgoal.
But also, this aspect of teaching players that 'no, sometimes you can't love someone hard enough that it makes everything better'. Life doesn't work like that, people don't work like that. Some things can't be fixed, and it's not your fault, it's just the way things are sometimes. It's gratifying to get that message from a game that is so heavy on it's romances. ("no, this isn't a 'I'll have that one please', that's not how real people work, and I love that they did this, it just grounds the story so well).
I'll still romance him canonically, though, because it hurts in all the best ways.
tdlr: i like his shiny head