Alix Wilton Regan

You know, with the reveal of the official title now, don't you think that this line from the 2020 Behind the Scenes video just got a whole lot more interesting? 👀

"They call me the Dread Wolf, what will they call you when this is over?"

I've sadly seen people interpret this line as him proclaiming his title like some cliché villain going "Look at me. I am the mighty Dread Wolf. Who are YOU to oppose me?".

But what he's basically saying is "I tried to save my people, now look how I'm remembered as the greatest monster in their mythology". As far as we know, Solas was very much the hero of his own story, a mirror to the Inquisitor. So assuming that this line is a response to the new protagonist, now he's asking them "So if that's what happened to me, how will history remember you - the "hero" - when this is over?" (and what does that say for the actions of the new protagonist then? 👀).

The thing is, "Dread Wolf" is not just the game's title now, but a literal title that was "bestowed" on him by his enemies to spread lies and stop the people from joining him. And over the ages, it became a mistranslated one at that. (And btw, whether it's intentional or not, don't you kinda love the irony in that everyone is now making these jokes like "After eight years BioWare has boldly confirmed DA4 is about Solas" or how a lot of people are now concerned that the game will be all about him, when - in the lore - this title was literally false propaganda? 😂).

"I was Solas first. Fen'Harel came later. An insult I took as a badge of pride. The Dread Wolf inspired hope in my friends and fear in my enemies… Not unlike “Inquisitor”, I suppose. You also know the burden of a title that all but replaces your name.”

But that's precisely the point. Solas loathes this title, yet he still chose to use and embrace it and let it fuel his pride and his determination even *after* he, presumably, called himself Pride. The very counterpart of Wisdom in DA and a name that, we can assume, is likely not his first name, if the spirit origin theory turns out to be true.

What does the title "Dreadwolf" truly entail (besides the goddamn anagram thing lol), if the matter of getting Solas to remember his "true name" is actually going to play a big part in the next game?

"We will save our friend from himself... if we can."

If there's any way to stop him other than actually killing him, maybe it won't be Solas himself we have to fight, but figuratively destroy the title that stands for everything that has lead to his tragedy, his pride - his greatest flaw and "the burden of a title that all but replaces your name". And maybe this will be the way to have him remember his true name, his original purpose and in doing so, not only "save our friend from himself", but the world as a whole?

(.........Also, this “April Fools joke” tweet from Alix Wilton Regan (one of the Inquisitor’s VAs) won’t leave my friggin mind and I’m just - )

So what if this wasn’t actually a flippin joke and, with all of this in mind now, what could it meeean??? 😂 I mean, “Dread Wolf” IS just a title.. sooo technically, it can be passed on to anyone or even a whole group of people, right? So.. if Solas does get his true name back, why not just pass the title over then, so that he doesn’t have to bear it anymore. 😂

Whatever it is, it’s getting more and more obvious to me that there’s a deeper meaning and reason behind this title than just “Solas is the Big Bad” and I can’t wait to find out!

The canon queer character of the day is:

Samantha Traynor from Mass Effect 3, who is a lesbian.

Giant Q&A Stream Event to support TEP!

Join some amazing actors and devs for a #DragonAgeDay panel unlike any other. We are simply starstruck by the support! #DragonAge

Join the female (UK) voice of the Inquisitor herself,

ALIX WILTON REGAN,  for a giant Dragon Age Day Q&A stream event!

DATE/TIME: Sunday, Dec. 4 (3pm ET/12pm PT/8pm UK/7am AU time)

Participants will include: Alix Wilton Regan (Alixwiltonregan Insta, Twitter) Ali Hillis (Scout Harding) (https://twitter.com/missalihillis, same on Insta) Jennifer Hale (Krem) (https://twitter.com/jhaletweets, https://instagram.com/jhalegram) Allegra Clark (Josephine) (https://twitter.com/SimplyAllegra, same on Insta) Miranda Raison (Cassandra) Caroline Livingstone (VO Producer Director) (https://twitter.com/CabLivingstone) Karin Weekes (Lead Editor) (https://twitter.com/KarinWeekes) Patrick Weekes (Lead Writer, DA Franchise) (https://twitter.com/PatrickWeekes) John Epler (Creative Director, DA Franchise) (https://twitter.com/eplerjc) David Gaider (Lead Writer, Origins/DA2/Inquisition) Hosted by Ash Sevilla (https://twitter.com/NerdAppropriate)

Help Alix raise money for TEP and celebrate DA Day!

Catch the event at our Twitch channel:  https://www.twitch.tv/unofficialdragonageday

Dragon Age Day is a holiday made by fans for fans and is not officially associated with BioWare

Whooo! Upcoming CDPR character stream with Alt and Rogue! 07.02.2024; 18:00 CET on their Twitch

What is the Inquisitor doing on the Normandy?!

Not quite adaptation, A Nightmare Wakes examines what the process of creating Frankenstein (might have been) like that, while fictional, weaves elements of Shelley's life in so beautifully it transcends the film into vital viewing territory for any Shelley fan.

Niraen: y'know, this is the closest I've been to a Daedric Prince without punching being involved Ithelia: you punch many Daedric Princes? Niraen: oh yeah, I've got a list

Tarot: The Lovers

i was lucky enough to attend the phantom liberty launch party tonight in london and ??? my heart is so FULL, i've been a little distant from cyberpunk things lately but i know tuesday is gonna wreck me emotionally and i can't wait to be back in night city 🖤

"Oh, but you know the truth, right?”   *sarcastic af*

                —Nomaris Lavellan

From the Axe of Green Edges weapon description: One of the last Emerald Knights alive after the exalted march destroyed the elven Dales, Nomaris famously lodged his axe in the tree he had planted in the Emerald Graves, saying, "Let it remain here until my people are free, to mark my soul, which shall never rest."

Aya in Assassins Creed Origins voiced by Alix Sophie Wilton Regan

if you missed the live N7 Day 2023 cast reunion panel, the rewatch link is here.

here are some notes on trivia and other bits of particular interest from the panel, under a cut due to length –

An audition D.C. Douglas did for Legion can be listened to here. he said it's quite different to what you may expect. He also mentioned an audition for Legion where he was given a eulogy to read and the voice direction from BioWare was that they were looking for something like HAL 9000 but with a little more emotion.

D.C. said on Legion's death scene[s], "it's the innocent emotion coming through" "but with the intellectual understanding of the macro".

Alix Wilton Regan originally auditioned for EDI, didn't get it and then was called back for Sam. BioWare were like "[Sam]'s really London"; AWR was like "I'm from London, I got this, I can do London". months later she was recording for Sam, saw lines for EDI coming up and wondered "who was the woman that got the role of EDI?" when she heard EDI's voice, she was like "omg, she's so hot, yeah I totally get it, I had a real life crush on her in the booth playing Sam, who had a crush on her in the game. I was like 'ohh.. now I get it, I hear it, I see what went on in casting'".

some of the earliest stuff Mark Meer did in ME was a lot of demo stuff, like figuring out how various alien species would sound. BioWare brought him in very early on, during the concept art stages. this is what he was working on for BioWare and then they 'basically upgraded him'. He did a presentation for BioWare demoing how a typical salarian could sound, how a typical krogan would sound, etc, and during this presentation BW had him do some scratch dialogue as a salarian bartender. there was a scene where the bartender was talking to Shepard, who Mark was also voicing during the scene, so he was basically talking to himself. during this process BioWare said that they would like him to audition for the role of m Shepard. "After call backs etc, the rest is history". when BW told Mark, oh btw, f Shepard is played by Jennifer Hale, Mark was super thrilled. "It was like being told the other person in the dual role was Meryl Streep or something".

when Ali Hillis got the role of Liara, at that time she was with her first voiceover agent. Liara's voice in the games is pretty similar to the voice Ali first came up with for her for the audition. they also gave Liara a bit of a mid-Atlantic accent in the first game.

Ash Sroka auditioned for the roles of Liara, Tali and one other character. for the Tali read, she was given a long monologue about Tali's Pilgrimage. she left the booth thinking that if she didn't get the part it was okay, because she'd gotten to read this beautiful monologue and really feel that character. she felt an instant alignment with Tali.

for Grunt's audition, Steve Blum pitched his voice as deep as he could. BioWare said to him that they were going to be pitching Grunt's voice down in post-processing, so he didn't have to do that, but he couldn't help himself and did it anyway. he said that Grunt is a "half-ton child" and self-described as a half-ton child, so things worked out really well. he also mentioned that "it helped me personally, because I'm emotionally under-developed and Grunt is a baby so it was some nice free paid therapy for me, and the fact that people actually responded to it was a bonus, it's kind of amazing".

William Salyers didn't realize he was being brought in to take over the role of Mordin in ME3. he'd been sent audio references and knew that this was a species found throughout the game, and thought that the character he'd be doing was going to be like an assistant or something. the first day in the booth, BW asked him "do you think you can do the match [match the ME2 voice]?" and he was like "I don't know what you're talking about but yes". William was in ME2 as 'Incidental voices' and felt rly fortunate to 'graduate' to Mordin in ME3. when recording Mordin's death-redemption scene in ME3, he & the voice director were both in tears.

for the voice direction in ME1, BW wanted it to feel like an episode of 24 - they didn't want dialogue lines being like screamed or yelled out like they were in a lot of games from around that time. it was supposed to be much more realistic and human in feel.

when developing Kaidan's voice, BW asked Raphael Sbarge to speak to a stickie note on the wall, because they wanted it to feel like there's a sort of sense of the military, that cadence that comes from really speaking to someone else in a directed way.

Shepard and ME have a very special place in Jennifer Hale's heart

a submitted question from the community asked Mark and Jennifer how their perception of Shepard evolved throughout the trilogy. Mark said that the way it was explained to him by BW was that, as they went, they had a little more leeway in Shepard in showing the toll the war was taking on them. "We also got to watch Shepard develop these relationships with the characters in the games. These were their closest friends, their true companions through all of this." this made it possible to sort of humanize Shepard more and more as the series progressed. Shep starts out very by the books regardless of paragon/renegade etc, they're very military, an officer, they're used to giving orders and used to being under pressure. and especially by the time they got to ME3, it was now like, "now you can show a little bit more vulnerability, now you can show a crack in the shell a little bit, especially after the events of ME2 where Shepard literally dies and was resurrected, what does that do to a person?" Mark mentioned that he thinks this is common to all versions of Shepard. by the time you get to ME3 there's a real sense of getting "past the armor, emotionally and spiritually". Jennifer agreed and added that the way voice acting was done in video games also developed over the years from ME1-ME3. by ME3 it was more done in the way like how you would shoot a film, that kind of acting.

Jennifer mentioned that both she and Shep are really freakin stubborn

on Next Mass Effect:

a submitted comment from the community said "Hopefully we get to see or hear you again taking part in the continuation of the Mass Effect story in any way." Jennifer replied "yes, I vote yes to all that".

Ali talked about the moment she discovered Liara was going to be in the next ME. "I have a couple of friends who are close friends and really big ME fans. Usually they're the first ones to alert me of anything ME before I ever see it in the trades, online, on socials etc". she clicked on the link to the trailer she was sent "and I was like.. wait.. what? I think I was just looking at the link and then had to play it again, and then probably like a lot of you I tried to zoom in on it and look at it, like is that...?"

here D.C. said "Um, asking as the voice of an entire species [the geth], do you, you didn't know anything?" Ali said "No, I had no idea, do we ever? I think as we all know, seeing something like that is no guarantee of anything. I was like, is that Liara? Liara's daughter? Liara's mother? is that back in time, is that forward in time? I know as much as anyone, but it was really shocking. like when you were a kid on your birthday and there's a big wrapped present from your parents and you don't know what it is. I know as much as you guys, your guess is as good as mine."

Mark: "As far as what I'm looking forward to, there are endless possibilities. Again as Ali said we, we know about as much as you know, so it could go anywhere. past, future, who can say? Are we gonna see, is this gonna be the First Contact War? is this gonna be far in the far future? where could we go? The Codex is very big as those who have spent ingame time reading it know and that's a very well thought out and fleshed out universe, so the possibilities are endless".

Jennifer: "Just to add to that, what I always tell everybody in the community is email [BioWare] and tell them what you want. they don't know if you don't tell them. telling us doesn't, we appreciate it so much but it actually won't get anything done."

Raphael: "If you feel strongly, we would encourage you to speak up [on that]".

a submitted question from the community asked the cast what they're most excited to see in the next game. AWR: "We're most excited to to see us in the next game, right [winking theatrically]". the cast were all like 'yeah' and nodding and AWR said "emails, emails, emails".

D.C: "The poster, the teaser poster that they put out for Mass Effect 5 shows what looks to be a crater and the outline of Legion and it looks like there's a little dead geth in that poster, so all I know is, and I am the voice of all geth, so."

[source]

Me: *trying to escape the dragon age brainrot by playing the new eso chapter*

Main character in the main storyline: *is voiced by Alix Wilton Regan*

Me:.....there is literally no escape is there