Honestly something that really affected my view of Varric (and again, I say this with great love for the character) was playing my Terrible Hawke, Emilia, who ends the game an absolute anti-mage fanatic who believes that magic is a curse and it was a blessing that the Maker called Bethany back to His side before she could fall to demons. She is a Hawke who is mainly diplomatic, well-spoken, respected, and absolutely unhinged in her views on magic. She is the Viscount of Kirkwall, and by the time she comes to the Inquisition she's also taken Chantry vows and become an actual templar (after having practiced the discipline off the books for years). She singlehanded kept Kirkwall under Chantry control after Meredith's death. She slaughtered every mage to a one, even the ones who surrendered.

She's Varric's best friend. And he's just as starry-eyed about her in Inquisition as he is about any other Hawke. I love what a deeply unsettling side of Varric that is to see.

She's the best. She's a hero. She saved his city.

I'm sure it's fanon that the Warden-Commander must make the most random non-sequitur comments about their Origins Love Interest during Awakening or what's the point???

Marzel missing his witchy lover. Everyone then played 'Shape-shifted mage' or 'Actual Giant Spider WTF Commander'.

when your party banter gets cut off because your requisition agent has nothing to report

So in my first play through of Dragon Age: Origins, I accidentally left Sten in the cage in Lothering and never really got to know him as a character. Well, now I'm finally replaying it, and I must say that Sten has stolen my heart, and I was absolutely devastated to find out that I couldn't romance him.

Have you seen the Dragon Age news?

YEAH! I had a few DMs about it and I'm so excited that the game is officially named! One step closer to getting the actual physical copy in my hands.

I mean, I have mixed feelings about the actual name, but we ALL knew that he was going to play a huge part of the next game, so I'm not even a little surprised. But I will not be calling it DAD 😂 that would destroy me. I'm just going to have to use the whole name or DA4. I am loving that half the Dragon Age tag is just dad jokes right now though. Bioware had to know what they were doing.

still absolutely losing my mind over Lilia

say what i do about blackwall but the whole bit where the two of you fuck in the stables and then he fucking vanishes into the night is incredibly funny

Surana and Jowan :^)

playing da2 for the first time (my first dragon age game ever) and I’m having so much fun rotating Fenris around in my mind

At the end of the day you can use "Varric is an unreliable narrator" to overwrite literally any part of DA2 that you don't like. Like you can say, "Oh of COURSE Varric isn't actually against mage freedom! He just said that he objected to Hawke freeing the mages because Cassandra was interrogating him." And sure, I can't prove to you that he isn't lying about that. I can't prove to you that Varric isn't lying about anything. I can't prove to you that the entirety of Inquisition isn't also Varric making things up because he did also write a book about that and we hear Cassandra reading it in the end credits. At the end of the day if you want to you can basically wipe out Varric's entire character as presented to us and say, "Actually he was lying! He's really this."

But at a certain point you do also have to acknowledge that the frame narrative is a storytelling device that's meant to enhance the story, not like... erase it. Or at least I prefer to acknowledge that, because going too far the other way basically guts the story of all meaning. If Varric is a character we are meant to engage with on any level--and I think it's clear from his prominence in the franchise that he is!--then at least some of what we see him say and do needs to be able to meaningfully interpreted, even if we second-guess him, even if we can pick out half-truths here and there, even if we cross-check our interpretations against how he behaves in other parts of canon.

Like at least some of what we're given about Varric has to be meaningful to his character, or why even bother, I guess is what I'm saying.

The (literal) virgin Warden vs chad Warden-Commander.

My initial experience going from Origins to Awakening. 😎 Oh I'm sure I'll get my butt handed to me as I progress further but for now I'm savoring my OP-ness.

are people out there genuinely shocked that dragon age, a series that consistently has a new hero, is going to have a new hero? 😭 y’all it’s been like that every game....

VILLAGE OF HAVEN / 9:41 DRAGON

What is your preferred order of operations for the DA: Origins quests?

After some initial frustrations with Redcliffe, following my departure from Lothering, I loaded an earlier save and decided to tackle the Circle Tower to recruit Wynne first for the heals. I’m debating whether I want to try and tackle Redcliffe again after that, or if I want to recruit the rest of the companions before heading there.

I usually do them in this order.

Circle Tower

Redcliffe

Denerim

Brecillian Forest

Orzammar

Redcliffe (completed)

I don’t like part of the Circle mission, so I like to get it out of the way so I don’t have to worry about it later lol

Anybody who is complaining about how gay "Dragon Age: Absolution" is has clearly never played the games. Even if you play the main characters as straight, there's absolutely no way to avoid LGBT content.

Just to name a few examples:

Oghren's wife left him and has a woman for a lover when you're tasked to track her down.

Leliana, a bisexual character, tells you that she loved her mentor, who is another woman.

Isabela's very open with her bisexuality, stating she's been with both men and women.

If you romance Zevran as a woman, he tells you about his sexual history, stating "My history is varied, and it's not limited strictly to women".

There's a rumor that Empress Celene had an elven lover, Briala, which turns out to be true.

Dorian's personal quest is about him being gay and refusing to "play the part and marry the girl, keeping anything unsavory hidden and locked away".

And that's all from the top of my head. If you have more to add, then please do so.

old zevwarden doodle i completely forgot about but still really like