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chalkrevelations · 3 years

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WELL. Episode 3 of Word of Honor.

First of all: If you are NEW or JUST VISITING, this is a re-watch, so there are SPOILERS not just for this ep, but for the ENTIRE SHOW. A lot of them, actually. Scroll away and come back later if you haven’t seen all 36.5 eps and want to watch it unspoiled.

So, this ep feels a little disjointed. I don’t think it actually is, not in the way the back nine are a speedrun where the writing starts to feel like it’s thisclose to coming off the rails, but it feels like it, in that we’re now getting a double handful of threads thrust at us that are only just starting to be woven together into a plot, and it’s the kind of hot mess that any fiberwork looks like before the pattern starts to show itself, particularly when you’re using 15 different color threads from jump. There’s generally a major theme or issue or overriding concept that stands out to me in each ep that, you may have noticed, gets primacy of place in these reactions, but honestly, y’all, I really struggled to figure out what that might be for this episode, because a lot of this, on re-watch, strikes me as groundwork for later developments. Wen Kexing gives us an “as you know, Bob” speech about the Amory and the Glazed Armor, we meet approx. 3.2K new characters, and I feel sort of like I should start keeping a chart of who’s supposed to have a piece of the Glazed Armor and who actually does have a piece of the Glazed Armor, but it’s already so confusing that it might be too late.*

ANYWAY, on re-watch, I can absolutely see the value of spending Eps 1 & 2 on introducing us to Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing and getting us pulled into their orbit, because then we have scenes we’re already invested in to maintain our interest as the background politics begin to frustratingly play out with a bunch of people we don’t know or have any investment in yet. I mean, y’all. I forgot just what an ill-tempered gremlin ZZS was in these early eps. He is so fk’n put out that these people will not let him drink himself to death in the gutter in peace! Or, you know, in occasional Nightly Nails Torment. And the exasperation from both ZZS and Chengling over WKX’s antics – both of their faces are priceless in the scene when they discover he’s the one who’s bought out all the rooms at the inn. I literally lol’d. Again. Even knowing it was coming. All of this interaction is so delightful. This is actually the ep that provoked my very first WoH keysmash flailing Tumblr post and inaugurated the “wen kexing’s thirst is practically a third character” tag. I guess the biggest throughline for this ep is that we can continue to see how everything changes when we know about their previous relationship – things like WKX’s insistence that they have a “deep bond through fate” take on additional layers of meaning rather than just sounding like some dude who’s trying to pick you up at last call. Interesting that ZZS describes WKX at one point during their push-pull conversational dance as “like a wretched soul that keeps haunting around.” You mean, like a GHOST? Like a Ghost Valley ghost? Like the almost forgotten memory of a past life ghost? ZZS wants to know why WKX keeps following him around, and it would be nice if WKX would just come clean, but that would be too easy, wouldn’t it?

ZZS, re: Chengling: I do my best to ensure what was entrusted to me.

WKX: :makes (already! in ep 3!) yet another in a series of bad decisions not to say anything about the fact that he, himself, was in fact entrusted to ZZS:

Show: Here’s the first of many helpings of heartache to come. EAT IT. EAT IT ALL.

(Me: Well, here’s another AU idea: What would the course of this relationship be like if WKX flat-out asked ZZS what ZZS’s relationship to Four Seasons Manor was, and bare-faced claimed sanctuary as long-lost shidi Zhen Yan at this point? Because I bet there are plenty of ways that could actually go wrong. Not to mention the deliciousness of just watching them navigate a relationship shift that sudden. I feel like, at this point, WKX would have to be actively confrontational about it, would have to throw it in ZZS’s face – it would need to be something he did in the heat of anger, in order to have this pushed out past all of his fears. Like, you say that, but where were you when I needed you? Also, you think so, well what if your responsibility actually turned out to be the TERRIFYING GHOST VALLEY MASTER, what then, huh? And ZZS, still pretty actively suicidal over all of his failures, having to deal with what’s now being presented as YET ANOTHER FAILURE.)

Also, the theme of “knowing” (zhiji, the one I know) is starting to slide in sideways – we’re seeing a lot of back and forth between them asking about seeing the other’s “true face.” WKX says that he’ll tell ZZS what he (WKX) wants from him once he gets to see ZZS’s true face (LIES, it’s going to take a lot longer than that). ZZS asks to see WKX’s figurative true face, and WKX looks kind of sad and contemplative as he warns that it may be unappealing or terrifying. So, you know, we’re starting to poke at all the softest, most tender places and the issues that are going to stab me repeatedly in the heart for the rest of the show. We’re also already seeing the way Xiao Chu just layered in references throughout the script when she wrote it that call back to each other – it’s like almost any line of dialogue references three other lines of dialogue (and that’s without even getting into all of the literary references that I’m missing because I don’t have cultural context). You get things like WKX’s little speech right at the end that it’s hard to tell a ghost from a human, which on its face might be referring to the two “ghosts” that were coming for Chengling that he took care of and act as an admonishment to ZZS not to be so quick to assume they’re actually from Ghost Valley, but it also refers to WKX, himself, and specifically lays the groundwork (“someone wearing a ghost mask is not necessarily a ghost”) for his conversation in a later ep with ZZS when he asks if ZZS thinks he’s a good person, and also calls back (“someone who looks human may not be human”) to the line from earlier in this ep, itself, when WKX tells ZZS that perhaps WKX’s true face is terrifying. And so we get a nicely little wrapped package of the dichotomy of WKX and his issues. (As a somewhat related aside, A-Xiang’s little face when Zhou Zishu says all of the ghosts of Ghost Valley are full of evil (at 6:55). D: This reaction is obviously for herself, but also may be the first time she acts as proxy for Wen Kexing, as well.)

What else, what else?

So, nobody has a good opinion of the jianghu. WKX is going to be constantly all, “You killed my father, jianghu, prepare to die,” but ZZS also goes off about how it’s just about greed, hatred and ignorance, and yeah, I guess he’d have a pretty bad impression of it, when Prince Jin and Tian Chuang seemed like a better option than the pressure he was facing, trying to keep Siji Manor Sect alive back in the day. We talk a lot about WKX’s childhood trauma, because it’s so awful and right in our faces, but I don’t know how much we actually talk about the fact that ZZS was a teenager not much older than Chengling when he inherited a sect and tried desperately to keep it from being torn apart by the rest of the jianghu. I think we see some bitterness come out in the first few episodes – frankly, in this ep, he doesn’t seem to make much of a distinction between Ghost Valley and the rest of the jianghu. Also interesting that the metaphor he uses about the jianghu’s and Ghost Valley’s greed for the treasures of the Armory is “reaping without sowing,” given what we find out is actually in there in Ep 36.

We see our metaphor of light get pulled out again – this throughline strikes me as more like beads on a string than a thread, at this point, but maybe I’ll notice it more on this second time through … Anyway, WKX’s comment at 9:11 that it’s almost dawn is notable. Indeed, but is it because your plan is beginning to work and you can see the destruction of Ghost Valley and the jianghu coming down the pike, or is it because you’ve found your shixiong?

I notice WKX has color-coordinated ZZS and Chengling in the robes he bought for them, has already grouped them together, marked them as belonging to each other – he’s already subtly treating them as each other’s family. The show, with a particular lack of subtlety, also will have ZZS there to wake up Chengling from nightmares later in the end of the ep, as Chengling calls out for his dad in his sleep.

OK, Deng Kuan is the guy in charge of the Yueyang sect contingent that arrived in time to see the Mirror Lake chaos in Ep 2 and has taken charge of cleaning up the bodies in this ep. I actually overlooked him, pretty much, the first time around, but here, he’s already got Shen Shen yelling at him (in a completely ridiculous fashion) for not getting there in time to save the Mirror Lake Sect, so he’s just going to be a punching bag through the whole show, apparently. Shen Shen is wu-di, fifth (little) brother, and he refers to Chengling’s dad as si-ge, fourth (older) brother, so Shen Shen appears to be the youngest of the Five Lakes sworn brothers, leading me to believe that some of what makes him so insufferable through a lot of the show is baby brother syndrome. Also, Shen Shen and his group find the Soul Winding Threads of the Hanged Ghost … supposedly. I mean, the Hanged Ghost was the guy who we saw get got in Ep 1, soooooo …. (remember these Soul Winding Threads, btw).

*This got super long so I’m’a put this last bit under a cut, but I did try to start a running tally of who’s holding a piece of the Glazed Armor:

Each of the Five Lakes Alliance sects is supposed to have a piece of the Glazed Armor, yes? So, as of the end of Ep 3 (hierarchical bro-titles are from didi Shen Shen’s POV):

- Yueyang Sect, led by Gao Chong (da-ge) - presumably still has his

- Tai Hu Sect, led by Zhao Jing (er-ge) – presumably still has his

- Danyang Sect, led by Lu Taichong (san-ge, presumably) – apparently the sect has already been attacked off-screen (by “Ghost Valley?” and WHEN?), as we learn in Ep 3 that Lu-zongzhu has been killed and his remaining two tiny disciples have fled to the protection of Ao Laizi and Tai Shan Sect, one of the lesser sects, and are believed to have taken Danyang’s Glazed Armor with them. We learn this from Tao Hong, Lv Liu and Begger Gang Chief, but I notice that Gao Chong only mentions the Mirror Lake massacre as the precipitating event for the Hero’s Conference and total war on Ghost Valley – he doesn’t even mention Danyang Sect, so does Five Lakes not know about this yet?

- Mirror Lake Sect, led by Zhang Yusen (si-ge) – Zhang-zongzhu killed by “Ghost Valley” in Ep 2, Glazed Armor “missing” and speculated POST EP 2 to have been taken by Ghost Valley (but will turn up in a few eps, thanks to our little Goldbean)

- Dagu Shan Sect, led by Shen Shen (wu-di) – presumably still has his

And then we move to:

- Tai Shan Sect, led by Ao Laizi – in-world speculation is that he now has the Danyang Glazed Armor. We do see him near the end of the ep with the two tiny Danyang shidi, where he makes the intriguing comment that he’s going to follow their shifu’s last wishes and keep their Glazed Armor from falling into the hands of the Five Lakes Alliance, so what exactly was going on between San-ge and his sworn brothers at the time of his death? This group also is apparently being pursued by Shen Shen to get their Glazed Armor, and they make him sound awful. You need better PR, Shen Shen.

- Ghost Valley – POST EP 2, speculated to have taken the Mirror Lake Glazed Armor (FALSE)

NOTABLY, “Ghost Valley Master” set a lot of this chaos in motion in Ep 1 when he claimed that Hanged Ghost (who got got a scene earlier) had stolen HIS piece of the Glazed Armor, although he shouldn’t have a piece (supposedly) until after Ep 2, when he’s believed to have taken Mirror Lake’s. So, what piece would that be, exactly, Terrifying Ghost Valley Master? You wouldn’t be lying in pursuit of chaos would you? (Somewhere, WKX gasps theatrically behind his fan, and he doesn’t even know what motivated it, this time.)

#zhou zishu #wen kexing #gu xiang #zhang chengling #shen shen #deng kuan #word of honor #word of honor episode reax

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letitrainathousandflames-archive · 6 years

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Picking a Side

Rating: Teens and Up

Warnings: Blood, Violence, Drinking, Clone Angst, Rex trying to get Cody to escape order 66 with him

Characters: CT-7567 | Rex, CC-2224 | Cody, ARC-5555 | Fives (mentioned)

Additional Tags: a lot of dialogue, Rex can’t just spill the whole deal because he’s afraid everyone could be a spy, Cody is an honorable soldier, morality divergences, why is this story so sad

The first shades of a shy purple paint the horizon, entering the round-edged square windows of the 99 bar in Coruscant. The place is closed already, at 5:00 am, but a name like Rex’s could get the place just for himself for a couple of hours, so the owner had just left the bar keys with the captain and asked him to close the place when he was done. Rex holds his half-full glass to his eye level, slowly swirling it. The ice cubes clink softly against the glass and the bar door swings open. Rex takes a sip. The raw, burning sensation covers his tongue and he feels like he’s swallowing fire down his throat. It kind of wakes him up from his daze a little, which is good.

“Lock it.” He says out loud, and the men who’d just walked in locks the door to then walk between the tables with chairs piled on them towards Rex; on top of his table there are two bottles and his helmet with jaig eyes painted on it.

“So you really weren’t kidding” the other man says, and his voice sounds a lot like Rex’s, but it’s perhaps a little deeper “Why meet me here? Why not at the barraks? Why not literally anywhere else?”

Rex is back to looking at his drink, placed over the table and held between his fingers.

“Safer. Away from cameras and spies and stars know what else.” he pauses “Sit down, will ya?”

The man looks at Rex for a few instants, then he sinks into the chair across from him as Rex takes another sip, swallowing hard. Damn, the ice did nothing to water down this shit. Still scorches his throat on the way down. Rex places the glass back on the table and lifts up his eyes to the clone sitting across of him. He wears a commander armor with details painted in orange, and he places his helmet next to Rex’s. The two visors stare back at their users, Rex’s jaig-eyed helmet marked by the many tally marks he’d scratched on it and Cody’s black visor almost entirely covered by the orange piece over it. The other clone, Cody, rubs his temple marked by scars, one of them running over his cheekbone as Rex downs his drink at once.

“It’s still being required for all of us to wear our armors outside here in Coruscant.” Cody, says with a sigh “After all that mess…”

“’Elek.”

The agreement in Mando’ didn’t get Cody’s particular attention. The brothers all would slip some Mando’ in the middle of their Basic as they’d speak betweent themselves. They were raised on both languages, but Mando’ had always felt nicer on their tongues. Mellow and easier to speak. Cody looks up to Rex’s face.

“D’you bring me all the way here to talk about what happened? Are you finally gonna open up?”

Rex runs his finger on the rim of his glass. There was something to Rex, he wasn’t a man that would show himself in words, but in gestures. Each pause, each wordless moment said more to him than a ten-minute conversation would. Right now he thinks. Ponders. Wonders what he can say and how much of it he could say. Then…

“There’s something messed up going on, Cody. Something big, something…”

He trails off, still running his finger over the rim of his empty glass. Cody knits his brows.

“What are you talking about?”

“Can I ask you something?”

Cody doesn’t answer at first; he analyzes. Rex’s small gnawing at his lower lip, the way he increases his pressure around the glass in his hands. Something is eating the 501st Captain from the inside, he can tell, and it’s kriffing weird. Rex doesn’t let whatever’s troubling him show on the outside, ever. Cody was closed off himself too, sure, but Rex… He seemed to be always in peace with himself, despite whatever this war tossed on him. He walked out of goddamn Umbara with his squared shoulders and eyes straight ahead. Whatever is happening now, it has to be bad.

“Sure, Rex. Anything.”

Rex raises his gaze to Cody’s. The purple-ish light of the early morning is reflected on his bloodshot eyes, and for the way Rex is slightly swaying, Cody can guess he’d been drinking a lot. He confirms that when he actually looks at the two bottles next to him, one empty and the other halfway done.

“Do you trust me?”

Cody knits his brows to then snort softly.

“‘course I do, Rex. All those years and you even ask?” Rex nods a few times and Cody sighs “Is this about Fives? I really wish you’d talk to someone about what—“

“This is not about him.” Rex cuts him off abruptly in a harsh tone “I don’t... This is not about him.”

Rex hasn’t said Fives’ name ever since he died. When they cremated his body and destroyed his armor, something done to all dead clones whose bodies the Republic could retrieve, he kept his hand guard. Until then, Cody hadn’t noticed the symbolism. Right hand man. That’s what Fives was to Rex, and despite Jesse’s recent promotion to ARC trooper and his excellent work so far, Rex feels that the spot is still empty. No one could ever replace Fives’ advice, his intelligence and strategic way of thinking, his concern for his brothers, his undying bravery.

Cody sighed again.

“Rex, you asked if I trusted you, now it’s time for me to ask if you trust me.”

“Trust.” Rex pauses, frowning “Trusting has become complicated these days, Cody”.

“What do you mean?”

“I just… I don’t know who to trust anymore.”

Cody sees Rex’s hands still holding his glass so hard he doesn’t know how it hasn’t cracked yet.

“I’m sorry for asking again but this is about Fives, isn’t it?”

Rex turns his eyes away from Cody for a moment.

“No.” he hesitates “A little. I…” he inhales deeply “If I were to tell you something… Something about our enemies, something horrifying, would you believe me?”

Cody tenses up, squaring his shoulders.

“I prob’ly would, vod. I don’t think there’s anything about these seppies that would surprise me anymore.”

Rex looks to the locked door as if someone could walk in. The brighter shades of blood red replace the former purplish ones painting the sky in the horizon out of the window by their table.

“I think there’s someone trying to control us.” Rex says, and he hesitates at every word as if he regrets saying each one of them as soon as they leave his lips “All the clones, all of our brothers.”

Cody frowns. He sees the tension in Rex’s face and scratches his chin.

“Who would this someone be? Do you have a lead?”

Rex’s eyes dart back and forth for a moment.

“I don’t know. Someone from the inside.”

“One of us?” Cody snarls “I wouldn’t doubt you, not after Slick.”

“No. Not a clone.” Rex presses his lips together “Someone at a much higher position than any of us.”

“Higher than a commander? Do you mean one of the Republican high commands?”

“Yes.”

Cody tilts his head, tensing up.

“Well, do you have proof?”

Rex blows out a heavy sigh and opens his mouth two times, hesitating before finally saying in a quiet voice:

“I have what… What Fives told me before he died.”

Cody rolls his eyes to then rub his temple, his voice sounding aggressively tired.

“Ah, for the love of—” he slouched on his seat, sighing “Fives was sick, Rex, and so was Tup. They had this virus… and it affected their minds, the Kaminoans doctors said it so, we all read the report. They started seeing enemies everywhere, you see what happened to Tup did to General Tiplar. You can’t trust something that Fives said when he was… Well, in that state.”

Rex narrows his eyes, his tone suddenly very sharp.

“I can trust anything he says. He was the wisest man under my command. He saved my life more times than I can count, he…”

“Was insane, Rex.” Cody says dryly “After he got infected, he was insane. You can’t compare the soldier that devised brilliant strategies in Umbara to the madman that you met in tha warehouse with general Skywalker.”

The glass between Rex’s hands finally cracks in sharp glass splinters that cut through Rex’s gloves. He crushes the larger pieces of glass with his fists and the blood drips from his now soaked gloves on the steel table.

“He knew what he was saying.” he snarls “I trust him, I’ve always trusted him ever since he joined the 501st I knew there was something special about him. I trust him, Cody, and now I’m asking you to trust me.”

Cody put his tongue between his teeth, glancing away from Rex for a moment.

“Why are you so worried?”

Rex opens his bloody hands, pushing the glass shards off the edge of the table with his forearm and shakes his head.

“Havent you heard it when I said that there’s people wanting to control us?”

Cody nodded:

“Let’s say I believe whatever Fives said. Aren’t we under their control already? We are born from their tubes in Kamino, we are bred to fight and die for them, we are of property of the Republic.” Cody absently runs a finger over his scars “I don’t understand what’s your point.”

Rex frowned, running a hand over his head; his blond hair became reddened where his hand touched it.

“What… What if it’s someone form the inside who wants us to turn against our own people? I… I don’t know, turn us to the Separatists’ side? Maybe… Maybe even use us to attack the Senate, or the Jedi?...”

Cody interrupts him with a gesture.

“This doesn’t make any sense.” he says flatly “We have to trust our superiors, Rex, we have a code to honor. If a soldier doesn’t trust his generals, his higher ranks, then what’s left of him?”

“I trusted Kell.” “It cost me my men, and yours. I hope you haven’t forgot about Waxer, because I sure as kriff haven’t forgotten about Hardcase.”

The fist that Cody suddenly bang against the table makes the bottles on it clink, but Rex doesn’t even flinch. Cody’s voice is low and stained with anger.

“I haven’t. I’m not talking about blindly following orders, but I…” Cody clenches his teeth “Damn, Rex, this is complicated.”

Rex nods, crossing his arms over his chest and sitting back away from the table.

“Ret. It demands us to think for ourselves, and it’s time we start doing that.”

With his fist still on the table, Cody leans in looking Rex in his eyes with a stern expression on his features.

“Look. If there’s something you wanna tell me, just do it now.”

Rex runs his hand over his head and just continues to rub it over, as if he’d be looking for a wound on his skull. He lowers his eyes and his voice drops to no more than a murmur.

“I… There’s something I need to tell you, but I have to know you are 100% with me. I wanna trust my brothers now, Cody. I don’t think I can trust anyone else. Not the Republic,” Cody’s eyes went wide at that “Not even the Jedi, not after what they did to commander Tano.”

Cody squints at Rex, hesitating.

“What do you mean?”

Rex lowers his hand to the back of his neck and then places it over his chin.

“I wanna go off the grid. Away from the Republic’s reach, away from our quarters. I want to… I want to make sure I get to the bottom of it and not end up like Fives.”

Cody’s confused expression turned to a tired, controlled anger.

“Fives was resisting arrest.”

“He found something--”

“He was clinically insane!”

Rex bares his teeth.

“I trust him!” he snaps, supporting himself on his hands placed on the table and getting up from his seat; his breathing is rapid and his face is red, veins popping up where his neck is visible under his blacks, meeting his tensed up jaw. “And if he says something is threatening my brothers, I will turn against whatever this is, and I don’t care if it’s the Republic or even the Jedi, I will protect them!”

Cody gets up too, looking wide-eyed at Rex as he runs a hand over his mouth and chin.

“You care more about your brothers than about your mission?...” he asks, raw anger dripping from his words “Than the Republic?!”

“Yeah.” Rex says as he stares at Cody’s eyes without blinking “You can write that down.” Cody walks to the table’s side but Rex blocks his way “They’re not only my brothers, Cody. They’re yours too.”

There’s scorn in Cody’s voice now too, but it doesn’t overshadow his anger.

“Your imaginary threat doesn’t scare me as much as your paranoia. You should get tested for the virus.”

Rex snarls, pushing him by the chest.

“Why do you have to be like this?! Why can’t you, for once, see that this republic is rotten to the core?! We are slaves, Cody! Bred, born and killed in slavery, and you--”

Cody is taken aback by Rex’s push and licks his lips. The punch he drives to Rex’s face comes so fast the Captain can’t avoid it. He staggers and grunts, feeling the coppery taste of blood in his mouth. Cody grabs him by the neck of his chest piece, pulling Rex closer to him and whispering close to his ear:

“In the name of our friendship… In the name of all we’ve seen… Of all we’ve lived so far…” his breathing is ragged and he swallows hard “I’ll pretend I haven’t heard thess words of high treason. Don’t tell me a single thing about your plans, because when they ask me where the hell has Captain Rex disappeared to, I don’t wanna know anything about this, and I don’t wanna have to lie, and if you really go through with this you better not get caught.”

Rex doesn’t answer. He’s looking at Cody’s helmet placed next to his. He’s remembering each mission they’ve worked together with their generals, the balanced Kenobi and the eager Skywalker, all the bombings and sieges and different planets they’ve been to. It feels like a goddamn lifetime. Cody doesn’t sound only angry, he sounds disgusted:

“Ni'duraa. I think what you’re doing is dishonorable. Shameful. But if you think it’s the right thing to do, Captain, go ahead. Just make sure that when the time comes, what happened with Fox and Fives doesn’t end up happening between me and you.”

He pushes Rex away, and the Captain looks at him wide-eyed. Rex looks devastated, and he half-whispers Cody’s name before he says:

“If you only tried to listen—”

Cody reaches for his helmet to then push Rex off his way with his shoulder.

“I am a soldier of the Republic, Rex. It’s who I am. Whatever you’re looking for, I hope it works for you.” he walks to the door, unlocking it.

“Ret'urcye mhi, vod.” Rex says between clenched teeth with his back still turned to Cody, his fists clenched by his sides.

The mandalorian farewell meant a wish to see the other again. Cody knows that, but he doesn’t know if Rex means he wishes to see him once again or if he wishes Cody to be the one to kill him, should it happen. Not even Rex is sure of what it really meant, and as the reddened skies turn to bright orange, the commander of the 212th pulls the door violently to then leave the bar.

#drinking/#violence/#angst #clone bois #my fics #sw #tcw #blood m/#captain rex #commander cody #arc trooper fives #long post/#hm i do gotta remember to post this on ao3 later #i'll probably forget #bc my life is a mess #but writing this distracted me from the mess so #yay

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mistralrunner · 7 years

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Trespasser Liveblog, Part Three: Dungeon and Dragon

In which things get literally and figuratively dark and we embark on a final epic chase through eluvians.

Menel's like yay finally I found the Viddasala and we can talk—okay you’re just going to run through the eluvian and have your people attack me sadface

Speaking of which, do you have any genre awareness here, Viddasala? You do know if you leave chances are we’ll defeat all your people and come after you? Admittedly you’re busy hunting this agent of Fen’Harel.

Ah Viddasala you're not a good guy but I still like you as a character. Probably cause I wish we had more female Qunari characters.

Fun fact: when I watched @inner-muse play Trespasser I was convinced the book on her shoulder would have some plot significance. I was sadly disappointed.

Viddasala’s perspective on the Inquisitor as a tool necessary for sealing the Breach but then too dangerous to be left alive after is interesting though...Generally it seems like people fear the Inquisition for its military power, not the Inquisitor’s command of the Fade. I feel like Menel and Josephine did a good job of downplaying how terrifying the anchor can be, in part cause Menel is a very disciplined mage and in part because people see the Anchor as a divine gift since you can never dissuade people about the Herald thing, and divine gifts aren’t terrifying to the populace like mages are, they’re like Templar and Seeker powers.

Menel’s sick of the attitude the Qun and the Chantry have of, well if you hadn’t resisted and just submitted to our clearly superior ways, we wouldn’t have had to resort to violence

Thanks awesome archivist spirit for giving me the password

Also I’m amused at how the archivist is called “One who guides seekers of knowledge true” when I have a Chantry Seeker of Truth in the party

Goodbye library, hello war table angst

I completely forgot Dragon’s Breath targeted more than just the Winter Palace. The moment they mentioned Gaatlok in Denerim I instinctively flinched cause Karena and Alistair you do NOT hurt them

Wonder if Wycome was targeted too even though a council controls it, not nobles.

What is the timeline for this DLC, though? How quickly can messenger birds travel from Halamshiral to Denerim and back?

SHUT UP CULLEN STOP HATING ON JOSIE SHE WORKS SO HARD

Oh yessss Josie

Poor Josie

But yes put your feelings out there seriously your coworkers messed things up and you’re trying so hard to hold everything together. Seriously her dialogue here is one of my favorite things, the acting is so good and she’s finally tearing into Cullen and it’s great

Ouch ouch ouch

Excellent music shift when Menel starts talking about the anchor getting worse

Menel: So...it's been getting worse. I don't know why. I don't know how to stop it. I don't know how much time I've got left. What I do know is that the Qunari need to be stopped. So I need to get to the Darvaarad while I can still fight.

He’s just so determined and defeated at once cause he doesn’t want to end it this way, not in a fight, especially one he was not prepared for cause this was supposed to be a diplomatic venture, and the not knowing is figuratively and literally killing him. The Anchor has always been an unknown to some degree and it repeatedly has been something that intrigued and bothered Menel, it’s what drove him into studying rift magic in the first place, and now for all his efforts he’s still helpless. Is it a natural breakdown? Did his studies of rift magic aggravate it? At least laying out the facts, what he knows and doesn’t know, is solid, that’s something, and he’s just clinging to the certainty of a task to do, a way to help.

Rhovan welcomes Menel to the you're on limited time cause strange magic and enter extreme self-sacrificial hero mode club

Ooh nighttime, that’s a fitting mood shift

Okay I did run about doing a few side things, namely groaning about the fireworks being too hard, if pretty, picking up codices, finding halla statuettes, and Varric really you made a paper dog out of the letters?

I’m disappointed the purple smoke people are apparently just a minigame I was honestly convinced they were tied to agents of Fen’Harel and put me on edge from the beginning of the DLC

It's a top hat and a halla statuette! That gives me a staff schematic instead of a top hat....

It’s wonderfully eerie how the Inquisition soldiers are occupying everything. Except for that one Inquisition soldier playing with the dog.

Seraaaaa

“Not right. Do everything for everyone, get sick. Not right. Can't put arrows in it, put them everywhere else. I will never miss. I will make them know Menel had (scratched out) HAS friends.”

Just feeeellsss

Time to go to the Darvaraad. I have to bring Cassandra and Sera cause there’s no way they wouldn’t help, they’re the ones who would deal with being helpless the worst, and then I need one mage in the party cause Menel knows with all this crazy magic around if he falls they need a mage to keep the party safe, so Dorian cause Vivienne’s going to stick to handling the politics. Maybe I’ll just headcanon Bull was also in the party...

I also headcanon the Taken Shape outfit was actually a product of Vivienne and Dorian’s efforts to research ways to fix the growing problem with the Anchor, with some assistance from Menel cause he is a rift mage. They weren’t able to reverse it but the armor possibly slows down the breakdown of the Anchor and also takes away enough of the pain for Menel to focus on casting. Mostly. It helps that the arm with the anchor is the one encased in armor.

Plus I love symbolic costume changes.

Ooh is this codex written to DA2 Tallis? It’s really eloquent too. If concerning.

Menel: Red lyrium. Do the Qunari have any idea what they're dealing with? Sera: Of course but they’re special and careful and nothing bad will happen.

Haha yes true, the story of so much of Dragon Age

Maybe we shouldn’t blame them too much, they’re probably assuming they’re protagonists who actually can get away with such things if they so choose (blood magic for the Warden and Hawke, chugging mysterious liquids in general for the Warden, the Inquisitor carrying around red lyrium shards, etc).

Aww Sera’s “Stop hurting! Please” line was so well delivered

Pfft there’s a copy of Swords and Shields and of course Cassandra notices

Ahhh Josephine’s letter trying to stop a war with the Qun I love her she works so hard

Although again I’m wondering at the timeline cause there’s the implication all the eluvian mess happened in a day since it ends at night but sending a raven to the Qunari and (almost) back is even farther than Denerim. I guess the way back might have been shorter cause Eluvians but even so.

Ataaaaaashiiiii

That dragon is so gorgeous wow poor thing

The poison breath is so creepy though.

I still keep forgetting discharging the mark is a way to explode things

Aww Sera's little delighted “this will be legend!” as we free the dragon

And it was pretty legendary

I’m really happy we had a dragon encounter that didn’t involve killing a dragon please can we keep up with this record?

Menel: NOW CAN WE TALK PLEASE Vidasaala: FINE HERE LOOK AT HOW IGNORANT YOU ARE SOLAS IS AN AGENT OF FEN’HAREL THIS IS MEANT TO BE A DRAMATIC PLOT REVEAL

I headcanon Menel already pieced things together and suspected it was Solas but was hoping to be proven wrong so when the Viddasala confirmed it he took the "that bastard was manipulating us" line

And Menel rarely expresses anger in words so

But he was practical enough to know Solas is his last chance for his hand even though he knows Solas has lied and manipulated and has his own agenda but Menel clings so desperately to that hope of negotiation

And here comes the mark going haywire. The energy coursing around his body when the focus bar is close to full is so good

THE THEME MUSIC

This place is so pretty I want to just run around taking screenshots but I’m too much in dramatic climax mode to do so. The anchor meltdown and the music help

I keep Fade-stepping ahead of the group cause my focus bar is almost full and right into hordes of enemies to discharge. Not sure if Menel did that canonically cause that might be too much for his companions.

Hi Saarebas

I saved the Chargers, but I wonder what happens if you don’t bring Iron Bull along for the last mission and hadn’t saved the Chargers. Does he just show up out of nowhere?

We have to fight the Saarebas twice?

“Your soul is dust!” seriously Qunari can be so dramatic

I DID NOT REMEMBER THE PRIDE DEMON WHY WHYBWNRKRJRJR

At least it falls the moment you defeat the Saarebas

Going to save the conversation with the Egg for another post cause that is going to get long.

#running plays trespasser #Menel Lavellan

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