These guys. Also, yeah, dude, I LOVE that elves in DA2 look very Not Human. They look more like arboreal nocturnal critters! Spoiler: biology headcanons plus slight DA:I spoilers (Which I headcanon they originally evolved as - they changed their habits sometime around the time they hit civilization in a big way, but there's a reason Solas seems to be able to take naps anywhere :P Also, I h/c that he's actually a slightly different subspecies of elf to the modern one you see around Thedas - they've got larger eyes, lower ears, and tend more towards slightness than his relatively blocky build - also that elves have a different fat distribution to humans, so it's difficult for them to look larger in a way that would register as such to humans. They must be hominids, though, somehow, since humans and elves can produce viable offspring. Less sure about kossith, though the Qun have been hinted in canon to have screwed majorly with their own base stats.)
Spoiler: dragon age 2 liveblog continues After fighting the Arishok + his guards for three straight days, I finally backtracked and tried the whole quest with Fenris in the party. (Well, and downloaded the Black Emporium DLC so I could have a dog and twenty-nine health potions.) Hopefully the version of the story that Varric told Cassandra did not involve the duel being twenty minutes long with multiple dog resurrections and Agatha running screaming around the pillars until she could take another health potion. Then I got sucked into "wellll, I'll do just one more quest before I finish playing for the day" for six more hours. I've heard that Act Three is relatively short. Agatha chose to let Fenris kill his sister, then felt bad and encouraged her cousin to reconcile with her uncle. She wants all the family she can get, especially after seeing Bethany and losing her again so quickly. Thankfully the rest of the companions have become family to her. I may be writing the pale porn where after Leandra dies, Agatha makes a series of ridiculous excuses to crash at Varric's because she can't stand the big empty house. I love this game like whoa.
*thumps fists against table* HAWKE <> VARRIC PALE PORN! HAWKE <> VARRIC PALE PORN!!!! :D You had the true Fighting the Arishok Experience (tm).
Also, oh my freaking god, why is Spoiler: dragon age 2 spoilers giving Fenris back even an option??? Also also, Anders why is your reaction to "my sister sold me out and I'm angry" UR JUST JEALOUS OF MAGES? Anders. Anders no. Go to your room and listen to some Evanescence.
Basically that's what happened to me the first time too. Warrior's the hardest class to do that fight with
...my strategy was immobility spells->spam attacks->runrunrun until immobility spells recharge. And that was how it was for Loghain too.
I have a backlog of the thread to read through so excuse my late responses to things: I think the most baffling "Sexy" Anders mod I saw gave him black hair that stuck up, sort like in that mod you linked, @blue. Like, Anders is already incredibly pale, and giving him black hair just made him look like a poor sickly emo. I'm grateful I wasn't in the fandom for the height of DA2 stanning, but my best friend was, and they tell me war stories xD. People were so utterly enraged that Bela would corrupt their sweet waifu Fenris because she's such a slut. Nevermind that the actual romantic/sexual banter between them is so sweet and funny. And like, Fenris isn't a baby. He can ask her to stop if he wants. And Bela would respect that. I totally see her as a woman who might miss some boundaries, but only by genuine accident and she'd make it right once she realized. And Fenris is totally into it. So much of his grump by that point is because he likes to be grumpy, not because he's actually angry about something. I'm not sure what to add to this, but I just wanted to bring it up again because DAMN you've put Seb into words so FANTASTICALLY. Spoiler: Da2/DAO Spoilers I find his furious refusal to abide Anders at the end of DA2 so interesting. It actually reminded me a bit of how boneheaded Alistair is at the end of DAO. Like, Ali is one of my favorite companions in Origins, but I just get so frustrated with him and I must get really into roleplaying to /not/ spare Loghain. It's just so childish. And my Hawke had a friendly relationship with Seb. He thought she was hilarious and liked spending time with her even though she always brushed off his attempts to get her to be faithful. But if he had any interest in being a good friend, he wouldn't turn to her and demand that /she/ murder her own love interest. It adds a truly fascinating dimension to him that he would turn such retributive rage on someone he considered a friend and throw a fit when someone said, "Hey lets not murder our friend." Hawke <> Varric and Garrus <> Shepard are the best pale OTPs *cries in a corner* I'm actually thrilled that that option is in the game, as DA2 and DAI don't have nearly enough asshole moves as DAO did. Like, I would never do it, but I'm glad its there for dicks like Osric Hawke (Manipulator, chess master extraordinaire).
Spoiler: another few hours of DA2 I've gotten up to the Justice quest, where Anders asks to go to the Chantry. I've got a bad bad feelings about this. But Agatha would go with it, so I went with it cringing all the way. For all her snark and murder, Agatha is naive about the people she loves and about mages in general. (I have a lot of feelings about this Hawke that I based on Deadpool for maximum mayhem.) Then Anders was all "no matter what happens, I love you" and giving away treasured possessions and a billion other suicidal red flags and I am ALARMED. Why are there no suicide hotlines in Kirkwall??? Why is there no cuff 'Anders to the bed' option? Anders no, I was kidding about the Evanescence! I had to stop for the day because I'm anxious about how this is going to go terribly wrong. I also amused Wife by yelling OH YOU BITCH at the screen when Meredith said that Agatha couldn't protect the city when she couldn't even protect her own mother.
Occasionally I want to write the DA Tumblr AU, but then I remember I don't want to deal with a bunch of people mad because I don't treat Tumblr social justice and mage rights as the 100% serious things they are
Like his little MAGES ARE THE MOST OPPRESSED EVER MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE rants. (Until a photoset came around tumblr I didn't realize he even pulls that on elven Wardens in Awakening. Anders...)
Yyyyyyeah. Though I absolutely fucking love that moment in DAA because it shows that this really is the same character in DA2. I know I've mentioned on here before so sorry for being a broken record, but the problem with Anders' character in DA2 is that they give him his act 3 angstiness in act 1. But all that self-centered assholeness was /there/ when we first met him.
