@witchknights Do eet. Like, moirallegiance is not bloody related to sexings, jesus h christ. Write the thing. *** This reminds me I need to play stuff again and write my thing. Which seems to be roguish dude Trevelyan (who looks suspiciously like a younger Sean Bean teehee) + Cassandra, since he was like "yeah I don't think me and Bill are going to work out" when I was doing my playthroughs of doom list.
I have never actually played Dragon Age, but I found this while browsing tumblr and figured someone here would probably think it was funny. http://blithe-bee.tumblr.com/post/113986687074/has-this-been-done-before
Hell yeah! The more autistic quizzies the better! Bull being so good at reading people could make them a super awesome team! I've got my autistic Lavellan with Cullen. Her straightforwardness and slight obliviousness makes Cullen easily flustered and it's really sweet. She also challenges him to be more direct and honest with his feelings. They also both need routines, so they are happy falling into routines with each other. I also love pale relationships in these games. Mostly Hawke<>Varric, though I also love the diamonds between my Quizzie and my bestie's Quizzie which we've squashed into the same universe. #I get nervous about posting my CullenxQuizzie feels because of tumblr #Or maybe I'm just super anxious today for unrelated reasons I feel you on this. In most of my playthroughs, Dorian is my fem!Quizzie's bff. And the weird anxiety about if you're relegating Dorian to "gay best friend" trope is hard to shake. Especially since I've seen some egregious examples of that actually happening in DA fic *cough tiddy fic cough*
@Kittenly I can't speak for anyone else but I am always up for Cullen feels, myself. #wow that almost sounds lewd #which would also be appropriate #*cough* #my kingdom for bi!cullen
@Mercury Lewd is appropriate for that boy. Though saying that would probably make him stutter X3 #unpopular opinion: I've been told that I'm a terrible homophobe for not liking bi!Cullen. Okay. I don't really have much against it in *concept* except that I am super protective of incredibly grey/demi sexual/romantic Cullen. But most of my dislike of it comes from the tumblr fandom (everyone is shocked i know), who seem to want to use bi!cullen as gay-lite, meaning bi-Cullen is only good enough if he's with a dude. In general I'm pretty protective of the canon sexualities of all the characters in that game. It's clear since they have put a lot of time into the sexualities of the characters, and straight is NOT the default in this game. So I guess it irritates me that it's dismissed in the straight characters but is important in the queer ones. Nevertheless, I am very firmly of the stance, you do what you want with your game. Want bi or gay Cullen in your game? Straight Dorian? Go for it. It's not my game. Just stop criticizing my playing by insisting your world state is canon. Like I once saw (damn, I wish I had a receipt) of someone insisting that Cullen was transitioning to female (not a bad head canon) and therefore romancing him with a girl was transmisogynistic.
Nah, you're not a homophobe. It just doesn't work for you, and that's legit. I sorta feel like since there were those rumors that they planned to make him bisexual and romanceable to all races, but ran out of time, it works for me. But definitely only in a quite long-developing slow relationship. I am bisexual myself, so that might affect it. Also, I support more bisexual and gay romances with characters who are coded as knightly and heroic. (No I am not still bitter about Alistair and Sebastian being het, what do you mean) Then again, Cassandra feels more hetero to me? Even though I have enjoyed fic where she's paired with Sera for example. But het or bisexual Sera and Dorian wouldn't, because they were never intended to be anything different than they are in the game. Idk? It is a mystery. Um also, shitting on bi!Cullen would make someone a biphobe, not a homophobe. But I guess that doesn't matter to tumblr as much as gay dude feels. At the end of the day, write whatever the fuck you want. But if your bloody fic has Bull tying the Inquisitor up without their express discussed consent, and you don't warn for it in the tags, plz stop. (And this wans't even a kinkmeme fic. You bet I was pissed.)
Agree completely with you. That the queer characters are typically rogues, or "deviant" in someway, or POC, where as the straight characters are overwhelmingly white, noble, or knight archetypes is certainly interesting and is probably a good example of unintentional homo-bi phobia and racism. Tumblr just absolutely ruined me for bi!Cullen (I need to hang out here more). As to the possibility that Cullen was supposed to be bi, Gaider has implied otherwise, but he's (I think correctly) trying to stay of of the mess that is the DA Fandom. So yeah, do whatever the hell you want. Just please, for the love of all that is holy, TAG IT appropriately.
@Kittenly I'm with hoarmurath; if it doesn't work for you, it doesn't work for you! The reason why I'm sad about no bi!Cullen is as much as I like lady characters and like being able to play lady characters (god, remember when that was practically unheard of in games?), doing so sometimes makes me feel really, crushingly dysphoric (I'm AFAB and transmasculine). Even though I don't play self-insert characters! I can ease it to some extent by making an Inky with the deeper, American accented voice, and using armors + modded body shape to make the Inquisitor look more androgynous or masculine (which I'm doing for my Solasmance playthrough), but it's less than optimal, and sometimes is inappropriate (like with the Seramance playthrough I'm alt-tabbed out of right this moment). My dysphoria aside, I'm pretty thrilled that female characters have such a wealth of choice in romances, tbh, and kind of snicker whenever I see a straight guy complain bitterly about how few choices he has for romances. GEE, I WONDER HOW THAT FEELS.
There are some cullen/male quizzie romance dialogue audio buried in the game tracks, and i think some for Solas as well, iirc, which is sorta what made the rumors come from. I like not-straight Cullen, not that it would matter in my game because Idrilla/Cullen 5ever, but I see him as someone who falls in love with/feels attraction to people very rarely, but whose feelings for someone would develop independently of that person's gender, him being aware of it or not, so my Official Full Headcanon for him is in the vicinity of the demisexual biromantic. But yeah, the people who think bi!Cullen is gay-lite and only count if he's with a dude are... really annoying to say the least. I just think it's hilarious to imagine that Cullen had a crush on the three most famous mages on modern thedosian history, but not really realizing it until Idrilla tells him about her ex-gf and he goes "wait, that's a thing? oh shit. ooooooooh shit". Almost as hilarious as him not realizing Hawke was a mage until he read Cassandra's Tale of the Champion on the ship back from Kirkwall. And i'm still super bitter about the "all lgbt characters are rogues or deviants". I so wanted to see Alistair hopping borders. But yeah, criticizing people's playstyles is just.... so damn childish. I don't like straight dorian and sera mods, and i think people should look at things critically, but at the end of the day, it doesnt affect me or canon or my headcanons, so it's not my business. I can't believe I subjected myself to that fic. But yeah, I see Dorian as good friends with both my Lavellan and obviusly with Cullen, so i get super super nervous if im going for a double tokenizing reacharound, but, gee! How am i supposed to see "I know how hard it is, abandoning tradition and following your own path" and NOT get the feels for them? I get SO emotional.
There are, but the VAs just read lines, and sometimes the lines they don't always read their own lines. Cullen/m!Quizzie has been jossed. Doesn't mean you shouldnt put it into your own verses though! Blerg. I need to drop that subject because I does weird things to me emotionally which aren't fun for me or other people who are involved in the conversation. My Bestie read it to me outloud :////// It was awful. Especially since I really like nipple-play and it's usually a part of the porny stuff I write. And then. It took me a long time to be able to even think about it without getting flashes of that fic... I know! AGGGGH. Dorian and Cullen's friendship really tickles me. They're so different, and they really bug each other a whole lot, but that doesn't make them not like spending time together. In the combined verse that my Cullenmancer is part of, the other Inqusitor is a Dorianmancer, so it forms a nice little group of friendship and love. Cullen and Dorian make the best drinking buddies.
I need to sort of brace myself to play women these days. The only game where I am always a woman is Mass Effect, but that is due to Jennifer Hale absolutely amazingly killing it with her voice acting. I tried playing with m!Shep once and quit when I got control of the game again, there's such a big difference. Therefore am here for shipping Cullen with dude peeps. But of course if I want to experience the romance, I'll likely roll a lady anyway. I did not know the bisexuality was confirmed not to be a thing, I suppose I'll re-evaluate a bit of my stance again. And yes, Cullen and Dorian's friendship. I am totally here for this shit. I am basically here for all sorts of friendships/things, esp Sera and any female companion/advisor. There is a really great writer who writes her so well I am just tickled to bits in happiness, because I recognise myself in there so much. (Same with Cassandra). I think the only one who doesn't touch me on his own is Solas, but if he's tied into characters I like more, I like him too. Unlike DA2, this time around I really like all the companions and advisors even when they've done messed up stuff and it's interesting to juxtapose them. I also really fic that keep the worse parts of characters, and the relationships between them. For me stuff of course depends on the Inquisitors. I would actually really like fic where the Inquisitor was either evil in the "end justifies means" way or a deluded asshole who takes the Herald stuff way too seriously. Or an Inquisitor who really does not want to do the job. Or an Inquisitor who is not a Free Marcher. Like: * Orlesian templar Inquisitor - leading a rebellion in Ferelden, all the culture conflict, templar stuff, I'd actually see him pick the mages. Amazing potential with Cullen, Dorian, Vivienne. * Anderfels Inquisitor - possible Scandinavian/German nerdery into the world (which I am here for because you see that much less often), being constantly targeted because Anders is from his country, a much different view on everything considering Anderfels are the only culture save dwarves who fight the darkspawn constantly. Religious conflict, since while everyone's Andrastian, they see it differently. * Avvar Inquisitor - I have actually seen this: the Inquisitor pretends like he has no knowledge of Fereldan culture only to get out of stuff. :P + Jaws of Hakkon stuff, afaik. *runs around* PS. Terrible nightmarish AUs, I am also here for those.
Oooh, I like all those inquisitor ideas. the one I've mostly played with who would have a non-canon backstory is an Inquisitor who used to be Tranquil, but the anchor sort of fixes them (doesn't bring back their magic, bc its not their connection to the fade, just a connection to the fade). Me toooo. The one I have put most thought into was my Dalish Quizzie was captured by Templars and put in the Kirkwall Circle. Also Dorian ran away from home earlier and was captured and is also in the Kirkwall Circle. Samson becomes their protector/Quizzie's father figure but it goes to shit when he's kicked out of the Templar order. Samson being the Dragon to Corypheshit in this verse is a looooot more angsty. There's also some concept out there for a Qunari Quizzie setting himself up as Divine and it's great and dark.
Dangity. I have a lot of nightmare DA2 headcanons (ALL OF THEM), but my prime nightmare for Inquisition would essentially be the world where they don't manage to fix the timeline. And I guess an evil Inquisitor could be nightmarish too, esp if they got corrupted somehow. And especially if they genuinely did build an utopia, but it would be a controlled police state type one. And how that Inquisitor would treat their companions...ugh. :( And then there's of course all those where Bull is actually a proper sleeper agent. But it would be so intensely hard to write and would need examining him in the worst worst light possible, and considering I don't have a good handle on his motivations in the first place, someone else has to do that one. And of course, either the "only when the Chant is sung in all corners of the world, will the Maker return" or "There is nothing else but the Qun" AUs would be terrible. Or the story where the Qunari kossith turn out to be a rebellious shard off a much larger, much eviler kossith empire. That is actually my working theory for the origin of the kossith and the Qun anyway, so.
there's a bull/mage!f!trevelyan kinkmeme fill with bull as a sleeper agent, but its kinda heavy on the trigger warnings.
Yeah I am not going to be able to handle that. Wtf, brain. I've read a fic where Bull was a sleep and kidnapped dude!Adaar, but even that was pretty horrible.
Sorry to bring up the subject, then! And gee, I get totes jelly of people who have these cool AUs. the only thing I have is that my Solasmance lavellan is an inquisition agent in my cullenmance/main PT because they're twins. I have to admit the "deluded asshole" is the only way I can play a Trevelyan, because I am underdog trash and cannot care about human nobles at all. Even in Origins, my asshole PT was my Cousland and I really don't care for it as a whole. That fic is pretty heavy, yeah. DAI trash party levels of heavy. I haven't read that one!!! Anyway, I really wish there was more fic exploring Bull's motivations, i really like his character and, understandably, a lot of fic of him is smut.
The thing for me? If I was in that world, I'd be a Trevelyan or a Cousland, if you measured by privilege and financial situation. So for me it's always been interesting to deconstruct them and show that privileged, seemingly on top of everything families are fucked up too. Same with templars, I find it interesting how much they are fucked up in the service of faith, essentially. Also my primary Trevelyan (who hasn't been played yet), is a con man/thief who got turned out on the streets as a kid after his uncle took over the family. He knows how to play the game as it were even when he despises it, which I find great because I tend to like stealth like that. Idk, even. Does the Aeducan origin give you same deluded asshole feels, or is it different because the Aeducan is no longer privileged once they are on the surface? I am personally also big on underdog assholes, because I hate the woobifying of elves that DA fandom does a lot. (Not saying you do that, but that is the general trend). I have really enjoyed fic where Sera for example has conflicts with Dalish elves, because it portrays shitty respectability politics so well. I had a Tabris playthrough in Origins where I played to essentially just be a giant human hater, that was fun. I want more Bull fic too, esp stuff that deconstructs the whole "let me provide for you in bed" thing he has going on. Because it pings me so hard on some buttons and I don't know why. Like, what would happen in a situation with an Inquisitor who did not use safewords/did not believe that people would stop when he asked them to? See the dude Trevelyan up there. The situations he's gone through means that if they end up in bed, he will simply take whatever Bull dishes out as some sort of fucked up version of the shit he's generally gone through for the sake of a job/con/whatever. Like, I would wish to hope Bull notices and is like "nope, we're done here", but even he isn't perfect.
I like playing with Templars because somewhere in my mage rights anti-chantry crusade (lol) i got the feelings for people like Alistair and Samson and Cullen and Evangeline who were just completely fucked over by the system even if they were part of the privileged ones, so i have a bit of meta on that tucked away, but when combined with the human nobles I just... I just can't make myself care for Couslands and Trevelyans. Mage Trevelyans are a little better, but... idk. At my most annoyed, i just see great noble people doing great noble stuff and having their great noble ass continually kissed like they're the last cold Coke on the desert? Especially when it's played straight on fic - like 'lol i love balls because mommy and daddy loved balls!!! i am a natural player in the Game because ive been in court sooooooo much!!". Like your Trevelyan idea sounds pretty fresh and interesting and something I'd be interested in reading, but the way that it's played in game i just can't... care about? I can't even care for Amell in Origins even if the exact same origin as my dear beloved Surana, and I went into DA2 super skeeved with the "mandatory human" thing. My feelings while playing the Aeducan origin were "dude, I could be playing Brosca instead" and I did just that, but my Aeducan was angling to be a sort of pragmatic ~heartbreaker~ instead of a deluded asshole, and I haven't really thought about it until, like, yesterday, because of zenosAnalytic's frankly amazing Aeducan headcanons. I am guilty of Cinnamon Roll-ing my player elves too, but that's more because I tend to full-Paragon everything I touch, tho I try to keep it more grounded - my main Lavellan isn't a total human hater because my headcanon clan Lavellan is one of the largest clans, so keeping good relations with some human settlements is a matter of survival - a lot of their food comes from trading dalish crafts and supplies from larger cities with smaller villages in the free marches, because you can't gather enough food for 90-110 people regularly; the Keeper and First and some other elves and one notorious elf-blooded dude hang out a lot around human merchants. Her sister and mother, who are warriors/hunters/guards and keep mostly to the clan, see humans with more distrust (and that's why her sister is boning Solas in her pt.) Still her being the Herald of Andraste causes her a lot of grief, and romancing Cullen gives way to LOTS of angsty feelings and family drama. I like to take the Bull romance as somewhat of a guideline. His main thing is "provides what people need", and while the game stirs it in the Dom/sub direction, what it means for a customized inquisitor depends on what they need. So he could provide someone who actually stops when told to in everyday situations before moving to a sexual relationship, for example? Something like that.
I would kill to see that meta :DD I have very similar feelings about templars being fucked over. Samson and Cullen are my problematic cinabuns. Have you read that one excerpt about Samson from WoT2 that is giving his backstory for why he joined Corypheus? He's basically on a crusade to overthrow the Chantry because of what they did to Templars with the lyrium addiction. And he's got this awful/angsty ends justify the means (ie Red Templars) to do it. I personally thing that the reason he's okay with Red Templars is because of his own exposure to Red Lyrium and Corypheus. But I like that he's still the same person who helped mages flee Kirkwall in DA2 deep down. He wants justice and revenge and to destroy the institution that caused so many people so much pain. I maaaaay have a lot of Samson feels. I have a number of AUs where he is the Inquisition's general instead of Cullen. And more AUs where he is Ren's Sad Dad (tm). As for my Aeducan playthrough, Greta Aeducan is one of my favorite Wardens. She is a bit of a privileged shit, and her response to most conflict is, "if you hit it hard enough, it'll go away." Despite her having some anger issues, she loves people and does whatever she thinks is right for them (sometimes without consulting them). She can also fireman carry Alistair, who despite his protests actually likes it because Alistair has a thing for women who can put him on his ass.
Lol okay. I guess everyone has their "bleh no" thing, which is entirely fair to have. Ehh, re the disastrous possibilities of Bull and my dude!Trevelyan, the somewhat long development in the game nixes it anyway. It's a pity, it could have been interesting to write things going so damn badly. I just find it creepy, because who the fuck is he to say what my Inquisitor needs? It's creepy and controlling as fuck actually, if I think about it too long.
