Kitchen And Craft Wix Corner (Exciteable Bird, Enter At Own Risk)

He is awful and my girl is having a bad time and is VERY ANGERY

 

Yeah, just a tad out if sorts.

 

the teeniest bit maybe, hardly any different from the brash but usually collected and reasonable Inquisitor :P

 

I know homestuck is hap
but i was talking about something else and had to grab all my ressources bc I'm me

So! In the post Haven-Goes-Bye-Bye cutscene where Solas explains about the Orb of Destruction/Fen'harel's focus he carries a staff depending on which faction the Inquisitor recruited for help with the Breach and I love? That they are very specific staves, chosen for legitemate Lore Associations so I wanted to pull all of those together for quick Reference!
I was actually mistaken it turns out it's something much weirder, i'll explain further down.

Champions of the Just Reentering the camp, before speaking about the Orb

• In comparison the list of appearances of this staff is blessedly short! It is an incredibly unique staff carrying very clear commentary on the decision to turn to the Templars for help.
  
  Spoiler: lorg

  
  This very distinct staff solely appears as First Enchanter Orsino's weapon in Dragon Age 2, the Staff of Violation before this cutscene occurs. As such the message is clear: Solas can be considered diametrically opposed to the Templar Order as it stands.
  I do not consider Calpernia's Staff of Corruption particularly worth noting here because while you do briefly see Calpernia with this very staff in the march on Haven scenes, this should mostly be seen in context to her counterpart, Samson, wielding and dropping Certainty. At least the staff of corruption is just a staff that resembles the staff of Violation rather than being literally Meredith's red lyrium sword reforged in the name of the Elder One.

​

In Hushed Whispers The march to Skyhold.

• This is something of an interesting case because this appearance is so prevalent!
  
  Spoiler: also lorg

  
  The staff is wildly prevalent in Dragon Age Origins but only appears twice in DA2 and once DA:I. Obviously in DA:I it's the model used for Tyrdda Bright-Axe's staff, which is the most obvious one, but I doubt that's in any way really linked to the why of Solas being given this staff for recruiting the Mage Rebellion.
  Instead I think it's a combination of association with Fereldan Wardens specifically (for Fiona) and the fact that this is one of the most iconic and recognizable staves in Dragon Age. It's something of the default (tm) for fancy staves not strictly faction associated or meant to invoke a scavenged nature-y vibe in DA:O. Most notable however, and likely the thing supposed to be brought to mind as fanservice/lore hook here is that this is the appearance of the staff given out by the Spirit Of Valor in DA:O's magi origin during the Harrowing!
  Furthering the 'platonic ideal of staff' impression, a staff sharing this appearance is the default weapon of the Orlesian Warden-Commander if they are set as a mage.
  It is also the initial equipment of Anders in DA:O-A in a Tevene variant, furthering the then still implied idolization of the Tevinter Imperium and the initial equipment of Wynne in DA:O as the Enchanter's Staff.
  Other appearances in no particular order:
  [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]
  Furthering the Warden association, one of the appearances of this staff is as a staff locked to Bethany Hawke as reward for DA2 DLC Legacy's sidequest Malcolm' Will, Bloodline. This being received in the Legacy DLC, it's quite obvious why it's associated with Wardens. Interesting also is that this being locked to Bethany (and only being given if you have her in the party when completing the sidequest) it is associated with a character born to a circle mage turned apostate who ends up either a Warden or a Circle Mage, perfectly fitting in with Wynne (circle mage who helped a warden) and Anders (Circle Mage turned Apostate, turned Warden and then Apostate again).
  The only other time this appearance is used in DA2 is with the base game Act 3 weapon Corrupted Acolyte's Staff, which is a physical damage staff with a blood magic buff.

​

Ohhhhhh my god so realizing it's not split by faction, it's an inexplicable inconsistency makes things both more complicated and a MILLION times more interesting
The staff of violation/corruption is in Solas' hands for only a few seconds and you do not see it in full, just the lower end and what's in frame while he's holding it looking at the Inquisition Camp from the outside. It's merely more noticeable mayhaps while recruiting the templars because you JUST saw Calpernia with the very same staff on her back in a cutscene.
Solas' arrival is very deliberately given focus during the closing of lines of the "Dawn Will Come" hymn being sung in the Inquisition Camp after In Your Heart Shall Burn.

At 1:21 we are given a close-up shot of Solas arriving, coinciding with the line "[...] and the path is dark." We see him approacing from the dark, the outside looking in on the Very Andrastean Moment of Hope And Togetherness lit by warm, orange fire. Notably we at first only see the lower end of the staff of violation and Solas' legs, but the extremely distinctive wave-y length of the staff already makes it recognizable. The way we are shown Solas, from the back, looking in, camera low to the ground and showing only his fingertips, and thigh between knee and hip has something almost Hitchcockian in its cinematic language. For a shot that's over in literally like 4 seconds it's loaded with cues to the viewer. Solas is strange. Solas is an outsider to this community. Solas is a loner, and off doing strange things more often than not. This staff, a staff most solidly associated with someone advocating for mages to the detriment of reason and logic, an elf snapping under the pressure of the unjust world forcing him into subjugation is the complete and utter focus of this shot, besides hints of pale skin and green leggings, just enough to make the figure read as Solas before we even see his face, but still utilizing the defamiliarizing shot composition common to such auteurs as Hitchcock to redirect the scene from burgeoning hope from despair back into a sense of unease. This is emphasized by the lateral movement of Solas's steps carrying him into frame from the right towards the left, a lateral movement direction often reading as villainous in cinematography.
Next a Medium Shot of Solas slowly zooming in on a close up of his expression. The lines "Look to the sky, for one day soon, the Dawn will come" play over top, albeit cutting away from Solas to a crane shot of the camp once the brass section comes in to reinforce the last two lines.
We see Solas in his threadbare casual attire, willowy and thin against the backdrop of an icy mountain on the left and a few more tents to the right of him. Solas stands laterally slightly right in frame, the camera movement positioning him more and more there. While he turns towards the right side of the frame slightly, he looks left, and the turn is in context clearly away from the warm camp. The staff of Violation is also positioned in the right third of the screen. golden ration focus points in frame fall more or less to Solas expression (wondering/wistful darkening to a frown) and his necklace.

The very next shot/scene Solas appears in has him without a staff (and no good way to lose it logically, given that there's barely time for one sentence before he reappears), walking from the far back behind the Inquisitor, laterally from Center to the left of them just as Mother Giselle leaves the frame to the right side. He pauses briefly to ask for 'A Word.', then leaves the frame towards the left, diametrically opposed to Mother Giselle and more importantly causing the Inquisitor to physically turn from this representation of the Chantry and follow him. He then leads the Inquisitor out to an outlook in the barren snowy wilderness outside of camp, lighting a veilfire torch and tinting the entire scene an eerie blue. He begins this approach to the torch walking left to right and spends the entire rest of the scene on the left side of the torch, looking to the right as the camera is positioned behind and between him and the Inqusitor. A subtle cue that he is deliberately positioning himself as Trustworthy And Good And Driven By Just Purpose as he reveals the elven origin of the Orb of Destruction. This scene fades into the Journey To Skyhold Cutscene with an over-the-shoulder-camera movement towards the flame of the torch.
The Journey to Skyhold is characterized by strong left to right movement in the grand tradition of Lord of the Rings Journeying Sequences. The final few shots of Solas leading the Inquisitor to Skyhold have him moving along with the rest from left to right, and suddenly carrying Valor's Staff instead as he is bathed in daylight and positive energy.

..... geez i got carried away a little there.

 

where's my 'fascinating' rating

 

I should also note that the Journey to Skyhold cutscene, while having some variation for flavor and nice sillhouette shots, is largely not just characterized by lateral movement from left to right, but movement laterally right and up, moving towards the camera with a few rare exceptions.
That's the same lateral movement composition as the Iconic Rocky Training Montage. That's our energy. Hope, Drive, Heroic Movement To A Peak Of Power and Achievement.

 

She-Ra is so good

 

cold basmati rice without any condiment is also really good. Approximately the same tier of weird comfort food as bread roll with ketchup or tomato paste

 

i thought i was the only one who did 'bread roll with ketchup' and I'm pleased to know that I'm not

(also the upgrade: laugenbrötchen with ketchup)

 

no im p sure a large segment of germans do this :P
bonus of ketchupbrötchen: if you do it right you get all the compacted insides of the bread roll you fished out first and then you can roll them into a weird doughy ball and that's also a comfort food.

 

This is a Cullen/Inquisitor song
specifically Brejan and cullen
It's so good.

 

Squished up breadroll insides are SO GOOD

 

"Ivy how many pictures of your new quizzy do you have?"
Yes

 

Spoiler: Dragon Age: Deception

Okay I know Ser Aaron is in his late fifties and Vaea at best in her late twenties, but have you considered that they totally fuck????
Also Calix, wow, you sure have a weird mommy kink a mile wide huh?

 

Anyways, Dragon Age: Magekiller, Dragon Age: Knight Errant and Dragon Age: Deception are all extremely excellent and I greatly enjoy the characters and arcs brought into the mix through them, as well as the frankly amazing world building details.
And I'm personally hurt by the fact the last of these ends on a bit of a cliff hanger and I don't know if the next step of the story will be an additional comics publication through Dark Horse Comics or if it'll get resolved in DA4

 

Presumably if that rumored 10 year time skip is still accurate, then there's a lot of timeframe to fill in through comics still, given Knight Errant and Deception both take place around 9:44 Dragon, some time after Trespasser (but not too long).
Or they're officially condensing that timeframe down since Deception

Spoiler

involves a Proper Raid on Ventus by the qun. tho it's not clear if they're doing this to fuck with Tevinter or if these are still Viddasala's folks fucking with Fen'Harel's network. Given the level of success they had and how utterly Ventus was reduced to rubble I doubt Tevinter will hold out against the Qun for terribly long.

 

i somehow managed to plant my pumpkins right on top of an ant nest i didn't know was there, so that'll be uhhhhh iiiiinteresting.
I hope you like coffee grounds more than you like my pumpkins' root systems little friends! if that actually goes anywhere! Which i hope!
peppers and tomato seeldings are finally beginning to come up, the cucumbers are flexing on them hardcore, already in their spots for a week now. C'mon my pretties, grow!!!
i can't see the ysop doing anything tho which is kinda a bummer. The rest I won't be able to tell, not really, because we just did a whole. Throwing seeds friggin everywhere thing. Since it's bee meadow type stuff.

 

my aim for the tevene au is to get rainier and dorian to a dynamic that is very obvious mutual romantic and sexual love but it's buried under so many layers of the slowly crystallizing hard won friendship born from years of weaving around the servitude, duty, dorian's and rainier's respective idiocies, both of their bad tempers and worse attitudes and the bonedeep loyalty both of them have, as well as their shared like... experience with having said loyalty blow up in their faces in terrifying ways?
Basically I want them both deeply utterly completely devoted to the other without ever actually realizing it until In Hushed Whispers at which point they both have the 'oh fuck' moment of losing the other and more or less at the same time realize the breathtaking *depth* of their feelings.
Like the UST and romantic dynamic has slowly been eating away at the ground underneath them for years and suddenly they make a wrong step and the whole thing bottoms out.
And then they both panic about it.

 

Varric: Sparkler I know this may actually come as a shock to you but you do realize you are madly in love with this random Tevene acting but not looking walking ball of depression and issues, right?
Dorian: I know and it's terrible, there is no way he feels the same and I am embarrassing us both, being all wistful like a fool--
varric: ... did you hit your head when you came back from the future? You do realize he was ready to murder over you being gone, right? Just-- just turned on his master like a rabid dog--
Dorian: Well, see, that's simple to explain I technically own him.
Varric: ... Right I'm going to meddle with Lavellan's and Solas' romantic drama instead, I like having a nose to stick into messes.

 

i should add that for all dorian technically owns him Rainier does not act one bit like it, nor does Dorian. There's a definite Lord/Servant dynamic at least in public when they're not hiding their knowing eachother, but behind closed doors Rainier drags Dorian over the coals constantly for being a mess but does properly take care of him as the head of staff he... essentially is.