Yobousimusphere
[dragon age 2 (so spoilers on that end)] So I basically never swear, but FFFFFFFFFUUUUUCK THAT QUEST
Yobousimusphere
So I, uh. Got back into playing DA2 recently and spent a fair amount of time on it this weekend. And I just finished A New Path.
Yobousimusphere
It may be noted that I played a Dalish Warden and am quite taken by that origin story. And I previously was already pretty unhappy to see how things weren't going well for the clan.
Yobousimusphere
So yeah. FFFFFFFFFUUUUUCK THAT QUEST. And it's a good thing I'm siding with the mages, because Merill's affection score continues to act like a pingpong ball.
Yobousimusphere
Her approval over my treatment of mages keeps overriding my NO STOP BAD when it comes to demons and blood magic. She got a bunch of rivalry points today, but she's still just on this side of friendship.
Yobousimusphere
I've been trying to stop looking at guides quite so much, but I've known all along that if it's mages vs templars, it's unlikely I'll be on the templar side and I'm guessing Merill's not one to leave over that.
Yobousimusphere
But yeah. Since the last time I plurked about this, I have indeed gotten to act 3!
Yobousimusphere
I accidentally spoiled myself one too many times trying to look stuff up when it comes to tough choices, so I'm trying to do this act mostly blind.
Yobousimusphere
(I mostly look stuff up when I don't feel like what follows to be entirely clear. Sometimes, the little phrases to suggest what is going to be said don't suggest exactly what I expect.)
Yobousimusphere
(But in trying to check what options I had for dealing with the kidnapping guy, I read about Hawke's mom kicking it and I was like "oh.")
Yobousimusphere
Bright side of not going completely blind in the first couple of acts is that I'm pretty happy with what happened with the Qunari, since I was respected by them and got to return their book,
Yobousimusphere
and then dueled the Arishok because I wasn't about to hand over Isabela, doubly after she returned with the book. Besides, he'd just kept people escaped from our law, even if I was fine with those ones.
Yobousimusphere
But yeah. Yesterday was a day of doing companion quests where only one of us was satisfied with the result (unlike today's companion quest of "no one is happy with what happened here").
Yobousimusphere
I did Anders's quest where he blackmailed me into helping him do...something I'm probably not going to like.
Yobousimusphere
And he was super happy and all YEAH 100% FRIENDSHIP and I was like yeah I'm not so sure about that friendship meter on my end.
Yobousimusphere
And then I did Fenris's where he ended by going WELL THAT SUCKED and I was there going NAH BRO IT WAS HYPE WE TOTALLY NAILED DENARIUS AND YOU DIDN'T MURDER YOUR SISTER I'M 100% OKAY WITH THIS.
Yobousimusphere
(Speaking of, I did reach Fenris's 100% rivalry point that I've been told I'll need in order to keep him. I had to backtrack slightly when I read about an act 2 gift for him halfway through the invasion,
Yobousimusphere
but hey, I managed to get it by doing Anders's quest first, since I accurately guessed that everything I did in that quest made Fenris unhappy. So that's good.)
Yobousimusphere
And then I did Isabela's quest, where I was briefly happy to see Isabela try a peaceful solution to her problems, but then I realized that involves letting a slaver walk free, so I advocated murder.
Yobousimusphere
Adachi - Who wants to talk about murders? (Persona 4...
Yobousimusphere
Sorry, Isabela, I feel bad that you didn't get to get your ship in the honourable way you wanted, but hey we killed a slaver! Fist bump! Eh? Eh? Up high!
Yobousimusphere
Yeah, yesterday was just about me getting 100% of something with people (friendship romance for Isabela) and then having opposite opinions on how companion quests turned out.
Yobousimusphere
And then today was meeting old friends and also agreeing on companion quests.
Yobousimusphere
I caught up with Nathaniel, who was my favourite Awakening companion (Anders had been second before walking the path of NO ANDERS STOP), which was fun but his voice acting seemed a bit off. Oh well, still neat.
Yobousimusphere
And then I also met up with Zevran! Who wins the "favourite party member who was never in the party." I originally was pretty neutral on him, but as we approached endgame I became incredibly fond of him.
Yobousimusphere
(In contrast to Nathaniel, his voice acting was on point but his face looked odd to me, which was the opposite of Nate.)
Yobousimusphere
I also did what I never did in Origins and slept with him, but only because Isabela suggested it. (In Origins I asked him to stop flirting with me and I was highly pleased that he did so immediately.)
Yobousimusphere
Romancing Isabela had originally been largely begun in casual flirting/sex anyway, so I figured my Hawke would be at least open to trying if Isabela really thought it worth asking him.
Yobousimusphere
(I'd been caught off guard the first encounter with Isabela since I'd just given one flirty response and then suddenly she was at Hawke's house and it was like "...well sure.")
Yobousimusphere
And today also included character quests, only we all agreed. I did Aveline's, got 100% friendship, and we were both like "yeah that was pretty great."
Yobousimusphere
And then A New Path and the only thing Merill and I have agreed on has been "yeah that sucked pretty badly." ...Except since I'm in the centre of the affection gauge we've kind of let it drop.
Yobousimusphere
Which means the next interaction with Merill is going to be happy happy ring-gifting. I watched it and then went ".......maybe this will fit better later."
Yobousimusphere
But yeah. I am upset about the Dalish and I am glad to have backtracked on my decision to stop reading the wiki for insights in order to find out how not to MURDER THE CLAN.
Yobousimusphere
Double flip-off that bloody quest. I'm just glad that Ashalle is not around for that.
Yobousimusphere
It's already alienating enough that the clan looks and sounds very different, let alone adding on everything being awful.
Yobousimusphere
I'd load an earlier save and leave the quest undone, since my Hawke is totally anti-demon and anti-blood magic, but it feels like this is something that Merill would do without me eventually anyway.
Yobousimusphere
So it doesn't feel right to leave undone. SCREW THIS QUEST. (Not that it's a bad one. Clearly it did get me to feel many feelings so I guess it did its job. BUT SCREW THAT QUEST.)
Yobousimusphere
My name is Yosie and I have no idea how I've ended up with so many feelings about the Dalish.
Yobousimusphere
I probably should try a non-human, non-elf run in Inquisition since I've done one of each in the previous games BUT GUESS WHAT I'M PROBABLY GOING TO DO
Yobousimusphere
once it goes on sale one day and I finish DA2 and probably get a new laptop first
stan edelgard
make a male elf and ride the bull tbh
Yobousimusphere
I may need to do a second playthrough for that, because I look at this and think "but I could play a female elf." It is true that if I ride the bull I'd want to be playing a male character, though.
stan edelgard
you can romance bull with literally anyone but i aint about that het life
Yobousimusphere
Yeah, that's the problem. The only thing that would get me to play a male character in an RPG is the gay options,
Yobousimusphere
because otherwise my thoughts are that I already roleplay a man that's called real life so doing it in an RPG sounds super boring.
Yobousimusphere
This will require some thinking, but I'm a ways away from playing Inquisition so I have time.
stan edelgard
dorian's another good option and he's only available to dudes
Yobousimusphere
It does sound like there are some good options. So we'll see! Normally, I'm not really about the romancing life, but I stumbled into your recommended Isabela romance and I've been quite satisfied.
Yobousimusphere
I KNEW I SHOULD HAVE GONE WITH MY GUT AND REFUSED TO HELP ANDERS (hi I hit endgame)
Yobousimusphere
If it wasn't a game, I would have refused to help, but I wanted to see the end of the quest line, like in Merrill's quest.
Yobousimusphere
Like I knew all along I wasn't going to side with the Templars to kill all the mages, but if siding with the templars had only been "bring in Anders" I would have been totally fine with that.
Yobousimusphere
I brought him along anyway, because I don't want to just shank him, but I want to keep tabs on him in case he can answer for his crimes.
Yobousimusphere
I've ended up with an all-male team except for me, weirdly. Normally I go Fenris-Anders-Merrill on mage business or Isa-Fen-Mer on normal business,
Yobousimusphere
but I decided that Varric might have interesting stuff since he's telling my story.
Yobousimusphere
It'll probably turn out that Merrill (or Isabela as my love interest) will have had more interesting dialogue, but that was my call.
Yobousimusphere
And I enjoyed Varric calling Anders out at one point, so it's cool.
Yobousimusphere
Anders seems to think me sparing his life is approval. He will be surprised when, after this is done, I point to him and go "that's him, officer."
Yobousimusphere
He's already making me out to be the leader of the mage rebellion, which is like...okay let's do something about this but without blowing up nice old ladies.
Yobousimusphere
...I am surrounded by idiots.