It's been a year since I accepted that my DA OTP is Elgarook. No ship has ever affected me so deeply. I think that the blank space that BW left for us has a lot to do with it, because, while based on canon, my imagination could be unleashed.
A dedicated eulogy for Idunn and Elgar'nan (Idunnan) because it is their anniversary (and my name day and bday soon as well).
I wondered what it is that compels me so deeply about this ship and why, despite fighting it, I could not let them go.
I have some theories on that.
I think Rook and Elgar'nan have things in common. I started thinking about the parallels between them when I realized how much hate they both get from the fandom. I have been part of quite a few fandoms before DA, but rarely have I felt so shamed and attacked for having a fictional muse and crushing a bunch of pixels together. Okay, maybe Dreadrook is even worse, but I am someone who always chooses the least popular ships and characters and falls deeply in love with them, because yes, my second favorite DA ship is Dreadrook.
Rarely have I seen such parasocial behaviour as I did now. Many people, though they do rationally know that Rook is not real, and neither is Elgar'nan, definitely do treat both, and their (few) fans, as if they were real people and as if the morals of those who love them reflect their real life morals.
This is not a critical post; this is a celebratory one for my OTP, so I will not delve further into the topic than this, but I will add that I am one of those millennials who was raised during times when villain lovers were not judged; rather, they were yet another part of a fandom and also very numerous.
You can say that loving a villain offers you freedom because they can be so many things. If they're not a cardboard cutout, two-dimensional, moustache-twirling villain, their potential for depth is amazing.
Few archetypes offer you so many possibilities as a well-written villain.
Redemption, the story of their fall, what could have been, or even a bad ending where they embrace the corruption. The very tragedy of human nature (yes, no matter what race they are, because Elves, for example, can be more human than we may ever realize), which is just an endless stream of storytelling.
I know at a first glance Elgar'nan may seem quite one-dimensional, and I will not be negative and judge the devs for that because I know there were circumstances I will never understand and which would probably make me react in ways I now cannot possibly imagine.
That being said, after the initial mild annoyance at the apparent simplicity of his portrayal, I realized that the subtly delivered depth was far more intriguing to me. The fact that I discovered his nuance and depth on my own, after reading dialogues and codices, made it all so much more meaningful, and I believe added to how much this ship with him marked me.
He and Rook have received very similar treatment from the fandom, and it is what made my Rook naturally gravitate towards him.
They're not measured or diplomatic at a surface level. They're both bold, hungry to succeed, with a hubris that matches the position they occupy. There are very few limits for both, few things they would not do to reach their goals. Not measured, nor diplomatic often, though strategic. Leaders of their group, yet somehow separated, dragged along in certain directions.
I have seen so much hate for Rook from the fandom, and I realize that boldness and a larger-than-life attitude, ambition, a desperate lust for life and experiences, and the hunger for "more" can be quite abrasive for most people. Thus, Rook was deemed "stupid, hotheaded, shallow", compared to other DA MCs. And in a way that has been alienating, because whether we want it or not, we identify with our OCs. Seeing how many people hated Rook hurt, but also motivated me because, while Idunn may not fit the Rook blueprint perfectly, and she does tend to be diplomatic, she ironically also fell perfectly into that mould, because underneath the veneer of control she boils and burns for immortality and a changed, upheaved existence where magic is yet again a part of the fabric of existence.
They both lead a group of people equal to the number of planets in our solar system (with Solas as an interchangeable element that shifts from the ancient "pantheon", to the new one). With very few stretches, parallels can be made between the Evanuris and the DATV companions. Someone else has done this before, and I will link their post here. I have read this over a year ago, and back then, it changed my brain chemistry a bit because I was already very intrigued by Elgy and fighting to resist it. It still holds up and aligns with my personal views.
The chess parallels, which BW leaned a bit too heavily into, erasing complexity for the Rook, the Queen, and the King. It is very obvious and straightforward that Rook is the chess Rook, but also the bold, disrupting corvid. It is just as obvious that Elgar'nan is the King, slightly passive, acting only after the Queen (Ghilan'nain), with her many and very complex movements and possibilities, has died. Rook is also confined to these chess rules. They move in straight lines, they are black and white, they do what they must, and may trample and annoy in that process.
A tough, unyielding Tower of Will, whatever that will may be, which is where the player's imagination comes in, because here you can deftly slide in what it is that makes your Rook go, run, and burn. What is their ideal and fuel?
Idunn is never fully satisfied, because what she truly despises and fears is death, the end of things, and decay. She reins herself in and controls her base, instinctive nature, which would rather burn it all and remake the world in her image than behave, listen, and observe.
She controls, she reigns herself in until she cannot do it any longer, and her true face is revealed. For many, it is not a pretty one because it shatters the image they had before.
I think when I first wrote Idunn with Elgar'nan, what struck me so deeply and irredeemably was how... comfortable she was around him (and him around her). They were enemies still, but she could relax; she had the confidence to let go and be the worst and best of herself, knowing there were few things he would judge. There were no reasons to feel the worst in the room, but rather she could move her focus from her own sins to another who held endless, depthless will, desires, and hubris. She could open up and be seen, and while, yes, he may have initially taken advantage of that, he could also relate and find a kindred spirit in will and... well... desires and insanity.
So, as I wrote them, I was looking from the outside in as two characters whose desires rose above it all had met and found a strange, unexpected synergy. Whether good or bad, villainous or heroic, and absolutely everything in between, their dynamic pushed and pulled perfectly in such a perfect way that I did not even have to force things at all. It just flowed on its own, and their entire story all but wrote itself, while I was and am just a mere channeler.
I believe with Solas things are quite similar, and for that reason alone, they are both my absolute favorite Dragon Age characters.
I am a newcomer to the DA fandom, though I have had friends who begged me to play the games so many times before, but I refused for reasons I will not get into now. All that aside, I think I came to the fandom at the right time to discover an underdeveloped (though important) character who checks all my boxes, fits like a (huge) missing puzzle piece in the story of an OC I have had with me since 2021, and who has been getting me through a very delicate time of my life.
All in all, happy anniversary to my OTP, dearest ship, and source of my best stories and HC. They have fixed me.
I will expand on this because I have SO many thoughts on them, but this is a good and fitting beginning on a day when in my home country we celebrate Midsummer and local fairies whose name I bear.
May we never be ashamed of our ships, muses, and inner worlds.
