worm with problems

This sketch is incredible. Perfect moment to capture. 10/10 for the artist.

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Addressing the last point first: he only gets with Emmrich if you don't romance Emmrich, lol. There's no reason to be offended about two old gays (umbrella term) getting some action together if Rook decides to go for someone else. Strife isn't stealing your man; it's just a gameplay mechanic! (And I'm saying this as someone who hardcore ships my Rook with Emmrich <3)

I've also seen some people cite that he values a map more than others' lives when playing as a VJ Rook, but... like... he wasn't there and thus could not have known whether Rook losing the map was total necessity to save the others or if they were just being careless. As the leader of a faction whose numbers are few and constantly get fewer due to how often people get killed in that line of work, Strife is likely stretched very thin and is just totally jaded at that point. He very well could have assumed that they were just careless and forgot to zip their pack; he had no way of knowing if they were just making up excuses. Sure, most people probably headcanon that their Rook was genuinely being noble and selfless, but Strife cannot see into our or our Rooks' brains.

Also, this leads into my next point-- many of the people who hate Strife not having read Three Trees to Midnight from Tevinter Nights (I would also mention the Missing, but I myself haven't been able to grab a copy of it, so I can't attest to Strife's personality there). In TTTM, he's not some heartless bastard like people like to claim he is in Veilguard. Yes, he does initially have a very antagonistic relationship with Myrion, but that's only because Myrion comes right out of the gate to call him a filthy knife-ear. And, even then, Strife still eventually forgives him and comes to consider him a friend. You need to have some insane patience and Catholic priest levels of forgiveness to be willing to see eye-to-eye with someone like that.

This also brings me back to my point regarding his relationship with Emmrich, that being that, again, Strife is a sweetie. He gave that man a jeweled skull. Jeweled. Skull. Aka, a very expensive item that he likely either found in some booby-trapped ruin or paid hella money for (or spent 2 hours watching troom troom tutorials as he hot glued emeralds to some random-ass skull. Either way, lots of dedication involved there). And then when Emmrich tells Strife where he wants to go on their date, Strife mentions that there are flowers in Arlathan he thinks Emmrich would like. Look me in the eyes and tell me you don't want an S/O who remembers what specific type of flowers you like.