Let's show them our hearts, and then show them theirs!

Dragon Age Nostalgia Month

Week 1, Day 3: Grey Warden

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Week 1, Day 2: duty

We see Leandra throughout the story through Hawke's eyes. She is defined quite closely by her role as a mother. It would have heen very easy to have slotted her into an idealized vision of perfect motherhood- the platonic ideal of the "mother" - meek and self sacrificing and endlessly kind. I think weaker writing would have done this, believing it would make her death hit harder. I think it would do the opposite.

That moment where Leandra lashes out at Hawke in her grief shows us a glimpse of Leandra as something other than a paragon of virtue. It reminds us that she is a person with an interior life that we, as the player character, will never see in full.

Leandra's death hits harder because Leandra isn't perfect. Because Hawke has to carry those words, and carry that guilt, even if she apologized. Becuase Leandra knew, even at the moment of her death, that Hawke would blame themself for her death. And I also think it hits harder because we know that Leandra is a person - and a person who we, as Hawke, will never know in full in part becuase her life was cut so tragically short but also because they were each defined to some extent by their roles as mother and child.

And that all starts at that first glimpse at her complicated interiority.

Dragon Age Nostalgia Month

Dragon Age Nostalgia Month 2026 Day 3 — In Death, Sacrifice / Grey Wardens

My first thought was Alistair so here's our special little king :^)