An Original Name

and how i view her

brutal | efficient | merciful

she kills seemingly without qualm, and compares it to killing wolves as a farmer. while this can be viewed as a process of dehumanizing, i see it more as a realistic assessment of needing to kill threats. but notably, kill them. not wound. not scare. not deter. kill

there is a plain efficiency to that. there is a plain efficiency to her archery. this is where i see mercy tied into her character: sometimes, things need to die. sometimes people do, too. she will kill them without hesitation or mourning, but she will not torture them, she will not make them suffer, she will not enact violence for its own sake but only as an end. i think killing people has that same hard kind of mercy whenever possible

mirroring | people pleasing | observant

growing up, she felt obliged to mirror the people around her, to make herself pleasant and agreeable. i think the mask people wear is a part of them, and thus, i think this is a part of her. but it is clearly not the totality of her, just one facet brought out, honed, practiced

this ties into how observant she is, because she had to be. to mirror, one must observe. one must understand. otherwise the mirroring fails. so she learned, and learned quick, how people were. how they would react to her. how much and in what ways they could be trusted, how vulnerable she could be around them (although her willingness to be vulnerable had a permanent cap on it for most of her life)

it is also why she was able to see the inquisitor, to see the person under the title. it's why she is able to see solas, to see the man under the title(s). she can see the mask, even if she can't see past it, and she knows intuitively that there is more under the surface

loyal | compassionate | forgiving

those she cares about, those she knows she can trust with herself to whatever degree, she will defend to the end. they are her family, in a way: they are the people she will care about even if they hurt her. we see this with solas, someone she still cares about, still wants to talk to, still wants to understand (although with solas, i think part of that is how much she respects varric and how she wants to honor his memory, his death, and his goals)

her compassion is one of her defining characteristics, and for good reason. also, it is evidence of a profound strength... and, very possibly, a deep, habitual self-dismissal

angry | reactive | rash

just the same, there is a core of deep anger in her. the result of many things, one of which is a lifetime of making herself small and palatable and swallowing back "bad" emotions. i also see this in her restless desire for action, because to linger, to dwell, to consider, is to make herself vulnerable to that well of buried feelings

i don't think she desires violence. i think she desires action. and that in her work, the two are interwoven

hard working | self contained

as a result, she throws herself into her work. she tries to become it. and what is her work? a scout. an archer. a tracker. these are not gentle jobs, not delicate occupations. they come with an inherent violence. even being a farmer came with a violence, the violence of the protector, the violence of the shepherd

I think also on the observant thing, I think it may also come from her working with farm animals, since she'd need to learn how to recognize when it would or wouldn't be safe to work with them and learn to pay attention to what antagonizes them, for which the consequences of not doing so could be seen in that scar from getting kicked (thrown?) by that donkey onto a pitchfork when she was young.

I'm not quite sure where these things fit in to what you described or how important they fully are to her character, so I hope this doesn't come across like I'm arguing or anything.

I tried it out, and I felt less anxious and I stuck with it. My habits began to slip over time though, and I was less diligent. I couldn't focus as effectively, and I became much more scatter brained.

Given enough time, a semester later, I wound up regularly staying up till 3 am to do work that I couldn't will myself to start the way I used to be able to. Work that would have been easy if I could have gotten started sooner. I'd get overwhelmed easier too because planning became a struggle in a way it wasn't on my previous medication.

A semester after, and the problems worsened, and the only reason I realized something was up with my meds and that it wasn't my fault was because after I broke down on a call with my parents and realized what was happening, I began to suspect that this medication wasn't working. I texted my brothers and lo and behold they had the same issue I was with this medication and one of them had since switched his to a different one.

I tried out that one and like a light switch my head felt clearer, and I felt more coherent and in control of myself.

Mass Effect 3: Had exclusive homosexeual options for male and female Shepards. (Steve Cortez and Samantha Traynor)

Tomb Raider 2013 Reboot: Lara wasn't sexy anymore since she didn't have 'big boobs or shorts'

Halo 5 Guardians: Played as Master Chief for only a lil of the campaign and the rest you played as a *gasp* BLACK MAN NAMED LOCKE.

Horizon: Yeah they've always had Aloy as a protagonist but... she ugly... get that gurl a face mask and some cleanser.

Assassin's Creed: While I remember the occasion bitching and whining with Odyssey and Valhalla for having playable female protagonists. Most the vitriol was against Shadows for having a female and a male protagonist but the male was *gasp* BLACK. Ignoring that Yasuke was an actual historical figure...

The Last of Us 2: Obviously hating Ellie and Abby for being the playable characters and killing the MAN Joel. Despite the fact that he had gotten old and also kinda earned it. (Not reopening the debate). This also lead to death threats against Abby's actress Laura Bailey and her child.

The Mario Movie: Peach had pants on, even though she's worn pants in games before.

The Witcher 4: Ciri as the player character. OH Also she used Geralt's 'killing monsters' line as a sign of tribute to her father figure.

Starfield: Had pronouns in character creation

Dragon Age The Veilguard: Can make a trans character.

Masters of the Universe: The main character 'He-Man' has pronouns

Ship Tournament — Round #1 / Match 7 of 88

Solas/Varric

"that quest in dai where you decide who is a better dad for cole"

"HE PENETRATED HIM!!!! to DEATH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"kindred spirits but they also keep clashing it's so messy ahhhh"

vs. Shale/Zevran

"who better to show shale around a newly restored living body than zevran?"

This isn't all of their early interactions, but it is the ones that are most relevant here; all of them can be triggered prior to their argument scene in Act 2 and do not trigger afterward, and all are in order of when I got them in-game:

A couple of things stand out to me here. Firstly, Taash is making their distaste for necromancy and the undead very clear. It doesn't take much reading between the lines of what they're saying or how they're saying it to understand that they do not like discussing death or death-related topics and magic. Emmrich does not seem to fully grasp this and keeps pressing the issue, and finally says he "can't help but think" Taash finds necromancy unsavory—which, after the way Taash has reacted in every other dialogue thus far, comes across as him being a little clueless. (It's especially egregious if Taash was brought along on his recruitment mission, where not only do they establish that they're bothered by everything about the undead, but Emmrich himself makes note of the fact that they seem unnerved.)

Secondly, Taash isn't completely unwilling to have a friendly conversation. They're the one who tries to have a discussion about Nevarra's dragons, which makes sense considering Nevarra's long-held tradition of dragon-hunting. They also talk about how Emmrich smells and are interested in what specifically it is, and they even compliment him up until he mentions an embalming. Now, they are infodumping about dragons when it's clear Emmrich isn't interested, and it's a bit of an "I don't know what you expected" situation when you're asking why a professional necromancer smells like blood, but they're still making an effort not to be antagonistic.

Unfortunately Tumblr only allows one video upload per post, but there's another shorter series of banters you can get prior to the argument scene:

Taash: Hey. Emmrich. You wear a lot of jewelry. What does it mean? Emmrich: Oh, this is my grave gold. Taash: (Groans) It's always the death stuff with you. Emmrich: Not always! Though… yes, it's Nevarran custom to wear precious objects we'd like to take to our graves. Taash: Well… yeah. That's normal. Emmrich: It is? Taash: Everyone likes treasure.

Emmrich: I was talking to a Lord of Fortune the other day, Taash. He told the most incredible tale about where he'd found the necklace he was wearing. Taash: Must've been Mateo's. Emmrich: Was it true? A monster formed from snakes? Caverns of green ice? Taash: Gold's not worth wearing without a story.

Taash: Emmrich. Got any stories about your jewelry? Emmrich: Every piece. This bracelet was presented to me on becoming a full Watcher. The ring with the large stone was my father's. His last gift. Taash: How 'bout the little skull pin? Emmrich: Oh, I just enjoy the look of it. Taash: Looking good can be a story.

This is an almost entirely friendly conversation! Taash does react strongly at first but fairly quickly cools off, and it's worth noting that they are the one who initiates here. "It's always the death stuff with you" is an interesting line, because while it's obviously Taash making their opinions known, I think there's some disappointment there too—they're thinking they can't have a conversation with their coworker without it coming back to this thing that upsets them. Once they see that they can have that interaction, though, they're a lot more mellow and even genuinely interested in Emmrich's grave jewelry; when he downplays the significance of the skull pin, they point out that looking good is a perfectly fine story in a way that isn't just friendly, but is also welcoming him into an aspect of their culture.

Now, we don't know what changed between this banter and the argument in Act 2 and I'm not going to project headcanons onto the narrative, but Taash's perspective is much more understandable when you put it in this context. I think some people immediately took Emmrich's side in part because of various biases against Taash, but a lot of people see Emmrich as more sympathetic simply because he's more polite and friendly—he's nice and Taash isn't. But the actual substance of the argument and the relationship tells a different and more layered story: of course it's important to communicate clearly, but just because you're nice doesn't mean you can't also be insensitive to the people around you. I've been around people who have made me uncomfortable without meaning to and if I don't say anything about it that's on me, but if I thought they wouldn't listen to me I might throw up my hands and call them a skullfucker too, no matter how nice they were.

That's another interesting facet of the argument—both Taash and Emmrich kept bickering in part because they were making assumptions about each other. Taash assumed Emmrich wouldn't care what they thought, and so kept being increasingly disdainful and rude instead of asking whether that was actually true; Emmrich assumed Taash didn't fear anything, and so kept thinking their dislike of necromancy was simply due to not understanding it instead of probing deeper about what really bothered them. And those assumptions weren't even poorly founded! Emmrich did keep pressing on the issue in ways that weren't considerate of Taash's responses, and Taash did avoid actually explaining what made them uncomfortable in a way that didn't give Emmrich a lot to work with. But even a well-founded assumption requires further examination.

It's also worth noting that if you choose the stoic dialogue option in the argument scene ("Yep, saw this coming"), both of them will disapprove! The first thing Emmrich and Taash can agree on is that if Rook knew this could happen and didn't say anything, that only made things worse and allowed their conflict to boil over when it didn't have to. Neither of these people wanted to keep being in conflict with each other.

As for if they were all on a level playing field (no one had mana clash)... honestly, could be close, but I'm either giving it to my rook or HoF. The former is very scrappy but versatile. The latter is just very skilled.

If dragon age had multiclassing, my rook would be a multiclassed rogue and mage, and my HoF would be a multiclassed warrior and mage.

"Murder is bad. In the time period discussed, people sometimes committed murders (2 citations). And most people agreed that murder was bad, but it was widely known that murders still happened."

And your advisor goes, "Did most people agree, though? Was it widely known?"

And you go (sigh.). Okay. And do twelve hours of going back through your readings. And rewrite.

"Murder is bad (4 citations). In this time, people sometimes committed murders (6 citations). People did not all agree that it was bad (2 citations). There was disagreement about exactly how bad (3 citations)."

And you look at your draft. And you go. But. But we all — I mean, the archival sources from the time are in fact QUITE CLEAR about how widely known it was! Like–! I've read hundreds of letters and a third of them mention murder! I've talked to so many historians of this time and place and we ALL talk about the murder thing!

And you look at the twelve goddamned hours of searching you did. And you write several increadingly desperate emails to colleagues. And after another few days, you come to the agonizing realization that, in fact, there are no citations of published work establishing that people knew murders occurred despite them being bad and against the law. And then you spend another week looking up those archival sources. And you rewrite again.

"Everyone knows that [reaction A] works like this and [reaction B] works like that". Very common way to start a paper or thesis in this field. Everybody knows this, we can carry on with the more interesting stuff about [reaction C].

Huh. These 73 citations all cite each other in a ouroboros and the only original source in the lot is a popular science book which is indeed worth citing, but it's a memoir, which I have read repeatedly, and the author of the memoir just threw this out there as another example of "things everyone just knew in those days".

So I sat there thinking ‘you want me to prove that the Ancient Egyptians knew what shame was, that very human emotion, using their own words in a culture for which we have very few examples of personal/private correspondence or notations that don’t suffer from strict formalities that are present in 98% of non literary texts? Okay then’ and went through hundreds of fragments over weeks to find this:

P.Bologna 1094 3, 5-10

sS m-H n pA xpS n pr-aA a.w.s. Dd n sS pA-wHm r-nty in.tw n=k sS pn n Dd Hna Dd r-nty m ir s iwty HAty=f iw bn n=f sbAy(t) ir sDr.tw iw.tw Hr mtr=k wrS.tw iw.tw Hr sbA=k iw bw sDm=k mtr nb iw i-ir=k pAy=k sxr pA kry Hr sDm mdt in.tw=f Hr kS tw.tw Hr irt sbAyt n mAi tw.tw Hr q-H ssmt Hrw-r=k bw rx.tw qi=k m-Xnw tA-tmm ix rx=k sw

Mahu, Scribe of the Armoury of Pharaoh l.p.h. speaks to the Scribe Pewehem. This letter is brought to you to the following effect: Do not be a senseless man who has no education. One spends the whole night teaching you and passes the whole day instructing you, without your listening to any teaching, but you act after your own fashion. The ape understands words, and it is brought to you from Kush. Lions are trained and Horses tamed: but as for you, one does not discern the like of you within all mankind. Take note of this.

(Caminos, 1954: 13, cf [Redacted], 2016: 59)

I think I sufficiently provided an example of someone (Scribe Mahu) enacting shame and impoliteness onto his student (Scribe Pewehem). 'Prove these humans had the concept of shame' was a wild task that required a wild citation.