i like when they wheel estinien out to talk to dragons because the game will be like, estinien really has a way of talking with dragons! and the way he talks with dragons is like "are you a pussy or something" and then the dragon will be like "god you're such a bitch just like nidhogg" and, crucially, this works every time
estinien peptalking dragons
estinien's character arc is letting go of his anger so he can stop being an empty suit of armor propelled by vengeance and go back to being a real person and he's by far the most chill of the recurring characters now that he's done that but one of his core tenets remains "there are things worth getting mad about and you should be getting mad about them" and it's funny every time when he comes across a dragon wallowing in defeatist self pity and has to go "god shut the fuck up and just get mad about it like a normal person"
I love this recurring theme of finding wholeness, of accepting the parts of you that seem corrupt and poisoned and wrong. Estinien doesn't get rid of his anger, he learns to live with it. Nidhogg was rage personified, and it destroyed him. It almost destroyed Estinien. But his epiphany coming out of the Dragonsong war was that righteous anger is important, but it shouldn't rule you.
Twice in the Dark Knight storyline, WoL is confonted with their own emotions. Literally confronted. Your self-worth, utterly furious with you over how little you love yourself, tries to kick your ass. Your sense of grief and guilt tries to murder you for everything you've done. And you defeat them by accepting them back as part of you. There's nothing wrong with any of them, they just shouldn't rule you.
I mean, Ardbert is You-but-committed-atrocities, and you have to accept him or lose everything.
It kind of... makes sense that it's WoL and Estinien who talk Tiamat into leaving Azys Lla. Nobody else could have understood her. The guilt over what she'd done, the anger, the grief--you both have all that. And then they again talk Vrtra into taking a risk on a better future because nobody has gambled more with fate than the two of them.
