with all the fire of the sun

This is all information off of the top of my head by the way that I've memorized because of my love for Rivain, but the reason why I'm bringing all this up is this.

Vivienne is Rivaini.

If you didn't know that, you do now! If I remember correctly, her parents were merchants or something along those lines. When she came into her magic, she was placed into a Circle, which is already strange enough considering (again) Rivain's reputation for revering their mages, especially their women, so I don't see why she eventually got transferred to a Circle outside of Rivain in the first place. Honestly doesn't make sense to me but that is neither here nor there. Consistency, who?

But if anything, in the country where a lot of the characters are Black/have darker skin, yes I do mourn the fact that we couldn't get an alternative perspective on the Circles or the mage rebellion through Vivienne, especially given the Rite of Annulment in Dairsmuid that is constantly downplayed, which could have been explored through her. Yes, I do mourn the fact that we weren't able to dive more into the lore and knowledge of the seers. Yes, I do mourn the fact that she was instead used as a mouthpiece for the Circles, or the fact that she's depicted as a prominent figure in Orlais' imperial structure. And yes, I do mourn the fact that majority of what we see of Rivaini isn't the rich culture that could have been associated with the Black characters in game, but that majority of what we're exposed to is its piracy (look, I enjoyed Veilguard for what it was but you can't just erase what piracy is) and its beaches.

but ok so these are from @asharaks (left) and @kirkwallguy (right) & yes thank you exactlyyy... i think. yea this shift in his tone from the way he will fire off a deeply inappropriate sexual comment to anyone in da:a to just get them to shut up and back off and not make him think about his experiences in kinloch hold to the way in da2 he is focusing this behaviour only on people with institutionally-supported power and privilege and specifically using it to challenge something about the way they engage with that is really a reflection of the change in the way he sees his place within mage oppression and how his attitude has shifted. in both cases, yeah, he's deliberately playing a little unserious, belligerent, in some ways he's making himself the asshole in order to avoid directly saying what he means (he goes for wesley and aveline's sexual proclivities instead of directly challenging her on how she and her late husband feel/felt about his work subjugating mages; he taunts sebastian about the inappropriateness of the belt buckle rather than picking a direct fight about andrastianism) but in da2 he is Done deflecting. he doesn't want to say it outright but he doesn't want to duck the conversation — he just wants to frame it in such a way that he has the advantage. nobody listens to him when he says "the way mages are treated is inexcusable, you are killing us, nothing justifies this," but when he says "was your husband a weird pervert," aveline doesn't have a response, and anders doesn't have to look crazy because he can just be a flippant dick. and that makes sense with the way he's the one initiating these conversations.

by comparison, he doesn't start the banters with oghren, velanna and sigrun... he goes to the "out-flirt-ing" place only when they push his buttons (although he does pick the insults fight with oghren. lol) and he is at least in these instances more often painting a picture of himself than of the person he's speaking to. mages like me wear robes for better fuck access. why dont i entertain you with a slutty little dance instead. and like i do think it's notable that... although sigrun obviously is not intending to exploit him or treat him like a useful tool/resource here (she has no power to do so and also like. she's clearly mostly Excited About Seeing Him Do Magic!)... he is responding — surprisingly honestly — with Aversion to being asked to Perform. and he makes it about mages magic! so i think this is a case in which sigrun's pushing for him to do magic for her entertainment has hit a little too close to home about the way mages are treated and what they're expected to do, and he's ducking away from it. (i think in da2 this would be an instance in which he'd be much more likely to directly address what's pissing him off and accuse the person he's speaking to. and then be treated as insane)

speaking of:

from @atiya-nagrano & YEAH. EXACTLY. wrt conflation of subjugation of mages and sexual abuse, and, accordingly, of magic and sexuality. which obviously ash also said ^ above ^ but like it's so true... these things go together and anders goes from almost using the one to deflect from the other to like. tying them together and using one to articulate something about the other (in the worst possible way). oh? oh, you think because i'm a mage, you can treat me this way? well, do you like it? i'm not the only one who can be made to feel small and dirty and helpless like this, am i?

i would say though that like... i do not think he is on the defensive with aveline and sebastian. like that's the whole thing — they didn't do anything to prompt his attack, he's preempting them, and he's taking it somewhere they're distinctly uncomfortable with. i think with aveline in particular she probably doesn't want to talk about how wesley would've seen bethany, merrill and anders locked up and probably made tranquil any more than she wants to talk about whether she and wesley played sexy mage-and-templar games in the bedroom, and he knows it... much more than making her shut up, he is rubbing her nose in it and denying her the right to look away, imo. and in a slightly different way he's recontextualising something sebastian takes for granted (it is always appropriate to honour andraste through expensive and skilled depictions of her on your clothing and armour) into something kind of. strange and absurd and inappropriate. his facility with invasive sexual language is a weapon here, ygm?

and it's a really big difference from da:a to da2 specifically because... in da:a he is being defensive, but also, he's doing it with everyone and everyone. oghren, velanna and sigrun do not have institutional power over him. sigrun especially should have essentially no context at all for the idea that mages should be treated like resources and entertainment. he isn't challenging them, he's trying to make them back off, and he doesn't really care who he does it to. but in da2... he says some wildly out of pocket shit to fenris, but he doesn't make it sexual in this way. he doesn't talk to merrill or bela like this, even though both of them have a tendency to pry (and he does make suggestive jokes with bela, and comment on her promiscuity in a deeply degrading way now and again, too). but this specific attack is reserved for aveline and sebastian, the two characters affiliated with the chantry and the guard. he's not just more aggressive, he's also more selective!

but i think youre absolutely right that like. what it is about is... they have real material power over him that he can't do anything about. but he knows one way to take someone's power and agency away from them that is just as applicable to aveline and sebastian as it is to him! he knows one foolproof way to put someone in their place:)

one thing I wish veilguard touched more upon is the political role of the wardens in the Anderfels and what it means for the crown that the order reaches such a severely weakened state during the game. not even just in terms of Weisshaupt being gone, but also the First Warden. apart from leading the wardens, the First Warden is also a royal advisor to the king of the Anderfels, the order itself having power in the region comparable to teyrns (the second most powerful group of people after the king btw). the next First Warden isn't picked by the end of the veilguard, which means that the position is naturally vacant all the way until all elven gods are dead, and who knows how long after.

since the blight ravages the Anderfels land as well as other parts of the North - probably *more* than other parts of the North, considering how prevalent the infestation is in Hossberg specifically - the king would absolutely be in need of some advising. would the order have any high-ranking wardens who could occupy the advisor position during this time, if only not to lose their relevance in the Ander court? or would they be so busy, or all who could competently represent them so dead after the Archdemon attack, that no men could be spared?

would any Anderfels nobles see this is an opportunity and try to claim the advisor spot for themselves, or at least try to guide the internal politics towards greater independence from the Grey Wardens? the Wardens are naturally greatly respected in the kingdom due to its tight ties with the Blight, but there have to be some people who'd rejoice in seeing them gone. and those who'd naturally benefit from the status quo. you know weak kings are great to exploit if you have your own agenda.

crows! 🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛

He was part of a Dalish clan. He wanted to make a name for himself. He left his clan. He talks about what happened when he went off on his own: "Got my ass kicked. Went broke. I couldn't go crawling back to my clan a failure. Doubt they'd take me back."

(I personally imagine they would. He had family. Friends. Maybe he just didn't feel like he could face them. He had to be right. Had to prove himself. Show he wasn't just stubborn, wasn't stupid for leaving.)

(In a codex entry, he also mentions how he hasn't spoken to his clan in a while, since he left to make a name for himself, says he's is him who kept the distance from his clan. The entry says "Since then, I've kept my distance. That's on me. Maybe I've been feeling guilty, I don't know.")

So he became a monster hunter (following the Way of Three Trees he learned growing up, hunting the unnatural). He jokes it was that or starve. He made good coin, but he didn't leave his clan to get coin. He wanted a purpose still and needed to justify leaving his clan. So he became a Warden.

(He also says in banter with Bellara, about his reason for joining the Wardens. About what he missed about his clan after he left. "I missed the sense of a common purpose. A clan acting as one. [...] There's a reason I joined the Grey Wardens. Guess I needed that purpose again.")

(He mentions in banter with Bellara he also missed the food, sometimes he misses his clan. Mentions somewhere that he missed Uncle Eldrin. He has fond memories of his clan. Bellara asks him if it bothers him not seeing his family and friends. He says "I'm the one who left. That's on me." He brings it up a lot, the fact that he chose to leave, that he chose to not see them, huh? He seems to mention choice a lot.)

He chooses to be a Grey Warden. Undergo the Joining. Dedicate his life to fighting the darkness. (He says at one point “Darkness is a sparring partner. The greater the shadow you confront, the stronger you are for winning.”)

And so like. Then we come to the shit with the archdemon at Weisshaupt. He is a blade that has been honed, sharped for so many years just to fight the evil of the world. He sacrificed so much, a life for a Grey Warden is not an easy life, nor is it a long life. Grey Wardens are poisoned, tainted by darkspawn blood. They corrupt every essence of their being with it. It will kill them one day, soon, if darkspawn blades don’t get to them first. Davrin knows this. He chose this. He needs that purpose.

And after he fucking survives killing the archdemon at Weisshaupt. He says he shouldn't be alive, says being a Grey Warden pushed him, says he's angry he's alive because being a Grey Warden is something that has an expiration date.

He spent years preparing the sacrifice himself so that others could live. He was ready to sacrifice himself. But he fucking survived. He survived and how many Wardens died. He feels cheated out of his purpose, everything he's been through feels worthless, meaningless. He sacrificed so much as a Warden. He needed to have a purpose. He needed for everything he's done, everything he's sacrificed to have meaning. What is he supposed to do now that he's still alive? What is he supposed to do if not die fighting the Blight? What is he supposed to do if this is the Final Blight? How terrifying and enraging is it to be alive still, to potentially have a life ahead of you when you fucking planned to sacrifice your life? How do you justify everything you've done? To think about how you built yourself up for a noble death that ended up not happening? Do you every wonder how Davrin knowing he had an expiration date, assuming he would never grow old, affected him and how he lived his life once he became a Warden?

"Your husband," Bethany says, and Isabela groans, loose and unable to muster much of a flinch when Luis is so dead and so — dead. "Can I ask about him?"

"You never ask permission," Isabela scoffs, drunk enough that she's contorted on the bench, spine twisted so she can lean her whole weight on her arm with her crossed legs pointing vaguely in the direction of the main conversation. "Not for your little questions."

"My little questions?" Bethany repeats after a moment, and Isabela senses she's misstepped. 

"Oh, you know," she replies breezily. "You ask everyone questions. You do it with everyone. It's cute."

"Cute," Bethany remarks after another pause. Isabela tries to sober up enough to focus.

"You just — want to know things," she blusters. "I admire it! Me, I — well, you get older," she explains, though suddenly it doesn't feel all that comfortable to be older than Bethany, "you sort of — you lose your taste for it. Better not to know, that's my philosophy. If you know, you get involved. You don't mean to, but you do."

"Get involved in what?" Bethany asks.

"Other people," Isabela shrugs. "Their — lives, their everything."

"Is that a bad thing?" Bethany asks. Relentless.

"You're doing it again," Isabela informs her, shifting in her seat to spare her hip socket and taking another swig of her beer. "Nosy, nosy, nosy."

She tilts her head at Bethany, inviting her to smile, too, but while the corner of Bethany's lip twitches up dutifully, she keeps her eyes averted, and a bizarre, slow-moving panic rolls over Isabela like a sickly flush.

and then. to have solas, a character we Only just met, who's a man when flemeth's whole thing is that she was done wrong by the men in her life, kill flemeth, and then basically reduce flemeth to the mythal thing and then Also reduce mythal to solas's plot, is so much fucking bullshit. how did flemeth go from being one of the most iconic characters in this franchise, to having so little mention of who she was in vg, since everything is tied back to solas / mythal. and then her death also complicated morrigan's arc, which only adds insult to injury.