#bethany da2

Bethany Hawke — "I could've been wild, and I could've been free"

Prompt: Battlefield - The Hawke Siblings

Daphne is the eldest Hawke child. As the older sister, she's supposed to look after Bethany and Carver. No matter what, she's going to keep them safe and heal all their injuries. Or so she believes.

If Bethany Hawke has one fan, them I'm THAT ONE

If Bethany Hawke has no fans, that means I'm dead

(disclaimer: i've already gone through the expedition with Bethany but am having some doubts, i know roughly what happens if you leave her behind) (this is my first playthrough though so I don't know the full implications of either path)

because Jayden's whole thing is that her family is her number one priority and she will do anything to keep them safe. She also fully believes that Carver's death was her fault for not protecting him well enough and feels like she has to do better with Bethany. There's nothing she cares more about in the world than her little sister

so it would make sense that when her mother asks her to leave Bethany behind she would agree, she doesn't want to bring her sister into danger, however.

I've had Bethany on my party nearly constantly throughout the game because Jayden wants to be able to make sure she's able to protect her little sister from the Templars, and she's currently especially concerned that the Templars are watching them because they've kept accidentally getting involved with them on jobs

So there is precedent to suggest that Jayden would rather have Bethany in her sights where she can protect her than leave her alone where the templars could find her, even if it's dangerous

Either option creates angst, because either way Jayden made a choice to protect her sister and failed. The main question is which is more interesting:

Jayden tries to keep her Bethany out of danger, only for her to get taken away while Jayden isn't there to protect her. She's now in the Circle, under direct control of the Circle, and Jayden has to navigate this situation where she has more reason to hate the templars than ever before but also has to be careful because they have her sister. This one also has an aspect of Jayden denying Bethany making choices for herself out of overprotectiveness, which then leads directly to Bethany losing her freedom (though arguably she also loses freedom as a Grey Warden)

OR

Jayden takes Bethany with her out of a need to stay close to her and be there to protect her, only to fail to protect her in the exact same way she failed to protect Carver (except worse this time because she led her sister straight into danger). Her sister is taken away by the Wardens and Jayden doesn't even know if she's alive or dead for 3 months, and she just has to live with the descision she made and wonder why she thought it would go any different this time. In this route Jayden's going to be extra angry with herself, EXTREMELY angry at Varric's brother, and still angry at the Templars because if it wasn't for their threat she wouldn't have felt the need to take Bethany with her (also she's already spent her whole life helping Bethany avoid them and that resentment isn't vanishing overnight regardless)