#vigilflight

(what was your father like?) “strict. high expectations. and if you didn’t meet them you’d hear about it.” 

“that which is best in me. father used to say that didn’t he? to you and bethany? 

ship meme | accepting | also asked by @dalishfreckles​

since i also made asked joly to send me this im gonna split it into two b/c i have too many ships. vher’s one (1) ship was talked about here.

merrill

- carver x merrill. my main merrill ship tbh? you talked about this in your reply, but i think it has a lot of sweetness to it. it’s not perfect - some of carver’s comments about merrill seem to be kind of othering in a well-meaning but still bad way, but honestly the potential for growth in that regard just makes it more interesting for me. they’re both two people who have self-esteem issues, who compare themselves negatively to people around them, most especially hawke. i’d honestly love a conversation on merrill with carver, romantic or not, where they talk (or try to talk) about their feelings of inferiority that hawke inspires in them.

- briala x merrill. they’re two elves who in lore are connected to eluvians, and as of the end of da2 are both in strange positions. briala is a “city elf” but as one with friends in high places was estranged from them, especially those in the alienage. meanwhile merrill is a dalish elf, but was banished, and while she has a place in the alienage in my canon that’s more established than what we get in da2, she still has the vallaslin to differentiate her. also i think after all the doublespeak and lies someone as honest as merrill would be good for briala.

- bethany x merrill. it wasn’t a ship i thought a lot about until recently but, like??? they’re both relatively young when da2 starts. both are naive and world-weary in their own ways, merrill being new to human civilisation and bethany still discovering what it is to be an apostate in a hostile environment. i think both have a lot they could teach each other and support each other b/c wlw gotta stick together. and then realise they’re kissable.

thora

- harding x thora. harding’s lived such a normal life and i honestly think that fascinated the heck out of thora. like-- parents who are together and love you? grew up herding sheep? she has a unique experience for surfacer dwarves who are so often swept up in quasi-castes, even those who tend to frown upon being too dwarfy, like varric, have had their lives defined by it. harding’s funny comments and pretty face are what attracts thora to her, and her steadiness is just very good for thora. also for once neither of them have to get a crick in their necks talking (or kissing).

- blackwall x thora. my main romance on thora’s file. this romance means a lot to me on thora b/c like... her general theme is forgiveness and also making more of herself after a criminal past. cadash/blackwall in general i think is the best combination and criminally underrated. their narratives just laid out nicely and complimented one another well, which was a total accident. what draws her to blackwall, well, it was mostly the beard and how assured he is in that first cutscene, but it’s also how much respect he gives you. he immediately calls her “my lady,” and is one of the first people to ever refer to her as anything along those lines. also the fact that he immediately takes a flattering, subservient position when you start flirting with him gets her going.

“Is it true the Champion single-handedly fought off a dragon with one arm tied behind their back?” Curiosity clear, even as they stand in ankle deep snow. Maker, he hated cold weather. “All while Qunari were throwing spears?” Probably not possible. Probably.

i’m sure that someone with the patience to go through every last piece of dialogue for evidence could say this better, but i’m not that person so i’m just gonna say some stuff

first and most obviously, sera and cole are both extremely obviously neurodivergent-coded. i see a lot of characteristics typical of autism in both of them (although that’s in no small part influenced by my desire to see characters that are like me so other people might see other things). sera is chaotic, but underneath that chaos is a lot of very rigid thinking. she wants to help people, but not so much that it changes the routine she’s used to. she wants andraste and the maker to be real, but the thought that they’re really, really real sends her into a panic. she dresses and speaks in unusual ways, and doesn’t care if people think she’s weird for it. this is the way she is and everyone else can shove off if they don’t like it. 

i suppose the big difference between cole and sera’s neurodivergence is that sera more often exhibits the “bad” side of autism. she’s stubborn, hates change, responds to emotional situations in socially unacceptable ways, and assumes that people understand what she’s thinking without her explaining it. funnily enough, sera acts like a typical autistic boy and cole acts more like a typical autistic girl. 

aside from their brain stuff, cole and sera both know that there are people in the world that need punishing and people that need helping. their methods and exact motivations are different, but they both have a sense of right and wrong that is inseparable from their core personality. 

the last thing that i can think of right now is isolation. they’re both very different from the people around them, and they keep their distance from the rest of the world. i’m sure sera has some close friends among her friends, but because she is so wrapped up in the crusade she’s created and because of her internalized racism, i don’t think she has many. cole i know doesn’t have many friends, because he (at least at first) forces everyone to forget him. for both of them i think their isolation is because they’re afraid. specifically, they’re afraid of loss and rejection. cole thinks that he would hurt people. sera thinks (subconsciously i’m sure) that people will hate or pity or scorn her for being an elf. 

at least, that’s what i think. if anybody who has done more close inspection of sera’s personality wants to refute anything i’ve said or add something on, then be my guest. 

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