0029 | in which I finish The Silmarillion, & begin playing Dragon Age: Origins for the first time

[straightforwardly]

So, I am mainly writing this entry because at the moment, I am taking a break from what I really want to be doing, which is playing video games until I melt into the ground. But my little brother is forever paranoid about our Xbox 360 overheating, and I've already been playing it for a while today, so here I am, writing this entry.

► If my mentions of my little brother and doing nothing but playing video games didn't make it clear, I'm done with classes for the summer! Finals were on Friday, and I moved out/went back home on the same day.

For our final, my Tolkien professor brought us doughnuts, and was all, "I have brought 35 golden rings of power, and I will need your help to destroy them all." Then, when one of my classmates asked if one of them was the One Ring, he said, "I don't know— the only way to find out is to work on destroying them all."

So, yes, I was amused by that.

► That means that I've also finished The Silmarillion since I last updated. I don't have too much to say about the rest of it, though; I enjoyed it, but not much of the ending caught enough of my attention for me to have thoughts about it.

Maedhros and Maglor did get me all emotional, though. That last conversation between the two of them, where they realized they were doomed no matter what they did... agh, my poor heart.

On another note, Miriel's fate in "Akallabeth" really, really bothered me. Unless I misread it, didn't she not have any choice in marrying Ar-Parazôn? So I don't see why she had to drown and die with the rest of Númenor. It just didn't seem right.

► And now, for the main portion of this entry. Yesterday, I went to GameStop, and now I have finally begun to play Dragon Age: Origins, which is a game that I've been super interested in for a long time. So far? I am really, really enjoying it.

So, first thing: Character Creation, and other pre-game decisions.

I decided to play this game on casual mode, because while I love RPGs, I'm not really familiar with western RPGs. The only that I've played, as far as I can remember, is Fable II, and not only did I not get very far in it, but I remember struggling with the combat. (Side-note: now that I've actually played Dragon Age, I do think the combat is much less confusing than in Fable II, though it still doesn't come entirely naturally to me.) Besides, I don't have much time to play this game— I go back to school very soon, and I don't own a 360 of my own— and so I'd rather play on the difficulty setting that will give me the least trouble so I can try to get through the game before I go.

There was no question of me playing anything but a female character, but I did have a difficult time deciding on my race. Both the dwarf (because lady dwarfs! are something that I am all over these days) and the Dalish elf (because nature! and elves! and the preservation of lore!) options really called to me, and the only way I could make any decision in the end was by promising myself that I would play through the one I didn't choose the next time.

And that is the story of how I became a Dalish elf. Because nature. And now I need to obtain some sort of video/screenshot capture software that I can use on the 360, because, not to be shallow, but my character is so pretty, and I want pictures. I keep staring at her during cutscenes, haha.

When I was naming her, I was, 'so, what is a good name for an elf?' And of course my mind went straight to The Silmarillion, since, like I mentioned above, I finished reading that recently. I considered a variety of names, including Melian (though she's technically not an elf, I think it's a good elf-y name), but the name I finally settled upon was Lúthien. Which proved to be rather appropriate, as you'll see in a bit.

(I should mention that, while I named her Lúthien, I'm not actually trying to make her Lúthien. For one, my character would not have red hair if that was my goal.)

So far, I've been trying to play my character as someone who is respectful/polite, is dedicated to and loves both her clan and the Dalish in general, is not needlessly cruel, and tends to take everything rather calmly. She's also not overly enamored of humans, but is willing to give them a chance. That being said, all other things being equal, she’d probably trust the word of a non-human over that of a human. Which might not make her the most interesting character in some people's minds— and I have to admit, some of those snarky options are really intriguing, and I'm already keeping them in mind for a potential possibility for my future dwarf character— but I like her.

So, when I finished with the pre-game stuff, I of course moved on to the Origins part of the game.

To which my primary reaction was this: Temlan, you idiot.

Rather creepy atmosphere! Mysterious mirror with a foreboding presence! Oh, I know what I should do! Touch the creepy mirror.

Just, asdfghjkl; I was face-palming at him all the way through, from the moment we first discussed the cave right up to when he decided that touching the creepy mirror was the intelligent thing to do. I just have all these images of their friendship consisting of Temlan being a reckless idiot while Lúthien's just standing there inwardly face-palming and attempting to be the voice of reason before he somehow manages to rope her into doing something stupid, again.

Which, honestly, is kind of adorable to think about, and made Temlan's probable fate much more sad for me than it had been.

I'm still not entirely sure that Temlan's dead, though, and I can't help but wonder if my decision to believe Duncan about that is going to haunt me at some point. When I went around talking to the other Dalish elves prior to being roped into the Grey Wardens, my character's answers to "Is Temlan really gone?" and "What happened to Temlan" and similar questions were along the lines of 'the Grey Warden says so' / 'He's gone' rather than flat-out saying that I think he's dead.

After making sure that it was alright with my clan/the keeper, I went along with Duncan willingly. The goodbye scene with the clan made me surprisingly emotional— I rather liked most of them, when I talked to them.

Which brings me to Ostagar.

My first and final conclusion on the king (Cailian, I think his name was?): He's a loveable idiot.

On my first meeting with Alistair, I was... kind of underwhelmed? My big brother was watching me play at this point, and we'd both heard so much about how people apparently fangirl him like crazy, and are just generally really in love with him, and we were all: "...Is that him?" and "I... don't really see it?" and just generally expressed our confusion. Now that I've gotten a bit further in the game, I do think that he's a bit of a sweetheart, and I've grown rather fond of him, but I still don't really see how he inspires such powerful reactions.

Still, I haven't finished the game yet, so I'll reserve final judgment until then.

I was very much invested in the quest to heal the mabari hound, because animals. And because he was a cutie, and I was very much hoping that I would be able to obtain him, since I'd heard that you could have a dog in this game. It's funny, because I was incredibly paranoid that I might accidentally finish the main quest in the wilds before I could find that flower, and pretty much clung to the bodies of water until I found it.

There's not much else to say about Ostagar. The Grey Wardens kind of disturbed me with how easily they killed Ser Jory— I could understand the reasoning, but I didn't approve. I figured that the king was going to die from the moment he was introduced, but that scene— especially Duncan's reaction!— made me get a bit emotional yet again.

Then came Lothering, as well as the events that led up to the characters getting there.

The mabari hound came and found me! He loved Lúthien so much that he went all that way in order to find her! I know it's because I finished that quest, but I really love animal / human (or, in this case, elf) friendships, and so it just made me incredibly happy.

Then, as if it wasn't already an incredible moment, I got to name the dog! And of course, I could not name him anything but Huan. A dog, going to incredible lengths to help an elf named Lúthien— how could I name him anything else?

Like I said above, I'm not entirely certain why people love Alistair so much, but he and Morrigan snarking at each other while we walk around is glorious, and makes my life just that much better. I kind of ship them right now, to be honest.

I can't remember his name right now— Sten? Stren? something like that— but I could not do anything but save the qunari in the cage in Lotharing. Something about him immediately drew my sympathy, and the Revered Mother's comments about how he did not resist arrest immediately pinged my there is something more going on here than it appears senses. Unfortunately, I had to use the intimidate option on her. =/ I didn't realize she was going to react so badly to it, but when I looked it up online, it turns out I wouldn't have been able to do it either way. And for both me and how I see Lúthien, threatening but not harming a priestess (?) of a religion that Lúthien doesn't even follow (as far as I can tell) is a better option than letting a qunari die an awful death in that cage.

I still don't know too much about him, though. He's not in my party, because I'm ridiculously attached to my dog, and while I'm not as attached to Morrigan and Alistair, their snarking at each other is too enjoyable for me to bear giving it up just yet.

After Lotharing, I decided to go to Brecilian Forest first, because I figured that since Lúthien is Dalish, she would logically chose to go there first, because convincing people of your own race to follow old treaties seems like an easier task than convincing people of other races.

I'm... almost done with this section of the game. I actually finished up the whole Zathrian/Lady of the Forest thing at the end of it, but then there was some sort of glitch, and I couldn't leave the room where all of the ending events took place. I looked it up, and apparently the only I can do is pick the lock (which I don't have the ability to do) or reload the game. Thankfully, I do have a save file from right before I went to parlay with the Lady; otherwise, I might have been crying quite a bit right now.

Basically— and I intend to do it this way again— I went with the option where I forced Zathrian to see what he was doing was wrong, and convinced him to cure the werewolves. It seemed the best to me, because as far as I can tell, all of the characters had legitimate grievances. The Dalish elves definitely didn't deserve to be slaughtered— and I can't see Lúthien ever going for that, considering she's a Dalish elf, and I've been playing her as someone who loves her people— but the werewolves have definitely suffered enough. And the game did give me options where I could cast it as Lúthien pointing out that Zathrian is hurting his own people with what he's doing, which would align well with how I see her character.

And that's basically where I am right now. I am definitely enjoying this very much, and, depending on whether or not one of my brothers have claimed the 360, might go back and play some more right now.