straightforwardly | 0031 | in which I beat Dragon Age: Origins, wax lyric about Zevran, & watch Buffy for the first time

I have literally been writing this entry on and off again for weeks. To give you an idea of how long this has been in progress: I started it two days after posting my last entry.

► One of the book blogs I follow posted a link to How To Tell If You Are In A Brontë Novel. I found it amusing, though I think it applies more to Charlotte Brontë than her sisters. (Granted, I have not yet read anything by Anne Brontë, so I can't speak for hers.) Most of them sound like they came straight from Villette, with smatterings of Jane Eyre.

► I beat Dragon Age: Origins about two days after my last entry, and now I have a lot to say about it. Please bear with me.

Also, I decided to do this update in bullet points, because all my transitions were beginning to sound repetitive.

So, last time I updated about this game, I'd just headed into the Deep Roads to find Branka, blissfully unaware that this game was about to scare the living daylights out of me. Yes, I'm a coward or a scardey-cat or whatever you want to call me, but Hespith. The Broodmother. That was just cruel, game. I was sitting there terrified and saving every five seconds just so I wouldn't have to hear any bit of that creepy song more than once.

...And then I died, and had to fight the Broodmother again, yay. But at least I beat her the second time around! ...Which isn't as comforting as it was, now that I recall that yes, I do intend to play this game more than once, meaning that sometime in the future I'll have to go through that again. /sobbing.

On a related note, I take back everything I said about Branka being the obvious choice to rule Orzammar. I don't want her to rule anything, considering what she did to her own house.

Of course, I'm probably not in a position to cast stones, since I... did not destroy the Anvil of the Void. Um. I blame a combination of Zevran being in favor of not destroying it and rationalizing to myself that "it's okay if it's only volunteers, right? right? ...right?", which was immediately followed up by, "...I'm a terrible person, aren't I."

I took a detour to my party's camp, where I wooed Zevran with Antivan Boots (his nostalgia was adorable ♥), after which he apparently decided that it was time he took this whole tent-thing into his own hands. He offered to relieve my stress with a massage, and, of course, who was I to refuse such a... thoughtful invitation? :P

After that, I believe I procrastinated a while longer on healing Arl Eamon, and went to Denegrim, where I met Alistair's charming sister. To cheer him up after that encounter, I decided to give him his mother's amulet, which had the unfortunate side-effect of making him fall in love with me. Whoops.

When I went into the inn with the Crow-guy— I can't recall his name— Morrigan started scolding Alistair about our relationship, which made me start flailing about going, "It's platonic, it's platonic I swear! My heart belongs to Zevran!" Haha. And then, a few minutes later, when I went back into the building, she did the exact same thing— except to Zevran, not Alistair.

After running around the map for a while, I decided to stop procrastinating and finally, finally heal Arl Eamon. I've already said this, but I really was not nice to the poor guy.

"The last time I was in Denegrim, I stayed in an inn so filthy that even the bed-bugs had fleas." I'm quoting that from memory, so that might not be exactly right, but: oh, Zevran.

So, rescuing Anora did not... quite go as I thought it would. Nor did I expect for my character to be awkwardly naked (or, well, mostly naked) with Alistair in a prison cell. That was... well, awkward.

I did get to choose who rescued her, though, which not only gave me the most amusing conversation between Zevran and Morrigan, but also Zevran's amazing attempts at... persuasion. (And, like Morrigan, I can't believe that actually worked, haha.)

Which then led me to the first of the "screwing over Alistair moments" I had in this game. Remember when I mentioned a few paragraphs ago that Morrigan came under the impression that there was... something between Alistair and Lúthien? Well, apparently Alistair was thinking the same thing. Something which I only found out when I decided to persuade him to marry Anora. (Which, to be fair, is easily the smartest move politically that they could have done. They both have decent-but-not-perfect claims to the throne! She's a good ruler! He likes being a follower!)

And then he went, "What about us?" and my brain blanked, because what us?

(There was an answer option along those lines, and I initially chose it, but my brother felt really bad for him, with how he reacted, and so, after some guilt-tripping on his part, I reloaded the game and went with, "I know, but this is important", feeling really guilty about the whole thing. Which backfired a little bit on me later, but not as badly as I feared it would.)

In the Alienage, I kept getting accosted by "veterans". I did actually believe the guy at first, but then... well. The massive horde of "veterans" and "orphans" and suspiciously well-dressed beggers was a bit suspicious.

In other news, Caladrius has poor decision-making skills. I offered him the money and the chance to go free with all his men, as long as he let the slaves go free. Instead, I had to beat him up, kill quite a few of his men, and then let him go, without the slaves or money. I think he should have taken my original offer.

I don't recall exactly when this happened, but at some point Taliesan popped up trying to woo Zevran back to the Crows. It actually ended up being rather sweet, in terms of the Zevran/my character relationship. Zevran was all, "Not if I have anything to say about it!" after I pointed out that my Lúthien would have to die before he was taken back, and then he actually fought against them with me and offered me this earring while simultaneously being kind of awkward about it and I just really, really enjoyed it all. Zevran = best romantic option, no contest.

The Landsmeet was awful. I just didn't know what to do with Loghain; I think my game sat on that screen for at least half an hour, waiting for me to decide. It didn't help that his comments to Anora afterwards made me go all sad face at the television.

And then Lúthien broke Alistair's heart. He was all, 'there is...something between us, right?' and then my character answered along the lines of, 'I like you fine as a person, but that's it'. He was quite disheartened by the answer, the poor guy. It really didn't help his case that he confronted Lúthien about this when Zevran was sitting in the chair right behind her, though.

I then went back to the camp, and finished up with the Zevran romance to cheer myself up. ♥ I don't have much specifically to say, other than I, as always, really loved it, and that Zevran has my heart forever and ever.

So, when Riordan told us how the Grey Wardens were used to defeat the Blight, my brother and I just kind of looked at each other and were all, "...Zevran has the worst luck with women." Because, despite Riordan's offer, I... couldn't help but feel like my character was the most expendable? Alistair was going to be king, and Riordan had all that knowledge and experience that would be helpful in building the Grey Wardens back up, and that just left Lúthien to be the perfect sacrificial lamb, sigh.

Which made Morrigan's offer all the more tempting. It didn't hurt that she was quite... persuasive about the whole thing. And... okay, yeah, I went for it. I did feel guilty about screwing over Alistair yet again, especially considering how... hesitant he was about the whole thing. I never explained why he had to do it either, or that there was going to be a demon baby that he'll never meet because of it. Lúthien just went all persuasive and "do you trust me?" on him, and he gave in. I know I keep saying this, but: poor guy.

Thus began the Final Battle! I choose my usual party of Zevran, Morrigan, and Alistair with me for it, though in hindsight, I probably should have replaced Alistair with someone else— Wynne, maybe. Or even Huan (my dog) if only because it seemed almost wrong for him to not be at Lúthien's side for this.

The goodbyes / final words from my party members made me all wibbly. Except for Sten, because I'd essentially never spoken to him, so it was more awkward than anything. Also, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, Zevran. I was swooning, especially with that comment about storming the Dark City itself if necessary. Just. *fans self*

As for the actual battles with the armies... they weren't bad? I kind of felt bad for the dwarves, though, because in the pre-dragon fights, I mainly used them and the golems, and so they suffered a lot more casualties than the others. I think I only lost like, one Dalish elf in comparison, and no mages at all.

Sandal is terrifying. Admittedly very convenient, because he came just when I needed him, but terrifying. That is all.

That dragon? Is, hands down, the most frustrating part of the game. I don't know. I just had a really, really hard time beating it— even the Broodmother I managed to beat on my second try, but I just could not finish off that dragon. It was the hordes that killed me usually, actually, but I'm counting it as the dragon because it was a part of that boss fight. If it were only challenging that would be one thing, because I like challenging. But that battle... it skipped challenging and went straight to frustrating.

I'm still not sure how I managed to beat it. At first, I thought it was because I tried out using the Dalish Elves, because the first time I did that I won, though not without significant elf casualties. =( But later, when I tried to go through it again, I couldn't do it again no matter what I tried. So I don't know.

Anyways. Moving on, to the actual ending! Eeee. ♥

Thanks to my character, the Dalish elves now officially have their own land! So that was nice. I was a bit torn on what Lúthien would decide to do now that Ferelden was saved. On one hand, I could see her wanting to go see her clan again. On the other, I could also see her choosing to rebuild the Grey Wardens because of Responsibilities and Promises and things like that. In the end, I went with rebuilding the Grey Wardens, though in my head she did take the time to go visit her clan before getting started on that.

And so, I had my final conversations with my party members. It was rather bittersweet, if only because I'd become rather attached to most of them.

Predictably enough, however, it was the conversation with Zevran that got to me the most. When he said that of course he was going to come along with me, that I was stuck with him now.... just, allllll the hearts.

So.... tl;dr I'm madly in love with Zevran, and I repaid poor Alistair's trust and affection by screwing him over at (nearly) every opportunity. Poor guy.

I do have to say, thugh, that I really loved this game. Just... it was so, so good. The battle system may not have been perfect but, with the exception of the final boss, I enjoyed it well enough, and any flaws that the actual gameplay had were more than made up for by the fantastic story and characters. Especially the characters.

(And, okay, especially Zevran, because I have a one-track mind.)

But still. When we were talking about our thoughts on the game after I beat it, my brother mentioned that he'd read before that Dragon Age: Origins' real strength was in its writing, and I have to say, I definitely agree. I'm already looking forward to playing it again, and to exploring the universe its in a little more.

► I also watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the first time. Because I actually want to get this entry posted sometime in the next century, I'm only going to give the short version of my thoughts (though I might talk about it a bit more in subsequent entries. Maybe.)

Basically, I liked it! I liked it a lot, even more than I thought I was going to.

Buffy was a wonderful character— there were just so many moments where she impressed me— and Spike hit so many of the right buttons for me. I can't say that I ship them without hesitation, because there were definitely some squicky moments, but I do still ship them. I also was a fan of Giles and Willow, though how much I liked them varied from season to season, and Cordelia as well.

Overall, I think the fifth season was the one which was technically the best (and I did like it quite a bit), but the second and sixth seasons were probably my favorites.

And... that's all I'm going to say for now, because, like I said above, I actually want to get this posted before I grow old and die.