straightforwardly (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
straightforwardly) wrote2015-05-08 08:55 pm
straightforwardly) wrote2015-05-08 08:55 pm
072 | in which I begin to play Dragon Age II for the first time
► A few days ago, I finally got my hands on Dragon Age II. ♥ Of course, this means that I have things to talk about! I'm playing as a female warrior Hawke, and just got what I think is the last of my party members— certainly, he's the last that I knew about via fannish osmosis.
It took me a bit to warm up to the game— mainly because the beginning felt disjointed, and I didn't feel same the instant connection with my Hawke that I did with my Warden. But now, I think it's safe to say that I'm definitely enjoying myself. ♥
I've basically been running around doing various quests. I don't really get a sense of there being an overall "story" the way I did in Origins, though— it feels more like I'm living the life of this particular character. I still haven't gotten to that expedition into the Deep Roads yet, though, so that can definitely still change. Since I don't have many, if any, plot-related thoughts, let's talk about the characters! First my Hawke, and then the companions, in the order that I got them.
I liked the general idea of f!Hawke's default look, so I ended up sticking pretty close to that when I was designing her— i.e., short, black hair, blue eyes, and so on. At first, I thought that blue eyes may have been a mistake— there are some scenes where her eyes look opaque/filmed over, like she's dead— but I got used to it, and am otherwise pretty pleased. She's definitely not the beauty of the family, though— mostly because I think Bethany / their mom are gorgeous.
I'm playing her as someone who's a bit brash and no-nonsense, but basically has a good heart, and is devoted to her family. Very different from my Warden, but still fun to play as.
I pretty much adore Bethany, and cart her around everywhere with me. She's the only character that I've maxed friendship with, which makes sense, considering that she's Hawke's sister, and they've known each other forever.
While I'm kind of neutral towards Aveline as a character, I'm actually pretty invested in her friendship with my Hawke. They just seem really, really well-suited for one another, and I've been eating up their interactions during all the Aveline quests. Still, when I don't need her specifically, I tend to leave Aveline with the guard. (I mostly justify it by saying that Aveline has her own duties to keep her busy, especially since she's now going to be captain.)
Varric's the other character that I almost always take with me. I... pretty much fell in love with him on the spot? I actually went and looked up who the romanceable companions were in hopes that he'd be on the list. Unfortunately, the answer was no. >_> Still, I'm really enjoying him! His additions to conversations are pretty much always amazing, and I am adoring his banters with... pretty much everyone. I love how Aveline seems to make him a bit nervous, and I'm actually kind of shipping Varric/Bethany now on the basis of those banters alone. He just seems to treat her very sweetly. The way he seems to be looking out for Merrill is also hitting all the right buttons for me, though I'm feeling a more platonic vibe in regards to that relationship.
Speaking of Merrill, she's the next character that I picked up! Mainly because I felt bad about my not fulfilling my promise to Flemeth. She mentioned my Warden, eee~! ♥ (Basically, when my Hawke met her, she mentioned that she was nervous around humans because the only other encounter she had with them was when a Grey Warden took her friend.) It's a bit odd, though, to see the Dalish in general treating my character with such antagonism, since I've been used to them treating me pretty well in Origins/Awakening. I'm curious about why she decided to leave her clan, though— the bits and pieces of information she's mentioned doesn't quite seem to be reason enough.
After her, there was a long period where I didn't run into any companions. And then I came across Anders! ♥ So far, he doesn't seem too different from his Awakenings self. I kind of melted when he mentioned that he left the Wardens because they took his cat away. His affection for Ser Pounce-a-lot is hands down my favorite thing about him, haha. That being said, what happened with him and and Justice... does seem a bit worrying.
(Also, he mentioned my Warden! I am pretty much jumping at every reference to her, haha.)
And then I ran into Isabela! Eee, I love her already. ♥ I know that I met her briefly in Origins, but I didn't get much of a feel for her character. I haven't had her very long— the mission with her was the second-to-last one I did before stopping for today— so I don't have too much else to say about her.
Finally, there's Fenris, who, conveniently enough, popped up in the last quest I did today. And here I thought it was going to be something short and simple, haha.
I have to confess to... being somewhat disappointed with him? I got the impression that he's super popular with fandom / romanced very often; I recall once reading a comment on FFA about how the anon in question always intended to romance someone else, but immediately changed their minds upon hearing his voice. But... he didn't make that much of an impression on me? He's kind of pretty, and his voice isn't bad, but so far, he's probably one of the companions I find the least interesting. I did have fun having Hawke jump to her sister's defense, though. And I did love how he was all, 'okay, this mansion's mine now'.
Now that I have Fenris, though, I can finally decide who I'm going to romance. (I wanted to see all of them before I made that decision.) Initially, when I was going into the game, I'd intended to romance Anders, unless he did something that made me go OH HELL NO. He hasn't, but... I don't really feel like he and this particular iteration of Hawke click? I feel like he'd fit more to the personality of one of the potential mage!Hawke's that I've already been building up in my mind than to the one I'm playing currently.
Honestly, I think my current Hawke isn't straight. She+guys aren't clicking for me, but there was an instant rush of chemistry with Isabela, and I think I could also really go for a more slow-build kind of relationship between her and Merrill. Decisions, decisions... In any case, I think I'm definitely going to romance one or the other.
► In other news, I signed up for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
het_bigbang! Which also means that I finally got around to making a(n empty) LJ account to use for signing up for things that are LJ-only. I went with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
thisfragility as the name, since "straightforwardly" didn't fit, and "straightforward" was taken, as was, if I remember correctly "intensefragility".
I'm vacillating between two ideas at the moment for it. The first, and more likely one is for Shall We Date? The Niflheim, based on Jean's Lovesickness Event. Specifically, it's going to be a divergence. I might not have my transcript for that anymore, but I do still remember most of the moment I'm going to be diverging from, since I actually got this idea back when I was transcribing the event, and have some notes about it.
The other idea is for Harry Potter, and would be a canon AU with Tom/Ginny. I've a handful of ideas for the setting/premise, but I'm not quite sure if I have enough to pull together into an actual plot. I guess we'll have to see, then.
And that's all I have to say for now. ♥
It took me a bit to warm up to the game— mainly because the beginning felt disjointed, and I didn't feel same the instant connection with my Hawke that I did with my Warden. But now, I think it's safe to say that I'm definitely enjoying myself. ♥
I've basically been running around doing various quests. I don't really get a sense of there being an overall "story" the way I did in Origins, though— it feels more like I'm living the life of this particular character. I still haven't gotten to that expedition into the Deep Roads yet, though, so that can definitely still change. Since I don't have many, if any, plot-related thoughts, let's talk about the characters! First my Hawke, and then the companions, in the order that I got them.
I liked the general idea of f!Hawke's default look, so I ended up sticking pretty close to that when I was designing her— i.e., short, black hair, blue eyes, and so on. At first, I thought that blue eyes may have been a mistake— there are some scenes where her eyes look opaque/filmed over, like she's dead— but I got used to it, and am otherwise pretty pleased. She's definitely not the beauty of the family, though— mostly because I think Bethany / their mom are gorgeous.
I'm playing her as someone who's a bit brash and no-nonsense, but basically has a good heart, and is devoted to her family. Very different from my Warden, but still fun to play as.
I pretty much adore Bethany, and cart her around everywhere with me. She's the only character that I've maxed friendship with, which makes sense, considering that she's Hawke's sister, and they've known each other forever.
While I'm kind of neutral towards Aveline as a character, I'm actually pretty invested in her friendship with my Hawke. They just seem really, really well-suited for one another, and I've been eating up their interactions during all the Aveline quests. Still, when I don't need her specifically, I tend to leave Aveline with the guard. (I mostly justify it by saying that Aveline has her own duties to keep her busy, especially since she's now going to be captain.)
Varric's the other character that I almost always take with me. I... pretty much fell in love with him on the spot? I actually went and looked up who the romanceable companions were in hopes that he'd be on the list. Unfortunately, the answer was no. >_> Still, I'm really enjoying him! His additions to conversations are pretty much always amazing, and I am adoring his banters with... pretty much everyone. I love how Aveline seems to make him a bit nervous, and I'm actually kind of shipping Varric/Bethany now on the basis of those banters alone. He just seems to treat her very sweetly. The way he seems to be looking out for Merrill is also hitting all the right buttons for me, though I'm feeling a more platonic vibe in regards to that relationship.
Speaking of Merrill, she's the next character that I picked up! Mainly because I felt bad about my not fulfilling my promise to Flemeth. She mentioned my Warden, eee~! ♥ (Basically, when my Hawke met her, she mentioned that she was nervous around humans because the only other encounter she had with them was when a Grey Warden took her friend.) It's a bit odd, though, to see the Dalish in general treating my character with such antagonism, since I've been used to them treating me pretty well in Origins/Awakening. I'm curious about why she decided to leave her clan, though— the bits and pieces of information she's mentioned doesn't quite seem to be reason enough.
After her, there was a long period where I didn't run into any companions. And then I came across Anders! ♥ So far, he doesn't seem too different from his Awakenings self. I kind of melted when he mentioned that he left the Wardens because they took his cat away. His affection for Ser Pounce-a-lot is hands down my favorite thing about him, haha. That being said, what happened with him and and Justice... does seem a bit worrying.
(Also, he mentioned my Warden! I am pretty much jumping at every reference to her, haha.)
And then I ran into Isabela! Eee, I love her already. ♥ I know that I met her briefly in Origins, but I didn't get much of a feel for her character. I haven't had her very long— the mission with her was the second-to-last one I did before stopping for today— so I don't have too much else to say about her.
Finally, there's Fenris, who, conveniently enough, popped up in the last quest I did today. And here I thought it was going to be something short and simple, haha.
I have to confess to... being somewhat disappointed with him? I got the impression that he's super popular with fandom / romanced very often; I recall once reading a comment on FFA about how the anon in question always intended to romance someone else, but immediately changed their minds upon hearing his voice. But... he didn't make that much of an impression on me? He's kind of pretty, and his voice isn't bad, but so far, he's probably one of the companions I find the least interesting. I did have fun having Hawke jump to her sister's defense, though. And I did love how he was all, 'okay, this mansion's mine now'.
Now that I have Fenris, though, I can finally decide who I'm going to romance. (I wanted to see all of them before I made that decision.) Initially, when I was going into the game, I'd intended to romance Anders, unless he did something that made me go OH HELL NO. He hasn't, but... I don't really feel like he and this particular iteration of Hawke click? I feel like he'd fit more to the personality of one of the potential mage!Hawke's that I've already been building up in my mind than to the one I'm playing currently.
Honestly, I think my current Hawke isn't straight. She+guys aren't clicking for me, but there was an instant rush of chemistry with Isabela, and I think I could also really go for a more slow-build kind of relationship between her and Merrill. Decisions, decisions... In any case, I think I'm definitely going to romance one or the other.
► In other news, I signed up for
het_bigbang! Which also means that I finally got around to making a(n empty) LJ account to use for signing up for things that are LJ-only. I went with thisfragility as the name, since "straightforwardly" didn't fit, and "straightforward" was taken, as was, if I remember correctly "intensefragility". I'm vacillating between two ideas at the moment for it. The first, and more likely one is for Shall We Date? The Niflheim, based on Jean's Lovesickness Event. Specifically, it's going to be a divergence. I might not have my transcript for that anymore, but I do still remember most of the moment I'm going to be diverging from, since I actually got this idea back when I was transcribing the event, and have some notes about it.
The other idea is for Harry Potter, and would be a canon AU with Tom/Ginny. I've a handful of ideas for the setting/premise, but I'm not quite sure if I have enough to pull together into an actual plot. I guess we'll have to see, then.
And that's all I have to say for now. ♥
no subject
...Also, shit, I realistically probably don't have time, and have a non-zero chance of moving this summer, but now I'm eyeing het_bigbang because I really want that motivation to do something with all the notes and snippets of a Mass Effect fic I have lying around.
no subject
(Slightly off-topic, but I love your gameblogging. Tealmenance is a GIFT, and I'm really looking forward to reading about your Hawke's adventures once I beat DA2. ♥)
Honestly, I probably shouldn't have signed-up either, if only because I am terrible at big bang challenges. I don't think I've ever finished one. I just have a huge soft spot for
no subject
I've done... four, I think, big bangs successfully, so something about them seems to work well for me. Hmm. Now I'm weighing my likely scarce free time and having to bother creating an LJ account against actually getting around to the Femshep/Garrus fic with all the explosions and the very tempting phrase "it's always been run pretty well." At least I have a few more days to make up my mind!