hand in unnuggable hand

Have some more

I will never be over the idea of Neve and Davrin clinging so desperately to the illusion of being friends with benefits and failing miserably.

Late-night work sessions over a case in Minrathous, papers and takeout containers spread across the table. Neve leans against the back of Davrin's chair and points something out over his shoulder. When she goes back to pacing, Rana just laughs at the way Davrin's eyes follow her all around the room.

Neve goes to Arlathan—to visit Bel, of course—and Bellara takes copious mental notes watching Neve's gaze get soft when she sees Davrin roughhousing with the griffons and laughing on the other side of their campfire.

The way the word of even minor injuries sends them dashing through eluvians. The way they both have nightmares about the blight and the wordless comfort of an embrace from someone who understands. The way the children of Docktown hug Assan. The way Mila decides she's going to be a detective someday.

The way they dance at Rook's wedding, forgetting for a moment that anyone else is in the room.

The gentle teasing from Lucanis. The knowing looks from Emmrich. The outright calls of bullshit from Taash.

Just two self-made heroes driven to protect the vulnerable learning how to be vulnerable themselves. Just a little.

likes aren’t valueless to me. when senpai (my most discerning mutuals) notices me i smile beatifically and regain 1 hp

When you look at Mythal's design in relation to Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain there's a lot the design team did to really push their characterization and create a very visible tension in the Evanuris. All three of their designs are really thoughtful and have an intentional visual language!

Starting with Mythal, the focal area in her design is her face. The highest area of contrast when we look at her is the glowing eyes, and the direction of her headpiece points down into her face. The only part of her 'look' that's really moving with her is her hair, framing her face. The flow of shapes in her design also pulls our eye inward and down. It's primarily downward shapes along the midline, its grounding, it's pulling us towards her. She isn't trying to be something she's not, she's sturdy and grounded in herself. She's distant but she isn't trying to put herself above us either. Mythal doesn't feel like our equal, but she doesn't feel entirely unreachable either.

Elgar'nan reeeeally contrasts this. Where Mythal flows inward and down in this loud self assuredness, he flows up and out and away.

Elgar'nan's shapes are all wide and flow up and away from him in these big, dramatic sweeping motions. His design never wants your eye to rest on his face, it's unconsciously steering your attention away, you aren't even really aware that your ficus is being guided up. It makes it hard to "hold his gaze". You feel like you're always looking up at him. The focal area in his design is wide and doesn't comfortably sit in your vision. The design is imposing. It's the image he's trying to project. He's always in postures like this too, wide, flowing the eye upward, imposing. It matches the shape of his outfit that forms these upward arrows.

Then there's Ghilan'nain! She's got a lot in common with Elgar'nan visually, but her own unique twist that's different and interesting. Where Elgar'nan and Mythal have very clean shapes, Ghilan'nain is chaotic. Her body contorts, her flow isn't a clean line but rather a tortuous path, which reinforces some of our impression of her, she's experimented on herself. Here is the visual manifestation of Body Horror. She also has shapes that flow up AND down in close proxomity to one another which creates visual stress or tension (red for flow, yellow for tension below). This is also the widest part of her. Like Elgar'nan it's an imposing shape, but it's additionally a tense one! Visual stress like this tends to draw focus. But then we have the tentacles...

The tentacles REALLY complicate her focal areas in a fun way. Motion is THE MOST POWERFUL ATTENTION CUE, it's the thing our brains are most primed to attend to. And she has all of these tentacles writhing arou d her, moving about and drawing focus. She's chaotic. You don't know where to look, but at the same time, that visual stress is almost daring you to look. Like Elgar'nan she doesn't comfortably fit in our vision, she's imposing!

So the visual language in these three characters is different but usess the same tools (shape and flow) to convey a lot about these characters at a glance.

How grounded Mythal feels is narratively important! Especially given that the Evanuris are (or were, rip queen) her peers. If Mythal can be this small (albeit terrifying and powerful) woman, maybe the Evanuris aren't insurmountable. In putting Mythal within Rook's reach visually, there's an inference about Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain by association too.

tldr, these character designs say so much.

oh my goddddddd d d d this is wonderful!!!

fully yelling in the post itself bc i Cannot Be Contained to tags; this is a brilliant aesthetic analysis! i didn't have the language to explain this but i'm so grateful you do and did, because it cuts right to the center of how i view it - how important the design is in the story that's being told, and how much the design(s!) support the narrative rather than detracting from or complicating it!

like it would've been so easy for them to fall into a place where mythal's aesthetic design was contradictory to what we're being shown about her, and that can be interesting too ofc, but i really love how supportive her design is of what we're being told. it reinforces it beautifully, and we're taking in information on a largely subconscious level about what we're being shown

i love this kind of analysis, i'm absolutely buzzing 💖

OP: the stall owner I often order spicy 炸串zhachuan(skewers) from whipped out an impromptu Inner Mongolian grassland dance

Friendly reminder to everyone to warm up and stretch your hands! I don't care about your medium. It's for all y'all. I see your production levels. If you see this take a break and stretch.

Gonna add some advice from my PT "if it hurts stop."

Tacking on to say: speaking as someone who's had multiple nerve injuries in their arms, your legs fucking MATTER when you are at your desk!!!

Imagine nerves as one long elastic band that goes all the way through your body. If your legs are not resting on the floor, knees at a 90 degree angle, you are going to pull at your spine, which is going to pull at your shoulders, which are connected to your arms.

Trust me.

And stay fucking hydrated.

<3

god. Vivienne really is just. that character. She is taken to the circle so young she does not remember what her parents even looked like and someone had to tell her. She wouldn’t even know if they were telling the truth. She is ruthless, the terror and nightmare of the Orlesian court. She almost weeps when you find the Tranquil skulls in Redcliffe. She hates drop waists. She is harrowed younger than any other mage in living memory. She teaches Bull the steps to the dance of the six candles. He likens her to a Qunari dreadnought that has half the enemies on the ground before he’s even reached the front line. Her accent’s not Orlesian. No Free Marcher can tell where she is from either. Is her original voice another part of herself she cut off? She enchanted a duke within one meeting and they scandalised even Orlesian society. She was good friends with his wife. They possibly fucked too. No can control her. She’s been owned since the moment she was first brought to the Circle. She belongs to no people. There are a dozen leashes around her neck claiming otherwise. She makes fun of an elven god for setting his coattails on fire.  She is on the verge of banishing Cole back to the Fade all the time. She can’t help but grow to care for him at the end despite her best efforts to pretend otherwise. She hates herself for it. She thinks caring makes you weak. During the first conversation you have with her unmasked as a Trevelyan, she begs to know if you also cared about her childhood friend, Lydia. She tries to import illegal fur into Skyhold. Did she kill everything soft within her soul herself or did the Chantry sisters do it for her? She is impossible to prank. Some might say she’s even better than Sera at pranking. She was pulled into the game by the time she was nineteen. She’d faced worse things since she could first remember her dreams. Life has never been fair. One merely needs to be hard enough to survive. The blade at her neck when she lay on the floor of the harrowing chamber was no different from the hunger in her belly as child, a necessary pain that only drove her forward. Maker, was there ever any chance that she did not see cruelty as simply another word for life? Is there any version of her that does not end up surrounded by moral filth? 

the last he saw of her

- Richard Siken

Girls with swords are great but there aren't enough girls with flanged maces or morning stars to go around. Give me a woman who does bludgeoning damage

I do enjoy the fact that each faction gives Rook a couple of unconventional familial figures.

Antivan Crow Rook gets the perpetually together-and-split-up Teia and Viago, whose love languages are bickering and poisons. Rook is Viago's favourite and he would never admit it to them, even if Teia is all too happy to expose his affection with her playful barbs.

Mourn Watch Rook gets Myrna and Vorgoth, the former of whom is akin to a college professor who found a baby in their science lab and the latter of whom is most definitely one of those mysterious executors from across the sea but it's fine because they're just Vorgoth and nobody questions it.

Shadow Dragon Rook gets T4T icons Tarquin and Ashur, a Templar who absolutely despises his job and the literal Black Divine, whose anti-slavery group is so full of queer people it may as well be a gay club. Same bickering energy as Teia and Viago, minus the poisoning and cyclical divorcing.

Grey Warden Rook gets Antoine and Evka, the most married wardens to ever exist. Antoine is the absolute sweetest man alive, and the only Orlesian allowed ever. Evka is incredibly competent and has everything under control. Their dates end with explosions. Everything is perfect.

Veil Jumper Rook gets Irelin and Strife. Strife is battling Viago for the grumpiest and meanest dad award. Irelin is clearly the golden child and favourite sibling and he makes that clear to Rook.

Lords of Fortune Rook gets Isabela and Rowan, a pirate turned allegedly somewhat ethical treasure hunter and Rivaini seer who regularly convenes with spirits. Neither of them are parents to Rook, they hold the most insane much older cousin energy though.

So far I've played a Veiljumper and a Crow -- husband has played a Grey Warden and a Mourn Watcher -- and I LOVE the variety of family we get to meet.

If I had to choose my found family, it would be Antoine and Evka. Or possibly Viago and Teia, who are just as likely as our Grey Warden couple to be passionately smooching as soon as I leave the room.

weighing in on the mythal design discussion, in response to @broodwoof's two posts here and here, and @idontevenlikedragonage's post here

as has already been said, i also 100% believe the design choice was deliberate. it's very obvious that the dev team put a lot of thought into the designs of everything in this game, it is visually stunning and contains so much unique design for environments, characters, cultures, factions etc. if i had the link to the post about neve & dorian's colour palette and how it contrasts the venatori handy, i'd link that too. everything in this game is purposeful and meaningful.

so with mythal, the design makes complete sense to me based on how i've interpreted her character, and i believe the devs put plenty of thought into it. lord do i know that there are many people who didn't interpret mythal the same way as i did, even among the people who like her, so i can see how some expected "more", but for the character i see mythal as, the design is perfect.

as i see it: