I was also impressed by the Fenris/Seb comments on lj. Although on a personal level, Seb's character really irritates me in a way no other npc does.
I found the 100% rivalry with Fenris (no romance) ends up disturbingly with those overtones that he's just traded one master for another. As an apostate, I found him having a heart to heart with Hawke about what to do about his freedom and it was pretty distressing since (and my Hawke said this) we weren't friends, he had no real reason to trust in my judgement, and yet he was desperate enough to seek help from Hawke.
At endgame, his last comments about respecting Hawke despite their differences were very touching all the same. While I plan to maybe have a rivalmance on another mage!Hawke, I can't help but imagine it's going to be extremely uncomfortable and will feel like Hawke's using him (whereas with rival!mance Anders, I felt like rogue!hawke was being used for her mansion as a safehouse from templars, to some extent.)
I also felt pretty awkward in a friendly slash relationship with Merrill, especially after I got the bad outcome with the Dalish and Hawke is really all she has left in the world - puts her in a terribly vulnerable place since Hawke can dump her at any time without repercussion, or decide that she's sick of the neighbours gossiping about her elven lover etc. I suppose Merrill seems to have some strong friendships with the other NPCs (Varric, Isabela) by the end but she's so entirely clueless, I can see her snapping and doing something stupid relating to blood magic if she had her heart broken.
Tbh, I never really picked up on Fenris' disdain for women, even though he was often in my party. Any specific examples? It's entirely probably that I didn't notice it when it happened.
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I found the 100% rivalry with Fenris (no romance) ends up disturbingly with those overtones that he's just traded one master for another. As an apostate, I found him having a heart to heart with Hawke about what to do about his freedom and it was pretty distressing since (and my Hawke said this) we weren't friends, he had no real reason to trust in my judgement, and yet he was desperate enough to seek help from Hawke.
At endgame, his last comments about respecting Hawke despite their differences were very touching all the same. While I plan to maybe have a rivalmance on another mage!Hawke, I can't help but imagine it's going to be extremely uncomfortable and will feel like Hawke's using him (whereas with rival!mance Anders, I felt like rogue!hawke was being used for her mansion as a safehouse from templars, to some extent.)
I also felt pretty awkward in a friendly slash relationship with Merrill, especially after I got the bad outcome with the Dalish and Hawke is really all she has left in the world - puts her in a terribly vulnerable place since Hawke can dump her at any time without repercussion, or decide that she's sick of the neighbours gossiping about her elven lover etc. I suppose Merrill seems to have some strong friendships with the other NPCs (Varric, Isabela) by the end but she's so entirely clueless, I can see her snapping and doing something stupid relating to blood magic if she had her heart broken.
Tbh, I never really picked up on Fenris' disdain for women, even though he was often in my party. Any specific examples? It's entirely probably that I didn't notice it when it happened.