138876 réponses à ce sujet

[Vanalia]

If we had a Dwarf romance (male), I'd like a dwarf like Thorin Oakenshield from the movie "The Hobbit", you see? handsome, badass, etc. Not the cliché drunk/comic type.

[Tishina]

If we had a Dwarf romance (male), I'd like a dwarf like Thorin Oakenshield from the movie "The Hobbit", you see? handsome, badass, etc. Not the cliché drunk/comic type.

Add romantic and yeah, that's pretty much what I'm talking about.

[Fen'Eira]

I've been lurking since Descent but was hanging out mostly in the Solas threads.  After the gut-punch, I can't play in that yard anymore.  Hurts too much.  SOOOO....

 

*passes cookies out to you all and tacks the romantic Cullen wallpaper to my desktop*  Besides, Cullen has a hunkier body.  

[Vanalia]

I've been lurking since Descent but was hanging out mostly in the Solas threads.  After the gut-punch, I can't play in that yard anymore.  Hurts too much.  SOOOO....

 

*passes cookies out to you all and tacks the romantic Cullen wallpaper to my desktop*  Besides, Cullen has a hunkier body.  

Cullen will hug you to make you forget your sorrow 

[riverbanks]

I've been lurking since Descent but was hanging out mostly in the Solas threads.  After the gut-punch, I can't play in that yard anymore.  Hurts too much.  SOOOO....

 

*passes cookies out to you all and tacks the romantic Cullen wallpaper to my desktop*  Besides, Cullen has a hunkier body.  

 

Welcome, welcome, friend. When other romances fail, we at least still have the Disney prince (with a side of recovering drug addict) romance to warm your heart. 

 

(romance spoiler)

Spoiler

And should your Dalish Quizzie decide to kick the egg to the curb and find comfort in the big puppy man's arms, know that he'll love you so much that you can even swear your vows to him in the Dalish tradition instead of swearing Andrastian vows your Quizzie doesn't believe in, and all he needs to know is that your words are true. What a sweetie noodle.   

[skylark]

Unrelated but I'm in need of some help. I'm replaying Origins and've gone to Denerim to start the Urns quest and accidentally triggered Alistair's thing. I'm a human noble vying to marry/rule with him and as I haven't done this before my question is for all you Alistair romancers- I'm not sure whether to go the hardened/unhardened route.

[Boobasaurus]

Unrelated but I'm in need of some help. I'm replaying Origins and've gone to Denerim to start the Urns quest and accidentally triggered Alistair's thing. I'm a human noble vying to marry/rule with him and as I haven't done this before my question is for all you Alistair romancers- I'm not sure whether to go the hardened/unhardened route.

 

I believe that a hardened Alistair makes a better king, and more willing to actually be one. 

[Rascoth]

Unrelated but I'm in need of some help. I'm replaying Origins and've gone to Denerim to start the Urns quest and accidentally triggered Alistair's thing. I'm a human noble vying to marry/rule with him and as I haven't done this before my question is for all you Alistair romancers- I'm not sure whether to go the hardened/unhardened route.

I prefer him hardened  Especially if he's going to be the king.

[skylark]

I believe that a hardened Alistair makes a better king, and more willing to actually be one. 

 

I prefer him hardened  Especially if he's going to be the king.

 

Oh boy, that means I have to be mean to him doesn't it. T^T

[riverbanks]

Unrelated but I'm in need of some help. I'm replaying Origins and've gone to Denerim to start the Urns quest and accidentally triggered Alistair's thing. I'm a human noble vying to marry/rule with him and as I haven't done this before my question is for all you Alistair romancers- I'm not sure whether to go the hardened/unhardened route.

 
If you're planning to marry and rule with him, it doesn't really matter whether your harden him or not. Hardening is only a must if you want to eitehr remain his mistress as a non-Cousland, or spare Loghain (but then you'd have to marry Alistair to Anora and wouldn't be able to marry him yourself), so moot point on both fronts.
 
I'm personally always in favor of hardening Alistair because his character starts out very immature and emotionally dependant/avoidant at the same time, and he needs to grow up and face the music, specially if he's going to become king - lest he becomes the same kind of terrible, irresponsible king Marric was, as the comics show; buuuuut that's neither here nor there. The larger point is, unless you plan on recruiting Loghain or becoming Al's mistress, harderning/unhardening is not a requisite, just your choice.

[skylark]

 
If you're planning to marry and rule with him, it doesn't really matter whether your harden him or not. Hardening is only a must if you want to eitehr remain his mistress as a non-Cousland, or spare Loghain (but then you'd have to marry Alistair to Anora and wouldn't be able to marry him yourself), so moot point on both fronts.
 
I'm personally always in favor of hardening Alistair because his character starts out very immature and emotionally dependant/avoidant at the same time, and he needs to grow up and face the music, specially if he's going to become king - lest he becomes the same kind of terrible, irresponsible king Marric was, as the comics show; buuuuut that's neither here nor there. The larger point is, unless you plan on recruiting Loghain or becoming Al's mistress, harderning/unhardening is not a requisite, just your choice.

 

I did try to look it up and saw that hardening is only required if you're not a Cousland. And the only personal opinions I could find were from threads going back like 5 years lol. I was just curious what everyone's thoughts were and so far it's seems like a unanimous hardened Alistair is the preferred choice.

 

Thanks everyone!

[Boobasaurus]

Oh boy, that means I have to be mean to him doesn't it. T^T

 

Not particularly. There is one dialogue option you must choose after leaving the house during his personal quest ("Everyone is out for themselves. You should learn that").

[skylark]

Oh geez I just found out I could leave after the initial dialogue prompt outside her house...stupid me. So I didn't even have to do this now. Hardening him doesn't have much affect on his dialogue right? Apart from approval/disapproval stuff?

[Rascoth]

Oh geez I just found out I could leave after the initial dialogue prompt outside her house...stupid me. So I didn't even have to do this now. Hardening him doesn't have much effect on his dialogue right? Apart from approval/disapproval stuff?

IIRC some of his bander differs depending if he's hardened/softened/before the quest. But I'm not certain.

[Vanalia]

I did try to look it up and saw that hardening is only required if you're not a Cousland. And the only personal opinions I could find were from threads going back like 5 years lol. I was just curious what everyone's thoughts were and so far it's seems like a unanimous hardened Alistair is the preferred choice.

 

Thanks everyone!

No, not unanimous, I NEVER harden him because I hate the fact that if you do, he's suddenly ok for a threesome with Isabela, stuff like this, while before he wasn't ok with it at all. And if you do that with Isabela, in DA2 she teases him and clearly ask him so see her later for sex and he says "yes why not, later maybe!" even if he's still with the warden (as a mistress).

 

It is so un-romantic that I never do this, I hate that kind of behavior, come on, my warden is not meat, she already has to share with the queen, she doesn't want to share again with sluty Isabela.

 

In my next play I will harden him but without romancing him, just because I want to spare Loghain and have Alistair/Anora on the throne (for the DA:I cameos). I could let Alistair leave and be a pathetic drunk fool, but well, even if he's immature and stupid I still like him and he doesn't deserve that.

[skylark]

No, not unanimous, I NEVER harden him because I hate the fact that if you do, he's suddenly ok for a threesome with Isabela, stuff like this, while before he wasn't ok with it at all. And if you do that with Isabela, in DA2 she teases him and clearly ask him so see her later for sex and he says "yes why not, later maybe!" even if he's still with the warden (as a mistress).

 

It is so un-romantic that I never do this, I hate that kind of behavior, come on, my warden is not meat, she already has to share with the queen, she doesn't want to share again with sluty Isabela.

 

Ah, yes I read about that option. I wouldn't go for it, but while I can't speak for Alistair, there's nothing wrong with exploring your sexuality. I would just interpret that as him being more open-minded. And while I don't want to start an argument, I wouldn't go around throwing derogatory slurs at characters like that. Isabella's sexuality [or anyone's for that matter] has no bearing on whether she's a good person/character or not. 

[Sizzle]

I don't think this is a spoiler - everyone knows that Solas is in the DLC and all, right? Well, I never romanced Egg McHardboil, and was thinking about whether or not he makes any comments about F!Elfquisitor's (who romanced Egg at first) new LI? Like Cullen?

 

Just curious, is all

[riverbanks]

Oh boy, that means I have to be mean to him doesn't it. T^T

 

Warning: Alistair feels incoming. Not actually spoilery other than for DAO, just putting it under a cut because it's so long.

Spoiler

It's not mean, if you put the whole picture of Alistair in the context of that line. What you're telling him with that line is not that no one cares about his problems, but that everyone cares about their own problems, and so should he. You're telling him that it's time he starts thinking about himself, too, taking care of himself as much as cares for anyone else but his own person.

 

The Alistair you first meet is a powder keg of an entire life of repressed abandonment issues, but he doesn't deal with his feelings, he doesn't work through them, he just represses his anger and resentment and shrugs everything off with a cute joke. That's not healthy. This is a guy who was abandoned by his father (technically by his mother too but he doesn't know that), raised as a nasty little secret best kept in the shadows, forced to sleep with the dogs in the barn, who watched his brother get everything while all he got was abuse, who was forced to enroll in a military force he wanted no part of, who finally found some semblance of a family and parental figure in the Wardens and Duncan and then lost even that too... and he still apologizes to you for bringing up his issues in conversation, for boring you with talk of things you're probably not interested in hearing, who goes haha no one cares how I feel right, let's just move on.

 

At the same time, he asks about your family, asks about your feelings, asks Morrigan about her feelings and her relationship with her mother, gets Wynne and Zevran to talk about intimate things they don't share with a lot of people, he sympathizes with Isolde's pain despite all the pain she's caused him, he gets mad when you don't help people clearly in need of help even when they're complete jerks to you, he wants to help Goldanna despite her total refusal to have anything to do with him... this guy is so caring. He just cares about everyone else's feelings more than he does for his own.

 

So, as I see it, when you tell Alistair that everyone's looking out for themselves, you're not telling him that nobody cares about him - you're telling him that he too should look out for himself, he too should start taking better care of himself, get in touch with his anger (like Goldanna is clearly in touch with hers!), allow himself to feel things and want things and not just dismiss his valid feelings and his valid anger and his valid sadness with jokes about cheese and floral arrangements.

 

And that's what he does from that point on. When you don't harden Alistair but make him king, and you ask whether that's what he wanted, he'll say no, he never wanted that - but when you do harden him (or, when you ask him to start being more honest and caring with himself), he'll confess that yes, he does want to be king. That yes, he's always wanted the things he was never going to have, but he'd never allowed himself to say that out loud before because no one ever let him have his own feelings and opinions before. He grew up being told what to say and how to feel all his life, but he's done with that now, he's becoming his own person and letting himself feel things, wants things, specially those things he's always wanted but thought he would never be entitled to have.

 

That's why when you harden him and recruit Loghain, for instance, Alistair shuts you out so hard, even when he's otherwise head over heels in love with you. He's no longer just following you as the next strong voice telling him what to do, he's following his own feelings and allowing himself to be angry - even at you, the love of his life. That's great! He's allowing himself so much growth that he won't that let anyone trample over his feelings anymore, not even the woman he loves. Bravo, Alistair, bravo.

 

In the same vein, he becomes a much better king when he's hardened (as his epilogue slides say) because he's neither a doormat to everyone else's ambitions anymore, nor an irresponsible and avoidant manchild of a king like father was. Instead of letting the bannorn walk all over him, instead of becoming a puppet in Eamon's hands because he just doesn't care enough, hardened Alistair grabs the bull by the horns and leads Ferelden like a monarch who actually cares about his kingdom. He studies politics, he faces the bannorn, he reaches out to foreign powers, he leads from the front as Ferelden's genuine king, rather than the lump of clay in everyone else's hands that he becomes otherwise. It's a great outcome for him as a person, and for Ferelden as the country in his hands too.

 

tl;dr - hardening good. Not mean. Grown up Alistair taking better care of himself and his feelings and owning up to his responsibilities rather than pushing them onto whoever wants to take the lead in his stead is best Alistair. *thumbs up emoji*

[skylark]

Warning: Alistair feels incoming. Not actually spoilery other than for DAO, just putting it under a cut because it's so long.

Spoiler

It's not mean, if you put the whole picture of Alistair in the context of that line. What you're telling him with that line is not that no one cares about his problems, but that everyone cares about their own problems, and so should he. You're telling him that it's time he starts thinking about himself, too, taking care of himself as much as cares for anyone else but his own person.

 

The Alistair you first meet is a powder keg of an entire life of repressed abandonment issues, but he doesn't deal with his feelings, he doesn't work through them, he just represses his anger and resentment and shrugs everything off with a cute joke. That's not healthy. This is a guy who was abandoned by his father (technically by his mother too but he doesn't know that), raised as a nasty little secret best kept in the shadows, forced to sleep with the dogs in the barn, who watched his brother get everything while all he got was abuse, who was forced to enroll in a military force he wanted no part of, who finally found some semblance of a family and parental figure in the Wardens and Duncan and then lost even that too... and he still apologizes to you for bringing up his issues in conversation, for boring you with talk of things you're probably not interested in hearing, who goes haha no one cares how I feel right, let's just move on.

 

At the same time, he asks about your family, asks about your feelings, asks Morrigan about her feelings and her relationship with her mother, gets Wynne and Zevran to talk about intimate things they don't share with a lot of people, he sympathizes with Isolde's pain despite all the pain she's caused him, he gets mad when you don't help people clearly in need of help even when they're complete jerks to you, he wants to help Goldanna despite her total refusal to have anything to do with him... this guy is so caring. He just cares about everyone else's feelings more than he does for his own.

 

So, as I see it, when you tell Alistair that everyone's looking out for themselves, you're not telling him that nobody cares about him - you're telling him that he too should look out for himself, he too should start taking better care of himself, get in touch with his anger (like Goldanna is clearly in touch with hers!), allow himself to feel things and want things and not just dismiss his valid feelings and his valid anger and his valid sadness with jokes about cheese and floral arrangements.

 

And that's what he does from that point on. When you don't harden Alistair but make him king, and you ask whether that's what he wanted, he'll say no, he never wanted that - but when you do harden him (or, when you ask him to start being more honest and caring with himself), he'll confess that yes, he does want to be king. That yes, he's always wanted the things he was never going to have, but he'd never allowed himself to say that out loud before because no one ever let him have his own feelings and opinions before. He grew up being told what to say and how to feel all his life, but he's done with that now, he's becoming his own person and letting himself feel things, wants things, specially those things he's always wanted but thought he would never be entitled to have.

 

That's why when you harden him and recruit Loghain, for instance, Alistair shuts you out so hard, even when he's otherwise head over heels in love with you. He's no longer just following you as the next strong voice telling him what to do, he's following his own feelings and allowing himself to be angry - even at you, the love of his life. That's great! He's allowing himself so much growth that he won't that let anyone trample over his feelings anymore, not even the woman he loves. Bravo, Alistair, bravo.

 

In the same vein, he becomes a much better king when he's hardened (as his epilogue slides say) because he's neither a doormat to everyone else's ambitions anymore, nor an irresponsible and avoidant manchild of a king like father was. Instead of letting the bannorn walk all over him, instead of becoming a puppet in Eamon's hands because he just doesn't care enough, hardened Alistair grabs the bull by the horns and leads Ferelden like a monarch who actually cares about his kingdom. He studies politics, he faces the bannorn, he reaches out to foreign powers, he leads from the front as Ferelden's genuine king, rather than the lump of clay in everyone else's hands that he becomes otherwise. It's a great outcome for him as a person, and for Ferelden as the country in his hands too.

 

tl;dr - hardening good. Not mean. Grown up Alistair taking better care of himself and his feelings and owning up to his responsibilities rather than pushing them onto whoever wants to take the lead in his stead is best Alistair. *thumbs up emoji*

 

Thanks for that, definitely makes me more confident in hardening him. I actually didn't have a problem with the initial hardening dialogue prompt. The one for everyone's out for themselves. I thought there might be another, much harsher choice after that. Something like, omg you're such a child grow the f* up already. But I'm glad I was wrong, I thought the conversation went rather well. And now I think I'll harden him on non-romanced playthroughs as well. ^^

[wiccame]

Unrelated but I'm in need of some help. I'm replaying Origins and've gone to Denerim to start the Urns quest and accidentally triggered Alistair's thing. I'm a human noble vying to marry/rule with him and as I haven't done this before my question is for all you Alistair romancers- I'm not sure whether to go the hardened/unhardened route.

I prefer hardening him if I am going to make him king. It doesn't feel like I am making him do something he really doesn't want to do. But then I am a sucker for Alistair and I get very protective over him and always make sure he gets what he wants. Hardening him means I can become queen without feeling guilty lol.

[wiccame]

I've been lurking since Descent but was hanging out mostly in the Solas threads.  After the gut-punch, I can't play in that yard anymore.  Hurts too much.  SOOOO....

 

*passes cookies out to you all and tacks the romantic Cullen wallpaper to my desktop*  Besides, Cullen has a hunkier body.  

Welcome, don't worry Cullen with treat you right!

[Arshei]

Oh shi*, poor Cullen D:

Spoiler

Cullen takes Lyrium, not romanced, Inquisitor disbands the Inquisition: Cullen loses his mind to Lyrium and becomes a beggar on the streets.

[Tishina]

 
If you're planning to marry and rule with him, it doesn't really matter whether your harden him or not. Hardening is only a must if you want to eitehr remain his mistress as a non-Cousland, or spare Loghain (but then you'd have to marry Alistair to Anora and wouldn't be able to marry him yourself), so moot point on both fronts.
 
I'm personally always in favor of hardening Alistair because his character starts out very immature and emotionally dependant/avoidant at the same time, and he needs to grow up and face the music, specially if he's going to become king - lest he becomes the same kind of terrible, irresponsible king Marric was, as the comics show; buuuuut that's neither here nor there. The larger point is, unless you plan on recruiting Loghain or becoming Al's mistress, harderning/unhardening is not a requisite, just your choice.

Don't forget my favorite - a state marriage with Alistair while still romancing Zevran. Alistair will only go along with that if you have hardened him. And I think you can do the same thing with Leliana because I've seen introductions at Halam'Shiral where "mistress to the queen of Ferelden" or something like that is added to her titles.

 

Ah, yes I read about that option. I wouldn't go for it, but while I can't speak for Alistair, there's nothing wrong with exploring your sexuality. I would just interpret that as him being more open-minded. And while I don't want to start an argument, I wouldn't go around throwing derogatory slurs at characters like that. Isabella's sexuality [or anyone's for that matter] has no bearing on whether she's a good person/character or not. 

Thank you!

[R2s Muse]

I've been lurking since Descent but was hanging out mostly in the Solas threads.  After the gut-punch, I can't play in that yard anymore.  Hurts too much.  SOOOO....

 

*passes cookies out to you all and tacks the romantic Cullen wallpaper to my desktop*  Besides, Cullen has a hunkier body.  

Welcome! It's been pretty spoilery, and still is, but it's a good place. And the happily ever after seems to shine through even the spoiler tags around here.

[Marika Haliwell]

Oh shi*, poor Cullen D:

Spoiler

Cullen takes Lyrium, not romanced, Inquisitor disbands the Inquisition: Cullen loses his mind to Lyrium and becomes a beggar on the streets.

Spoiler

The glee of Cullen haters but why? he has friend, cassandra was one of them, why they didn't helped him?