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[draken-heart]

I have to head out the door so I'll catch up on the lengthier convos here, but I can respond to this really quick. Yes, it's dwarf-exclusive. When you recruit him and go through introductory chats, his background, yadda yadda -- finish all that up. The NEXT time you click on him, he has a stand-alone conversation with Cadash, very brief. Here's the transcript:

 

Dorian: “A little bird told me you were part of the Carta, Inquisitor.”
Cadash: “A little bird?”
Dorian: “Well, a big bird. A big, indiscreet bird. Who was drunk at the time.”
Cadash: “What you heard was true. I was once part of the Carta.”
Dorian: “Not any longer? Too bad. They’re an excellent source of cheap contraband.”
Dorian: “Back home, you see dwarves everywhere … and not just from Ambassadoria.”
Dorian: “Rather odd how, in the South, everyone thinks of dwarves as merchants. Limited view, in my opinion.”
Dorian: “Maybe you’ll change that? In the future, one will hear ‘dwarf’ and think 'messiah.’ Down with stereotypes!”

 

"Down with stereotypes!"

 

 

That reminds me -- I know some of us have played a qunari. Does he have anything specific for a qunari?

 

I believe he talks Tal-Vashoth with a Qunari (Vashoth) inquisitor.

[Tishina]

I... I- dwarves?!

I think some people have their fictional races confused. LOL But I really am intrigued by Dorian's comments, and I would love love love to play a dwarf who was familiar with Tevinter. Especially if they're more of a traditional dwarf from one of the many underground embassies. I love the Carta like woah, but I'm kind of sick of defaulting to a criminal at this point, reformed or not. I wanna be the other kind of greedy dwarf!


That's a blessing and a curse! On the one hand, I felt so attached to my Brosca(s) because I got to know their family, their friends, their starter enemies, ran into people they admired and people they rrreeeaaally didn't. The Carta angle was done so masterfully in that Origin, I think that's why Cadash falls short (ha, ha) for me in some places. There's just such a high bar.

And yet, the clannishness is cool. And you're able to headcanon things like, say... being a widow/er, having kids, whether you were a thug or a mafia prince/ss, what your upbringing was like... it's all very fun.

(This is completely unrelated, but does anyone have any sources or just plain headcanons for what traditional dwarven weddings are like? DC origin implies that casteless can't get married because they're not-people, but can you just imagine what Rica and Bhelen's wedding was like? What kind of "My Big Fat Greek Dwarf Wedding" shenanigans would Cadash's LI have to put up with? )

I have some headcannons on what different traditional dwarven weddings might be like, but I assume there are major differences by class and caste, and that the casteless in particular have separate customs since the Shaperate denies their existence as dwarves. Even wrote a short story, Splitting the Stone, about that...

[Bhryaen]

Ooh, yeah- on dwarves and stone-sense. I loved this codex from the Fade. It goes on academically about how the Fade may seem chaotic but actually tends to reflect the order of things as people would dream them. Then it speculates on how stone figures into the Fade since it's not a manufactured item or purposeful- just a "thing." And it adds:

 

"I suspect, though we may never know, that if dwarves dreamt and shaped the Fade with their own perceptions, the rocks would not float." Dwarf dreams: the way to make the Fade more habitable. I like that they used the word "shaped." Dreaming dwarves would give Shapers a whole new meaning.

 

I love it when the writers get reflective or introspective on their own lore like that- looking at what they've made and then deepening the understanding of it. More moving than just leaving us in the lurch at the end of Descent. As Cassandra says, "Sadly, unanswered questions make for poor reading."

 

@gilsa No! I want to experience it myself as it happens, but thanks. He probably said elf-specific stuff to my current Inq, kinda remember- about slaves or something maybe? Inner Circle interactions are where the devs added origins content the most, it seems.

[Chaos Imperius]

Damn this is a dwarf thread i should rather leave before they all will try to kill me for destroying their glorius empire

[Spectre4hire]

Damn this is a dwarf thread i should rather leave before they all will try to kill me for destroying their glorius empire

 

Strange since I don't think trolls destroyed the dwarf empire. 

[AndornArakh]

Well figure I should post some of my chars. Sorry bout the quality as i can't take a screenshot on the console.

I was trying to create a look that was appealing but keeping a distinctly dwarven look. Not sure how successful I was 

 

 

[Bhryaen]

Just did "Oh, Dookies." Not sure why Bianca gets such a bum rap. Sure, she's a bit sneery, and apparently she dissed poor Varric at some point, but as a character she's pretty interesting, she's got a sense of humor, and her story was good, mostly trying to do the right thing. Or is there a follow-up I don't know about? Her funny hood? Dunno- worked for me.

 

@AndornArakh
I like it.   I can't seem to warm up to DAI beards, even on a dwarf- stubble, ok, but the beards tend to look plastic. But I like that one with the braids- gives it more character. Might try that some day. The washed-out photo quality helps make it seem more uniform too.

[AndornArakh]

 

@AndornArakh
I like it.   I can't seem to warm up to DAI beards, even on a dwarf- stubble, ok, but the beards tend to look plastic. But I like that one with the braids- gives it more character. Might try that some day. The washed-out photo quality helps make it seem more uniform too.

 

thx! Yeah the beards are pretty fake looking, especially on the older consoles(even the stubble looks fake), plus the designs just arent as cool compared to the first.

There is a mod for Origins that gives some really awesome beard combos for the dwarves. 

[Bhryaen]

thx! Yeah the beards are pretty fake looking, especially on the older consoles(even the stubble looks fake), plus the designs just arent as cool compared to the first.

There is a mod for Origins that gives some really awesome beard combos for the dwarves. 

Yes! I used that mod- gave a huge selection of them... though I think I used it for only one character. I think it added earrings as an option as well, no? It's funny about the beards being like that too because now DAI's got skin textures that are exceptionally realistic while the hair realism lags way behind. By the way- in answer to your question, he's got great facial proportions to be both a handsome dude and solidly dwarven.

[Wintersonne123]

Just did "Oh, Dookies." Not sure why Bianca gets such a bum rap. Sure, she's a bit sneery, and apparently she dissed poor Varric at some point, but as a character she's pretty interesting, she's got a sense of humor, and her story was good, mostly trying to do the right thing. Or is there a follow-up I don't know about? Her funny hood? Dunno- worked for me.

 

As a dedicated Bianca-hater, let me try to explain. I quite disliked how she was hastily written especially to be seen as awesome, this whole business of "she's ten times the smith Branka was if it weren't for those traditionalist Orzammer people she'd have long been made a paragon!" and "she's totally a better archer than Varric too"; typical signs of lazy writing. She does not seem nearly apologetic enough for how hard she effed up in regards to Red Lyrium, which is quite the contrast especially to Varric, who blames himself for stuff he couldn't possibly have known about beforehand. Also, Varric was very... weird around her. Somehow subdued, whereas he gives other people who are snarky dicks to him (IB, Sera, Hawke) back in kind. It just didn't seem like a very fun or healthy relationship - especially since Varric kind of alluded that she left him standing at the altar. Varric is very loyal, so it is in character for him to hold on to something that fundamentally broken, but it's just... egh. Then again, it's true not every relationship needs to be healthy, although I have to admit, for Hawke's best buddy, I wanted better than this. Also, the eyeball comment. Very jarring if you've played a character who was on her side and nice to her. I know it was supposed to be cutesy protectiveness, but since this relationship seems to do very little but hurt Varric, I'm not quite sure she's got room to complain.

 

But my biggest pet peeve is that after 1.5 games of building this whole thing up with "it's the one story I'll never tell" etc., Bianca's story was... exactly the kind of story you expected. I mean, surely if someone carries around a weapon with the name of the opposite gender, everyone's mind immediately jumps to unhappy/dead love interest. That was always the foregone conclusion for me, so I expected something much more interesting and, as Varric put it, complicated. It's not complicated, Varric. It's Romeo & Juliet with dwarves and it's as boring as its source story, including a character that, other than her mean streak, was honestly forgettable. I personally think the reason he'll never tell this story was that he knew how underwhelming it was.

 

So yeah, in conclusion, I think my dislike for her stems mainly from not being written well enough (obviously just in my opinion): talking the character up to stupid levels, an uninspired lovestory and a couple of weird lines that just make her seem strangely hostile.

[Gilsa]

Y'know, I feel rather slow to have noticed this only on my umpteenth playthrough, but it suddenly dawned on me there's a huge dwarven structure and/or entrance to the Deep Roads on the island where you fight Vinsomer.

 

Really makes me wish that we could have explored the dwarven ruins on the Storm Coast far more than we were able to. Could have made Descent even more fun to have our makeshift lift located in a ruin that was (mostly) intact when we previously explored it, only to be utterly trashed once we began the DLC and remain in that state if we returned to it after completion.

 

I spent a lot of time trying to climb the rocks in that area only to summon the flycam and see what was inside that structure. Absolutely nothing. It's just for show. I had hoped we'd be rewarded with a chest or something for our feat, but newp. It IS a magnificent sight though. Wallpaper worthy.

 

Just did "Oh, Dookies." Not sure why Bianca gets such a bum rap. Sure, she's a bit sneery, and apparently she dissed poor Varric at some point, but as a character she's pretty interesting, she's got a sense of humor, and her story was good, mostly trying to do the right thing. Or is there a follow-up I don't know about? Her funny hood? Dunno- worked for me.

 

 

From what I've observed, it's a mixture of "how dare you talk to ME that way?!" and "THIS is why Varric has been unavailable all these years? THIS is the legend of Bianca?" I've seen people get bent out of shape for the way Bianca threatens them if anything happens to Varric. And Bianca, before we met her, was built up too much and to have her turn out to be some girl that stood him up at the altar and married someone else and he still pined for her even though he was practically THE sex symbol of DA2. It was just anti-climatic and disappointing on some level. I personally thought with the way he babied that crossbow that maybe the soul of Bianca was trapped in the crossbow until he could figure out how to set her free.

[Wintersonne123]

From what I've observed, it's a mixture of "how dare you talk to ME that way?!" and "THIS is why Varric has been unavailable all these years? THIS is the legend of Bianca?" I've seen people get bent out of shape for the way Bianca threatens them if anything happens to Varric. And Bianca, before we met her, was built up too much and to have her turn out to be some girl that stood him up at the altar and married someone else and he still pined for her even though he was practically THE sex symbol of DA2. It was just anti-climatic and disappointing on some level. I personally thought with the way he babied that crossbow that maybe the soul of Bianca was trapped in the crossbow until he could figure out how to set her free.

 

Agreeing with all of this, too. And that is actually a cool idea about the crossbow.

[Bhryaen]

Random impressions...

 

1. Did the War Room quest "Dwarven Slaves in Venatori Hands." When Inqy forces arrived to save the day, the venatori were already slain, everyone gone, but a note was found that read, "We always come for our own. What about you, Inquisition?" Friggin awesome!

 

2. Did the War Room quest "The Arcanist and the Fade." I know Dagna can be a bit of a goof as a character, but the tarot card representation of her... Not so friggin awesome... What have they done to you, Dagna??

 

 

3. I know this guy's dead, but I only noticed it on a dead carta dude as I was leaving Valammar. His outfit is friggin' awesome. I want one! Black and red.

 

[Remki]

Descent made me regret not picking up all the dialogue perks. I was roleplaying my thug as street-smart, but not worldly-smart so I skipped all the perks except for the underworld one. I did have a second "master of all secrets" Cadash that I replayed Descent with and counted seven dialogue perks. It bothered me that I didn't have access to the possible dialogues in a dwarven DLC  on my canon (even if I don't select 'em!) so I've been replaying and picking up those perks first thing. =p

 

 

I had this same issue with a lot of the dialogue perks when Cadash's origin seem very traditional-education unfriendly. I got around this with my personal headcanon that Nakida is the type who makes sure she knows what she needs to know to survive. Once she became Inquisitor there were a lot of long nights up late at that desk in her room studying every book her advisers suggested, and more than a few they didn't. Still, always felt very weird when she didn't seem to know much on things I felt she should have (carta and dwarf stuff mostly). 

 

Just did "Oh, Dookies." Not sure why Bianca gets such a bum rap. Sure, she's a bit sneery, and apparently she dissed poor Varric at some point, but as a character she's pretty interesting, she's got a sense of humor, and her story was good, mostly trying to do the right thing. Or is there a follow-up I don't know about? Her funny hood? Dunno- worked for me.

 

@Wintersonne123's post pretty much sums it up for me. I think as a stand-alone person there's nothing wrong with Bianca. I'd even like her if she was just her own character. But as THE Bianca she was...disappointing. I have a very hard time believing that even someone as loyal as Varric would allow himself to... I don't know, I don't want to say "be that whipped" because that's not quite what I mean. Winter's mention of him acting subdued is accurate, but there's also a sense of "I deserve this" in it that is irritating. There are a lot of reasons Varric gives for wanting to kind of punish himself, but at least the majority of them are based on something he could plausibly be culpable of (red lyrium, Bartrand, etc). But with Bianca, it felt like he was punishing himself for... what? Her leaving him? Him being a casteless surfacer? It just didn't make much sense, and the fact that Bianca kind of seemed to use it to her advantage just rubbed me the wrong way. And then to throw in that last line about watching myself... I really wanted a far more biting response option. Something a lot meaner. Alas.

[Remki]

Spoiler

The Descent and Shaper Valta's fate nurtured the glimmer of hope in me that we may see dwarven mages in the future.

 

Never again shall I be torn between the awesomeness that is the dwarven race and the glory of smiting fools with the power of the arcane! Stone be praised!

 

 

*grabby hands* GIVE IT TO ME PLEASE BIOWARE *open, unabashed sobbing*

[Bhryaen]

(Here I go again with a Wall-o-text reply. Apologies in advance: apparently a character flaw on my part...)

 

Ah, OK. Now I see the issue with Bianca. Yeah, as you went through point by point I was reminded of each aspect as it happened, feeling the same reaction I'd had at the time, and I have to agree. The storyline was good- ok, I think. But Bianca was supposed to be legendary- or at least somehow live up to or justify the hype of Varric's reverence through two games in the series. We should probably know right away that the hooded figure he was talking with in Skyhold was someone special, but it wasn't until her name came up that I even recognized that was supposed to be her- just some regular, hard-edged carta type. She didn't have to have her soul inside the crossbow or be Superdwarfgirl, just be worthy of the intrigue that Varric's loyal affection warranted. In that way, yeah, pretty disappointing. The biggest points I agree with are:

 

1. The story was really short. So I guess that was it then after all? I was sort of assuming it would continue given how abruptly it ended. It was like two extra fights (past the usual spawns in Valammar) and a conversation or two. That's got to be the shortest companion quest in DAI. Aveline's ridiculous romance quest in DA2 went on 10 times longer. So that certainly made it underwhelming.

 

2. Better craftsperson than Branka? That did feel gratuitous, but, as you said about Bianca's forgetability, I suppose I just ignored it, figuring it was boasting that would later be clarified. But actually Varric did validate it and call her a would-be paragon, so apparently I'm supposed to take it seriously. It belittles the whole Branka encounter for her to be that much better a smith. And she didn't say she was Branka's equal. She said she was waaay better. I mean, Branka was considered a paragon because she was an exceptionally rare genius- and she more or less seemed like the type despite her insanity. My Duster became a paragon for saving the world! (OK, just for a decade, but still...) If Bianca really had some genius invention, they'd have given the prize to her- at least if she were submitting it to dwarven society rather than exploiting its application on the surface, since in that case why bother awarding her anything from Orzammar? But it wasn't at all believable. "Lazy writing," as you say. Seemed like an ability awarded to her in a conspicuously casual manner- the way a mediocre action movie might introduce a character as a super-assassin, expecting the audience to believe it despite the poor acting and direction and no real martial arts abilities to demonstrate on-screen. And usually a character is as snooty as Bianca was because they're compensating for not being as good as they claim they are, not because they actually are it.

 

3. She wasn't particularly likeable. As Remki says, she was OK as a character in general. She just didn't exude any more character than, say, a Dagna... and at least Dagna is likeable. Bianca isn't as much of a bumbler as Tallis was, looking like a complete incompetant. I really didn't like that character. But she was written and directed to be voice-acted as snooty, overconfident, and somewhat full of herself to a fault- qualities easier to ascribe to a caricature than a character. Loyal or no, it's not particularly believable that Varric would ever have fallen in love with her. If they were to have written it as if she once upon a time wasn't such a snoot, but success or some cruel decision made her a harder person, OK, but it was "just like old times" when Varric and she spoke, so I have no reason to believe she'd ever been different. It's one thing to say Varric is somewhat masochistic, but another to say he'd revere someone so stuck on herself. Even the simple barmaid girl Felsi was more likeable and almost believable as a potential Varric love interest. Falling in love with Bianca's sort just wasn't... meaningful

 

Other things I don't mind so much.

 

1. The end quip about feeding my Inky her eyes- it just seemed like she was demonstrating a strong shared bond there and that she was still fiercely loyal to him as well. There was a hint in it that she felt deeply hurt about something she'd done to him as well- albeit also not explained. Liking Varric, I can empathize with the sentiment she expressed and felt glad she had his back as I would like anyone having Varric's back. It obviously wasn't necessary as a warning to us Varric supporters, but if you think of all the ways an Inq can be a douche to Varric (his approval does drop for certain things), the line could have direct relevance when said to an Inquisitor.

 

2. The lost love aspect. Even if they made her an unlikely love interest of Varric, they didn't elaborate on the reasons why they broke up (or never were together). So it still could be a much deeper story- like the guy she's with now was Varric's best friend and yet they'd fallen in love only after the best friend and she were an item but Varric hadn't wanted to hurt him by breaking them up so he left... or the guy was her ex-husband who she'd thought was dead but returned from some Deep Roads expedition only after Varric and she had fallen in love and thus Varric left to not interfere. Or maybe she was the same kind of snoot back then but they'd gotten trapped in some cave-in or something for a year and they'd fallen in love as a result. That sort of thing could even explain his "subdued" behavior. Or they could come up with something lame, alas, but since it's still up in the air what actually happened between them, I feel like it's better to reserve judgment. Given her character, it doesn't seem likely, but taken as a sticking point, I'll let it pass. If it were clear she just "stood him up at the altar" (or worse outright cheated on him), it'd be easy enough to dismiss her on that ground, but when he mentions that she needs to get back to someone and she responds pleadingly with "Varric..." as if to explain, it seems like it wasn't just some trite "she done me wrong" story- i.e., there is some explanation. That said, the way the Harding "romance" abruptly ends before it gets to "the next level" shows the devs didn't extend the theme of foreshortened relationship story development with dwarves to just Varric.

 

3. Bianca being a better shot than Varric. He's not that great a shot- and neither is his crossbow. (And, hell, he dropped from Lvl25 to Lvl1 when my Inq first meets him.) And it just works for why he'd name his crossbow after her rather than, say, a tattoo or armband or ring or something. You're right though- it's not exactly the most creative explanation. But at least it doesn't clash with the experience we have of her like the idea of her being an expert marksperson, an expert carta wheeler-dealer, an expert red lyrium investigator, AND a paragon inventor... 'cause she finds the time for it all. Leave out the inventor part (and two more) and I'll believe the marksperson bit. Or perhaps better, leave out the marksperson bit and make the would-be paragon bit involve siege engines- another possible link to his affection for a crossbow. But the all-too-brief storyline has her involved in everything (rather than just one part of a more elaborate story involving an arcanist, a paragon, a marksman, etc.) so they made her an unbelievable everything. Like you said, they don't appear to have put a lot of thought into it.

 

4. Her "less than apologetic" stance about her screw up on tipping off Cory forces to red lyrium. This part of the story I actually liked. What she said about wanting to fix her mess seemed sincere. Plus it's not as if she screwed up due to a character flaw. How was she to know that a Gray Warden of all sorts would be an agent of some Tevinter cult helping to end the world with an ancient Magister who breached the Veil? It's possible she was a pathetic judge of charcacter, but did anyone's Inky suspect Solas was what he was before Trespasser? It seems a bit unfair to hate her for that. No, she didn't listen to Varric's warnings about red lyrium's danger, but why would she? She never even heard from him after Kirkwall. Wait, they hadn't spoken since his red lyrium experience, but they said he warned her about it- oops, poor writing again. But she really wasn't an expert, now was she? And yet due to her efforts, she introduced a pretty heavy lore component that fits nicely with the whole Titan reveal: lyrium is alive. And, like the Inquisitor said, she had to know that her costly error would be made obvious once she brought them there, so it's not as if she were trying to squirm out of it. Presumably she betrayed her carta- and thus livelihood- by bringing the Inq and Varric to slaughter them. I believed she was sorry. With her not being the deepest of characters, it wasn't the most meaningful of sorry's, but, again, she did seem sincere.

 

5. That Varric would "stoop" to liking someone like her. This doesn't refer to Bianca's character (which is simply a sort of juxtaposition to Varric's 2-game character development), but rather just the idea of seeming to be with someone not as good as he is, even someone who doesn't have his best interests at heart. Sure, Varric deserves better, but this is something that happens. I've done this... so when I see Varric possibly having done it, it doesn't look alien to me. Not happy with it, but if Varric has the same tendency, it means the story makes him a character I can identify with, and I can appreciate that. The problem with it was more a matter of the devs not investing much into what he saw in her or why he fell in love with her, what the bond was about or, like, any story at all. It was just presented as a given, and, yeah, as such it didn't rise beyond low expectations as a typical (for DA) dwarf romance- i.e., Oghren and Felsi insulting each other 'cause ain't they cute. Rascally drunkard Oghren was never the seasoned rogue, close friend of the Champion, Defeator of Knight-Commander Meredith, and accomplished author that Varric was. And Varric has a tad more wit. Even if Bianca were plain as a doorknob, at least make her the type of doorknob who would appreciate him.

 

Not sure if I hate Bianca now that I've reconsidered it, but I do share the same disappointment.

[TobiTobsen]

Short post before work:

 

For me Bianca suffers from the same problem that made me dislike Tallis and Fiona intensely. The whole "better at everything" shtick combined with this unapologetic "I would do it all again!" attitude after a major screw up triggers an immense repugnance in me.

 

Pushing Varric into some upgrade of the mythical "friendzone" and trash-talking me was just the icing on the cake.

[Wintersonne123]

@Bhryaen

I think they did (although I couldn't tell you exactly were) say that her husband was chosen for her by her family because he was of the same caste. She's not a Carta dwarf, although they didn't bother to design a separate outfit for her, as I understood she's a prestigious surfacer dwarf like Varric; her familiy is in the Guild, anyway, and the DA wiki tells me she's now actually being considered for paragon. In fact, I think the merchant caste is under the smith caste, so if she's the same caste as her husband and considering Bartrand was just rebuilding the Tethras fortune, marrying Varric probably wasn't allowed because it would have meant marrying down. This is basically the only reason I ever gave either of them a pass for cheating on her husband because I don't consider an arranged marriage a real relationship, otherwise, for reasons I admit are really based on nothing but my personal morals, I would have kicked Varric off my favourite character list faster than he can shoot a Nug. Whether she stood her own future husband or Varric up at the altar is not entirely clear (in the first case she'd have returned, obviously).

 

It's hard to say how good a shot Varric is. Obviously he never misses, but then, that's mechanics, as is his falling back to a comparable level to the others. And there is a note for a bow-shooting competition in the tavern that Varric is explicity excluded from, alluding to the fact that the game apparently wants you to think he's a good shot. But yes, I do think I would have been able to live with that if it hadn't been on top of everything else Bianca is apparently great at. It also shouldn't have been just about the very first thing out of her mouth the moment the missions starts (and definitely should have been supported by her fighting ability in in-game combat, which I didn't see at all), basically tearing Varric's special combat skill down to make her look better. I don't know why writers ever think this sort of writing is a good idea, and I've seen it so often.

 

And, to be clear, I don't think she's responsible for the Red Lyrium, just how I think Varric isn't responsible for Corypheus; these are not things either of them could have guessed. I would, however, have sympathised with her more if she'd shown a tad more horror about the effect her missstep had. But as you say, her character is, well, snooty, so I found it a bit harder to see past her defensiveness.

 

I'm not a fan of the 'deserve' argument either because I always find that very assumptious... most people who are in a relationship will have good reasons for it. As you say, the problem here is clearly writing; it's possible that Varric likes this person no matter who she is, but I would at least like to understand why he's in a 15 year relationship with her and, if at all possible, I'd want to like her, too (though I think that the game wants me to leads to the greatest failings in her writing). Harding and Dagna didn't get a lot of screentime (not to speak of other not-female-dwarven bit-characters like Krem) and people react generally well to them, so we see it's not impossible that Bianca could have been a character we liked. She did have those larger-than-life shoes of the fabled Bianca to fill, though, which was never going to be an easy thing, but I think it could've been done, if it really was necessary to solve that mystery, which I'm still not convinced it was. I think Bioware here made the novice writing mistake of thinking that a character who has a lot of talents and is good at many things is immediately a better character because we have to admire her, right? But a talented person in fiction and in real life do not inspire the same amounts of awe; it takes very little actual hard work to be written as better than everyone. I think an averagely talented but genuinely well-rounded character who seemed a little more compatible would have had a much better chance. Or at least some sort of explanation what Varric sees in her beyond the fact that she's a good archer or smith or whatever. Sebastian was a good shot, didn't make Varric like him any better.

 

But to be perfectly honest, my initial reaction after listenig to them talking for 20 minutes the first time around was "if it's this kind of relationship dynamic you want, Varric, might be better to just ride the Bull. He seems more respectful."

 

All that said, though, I do agree that she's still ten times more bearable than Tallis, though my problems with her go in generally the same direction. But Tallis was a true trainwreck of a character.

 

Since we're on the topic: Whatever happened to Gerav, anyway? I never got that. Wasn't he the one who built Bianca? So did Bianca-Bianca just design her and if yes, why would Varric and Bianca-Bianca allow a Carta thug to build her and upgrade her, if the guy's as greedy as Varric says and a potential leak to one of the most brutal dwarven institutions - since Bianca-Bianca doesn't want more crossbows like Crossbow-Bianca? (If you didn't take Varric to that fight in Legacy, his letter to Gerav said: "Come by the Hanged Man sometime and show me the new self-loading chambers you were working on for our little girl. Bianca's missed you, and I think she might need a tune-up.")

 

If anything, Gerav's brief moment of clarity after seeing Varric, and Varric speaking to Gerav in that slightly pleading tone: "Gerav, buddy... this isn't like you. Look, I've still got Bianca, never misfired a day in her life. You don't want her to see her papa like this, do you?" and sounding as sad as he does when he decides to kill Gerav to protect Hawke was more touching than anything I've seen between Varric and Bianca-Bianca. But we've already established I'm biased.

[TobiTobsen]

thx! Yeah the beards are pretty fake looking, especially on the older consoles(even the stubble looks fake), plus the designs just arent as cool compared to the first.

There is a mod for Origins that gives some really awesome beard combos for the dwarves. 

 

Seeing the hilariously bad beard textures next to the HD graphics of the Revered Defender armor always brings tears to my eyes.

 

I demand glorious beards and beard textures for DA4!

 

*remembers that this is BioWare and that they always fail at hair&beard design* *sobs in a corner*

[Qun00]

Tell me, what advantage is there to having kids with the noble hunters?

If the nobles do it with their own wives the results will be just the same. Or are those women exceptionally more fertile?

My best guess is that Adaar only knows a smattering of Qunlat they picked up from either their parents or other Vashoth/Tal-Vashoth they've worked with. They don't seem to know it well enough that they don't have to ask Bull to provide a translation whenever he's said something in Qunlat.

Does make sense though why Cadash and Lavellan are more fluent in their respective ancestral language than Adaar is, since Dwarves (even on the surface) and the Dalish tend to value tradition, whereas Tal-Vashoth and Vashoth might try to distance themselves from the Qunari language as part of their rejection of the Qun and anything associated with it.


With how the Gangue Shade might tie into things regarding the Stone, makes you wonder what other Origins enemies that we thought were inconsequential at the time might actually be important lorewise, such as the Trickster Whim, Fade Beast and Shah Wyrd?

It's not that Adaar *needs* to ask. It is optional.

Just like a Dalish Inquisitor can ask about things s/he technically should know.

[Tishina]

On the subject of Bianca, let's try not to start on a trend of dissing characters because there are always people who like the characters you don't. That's been one of the biggest things to cause threads to self-destruct or people to leave threads permanently. It's better to be polite because next time it might be one of your favorites, and this thread has generally been supportive of each other's interpretations of the characters even when you don't agree.

 

I don't particularly have feelings about Bianca one way or another, but I did have the impression that she chose to honor her family's wishes to marry someone else, not that she jilted Varric. You know, sacrificing love and her personal happiness for duty and family honor, etc.? Besides, if Varric doesn't blame her, why should anyone else feel they can judge her?

[Qun00]

Love is blind and Varric's judgment may be clouded.

[TobiTobsen]

Tell me, what advantage is there to having kids with the noble hunters?

If the nobles do it with their own wives the results will be just the same. Or are those women exceptionally more fertile?

 

Pragmatism.

 

As far as I understood it the "noble hunters" are encouraged, because the dwarves are on the brink of extinction and more kids are never wrong to remedy that. Even though it sounds pretty degrading to me, making pregnancy more "worthwile" by presenting the prospect of climbing the caste ladder is ensuring a rather steady number of pregnancies for the dwarves.

 

The noble gets free sex and possibly more sons to bolster the ranks of his House, while the noble hunter can rise to a better caste thanks to her son.

 

Even if the kid is "just a girl" it is still one additional dwarf to fight off the encroaching darkspawn hordes and buy the dwarven race some more time.

[Wintersonne123]

On the subject of Bianca, let's try not to start on a trend of dissing characters because there are always people who like the characters you don't. That's been one of the biggest things to cause threads to self-destruct or people to leave threads permanently. It's better to be polite because next time it might be one of your favorites, and this thread has generally been supportive of each other's interpretations of the characters even when you don't agree.

 

I don't particularly have feelings about Bianca one way or another, but I did have the impression that she chose to honor her family's wishes to marry someone else, not that she jilted Varric. You know, sacrificing love and her personal happiness for duty and family honor, etc.? Besides, if Varric doesn't blame her, why should anyone else feel they can judge her?

 

Well, I just wanted to answer the question why I don't like her, since it was asked. I'm often in favour of honour above love in stories (gets much too bad a rep these days), Arthurian style, but it's not like she actually did choose that, she and Varric are still in contact and he still calls her his girlfriend, so... yeah. No wonder he doesn't judge, the way she does it now benefits him, lol. Since she's not a real life person, I don't feel bad for "judging" her, I mainly judge the writing. Not ever discussing negative aspects of anything Bioware-related would be weird as well. That said, if anyone is a Bianca fan, I would never attack them for that, and I've had numerous people tell me good reasons why they dislike Varric, the Iron Bull, and so on, and it didn't lead to problems; hell, I can even see why some people like Tallis. So I do want to say that I am sorry if I offended anyone, but I didn't think there was anything particularly bad about discussing it.

[Gilsa]

 

1. The story was really short. So I guess that was it then after all? I was sort of assuming it would continue given how abruptly it ended. It was like two extra fights (past the usual spawns in Valammar) and a conversation or two. That's got to be the shortest companion quest in DAI. Aveline's ridiculous romance quest in DA2 went on 10 times longer. So that certainly made it underwhelming.

 

 

Wait, what? That was the best part of DA2! FIGHT MEEEEEEE!