u/MagnoliaPetal

Welcome to the headcanon sharing circle! Each week we post a few creative prompts for character development and share our OCs.

#Sponsor the weekly thread! We take turns picking the questions every week, so please volunteer to host if you enjoy the weekly posts!

• Mention your interest in the comments – this week's host will tag the next person.
• Then just copy and paste this pre-formatted pastebin text with any 2 questions of your choice.
• Browse, add, and get ideas over at the list of prompts.
• There is the OC Emporium that houses many of the OCs, feel free to put your OC there!
• Don't forget there is an OC wiki Discord server and we welcome everyone who wishes to join and share! (Linked on the front page of the Wiki)

August 25 –

September 1 –

September 8 –

September 15 –

#THE PROMPTS:
(You can answer just one or both, with as many characters as you want. Pictures and character summaries are fine. Short answers or novel-length walls of text are fine.)

Prompt 1
> What has your character never said out loud to anyone, because saying it would make it real?

Prompt 2
> Who in your character's life knows them well enough to be genuinely dangerous to them, not physically, but because of what they know?

###And don't forget to take the time to read and comment on other people's posts! The comments, questions and chats are what make the thread so much fun.

Dragon Age has a long tradition of featuring some of its characters in multiple titles; Varric from DA2 onwards, Leliana, Morrigan, Alistair, Zev and many more from Origins, Cullen from DAO over DA2 to his arc's conclusion in DAI. And many, many more. Which of them do you feel were handled best? And worst?

Personally I always found it lowkey jarring for example that Leliana who leans so heavily towards the sweet flower child in Origins, in Inquisition defaults to her cutthroat steeled version. But then a decade can do a lot.

I really like Cullen's arc over the three games from sweet if misguided young man, to mentally broken and cruel as a result of ptsd to someone trying to crawl his way out of it in Inquisition.

Meeting Morrigan, especially in a Kieran worldstate, is refreshing as she's softened so much by being a mum.

The difference between warden Alistair and king Alistair (even though the latter only has a short cameo in DAI) is also interesting to watch

What are some of the characters who are present throughout multiple game titles you enjoyed?

I know, I know. Downvote this to hell if you must.

But I'm just curious.

I'm currently on my third playthrough, I made some changes to my setup to make my Rook fit more into the story (and made him easy on the eyes lol) and I have to say I'm coming around.

Not saying it's a great game by any means; my main complaints about the writing, the companions and the handwaving of established lore stand.

At the same time I also think that in its essence, Veilguard tied up some loose ends. Perhaps not explosively as we had a decade to speculate but even then, is that really worse than deliberately pulling the rug from under you to land an "unexpected" ending? That's what Game of Thrones tried and it failed spectacularly.

I liked Act 3. I liked Emmrich. The VA's collectively brought their A Game. The Weisshaupt mission was well done. Ghilannain was a better and more prominent villain than what Inquisition made Corypheus. The choice between Minrathous and Treviso was bizarre - but even then the game had the balls to show us the consequences of that choice. The banter system was better than Inquisition.

By no means ever going to be my favourite of the series. In fact, I think it will always remain my least favourite because of certain writing choices. But as someone who was firmly in the "Veilguard sucks ass" camp before... it's not really *that* bad. Especially when you step back and consider that DA has always been a series with a very inconsistent tone and new directions taken in every new game.

I know the "Veilguard killed the franchise"-people will feel tempted to comment and I was one of them. In this thread I'm just mostly wondering if there are other people like me who initially reacted negatively to the game whose views softened over time.

Edit: lmao i should have known this would not go over well 😂

I want to play my 2H warrior as an elemental spirit warrior but I'm having a hard time figuring out how to spec and outfit him. As far as I've seen the Crystalline Greataxe is the only warrior weapon that deals cold damage but its stats kind of suck, especially late game where Stagger becomes a lifesaver. Does anyone know if the enchantment you can add at workshop level 6 with the 40% cold damage sort of "converts" your weapon into frost damage?

Alternatively, I couls go with Necrotic damage. That would be fine. But I haven't really seen any 2H warrior weapons that deal anything but Physical?

Welcome to the headcanon sharing circle! Each week we post a few creative prompts for character development and share our OCs.

#Sponsor the weekly thread! We take turns picking the questions every week, so please volunteer to host if you enjoy the weekly posts!

• Mention your interest in the comments – this week's host will tag the next person.
• Then just copy and paste this pre-formatted pastebin text with any 2 questions of your choice.
• Browse, add, and get ideas over at the list of prompts.
• There is the OC Emporium that houses many of the OCs, feel free to put your OC there!
• Don't forget there is an OC wiki Discord server and we welcome everyone who wishes to join and share! (Linked on the front page of the Wiki)

July 28 –

August 4 –

August 11 –

August 18 –

#THE PROMPTS:
(You can answer just one or both, with as many characters as you want. Pictures and character summaries are fine. Short answers or novel-length walls of text are fine.)

Prompt 1
> What is the most morally questionable decision your character ever made that they still believe was right? Not something they regret but something they'd do again, even knowing the cost.

Prompt 2
> What does your character think they deserve? Not what they want, not what they have. What do they genuinely believe they've earned, whether that's reward, punishment, love, or suffering?

###And don't forget to take the time to read and comment on other people's posts! The comments, questions and chats are what make the thread so much fun.

This isn't meant to be another thread trashing Veilguard. I don't hate the game. It's just my least favourite Dragon Age title so far.

I discovered the series with Inquisition and fell completely in love. For me, DA's charm has always been its richly drawn characters, its worldbuilding, and the society and politics of Thedas. Magic is treated as a genuine threat, handled imperfectly by a religious society which offered a refreshing take in a genre where magic is usually just celebrated. The real threads of racism, oppression, slavery, conquest, the Exalted Marches, and religion - with unreliable media as the cherry on top - sealed the deal. DA has always handled sensitive subjects with care and realism; Thedas was never a world where friction got wished away. Yet it managed to stay welcoming and open-minded about queer identities, and skin-colour-based "races" were never much of an issue there at all.

Veilguard's plot was solid overall. I still think Joplin would have made for a better game; its companions, a much more prominent Solas, and a story that shifted halfway through the acts. That said, Veilguard tied up its loose ends neatly, and it avoided the Game of Thrones trap of writers deliberately subverting fan theories just for the sake of it.

The world design is wonderful, mostly. Treviso is gorgeous. Minrathous - though it's a shame we only saw the poor quarters - stayed consistent with what Kirkwall had shown us and felt genuinely magical. Arlathan Forest was stunning. Rivain, though, was a letdown: a well-made beach, but just a beach, nothing more. The game would have benefited from a smaller scope; Treviso, Minrathous, and Arlathan Forest alone. With more detail and narrative weight given to each.

My main gripes are with the writing. The characters feel like tropes rather than people, and the dialogue reflects that. I'm all for representation, but little thought seems to have gone into making certain minorities rhyme with the world of Thedas, which makes them feel forced. Taash, yes, but also the Asian-coded features, the ADHD, the anxiety. Neve is where this is most obvious. Her VA got a lot of criticism for sounding monotonous, but I think the tone actually suits her. She reads as a hardened detective who's seen it all and struggles to show her feelings despite caring deeply. The real disconnect is between how she sounds and what she says: the dialogue itself is consistently modern therapy-speak, with everyone constantly validating everyone else. That's probably my biggest issue with Veilguard. It's not that I want the characters to be arseholes to each other; I want them to talk to each other in a way that feels immersive for a medieval-analogous world, one that's always thrived on companions ribbing each other. Instead, every "That's Rook for ya!" in combat, every "I'm sorry, that was insensitive," every "Yeahhhh… about that…" started to feel juvenile and Marvel-esque.

Dorian's arc in Inquisition grounds his queerness in Tevinter-specific circumstances; his father, blood magic, inheritance. It doesn't reach for modern-coded dialogue. It rhymes with the world that Thedas was alwas portrayed to be. Taash's arc is reaching for the same move, with a Rivaini mother and a "Qunari-versus-Rivain" identity conflict specific to Thedas, but if the dialogue doesn't do the dramatic work, the concept collapses back into therapy-speak anyway. Krem was a transgender voice in a previous game. One who found the answers he looked for in the Qun but it was imperfect regardless. That feels real, not because I want queer people to be marginalised in the media I consume, but because it connects to how the real world handles queer identities with different - often imperfect - answers.

It doesn't help that the characters are built from absolute stereotype. Dragon Age has always leaned on tropes, but its characters were usually "stereotype with a twist". In Veilguard, the twist is gone. Bellara is angst-ridden and guilty over something she genuinely couldn't have handled any better; a trope straight out of fanfiction. Lucanis, the assassin with a heart of gold and impeccable taste, is well-trodden territory. Spite, a petulant but ultimately adorable and harmless child, reads more like a joke than a real threat. Most egregious to me was Harding, rewritten entirely from the competent, dry-humoured Fereldan adorably flustered by flirtation that she was in Inquisition. In Veilguard, I have to give her a pep-talk so she gathers the courage to tell Lucanis she doesn't actually like coffee all that much.

I know Dragon Age to handle certain subjects with the care and attention they deserve; Cullen's PTSD is handled well and with care. So is Cassandra's crisis of faith. Alistair is a good depiction of a man who was never loved the way he should have been. Morrigan is abrasive and cruel as a result of her loveless upbringing. Solas has real survivor's guilt and understandably blames himself for a genuinely imperfect choice he's made. Veilguard handles such matters the way fanfiction tends to do: adding trauma for the sake of trauma to create artificial character depth.

And then more tropes got piled on top. Every companion is magical and special in some way, which is most glaring among the non-mages. Taash, a warrior, is also a fire-breathing Qunari. Harding, a rogue, gets Titan magic. Lucanis has Spite and can fly. Davrin is the least special of the bunch, and he has a gryphon puppy, which says it all. The rest are mages, and about half the cast has sidekicks that exist mainly for cuteness points.

And then there's Rook, who has about as much personality as a sip of water. Every dialogue option boils down to being accommodating, validating, and nice; just dressed up as straightforward nice, slightly curt nice, or paired with a bad joke nice. Rook can never simply say "deal with it yourself." The dialogue reads like it's following a Silicon Valley HR handbook for politically correct office conduct. The result is a cast that feels like a clumsy implementation of modern values and social norms, dropped into a world that was never built to care about not offending anyone.

The "modern-coded" part is helped even less by the character creator. Compared to Inquisition, it was good. Much better and easier to navigate. The hair is great. The hair is also very modern-coded; we get undercuts, broccoli-cuts and wolfcuts but barely any medieval braids? On a smaller note, it's very frustrating not getting a choice on basic eye-shape and mouth-shape, as it makes you rely entirely on the somewhat arbitrary face slider. That's a much smaller gripe than the rest though.

Overall, again, I don't hate Veilguard at all. The combat was fun, the environments beautiful. The lore tied up loose ends. But it sidestepped too many uncomfortable subjects that I rather it would have tackled in earnest and with the gravity they warrant.

Welcome to the headcanon sharing circle! Each week we post a few creative prompts for character development and share our OCs.

#Sponsor the weekly thread! We take turns picking the questions every week, so please volunteer to host if you enjoy the weekly posts!

• Mention your interest in the comments – this week's host will tag the next person.
• Then just copy and paste this pre-formatted pastebin text with any 2 questions of your choice.
• Browse, add, and get ideas over at the list of prompts.
• There is the OC Emporium that houses many of the OCs, feel free to put your OC there!
• Don't forget there is an OC wiki Discord server and we welcome everyone who wishes to join and share! (Linked on the front page of the Wiki)

July 14 –

July 21 –

July 28 –

August 5 –

#THE PROMPTS:
(You can answer just one or both, with as many characters as you want. Pictures and character summaries are fine. Short answers or novel-length walls of text are fine.)

Prompt 1
> If your protagonist became a companion, which game would they fit into best, their own or another? What would their role in the party be, who would they clash with or gravitate toward, and what would their personal quest look like? Would they be romanceable?

Prompt 2
> How does your character relate to who they used to be? Do they still recognise their past self, feel fond of them, or are they quietly glad to have left them behind? Is there a specific moment where they feel the old version of themselves disappeared for good?

###And don't forget to take the time to read and comment on other people's posts! The comments, questions and chats are what make the thread so much fun.

Ngl, I loved the idea of having Imshael as a companion; one of the Forbidden Ones could have been such an interesting addition, plus he's already set up as a very intriguing morally grey character. That and some daydreaming about what my own OCs would be like as companions made me think about this.

I would have loved an Avvar companion at some point; Inquisition could have been that game with Amund, the Sky Watcher you meet in the Fallow Mire.

Other than that, I would have been really interested to see a wider range of hedge mages; a Rivaini Seer or a Chasind shaman for example.

What are some companions you feel would have added some interesting flavour to the games? Can be a category or concrete characters you feel would have been cool to have as a companion (I know before Veilguard came out, quite a few people loved the idea of having Maevaris or Feynriel as possible companions, for example).

Welcome to the headcanon sharing circle! Each week we post a few creative prompts for character development and share our OCs.

#Sponsor the weekly thread! We take turns picking the questions every week, so please volunteer to host if you enjoy the weekly posts!

• Mention your interest in the comments – this week's host will tag the next person.
• Then just copy and paste this pre-formatted pastebin text with any 2 questions of your choice.
• Browse, add, and get ideas over at the list of prompts.
• There is the OC Emporium that houses many of the OCs, feel free to put your OC there!
• Don't forget there is an OC wiki Discord server and we welcome everyone who wishes to join and share! (Linked on the front page of the Wiki)

June 30 –

July 7 –

July 14 –

July 21 –

#THE PROMPTS:
(You can answer just one or both, with as many characters as you want. Pictures and character summaries are fine. Short answers or novel-length walls of text are fine.)

Prompt 1
> What does your character find hardest to forgive? In others and also themselves? Do they hold themselves to the same standard, or are they harsher on themselves than they'd ever be on someone else? Or do they even have blind spots to their own behaviour?

Prompt 2
> Outside of their romance or closest friendship, which relationship has shaped your character the most? A mentor, a rival, a family member, even a brief or unexpected encounter. What did that relationship teach them about who they actually are?

###And don't forget to take the time to read and comment on other people's posts! The comments, questions and chats are what make the thread so much fun.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZaDJG6yUoK/?igsh=MTNvN2lkMTQyajdqdQ==

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I love these kinds of AI "Welcome back to the 80s" shorts and would live to find movies and tv shows that evoke that same vibe.

Welcome to the headcanon sharing circle! Each week we post a few creative prompts for character development and share our OCs.

#Sponsor the weekly thread! We take turns picking the questions every week, so please volunteer to host if you enjoy the weekly posts!

• Mention your interest in the comments – this week's host will tag the next person.
• Then just copy and paste this pre-formatted pastebin text with any 2 questions of your choice.
• Browse, add, and get ideas over at the list of prompts.
• There is the OC Emporium that houses many of the OCs, feel free to put your OC there!
• Don't forget there is an OC wiki Discord server and we welcome everyone who wishes to join and share! (Linked on the front page of the Wiki)

June 2 –

June 9 –

June 16 -

June 23 -

#THE PROMPTS:
(You can answer just one or both, with as many characters as you want. Pictures and character summaries are fine. Short answers or novel-length walls of text are fine.)

Prompt 1
> What has your character learned from their enemies or rivals? Has an antagonist ever been right about something, or taught them an uncomfortable truth despite themselves? Did fighting someone change how they see the world or themselves?

Prompt 2
> What would your character do if they had unlimited power for just one day? Not the heroic "save the world" answer - what personal, selfish, complicated, or messy thing would they actually do if there were no consequences?

###And don't forget to take the time to read and comment on other people's posts! The comments, questions and chats are what make the thread so much fun.

I don't know how popular or unpopular a view this is and if it's posted here a lot; I'm not around here much so forgive me if this is one of those subjects in subreddits about dead tv shows that get brought up every other week. But I just started another rewatch and I'm at episode 3 in the scene where Elena, Stefan and Bonnie have dinner together and Stefan and Bonnie talk about her Salem lineage. And I just get so angry knowing that Bonnie was so freaking sidelined from the get-go. Even back when it first aired when I must have been around 15, I distinctly remember that I always found Bonnie incredibly cool and wished that the show would have delved into her background more. So every time I rewatch and see scenes like this, it just makes me angry that they never did that and relegated Bonnie to a deus-ex-witch plot device throughout without ever fleshing out her character much. I feel like TVD had all the ingredients to go further than just your basic Twilight-vampire/human-lovestory narrative that was popular at the time and delve deeper into the other supernatural beings but only ever brushed those subjects for fanservice without really going into depth.

They don't acknowledge the age difference and the fact that by the end of the series, Shosh is basically the age the others are at the beginning and Shosh, at that point, has calcified into exactly the kind of rigid personality the others are criticised for. Good for her that she took off the rose tinted glasses where Jessa is concerned. But by the end she is judgmental, uppity and - honestly - insufferable. If you put finale Shosh in the lineup of Pilot Hannah, Marnie and Jessa, she'd be a lot less popular.

Welcome to the headcanon sharing circle! Each week we post a few creative prompts for character development and share our OCs.

#Sponsor the weekly thread! We take turns picking the questions every week, so please volunteer to host if you enjoy the weekly posts!

• Mention your interest in the comments – this week's host will tag the next person.
• Then just copy and paste this pre-formatted pastebin text with any 2 questions of your choice.
• Browse, add, and get ideas over at the list of prompts.
• There is the OC Emporium that houses many of the OCs, feel free to put your OC there!
• Don't forget there is an OC wiki Discord server and we welcome everyone who wishes to join and share! (Linked on the front page of the Wiki)

May 26 –

June 2 –

June 9 –

June 16 -

#THE PROMPTS:
(You can answer just one or both, with as many characters as you want. Pictures and character summaries are fine. Short answers or novel-length walls of text are fine.)

Prompt 1
> If you swapped your OCs between games, who would thrive and who would struggle? Would your Hawke make a better Inquisitor? Your Warden a better Rook? How would their approach change the story - for better or worse?

Prompt 2
> How do your character's companions see them versus how they see themselves? Is there a gap between their reputation and their internal reality?

###And don't forget to take the time to read and comment on other people's posts! The comments, questions and chats are what make the thread so much fun.