It’s downright absurd, that every good stuff is happening behind the scene, while the main character is closing portals (the warden did that before), getting stomped over by dragons/giants and having to listen to Cory what’s his name evil monologues. You just want to kick this chatty scarecrow and get to the dlc, meanwhile with hawke it was the cardio from hell.
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It’s doubly absurd because the whole point of the Inquisition is that you’re supposed to be the one doing cool stuff behind the scene but nope.
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It would be ironic, if in the next game the inquisitor will be treated like the baddest, the best of the best, the commander Shepard of thedas. And all they did was collect rocks, wool and get lost in the hissing wastes.
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Wasn’t Hawke already supposed to be the Shepard of Thedas?
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I always thought warden was the one more like Shepard. Blight. Solved. Reaper. Solved. Conflict between different fractions. Done and done (until the next game that is). Hawke is
meanwhile the inquisitor is still chasing rams on
Hinterlands.
Truth to be told. I have no idea about quiz backstory beyond some wishy washy details. With both of the previous characters, you know their family, the ups the downs. Hawke can lose everyone they love in horrifying ways. City elf parent is almost sold into slavery, and if you do other Origin, they get shipped to tevinter. The fiance gets killed in front of them. The cousin gets abused by that creep. Etc. What do I know about green hand? They accidentally got the wrong bathroom door and ended up destroying Cory dumb plan.
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That is easily the most accurate description of Hawke’s Wack-Ass Adventures in Thedas I’ve ever seen.
But yeah, I’m still tossing around an idea of writing a fanfic about Inquisition that just focuses on a team of agents going out and doing actual Inquisition stuff that justifies why the Inquisitor, themselves, can afford to bebop around and do sidequests while the world is falling apart. Either that, or do the reverse and write a fic about the menial labor that goes on in and around Skyhold so that the Inquisitor can focus on the important stuff and the story will make a bit better sense.
And I think we’d better cap this off here before we end up getting banished to the Games thread again.
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All right, let’s get the ball rolling!
I shame the romance that has a personal side quest to kill X. X betrayed them, or did some shit thing to them…point being they won’t shuttup about it. They wanna kill X real bad! They are itching to shoot them between the eyes! Pew Pew Revenge Babeh!
So, you take time from your busy schedule at terrorizing the world and decided to take this Bozo romance for his revenge. It should be good right?
After all, you’ll get someone get shot. Fun Fun Fun!
After a few zig zagging, running around after X cause…X know you were coming like Doh! and Bozo romance is getting angry but keep pressing you on! ‘Hurry up before X escape! Move it! We are almost there!’
Yeah yeah, chill out already!
So you corner X. Hiding in this dingy shitty small room locked with a shitty door. BAM! You blast your way in, and there stand X…
PEW PEW PEW!!! His health goes to Zero and cutscene ensue…dun dun dun
X give you the speech ‘It was nothing personal man!’, ‘I though you were dead man!’, ‘I can pay you man!’, ‘I’m sorry man’…
And Bozo holding his fucking blaster…waver. He fucking Waver!!
Are you telling me that I wasted what little time I had chasing this asshole just to watch you WAVER? Kill him already! I have innocent peoples to Terrorize!
ZAP ZAP (That was the only good thing about this Quest, me being able to zap his ass into Moving)
Kill him or I will kill you…for fun
Gulp
He is still wavering…Urgh! That is it!
ZAP
Thud
X is dead
What!? How could you?! He was my kill! You robbed me from my revenge!
ZAP
‘Shuttup! Thats what you get for wasting my time and wavering. Fucking weakling’
The morale of the story kid is if you gonna give me such a lousy quest with such a lousy character…especially if you want said character to go all Revenge? Then make them finish the Job. Don’t use the ‘Wavering’ as some shitty ‘He couldn’t do it because he has a conscience’ Bullshit…it just make the character come off as a Wimp.
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That’s oddly specific… who are we talking about here, exactly? 
A romance 
In a game that Shall not be named lol
That’s a shame, my curiosity is piqued now…but fair enough!
Now I’m wondering if a thing I mentioned somewhere on another thread isn’t actually rivals or enemies-lovers, because I called it those things and it’s… basically the opposite of this, haha. I enjoy a good spiteful, vengeful, petty relationship every now and again, but when I’m playing an IF that has other things to offer, I tend to make my MC’s pretty easygoing, focusing mostly on getting whatever needs to get done, done.
I was wondering, what are your thoughts on more friendly competitiveness? Say, you have someone that works for another agency or whatever that opposes yours, and you’re both of similar skill so you see them and end up going toe-to-toe often? But. Y’know. You two are adults that respect eachother, and don’t have any weird complexes about it; just maybe some lighthearted scorekeeping as a vague inside joke, or some comments about it, or enjoying fighting eachother because of the familiarity? Idk if this would classify as rivals to lovers, because you’re technically those things, being the same level and pit against eachother often, but both of you recognize that the genial relationship doesn’t change the fact that you’re on opposing sides, and that your missions and completing them is more important.
THIS!! This is such a big part of why I can’t always get into enemies to lovers romances. Hate-fueled vengeance quests that are so intense it’s kind of erotic? Sure! But one of us is dying at the end of this and I’m GONNA make sure that it’s you before it’s me. If they purposefully make an attack on people the MC holds dear, and there isn’t even any justification for it, redemption isn’t very appealing to me, haha.
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I’d love this! It sounds like it could be really fun - showing how competent the other can be while trying to one-up each other can be both attractive and entertaining.
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I certainly do. It’s the rivals to lovers form I can stomach, as opposed to “and then there’s THIS asshole” stuff. Hells, it’s a rivals to lovers I LIKE, because if they’re keeping up with me it means they’re competent, and competence is hot (this last bit is often - but not always - an additional reason why the “and then there’s THIS asshole” version of RtL is absolutely insufferable to me*, because often in that version the “rival” isn’t competent, they’re just constantly outclassed by you and that makes them feel bad in their fee-fees. If you don’t like it git gud, scrub)
*the BASE reason why “and then there’s THIS asshole” version of RtL is insufferable to me is because the rival’s an unreasonable asshole, and I’d very much prefer not to deal with unreasonable assholes
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Wait, but I thought the main appeal of RtL WAS the competency?? That’s why I’ve always said that I liked it! Wouldn’t the “And then there’s THIS asshole who comes nowhere near your level of expertise and constantly rags on you despite being able to back none of it up” character just be… some random asshole? Isn’t the point that you’re both good at what you do but also opposed on a fundamental level, and the tension that comes with being so similar yet so different?? Like, I get the appeal of the “there’s Some Dude out there that REALLY HATES YOU!!! Now kiss” thing, but is it not an entirely different thing to RtL? Have I been misunderstanding what RtL’s are this entire time 
?
On another note, GOD YES!! This is the main thing I look for in an RO (the second thing being respect, which does NOT require getting along and liking eachother,) and it’s kind of weird how difficult it can be to find on occasion. Just let me live out my unrealistic escapist fantasies where people actually know what they’re doing… please… I deal with so much incompetency IRL, I have almost zero patience for it in IF form.
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I support and agree with both of these comments 100%.
I’ll throw one more thing into the mix–I like ROs (and MCs) that aren’t wishy washy. Decide what you want and go for it. Any RO who can’t make up their mind what they want, and goes back and forth, needs to be kicked to the curb immediately. This is probably a very personal thing for me, but indecisiveness is not only a huge turnoff to me, it makes me turn into a barbarian who’s about to rage…
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Fourthed. A character doesn’t have to be a physical badass but if you get to work together in some way to fix a problem or fight something back-to-back or get to see them being smart and focused, it’s wonderful bonding and makes me swoon. If it can be a team effort between the MC and NPC where they can both contribute that’s the ideal for me. (Can you tell Farscape and Leverage were formative for me? don’t get me started on Aliens also)
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OMG, I didn’t know you were a Farscape fan!! That’s one of my favorite shows of all time. I loved everything about that show (except Chiana cheating on D’argo with his ass of a son). I met Ben Browder at DragonCon and came as close to fangirling as it’s possible for me to get. I swear Crackers Don’t Matter is my favorite episode, though. “You’ll be a crouton, Crichton!” (my husband and I run around the house throwing quotes from Aeryn and John all the time, lol).
Ahem… but yes, I love MC and NPC working together as a team and both contributing in a way that balances them. That’s the best setting for a romance ever…
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Sometimes there’s no competence to be had. E.g., the rival in When Twilight Strikes (?, I think that’s the name) is your rival, but only because they want to beat you, not because they have a realistic chance to do so. They’re a very solid second while you’re a very solid first. AND they’re an unreasonable asshole.
I’m begging you people to watch Hustle, the original, british, and much better Leverage.
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If my every interaction with someone is a competition, that is by definition not friendly to me. I do not like to compete. Full stop. If you are interested in competing with me, I am not interested in interacting with you. Same with “scorekeeping.” No. Save it for someone who needs…whatever that is. I do not fight because I enjoy it in any possible way. If I fight, I am doing it to make certain that you can never bring a fight to me again. Similarly, I do not debate. If you want to discuss something, fine, we can discuss it. If you want to bring “points” into it, piss off. None of that is genial or friendly to me. And if we are supposed to be working together, there should be no opposite sides whether we’re working for different entities or not.
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Having flashbacks about A supposedly being a rivals to lover type romance………
Yeah……….
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