It's pretty funny that your Rook is so tall but brought Harding to the Sea of Blood quest - the top of her head barely shows up in the cutscene after Lucanis appears. 🤣🤣
Yes there were a few times the height caused weird camera issues - like Illario being mostly hidden in the first conversation too. But I made him max height mostly to test out how well they'd accommodated that, and it wasn't too bad at all!
Wow, thanks for your time and commitment in putting all this together! I have to say now that I see the flirty and non-flirty options side-by-side, the non-flirty options almost always make for more natural conversation, more appropriate for people who just met, especially if you don't headcanon your Rook as someone who likes to be very blunt in their interest, regardless of mood or circumstance (or the other party's reciprocation). In particular I winced my way through the dessert commitment scene (And may I know how a simple "thank you" is supposed to show Rook has zero interest in him?!) ---Rook, have some dignity and stop being so desperate for scraps! Lmao. Rather disappointing how when you choose the supposedly "break up" options he doesn't seem to give any indication of being different from the norm.
Oh thank you :) Yes I think there are definitely things that could have been written better, but overall having romanced him twice I find it works. It comes across well that he's desperately struggling to manage a lot of concurrent things (coming back from the Ossuary, losing his grandmother, the dawning realisation about his cousin, TERRIBLE sleep deprivation, hearing Spite constantly, the pressure of the situation generally) - and kind of internally panicking most of the time, as demonstrated by eg Inner Demons and Spite's complaints about him not upholding the deal. He seems to cope with everything by focussing on minutiae and keeping himself busy, 'going through the motions' while staying emotionally locked down as far as possible. Couple that with his inexperience in relationships (literally none before), and Spite's kind of unnerving interest in Rook, and it makes sense he isn't really ready for romantic advances. I think this was hammered home in the last conversation when he says he was "scared to want you", and I headcanon that despite the romance commitment being earlier it took until Rook was 'lost' for him to really get over that fear. The romance with Neve is likely less stressful for him, because it seems less 'heavy' than what he ends up having with Rook - although therefore a bit less significant. Her flirting is ALL purple Hawke. And yeah, there are definitely times when it feels out of place and borderline dismissive for Rook to flirt with him, such as right after the Ghilan'nain attempt fails (reminds me of when Hawke has the option to flirt during Fenris' recruitment mission, which is equally awkward). But also in the first scene after Sea of Blood, when he's like PLEASE JUST GO and Rook says "I don't want to leave you alone with a demon" like that's an option, when the demon's inside his head. It makes sense given how Lucanis appears to be trying to cope that he actually often approves of the impassive dialogue options more than others. Sorry for the essay and thank you for your thoughtful comment!
@@jtph1 I love to hear others' character analysis, actually! :) I do think all the points you brought up about his trauma makes sense, and at the final conversation there was a point I did think 'yes, that does explain some things' - the difficult part was with this game's writing and general tone, I have a hard time determining where that line was between what the writers want us to infer and the player just huffing copium. Perhaps if I go through the codices it will make some things clearer. I feel similarly about his relationship with Neve, though I am curious what you think of his decision to romance Neve when a Shadow Dragon Rook chooses to save their own city of Minrathous. That's something I've kind of hit a roadblock on when trying to reason through, kind of stuck on if the writers meant to show an inherent bias or if it's just a lazy game mechanic. I know exactly the convo you're talking about - as soon as Rook led with "Forget about the gods ---" right after such a tense and high stakes mission I literally groaned. I do wish Rook had fewer inane lines. I didn't know if missing flirty options would lock you out later, but it appears the early ones aren't necessary? The impassive dialogue options suit my Rook much more actually.
You definitely only need to flirt once or twice in the first half of the game so it's easy to avoid being locked out - from my experience, his "yes I'm interested" moment comes after Bloodbath, with the lock in being after Inner Demons. The first flirt option I take is when you speak to him in the pantry after Sea of Blood, which is a nice respectful one. I do think the codex entries help, particularly his logbooks, his research notes, and his letters with the other crows - but also his conversations with other companions about Spite, his experience in the Ossuary, etc. There's a lot of issues he's trying to juggle. I think as sad as it is... It kind of makes sense that he can't look at Rook the same way after Treviso is blighted. Rook had to make an impossible choice as leader of the group, but it's a choice which could have saved his city so much suffering. No matter how fair, it's Rook's "fault" if they opted not to save Treviso. Neve wasn't in a position to make that call so he wouldn't feel the same disappointment about her. It's not fair, but given how the potential relationship with Rook already seems more intense/intimidating and therefore he has extra reluctance, it kind of makes sense. Neve is on the whole more open to initiating something (whether with Rook or Lucanis) so it also makes sense she can more easily be swayed again.
It's pretty funny that your Rook is so tall but brought Harding to the Sea of Blood quest - the top of her head barely shows up in the cutscene after Lucanis appears. 🤣🤣
Yes there were a few times the height caused weird camera issues - like Illario being mostly hidden in the first conversation too. But I made him max height mostly to test out how well they'd accommodated that, and it wasn't too bad at all!
Wow, thanks for your time and commitment in putting all this together! I have to say now that I see the flirty and non-flirty options side-by-side, the non-flirty options almost always make for more natural conversation, more appropriate for people who just met, especially if you don't headcanon your Rook as someone who likes to be very blunt in their interest, regardless of mood or circumstance (or the other party's reciprocation). In particular I winced my way through the dessert commitment scene (And may I know how a simple "thank you" is supposed to show Rook has zero interest in him?!) ---Rook, have some dignity and stop being so desperate for scraps! Lmao. Rather disappointing how when you choose the supposedly "break up" options he doesn't seem to give any indication of being different from the norm.
Oh thank you :) Yes I think there are definitely things that could have been written better, but overall having romanced him twice I find it works. It comes across well that he's desperately struggling to manage a lot of concurrent things (coming back from the Ossuary, losing his grandmother, the dawning realisation about his cousin, TERRIBLE sleep deprivation, hearing Spite constantly, the pressure of the situation generally) - and kind of internally panicking most of the time, as demonstrated by eg Inner Demons and Spite's complaints about him not upholding the deal. He seems to cope with everything by focussing on minutiae and keeping himself busy, 'going through the motions' while staying emotionally locked down as far as possible.
Couple that with his inexperience in relationships (literally none before), and Spite's kind of unnerving interest in Rook, and it makes sense he isn't really ready for romantic advances. I think this was hammered home in the last conversation when he says he was "scared to want you", and I headcanon that despite the romance commitment being earlier it took until Rook was 'lost' for him to really get over that fear. The romance with Neve is likely less stressful for him, because it seems less 'heavy' than what he ends up having with Rook - although therefore a bit less significant. Her flirting is ALL purple Hawke.
And yeah, there are definitely times when it feels out of place and borderline dismissive for Rook to flirt with him, such as right after the Ghilan'nain attempt fails (reminds me of when Hawke has the option to flirt during Fenris' recruitment mission, which is equally awkward). But also in the first scene after Sea of Blood, when he's like PLEASE JUST GO and Rook says "I don't want to leave you alone with a demon" like that's an option, when the demon's inside his head. It makes sense given how Lucanis appears to be trying to cope that he actually often approves of the impassive dialogue options more than others.
Sorry for the essay and thank you for your thoughtful comment!
@@jtph1 I love to hear others' character analysis, actually! :) I do think all the points you brought up about his trauma makes sense, and at the final conversation there was a point I did think 'yes, that does explain some things' - the difficult part was with this game's writing and general tone, I have a hard time determining where that line was between what the writers want us to infer and the player just huffing copium. Perhaps if I go through the codices it will make some things clearer.
I feel similarly about his relationship with Neve, though I am curious what you think of his decision to romance Neve when a Shadow Dragon Rook chooses to save their own city of Minrathous. That's something I've kind of hit a roadblock on when trying to reason through, kind of stuck on if the writers meant to show an inherent bias or if it's just a lazy game mechanic.
I know exactly the convo you're talking about - as soon as Rook led with "Forget about the gods ---" right after such a tense and high stakes mission I literally groaned. I do wish Rook had fewer inane lines. I didn't know if missing flirty options would lock you out later, but it appears the early ones aren't necessary? The impassive dialogue options suit my Rook much more actually.
You definitely only need to flirt once or twice in the first half of the game so it's easy to avoid being locked out - from my experience, his "yes I'm interested" moment comes after Bloodbath, with the lock in being after Inner Demons. The first flirt option I take is when you speak to him in the pantry after Sea of Blood, which is a nice respectful one.
I do think the codex entries help, particularly his logbooks, his research notes, and his letters with the other crows - but also his conversations with other companions about Spite, his experience in the Ossuary, etc. There's a lot of issues he's trying to juggle.
I think as sad as it is... It kind of makes sense that he can't look at Rook the same way after Treviso is blighted. Rook had to make an impossible choice as leader of the group, but it's a choice which could have saved his city so much suffering. No matter how fair, it's Rook's "fault" if they opted not to save Treviso. Neve wasn't in a position to make that call so he wouldn't feel the same disappointment about her. It's not fair, but given how the potential relationship with Rook already seems more intense/intimidating and therefore he has extra reluctance, it kind of makes sense. Neve is on the whole more open to initiating something (whether with Rook or Lucanis) so it also makes sense she can more easily be swayed again.