Comic Review: Dragon Age, Now with Bonus Feels

Between late 2012 and early 2014, in what was undoubtedly one of the best ideas ever (right up there with Kinder Surprise Eggs and the bendy straw), the Bioware gods saw fit to create an original Dragon Age comic series. The three-part comic miniseries stars characters from Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II, as well as several original supporting characters, and follows King Alistair of Ferelden and a few new friends of his on a quest to find his father, who is missing and had been presumed dead.

Accompanying Alistair (who featured prominently in Origins) are Varric Tethras and Isabela, who were companions/party members in Dragon Age II. The trio follows a trail of clues through Thedas to help Alistair in his quest, becoming caught up in the centuries-old Tevinter-Qunari conflict and getting trapped in the magical limbo known as the Fade. In addition to the familiar characters and settings, the series introduces several new people and places and expands on the world already established in the games. While the plot and characters are definitely more appealing to someone who is already at least somewhat familiar with Dragon Age, the storytelling and art are solid, and it is not strictly necessary to have played all the games or played all of them in their entirety to follow the plot.

*points* Art.

Spoilers for the whole Dragon Age comic series under the jump!

Fanfiction Fridays: Let the Punishment Fit the Crime by owlmoose

I figured it was about time to switch fandoms in my search for femslash, and given my current parameters—games that allow for character creation—I figured there was no better choice than to finally dip my feet into the Dragon Age fandom. I’d seen some fantastic fic already from this fandom, but none of it was femslash. Needless to say, I was pretty excited about looking. Unfortunately, the search ended up being a load of trouble: maybe it’s just my inadequate searching skills, but the amount of femslash was much, much smaller than I was anticipating. (I may have been excited, but I did not set my standards high.) I’ve resolved myself to look again, but for now I’ve found a short fic that satiates my need and features one of my favorite friendships in Dragon Age 2.

The ladies in this game aren’t anyone to trifle with.

When writing for the pairing or friendship of Aveline and Isabela, I’ve noticed a trend of making Aveline this shrinking violet in the presence of Isabela’s sexual prowess, and I have to wonder if these authors even played the same game I did. Isabela may be a pirate queen who owns her sexuality, but Guard Captain Aveline is not known for backing down or batting an eyelash at anything vulgar. In the game, I believe the one conversation between them that defines their relationship entirely is:

Aveline: You’re right.

Isabela: About?

Aveline: About knowing who you are.

Aveline: I’m the captain of the guard. I’m loyal, strong, and I don’t look too bad naked.

Isabela: Exactly. And if I called you a mannish, awkward, ball-crushing do-gooder, you’d say…?

Aveline: Shut up, whore.

Isabela: That’s my girl.

From this, the respect they share for each other is obvious, but it’s also easy to see where certain facets can be eschewed to the point of ruining the nuances that make the relationship so interesting in the first place. In the aptly named Let the Punishment Fit the Crime, author owlmoose refuses to fall into that trap and gives the audience a very real picture of the blooming friendship between these two strong women.