finally reading dance with dragons after procrastinating reading it for like eighty years
There's power in stories, though. That's all history is: the best tales. The ones that last. Might as well be mine.isn’t it wonderful how the only person who isn’t here is hawke? even varric—whose story it is, in a way, or at the very least, they’re his words—is inside the frame for once. but hawke—hawke is the frame.
choices, mistakes, chance meetings, fire and fate. hawke’s family, hawke’s friends, hawke’s very life is a patchwork and the story, too—these narrative threads stitching events and action and fire and fate into a recognizable or so-called ‘champion.’
we know this is about hawke because of what hawke has in common with each friend and foe, every loss and every stranger. the dumar family, whittled down one by one—that’s the hawke family, after all. what’s reflected in bethany’s eyes and the mist that swallows her. fenris, on the run—hawke knows all about that. merrill’s mirror to preserve the past—hawke reclaiming the amell estate, rebuilding its bad luck and broken pieces. varric’s lies; hawke’s lies. the grey wardens of ferelden. two awkward people falling awkwardly in love with one another—copper marigolds is such a hawke thing, or would be, if it wasn’t an aveline thing first.
the mage orsino; the templar meredith; the rogueish middle ground that disappears beneath hawke’s feet. anders’s cause, isabela’s calluses and sebastian’s chantry. the seeker holding a book, demanding answers. the arishok saying what hawke never could with such finality and ease: no, just like that, and the city burns.
and the dragon, of course. the preamble and the punchline. hawke is nothing without these events and these entrances and these exits. hawke, pieced together out of history. the one thing that varric guessed might hold all these fools and madmen and heroes together. a little bit of thread.
hawke was the best of them, the worst of them. what might’ve kept them together—if hawke was ever really there at all.
the worst thing ever is probably re-watching the entire show and realizing all the points at which Homura must have been utterly miserable
greaterandmoreterrible:howdarkthenight:adventuresofcomicbookgirl:
Can we all please take a moment to appreciate Hagrid here? Seriously, everyone always talks about how Harry has no father figure and how terrible it was for Sirius to die because now Harry’s all alone (dont get me wrong, Sirius is my favorite character) but honestly, Hagrid is the best father Harry ever had. He did so much for him, and no one, sometimes not even Harry realizes that. Hagrid gets no where near the mount of credit he deserves. Take a minute and try to imagine where Harry would be with out him and you’ll understand what im talking about.
I think JKR said it was really important to her that Hagrid carried him out of the forest, because he carried him to safety when he was a baby. Hagrid has been there since the beginning, and he was also there at the culmination of Harry’s journey. He’s always cared SO MUCH and been really open with Harry for the most part, which is something Harry needs since people tend to keep secrets from him. Yeah, he’s irresponsible with the monsters, but all of Harry’s father figures were pretty irresponisble, and Hagrid was definitely like, the most solid and reliable out of all of them. And he never left.
Hagrid was also most like a parent in his correction of Harry. For Sirius and Molly, Harry could do no wrong. Dumbledore saw Harry’s flaws, but he depended on them for his own plans to work.
But Hagrid saw Harry for exactly who he was, good and bad. He was the first to publicly defend Harry’s innocence anytime he got blamed for something he didn’t do; but he was also the first to call Harry out on his treatment of Hermione in PoA. He is consistently honest and forthright in addressing Harry’s behaviour and choices, and always acts in the way he believes will be best for Harry’s growth and especially for his moral development.
Harry is the man he is because of Hagrid. No one else did that for him.
