The Official Francesca Invidus Thread

Mr. Nunzio, I noticed this old post in the Vaea thread and I couldn't help but wonder if the same applies to Francesca. Could you tell us if you have not been told what you can or can't do with her which would indicate that she is not likely to be a Companion?

Dragon Age: Blue Wraith #3 (of 3)

Nunzio DeFilippis (W), Christina Weir (W), Fernando Heinz Furukawa (A), Michael Atiyeh (C), and Sachin Teng (Cover)

On sale Mar 18
FC, 32 pages
$3.99
Miniseries

Fenris, the legendary “Blue Wraith,” has joined a young mage and her companion, an agent of the Inquisition, in their quest to stop the reckless experiments of rogue Tevinter mages. In this bloody conclusion, they will have to overcome waves of Qunari and one of the most powerful mages in the land.

Yep.

And there's a preview up on Newsarama with a peek at Francesca as a young teen:

www.newsarama.com/48388-fenris-makes-his-comic-book-debut-in-dragon-age-blue-wraith-1.html#s2

It is interesting to note that whilst Francesca's father was a Venatori, Calpernia would have approved of Francesca's magic and encouraged it. Her ambition for Tevinter was for it to be reborn, excised of corruption and famed as acrafter of wonders. I know Hanako despises Calpernia so it is good there is a Tevinter mage that she does approve of who also values the beauty of magic.

Thoughts on Francesca after reading Issue 1 of Blue Wraith

She was super adorable as a kid. Also love how her brother was always there for her, even against their father.

I understand why she is in the emotional state she is considering the death of her brother and loss of her home, but I do hope through this she realizes that she was right in believing in things like friends and family and looking for beauty in the world, unlike right now where it seems she has surrendered to the cruel world mentality.

Her magic is really cool. We've seen plant magic before with some characters like Velanna and Merrill, but those usually used things like roots while Francesca creates thorned flowers and carnivorous plants. A neat way to make her unique among the already unique magic users. Also interesting how powerful she was, to the point Marius had even heard rumors about her from when he was a magekiller so she was even younger then.

She still is not a fan of Caius, which makes sense. Especially when she brings up the point when he says "You know I'm not responsible for your brothers death" and she goes "No, I know you didn't kill him. There's a difference." which yeah even though he didn't personally do it he was responsible for hiring the Crows that did. He seems to be the only one she has really any issue with at the moment, since she is polite to Aaron.

It was really cool to see that even though she is from an altus family she does not approve of abusing slaves, even going so far as threatening the friend of the family who was about to punish one for spilling a drink on her dress. she also thinks how the old her would agree with Vaea when she talks about how the person killing slavers are the good guys.

Speaking of, I'm loving the relationship between her and Vaea. They seem to genuinely like each other and confide in each other. They do have a lot in common like losing their families and homes, so it's understandable, but even before Francesca knew that she was good with Vaea. It'll be interesting to see how their friendship develops. It's great to see two of my favorite characters getting along so well.

The bond between Vaea and Francesca was something that really surprised us as we wrote it.  I mean, we had a narrative plan, and the two women were a huge part of it.  But we were so looking forward to how each would interact with Fenris, it kinda surprised us how important we found their interactions with each other.

Personally, I would guess 18 or 19, since she looks about 12 in that six-year-old flashback.

Ah, so she’s the same age as Vaea now.

Might be an odd thing to say, but she looks so elf like to me. Give her a pair of pointed ears and she is good to go.

Speaking of which, I'm 100% sure that plant magic is just another thing Tevinter stole from the elves and claimed as its own.

Thoughts on Francesca after reading Issue 2 of Blue Wraith.

First, her fight was Fenris was absolutely amazing.

I like how throughout the chapter we see her not being the brat you'd think someone like her would be. On multiple occasions she is willing to do things the way someone else does instead of just going in. It also shows her intelligence, since she recognizes the dangers of a more frontal assault.

I liked seeing her hardened viewpoint be challenged in this chapter. First with Vaea, whose friendship with her I've been enjoying so far, who challenged her agreement with Fenris about friendship just being for someone to use you that she developed after her trying to make a friend killed her brother, and even when she brings up Vaea's and Aaron's current rocky relationship Vaea says even so she wouldn't abandon him. Even Fenris challenged her about not being that way, saying her plan to rescue her dad so he'd be in her debt sounds typical Tevinter but then says she is not one of those. Coming from him, that's a huge endorsement about her character. Hopefully she takes their words to heart and discards this hardened persona and embraces her true self.

My thoughts on Francesca after reading the finale of Blue Wraith:

First, it was nice to see her continue to actually care about slaves when she became protective of them when she thought Fenris was going to intimidate and interrogate them. Especially considering the subject included where her father was, thus not willing to go to any means to achieve her goal. Good to see that seems to be a permanent part of her personality. She even got more compliments from Mr. Mage Hater himself.
Her face of shock and terror at seeing the humans who were put into the machine exploding was really interesting as well, capturing how despite being a very capable fighter the horrors of war have not desensitized her.
On to the main event, her encounter with Dad of the Year. Seeing him just strike her in fury and utterly destroying her verbally, saying things like how the wrong sibling died and how she was useless. It really showed the difference between her and a 'typical Tevinter'. Then of course her pleading with him to stop, and when he doesn't and is about to kill her comrades she has to strike him down. Again, the look of trauma on her face truly captures her persona well as she breaks down from it despite how truly awful he was to her. And that scene with Vaea comforting her is among the most powerful panels I think I've ever read.
After the battle, it was nice to see how she went back to her old self instead of becoming the hardened version she was walking towards. From not only forgiving Calix and calling him an ally while she offered hospitality to the man who caused her brother's death, to her face going back to the sweet one we saw earlier as she tended to Casse. And I love the friendship between her and Vaea, with the final close up panel of her smiling and almost giggling as Vaea humors Aaron about telling his story.