Maker's Breath.... (Official Cullen Rutherford discussion)

I totally get the frustration, believe me! I'm not a strong artist--I used to draw a bit in high school because I had a lot of hugely artistic friends, but it was never a strength (and honestly, being surrounded by people who could do so effortlessly what I had to slave and sweat over was probably a contributing factor to me slowly quitting over the years )--but I know there's no worse feeling than when you have something in your head or in your sights but just you can't make your stupid hand translate it. It's true of any creative endeavour, and a wall I beat my head against frequently when I'm writing.

While he may not look as much like Cullen as you were trying for, it's honestly also a closer likeness than a lot of fanart I've seen, and you have the added difficulty of trying to translate him into a more realistic style via a medium that isn't particularly forgiving of errors, so take heart in that. Maybe starting over with a clean slate, keeping in mind the things you want you focus on, would be better for your sanity than risk trashing what is an excellent drawing in its own right?


Also, I'm p. much operating on a cocktail of little sleep and gross cherry cough syrup, so apologies if I'm coming across like a condescending asshole; it isn't my intention! XD

Ok, I need to do more work on the body but...hows this?

  ...This one's better.                   

It's definitely the story and relationships that make DA such a good game. 

You are right - it will be really hard to match a Cullen romance in my opinion ...  but then again, I wasn't sure they could ever match an Alistair romance and they did. Hope reigns supreme!

No worries - I just loved Alistair's evolution -  loved his back story, his sense of morality, his humor, his ferocious loyalty, his kindness, and his sweet,romance with my warden.

But yes, back to Cullen...

duckley:
So I guess we're good then? XD (I tend to be afraid of offending people in the net ^^' sometimes texts alone cant convey the emotions behind them. That's why mostly I just lurk)

@ifs: Wow, I love your take on that defeat in Haven with your Trevelyan
If you dont mind sharing her story and the events in DAI, I'd love to read them

And it does give me some questions after that battle with the Elder One (which I happily swept under the rug later ^^') weren't cas, dorian and varric fighting along by my side just a moment ago? How could they reach camp already, long before me? Didn't they bother to wait somewhere a bit nearer instead? LoL
(Shouts "game mechanics!" Then move on )

I romanced him with a Lavellan, though because dang, I've waited for SO LONG to play a dalish mage

She is someone who has been well brought up by Deshana and has been groomed to be a Keeper after all. A bit cautious in the side of magic, since getting your sticky hands in the unknown teritorry could end badly for your clan, she often opted on the safer side of things.
Ironically, this unknown thing got stuck in her hands without her knowing why or how XD poor girl.

At first she rides for Redcliff at Fiona's invitation (but nope the hell out of it when she got there for many reasons)
Then think of doing the unthinkable later on: going to Theirinfall for aid at Cullen's advice. This is where she puts a test on her trust in him and gamble it with her life. She's trusting him, if things go south and she got captured, he would do a jail break for her. And if things go REALLY bad, she'd rather die sword point anyway.

Then Envy happened and I headcanon that Cullen and Lavellan sorta just clicked together nicely after that (Cullen feeling bad about her being tormented by a demon, an experience he'd wish no one else had to go through. But also felt honored enough that she's willing to trust him on his plans. And oh my God she's so cuuuute... XD )

One of my favourite part was when Cole suddenly appear on the war table. How quickly Cullen draws his sword and place himself between the Herald and a potential danger XD
I can feel my Lavellan's heart beat a little faster and started thinking... Um, what is this I'm feeling? XD

Originally I wanted to try to romance him with both a Lavellan (Lalia) and a Trevelyan (Alastriona) but.. I'm much too attached to my Lavellan girl, so.. haven't been playing other races so far XD .. one day. Hopefully one day I'll get there XD Just so I can play and not romance Cullen whenever I boot DAI on my PC.

Ps: sorry for the long post XD

close2myheart - of course we are good!!!

I miss Cullen. I've gone 9 months without romancing him so I could try Zevran, Fenris, Blackwall, Solas, and now Cassandra. I still have Leliana, Morrigan, Merril, Isabella, Jose, Sera, and Dorian to do before I can embrace that man once more.

And I had a dream about him last night. We both died in a weird zombie apocalypse situation.

Do you guys just do his romance over and over?

I go a step further and just keep playing the same Inquisitor over and over. I've tried a handful of times, but I just can't manage to stick it out with other playthroughs. Part of it is I've spent a lot of time thinking about and fleshing out my Trevelyan's backstory, but mostly, this romance pretty much ruined me. 

close2myheart mods are my ambrosia now, I have never had a decent PC until now, I've always been a console gamer, but mid-2016 I got a decent PC for college, then Dragon Age came up into my life, shredding my feelings into pieces, blame Alistair for that, then Cullen

phoray I'm understand you so much, the same happen to me but with Alistair, I have about two DA:O runs, both are my canon Warden XD I have about three Hawkes and two Inquisitors, and only one Warden because it would feel like I was cheating on Alistair, really laaaaame

Now I'm playing Mass Effect trilogy for first time, and Kaidan is my OTP

Man, I wish Skyrim had romances that good, too...

Next time I play DA:O, I'll have to try romancing Alistair... always loved him but was too awkward about romancing a guy at the time. Cullen changed that

(Nice Inquisitor by the way, looks very determined. Reminds me of someone I can't place...)
Great post You made me realize that it applies almost exactly to my Trevelyan as well. I definitely noticed on all of my playthroughs, but especially Cullen-mancing playthroughs how he bothers to ask/care about you as a person and continues to do so. Even his first impression of you is a lot better than most characters despite wanting answers for so many deaths at the Conclave, and he doesn't assume you're guilty despite his bad history with magic.

The attack on Haven would definitely be when Rowan starts to realize the full extent of her feelings, since it makes her come to terms with impending death (even if that doesn't happen in the end), and presumably the same for Cullen as you say. It's obvious he very much doesn't want you to die despite just then saying they likely all would; he probably wasn't thinking about only you dying.

I feel like if Bioware wanted to play with more variables, Cullen would have at least tried to go with you on your suicide mission (which would have been awesome). Would have been cool even if he tried but was always told off by the Inquisitor. More on the heroic self-sacrifice below.

In this scene, a lot is said between them without using words, a lot understood. I also love that Cullen is the one to find her when she's freezing to death (presumably putting that nice fur of his around her ). The whole of In Your Heart Shall Burn including reaching Skyhold is my favourite part of the game, and the Cullen content just makes it better. Once they're there and recovered, they get to continue to flirt very awkwardly (it's great ), but this time letting on their feelings much more obviously rather than just joking around.


Yeah... that sequence is rather odd when it comes to squadmates. I feel like they might have planned that section to be solo during the narrative, but changed it late in gameplay, because all of the dialogue with Cullen and later with Giselle implies that the Herald would be/was the only one to sacrifice themselves. I thought that would have been more fitting, so I made it happen! In my second playthrough, I decided not to bring any companions on that mission, so that conversation with Cullen made a lot more sense and the whole thing honestly felt a lot more weighty, epic, and sensical.

The only downsides are the Inquisitor yelling at nobody to "Go!" when the dragon shows up and not having any companions for the first part of the mission, but it sort of makes sense since the attack is sudden and you didn't assemble a party beforehand. Quizzy even has a line to say instead of a companion when exiting the Chantry after talking to Cullen. "Alright you monsters... I'm here." Pretty cool. It was even better on my Cullenmancing runs for the added drama that's been discussed. If someone plans on doing this, just keep in mind it was extremely hard with a rogue (much easier with a mage) even on lower difficulties since you're a low-level without great equipment, especially turning the wheels.


Champions of the Just also allows for a bit of extra Cullen time in the form of Envy!Cullen, which is nice in the romance because it adds a layer to the creepiness/intimidation/etc.
Spoilered to avoid clutter:


And Cole is great in the War Table scene. "I am not a war."

Well you're 100% right about that. There has yet to be a gay knight in shining armour of either gender and I really hope that changes soon; it would break a lot of stereotypes as you say. And... I'd love it. See how much I love Cullen now? Imagine if he was a woman instead... No wait, don't. I might never go back to reality

Jokes, of course.



Anyway, Cullen being bi would have been cool.

Holy crap, I'm not the only one who had a dream about Cullen? Yours is rather more weird than mine, but that's par-for-the-course for dreams Mine was weird though...

We got married. And by "we" I mean my character and him. I was Rowan during the dream, and I'm not kidding. I actually felt so happy through it, and really wanted to marry him, despite the fact that I wouldn't in real life. Apparently some dreams can make you straight while your brain is RPing another person

Oh, and this was before Trespasser and the real wedding, by the way. You can all make fun of me now

Well, console mods are making a debut! Hopefully eventually they'll be standard

Yes, I snipped your post to look like that on purpose, phoray

LFS I mostly romanced him with the same Inquisitor again too, but I decided to try something interesting and change her class. Why is that interesting? Well, my first Rowan was a mage (which allowed for some juicy mage-templar romance lines ). My second Rowan was a warrior (which had a couple of Templar lines despite not being a Templar including him pleading with you not to use lyrium ). My approach to RP was that they were the same person in alternate universes, one where she had magic and one where she didn't. This influenced her personality as well, even if her core was the same. My warrior would be more aggressive, while my mage would be more diplomatic on account of learning patience by being locked in a tower most of her life. My mage did In Hushed Whispers while my warrior did Champions of the Just. That kind of thing.


I haven't been in thread in a while, but apparently I still have a lot to say


And now for some fun stuff! I know this is late, but I hope everyone had good holidays! I posted these in the Christmas thread, but they're appropriate here:



Hope you like them!

I`ve always romanced Cullen with a mage Trevelyan.

No. I`ve also romanced Blackwall, Solas, Iron Bull, Cassandra and Josephine. I`ve done Cullen`s romance 3 times: in my first playthrough, around my 5th or 6th playthrough and in my last one.