You Have Been Lied-- THIS Is Snow White

I'm actually super surprised to see that there are people who don't like Halsin. I guess I've found myself in the right circles because I've never seen anything but love for him!

Ok, so I've been trying to gather my thoughts on this, because it's not a fun topic to discuss. But some of the most insane takes I have seen has been like this:

While others are pointing out how insane it sounds and getting call out posts for it as though they have had no good reason to talk about it:

It's gotten bad enough that Dave Jones, Halsin's voice actor, is being quoted by people saying he should be put on a list:

Dave is a voice actor. A goddamn voice actor. He doesn't have control over how Halsin is written nor is he endorsing any creepy behavior. This is a serious accusation to make and honestly, why are Halsin haters following the voice actor of a character they hate?!

People are entitled to their feelings and they have a right to feel safe, but that does not give them the right to falsely accuse real people for things that did not happen.

This is fictional work. Fictional characters who are written out with a set plan in mind. We know Halsin's intent from start to finish and it's never changed like other, more controversial characters are intended like:

Halsin: I understand, and I will cherish our relationship.

Minthara: I already know your mind. I will know your body, one way or another.

This is not a condemnation of Minthara. She's intended to be difficult and bossy, because she had to be in the cutthroat world of the Underdark. This is, however, intended to be a comparison of the double standards I've been seeing from fans and wish would be applied fairly and civilly. I would deeply dislike being deceived if I was a new player trying out this game and found out I had been misled so badly on different characters. I've already felt aggravation finding out fans pushed a popular headcanon over what's actually in the game in other games.

I cannot believe there's absolutely no way to watch free shows and movies anymore, there are too many paid streaming platforms and pirating websites have viruses and ads preventing you from watching it uninterrupted((.)) id rather follow the rules and purchase media moving forward because it is too inconvenient. Seriously, free and no ads or viruses with 1080p streaming is DEAD.

Ok, so I've been giggling like a loon for the past hour at the thought of a Paladin decked out in full wartime armor, with fury in their heart and the wrath of heaven in their eyes, declaring in a voice that will command the heathens and sinners to listen:

"GET READY FOR MY ALMIGHTY SMITE-Y!"

Bonus points if they're smacking a wooden paddle in one hand while shouting that.

Reach

Female Tav x Halsin

(Just a personal headcanon for one of my Tavs)

The Imp patagium laid on the highest shelf, just a few inches out of her reach if she went on tiptoe. Normally, not a terrible inconvenience if she floated a bit, but with the lambent flames cooking the suspensions and the steam of the sublimates, she was reluctant to risk an accidental brush with her robes. She tried approaching from the side, but the distance just felt longer. She tried placing a knee on the edge of the stone slab used as an alchemical workspace, but the shelf was behind the arrangement of vials and flames and stinging steam.

"Let me, my heart." One long, broad arm reached above her head to pluck the small vial. Looking upwards, she could see the smile on his face.

"I could have gotten that."

"Indeed you could." Wrapping one arm around her waist, Halsin laid a gentle kiss on her head. "But I figured this was easier for you."

Luth could feel herself relaxing into his embrace, swaying with him as they often did during their moments alone.

"Thank you. Really." She turned around, smiling as she reached up to take the patagium from him.

He kept it out of her grasp.

Puzzled, she extended her arm, all the while looking at his broadly grinning face that never changed. He inched it further from her hand. Dawning comprehension revealed the mischievousness in his smile as he leaned a bit further back.

"You're almost there," One step, then two before he had already led her away from the alchemy bench and had sat down on a nearby slab. Every time her fingertips grazed the glass, he'd swap hands with it.

"How-" She let out a huff of laughter. "-how are you so tall?!"

Frustration had her gripping his forearm with both hands, hands that still could not encircle his arm completely, pulling herself further up until she finally snatched the elusive ingredient with a triumphant cry.

"Aha!"

"Very well done, my heart."

His grin had never faded and she had now realized, that he had maneuvered her so that she'd be draped all over him. Only the clothing they wore separated them from fully feeling the length of each other's bodies. From his vantage, he had the satisfaction of watching his beloved's face flush redder and redder, mere inches from his.

"You planned this."

"Mm-hmm." Thick fingers had already slid under her embroidered robes, rubbing circles on bare skin. "Whatever should be done about that now?"

"You-" Luth could not even pretend to be mad, not with growing evidence of his interest beneath where her legs were straddling him. "This is why we're behind on our potion stock."

"By all means, don't let me stop you, my love."

Luth had to laugh. "You are dangerous."

His chuckle joined hers as the vial of patagium fell to the ground.

Forever thinking about the way Shepard says "He's been hurt, betrayed. He deserves something better." When Liara asks if she's fighting for a chance to give Garrus some peace when she comes to the Normandy after LOTSB.

Garrus has been through so much before and during ME2, but he puts it aside to support her. To pick her up at her lowest. From the minute he's back on the Normandy he's just there for her. Don't worry about me, Shepard. I'm fine. Fit for duty when you need me. I just got half my face blown off, but honestly I'm more concerned about you.

Shepard has the weight of the galaxy on her shoulders and Garrus is one of the first people that helps her shoulder it in ME2, despite everything else he's been through. They found each other when they needed each other the most. They get each other, and that's what built the foundation of their friendship and eventual relationship. That's what makes it great.

It's not just about attraction or companionship or a one night stand—and they both realize that pretty quickly. It's about belonging. About finding the person who sees past all the mistakes and bad decisions and responsibilities. Who sees past the soldier, the hero, the vigilante, etc, to the person underneath.

I also love the parallel with Mordin's conversation about his nephew. With thousands of human colonists going missing, the reapers on the horizon— trying to think about everything, fight for everything that's at stake is dizzying, daunting, terrifying. But fighting for Garrus? Fighting for her best friend, her partner in every way? That's something she can do. That's something she can manage.

And one of the best parts? In trying to give Garrus peace, to heal his hurts, to be there for him the way he has been for her, she finds peace herself, where she never expected to. They both find something real worth fighting for in each other, which carries them both through the suicide mission and into the reaper war.

Fans: I can't stand Halsin because he's racist to Drow!

Me: I see. Quick question, who's your favorite character?

Fan 1: Shadowheart, who hates all Githyanki, of course!

Fan 2: Lae'zel, who hates all non-Gith, of course!

Fan 3: Astarion, who hates all gnomes, of course!

Fan 4: Minthara, who hates all surface elves, of course!

Me: ...... I see.

i haven’t been able to finish my current me3 playthrough yet due to my brother hogging the xbox so he can play ARC: Evolved but here’s a list of things i remembered i hate in the OT in no particular order

the elevators

the asari

mark meer’s voice acting in ME1

liara’s writing if you don’t romance her (wtf bioware)…especially considering that the reason i generally DON’T romance her is because in ME1 at least, it feels like an adult dating a teenage girl.

femshep’s romance options and how most of them get fucking shafted to shit in ME3

how heteronormative ME2 was

jacob taylor’s loyalty mission and how racist it was

how racist and lazy the writing for jacob taylor was in general (ofc there are many reasons i dislike jacob in and of itself, but some it can be chalked up to bad writing)

jack’s chuppy ass default outfit in me2 (really bioware??? a woman could have the smallest titties in existence and she still wouldn’t be able to strap ‘em down with just a fucking belt. even if this game was written by mostly men, that’s still dumb as hell)

miranda’s largely unnecessary ass-shots

thane’s death

kai leng

that fact that you can’t call out kaidan for his bullshit cheating accusations in ME3 if you DO choose to romance someone else in ME2 as femshep if you romanced him in ME1, but mshep can do that to ashley (????? BIOWARE!)

the fact that an aro ace shepard it practically impossible to play after a certain point in the series without being a complete dick (and if you play the citadel dlc, impossible as femshep! because if you don’t romance anyone you wake up next to javik! lmao)

the fact that the dlc for the ME2 and 3 literally never goes on sale on pc like it does for the console versions, forcing me to pirate shit i already fucking paid for because i am unwilling to shell out £200+ on this shit again because EA and bioware are lazy money-grubbing fucks thanks ea thanks very much for your business practices

related to the above, but why did they never sell me2 or 3 with all the dlc included? that shit would sell like no one’s business…oh wait, EA…again.

the elevators

I have an assignment due this week, so naturally I’ve spent all day thinking about a relatively minor aspect of Halsin’s characterisation: his sense of humour.

I haven’t often seen Halsin being funny in fanfic, and while there are probably good reasons for that (writers, including me, love to put him in angsty situations – or just PWP – where humour doesn’t necessarily fit) it makes me a little sad, because his sense of humour is something I really love about him. So I thought I’d do a little bit of analysis of his sense of humour as it appears in a few moments in canon.

First up, this comment he makes to Karlach, saying that being in the Underdark ‘dampens one’s sense of fun’ because ‘noises such as laughter tend to attract predators’:

He’s ostensibly talking about the Society having a dampened sense of fun, but of course it’s also an allusion to his own time in the Underdark, and so I think it’s reasonable to read the 'dampened sense of fun' line as referring to himself as well. I have Thoughts about what this quote says in terms of his time with his drow captors and what a formative experience it was for him, but keeping on topic, it points to something that’s backed up by the rest of canon: his sense of humour is dry, it's not performative or showy, and while I think he’s quite often joking he’s not often telling jokes.

Secondly, we have a moment from one of the conversations you can have with him in act 3 about his dislike for the city. He talks about his dream to find a better way where everyone can be cared for, and then he chuckles and says ‘Listen to me, preaching like an initiate in his cups.’

To me, this is quintessential Halsin sense of humour. He’s not telling a joke, he’s not even really trying to make the PC laugh; he’s just poking fun at himself in a wry sort of way. He’s also using humour as a defence mechanism here, I think; he’s minimising the impact of a potential dismissive response from the PC by undercutting his own speech before the PC gets a chance to do it.

Thirdly, we have his interaction with Lae’zel about the chimera:

I know some people seem to take this quote as him seriously admitting he’s fucked a chimera, but I will die on the hill of ‘he was joking’ (a chimera is functionally an animal! it has an INT score of 3! Halsin is canonically on record as uninterested in having sex with actual animals and has the scars to prove it!)

So this is one of the few instances I can remember of Halsin making an outright joke. Note though that it’s still in keeping with his particular sense of humour: it’s dry (to the point where it’s easy to miss that he’s joking at all) and it’s also self-deprecating, in a way: he’s playing with the conception of him as someone who’ll fuck anything that moves, leaning into that characterisation and by doing so, making fun of both it and of himself.

And finally, the other instance I can recall of him outright joking: when the PC tells him he’s quite large for an elf and his response is ‘I am?!’ I really love this one, both because it’s such an obvious example of him deliberately being funny and also because for once, the person he’s poking fun at is the PC (for stating the obvious) rather than himself.

Looking back at these examples, what strikes me is how much his sense of humour shows itself in relation to other people’s assumptions about him. It’s clearly an important way he copes with people misunderstanding him or being dismissive or seeing him as a caricature. Much of the time he seems to be joking to himself rather than anyone else, which makes sense given the interpretation that it’s a defence mechanism rather than a means of connecting with whoever he’s talking to. (I also have a theory that humour is one of the main ways in which he feels safe expressing anger – c.f. the interaction where he tells Shadowheart that she bleats too much – but this post is long enough as it is.)

In any case, I’d be interested to know if anyone else has thoughts on this, or if there are any canon moments I've missed that might contradict these theories.

I wish I could describe just how weird it is to see so much love for this character when you're coming in from a fandom era where the overall attitude towards him was "Ew, he's old" or "He's SO borrrrriiiing!" And most of the affection was neck and neck between Solas and Cullen.

The pendulum has swung I guess

The only reason Blackwall doesn’t look like this in game is because if he did look like this no one would want to sleep with egg man or the catholic cop