hang on, hold on, now I'm really in my feelings about Harding for a moment
like ever since I heard that conversation where Lucanis (very insightful tbh, short king to short queen I guess) points out that having been a tiny dwarf girl raised among the big, intimidating, human Fereldan farmers probably impacted Lace's personality more than she realizes (beyond making her adaptable and capable, it also seems to have made her... kind of malleable, unwilling to rock the boat, people-pleasing, more limestone than granite), I already haven't been able to quite shake that thought. But her being so startlingly low on that recent "who's your favorite character" poll I reblogged... it really drove that point all the way home.
a core characteristic of Lace Harding seems to be that she always tries, and tries, and tries, to be liked- she tries to always be kind, and compassionate, and caring, and sweet to everyone, and it works! everyone likes her! people like being around her, both inside and out the narrative!
... but she's very few people's favorite.
it's a really interesting take on pleasantness being a shield (honestly kind of a very accurate, but subtle expansion on her character in Inquisition, when she was just... Nice and Capable Little Lace Harding and Little Else) and even her story, while it's about her own repressed feelings (literally fighting a physical manifestation of her rage, and sorrow, and pain, is. wow you don't get more clear a metaphor than that, the metaphor is literally punching you in the face on that one), it's still not about herself- or not only herself, but all of the dwarven people, all that was taken from them, all their rage, and sorrow, and pain, condensed into her tiny little body....
there is definitely more to expand on this, and I'll probably get more into it in subsequent playthroughs, but for now, I'm finding it really interesting how Lace Harding is almost an afterthought in her own life, purposefully made a footnote in her own narrative, and that in itself serves to color it in further. she lives in the silences between the titan's heartbeats.
truly the fucking textbook interpretation of an eldest daughter of all the dwarven people, and I'm fucking emotional as fuck about her right now
