{abuse content warning} same anon as before. i definitely agree with you about fandom being reductive about her character because she's been a bard since origins and openly admits its something she enjoys so i found it a bit weird when people called it ooc. what are your thoughts on her relationship with justinia? i've seen posts calling it naive hero worship and putting on a pedestal a woman who used her just like marjolaine had >>

it’s hard to get a full read on her relationship with justinia because we never really meet justinia, and dorothea only briefly in leliana’s song. but i think leliana’s relationship with justinia is best described by leliana herself when you ask her:

that right there says everything. leliana’s entire relationship with justinia was founded upon justinia showing leliana that mercy was a worthy path to follow, and that for how full the world is of terrible things, it’s just as full of good ones too.

the idea that justinia used leliana the way marjolaine used leliana is an idea presented posthumously by justinia herself. justinia regrets bringing leliana back into political turmoil. justinia regrets asking leliana to get blood on her hands again. to leliana, justinia is the woman who gave her the strength to heal after an abusive relationship, who set her in the warden’s path, and who gave leliana a purpose after the blight had ended.

marjolaine and justinia are nothing alike. literally every person you talk to who’s not an asshole talks about how justinia wanted to make thedas peaceful and better for everyone, particularly mages and elves, but she was fighting against a massive, corrupt power structure that she was sitting on top of. justinia herself was a victim of marjolaine’s cruelty. marjolaine seduced dorothea and tried to use her to start a war and get who knows how many people killed.

leliana is reeling after the conclave because her mentor, her spiritual guide, her teacher and friend and a woman who was very much like a mother to her was just killed in an attempt to bring peace back to thedas. she falls back on violence because it’s an easier way for her to express her anger, and she has a crisis of faith because she’s trying to reconcile her controversial view of the maker with a mass murder that makes no sense. she reacts because she’s a reactive person, and she reacts violently because she’s a violent person.

the thing is that leliana found peace at the lothering chantry, but she was also bored out of her mind there. leliana enjoys the game. she enjoys politics, she enjoys being a bard, she enjoys the manipulation and the violence. she likes knowing more than everyone else because she knows that knowledge is a powerful weapon, and leliana likes to feel powerful.

she literally threw herself in the path of the blight for all those reasons. being able to help people for other people’s sake was a perk, because leliana is nothing if not extremely efficient, and why fulfill one objective when you can tick multiple boxes off your list at once?

if justinia hadn’t asked leliana to come serve her—and that’s an important distinction, because justinia asked and leliana agreed—i firmly believe leliana would have found another cause. maybe she would have returned to the grand game; maybe she would have joined the wardens. either way, she would not have allowed herself to remain cloistered away in peace and security, because that’s not who she is.

she needs to be active and involved, she needs to know more than everyone about everything, she needs to be the knife in the dark. not for other people but for herself. being able to help other people is just a perk that she also enjoys because leliana is both terrible and kind.

so basically: i’m not here for fandom comparing leliana’s relationship with justinia to her relationship with marjolaine or for this idea that justinia used and abused leliana because god, leliana has been through enough in her life, let her hold on to one of the few things that helped her heal and take control of her fate.