DA-ily Challenge Day 11: Of Love Songs, Storytellers and Varric’s Theme

flutiebear:

Favorite Song from the Soundtracks: “I’m Not Calling You A Liar (Varric’s Theme)”

Not to detract from Inon Zur’s magnificent score, but my favorite song from any of the Dragon Age games remains DA2’s end credits song, “I’m Not Calling You A Liar (Varric’s Theme)”. (Youtube version at the link)

No, it’s not on the soundtrack, and no, it wasn’t technically written for the game. But it’s gorgeous and haunting, and if I were trapped on a desert island with an mp3 player that could hold only one song, well, this would be the one.

But the first time I listened to the lyrics – really listened – I just couldn’t figure out why the developers had chosen this song and subtitled it “Varric’s Theme”.  I mean, just look at it:

There’s a ghost in my lungs and it sighs in my sleep
Wraps itself around my tongue as it softly speaks
Then it walks, then it walks with my legs
To fall, to fall, to fall at your feet

That sounds far more like Anders lamenting his situation with Justice, doesn’t it?

Or what about these lines:

I’m not calling you a liar, just don’t lie to me
I’m not calling you a thief, just don’t steal from me
I’m not calling you a ghost, just stop haunting me

Well, that sounds more like Hawke admonishing Varric or Isabela or his Warden/Gallows-domiciled sibling, no?

But then I got to thinking.

If we assume that “Varric’s Theme” is told from our “trusty” dwarf’s perspective—what if it isn’t about a person, or a set of persons, at all? What if Varric is speaking about the story itself?

Then maybe this song fits Varric better than I originally thought.

(The rest of this ramble is behind the break.)

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This is magnificent.