also love the scene where he (all by his lonesome) one-shots every enemy for a few minutes, until you realize he's just embellishing the story to make himself look good (and not even trying to be convincing at this point).

That's totally the part from his personal quest where I fell in love with him, the moment that I think of as "Varric's Last Stand". I fell in love with him as a character and in love with the idea of him as an unreliable narrator, and I never looked back. :)

Replaying Origins I was delighted when I realized his voice was the same as that of Leske from the dwarf commoner storyline.

Oooh, I did not know that! I've been contemplating which origin to play through next, and that tidbit definitely weighs in Brosca's favor. Hmmm...