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anneapocalypse · 1 year ago

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Why Vivienne Needs the Inquisition

No one 'winds up' at Court, my dear. It takes a great deal of effort to arrive there.

–Enchanter Vivienne to the Inquisitor

An ask I received (referring, I think, to something I said in this post, though I've alluded to it at other points as well):

How/why is Vivienne's position at court shakier than it seems? (Please publish this anonymously.)

Thank you for asking! I’ve wanted to write something on this subject for a while, so I appreciate the push to get it all down. It’s something I find really interesting about Vivienne, because it's something she doesn't want the Inquisitor, or anyone, to know, so it's all subtext in the game. Vivienne is a character who always holds the player character at arms' length--a bit less so when she likes them, but there is always some distance there. As such, she's a difficult character to get to know.

And while I do have some issues with the way Vivienne is handled in the game, particularly with narrative and quest design, I won’t be touching on those heavily here. For this post I want to focus on what can be determined about her motivations from the character as written.

Vivienne can be recruited to the Inquisition after the Inquisitor's first trip to Val Royeaux. Notably, she seeks out the Inquisitor's attention herself, inviting them to a gala at the Duke of Ghislain's estate, and also notably, once recruited she will not leave the Inquisition and cannot be forced to leave, no matter how low her approval of the Inquisitor. This is also something I have seen people question: why can't you kick Vivienne out, and why won't she simply leave if she disapproves of your choices? I hope this post will answer that question as well.

The most critical aspect of Vivienne's character to understand, I think, is that she has no stable institutional power. She is not a noble. She has no familial connections of the sort that can help even a mage to keep their head above water. She is a woman who was taken from her family at a young age and raised in an institution, and who has used all her wit and charisma to make the very best of that situation for herself.

Vivienne's position as First Enchanter of Montsimmard is mostly an achievement within the Circle itself. Montsimmard itself, however, was also a stepping stone to influence outside the Circle. Personally, I think the fact that Vivienne declined to join any fraternity when she became a full Enchanter, a shocking move at the time, indicates that she held ambitions outside the Circle from a young age. And Montsimmard was the perfect proving ground for her, a major Orlesian city whose ruling family maintain close relations with the Circle. In The Masked Empire, the Marquise de Montsimmard boasts about dining at the Circle, and she and her husband wear masks adorned with lyrium crystals which we are told were a gift from the First Enchanter. It seems likely, though not confirmed, that this was Vivienne herself.

(Incidentally, it is a real shame that Vivienne’s character seems to have solidified so late in the game’s development, because in retrospect I really feel her absence in the novels. She gets a brief mention in The Masked Empire as Madame de Fer, and absolutely nothing in Asunder, which we'll come back to.)

It seems that the Montsimmard mages were called upon with some regularity to entertain the court, and this is how Vivienne first caught the attention of Duke Bastien in 9:16 Dragon. Within a year, she had moved into a suite in his estate. Her position came under attack for the next few years, but nonetheless, after a single meeting with Empress Celene in 9:20 Dragon, she became the newly-crowned Empress's Court Enchanter.

(Edited to add: It seems to be sometime after this that Vivienne became First Enchanter of Montsimmard, at "an age young enough to cause scandal," though the date is never confirmed that I can find. Incidentally, as @shrovetidecat brought to my attention in the notes, Fiona is also supposed to have been Grand Enchanter of Montsimmard, which given that may be a lore inconsistency, unless Vivienne is only meant to have taken the position after Fiona rose to Grand Enchanter—and I'm not sure why a 40-year-old First Enchanter would be scandalous.)

By the time she meets the Inquisitor, she is likely somewhere in her 40s, and has been the Enchanter to the Imperial Court and the Mistress to the Duke de Ghislain for twenty years. She regularly mingles with the court and has built a practically unprecedented influence for herself in Orlesian high society.

And it's all about to fall apart, for three critical reasons.

First, the obvious: the mage rebellion. One cannot be First Enchanter of a Circle that no longer exists, though Vivienne certainly tries. A majority of mages, even if by a razor-thin margin, have declared that they do not recognize the Circle's authority—and therefore Vivienne's authority as a loyal Enchanter within that system.

I think Vivienne's dialogue with the Inquisitor and her remarks if taken to Redcliffe reveal a deep frustration and resentment of Grand Enchanter Fiona, who called for the vote to leave the Circle and now leads the rebel mages. Vivienne of course handles this in the manner to which she is accustomed, the culture of the Imperial Court, in which trading in verbal jabs and barely-veiled insults is a standard matter of social one-upsmanship. Outside of that environment, she comes across as petty and rude, which is an interesting point of characterization in itself: Vivienne has thrived in the court environment, but she does seem to have a bit of trouble adapting her manner to different circumstances, where that sort of thing might not benefit her. But what she's trying to do is frame herself before the Inquisitor as the reasonable and respectable mage, and Fiona as misguided and pitiable. How well this goes for her, of course, depends on who the Inquisitor is. But the effort itself kind of reveals the shaky ground she's standing on.

In her dialogue with the Inquisitor, Vivienne claims that as the rebel mages follow Fiona, the loyal mages follow her. But where are these loyal mages? There's maybe one or two mages we meet in the game (Enchanter Ellendra comes to mind) who seem to respect Vivienne's word. But if the loyal mages look to her as a leader, why is Ellendra alone in a cave in the Hinterlands to begin with? Why doesn't Vivienne bring a group of these loyal mages with her to Skyhold?

I think it's because Vivienne doesn't truly have followers among the mages, the way Fiona does. This is the story she's telling the Inquisitor, to capitalize on the idea that the rebel position is not a consensus, and also that she still has influence among a significant number of mages. The truth is, she doesn't. She’s spent most of her life courting influence outside the Circle, not in it. She has presided over a Circle where she doesn’t even live day-to-day. I can’t imagine that has particularly endeared her to many of her fellow mages, even the ones who are loyalists or moderates.

Contrast this with Wynne, a pro-Circle Aequitarian who is deeply involved in Circle life despite undertaking sanctioned work outside the tower, and is also deeply involved in the events leading up to the vote for independence. Whatever the Doylist reasons for Vivienne's absense from Asunder, the fact remains: she's just not there. She has no presence in the events leading up to the rebellion. When speaking critically of Fiona's vote, she discusses it in the context of Anders' attack on the Kirkwall Chantry, and says nothing of the circumstances surrounding Fiona's push for a vote—not the revelations about Tranquility, not the conclave (no not that Conclave, the conclave of mages at which Fiona called for the vote for independence), not the subsequent massacre by the templars and the remaining mages' decision to stand and fight. And perhaps most notably, no one mentions Vivienne, positively or negatively, during the events of Asunder. Not once. We are left with the conclusion that Vivienne is simply not heavily involved in Circle politics, no matter what impression she may wish to give the Inquisitor. Her influence does not lie within the Circle.

And I think Vivienne knows this, and realizes that it's suddenly become a big problem for her.

The second big problem is Morrigan.

Vivienne has had the favor of the Empress herself for twenty years. She has, by others' accounts, managed to turn the position of Court Enchanter from "little more than court jester" to a position of influence and respect. And then the Grand Duke attempts a coup, and the Empress's elven lover runs away with a dangerous secret, and suddenly the Empress is enlisting the services of some unwashed swamp witch while Vivienne is standing right there!

Like I cannot overstate what a absolutely galling slap in the face it would be to Vivienne that even as she is attempting to uphold the legitimacy of the Circle and thus of her own authority within it, Celene effectively creates the "Arcane Advisor" position as "Court Mage 2: Apostate Boogaloo" just so she can get advice on non-Circle-approved magics. Advice that Vivienne could not give even if she wanted to, even if the Empress asked, because she has no knowledge of eluvians and ancient elven magic.

Both Dorian and Cole needle Vivienne about her jealousy of Morrigan, and I think quite accurately, no matter how quick Vivienne is to deny it.

Her influence over the Empress is fast eroding. She has been replaced in all but name.

And the third and most personal big problem is Bastien's illness.

Vivienne has enjoyed a romance with one of the empire's most influential nobles for twenty years. She has lived in his home and been on good terms with his wife until her passing. Her influence in the Imperial Court owes a lot to Bastien's affections. Bastien is not only a Duke but a member of the Council of Heralds, the political body responsible for overseeing matters of titles and inheritance in Orlais. They are quite literally the most powerful group in the country; even the Empress rules at their favor, without which she would never have gained the throne in the first place.

And now Bastien is dying, something Vivienne takes care not to mention to the Inquisitor at first. It's not until after the ball at the Winter Palace that Vivienne asks the Inquisitor for help with her potion in a last-ditch attempt to prolong his life—and even then she does not reveal her true purpose until after the Inquisitor has returned with the wyvern's heart. And while it's possible to interpret multiple ways, I personally believe from her response to his death that she did care for Bastien. She didn't need to bring the Inquisitor to his deathbed at all, if she wanted to continue concealing his illness, something she's taken care to do up until that point. It bespeaks a measure of trust that she allows the Inquisitor to see her so—in her grief, as well as in her loss of position.

Because Bastien's death is a terrible loss for Vivienne socially as well as personally. Bastien's son will inherit his estate, and whether Vivienne is allowed to go on living there will be entirely at his discretion. Perhaps he will permit her to stay, but she cannot count upon his grace, nor upon the protection she enjoyed with Bastien any longer; and furthermore if she is allowed to stay, it will be a favor to her, making her beholden rather than granting her greater influence. She won't have the dignity of being Bastien's widow; she is his mistress, and respected as that position may be in the Orlesian court, it gives her no true claim to his family.

Vivienne is about to lose everything she has built for herself.

Without Bastien, without Celene, she will be left with… what? The position of First Enchanter to a Circle that no longer exists? If her own best-case scenario occurs and the rebellion is halted and the Circles are reinstated, then she still loses all the freedom she has gained and is forced to return to a Circle tower herself—a sphere in which, as previously discussed, she holds less influence than she would like the Inquisitor to believe. Even if she remains First Enchanter, it's hard to see this as anything but a massive step down in the social hierarchy, the beginning of a long slide into what the Fade reveals as her greatest fear: irrelevance.

It's a humiliation that Vivienne cannot bear.

This is why she won't leave the Inquisition, no matter how much she may despise the Inquisitor. Vivienne needs the Inquisition far more than she lets on. This even puts the petty low-approval furniture-moving scene into context. Yes, she’s doing it to snub the Inquisitor, but that doesn’t actually gain her anything. I think it’s deeper than that. The Inquisition was Vivienne’s fallback plan, and it’s not going well. The Inquisitor is making her look bad, she is finding no avenue to further advancement here, but she can’t leave. So, her response is to try to reclaim some sense of control over her life, asserting a kind of power she had at Bastien’s estate and was likely denied in the Circle: control over her own space.

Even if Bastien were to live a bit longer, Vivienne really has nowhere higher she can climb in the Imperial Court. She can't become a noble herself. She can't marry Bastien, or any other noble for that matter, because she is a mage. And I'm sure she's highly aware of this fact. Bastien is several years a widower himself; it is not his former marriage that prevents him from marrying her, now. It is her status as a mage which bars her from entering a noble family, legally, socially, politically. That Bastien never seems to have raised the question at all speaks to the fact that no matter how much he may have stuck his neck out for Vivienne, there was a line even he was not interested in crossing.

So where does she have to go from here?

Along comes the nascent Inquisition. Shaking things up. If any organization could rattle the gilded walls of the Chantry, it's this one.

Why not take a stab at the Chantry, at this point? What does she have to lose?

It didn’t really sink in for me for several playthroughs because she isn't wearing cleric's garb, but Bastien's sister Marcelline, who visits Skyhold after his death with Bastien’s son? She's a grand cleric. One of the surviving grand clerics who will decide the next Divine. Vivienne involves the Inquisitor in her plan to save Bastien, a plan she likely knows will fail—but she puts in the effort. She then introduces the Inquisitor to Grand Cleric Marcelline, having told her how the Inquisitor came to her aid. Marcelline expresses gratitude: “Madame de Fer has told us what great trials you faced, trying to save my poor brother’s life.” Bastien’s son Laurent is a powerful ally in his own right, now a member of the Council of Heralds, but also likely the one who will decide whether Vivienne keeps her suite in the Ghislain estate.

And if the conversation goes well, Vivienne tells the Inquisitor that it was "quite the triumph." If the Inquisitor expresses confusion, she patiently explains the influence that both Laurent and Marcelline wield, and that they have now secured the trust of both. If Vivienne becomes Divine, Marcelline’s favor no doubt goes a long way in getting her there.

Of course Vivienne will continue to take a conservative position on the mage question. A mage looking to insinuate herself into the Chantry hierarchy would have to, just as a mage seeking the freedom to consort with the court would have to. In the same way that a Hawke with aspirations of seizing the vacant seat of Kirkwall's Viscount must side with the templars at the end to show the nobility that they represent stability and order, the Chantry's first mage cleric must be pro-Circle, pro-templar, conservative to the bone. Vivienne seems to recognize this as far more important than actually appearing devout. It's also fascinating to me how little she bothers to make any pretense of a personal faith, instead always discussing the Chantry as an important social institution and political body. And this attitude doesn't seem to impede her chances at the Sunburst Throne very much, no more so than being a mage already would.

Vivienne knows exactly what she's doing. She always has.

Vivienne comes to the Inquisition seeking power and influence in the Chantry because her position among the nobility is falling apart. Whether she comes in with the intention to reach for the Sunburst throne itself is debatable, and I personally think it might have been the intent that she does have that ambition but seeks to let the Inquisitor think it was their own idea, though I'm iffy on how successful that is if it was the intent. Nonetheless, I do believe that Vivienne comes to the Inquisition with the intent to seek influence within the Chantry, realizing that the recent upheaval may offer her a unique opportunity to do so. And depending on how closely the Inquisitor aligns with her goals, she may succeed quite dramatically.

References

Codex Entry: Madame de Fer

Talking with Vivienne at Haven and Skyhold

Vivienne's high disapproval scene

After Bastien's death

Banter with Cole

Banter with Dorian

The World of Thedas vol. 2, pp. 235-239 (hardcover edition)

Dragon Age: The Masked Empire, p. 31 (paperback edition)

#vivienne #madame de fer #dragon age meta #dragon age inquisition #the masked empire #asunder #bastien de ghislain #blunders of thedas #ask anne #thedas politics

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vaguely-concerned · 4 months ago

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It's really interesting that Wynne actually has quite a measured, bordering on downright sympathetic response to hearing what Jowan did in the prologue -- if the mage Warden says "I still can't believe Jowan was that stupid", her answer is something like a thoughtful "Stupid, or desperate, or merely curious?". She seems to think of Jowan as a kid who got in over his head, rather than any less charitable interpretation. I do believe she genuinely is as against blood magic as she publicly expresses and as the Circle party line demands, but as a private person she clearly has a more nuanced and potentially kinder understanding of the reasons why someone might resort to it, at the very least.

(related: when she says that part about Irving telling her what happened, there's no dialogue option in the first stage of the conversation (except choosing the 'leaving the conversation' one) that doesn't net you +2 approval! no matter how the warden feels about it, she is ready to recieve it. I think that says something sweet about how Wynne conceptualizes younger mages and the honest real affection she has for them. if you didn't snitch on jowan and say you stand by that decision, though? +3 approval, apparently! what Wynne says and what Wynne thinks is not always the same thing indeed, her idea of where personal loyalty and integrity stands vis-a-vis a mage's responsibility to the circle may be more flexible than she'd have people believe, you'll be surprised to learn lol)

I have always liked wynne and found her interesting, in all her hypocrisies and her earnest care, but with slightly older eyes she's extra fascinating to me in the same ways that Iron Bull is -- seeing someone whose mind has had hollows carved out in it by the need for double-think and compartmentalization imposed by the oppressive systems and ideologies they live under, and the quiet fight of the self to still preserve vital parts of itself that the system deems unacceptable in the hidden backstage areas of the soul, as it were. (and for both of them part of that self is love and protectiveness of specific other people, beyond what their 'role' dictates is acceptable for them.) I think Wynne has managed to sneak more of her internal self through the meatgrinder relatively intact than Bull overall, but it's the same logic underlying it, for me, and it makes me feel such intense affection and compassion for them both to see how hard they try

#dragon age #dragon age origins #wynne #iron bull #my warden and wynne actually have quite similar feelings and views about the circle so it's really interesting #conflicted love is one hell of a tradition to pass down and boy do they do that lmao look the circle really is a family!#it has intricacies of intergenerational trauma being inherited and everything #I think sophia reaches the 'ok. alright. I'm going to stop being polite pretend centrist about this' stages earlier #but her being more open about it is mostly about her being uniquely protected by her role in the wardens #(and being the king's if-not-for-the-laws-of-this-land-and-the-finer-points-of-political-marriage wife lmao)#and knows it; she has less to be responsible for in the circle itself now. I think she and wynne Understand each other by then #asunder is a book of. many parts! let's say lol but wynne's characterization in it is so good #she was about to go absolutely nutso mode after stuff started to go south and I love that for her #her gloves have been on her whole life but oh she is aware of that and would have taken them off and then some in that moment #the older you get the funnier wynne actually being like 50 gets tho. oh no. at death's door. ancient. aged. she has outlived the ages #how the fuck old is irving btw since he's alive and kicking during the ending of asunder (<3 love you dad)#also. yes. yes I am still on my iron bull bullshit I may never truly be off it he makes me so impossibly sad and so insane

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the-northern-continent · 2 months ago

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It wasn’t one of the backgrounds I was considering, but that “discovered as an infant” has me 👀. Because why would a baby be there? If they were left there, that’s a spicy story for sure. But also, logistically, it probably doesn’t make sense to have that many different possible parents, for all the different lineages.

Which opens up the other option: they weren’t left there, they ARRIVED there.

And I have been wanting to play a spirit protagonist ever since Asunder. Arguably the Inquisitor could be one (they deal with all close friends/family through the war table, so they never face scrutiny from people who knew them before the Breach), but I wonder if Veilguard will have more official options to RP as one.

#one of the other backgrounds describes Rook as a foundling #so that’s another possibility #dragon age #dragon age spoilers #dragon age the veilguard #da4 spoilers #dragon age inquisition #dragon age inquisition spoilers #cole dragon age #da4 speculation #asunder #rook dragon age

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briarruler2 · 2 years ago

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#Dragon Age tag is for the Dragon Age Franchise.

#Dragon Age: Origins tag.

#Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening tag.

#Dragon Age: Origins - Witch Hunt tag.

#Dragon Age: Origins - The Stone Prisoner tag.

#Dragon Age II tag.

#Dragon Age: Inquisition tag.

Dragon Age: The World of Thedas Volume 2 tag.

#Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne tag.

#Dragon Age: Asunder tag.

#Anders (Short Story) tag.

This Blog's Tags Master Post

Each post is tagged by origin and fandom-franchise. Generally posts will also have a bunch of sub-tags, however I don't do warning-tags.

Post Origin Tags:

#Reblogged Post tag is for reblogging of someone else's post.

#Reblogging with Comment tag is for other people's posts that I have reblogged and added something onto.

#My Post tag is for reblogging of a post I made on my main blog.

#My Post Reblogged tag is for my own posts that someone else has added something onto.

#Dialogue Post tag is for posts that have both my own and others commentary in them.

Fandom tags are in the reblogs.

#Masterpost #Dragon Age #Dragon Age: Origins #Dragon Age II #Dragon Age: Inquisition #Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening #Dragon Age: Origins - Witch Hunt #Dragon Age: Origins - The Stone Prisoner #Dragon Age: The World of Thedas Volume 2 #Dragon Age: Asunder #Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne #Anders (Short Story)

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5queerducksinatrenchcoat · 4 months ago

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you ever wonder if vivienne doesn't like cole (besides the 'ew icky abomination' bs) because he's a walking reminder of the awful shit that can happen to mages at the hands of templars at a circle, and as easily as 'misfiled paperwork'?

also, mortal cole was half-chasind, fun fact.

#dragon age #dragon age inquisition #dragon age asunder #cole dragon age #dragon age cole #vivienne dragon age #dragon age vivienne #anti templar #anti chantry

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s0lavellan · 3 months ago

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This got me thinking about the murals in Solas’ lighthouse. Paintings that shouldn’t be able to disappear and yet somehow these memories are fading…Almost like Cole’s history. 🤔 Idk how this connects but I find these parallels interesting.

#solas #cole #dragon age asunder #dragon age the veilguard #datv spoilers #dragon age

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lithosaurus · 5 months ago

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Fiona in the supplementary books: Fuck the Divine, Fuck the king, Fuck my Warden Commander, all y'all haven't been through half the shit I have, I cast freeze your balls off

Fiona in Inquisition: The Grey Wardens were kinda rude to me so I ditched them for the Circle that I once said was worse than being kept as a child sex slave and I'm going to promise the mage rebellion into slavery to a Tevinter death cultist because he asked nicely. I will now go stand passively in the library and not even talk to my secret son or mention that 'Blackwall' definitely wasn't in Ferelden during the Blight.

#Dragon Age #DAI #I sound really salty but I can't tell if the character change is speaking to the challenges of leadership or bad writing #she's the best part of the supplement books IMHO and I wish we had more of her in the game #I liked her showing up in Asunder what with Weisshaupt not trusting her and Duncan being dead #but giving up the rebellion to Alexius was either blood magic or character assassination #grand enchanter fiona #dai critical #the rocks dont fall

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liaragaming · 3 months ago

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Cole & Compassion as more-Human

I know my mutuals prefer the more spirit route. And I do want to iterate that neither path is wrong or right. Cole is happy whatever you choose. But I want to explain why I prefer the human path.

Forgetting Trauma

I made Cole more spirit in my first few playthroughs. I like Cole, and I like Solas, and Solas is the spirit expert. So when he says, the spirit route is the way to go, then that should be correct right? Varric's statements that Cole "came here to be a person" is wrong. Cole came here to help. He's a spirit of Compassion, and that's what he should be. And with those aspects in mind, the more human path seems incorrect.

But Cole making the Templar forget what he did never quite sat right with me. I'm sure we all have trauma we'd like to erase, but that's not healing. That's just erasure. Cole says the Templar remembers that something bad happened and that he had to leave the order because of it - he just doesn't remember the hand he personally played. And that's a nice sentiment. I'm just not sure that it's right.

Blackwall's Journey You know who carries a lot of trauma in the game? Blackwall. He doesn't get to forget it. But he heals from it, especially if you choose the Thom Rainier route. He doesn't get to run to the Wardens as a cover for his actions. He has to figure out how to live as he is. And it's hard, but he does it. He travels Thedas, finding others like him and offering them hope.

Thom Rainier was shown mercy when none was deserved, and set on a path of redemption. This gift, so compassionately given, needed to be shared. Freed from his obligations to the Inquisition, Rainier travelled Thedas, giving hope to the condemned and the forgotten. In the deepest prisons and pits of Thedas, he found, if not goodness itself, its potential. By showing faith in those who had none, Rainier lifted them up and made them into something better than they were.

This path of redemption that is shared with others and touches so many people could never happen if Cole went to Thom and made him forget. Trauma sucks, but people can learn and grow and something good and wonderful can come from it. And I think this potential for healing and transformation is lost in the act of forgetting.

Forgetting Cole

The other thing about making Cole more spirit that rubbed me the wrong way is how Cole makes himself forget the real Cole - the boy whom he came through the Fade to comfort. And I get why this has to happen. Cole can't learn or grown from it - that would change him. He has to forget to keep himself, but...

Solas says that making Cole more human alters the essence of what he is. But the more I played the spirit path, the more I felt that was the path that altered him.

Cole reached through the Fade to help a small boy. That was Compassion - an incredible, extraordinary example of it. And it doesn't sit right with me that making Cole more spirit and supposedly more himself erases the most compassionate thing he's ever done.

Cole Learns How to Help More

I vehemently disagree with Varric's words that Cole came to this world to be human. That isn't true. I don't like the Inquisitor's words, insisting that Cole needs to learn to be more human. I don't want Cole to be human. I want him to be Compassion. I want him to heal his own hurt and help people as he's always done. And it turns out, at least in my opinion, that the more human route is the one that allows him to do that most because he learns how it do it more effectively.

Everyone remembers me now. But I'm real. More real, anyway. And I understand more than I did. I sometimes see why something I said would bother Cullen. Maybe I'll do it less.

Making people forget sometimes isn't the answer, and Cole understands that now. He also understands now why some of his actions might hurt when he doesn't intend them to. He learns what works and what doesn't whereas, as more spirit, he'll just do what he thinks is right (even if maybe it's not).

[spoiler alert for Asunder in this paragraph] If you've never read Asunder, Cole kills mages. He recognizes that they are stuck in the Circle and in pain, and as Compassion he believes that the only way to help them, to relieve that pain, is to take their life so they don't feel it anymore. He has to learn and grow and realize that's the wrong answer. And I see the human path in Inquisition as doing the same thing.

Cole learns how to help people more effectively. He can't make people forget him anymore. So, he can't start over if he does something wrong. But it helps him learn how to heal through better methods.

I wanted to help people, but I only knew enough to do it in the simplest way. [...] Making people forget me was a defense against people attacking me and having what they saw in me stick. Because I'm real, everything sticks. What they think or feel about me stays. [In banter with Blackwall, he elaborates] I can't wash it away, but it helps me learn.

To me, this is Compassion. This is how Cole helps. This is how he keeps himself and his purpose as a spirit in a way that, in my opinion, is more effective than the spirit route.

Cole is Sadder, yes, but...

I know this tweet has made the rounds. But I don't think Weekes is necessarily saying the human route is wrong.

It hurts. Everything hurts. Everyone remembers me now.

Does Cole being more human make him sadder? Yes. He carries trauma with him. And trauma hurts. It sucks. He's "sadder," but that doesn't mean he's not happy:

Being this, being me...it's harder. But better. I like me.

A lot of us carry trauma. I carry my own. But I learned from it. I am more empathetic and understanding of certain things because of it. I'm not the same person I was before. And yes it hurts. Yes, I'm "sadder" than I would be without it. But I wouldn't erase it. I like who I am. And going back to the person I was, the person who saw the world differently than I do now, who didn't know the things I know now... I wouldn't want that. And with Cole as more human, there are things he comes to understand that as more spirit he never could.

Varric's wrong. Cole didn't come to this world to be human. He crossed the Veil to help, to show compassion. The human path lets him do that. The spirit path, in my opinion, sends him back. The human path, propels him forward.

Cole's Fears

If you make Cole more spirit, he thanks you for not making him change. But if you make him more human, he admits that he was scared of change. He lost his only friend, Rhys, when he "grew" - when he realized what he was and and learned and became something more. He was worried changing and becoming more human would make him lose his friends all over again - that being seen and letting people see him as he is (without the power to make them forget) would scare everyone and they would push him away. As more human, he realizes he was wrong. He says it's liberating. He calls it "wonderful."

Conclusion

I'm not saying one path is wrong or right. I see the reasons for going more spirit with Cole. And the fact that a more spirit Cole recognizes Solas' pain and steps into the Fade to join him and help him remember who he is kills me. The fact human Cole ends up with Maryden and not Krem also kills me.

I still question if more-human is the right choice. But when I ask myself what makes Cole more himself - what allows him to embody Compassion the way that he wants to - I just personally see the more human path as the best at achieving that.

#cole meta #cole more human #asunder #dragon age inquisition #my meta

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