#also thedas and the forgotten realms are entirely different settings with different points they emphasize

[invinciblerodent]

Now I kinda want to toy around with a story where a Rook that proves unsuitable to be the leader (because they lack the soft skills, the compassion, the conflict-management skills the story implies they have from the prologue on and requires of them as the crux of its central conflict) does actually get booted by the team, and play with how that would work out for the story, if they were to choose a leader among themselves.

I don't believe I've ever posted about this, but my partner and I have had great and lengthy discussions about how we think that, if Rook, within the story, had the capacity to openly be the kind of amoral asshole certain folks seem to want for a protagonist, there is no way this team would tolerate that.

I mean... just going by the most obvious things alone, Harding and Bellara are immediately, within one of the first missions, very much open about not shying away from taking affirmative action against a self-serving failure of a leader, with both of them approving of leaving a man to die as "atonement" for an (objectively horrible and selfish) crime that resulted in the townspeople's and Veil Jumpers' deaths.

Neve, and the entirety of the Shadow Dragons express frustration with the Magisterium's passive hand-wringing, and have taken matters into their own hands from the start, as the foundation of their faction.

The Grey Wardens we meet before Weisshaupt, including Davrin, are all defying explicit orders just by associating with Rook, showing that their convictions are more important to them than any chain of command.

Hell, Davrin, Taash, Harding, Neve, and Lucanis all greatly approve of the player resolving conflict with a leader who proved incompetent and a hindrance to the cause via violent means- and it's Davrin's boss we're talking about, so his approval of it is especially poignant.

Over and over, these companions can (and depending on the influences in their lives, do) act with great compassion, kindness, understanding, and love towards others, while individually being one of the best in their respective fields, and firm in their convictions independently from Rook. (Davrin will always stand for the griffons. Neve will always clash with Aelia. Bellara will always resist Anaris. These are not mutable parts of them, they do it because it's who they are, and over and over, this repeats with pretty much all arcs.)

If Rook were to go around slinging slurs and telling little orphan kids that life ain't fair and they should suck it up, do you think this group of people, who make this story (about compassion, grief, acceptance, and how no man is an island) possible, would stand by and just let it happen, continue following them like it's nobody's business and their hands are tied?

Blackwall said it best a decade ago: You are who you choose to follow.

I feel like it bears repeating- the team needs Rook, but they need them because of Rook's skills, not just because they are the protagonist. Rook is Rook because of who they are, and the team needs them because they are, in their unique way, who they need their leader to be. They do not need a Rook, they need the Rook that Varric, only after a short while of knowing them, decided was fit to be the leader of this mission in case anything happens to him.

The story sets you parameters within which you can play with your Rook's responses. These are quite broad parameters (and Rook can also lie, the game doesn't need to specify whether a line you choose to have them say is said earnestly), but the kind of specificity we have in the plot, and the kind of reactivity that we have, by its nature, requires the sacrifice of some flexibility.

Utterly boundless freedom to create a kind of protagonist who openly kicks puppies and murders little old ladies for fun, a tight-knit group of compassionate professionals united in service of an important cause, and a tightly structured plot that makes sense and has real stakes, are situated on three separate vertices of a triangle. You can only choose two, and still have a story that works.