#mage templar conflict

[justcallmecappy]

It's still weird to me that BioWare tried to frame the mages vs templar narrative as a conflict of two wholly opposing sides, when a more compelling conflict-driven narrative would have been templars and mages joining forces to topple the Chantry. - via my Twitter @ justcallmecappy

I posted this on Twitter and thought I'd follow-up with a longer form "what if?" post here, exploring the mage-templar conflict in DAI and how it could have been approached very differently, but still retaining the game's messages and themes of unification, overcoming differences, and people coming together to accomplish great things, by having mages and templars join forces to dismantle the Chantry.

I thought I would draft up a whole outline on how things could have gone down differently; like instead of Lord Seeker Lambert dissolving the Nevarran Accord and breaking the Templars away from the Chantry to hunt mages, it would have been Ser Barris electing to declare the templars independent from the Chantry and opening Templar Rehab early; etc. Eventually the mages and templars would come to the realization they need to work together to bring down the institution that manipulated and abused them, via the Player Character's efforts in bringing about unification.

Then I realized this could never have happened, with DAI being the way it is. In DAI, the Inquisition is painted as a force of stability and positive change, instead of a means for the Divine to rebuild the Chantry's military after losing the Templars. The idea of exposing the Chantry as a corrupt and power-abusing institution perpetuating structural oppression early on in the story -- giving the protagonist an antagonistic structure to take down -- could never have flown, at least in DAI.

I thought I was changing just a small detail in the story. Then realized by doing so, we'd have a completely different story, haha😂

Anyways I still think BioWare handled the mage-templar conflict poorly by trying to pit an oppressed people against their oppressors like it was an equally justifiable fight both ways, and it should have been resolved differently🙂

[zkretchy]

It's 2am and I can't sleep, have this silly doodle

[sotc]

so i've been playing da2 for a hot minute now. in act II and man... really loving anders this go around now that I played Awakening... he's just... he's such a tortured meow meow...

oh hey btw here's my girl :) below the readmore

[twist-shout-and-shells]

They're gonna do the Inquisitor as dirty in Veilguard as they did Hawke in Inquisition, huh?

[kirkwallguy]

hate being negative 24/7 but i keep thinking about things in the series i care about then remembering it'll never be addressed 👍🏻

[grimwarden]

no leliana killing isn't the answer... anyways going out to kill every templar and mage i come across see ya

[mashamorevvna]

my favourite bit of dropped narrative thread from trespasser is the implication that (city&dalish) elves were defecting en masse to join solas in bringing his plan to fruition. smash cut to 10years later the man has no plan, no agents and no elven army. was he just that bad of a boss? dread wolf remake of that snl skit where kylo ren goes undercover as an employee WHEN?

[vaultsixtynine]

watching the templar quest in dai bc i've never played it and it's just so not sexy when compared to what the horror of having a thing invade ur mind and show you awful things in an attempt to know you well enough to Become You should be like. but at least cole is there

[divinekangaroo]

I attempted to replay DAII a few weeks back for the pleasure/refresher of the story and the character arcs but just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Have lost lots of capacity to enjoy game mechanics which extend length of time to engage w story and notwithstanding the dialogue is quite excellent (in a game context) it’s clunky for, say, a story, and the physical/visual staging in character interactions is v dated. (Key Settings are pretty decent for symbolism tho)

and that’s when I realised the first time ever why sometimes fans *do* get interested enough to write full novelisations of a thing.

[crowlore]

try whatever you want, bioware. you’ll have to remove the option to play as a mage from the game entirely to stop making all my heroes mages. and im going to make every situation about mages somehow. removing the mage templar conflict from the foreground narrative cannot stop me.

[viina-art]

Getting pissed off by the politics in da games once again👍

[omo321]

replaying dragonage2 for 6th ish time

[medowlarken]

bro i have such a soft spot for characters who start off objectively wrong. like they’re not bad people-- they want to be kind so badly but their environment or circumstances push them into questionable stuff and they do things they end up regretting bc it felt right in the moment. and it doesn’t change the fact that they did those things or negate responsibility, but as time goes on and they grow and learn and see things from different perspectives, they ultimately evolve for the better. and yeah, they’re still not perfect and might never be able to let go of pieces of their old selves, but they’ll never stop trying-- if not for themselves then for the people they love.

anyway i’m playing dragon age again lmao

[mabaris]

begging people to learn the difference between “other characters disagreed with this decision” and “the writers disagreed with this decision”

[hiddenbeks]

anyway i guess i should finally finish dai. lmao

[pinkfey]

hate the way carver and bethany are talked abt tbh 😔