#morrigan left him at home for a reason. too squishy.

[fereldancore]

GORGEOUS!!!!!!

More older Kieran!! He’s still figuring things out 🥹

[bemused-writer]

Dragon Age Day!

Ahh, I completely forgot about it, but I figure in celebration I'll take a moment to talk about my main playthrough a bit and the impressions I formed of my characters and their LIs along the way (plus pictures).

The Warden

Mahariel wasn't my first warden, but she was the first one I played to completion and is therefore my main. She's a Dalish rogue. The above image is how I always think of her: intimidating, strong, prepared to get things done even when it's unpleasant. It's a little strange because she generally did things the "right" way and got along with all her teammates. She wasn't about to sacrifice anyone, so there was a certain naivete there as well.

The impression I've always been under is that she started out a little more optimistic and became more jaded/worldly/self-aware by Awakening after defeating the archdemon. In other words, while she was leading in Origins, she became a real leader in Awakening.

Throughout Origins, she knew they were fighting a losing battle, but vowed not to lose anyone the way she lost Tamlen ever again and wasn't entirely sure of her own leadership. It was kind of thrust on her by Alistair after all, and she wasn't used to being around humans. All of that led to some initial difficulty for her, especially when it came to figuring out what to even do about the archdemon. Having Morrigan, Alistair, and a mabari makes for a difficult first party. XD Two of them disagree on everything and the third doesn't have an opinion.

She romanced Zevran and the two of them made for a pretty great assassin couple. I like to think that he helped her adjust to the world outside her clan and that she helped him open up about who he really is, both to her and himself.

Even though they have very different backgrounds, they have similar opinions on a lot of things. I actually really enjoyed Zevran's romance because it has a lot of layers. You think it will go one way, but it actually ends up surprisingly sweet, much like Zevran himself. I think these two are a good balancing act. They didn't always make for the most balanced party, though. XD All those rogues were squishy and I had a nightmare of a time defeating Branka.... Still, totally worth it.

Mahariel and Zevran are still traveling together (despite all the constant bugs these games give Zevran), and hopefully they'll make a reappearance in one of the future games. Someday.

The Champion

I played a blue-line mage Hawke on my first playthrough with the default appearance.

The impression I've always had of Hawke is that it's family first with her. Everything else is secondary. How else can she have a mansion in Kirkwall while atrocities are happening just a little ways away? In fairness to her, she does a lot to set things right, but I always found her to be just a bit ... aristocratic, and possibly detached from others. And yet, she's also quite cunning and extremely persuasive. She can get just about anyone to do as she wishes. Quite a dangerous person beneath the pleasant veneer.

Maybe that's an odd impression of Hawke and it might sound negative too, but I really do like the character and I really respect all she does for her family. That's why it's so cruel that her family is torn apart anyway. Her sister, mother, and father are all dead and her brother left her for the templars and didn't stand beside her in the end. Talk about a rough conclusion to things. ): She also didn't totally succeed with her friends either. She had to convince Fenris to help her against Meredith and Isabela completely ditched her.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that my first playthrough with Hawke was kind of a rocky ride. XD Even though Mahariel had way worse circumstances (fighting a war she'd never signed up for is pretty bad) things ended up way better for her at the conclusion of the story. Hawke doesn't appear to have a home at the end and her friends split up. Only Varric and Merrill keep in contact with her.

And speaking of Merrill, she was Hawke's romance in this playthrough.

Merrill is such an awesome character in my book, which is why it's always a shame to see the fandom (and kind of the game...) act like she's totally naive and incompetent. Why is this such a common opinion?

But anyway, Merrill has an incredible knowledge of history and of the elven people and she isn't completely opposed to blood magic, so we were destined to get along, but there were times when I really felt like Hawke just ... didn't get Merrill and that was such a bummer for me. XD Even the nice options sometimes sounded a little patronizing. I suppose that's where a lot of my opinion on Hawke came from. Hawke just isn't worldly. Honestly, Merrill isn't either (she'd never really left her clan before), but there's a more open, willingness to learn vibe than what I get from Hawke. If I had to choose the worldliest person in the game I'd probably go with Varric or Fenris, to be honest.

Merrill also misses Mahariel quite a bit and I really wish those two could have a reunion of some sort. I would love more of that particular story. The impression I always got was that they were really good friends and that Mahariel might have been the only person who really understood where Merrill was coming from. Her clan wants nothing to do with her anymore, so it would be nice if she could have a reunion with one person who might get why she did what she did.

The Inquisitor

I went with a mage Trevelyan for this playthrough.

As a mage, Trevelyan was pretty iffy on her role as inquisitor. She definitely didn't think she was holy and the whole thing seemed absurd to her, but she understood that someone had to rally the people. Still, I think there's some frustration there. She's definitely a mage sympathizer. She kind of has to be as a mage herself. She gets why Anders did what he did and even if she's stuck dealing with the aftermath. She figures it's a chance to better her people's lot. She has an aristocratic background, but hasn't had any contact with her family (as is the norm for anyone who grew up in the Circle), so she doesn't have as much upper society know-how as she might have otherwise. This might explain why she did such a bad job in Orlais. 8D I really didn't enjoy that party, you guys....

But she does believe in diplomacy above all else (the only reason she accepted being the inquisitor in the first place) and as such she found a good match in Josephine!

The romance with Josephine was something of an accident if I'm totally honest. XD I went into this game having no idea who I wanted to romance and so I hit the heart option with a couple different people. I was starting to lean towards Josephine because, out of my advisers, she was the only one whose suggestions really made sense to me. If I could have assigned her to everything, I would have. Anyway, I apparently hit the heart option with her the most because suddenly the game thrust me into things and I was being threatened by Leliana, so I figured, "Probably should stick with this one."

I'm so glad I did! They have a very natural romance. I even got to duel a guy who very respectfully left when he realized what we had was true. She also took me to see an Orlesian play with fireworks, so that was pretty awesome. I think these two probably have the smoothest relationship out of all my Dragon Age romances. I don't think they ever had difficulty communicating or any real awkward moments, so kudos to them!

Out of the Dragon Age protagonists, I think Trevelyan had it the easiest. Sure, she didn't want to be part of any of this, but she had a ton of resources, tons of support, a nice romance without trouble.... Compared to the Warden and Hawke, it was easy going. XD Still, things couldn't go that well forever. If she's the protagonist for the next game, she's going to have it rough. Things with Solas went ... badly, to say the least. She hasn't given up on the guy (she's an optimist), but he's pushing it.

And that's how things have gone so far. I have a lot of fanfiction ideas for all these characters, some of which are already written. I have a lot of other characters set up in Dragon Age as well, so at some point I'm definitely going to be playing through again. ^^

[citree]

Bit of a failmage. Bit of a jowan-a-sei-quoi

More older Kieran!! He’s still figuring things out 🥹