I didn't. There's a game I like, before Dragon Age. It was on the Dreamcast. Guts Rage, the Mandragoras were my favorite design as a kid. My favorite characters in comic books were the symbiotes.

 

I loved how the original Darkspawn reminded me of these designs of these old games. Because I am a horror, dark horror writer, I loved the fleshy, gross design. The twisted form.

 

That kind of Kubrick body horror. That's what made the Darkspawn so menacing to begin with, because they were the twisted forms of our bodies going against ourselves.

 

Instead they give that to Red Lyrium. Pretty.

 

But nowhere near as disgusting and beautiful as the original ugly brood mother. And I am not talking the "hot one" in the expansion. The original, gross, fleshy, tumors. 

 

 

To be honest, I thought they looked kind of goofy. There was something about the genlocks' goofy grinning face that reminded me of the ogres from the Disney series Gummi Bears, and the original ogres were basically King Kong with halla horns. As one who is generally bored by body horror, I didn't feel that this was a meaningful source of menace, but then the darkspawn are kind of generic in and of themselves anyway. Their most interesting attribute is the lore around their origins. It's sort of why I don't care to deal with them all that much anymore until the writers are ready to really do something about them rather than just have us fight another horde while making no real difference. 

 

As for the Mother, "hot one" is kind of a crazy way to describe her. In any case, I think the uncanny design there is better because it's more obvious what she used to be. Really, it's more the origin of them that makes them more disturbing. The vague bulky tentacle monster is kinda meh to me.

Personally, I thought the redesign was an improvement. I always thought the entire aesthetic was sort of crummy. 

I think the trouble is that there is no real answer to the darkspawn threat at all. It pretty much appears to be a totally hopeless situation until some miraculous solution presents itself, because they're a seemingly neverending immortal army of sleepless monsters that can't be killed faster than they can replenish their numbers. Not even the Wardens provide a good answer, because they're basically only good for stopping an organized horde on the surface by successfully terminating an archdemon. Once the supply of Old Gods runs out, their order becomes defunct. It's a fair bet that they not only expected to all die in the Deep Roads in this crazy plan, but that they would bring about the end of the Grey Warden order if, by some miracle, they actually succeeded. 

Granted, the post-Origins games don't give the Darkspawn the credit and respectful portrayal (as Thedas' greatest threats) that they deserve.

 

 

The only way to really illustrate the threat of the darkspawn in a game that is not set during a Blight in a game would be to have most of it take place in the Deep Roads, which honestly I wouldn't care all that much for. 

If anything, I would prefer that the Renegade options be less obviously evil. It annoys me that Renegade in ME1 was presented as a pragmatic "do whatever it takes" type, but the Renegade in ME3 is an omnicidal maniac.

I don't get it. ME1 and 2's Renegade was more often malicious seemingly for the heck of it. ME3's scale was definitely larger, but it's clearly not a for-the-lulz affair either, like ME2's was.

I don't know really. Being courted by Harbinger was awkward enough.

I know you feel this.

Thinking about it, the Grey Wardens' plan is fairly understandable. Where it actually went wrong in the end was being duped and ultimately controlled when they attempted the binding. If the Grey Wardens had attempted this on their own, without the subterfuge by Corypheus and his minions, the worst outcome would be dead Wardens, and a tunnel full of demons, which isn't really worse than the darkspawn, which are a cataclysmic threat that still plagues Thedas. If I was really looking for a way to smite the Old Gods preemptively, a demon army would definitely be an option. Solas might ****** and moan about the idea of destroying the old gods in their sleep, but not even he's offering any alternatives to combating the Blight.

The PS3/360 were already kind of long in the tooth by the time Inquisition was released, and the next-gens were already around for a while at that point, but the PS4/XB1 have only been out since 2013. 

Do we have any reason to think there will be worse consequences than there being no more Old Gods? "Divine" seems in this setting to be something other people call you rather than something you are.

 

 

 

From a narrative standpoint, the fact that a character who turns out to be an ancient suggests this does give reason to believe that the writers may do something with this idea. 

Any sane forum would need 4. Warnings don't do crap on this forum. I think the record is 21

 

 

And here I was certain I'd be banned for my measly 7. 

If the Inquisitor truly loved Sera, she would be prepared to give up on her "elfiness".

Personally, I think the best route for players seriously rp'ing Dalish that have strong feelings toward retaining these beliefs to come to terms with the idea that it just wouldn't work out.

The only thing that makes me wonder now about the deaths of the Old Gods now is Solas' vague suggestion that something worse will happen as a result of their demise, which is pretty much inevitable so long as the darkspawn exist. Other than that, I wouldn't really care. Thus far they've been little more than a burden.

Riordan would probably have taken anyone willing. No doubt Howe would have gone out like Jory.

It depends on the Warden. Both human noble and city elf Wardens kill him outright, but the dwarf and mage let him join the order. I don't care about the Dalish elf to get that far, but I imagine a Dalish being harder on a shem that was part of an elf trafficking ring.

 

Same with Sera, she breaks up with you if you don't stop being dalish.

 

 

I always thought this was amusing because she approves if you stop the conversation by telling her to shut up. 

I actually posed a similar question a long time ago after playing TWD myself, and the response was always largely negative. Needless to say timed dialogue is not something the fandom would care for. That being said, DA:I actually has timed dialogue of sorts, but this only occurs in certain party banter. If you don't press the toggle/key to activate the wheel, it will eventually disappear and the companions will carry on with whatever they were saying. In regular dialogue, the equivalent of allowing the time to run out would basically be an actual indecision option, or [Say nothing], which is actually something I'd love to have. It might even be amusing if you can [Say nothing] so often that companions get seriously annoyed. 

Guys, I got my first warning point in this thread. Thank you all so much!

 

 

I think that every single active user on this forum should get a warning, and when we look at the actual details, it just reads "For old times' sake".

I actually found Iron Bull + the Inquisitor to be the most romantic and loyal. For freak sake while they have their shitty explanation
 
"Solas knows everything about us"
 
Iron Bull is in the same room as the Inquisitor. And even when he had the chance, "Now Hissard, help us" Iron Bull throws that all away, when he says, "Not a chance"
 
Then after we beat the dumb mini boss there, he calls me Kadan.
 
Seriously Iron Bull is the most faithful, most loving, and I just really like the Iron Bull romance.

His romance will go a lot differently if the Chargers aren't around.

By using an unborn baby to accomplish that. If the Warden knows little about the DR, he knows even less about how that sort of possession is gonna affect this child.
"Will the child be hurt? / No, it will be changed" isn't that reassuring.
It's funny that Morrigan succeeds in making the player look at the baby as a tool. Nobody ever remembers him in these debates and his well being isn't a factor during the decision making at all.
Ahhh, it feels wonderful to be on-topic again.

And that's fine. To my Warden, altering some witch's offspring would still be preferable and no sleep would be lost over it. The only thing I'd wonder about is how that could possibly affect the world at large. I doubt Morrigan would give birth just to put it in a torture chamber or eat it ( because OG-flavored baby is the new craze), but I consider that a secondary concern. In the end, there's still the chance that it'll turn out fine - finer than dead at any rate.

I've never claimed that it was well-informed. I've only ever claimed that it was more of an opportunity than its alternative, which is simply death, either for our character or a companion.

He was only an obstacle for me so his death was beneficial,not to mention that even if he was a friend i would have still sacrificed him to kill an old god rather than give it to a witch of the wilds which had no qualms at wanting people dead for petty reasons.

 

 

The point is simply that if one were in the Warden's position, and actually cared about Alistair, it would be understandable to take the risk if it meant both s/he and his/her friend have a chance to both make it out alive. 

 

Is not as if i have any reason to trust two psychopaths like Morrigan and Flemeth not to mention Urthemiel himself god among slaves, they are all totally trustworthy and benign.Morrigan herself in DAO is very malign.

 

 

I never said anything about the Warden absolutely trusting Morrigan or Flemeth. The point here is that my character can take it on faith. From the perspective of this character, the Dark Ritual is an opportunity to both see the world rebuild after the Blight, as well as having a chance to keep her friend around a bit longer. I don't see why this would be unreasonable. If others consider the more final route to be the best one, then good on them, but it's not the only viable option. 

 

"It all comes down to whether you trust Morrigan or not" is such a terrible argument.

Would you jump from a bridge if your bestest friend in the whole wide world told you to do it?

 

 

 

Trouble with that comparison is that it lacks context. What incentive would one have to jump off a bridge in the first place? It's not as if Morrigan is offering the Dark Ritual because it's fun. The motivating factor for the Warden is entirely the idea that doing it may potentially save whichever Warden performs the killer blow while still ending the Blight. Even if the character doesn't trust Morrigan entirely (or at all), that's a mighty big opportunity in the face of 100% certainty of death, for either the Warden or an ally s/he may consider to be important. 

 

The accuracy of the analogy is irrelevant.

Only a fool makes decisions based on how much you trust someone. Concrete information always comes first.

 

 

Actually, the accuracy of an analogy is kind of important, provided the point was to get some sort of point across. In any case, this "concrete evidence" stuff is clearly a red herring. Like, where would you go to reference this? How would you explore this matter in-depth to find texts that explain anything like what Morrigan is on about? Who else could you go ask? And, more importantly, where would the Warden find the time to do any of this? And that's really the thing: time is of the essence. To go back to the tricky analogy, the Warden and whichever ally accompanies him/her may already be going over a bridge, and may be going over it very soon, since one has to trust Riordan when he says that it must be a Warden to strike the killing blow, and that Warden will most certainly die. If someone is claiming that there's a way to put a safety net between them and the bottom, I don't see why it's not worth consideration. 

1-No. Because it is evidence the awakened darkspawn can be hoarded and guided by the Architect. He has the power to influence them and keep their urge for violence under control. But that's not the only proof.

 

ALL the darkspawn that followed the Mother were free of the Calling, including the Mother herself. The reason why they still attacked the Wardens is because the Mother, contrary to the Architect, incited them to act violently. She wanted to destroy the Architect for what he had done to her: removed her ability to hear "the beautiful music", as the darkspawn call the Calling. 

 

So his experiment DOES work. The concoction frees darkspawn from the Calling, PERIOD. But once freed, they become a reckless mob that needs control. Like you said, they're unstable. And that's something the Architect knows how to do, once again, as stated in the Epilogue.

 

 

3- As for the kidnapping, the Grey Wardens that were brought to the Architect were already dead. The Architect tells you so in the Tevinter Ritual Tower.

 

 

I admit, the Architect-lives version is a lot more interesting, and I do like the idea of the Deep Roads becoming less active, giving the dwarves some time to breathe. Still, that they're poisonous plague-walkers that destroy everything they touch makes it hard to do anything that doesn't involve killing any on sight. 

Hey that's not really fair to Dorian. His father was assassinated and he inherited his place in the Magisterium. Plus, it's not as if he stays out of touch. He adds you to his faves on his sending crystal. 

 

The final battle is an high risk mission not certain death you can die only if you choose the option of the US,or  you was talking about  the survival of Alistair/Loghain?If that was the case why i should care?bye,bye to them both and Morrigan and Flemeth fail what's the problem?

 

 

 

Loghain always dies so he doesn't matter to me, but if Alistair is a dear friend (or more) of the Warden, then I can see some motivation there to do just about anything to ensure that the battle can possibly end with the both of them surviving. 

I'm not really interested in starting a never ending cycle debate where you reply with the notion to be 100% right.

Anyway the souls of these cirtter are incredibly dangerous eliminate any shred of them at the cost of one single Grey warden plus not giving it to the wtiches of the wilds or The Dread wolf is more than acceptable and is not an unnecessary death because with that sacrifice Morrigan/Flemeth remain at empty hands forever.

 

Of course, our Warden has to also believe that Morrigan and Flemeth are malevolent beings that want to end or rule the world somehow. My Warden is not convinced that this is the case at all. It wouldn't be beyond comprehension that their goals, even if self-serving, can possibly end up being benign. It's not as if they benefit from the darkspawn.