First time poster in this thread; made it through about the first 60 pages of this thread (well, sort of mainly looked at the pics) and just wanted to drop in with my thoughts on Alistair.
My first play through of this game was about 9 months ago after I got through the first two ME games. I couldn't help but compare Kaidan and Alistair. At the time, while I loved them both, Kaidan still came out on top for me. But, I picked up the game again last week and played through again. OMG. This time, I did a lot of re-loads to try out the different dialogue options with Alistair and even gave him some prank gifts to see what he was like when angry.
After exploring the options, I've come away with a great appreciation for how much effort was put into writing his character. I feel like I know this guy. And, he's definitely given Kaidan a run for his money. I just think Alistair has so much depth to him; so many of his different responses were a surprise and made me laugh. My character was actually able to get away from the goody-two- shoes responses and joke around. Alistair actually opened up my character and made her more fun to play.
I just can't say enough good things about him. Then, I get to DA2, which I haven't finished yet, and Anders doesn't hold a candle to the depth and sweetness of the Alistair romance arc. Sigh, has Alistair ruined me forever? Will I always compare all romance arcs to him and find them lacking? Finally, is this a bad thing?