Collider wrote...
Mage Circle - Either you kill potentially innocent people or you don't kill potentially innocent people. Too black and white for me.
That depends upon the POV of your Warden and wether or not your Warden believes as Cullen believes... that they have all succumbed to the control of demons and surviving blood mages. While I personally tend towards sympathising with the mages, it's easy to understand how a tower of corupted mages could be very dangerous.
Redcliffe - The mage circle route pretty much invalidates what could have been a tough decision.
Only if you metagame. Strategicly, leaving Connor in the care of a blood mage while you go on a trip that will at LEAST be four days long (two days one way, wasn't it?) is a rediculously stupid and naive plan. It was frankly unexpected that things remained quiet at the castle while you were away. Until you interfered, you are told the undead playthings of the demon were laying seige upon the town night after night, dragging people away. It's frankly unrealistic that your character showing up and killing the undead would be enough to make the demon lay off for awhile. It had little trouble possessing and killing a whole castle full of people after all.
Werewolves - The elven chieftain wants people who were not any way involved in the rape of his family (or clan members, can't remember) to suffer from the curse he made simply because they are of the same blood. In addition, part of his desire not to is because he'd die as a result, even though he's been living longer than his fellow clansmen have been. In additon, we know Zathrian is guilty, but we don't know that every individual werewolf had attacked the innocent elves of Zathrian's clan.
I got the impression that the werewolves were mostly the original people involved in the rape and murder. I got the impression the curse simularly made them live as long as the curse sustains them, as it did Zathrian. Likewise, Zathrian had been a good and loved leader of his people, and had not expected the curse to spread to his own people. The knowlege someone his age could hold of Elven history, culture, and magic make him a precious living resource theoreticly. And are these former rapists who continously threaten your Warden really trustworthy? Not to mention, the Warden may expect Zathrian to personaly help in the final battle, and he's clearly a very powerful mage.
From this perspective, one could easily side with Zathrian. In fact, this is how it played out for my elven mage. What really ended negotiations is when Swiftrunner started to freek out and say threatening things during the negotiation. She made the split second judgement call that things were about to get messy, and was not about to wait for the werewolves to draw first blood.
As for convincing the werewolves to get revenge by wiping out Zathrian's clan... I agree that's a bit stupid evil. You have to role a rather twisted Warden with backwards logic to think that's a sensible course of action, as far as I can tell. Everyone just ends up suffering needlessly, I've heard the Werewolves aren't actually that good in the final battle, and you loose a very useful merchant who could provide you with poison ingredients and endless elfroot supplies. It seems like it's just the option included for people who get a kick out of roleing a evil bastardc type character.
Bhelen and Harrowmont - Not bad in concept, but they should have done a better job at informing the player what positions the two candidates had.
I agree. It was really hard to get a clear idea of where they stand without metagaming, and Zevran's advice, while having been intended to differentiate, ended up being rendered a moot point as they ended up having both usurpers hiding behind locked doors for fear of assassination.
In the end, through atempting to do their little quests, you do learn a bit about their tactics, though, and from talking to merchants, you do learn Bhelen wants to open up more trade with the surface, which is a really big deal. The support of the merchants is what put me on Bhelen's side.
In the end, the interesting moral of the story is that the nice guy is not always the best ruler.
Wounded Soldier - You can either help the soldier, or kill him for no reason. 
Yeah... I think that was just an oportunity for the people who enjoy being evil to be evil. An evil bastard really might enjoy abusing his or her power like that. Also if a character is really messed up in the head... like maybe an elf who truly has a deep hatred for humans and would kill them all if it were presently an option.
I think there is reality in giving the player the options of abusing their power or using it to White Knight all over the place, just so long as there are other grey area options whenever it's apropriate. In real life, there are people who realy do horible things for no logical reason, as well as people who try to help everyone wether they deserve it or not. So having the oportunity for such moments in game does not take away the realism. It's not like
every choice we make in life really has a moraly ambiguous option. It's not like every choice in life is so complex.
*edit* By the way, I understand the Dragon Age games not following the Architect on a temporary basis, since the next game is moving it's focus away from the Order of the Grey and the threat of the Darkspawn to something more political. But I would hope that it would eventually come back up in a later game. I mean, are we really to believe the Darkspawn will never be a problem again? And the Grey Wardens are far too interesting and too big a part of our introduction into the world of this franchise to just permanently be brushed off as an aside for the rest of the franchise.
Modifié par EccentricSage, 24 novembre 2010 - 10:31 .
I mean, it doesn't makes sense to me that the Architect surviving or not won't have any impact on future releases... How could it not make a difference, specially if he lives?
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