17176 réponses à ce sujet

[Wulfram]

Andraste freed the elves from Tevinter slavery while the elvish gods did nothing.

[TEWR]

As I said, it's because according to their culture, the gods couldn't do anything. They were trapped by Fen'Harel, remember? If you believe the tales, that is, and that particular one has been passed down since the time of Arlathan's decline.

Which is a different scenario. It then becomes more of "They couldn't do anything" as opposed to "They didn't want to do anything".

And other tales point to the gods interacting with the Elves in a friendly and academic manner as well as a protective manner. So it lends credence to the notion that the Gods are unable to help now, unless something changes for them.

Assuming you don't also have a very skeptical mindset of "Unless they just sat about on their asses like the Maker, in which case all gods are jerkasses".

Modifié par The Ethereal Writer Redux, 05 août 2012 - 09:22 .

[Wulfram]

Nice but useless isn't a great pitch for a pantheon, IMO

[Knight of Dane]

I just had a playthrough where i rivaled Merrill without romancing her.

Boring as f*ck.

Friendship rules!

[Xilizhra]

Wulfram wrote...

Nice but useless isn't a great pitch for a pantheon, IMO

The Maker has plenty of followers who overlook his being extremely malevolent. Religion can justify a lot of things.

[TEWR]

Wulfram wrote...

Nice but useless isn't a great pitch for a pantheon, IMO

As Xilizhra said, the Maker is -- per Chantry doctrine* -- a colossal ****** (IMO) that overreacted to a few drunken idiots busting into his home, condemning the entire world to suffer against the Darkspawn.

And then leaving again when his bride/daughter was betrayed and killed, despite that helping to be a part of the faith in the Maker.

Oh and kicking out his first Children and ignoring them simply because he screwed up the first time.

And despite all of that, he has a wide range of followers.

In comparison, nice and unable to help due to an ancient war seems much better, because hey.... maybe the Elves can help bring back the pantheon. Maybe if they researched Elven lore, they'd find something about what Fen'Harel did or where he/she is.

*Whether the doctrine is true on that matter is unknown. As it stands, I only believe a grain of truth where Corypheus and the other Magisters became the first Awakened Darkspawn and not the first Darkspawn in existence -- and who are by all accounts unable to hear the Call of the Old Gods.

Modifié par The Ethereal Writer Redux, 05 août 2012 - 01:49 .

[LobselVith8]

Wulfram wrote...

Andraste freed the elves from Tevinter slavery while the elvish gods did nothing.

Everyone always forgets about Shartan.

[dragonflight288]

LobselVith8 wrote...

Wulfram wrote...

Andraste freed the elves from Tevinter slavery while the elvish gods did nothing.

Everyone always forgets about Shartan.

It's easy to forget about Shartan. The Chantry took him and his accomplishments out of the chant of light when it became politically inconvenient for them.

[TEWR]

Yea, it's very easy to forget about him. I hope we find out more about him and the Canticle attributed to him, as we only have codex entry on The Dark Moon, Glandivalis, a few codexes that mention him briefly, and Shartan's spectral remnant. And a lot of them just say the same stuff we already knew.

Honestly, just give me more Canticle of Shartan.

[Wulfram]

What if Merrill had been recruited by Duncan instead of Mahariel?

Modifié par Wulfram, 06 août 2012 - 06:22 .

[Xilizhra]

If Merrill had been the Grey Warden? That'd be... well, Merrill doesn't seem to be much of a natural leader. She'd get along with Alistair, I'm sure, but neither one of them would really want to be in charge, so it might wind up like Darkspawn Chronicles. Then again, they might support each other enough that Morrigan wouldn't get a chance to run the whole operation from behind. I do think Merrill and Leliana would get along well too, possibly ending up in their own romance... but Merrill might have a difficult time of it in a party without as strong a central supporting figure as Hawke. On the other hand, Merrill wouldn't have been blacklisted by her clan in this timeline, so she might have higher morale.

[LobselVith8]

Wulfram wrote...

What if Merrill had been recruited by Duncan instead of Mahariel?

I think Merrill is a great mage, and I can see her handling her own in battle, but I don't know if she would have embraced the leadership role our canon Wardens do at this point in time. It would be interesting to see how she reacts to Morrigan (a Witch of the Wild), as well as Alistair (given his templar background).

[Xilizhra]

So here's a question I've been thinking about: is Merrill autistic? Or, at least, somewhere on the autism spectrum? She has that certain combination of missing social cues, a tendency toward obsession and a certain brilliance that would fit the pattern...

[draken-heart]

Xilizhra wrote...

So here's a question I've been thinking about: is Merrill autistic? Or, at least, somewhere on the autism spectrum? She has that certain combination of missing social cues, a tendency toward obsession and a certain brilliance that would fit the pattern...

Oookay, you are making me not want to romance Merrill anymore.

[Xilizhra]

draken-heart wrote...

Xilizhra wrote...

So here's a question I've been thinking about: is Merrill autistic? Or, at least, somewhere on the autism spectrum? She has that certain combination of missing social cues, a tendency toward obsession and a certain brilliance that would fit the pattern...

Oookay, you are making me not want to romance Merrill anymore.

There's hardly anything wrong with that. I'll happily continue romancing her.

[draken-heart]

Xilizhra wrote...

draken-heart wrote...

Xilizhra wrote...

So here's a question I've been thinking about: is Merrill autistic? Or, at least, somewhere on the autism spectrum? She has that certain combination of missing social cues, a tendency toward obsession and a certain brilliance that would fit the pattern...

Oookay, you are making me not want to romance Merrill anymore.

There's hardly anything wrong with that. I'll happily continue romancing her.

i myself am autistic, you just made me think of romancing myself with that question.
i would not romance an autistic person myself

Modifié par draken-heart, 07 août 2012 - 01:01 .

[Todd23]

She always gets lost too. ... All the pieces are falling in to place.

[LobselVith8]

Xilizhra wrote...

So here's a question I've been thinking about: is Merrill autistic? Or, at least, somewhere on the autism spectrum? She has that certain combination of missing social cues, a tendency toward obsession and a certain brilliance that would fit the pattern...

Social cues? Merrill is a Dalish elf in a completely alien environment; it's culture shock.

[TEWR]

As Lob said, it's simply culture shock. In the ensuing years after, she becomes more accustomed to life in Kirkwall -- able to pick up on more and more things -- and often cracks jokes of her own -- though it seems that people, in-game and out, see it as more of her being what they'd call a ditz.

A lot of people tend to berate her for getting lost in Kirkwall -- on the forums that is, from what I've seen -- but that's actually standard for newcomers to the city, as the Enigma of Kirkwall's author points out at one point on his own time in the city.

[thats1evildude]

I sympathize with Merrill on that front, as I have an atrocious sense of direction.

[TEWR]

Same here. I dislike driving in places I'm unfamiliar with, because I'm afraid I'll get lost. Give me some decent directions and I'll do just fine the first time, and eventually after that I'll memorize the way to and fro and even think up alternative routes.

I had a bad experience once, where I got lost on the outskirts of Wilmington -- my old home city -- and had absolutely no way to know how to get back. Nor did I know where I was when it happened -- as I only found out where I was when I managed to get back home.

Matters were made worse due to it being nighttime, I was driving on roads that were barely lit, my headlights weren't very bright, and I could barely stay awake.

Almost got into an accident because of it.

[Sarcastic Tasha]

I have a crap sense of direction too. I come out of a shop and walk in the wrong direction, I get lost in thought and walk straight past my destination. I did like it in the Legacy banter where we find out even Hawke gets lost sometimes:

Merrill: How come you never get lost?
Hawke: I do. Sometimes.
Merrill: I've never seen it! And everybody follows you, and you always seem to know where you're going.
Hawke: Just act like you know where you're going, that's usually enough.
Merrill: I try that sometimes! But there's no amount of confidence that makes up for walking into the Grand Cleric's airing cupboard.
Hawke: What about that time I led us in circles around the Wounded Coast for 3 hours?
Merrill: Oh! I thought you were just admiring the view! Eh, it was a lovely day at least.

Merrill's not wrong about how nice the Wounded Coast is either, despite the demons, bandits, Tal Vashoth, blood mages and giant spiders it still always feels like a nice day out.

I don't actually think Merrill is that bad socially. She sometimes misses jokes, frequently doesn't get innuendo and has a tendency to babble. But she understands how people are feeling, she even empathises with Fenris and Anders who make no effort to see things from her point of view. I think Merrill has some of the funniest sarcastic remarks in the game, I love her delivery, so I think she does have a good sense of humour it just doesn't always translate between cultures. Merrill is also a good storyteller.

[dragonflight288]

Merrill's sarcasm can be very easy to miss, but when it's caught, well, I can't NOT have her in my party because I think she's so witty and funny. Not to mention intelligent.

You can see this sarcasm in Act 1, if you bring her back to the elves on Sundermount and talk to Crafter Ilen. He asks how she's doing in Kirkwall and she sarcastically says "It's all sunshine and rainbows. The view is offset by the high levels of poverty and knee-deep mud." Or something like that. I just lover her sense of humor as it is not only witty, but very enlightening of the way things are around her.

[thats1evildude]

Ilen: Ah, Merrill … you've returned. How has your time been amongst the shemlen?

Merrill: It's been nothing but roses and rainbows, Master Ilen. The Alienage is lovely in the spring. The collapsing shacks and drunken brutes are nicely offset by the knee-deep mud.

Those dark locks and lovely green eyes hide a wit as sharp as a frelling dagger. She just forgets to take it out of its sheath sometimes.

[Todd23]

Wait a second... I'm autistic and have a bad sense of directions too... there are many people that choose there romance based on who they can relate to. Even if Merrill's not autistic, she has enough similarities that she might have become the romance for autistic people.