ishmaeltheforsaken wrote...
At some point in the three years subsequent, however, my warden disappeared. I don't know what's up with that, but it's not because of some fight.
Agreed. At the end of Awakening it specifically mentioned my Warden and the red-haired bard being a regular site in the markets of Denerim. It seemed like a sweet and well-deserved end for both the Warden and the woman she loved.
I loves me some Bioware, I really do. But I wish they would avoid ret-conning our choices. I do realize it becomes difficut when you have so much open-ended gameplay to anticpate and carry over, but in that case just don't bring back romance interests or plot-heavy characters. Sten, Wynn, Shale, Ohgren, Nathaniel, etc are all characters who were important to their respective games but not necessarily a deep and abiding part of the player character's ongoing, personal history. Bringing back Anders into DA2 felt like a continuation of his story. Bringing back Leliana and Zeveran has just led to a lot of folks feeling that the story of their Warden is no longer valid.
The fact is that Bioware has worked very hard to engender deep, meaningful relationships in their characters and the player experience. The flipside to that is that they really should continue fostering and respecting that experience from game to game.