3 réponses à ce sujet

[MikeFL25]

Let me start by saying that I loved how the game set up the Templars vs. Mage situation well, I am aware that many people lament over "not having a choice" and to a point these are valid complaints but I personally loved the game.

For me personally, I am not anti-mage nor anti-templar.  I felt that Origins did a great job setting up the two sides, and both have very valid complaints and fears.  I do believe that Templars are needed to maintain peace and be there to prevent any blood mages or abominations from wreaking havoc.  At the same time, the Circle is a flawed system and/OR the Templars are too harsh on mages, thus driving some to blood magic when under normal circumstances they would not have. 

So by the end of Dragon Age II, I felt that both sides had equally valid positions: the Mages feared Templar oppression, mistreatment, abuse of power, and essentially ruining their lives for only being born with magical talent.  The Templars (the rational ones) feared the increasing blood mage/abomination threat, and were only doing what their Order dictated them.  However, under Knight Commander Meredith, the Kirkwall Templars had become a force of oppression. 

At nearly every point in the game, I sided with the mages.  This is not because I am anti-Templar...far from it.  I could understand and appreciate why mages would rather flee Kirkwall or live in exile than submit themselves to Meredith.  I am totally and completely against blood magic and I did put a swift end to any mages that involved themselves in such actions, but I did understand that not all mages are inherently evil or use blood magic.  Additionally, my sister is an apostate and her cause had led me to be sympathetic for the mages cause. 

Now comes the ending.  *Note that I have finished the game twice, and experienced both endings.  I thought both were very good, but I prefer one over the other.*  It is my opinion that at the very end, siding with the Templars was the most logical choice (again, just my opinion).  While I tried defending the mages and attempted to keep things fair and even, most times going as far to defy the Templars in favor of the mages, I felt that by the end I had no choice but to side with the Templars, if only temporarily.  By this point in the game, the very mages I had tried to defend had mostly all turned to blood magic.  While I understand that this was in self defense only, it is still a terrible act.  Also by this time, most Templars have agreed that Meredith had gone too far and needs to be removed as soon as possible.  Additionally, they agree that not all mages are bad and the majority should be shown mercy and saved.  By the end of the game, the blood mages have been pacified and and the Templars defer authority to you in the wake of Meredith's death/crazy statue thingy. 

Sorry for this giant wall of text.  I want to again reiterate that everything in here is JUST MY OPINION, and that I am not attacking anyone's viewpoint on this subject that is different, only offering explanation for what I decided to do.  I am interested to hear what you think and how/why you decided on what you did!

[sammcl]

I just finished my pro Circle game, it doesn't feel horrible to side with the Templars throughout the game, especially after Bethany goes to the circle and she seems to do OK in there. It's just that final choice that feels so wrong, you are no longer siding with the Templars, you are siding with Meredith, and as you said, even the Templars have noticed she's going a bit batty. It's not exactly a happy ending, Orsino goes even more bonkers and convinces other mages to become abominations and 3-4 mages survive. Presumably there are less civilian casualties but we don't know that. It was interesting to play that way but I'm always gonna be defending the mages, despite the number of blood mages you run into there are presumably a lot of law abiding mages in the circle. If the choice was between giving mages more freedom or continuing as normal, the decision would be more difficult. But when it is to kill all mages for the actions of a few, or to defend the mages, I'm going to go with the one that doesn't end up in the mass murder of people already treated like 2nd class citizens.

[Asdara]

I don't see siding with the Templars as siding with Meredith for one reason: you're the Champion of Kirkwall and have become sufficiently influential and strong enough to knock her off her seat if you need to at some later junction. To me that seemed obvious even before she ended up going insane and I had to kill her anyway. One person is a lot simpler to deal with than an entire circle of possibly corrupt mages - so it makes sense to do damage control first and sort out the details (like individual people) later at the end of the game to me.

I did side with the mages once, as a mage, and that was just putting the Meredith problem in the front, but I never had any intention of wiping out the entire Templar order - just fighting them off the mage's front steps - in that scenario.

[sammcl]

I can understand that point of view but even if you go in with that intention, the Circle gets annulled anyway, you can save 3 mages plus Bethany if she's there. It's only after everyone's dead that you go after Meredith and even that is because she turns on you first. It just feels like the game treats it as siding with Meredith, no matter what the player's intentions are. If it were to be siding with the Templars and not Meredith personally, her attack should have been stopped before everyone died.