135 réponses à ce sujet

[LobselVith8]

megski wrote...

I said she is naive because she just seems to think that nothing bad is going to happen.

Considering that blood magic isn't evil, and is technically what The Joining is, as well as the type of magic that some Grey Wardens use in order to defeat the darkspawn, I don't see a reason to vilify the practice. Nor do I see any reason to place any blame on Merrill for the actions of another adult who acted of her own accord.

Anders sees the denizens of the Fade as spirits and demons in terms of his Andrastian faith, with spirits as the First Children of the Maker, while Merrill is Dalish and views all the denizens of the Fade being as different as humans and dwarves are. I don't see any reason to hold it against Merrill that she doesn't hold the same views of the Fade when Anders' views come from his Andrastian faith, which will obviously conflict with Merrill's Dalish upbringing.

megski wrote...

I know what happens, and to me that comment is insensitive.

I don't see anything insensitive about that scene. Merrill is comforting Hawke. She wanted Hawke to know that his mother could be in a better place. I doubt that anyone romancing her wants her to keep silent about her opinions, and I thought it was thoughtful that Merrill was trying to help Hawke through such a dark time in his life, when she is one of the few pillars of support that he has.

[Zanallen]

I'll be honest, I have never liked mages. In any game. The only time I can stand playing as one is when I can make them evil.

[Vormaerin]

The core problem is that we only have one opinion about what would have happened had Merrill gone through with her plans... the opinion of a mage abomination.

Marethari was an idiot. She basically says "I'm afraid my daughter will get into a car wreck if she drives in the rain tonight. So I'll just wreck the car on purpose so that can't happen."

She gives absolutely no evidence that the Eluvian is innately evil, that Merrill is doomed, or that any of her dark fantasy land beliefs are remotely reasonable. All she does is teach the rest of the Dalish that Merrill is so utterly evil that they they immediately accept the idea that Merrill would murder Marethari when given the opportunity.

Did you, anwhere, see any evidence that Merrill was violent, murderous, or otherwise the kind of danger that Marethari telling everyone she is? Merrill is by far the nicest, least violent Dalish we meet in either game.

Marethari is the villain in that Dalish storyline, not Merrill.

[AlexXIV]

Well we see no matter what Merrill does with her bloodmagic, nothing goes wrong. I don't count the keeper's death because that was mostly her own fault. We can discuss if it was because of Merrill or not, but there is no way of knowing since Marethari jumped the gun, so to speak.

I just find it funny that nothing bad comes from Merrill's bloodmagic, every other mage touching it would become a raving lunatic. It doesn't make sense, like many other things. Of course you can say well she is more careful and knows what nobody else knows, etc. But honestly it is just how the plot overwrites common sense again. Because Merrill is supposed to be an LI while other mages are just cannon fodder for Hawke.

[Vormaerin]

Merrill isn't the only bloodmage who isn't a lunatic. There are Warden blood mages, there's whatshisname who tutored Eamon's son, and a few others (possibly including a Mage-Hawke).

Don't forget, when the Circle Mages turn to blood magic its almost always because they were already nuts or they were looking for a weapon. Merrill isn't looking for a weapon and she's not already driven mad.

[PPR223]

I found Merrill irritating and wanted to kill her everytime she spoke. Anders needed to die also, but atleast he wasn't annoying, the lesser of two evils in my opinion. Pretty much every mage in Dragon Age 2 needed to die, except Bethany and Hawke, if you played as one ofcourse.

[AlexXIV]

Vormaerin wrote...

Merrill isn't the only bloodmage who isn't a lunatic. There are Warden blood mages, there's whatshisname who tutored Eamon's son, and a few others (possibly including a Mage-Hawke).

Don't forget, when the Circle Mages turn to blood magic its almost always because they were already nuts or they were looking for a weapon. Merrill isn't looking for a weapon and she's not already driven mad.

Jowan? Not a good choice to defend bloodmages. Neither Avernus imho. Whatever, seems like Bioware tried to show how dangerous bloodmagic is by making all bloodmages nuts and at the same time they give you a bloodmage companion who is more or less flawless. I don't know if it is just another oversight of the writers or if there is actually a point to it. Too tough to judge tbh. But if it's true that bloodmagic can be controlled by apostates and only gets circle mages into trouble that's just a point that speaks against the chantry and templars. Because it basically means it's their fault.

Modifié par AlexXIV, 24 octobre 2011 - 03:19 .

[ThePasserby]

When your party is trekking up the mountain with Merrill the first time you meet her, she has to dispel a magical ward to get to the altar. The Keeper sent her to accompany you, which means she knows of the ward, and knows that it can be dispelled with conventional magic by her First. Merrill, however, chooses to use blood magic on the ward instead.

This tells me that she uses bloodmagic frivolously, unless this scene is but a poorly written plot device to introduce the player to Merrill's dabbling in blood magic, which is not unlikely.

[Vanderbilt_Grad]

Actually the impressio I got was that blood magic or lots of lyrium was needed to remove the wards. The keeper wanted Hawk to know that Merrill was a blood mage ... and to SEE the truth of that rather than just telling him.

[Soltan Heatwave]

The only companion I really didn't like in DA2 was Anders. I liked him in DA-Awakenings, but he was far too dark even when Hawk first met him. I mean, he couldn't tell the difference between a Templar and regular fighter when I first approached him. The Justice / Anders thing turned him not into an avenger but into a sociopath. Someone avenging wrongs wouldn't do so by killing a number of innocent people just to make a point. They would take care of business by taking out those responsible one by one or a small group at a time. The Anders I left in DA-Awakenings would have been able to do it, since he was a level 35 mage. Does a mage lose 24 or so levels just by crossing the sea.

I think Merrill was really good companion, she gave a totally new and additional perspective to the plight of the Elves. Since her training was totally Dalish she didn't have any of the fears and prejudices against Blood Magic that the Circle mages did. She did understand that it was dangerous, but felt that she could handle it. She doesn't turn absolutely psychopathic as the Circle mages do by using it. Could it be her Dalish training or could it be an Elven racial trait or rather a Dalish Elven trait. Zathrian used blood magic to create the werewolves, he did it out of vengeance, but he didn't turn crazy nor was he a possessed abomination. I am only speculating that blood magic use among the Dalish, at least is a known thing that is taught and used only sparingly. I didn't see blood swirling around Merrill every time she cast a spell. So blood magic must be known, by the Dalish, but only used sparingly.

[TEWR]

ThePasserby wrote...

When your party is trekking up the mountain with Merrill the first time you meet her, she has to dispel a magical ward to get to the altar. The Keeper sent her to accompany you, which means she knows of the ward, and knows that it can be dispelled with conventional magic by her First. Merrill, however, chooses to use blood magic on the ward instead.

This tells me that she uses bloodmagic frivolously, unless this scene is but a poorly written plot device to introduce the player to Merrill's dabbling in blood magic, which is not unlikely.

Considering the Keeper knew about Merrill's blood magic dabbling at that point I don't think it was a frivolous use of it. I think the Keeper knew that ward had to be dispersed with blood magic.

That ward could've been there long before Merrill and her clan ever arrived on the mountain.