51 réponses à ce sujet

[thats1evildude]

The Ethereal Writer Redux wrote...

What you're saying is akin to saying -- and I'll just be making a bull**** claim to hopefully successfully make a point -- that an eidetic memory is something that was lost from the Jews because they were enslaved by the Egyptians.

Using your own metaphor, why would the Jews suddenly start manifesting eidetic memories after escaping slavery if that trait was limited to the Egyptians?

Modifié par thats1evildude, 02 décembre 2011 - 05:19 .

[Plaintiff]

OMTING52601 wrote...

Gibb_Shepard wrote...

Also, Gaider has admitted toa continuity error in the novels:

"Cailan is supposed[/i] to be five years old in "the Calling"
http://dragonage.wik...ge:_The_Calling

That would mean that Alistairs age lines up perfectly with the novels. I'm sorry buddy, but its all to much of a coincedence for it not to be true.

Thank you! I was digging around for this and I couldn't find it. Sorry, Plaintiff, I meant to put this in my original post. I realize it isn't in the actual book, but being a writer myself, I can attest to the fact that what happens after an author sends in their final approved version does not mean that's the final version that goes into print. Believe me on that. Sometimes continuity errors are on the fault of the author, sometimes the setters, sometimes a last minute line edit to fix one sentence or another and part of the sentence doesn't get stuck back in, which seems to be what Gaider is implying in this instance.

I also write, as it happens, and while I would never presume to be the equal of a professional like Gaider, this goes beyond mere continuity error. If the half-elf child is confirmed to be Alistair (and as far as I can see, this hasn't happened), then we have two versions of Alistair's parentage that directly conflict with each other. I think it's fair to say that somebody (maybe Gaider, maybe someone else) screwed up big time. I'm sorry, but as mistakes go, this is a doozy. The fact that nobody caught it prior to publication of the game or the book completely boggles my mind. 

I'm only an amateur, I'll admit, and have never been published ever, but with a big project (particularly one as big as Dragon Age, which is an entire franchise unto itself), going back and making sure your plotline is consistent is lesson number one! Small mistakes are unavoidable, but I think we can safely say that this crosses the line into "major ****-up". 

If it's not a mistake, and the version of events in The Calling is what actually happened, then this just raises questions that can never satisfactorily be answered. Why did everyone involved feel the need to construct such an elaborate lie? Why hide the truth even from Alistair himself, who certainly has a right to know? Who the **** is Goldanna really, then? And if she's not Alistair's actual sister, and in fact some sort of hired actress or something, then why didn't Eamon/Maric/whoever pay her enough to at least pretend like she was happy to see him? Who would be so incredibly cruel as to fool an individual (who they presumably care for, judging by past actions) into thinking that his only living family wants nothing to do with him? Eamon and Maric would have to be despicable sociopaths not to realise and/or care about the immense emotional damage this would do to someone as sensitive and insecure as Alistair shows himself to be on more than one occasion.

Also, if Alistair had an elven mother, why didn't Loghain just say so at the Landsmeet? Alistair would find himself shut up in the alienage with his claim to the throne completely nullified, and Loghain would rule unopposed as regent.

As for the whole elven genetics thing: Saying "it's a fantasy land and it has different rules!" is silly at this point. Everything else about basic human anatomy we've seen in Dragon Age so far works exactly as it does in the real world. Humans are humans are humans. The "magic!" excuse can only take you so far before it just becomes a cheap and lazy way of excusing things you don't feel like explaining properly.

Fiona is just one woman, her word can't be taken as gospel. Her saying that her child is 100% human doesn't mean that that is, in fact, the case. All it means is that he's completely human, in so far as anyone can tell, with the current level of technology that currently exists. Theories of genetics and hereditary are, so far, completely unknown in Thedas. Otherwise, a quick paternity test could easily be done to verify Alistair's parentage, which, apart from telling us who his mother is, would've solved a metric bottload of issues in Origins, going all the way back to Isolde being a **** to him when he was young because she thought he was Eamon's bastard.

[Gibb_Shepard]

Plaintiff wrote...

OMTING52601 wrote...

Gibb_Shepard wrote...

Also, Gaider has admitted toa continuity error in the novels:

"Cailan is supposed[/i] to be five years old in "the Calling"
http://dragonage.wik...ge:_The_Calling

That would mean that Alistairs age lines up perfectly with the novels. I'm sorry buddy, but its all to much of a coincedence for it not to be true.

Thank you! I was digging around for this and I couldn't find it. Sorry, Plaintiff, I meant to put this in my original post. I realize it isn't in the actual book, but being a writer myself, I can attest to the fact that what happens after an author sends in their final approved version does not mean that's the final version that goes into print. Believe me on that. Sometimes continuity errors are on the fault of the author, sometimes the setters, sometimes a last minute line edit to fix one sentence or another and part of the sentence doesn't get stuck back in, which seems to be what Gaider is implying in this instance.

I also write, as it happens, and while I would never presume to be the equal of a professional like Gaider, this goes beyond mere continuity error. If the half-elf child is confirmed to be Alistair (and as far as I can see, this hasn't happened), then we have two versions of Alistair's parentage that directly conflict with each other. I think it's fair to say that somebody (maybe Gaider, maybe someone else) screwed up big time. I'm sorry, but as mistakes go, this is a doozy. The fact that nobody caught it prior to publication of the game or the book completely boggles my mind. 

I'm only an amateur, I'll admit, and have never been published ever, but with a big project (particularly one as big as Dragon Age, which is an entire franchise unto itself), going back and making sure your plotline is consistent is lesson number one! Small mistakes are unavoidable, but I think we can safely say that this crosses the line into "major ****-up". 

If it's not a mistake, and the version of events in The Calling is what actually happened, then this just raises questions that can never satisfactorily be answered. Why did everyone involved feel the need to construct such an elaborate lie? Why hide the truth even from Alistair himself, who certainly has a right to know? Who the **** is Goldanna really, then? And if she's not Alistair's actual sister, and in fact some sort of hired actress or something, then why didn't Eamon/Maric/whoever pay her enough to at least pretend like she was happy to see him? Who would be so incredibly cruel as to fool an individual (who they presumably care for, judging by past actions) into thinking that his only living family wants nothing to do with him? Eamon and Maric would have to be despicable sociopaths not to realise and/or care about the immense emotional damage this would do to someone as sensitive and insecure as Alistair shows himself to be on more than one occasion.

Also, if Alistair had an elven mother, why didn't Loghain just say so at the Landsmeet? Alistair would find himself shut up in the alienage with his claim to the throne completely nullified, and Loghain would rule unopposed as regent.

As for the whole elven genetics thing: Saying "it's a fantasy land and it has different rules!" is silly at this point. Everything else about basic human anatomy we've seen in Dragon Age so far works exactly as it does in the real world. Humans are humans are humans. The "magic!" excuse can only take you so far before it just becomes a cheap and lazy way of excusing things you don't feel like explaining properly.

Fiona is just one woman, her word can't be taken as gospel. Her saying that her child is 100% human doesn't mean that that is, in fact, the case. All it means is that he's completely human, in so far as anyone can tell, with the current level of technology that currently exists. Theories of genetics and hereditary are, so far, completely unknown in Thedas. Otherwise, a quick paternity test could easily be done to verify Alistair's parentage, which, apart from telling us who his mother is, would've solved a metric bottload of issues in Origins, going all the way back to Isolde being a **** to him when he was young because she thought he was Eamon's bastard.

??

Loghain didn't know whom Maric had a child with. Only Duncan knew the truth.

Goldanna actually thought Alistair was her brother. Is that really so hard to believe?

In Dragon Age humans could have completely dominant genes in comparison to elves. 

I don't see how you can find this so hard to believe. The, albeit speculatory, answers are quite obvious.

[TEWR]

thats1evildude wrote...

The Ethereal Writer Redux wrote...

What you're saying is akin to saying -- and I'll just be making a bull**** claim to hopefully successfully make a point -- that an eidetic memory is something that was lost from the Jews because they were enslaved by the Egyptians.

Using your own metaphor, why would the Jews suddenly start manifesting eidetic memories after escaping slavery if that trait was limited to the Egyptians?

I think... it's the lyrium in the water.

....

oh wait....

Maybe due to the area? Maybe there's something within Egypt that allows for eidetic memory to pass onto non-Egyptian children. Or maybe there were cases of half-Egyptian, half-Jewish children and the eidetic memory just sort of passed on throughout the centuries.

I'm no expert in human biology I'll admit. Even less so with Elven biology.

Maybe Tevinter's propensity for both blood magic and demonology did something to the Veil that allowed for Somniari mages to be born. They are able to enter the Fade at will and whatnot. Aren't they also able to enter it physically? It's been a while since I played DAII.

Modifié par The Ethereal Writer Redux, 02 décembre 2011 - 05:44 .

[OMTING52601]

I also write, as it happens, and while I would never presume to be the equal of a professional like Gaider, this goes beyond mere continuity error. If the half-elf child is confirmed to be Alistair (and as far as I can see, this hasn't happened), then we have two versions of Alistair's parentage that directly conflict with each other. I think it's fair to say that somebody (maybe Gaider, maybe someone else) screwed up big time. I'm sorry, but as mistakes go, this is a doozy. The fact that nobody caught it prior to publication of the game or the book completely boggles my mind.

Professionals like Gaider make continuity errors all the time. Google YAABI. LKH sells thousands of copies beyond Gaider's dreams and her books are full of continuity errors, from the small to the large. It's up to the author, of course, but also their editor to try and avoid these/ferret them out and fix them. Sometimes they catch the errors, sometimes they don't. And sometimes, some later stage editor screws something up. I am published. This does happen all the time.

I'm only an amateur, I'll admit, and have never been published ever, but with a big project (particularly one as big as Dragon Age, which is an entire franchise unto itself), going back and making sure your plotline is consistent is lesson number one! Small mistakes are unavoidable, but I think we can safely say that this crosses the line into "major ****-up".

Not arguing how big a screw up it is. Just telling you flat out it happens all the time. And DA may be a big video game. The books aren't nearly as big, just look at their sales numbers. On Amazon, Asunder's(out this month)position is 12000 plus. It does better if you seriously narrow down the search to books that have movie tie ins. There it's ranked number 69. The other books are even farther behind. And notice the lack of 'bestseller' or 'bestselling' anywhere on the cover? I'm not saying they aren't good books. I liked them. What I am saying is that the Dragon Age books likely don't get the same kind of time/energy/scrutiny that say a Robert Ludlum(google some of his collasol mess ups) or Nora Roberts or Dan Brown(some more mess ups there). Plus, unless Gaider decides to give away the rough copies of the manuscript so you can see for certain that he didn't mess things up, which is crazy talk, then we really don't have any choice but to accept that there were some things that got messed up in the editing process and unless, and this is unlikely, the books end up soaring to the top of the bestseller list and hitting a fourth, fifth, sixth print run NO ONE is likely to see those inconsistencies addressed. That's just how the business works.

If it's not a mistake, and the version of events in The Calling is what actually happened, then this just raises questions that can never satisfactorily be answered. Why did everyone involved feel the need to construct such an elaborate lie? Why hide the truth even from Alistair himself, who certainly has a right to know? Who the **** is Goldanna really, then? And if she's not Alistair's actual sister, and in fact some sort of hired actress or something, then why didn't Eamon/Maric/whoever pay her enough to at least pretend like she was happy to see him? Who would be so incredibly cruel as to fool an individual (who they presumably care for, judging by past actions) into thinking that his only living family wants nothing to do with him? Eamon and Maric would have to be despicable sociopaths not to realise and/or care about the immense emotional damage this would do to someone as sensitive and insecure as Alistair shows himself to be on more than one occasion.

I can't actually answer any of those questions. Only Gaider can and depending on how many books he's contracted to do we may get those answers, um, never. An informed opinion might be that it isn't that elaborate a lie. After all, Fiona's gone back to Weisshaupt to lead the search for The Architect. She's out of the picture. Eamon and Maric are already close, so Maric gives Alistair to him to raise. It's also perfectly plausible that Goldanna's mother was pregnant/had given birth shortly before Alistair's arrival. There were complications, her child died, and so Maric's heir was supplanted in its place. Hell, maybe Maric did have sex with the maid in the first place. Alistair says his mother died when he was super young, maybe she didn't make it past his first year. So, with Alistair supplanted for the maid's dead baby, Goldanna would have no reason to question whether or not Alistair was who he was purported to be, Maric's bastard by her mother. And not telling Alistair, well, I'd think that would be obvious. There is zero benefit to Alistair, but a whole lot of potential detriment to everyone else, if he knew the truth. He hasn't shown any magical ability, so telling him his real mother abandoned him can only hurt him more.

Also, if Alistair had an elven mother, why didn't Loghain just say so at the Landsmeet? Alistair would find himself shut up in the alienage with his claim to the throne completely nullified, and Loghain would rule unopposed as regent.

I don't know that Loghain would have been privvy to this fact. I mean the book certainly doesn't say Maric gave Loghain a blow by blow of his relationship with Fiona, nor does it say Maric told Loghain that Fiona had a child by him. 

As for the whole elven genetics thing: Saying "it's a fantasy land and it has different rules!" is silly at this point. Everything else about basic human anatomy we've seen in Dragon Age so far works exactly as it does in the real world. Humans are humans are humans. The "magic!" excuse can only take you so far before it just becomes a cheap and lazy way of excusing things you don't feel like explaining properly.

Not to set you off an a tear, but the truth is this could very well be the 'actual' explanation. The nice thing about being a story teller, of any kind, is that you can make up any reason you want for anything. As long as you can get your audience to suspend their disbelief(which apparently they weren't able to fully do for you, and that's a failure on their part, not yours) then they will believe whatever you, the storyteller, decide to make 'real' or 'reasons' or whatever.

Fiona is just one woman, her word can't be taken as gospel. Her saying that her child is 100% human doesn't mean that that is, in fact, the case. All it means is that he's completely human, in so far as anyone can tell, with the current level of technology that currently exists. Theories of genetics and hereditary are, so far, completely unknown in Thedas. Otherwise, a quick paternity test could easily be done to verify Alistair's parentage, which, apart from telling us who his mother is, would've solved a metric bottload of issues in Origins, going all the way back to Isolde being a **** to him when he was young because she thought he was Eamon's bastard.

You have a valid point, if this were the real world. It isn't. It's Gaider's world. The words used in the book are, I think, 'wholly human'. And yes, it's an inconsistency, especially considering the use of 'elf-blooded' human in Hawke's story. I think a lot of readers interpreted that to mean 'looking wholly human' not actually being purely human, but of course that's me bleeding my inference so I may have been in the minority. And like I said earlier, I think the only reason Fenryiel looked more 'elven' in Hawke's story was a DESIGN choice, i.e. the designers changed the look of a lot of the species of Thedas in the second game and Fenryiel got lumped in. Oops, their bad. 

[Gibb_Shepard]

 Calling out Plaintiff, this post is dedicated to you my dear friend, and those who also wish to see how real world genetics are treated in DA.

So i was browsing the forums, and come across a thread dedicated to the elves in DA2, no more than 3 pages bak in the story forum. And i come across an interesting discussion, involving Mr. Gaider, about our whole ordeal. These are direct quotes, not at all taken out of context. It is on page 11 in this thread: http://social.biowar...ndex/8338494/11. 

BSN Member:
"For all intents and purposes the elves in the Dragon Age universe are humans with different traits that are recessive when breeding with what dragon age refers to as humans. 

I will give bioware a pass on not understanding that recessive traits can never be removed between a pairing, they may be rare, but they are not gone and have a tendency to show up in later generations, sometimes in the first children."

Gaider:
"That's appreciated-- though you might also want to include in that understanding the fact that this has much more to do with magic and almost nothing to do with genetics."

BSN Member #2:
"Wait, are you saying the reason that all Human/Elf half-breeds are always born human is because of magic?

If so, something tells me there's a story behind that. :p"

Gaider: 
"That seems likely. " (In response to the "story behind that" comment)

________________________________

All of this took place no more than 1 month ago. So it seems the writer of Dragon Age has all but confirmed that Human and Elf offspring are completely human, and it has to do with magic. What did i tell you about applying modern real world science to a fantastical video game Plaintiff?

But this then begs the question, why does Feynriel look half elven? 

[Fox In The Box]

Maybe he looks half-elven to make a point on how he doesn't really fit in anywhere - neither with the humans, nor the elves. Or maybe it's still possible to inherit some of the elven parent's facial traits even though the child is human.

BSN Member #2:
"Wait, are you saying the reason that all Human/Elf half-breeds are always born human is because of magic?

If so, something tells me there's a story behind that. :p"

Gaider:
"That seems likely ." (In response to the "story behind that" comment)

Interesting. It's time to start the wild speculations!

Modifié par Fox In The Box, 02 décembre 2011 - 10:00 .

[Marvin_Arnold]

Fox In The Box wrote...

Maybe he looks half-elven to make a point on how he doesn't really fit in anywhere - neither with the humans, nor the elves. Or maybe it's still possible to inherit some of the elven parent's facial traits even though the child is human.

I see no problem with that. I also don't see a retcon here. It was actually nice to give Feynriel a somewhat Elvish appearance in order to show his problems in fitting in.

It still doesn't change the basic DA lore that half-elves are humans. (and can indeed live outside the Alienage, as we see with Slim Couldry in DA:O, who btw doesn't look Elvish at all):



(Although I also thought about it in terms of dominant/recessive genes and was wondering if two half elves have a 25% chance of having a full Elven child... THAT would be embarassing, I'm sure)


Regarding Danarius, his ears actually look more like (DA:O) Qunari ears. Maybe there's a connection there??


Guys, the "Fiona theory" has been discussed endlessly in DA:O times. Maybe some of you weren't around back then. It has never been confirmed by anybody, let alone The Maker David Gaider himself that Alistair might be her child. At this point, it's speculation or wishful thinking, nothing more.
Personally I think Maric has a lot of bastards prowling Ferelden and maybe Fiona's child will show up some day...

Modifié par Marvin_Arnold, 02 décembre 2011 - 12:06 .

[Plaintiff]

Gibb_Shepard wrote...

 Calling out Plaintiff, this post is dedicated to you my dear friend, and those who also wish to see how real world genetics are treated in DA.

So i was browsing the forums, and come across a thread dedicated to the elves in DA2, no more than 3 pages bak in the story forum. And i come across an interesting discussion, involving Mr. Gaider, about our whole ordeal. These are direct quotes, not at all taken out of context. It is on page 11 in this thread: http://social.biowar...ndex/8338494/11. 

BSN Member:
"For all intents and purposes the elves in the Dragon Age universe are humans with different traits that are recessive when breeding with what dragon age refers to as humans. 

I will give bioware a pass on not understanding that recessive traits can never be removed between a pairing, they may be rare, but they are not gone and have a tendency to show up in later generations, sometimes in the first children."

Gaider:
"That's appreciated-- though you might also want to include in that understanding the fact that this has much more to do with magic and almost nothing to do with genetics."

BSN Member #2:
"Wait, are you saying the reason that all Human/Elf half-breeds are always born human is because of magic?

If so, something tells me there's a story behind that. :p"

Gaider: 
"That seems likely. " (In response to the "story behind that" comment)

________________________________

All of this took place no more than 1 month ago. So it seems the writer of Dragon Age has all but confirmed that Human and Elf offspring are completely human, and it has to do with magic. What did i tell you about applying modern real world science to a fantastical video game Plaintiff?

But this then begs the question, why does Feynriel look half elven? 

"Calling me out"? It's the internet, don't make me laugh.

Okay, so Gaider went for the lazy excuse, that's fair enough. What's this supposed to prove, other than that the writers decided to be lazy?

Referring to me as your "dear friend" is super condescending, by the way.

[Gibb_Shepard]

Don't get butt hurt. I went through the trouble of seeking out this information rather than endlessly argue about elven genetics with absolutely no evidence to back up either theory; which was an inevitability, drawing from previous threads on these forums.

I think we have all left this thread as more knowledgeable people, don't you?

[Plaintiff]

Gibb_Shepard wrote...

Don't get butt hurt. I went through the trouble of seeking out this information rather than endlessly argue about elven genetics with absolutely no evidence to back up either theory; which was an inevitability, drawing from previous threads on these forums.

I think we have all left this thread as more knowledgeable people, don't you?

More disappointed than anything.

Given the fuss people make about the realism of the games in regard to visuals, it would be nice if Dragon Age incorporated some in the actual lore. I don't see why everything has to be chalked up to magic. It wouldn't kill them to incorporate some science into the development of the backdrop, even if it never actually comes up in the actual games.

[Gibb_Shepard]

Magic, believe it or not, has its own laws that it must abide by. Wait for an explanation on how exactly this elven magic works before condemning it.

[tmp7704]

Gibb_Shepard wrote...

But this then begs the question, why does Feynriel look half elven? 

Same reason the elves don't get shoes, probably -- some artist thought it'd be cool so who cares what the game writers say.

[Zanallen]

I don't see anything particularly elf-like in Feynriel's design. He has a slightly adjusted Hawke preset face with white hair.

[tmp7704]

It's mostly the ear shape and to some degree the overall face shape plus eye slant, although i suspect knowing he's half-elf may make these potential 'elf traits' stand out more than intended, if at all intended.

Modifié par tmp7704, 02 décembre 2011 - 07:39 .

[Fox In The Box]

Zanallen wrote...

I don't see anything particularly elf-like in Feynriel's design. He has a slightly adjusted Hawke preset face with white hair.

Not if you compare him to DA2-elves, maybe, but with his long hair and large, slanted eyes and high cheekbones I think he could easily pass as a LOTR-elf, if nothing else. So long as he sharpens his ears first;

 

[Wulfram]

Feynriel's elfyness stands out more because most human NPCs have really round races

[AlexXIV]

If you look around the real world there are a couple of people who would have what we would call 'elven features' or even 'dwarven features' etc. There is really a wide range as to how human faces look. Bascially any character, no matter if dwarf, elf or human, hell even qunari without horns could be a human.

Of course we are used from games that races look distinctive. That means humans look distinctive too. But that's not how it is irl. I think I agree that Feynriel does look elven, for a human, but I guess many would. Not only because they have elven blood, because people look different. Small ears, big ears, slender face, round face, etc, etc.

So why don't we see it the way that if elves and humans have offspring they can have rather elven features, but that it doesn't really mean that they are half-elf. They are humans who have more delicate features maybe. And their look doesn't really represent any amount of 'elvishness' or 'elf-blood' in them.

Modifié par AlexXIV, 02 décembre 2011 - 11:30 .

[Jedi Master of Orion]

Feynriel is completely human. He has some vaguely elf-ish features presumably from his dalish mother but biologically he's completely human.

Modifié par Jedi Master of Orion, 02 décembre 2011 - 11:49 .

[AlexXIV]

Yeah well we don't even exactly know what it means to be an elf or elven. As in what exactly are the differences. I think it has been established that elves get older than humans without really looking as old. At least since DA2 (Marethari). Even though it could as well have to do with her being a keeper. She could know spells who did that or whatever. I mean Zathrian did basically the same thing, and we don't know how much of it was the 'curse' or maybe other magic.

[WhiteKnyght]

Gibb_Shepard wrote...

 I just finished reading "The Calling", and those who have read it know that Fiona (an elf) and Maric have a child. This child is overwhelmingly intended to be Alistair, yet he is a full human. It is said in the book, and in te game, the elf's wo breed with humans have completely human offspring.

Yet in DA2, we have Feynriel, half elf and half human. According to lore he should be fully human. Have i missed something important here or has elven lore been completely retconned, now ruling out the previous certainty that Alistair was Fion and Maric's son?

Feynriel is a self-conscious teenager. It's not surprising that he would be worried about being identified as a half breed.

But as for the halfbreeds are always human stuff--David Gaider said not too long ago that it's actually magic, not genetics that cause it.

My guess would be that the Magisters cursed the elves with blood magic when they sacked Arlathan and enslaved them. One last 'screw you', if you will.

[Zanallen]

Personally, I think Feynriel looks a lot like this Hawke:

[Arthur Cousland]

They've stated in the past that the books aren't canon. Just because something happens in the books, that it doesn't necessarily apply to the games.  That was one explanation as to why Loghain is apparently a rogue in the books (and reflected in the rogue item pack 2 gear), though in Origins, he is clearly a warrior.

It would be nice if the writers would allow elven features for the half-breeds. It would make them certainly more interesting, visually, and could allow them to be more adept at certain roles, whatever those may be.

Modifié par Arthur Cousland, 03 décembre 2011 - 06:52 .

[Gibb_Shepard]

Arthur Cousland wrote...

They've stated in the past that the books aren't canon. Just because something happens in the books, that it doesn't necessarily apply to the games.  That was one explanation as to why Loghain is apparently a rogue in the books (and reflected in the rogue item pack 2 gear), though in Origins, he is clearly a warrior.

It would be nice if the writers would allow elven features for the half-breeds. It would make them certainly more interesting, visually, and could allow them to be more adept at certain roles, whatever those may be.

No, i'm quite sure the prequel books are completely canon, as they do not have to account for choices. Later books and comics are not canon, but "The Stolen Throne" and "The Calling" are.

It is quite possible for a man to switch fighting styles after a ~30 year period. Just saying.

[frustratemyself]

Considering Fiona's hair colour had magically changed by the end of The Calling it should perhaps be taken with a grain of salt.