Silfren wrote...
By arrest, I meant "stop," by the way. I should have avoided an unclear term, sorry. That said, as the Grand Cleric, Elthina was Meredith's superior. She had the authority, and therefore the responsibility, of putting a stop to Meredith's abuses. She wasn't exactly limited to asking the Divine for an Exalted March, either.
I don't know whether Elthina could have actually been effective had she made the attempt. Maybe she wouldn't have been. Personally I'm not interested in discussing this point, because the fact remains, she DID NOT TRY. It's entirely possible that, had she attempted to have Meredith removed from power, Elthina might have found herself utterly powerless to effectively accomplish that goal. Again, however, we don't know that because SHE DID NOT TRY.
I wouldn't dislike Elthina had the game's story indicated that Elthina actually did try to remove Meredith from power.
It seems that Elthina's inaction is being defended on the grounds that she did nothing because there was nothing she COULD do. I don't buy this, because it totally ignores the fact that Elthina was the freakin' Grand Cleric. She was in a direct position of authority over Meredith. I acknowledge that the situation may have been that Elthina did not have any actual, practical power, whatever her authority may have been. Once again, however, she did indeed have the authority, and thus the responsibility. She SHOULD have at least attempted to do something.
Remove Meredith of what power? Her political power of substituting the Viscount of her templar power over the Circle?
In the first case, I don't know if she had the power to do this, since the templars held power on Kirkwall long before the events of DA2, and the Chantry doesn't have (at least formally) the power to decide the new ruler.
In the second case, yes she could've tried to remove Meredith of her duty as Knight-Commander (which I don't know how Meredith and her loyal templars would've reacted, but that's not the point). The fact is, is this power (if they have that power, from what I remember the Knight-Commander responds for their action to the Grand Cleric, but there is no confirmation that the Grand Cleric has the power to strip the KC of their duty. Considering the last mission of DA2, it could very well be a duty of the Knight Captain), is regulated by the Chantry's law. We don't know if the laws of the Chantry are against what Meredith did on the Cicle.
She was indeed ruling over the Circle as a tyrant, but you should remember that the Kirkwall's Circle was ruled on fear for decades. It could be that laws of the Chantry aren't against this type of ruling over the Circles. If so, it's the duty of Divine of changing the rules, not of the Grand Cleric.
Plus, as I've said in my previous post, the situation in Kirkwall was critical. There were a lot of blood mages, both apostated that went in the city and Circle mages who studied blood magic, or Circle mages that in every occasion of fleeing decided to use blood magic. The Templars were indeed responsible for this, but the mages shouldn't have used blood mages. They even killed the Templar who supported them. They weren't that innocent, especially considering that the very First Enchanter helped a blood mage who wasn't even a member of the Kirkwall's Circle.
Regardless of this, even if Elthina was wrong on doing nothing (and she still block Meredith every time she asked of the RoA, but you probably think that this isn't worh much), she didn't deserve to die in that way, as the innocents who were present in the Chantry didn't deserve to die.
edit: I should make clear that in my opinion both the Templars and the mages in Kirkwall were wrong, and used the wrong methods (the Templars in their tyrannical rule, the mages in resorting on blood magic in every occasion). Still, in my only playthrough (for now) of DA2 at the end I decided to side with the mages, because it wasn't their fault that the Chantry was destroyed and a lot of people killed. They were innocent of that crime, so I can't support Meredith (which wanted a RoA for a long time, so she probably used the death of Elthina as an excuse) in destroying all mages.
That doesn't mean that I'm necessarily pro-mages. It depends on the situation. If Orsino and the Kirkwall mages was the ones who destroyed the Chantry and killed Elthina, I'd have supported Meredith.
Modifié par hhh89, 13 avril 2012 - 11:09 .
Retour en haut
