Alistair cares about Alistair. This is obvious from Flemeth's hut after Ostagar on until the Landsmeet. It's convenient for some to ignore the fact that Alistair is never King by himself. Either the HN female is queen, ruling through him, or Anora is ruling, or Eamon is pulling his strings. I can see myself sparing Loghain simply because it does ****** Alistair off. Why not? He's been pissing me off the whole game.Sabriana wrote...
Xandurpein wrote...
Costin_Razvan wrote...
I was genuinly sad when this forced Alistair away from me, but in retrospect I had done what I thought best, with limited information. You are free to play however you like, but don't tell me why I play the way I do.
Same here, I even had persuaded him and Anora to marry, for the betterment of Fereldan, or so I thought.
I think this part is really important, because this is at the heart of why a lot of people choose to let Loghain live, even if they realized it was going to be trading Alistair for Loghain. It's not always just a choice between Alistair or Loghain, it's as much about the crown too. By the time I really knew I would loose Alistair if I let Loghain live, Alistair had already demanded to be handed the crown. I could have then decided to keep Alistair out of loyalty, or from a practical view decide that keeping Alistair who I knew reasonably well, would be better than betting on the relativly unknown factor Loghain. But that would also mean sacrificing the person I thought would do the best job on the throne for someone who up until then had not impressed me as a potential King. THAT is the heart of the matter for me, and a lot others who decided to go with Loghain I think.
It is in my case. My mage (1st play-through, completely unspoiled) was taken aback by Riordan's suggestion, but it gave her pause. He was the most experienced GW after all. She was utterly shocked about Alistair's outburst, and remembered his comments at Flemeth's hut, and Duncan's words at Ostagar.
Something was amiss to her then, and Alistair demanding to be crowned was in contradiction to what he said through a large part of the game. Namely, that he'd make a bad king, he didn't want to be King, etc.
Alistair also showed no leadership qualities, and had the tendency to get upset if he didn't get his way, even though the way he wanted things were bad overall. His statement that he'd rather be a follower also popped up in her mind. That, coupled with the fact that Anora, who has a bad character, but is otherwise a beloved and capable leader, and has plenty experience in the political arena was the far better candiate between the two.
My mage decided that out of two bad choices (Anora/Alistair), she'd better go with less bad choice, namely Anora. It was somewhat moot to her anyway, because if the archdemon was successfull all of this would be moot anyway. So Loghain lived, and of course, later on it became clear to my mage why Riordan suggested Loghain, and why he didn't interfere further after Alistair's outburst.
I was very sad when I saw neither hide nor hair of Alistair in the final battle. I did understand his leaving the PC and her group, but I never expected not to see him in the thick of things when it really mattered, when his country needed him so desperately.
BTW, game mechanics always come into the argument at this juncture, since Alistair technically can't lead. However, Sten can't lead either, and yet he will try. Alistair's solution? Throw a temper tantrum, and try to seize the crown. If he was so confident about being King, why didn't he try to duel me for the right to decide Loghain's fate? He knows he can't go against the Landsmeet, and I applaud Anora's actions, even if Alistair isn't slain outright.





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