Then she should have left the mirror alone like Duncan warned everyone to do. Instead she brings the tainted mirror with her. No wonder her clan hates her.
Why? Why should she remain passive when she could be proactive about the plight of her people, who have lost all trace of their society? In order to know who you are, you must first know where you came from. You must know your past in order to know your future.
And her clan, while hostile to her in Act 1, did not hate her outright. Many still thought of her fondly during Act 1. But Marethari chose to spread slanderous lies about Merrill, saying she would bring back the Taint when Merrill had not only cleansed the shard of the Taint but also brought up its cleansed state to Marethari -- as she says they've been over the Eluvian discussion many times now.
Marethari made the clan hate Merrill so much that certain people thought her a monster and would rather take their chances with a crazed Varterral that has proven itself to have killed some of the Elves then Merrill, who has never harmed anyone.
Then Marethari has the audacity to suggest that Merrill should return home to a clan that reviles her and hates her. Yes, because that's totally going to go over well! The people who believe lies about Merrill -- that she's tainted -- are just going to be all happy and lovey-dovey. Let's ignore that if Merrill was tainted, returning home to the clan isn't going to be a miracle solution. She'd grow sicker and sicker, and eventually would turn into a broodmother probably and thus kill the clan by making Shriek babies, she'd attract Darkspawn to her, or she'd leave in search of the Darkspawn.
And then what? The clan would still be doomed because Marethari's focusing more on her surrogate mother state and thinking that because she's Keeper she's right instead of logic, reason, and facts. What would she do if Merrill the Ghoul went off in search of the Darkspawn? She'd probably lead her entire clan on a death search for Merrill.
Merrill is the Keeper that clan needs. She knows what's best for the clan, follows Dalish protocol, -- see
here -- and she's capable of dealing with spirits of the Fade, particularly after Night Terrors and the mind control instance there.
And you're moving the goalposts. Your original comment was "Well she should've cleansed it by X" and now you're saying "She should never have taken it in the first place" since X was not a viable option, due to reasons I've already stated.
The hard road isn't supposed to be easy. No matter how many times you say "not an option" I just think that is just an excuse for her. So we just have to agree to disagree.
Yes, the hard road is hard. But you can't expect Merrill to keep the Eluvian fragment from spreading its taint when her magic will grow progressively weaker to the point that it will no longer work unless she can amplify it. She does not have the necessary funds to acquire lyrium, smugglers charge outrageous amounts of coin for lyrium, and money also has to go to the bills. Lyrium is not an option. Not for this instance. If her healing spells wouldn't grow progressively weaker, then it'd be an option.
What you're asking her to do is maintain an "honor before reason" mentality which is rather Stark-ish, as I told MisterJB. Particularly of the Robb Stark variety.
What would you say if she
did refuse to use blood magic, and the Taint began to spread because she did not have the lyrium at hand, for the reasons I cited? What then? Personally, if I've got a ready supply of a lyrium equivalent flowing all through my veins and it will replenish itself constantly if I'm careful as opposed to hoping to the Creators that I can get some lyrium for who knows how much coin, I'll choose the former.
I'd put the blood in vials and containers and flasks and perhaps try to extract it without slitting my wrists, mind you, but I'd go for the blood anyday.
So long as it was my blood and no one else's.
Why would this demon waste its time helping Merrill without reaping any type of a reward for it?
Helping Merrill was driving a wedge between her and Marethari, thus making Marethari an easier target to prey upon.
Marethari was the Demon's reward for helping Merrill. Merrill was just a necessity to achieve such a thing.
Regardless of who his intended target was, Merrill was smart by bringing along Hawke and company. She recognized that, despite Audacity's trapped, weakened, and sundered state, she still might be in his sights as a means to freedom. And so Hawke and company came along to A) keep her safe should the Demon pull something and
if A failed, to at least kill Abomination Merrill.
But as Merrill was intent on keeping him in that statue -- even lamenting why anyone would be so stupid as to free him -- she was not going to be possessed. She was not going to free him.
Never mind how what Morrigan states on the Eluvians -- how they lead beyond Thedas and beyond the Fade -- directly proves Marethari wrong. I'm sorry, but I'll support Morrigan and Merrill who have done their research over Marethari who's intent on fearing the past then even doing the slightest bit of research to support her speculation.
Marethari's the woman who let a Demon that was trapped in a statue for eternity, would continue to be such for eons beyond counting unless freed by a powerful spell (that we do not know if Merrill knew, only that she knew powerful magic was needed), and was sundered from the Fade and thus had severely diminished powers go free.
Not just free, but have access to a Mage's body. Marethari thinks that Merrill can't handle a weakened and trapped Pride Demon, but somehow thinks she can handle a Pride Abomination with access to Marethari's entire arsenal
and has re-established his connection to the Fade by way of his possessed host?
Marethari's a senile old bat.
Why would you trust Merrill not to cast the spell to free it in exchange for restoring her the mirror that has been the focus of her obsession for 6+ years?
Because when romanced on the friendship path, if she's kidnapped, she says that the most important thing in her life is Hawke. That Hawke is the thing in her life she could not live without.
And I always romance her if I play DAII.
Romancing her leads to her obsession becoming a dedicated hobby, as the codex says. Instead of it saying that she's so obsessed with it she forgets to buy food sometimes, it just says she spends a great deal of time on it.
Much like someone in school would spend a great deal of time working on a project for a class meant to give them a high grade.
You place far too much trust in Merrill. I don't.
I take it you've never romanced her on the friendship path then.
So I guess Merrill willingly asking demons multiple times for aid is all mind control as well?
Strawman.
That I declare one instance for what it is does
not mean I'm declaring all instances as being the same. It's a known fact in the lore that spirits of Desire and Pride can mind control people when in the Fade -- the realm where they're at their most powerful. This is even backed by Word of God and the comments from all other companions on the matter.
And let's look at all the other instances she's gone to a Demon for aid:
Audacity: A demon bound in a statue for eternity unless someone frees him, sundered from the Fade, and severely weakened in terms of power because of his lost connection to the Fade. Merrill went to him to learn the basics of blood magic, and only that.
And that's it.
She may counsel Hawke that Hawke can play Demons before he/she gets played -- which
is true -- but she does not say "Mr. Demon, will you help us?" in those matters. Offering your two cents to the person making the decisions is not the same thing as making the decisions yourself, unless you force the decision to be made.
Which she does not do.
Except Merrill never wised up.
Except she did.
Why put all your eggs in one basket when you have two ripe fools for the taking?
Because Demons target Mages with power and influence, both things Marethari has. As Keeper, she's thought of as being more powerful then her First. Merrill has power, and though she eventually surpasses Marethari Audacity saw Marethari as the biggest fish in the lake.
Hell, Audacity spoke to Marethari only during the short story when they met, though the whispers were heard by both Marethari and Merrill. That indicates that his prime target was the one with more authority on such a thing.
If he's lying about how he could possess Merrill, why would he tell the truth now?
Trying to play on the last vestiges of her pride -- which is diminished in a Friendship Romance path -- by telling her the truth of what she is. A powerful mage that surpassed the strength of her Keeper (and a Keeper turned Abomination).
Whether she buys into it depends on if Hawke is an idiot or smart enough to realize the ruse. If Hawke believed Abomination Marethari, why wouldn't Merrill? Merrill admires Hawke, so if he's saying "Yup, all's good" then all must be good, even if all is not in fact good but is rather bad. Very bad.
The entire quest was so that Merrill could go back to the spirit about the mirror. She did consult with it before. She may have spent years away researching and working on it but she did consult with it before and was planning to so it again.
NO. We have David Gaider's testimony that for all the years she was in Kirkwall, she relied
solely on what lore and fragments she could find on the Eluvians. Scraps of paper talking about them, wherein she extrapolated information and applied it to her project.
She was
not in contact with him for those 7 years. It's a known fact that Audacity's
limited powers consisting only of whispering and illusive projections for temporary moments of time is directly affected by proximity. The closer one is to him, the better a chance a person can hear him. Go far enough away and he won't be able to contact you
at all.
Merrill was miles and miles away from Sundermount, in a city-state at the cliffs overlooking an ocean.
If on Sundermount he could barely whisper to Marethari and Merrill and his talk grew louder as the two went farther up the mountain, why in Gods' name would you think he'd be able to maintain contact when Merrill is leagues away?
Word of God says that Merrill worked on her own for those years. That's indisputable fact. She only met with Audacity 3 times and talked to him twice, the last time being more of his mockings then an actual discussion.
Modifié par The Ethereal Writer Redux, 18 mars 2013 - 06:29 .
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