The Ethereal Writer Redux wrote...
Yet Meredith refuses to even look at how her own heavyhanded methods may have (and I say they did) contributed to the mess of those first two mages.
Grace is also tied to her own ineptitude.
I'm sorry, but I wouldn't trust her to search an egg basket. She's proven time and again that she can't even properly lead her Templars or control the mages appropriately. She sees plots where they don't exist, fails to keep order, actively incites chaos, and a whole slew of other things.
She may have had grounds for the search (though considering there's nothing left to look for, rebellion's quelled and the threats have been disposed of, I don't see much point in it) but she first needs to admit that she's dropped the ball several times.
And she never does. She shifts the blame onto others. I am not cleaning up her messes. She failed to apprehend Quentin or even make a meaningful effort to do that, tries to use that as leverage against the Champion, failed to keep Grace from inciting rebellion despite her clearly being the ringleader, wanted to kill apostates for simply being apostates rather then take them in (as Starkhaven's Templars requested), can't discipline her own men, allows them to run roughshod over the mages, tasks a group of zealots to "purge" mage sympathizers, doesn't stop Alrik's illegal Tranquilizations despite clearly being able to see that it's going on (because per the lore of DAO, there'd be a record of all of them), and whatever else happens in-game.
Meredith just doesn't even bother to keep order. She just uses chaos as grounds for more domination of the city-state. Orsino at least tries to keep order despite having little power in the Circle thanks to Meredith.
Orsino tries to keep order? His very first action in the third act is to incite a rebellion. Meanwhile, Meredith seems to be right on the money when she says there is a plot against her. In fact, I seem to recall every mage Meredith lay charges against ending up doing something that proved her right all along.
I am not going to say that Meredith also didn't contribute somewhat to the aggravation of the situation or that a search would have gone without some bumps, but there are good reasons to search the Circle because, virtually, every blood mage in Act 3 came from it. If Orsino had nothing to hide, then he should have just let the Templars do their jobs.
Incorrect. Orsino fights against the first wave of Templars and tells the other mages in his company to get to the Gallows. They are the ones who bring word, and he eventually leaves to meet up with them.
Plus, he never really gets the opportunity to make the offer. As soon as he pleads for the Champion's support (and the Champion gives it or not) battle immediately ensues. For all we know, after the Champion gave his/her support he would've said "See? Meredith, you can't do this! Please, search the Gallows if you wish and I'll help!" then and there.
He had plenty of opportunities. He yelled at Anders, pleaded with Hawke; he could have, at any point, offered Meredith to search the Circle. But he didn't; not until he had been there first. Imagine if a policeman catchs a suspect in the streets and claims to want to search his home for evidence. The suspect staunchly argues he doesn't have the right to do that but, after he had been to his home, he suddenly becomes very cooperative. Sounds suspicious, doesn't it?
Also, if Hawke sides with the Templars, it's Orsino who takes the initiative to start a fight and order his mages to stall the Champion and the Knight Commander. Another opportunity he could have used to offer Meredith the option to search the Circle if that is what he intended all along.
Or the demons are simply pretending to be on their side, and never get the chance to really force possession of the mage because "Priority: That big bearded fellow, his dwarven companion, his Elven Mage LI, and Zoidberg are coming at us with nasty, angry, mean snarls on their faces."
Forceful possession probably takes a bit of time. It is a battle of wills after all.
That's not really how demons work. For instance, in the Warden's Keep, the demons didn't seem to care that he castle was surrounded by fereldan forces, they attacked soldier and Grey Warden alike.
It's possible that a demon or two could have come up with that strategy but for an entire army of them to have that very same plan? Very doubtful.
And that wouldn't change the fact the mages knew how to summon demons in the first place which is still not something you learn in a couple of hours.
And SOME demons are there regardless. The Pride Demon on the docks for instance is always there.
True.
Eidetic memory's my assumption, rather then assuming "HE'S CLEARLY A PRACTITIONER".
A quick google search tells me eidetic memory is entirely fictional.
And even if it wasn't, eidetic memory; despite him showing no other evidence of it; is somehow more likely than "studying"?
I highly doubt you could make a Ratvester.
Why not? Flesh is flesh.