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[nightscrawl]

I was just wondering if anybody out there had seen anything similar to this:

 

Those of us who have romanced Dorian know that you can either sleep with him, or tell him you want to take things slowly.  I was looking for a mod that allows you to do both.  Like you take things slowly and in typical ME fashion before the final battle you get to spend the night with him.  I always thought it would have played out better that way.

 

Any and all help is appreciated.

 

I don't think there will be able to be any mods like this in the game based on the types of things that the Mod Maker can actually change. Currently you can replace things like textures and other static resources, or you can alter skills and such through their info file, but I don't think you would be able to add a scene. This is similar to the types of limitations we had in modding DA2, for which there was no official mod tool, unlike DAO.

 

To compare with the Bi Cassandra/Dorian/etc mods and the like, those basically -- not to diminish the work, which I wouldn't even know how to go about doing, I can barely edit hex information -- switch gender flags, allowing the player of the opposite gender (to the NPC's preference) to play out the romance. But even those have limitations in that the NPC will still refer to you as the "correct" gender for their preference, your PC will have no voiced responses, and so on. So it's really limited in that regard.

 

 

I was rather disappointed when I took it slowly the first time, that there was no opportunity to advance it further at a later stage.   Apparently it must just be left to your imagination.   In fact I believe DG said it was deliberately written like that so that people who didn't want to see an explicit nude scene, didn't have to do so and could just decide for themselves how it went from then on.      I'm not sure how a mod would work since the bedroom scene leads to a discussion of how you want the relationship to proceed either way, so it wouldn't make much sense for him to be asking you again when you'd already confirmed you wanted a proper relationship before sleeping with him.

 

That... I dunno... I'd really like a source quote, or better context, or something. Taken at face value I find that thought process somewhat disturbing that he would have that for the game's primary m/m romance and not with any of the other romance scenes where you see a man naked: Bull, Cullen. I also dislike the idea that a decision might be based around that in that specific instance because of how the "take it slow" option plays into his personal history and expectations, which were astoundingly appropriate for the character.

 

Also, I thought that you mentioned some time ago that the game basically assumes that you did have sex eventually, so you would still get the "this from the man with whom I spend my nights," and other such lines.

 

I think it is generally better to leave the more complicated stuff to head-canon, since the devs can't account for everything. A while ago some player said that they watch the "take it slow" version first, reload, and then play it out with the sex and just head-canon that it actually happened that way.

 

 

Just curious, has the bug been fixed where, if you run through all of Dorian's conversations in Haven, his personal quest won't trigger when you get to Skyhold?

 

I know this was already answered, but I can assert that it seems to have been fixed, yes. Just make sure you have that high approval rating and you should be good to go. That said, unless you're running through on a save that is already past Haven, I might suggest that you save some of those conversations for later so you actually have something to talk about during the game. Hanging out with one's sweetheart, even talking about Tevinter, is nice!

[nightscrawl]

It might be, but they spend years working on these games, and I don't see how 2 cutscenes instead of 1 is such a huge effort, but then again... you can't please everyone.  And what I wouldn't give for them to make specialized animations.  Because at the end of the game Iron Bull pushing you through the doorway with swishing hips, just like Dorian, is 100% not in character for him as the Dom in a clearly BDSM relationship.  Mah!  What we need is a Mass Age/Dragon Effect game so we can have the best of both all mushied up together.

 

It would eat up resources, yeah... So maybe we might have one less kiss scene, or something along those lines. They budget (work time) really specifically given the resources they have and try to make things equal as best they can. As much as I would like some more uniqueness across the board, it's not really fair to have more content for one romance over the other.

[xcrstfallenstrx]

It would eat up resources, yeah... So maybe we might have one less kiss scene, or something along those lines. They budget (work time) really specifically given the resources they have and try to make things equal as best they can. As much as I would like some more uniqueness across the board, it's not really fair to have more content for one romance over the other.

 

I don't think fair or equal has anything to do with it.  Iron Bull's romance has way more scenes then any of the others I've done (solas, blackwall, cullen, iron bull, and dorian).  Maybe it's because he's the first romanceable Qunari or something, but I was actually shocked how much interaction I was able to have with him.  As for Dorian it plays to his characters personal history to wait.  It seems more likely that if you sleep with him right away, any kind of serious relationship with him would be off the table.  This doesn't really come into play for any of the other characters personalities as far as I have seen.  And this doesn't actually involve any extra resources since they already made both cutscenes.  I guess I'm looking for something similar to the Jack romance in ME2.  Where if you sleep with her right away romance is impossible, but if you take the time to get to know her, you can initiate a fully committed relationship at end game.

 

It's moot since it's not actually in the game.  I was just wondering if anybody had seen a similar mod.  Looks like I will have to play around and see if I can make one myself.  How hard could it possibly be to trigger a cutscene at a specified point in the game?  I might regret saying that though after 4 days with no sleep as I try to puzzle it out.  But... nothing ventured, nothing gained.

[nightscrawl]

As for Dorian it plays to his characters personal history to wait.  It seems more likely that if you sleep with him right away, any kind of serious relationship with him would be off the table.  This doesn't really come into play for any of the other characters personalities as far as I have seen.

I disagree and think both options are completely viable and meaningful to Dorian in their own unique way. Dorian is not the one who wants to wait and is surprised when you suggest it: "Quickly? By my standards we've been positively chaste." And asks, "What is it you want from me? A relationship?" Because even though he wants "more" he doesn't expect it. What he IS expecting is sex, so having sex first is actually more in line with his own history and pattern of behavior, which is why the Inquisitor's refusal is so surprising to him.

 

With the path of the romance it's not like you just meet, have an attraction, have sex (which I'm sure he's done numerous times), and then talk about it afterward. There are instances that lead Dorian to regard you as a close friend even before you start the romance (personal quest with Halward), then his further dialogue after Mother Giselle, and then the lines surrounding the whole amulet quest. Even though the Dorian romance, regardless of paths chosen, can move quickly, there is a natural progression where it is clear that he IS starting to see it as something more, even if he is afraid to hope for it. So even then it's not just sex like he's had with other men. Dorian initiates that encounter because that is what he has experience with. If you accept then the Inquisitor is actually playing into that aspect of his history and it is then up to Dorian to lay everything out there and directly ask what it is the Inquisitor wants.

 

The reason that each path is good on its own is because they each play into aspects of his history in different ways. The sex version forces Dorian to be more vulnerable in that conversation; he's taking a huge risk by having that sex and then asking afterward, opening himself up to rejection. Consider part of Cole's romance banter: "What if he doesn't want me after?" His reaction if you choose the "let's keep this casual" option is proof enough of that; he shuts down emotionally completely. But the "take it slow" path allows the Inquisitor to show him another way.

 

That said, despite his need and want for that emotional connection, Dorian does like and enjoy sex. So even with his trepidation going in, I still think he would have had a good time, and made sure that the Inquisitor had one, too.

[nightscrawl]

Bit of a subject change... I like how in the one Trespasser slide he has longer hair -- but still the same facial hair! -- and it really makes me wonder how he might be depicted in a future game or ancillary materials. However, Dorian is so neatly groomed all the time that having flowing locks strikes me as a bit out of character for him. BUT perhaps his taste shifts a bit with age.

 

I gotta say... if he shaved his facial hair off my Inquisitor would totally freak out.

[Dr. Doctor]

Long hair could be the style at the time. I'd imagine that given the time and lack of travel Dorian would probably change his hairstyle on a semi-regular basis.

[Hazegurl]

I would love Dorian with long hair.  I don't think it says anything about his grooming habits unless he didn't wash it and I doubt that is happening.  I also think it's more of a change in the current style. I wouldn't expect Dorian to have the same old hair style for years and years.

[Gervaise]

That was the odd thing about those slides.   The first one has Dorian looking older and with a beard, as though many years have passed since the end of the game.   Then the next slides with the crystal looks much closer to how he is now but with the suggestion of longer hair.    I had been going to ask if anyone else saw that because I wondered if it was just wishful thinking on my part when I saw it.   Somehow I rather like the idea of Dorian with longer, flowing locks.   It was something of a disappointment that we couldn't have longer hairstyles than the ones given. 

 

I still spend way too much time fusing over my own appearance in the Black Emporium, because I like to think my character would vary their appearance over time.   I also never thought I would get so much enjoyment out of crafting.   It is all down to Dorian.    When I get a new schematic, I immediately go and see how it will look on my character and then do the same for Dorian (where it is a multi-class one).    Then trundle over to the tinting desk to see if he would look better in a different colour because you are usually limited to the colour of the best stats otherwise.     My ex-Inquisitor is hardly going to be short of resources, if by that they mean money, since I have a trunk full of gear, multiple outfits and numerous weapons, because I never sell the unique items.   Dorian has a different staff for every day of the week and to spare.

 

Does anyone have a screenshot of Dorian using the Heart of Rage staff?     I noticed that he seems to glow when using it but haven't managed to catch it myself.

[kimgoold]

I love this character and we need Dorian to be the main protagonist in the next DA game! I don't know if its the beautiful voice of the actor portraying him or the droll wit of the writing  but I fell in love with Dorian immediately. And I think the romance between Dorian and another companion is one of the best in DA's history.  

[nightscrawl]

I would love Dorian with long hair.  I don't think it says anything about his grooming habits unless he didn't wash it and I doubt that is happening.  I also think it's more of a change in the current style. I wouldn't expect Dorian to have the same old hair style for years and years.

Well I didn't mean it that way. But I can see him doing something with it, maybe fancy braids or somesuch.

That said... with recurring characters the devs tend not to alter their iconic look too greatly. I mean, Leliana has had the same bob with side braid for over a decade now. But I do hope they change Dorian up a bit, specifically for the reasons you mention, if he is in fact in the next game.

[Arlee]

I think part of the problem with changing anything about reoccurring characters is even if they do a really good job there will always be people who are upset the character is no longer "theirs". Any real changes would be more a function of them building him in a new system rather than giving him a different look. Of course it also depends greatly how far in the future we are going to go. I mean I'm assuming it'll only be a few years, but if it's more than that we'll more likely get more of a different look for Dorian.

[Gervaise]

I have been looking at the end slides relating to the Dorian/Iron Bull romance and I have to say it is somewhat amusing that if you looked at them without knowing the game, you'd think Tal-Vashoth Iron Bull had been the hero of the story.  It is not the one at the end of the Iron Bull sequence which is pretty much the same length as the romance slides for an Inquisitor with either character.    It is the whole fleshed out adventure at the end of the Dorian slides that seems so incongruous.   Dare I say it, Dorian sounds like the arch type damsel in distress who the hero has to rush in to save from certain death.   

 

Apparently Iron Bull never does as much for a romanced Inquisitor, in fact it would seem they don't get to see much of each other with Iron Bull just clutching nostalgically at his necklace.    Of course a romanced Inquisitor is credited with dropping into to assist his Amatus on occasion in Minrathous but it does all seem very tame by comparison with the dashing exploits of the Iron Bull.   What were they thinking of?    If it isn't bad enough to have the Inquisitor stripped of all their power and minus an arm, they are reduced to a supporting role in their own story whether they romance Dorian or not.    After all I seem to recall Dorian telling us that if he got in over his head, which being kidnapped by Venatori would suggest, he'd let us know.   Now admittedly there is no telling where the Inquisitor might be when the crisis arose but then that would be equally true of Iron Bull (unless it is implied Dorian was on his way to one of their trysts).   It just seems to me that they could have changed the details so a romanced Inquisitor became the one who galloped to the rescue, which would also have tied in rather well with the preceding screen saying we dropped in occasionally to do just that.    Having only one arm wouldn't stop my Inquisitor from saving Dorian from a bunch of Venatori; I'm surprised there are any left considering the number we slaughtered in game.

 

I was reminded in a way of the two different versions of the Dorian story in WoT2.    One fits with pretty well with the time line in game and what Dorian tells us about himself.    The other is overly elaborated to emphasise his debauched behaviour both before and after being picked up by Aleixus and doesn't really match his account at all in details or in time scale.     Then there are little details like his suddenly emerging allergies.    The Wiki now says that Dorian suffers from allergy to stripweed.   Not in my game he doesn't.   No so much as a sniffle.

 

Has anyone asked PW, as current lead writer, why they built up the end story for Dorian/Iron Bull romance in this way and gave it so much screen time in the epilogue screens, when with the Inquisitor it is "blink and you'll miss it". 

[Sui Causa]

Probably the vocal minority got so worked up over how the Adoribull romance was abusive and terrible and Dorian doesn't actually love Iron Bull and kink shames/fetishizies him, Iron Bull is just using him for a dick cozy and doesn't care about Dorian at all and adoribull fans support rape, yadda yadda, that the developers went out of their way to make it clear that it was not the case. They might have gone overboard making it tooth-splittingly sweet, but after all the crap that they went through, it was a really really great gift to Adoribull fans. Lets remember that this is one of the very first canon-gay relationships out there that happens without the player initiating it. It's really positive to see, and the more of a deal Bioware makes over them the better for us gays who want to see more happy gay couples in their games.

 

Iron Bull romancers and Dorian romancers got shafted though, for sure. The solution isn't to take away Adoribull content or be salty that they got something nice, the solution would have been to provide equal **** for the Inquisitor and make everybody happy. However anyone who romanced Cullen, Solas, Josephine, Blackwall, or Cassandra can get and appreciate the Adoribull romance sliders. Patrick Weekes mentioned that Iron Bull romance cut scenes were skipped for the end of Trespasser was basically because so few people would see it, so perhaps the opposite holds true for Adoribull, there is a greater player base that has the potential to actually get those sliders endgame, so they put a little more resources into them? (Forgetting the fact that it's based off their banter system which is exceptionally shitty at getting the job done.) EA basically needs to give a bigger budget towards romance content, imo, or the devs need to make it a bit higher priority. It seems to be the first thing lost in the squeeze, despite it being what really lets players connect with their favorite characters.

 

I would have loved to get more content for both Inquisitor/Dorian and Inquisitor/Iron Bull, unfortunately it just didn't happen. (Could be worse, for Dorianmancers though. If you romanced qun!Iron Bull you do get extra sliders, they're just really, really, really shitty ones. At least Dorian is nothing but good end.)

 

Like I said, at this point I just want more happy gays getting happy endings. For the most part, we got it. It's there, we just have to use our imaginations to fill in the blanks that Bioware left instead of cut scenes and end sliders.

[Arlee]

Wait there are no Iron Bull romance cut scenes?? That seems completely bizarre to me :/ And I don't understand how there can be so few people who romanced Bull to make that worthwhile... That's just sort of shocking honestly.

 

About more of a budget for romances... The thing to keep in mind is they try to take care of not only the people who want romances but also all the people out there who don't want anything to do with romances at all (which is a big reason they are hesitant on romances initiated by anyone other than the player). The result is both groups have things which are less than ideal for them. If I am remembering what Mike Laidlaw said about it at the Romance Panel at PAX East correctly, the majority of PTs in DAI have no one romanced. So although they would love to do more with romances we probably won't see a shift in priorities any time soon.

[Fredward]

(Could be worse, for Dorianmancers though. If you romanced qun!Iron Bull you do get extra sliders, they're just really, really, really shitty ones.)

 

I just read it on the wiki and yeowch.

 

Patrick Weekes mentioned that Iron Bull romance cut scenes were skipped for the end of Trespasser was basically because so few people would see it, so perhaps the opposite holds true for Adoribull, there is a greater player base that has the potential to actually get those sliders endgame, so they put a little more resources into them?

If that's the reason it's kinda shitty. I mean I get that we're a subset of a subset (how many people even finish the game or romance anyone?) but we're still among the people who put the most time into the game and enjoy the dev's work the most. And hopefully appreciate it so you'd think we'd get thrown a few bones and not just have it be a number's game.

 

Another thing I considered is that IB and Dorian are both fixed characters done by Bioware. They can do more or less what they want with them. Not so the Inquisitor, maybe they had cute extra slides in mind but then there would have been outcries of 'oh no my Quisie would never do that!' and **** like that.

[Gervaise]

I did say that I felt they could simply have given the job of saving  Dorian from the Venatori to the Inquisitor if in a romance with Dorian instead of Iron Bull.   So all the Adoribull fans would have got the content that they have but those invested in our own Dorian romance would have had parity in the heroics stakes.  All it required was a different back screen and a few changed words; after all the Inquisitor could have been supported by mercenaries, even Bull's mercenaries.    It would simply give credit for the rescue to the Inquisitor.   I don't think any Dorian romancers would object to that.  

 

It seems a bit hard on the Iron Bull romancers that they got so little in comparison.    As I've already previously pointed out, at least we do get Dorian finally telling us he loves us and we get to say the same in return.      Nevertheless, surely if our gay relationship is player initiated then that is something that should be supported because we have chosen to embrace it.    It is the fact that we are so committed to the Dorian romance that makes us feel a little short changed when we compare what happens with the Inquisitor with what happens with Iron Bull in the epilogue screens.

 

Still I'm hopeful that we will see a lot more of Dorian in the future and that our Inquisitor will get some sort of additional involvement then.

[Sui Causa]

Iron Bull's romance in Trespasser is basically dialogue lines. You get some I Love You's and confirmations of affections through banter lines and that kind of thing, which is very very sweet and happy. Unfortunately other than one dialogue option in the Charger's birthday cut scene, there are no other romantic scenes in the game. The final fade to black consists of Iron Bull standing at your side, and then him joining you in the war room when it's over. That's it. Bullrider's romance sliders consists of one slide saying that whenever Bull goes away on a job with the Chargers he wears his dragon tooth necklace. It's a very nice setup for people willing to fill in the blanks, but yeah. There's no wedding cut scene, no kisses, no hugs or anything animated.

Dorian's cut scenes and romance options in Trespasser felt much more fulfilling, so despite the fact that he is seperated from the Inquisitor, you're still left with a lot more content to walk away with. The difference is that according to Patrick Weekes, because Iron Bull has the option of not being around depending on your choices, so they didn't invest the resources on making him cut scenes and the like. I mean, if Iron Bull is loyal to the Qun in trespasser, when everyone gets their fun scenes at the beginning, Iron Bull barely talks to you.

When you compare to what romances like Cullen or Solas get, it kinnnnd of sucks. So I'll live vicariously through the Adoribull romance sliders and be happy with what I got.

Which is a Tevinter boyfriend poised to shake the Imperimum to it's very core and hopefully be a big character in DA4. I'm super excited for that. /o/

[Hazegurl]

I have been looking at the end slides relating to the Dorian/Iron Bull romance and I have to say it is somewhat amusing that if you looked at them without knowing the game, you'd think Tal-Vashoth Iron Bull had been the hero of the story.  It is not the one at the end of the Iron Bull sequence which is pretty much the same length as the romance slides for an Inquisitor with either character.    It is the whole fleshed out adventure at the end of the Dorian slides that seems so incongruous.   Dare I say it, Dorian sounds like the arch type damsel in distress who the hero has to rush in to save from certain death.   

 

Apparently Iron Bull never does as much for a romanced Inquisitor, in fact it would seem they don't get to see much of each other with Iron Bull just clutching nostalgically at his necklace.    Of course a romanced Inquisitor is credited with dropping into to assist his Amatus on occasion in Minrathous but it does all seem very tame by comparison with the dashing exploits of the Iron Bull.   What were they thinking of?    If it isn't bad enough to have the Inquisitor stripped of all their power and minus an arm, they are reduced to a supporting role in their own story whether they romance Dorian or not.    After all I seem to recall Dorian telling us that if he got in over his head, which being kidnapped by Venatori would suggest, he'd let us know.   Now admittedly there is no telling where the Inquisitor might be when the crisis arose but then that would be equally true of Iron Bull (unless it is implied Dorian was on his way to one of their trysts).   It just seems to me that they could have changed the details so a romanced Inquisitor became the one who galloped to the rescue, which would also have tied in rather well with the preceding screen saying we dropped in occasionally to do just that.    Having only one arm wouldn't stop my Inquisitor from saving Dorian from a bunch of Venatori; I'm surprised there are any left considering the number we slaughtered in game.

 

I was reminded in a way of the two different versions of the Dorian story in WoT2.    One fits with pretty well with the time line in game and what Dorian tells us about himself.    The other is overly elaborated to emphasise his debauched behaviour both before and after being picked up by Aleixus and doesn't really match his account at all in details or in time scale.     Then there are little details like his suddenly emerging allergies.    The Wiki now says that Dorian suffers from allergy to stripweed.   Not in my game he doesn't.   No so much as a sniffle.

 

Has anyone asked PW, as current lead writer, why they built up the end story for Dorian/Iron Bull romance in this way and gave it so much screen time in the epilogue screens, when with the Inquisitor it is "blink and you'll miss it". 

I haven't seen the slides.  Are they saying that IB actually went to the "Heart of Tevinter" like the IQ?? If so, then that is freaking ridiculous.  There is a limit to suspension of disbelief.

 

As for the writer's intent. I don't care. I'm starting to think that they never should have even bothered offering Dorian or Bull as romance options if they were so freaking meant for each other.  I understand giving the fans what they want or putting resources into something most people would see but if the cut IB/IQ scenes are real along with the description of the Bull/Dorian romance slides and new info about Dorian you can only get through the Bull/Dorian romance then I don't know what to think about that. I sort of do feel short changed.  So it seems like the only two m/m options get the short end but in different ways.   Except for when you don't romance them, then apparently you get a full dashing love story.  Wow. If Cullen was an m/m option I would have went after him then.  At least I would have gotten a wedding.  

[Sui Causa]

Bull does not enter deep into Tevinter, he stays along the outskirts and he and Dorian have a Villa where they meet up regularily.

When Dorian is attacked by the Venatori, Bull loses it and goes into Tevinter (I don't think it's suggested that it's into Minrathous) to launch a rescue operation with the Chargers. They're in and out, basically Bull saves him and then immedietly GTFO's, to the point where everyone is confused like 'Was that a qunari? what?!' and Dorian doesn't make any comment so no one has a clue.

Anyways. Inquisitor/Dorian definitely got more content than Inquisitor/Iron Bull. (At least there's kissing and serious conversation about the future of their relationship.) But Iron Bull/Dorian eclipsed both of them.

I still wouldn't have chosen Cullen though, because I'd rather have a relationship with a lot of story and plot to play around with then your traditional 'and they lived happily ever after.' I'd much rather my Inquisitor keep fighting for the man he believes in and support them as they go on to do great things.

[Hazegurl]

Ah okay, that makes it a bit more believable.  Honestly the only good I see from it is that at least Dorian isn't portrayed as a damsel in the IQ romance slide.  He comes across as more capable and I'm sick of those Venatori anyway.  But it still sucks that Dorian/Bull seem to have gotten quite a bit of content in comparison to the PC who romances them.  I don't like IB but I feel for the Bull romancers.  I thought he was a popular romance choice among the m/m romance crowd. It seems odd to base his content around the Qun choice alone.  I can think of a lot of things that could have been cut from the game over the romance.

[Gervaise]

I wouldn't swap my Dorian relationship either.     I have played through some of the others.    I did Solas first because I play elves and it seemed like a good fit but I spent much of the time wishing I gone with Dorian from the outset but of course had to settle for good friends and by the end I was really regretting opting for Solas as my first run.   I ended the game so thoroughly depressed, it was only the thought of romancing Dorian that got me playing again.

 

Cassandra is my second favourite; it was nice seeing her softer side and there was an interesting sort of dynamic between my Inquisitor, Cassandra and Dorian.   He came across as really supportive of our relationship and I dubbed us the Three Musketeers.

 

However, playing through all 3 in Trespasser has simply confirmed how much more the Dorian romance means to me than any of the others.   I really do identify so strongly with my Inquisitor, still an elf, and am so immersed in the romance.     It is a shame it had to end (gamewise), which is why I hold out hopes for the future.   

[Hazegurl]

Don't get me wrong, Dorian is still the best romance in the game.  Dorian, Cullen, Solas, and Cole are probably the only characters that made the game worth playing for me so Cullen would have certainly been my runner up romance if made available to male IQ's.

 

As for future games. idk, I hate cameos in DA games because their games always feature a new PC.  We'll most likely be treated to snippets of info about the romance moreso than a real continuation.

[nightscrawl]

I mean I'm assuming it'll only be a few years, but if it's more than that we'll more likely get more of a different look for Dorian.

I would have thought that too, but Leliana looks basically the same, the primary difference being the necessary alterations based on game engine shifting. Actually, ever since I saw Leliana from the DAI promo stuff I thought that this is what her in-game self was always meant to look like, based on the original Sacred Ashes trailer. They've never managed to get Morrigan down, but I really like her DAI look, so...
 
 

Ah okay, that makes it a bit more believable.  Honestly the only good I see from it is that at least Dorian isn't portrayed as a damsel in the IQ romance slide.  He comes across as more capable and I'm sick of those Venatori anyway.  But it still sucks that Dorian/Bull seem to have gotten quite a bit of content in comparison to the PC who romances them.  I don't like IB but I feel for the Bull romancers.  I thought he was a popular romance choice among the m/m romance crowd. It seems odd to base his content around the Qun choice alone.  I can think of a lot of things that could have been cut from the game over the romance.

I dislike the "damsel in distress" aspect of that, so I'm actually happy that it was not a part of the Dorian/Inquisitor romance slides. Not to say that there aren't dangers and the like, but putting that sort of emphasis on being rescued is somewhat irksome to me. In fact, the omission of that leads me to think, like much of the Dorian romance content, that they tried to be as generic as possible for the player's benefit. The types of options offered during the romance, and the things that are said by each, really allow the player to imagine any type of relationship they wish, and I think Dorian can go either way: he has his sentimental and serious side, he has his playful and flirty side, and he responds accordingly to Inquisitors of various types.

 

 

Regarding Dorian/Bull... Inquisitor friend and romance both get a crystal slide tailored to the specific relationship. The Dorian romance gets the additional slide I posted earlier; two total. But Dorian/Bull get the "tryst" slide, and the "rescue" slide. Am I missing something else? Even if there is an additional slide after that I don't really see how it's so much more content, that we got shafted, or anything else, particularly since the PC actually gets two fully scripted cutscenes with kisses.

 

But yes, I do agree that it sucks for the Bull romancers. And it's also odd in that since he is a bi* option I might have thought that there would have been even more people that would have romanced him, as opposed to Dorian. I'm not really sure how popular of a character in general he is though... His personality aside (hits the mark for some, but not others), the Qunari issue alone is quite polarizing. Just going by his forum thread page count (497) he's about half as popular as Dorian -- yes, I understand that's an absurd metric, but it's the only thing we can go on.

 

At any rate... I think some of you are focusing a bit too heavily on comparing all of these romances. We did get some really nice scenes, and I think this discussion is leading some of you to feel negatively toward the stuff that we did get.

 

 

To shift away a bit... At the moment I'm just dying to know what David Gaider's book plans are and if the novel he's writing (that will have a bit of Fenris) will take place in Tevinter, or at least partly there, when it will take place, and if our favorite mage will make an appearance.

 

On the one hand I would love a DAI-prequel heavily featuring Dorian because... well why not, and hopefully have answered some lingering questions that many of us have voiced in this thread over the months. Having a chance to be truly in Dorian's head would be quite interesting. This also seems like it would be "easier" to write since he wouldn't have to worry about player choices from DAI, or being intentionally vague about some things. Also, a post-DAI novel might, by necessity, have to be incorporated into the pre-DA4 timeline, just as Asunder and Masked Empire were. Since he's no longer working on the series, and thus not working toward DA4 development, it might be best to just avoid all that.

 

And I hate to say it, but I would also not like the possibility that he would make Dorian/Bull canon in a post-DAI novel, even if it seems unlikely, based on how similar things have been handled in the ancillary materials. I'm thinking he would either be as vague as possible about DAI events, like Asunder was about DA2 and [some] of DAO, or he would settle on a specific canon, like the comics. But even in the comics things like romances or the Warden were never mentioned.

 

We'll just have to wait and see.

[nightscrawl]

It is a shame it had to end (gamewise), which is why I hold out hopes for the future.

You know, I thought I was mentally prepared for the game to finally come to an end. For the romance I actually had head-canon revolving around his eventual return to Tevinter (though two years later was a surprise, I never gave them that long), but it turned out I wasn't. Even though I do want to see other Trespasser dialogue options and the like, playing it so depressed me that I think it will be quite a long time before I actually play it again. For the moment I'm focusing on the main game, and modding, and trying to put "the end" out of my mind. Of course I keep coming here and talking about it, which hardly helps.

[HurraFTP]

I dislike the "damsel in distress" aspect of that, so I'm actually happy that it was not a part of the Dorian/Inquisitor romance slides. Not to say that there aren't dangers and the like, but putting that sort of emphasis on being rescued is somewhat irksome to me. In fact, the omission of that leads me to think, like much of the Dorian romance content, that they tried to be as generic as possible for the player's benefit. The types of options offered during the romance, and the things that are said by each, really allow the player to imagine any type of relationship they wish, and I think Dorian can go either way: he has his sentimental and serious side, he has his playful and flirty side, and he responds accordingly to Inquisitors of various types.

I totally agree with this.

 

 

On another subject:

About Dorian's sudden allergy, in my last Trespasser run, I recall that he talks about that herb at some point and says they make tea with it in Tevinter and that he doesn't like the smell of it.
Unfortunately, I don't remember what triggers that little banter and I'm not sure if he used the word "allergic" but Dorian's problem with that plant is mentioned even in an Inqui/Dorian romance run.