Yeah, I can absolutely see Samson in the role of cleaned up Commander. He was on a pretty good path where I left him in my DA2 playthrough. I find it harder to buy Cullen letting himself be corrupted than Samson redeeming himself.
Totally agree that Cullen as we saw him in DA2 would never have voluntarily collaborated with Corypheus or started doing red lyrium on purpose, but there are plenty of ways the latter can mess people up / be forced on people through no fault of their own (and for the paranoia case I was referring more to a scenario where the DA:O epilogues had turned out to be canon).
I helped Samson out as much as I could, and I haven't replayed since the summer so I could be off, but in The Last Straw (EDIT: Best Served Cold) he didn't come off to me like a guy who was committed to make a fresh start, more like someone who was out of ideas and jumped at a possible opportunity to get a regular paycheck again. With the proper handwaving I could buy "got his lyrium dependence under control, started taking care of his appearance, and resumed working a regular job" but "earned the respect of the rest of Kirkwall's templars to the extent that he and not some unseen Knight-Lieutenant or Knight-Captain wound up in charge after Meredith died" would be tough to pull off.
EDIT:
I believe it's been said on the record that Cullen was not originally planned to be a "carry over" character but for whatever reason (possibly popularity) he showed up in DA2. Now from DA2 to DAI, I don't know if they always planned to bring him over and continue his development (not that I feel he's developed much in DAI but that's another topic and one I got snapped at for last time). Now I have a feeling the "advisors" were a later addition; Josephine for one seems like a very "last minute" character. I bet initially Cassandra and Leliana were going to be the main inquisition characters, oh, and Morrigan of course was always intended to play a big part (not that she did in DAI... she just sort of shows up then gets some stuff wrong about the mirrors lol).
Their role seemed pretty set by the survey leak, though, and wouldn't most of the DA:I writing team have been on the job for some time by then? I guess BB couldn't have come over until Citadel writing was done, but someone else could have started his writing.
Yeah it seemed so unplanned and his name was just randomly thrown in there.
As for Cullen, I wonder myself if his popularity is what made him a big part of DAI too like previously mentioned. I'm guessing many players chose females mages and saw a softer side to this adorably shy Templar who hadn't gone mad yet from the attacks. I know he was endeared to me after my playthrough as a mage.
This was the case for me too, but I think a solid majority of the thread actually played a different Warden and became interested in him in DA2!
Retour en haut
Sadly I never got past the first day on that. Shame, too; I hear it's fun and reveals fun stuff about the world and characters.
Seriously, "This love scene is like drinking tepid water"; I have never wanted to b!tch slap someone before but I came close that day. Luckily s/he was behind a screen.
