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[Ariella]

I started again DA2 (need to finish DA:I first, of course), this time in english so I can hear Greg's voice 
 
I forgot a lot of things about that game, but I remembered Kirkwall and the Gallows. 
 
I never sided with Mages in DAI, so I wonder when Cullen gets angry? at the war table?
Oh, and I have another question: are there scenes we can't see when we romance Cullen, but where Cullen appears? (like the scene with him entering the bedroom where the IQ and Iron Bull are, in Iron Bull's romance)

When you bring the mages in after In Hushed Whispers he's pretty pissed. Whole hoard of mages in an area where the Veil is paper thin and not enough templars to deal with it if things go wrong.

Dorian also pokes him, but not as bad as he does during In your heart should you go templar, no accusations of acting like a blood mage or anything.

He's not happy from the moment it's broached, and then finding out about Alexius it goes down hill from there.

I don't know of any scenes where Cullen pops up like for Bull's romance. He does meet you after Blackwall's reveal of course. I can't think of any thing outside the plotlines except the three judgements he's involved in. The two for templars and sampson for the mages.

[duckley]

Never noticed Cullen getting angry when I sided with the Mages... weird eh? Love must be blind or deaf LOL

[Vanalia]

Well, with my second playthrough I will have a 100% angry Cullen, because I will side with mages AND have the Samson's quest 

 

Yes I had the cutscene with Cullen after the revelation, it happens even if we don't romance Blackwall. If we romance Blackwall that scene must really feel like "Oh god I should have chosen Cullen instead, much less trouble" to me 

[R2s Muse]

It seemed to me like Cullen got the position cause he shared Meredith's views of Mages and she wanted Templars with views like hers higher up in the chain of command.

I'm pretty sure I've heard someone say that, either it was Cullen or someone else. But still, I'm pretty sure I've heard it somewhere in game...

It also says this explicitly in his DA2 codex:

 

Greagoir sent Cullen to serve under Knight-Commander Meredith in Kirkwall, hoping time away would calm him, and Meredith found Cullen's view of mages similar to her own. Of her company, only Cullen had seen mages' potentially terrifying power firsthand, and she believed he could influence the other templars' views. Consequently, Cullen rose quickly through the ranks to become Knight-Captain and Meredith's second-in-command.

 

Do we know this for sure? Is this new information post-WoT2?

Because we never did get an exact birth year for him in WoT, and the last we heard of Brienne was only "around thirty," and placing him at exactly 19 in DAO still sounds like a rather literal interpretation of his blurb, which is vague enough that he could still easily be interpreted as quite older than 29 at the time of DAI.

(I know I'm stubborn but until official source comes out to say Cullen is officially and unquestionably 29 in Inquisition, I still think that's way too young and doesn't fit his larger storyline... :3)

We don't get an exact year, but the math indicates that he is about 30 in 9:41. So, I'd say the ages in WoT2 are probably good to +/- a year, which still gives you a target year. 

 

He takes his vows 10 years after something he said at age 8 = 18ish

 

The Blight happens less than a year later so in 9:30 he's 18-19. 

 

9:41 he's 29-30, consistent with Brianne's 30ish. 

 

The wiki should be corrected, tho, since it's misleading.

[riverbanks]

I'm curious then how they got the year 9:11? That's pretty specific. (...) I have no problem believing they dropped a year on us for Cullen, even if she was trying to be vague. That and the year is very specific, (...) So either someone is serving up a rather large piece of bull, considering the specifics of the whole thing, and no one has called them or it's a thing. As I said, 9:11 is pretty specific and I don't see anyone pulling that out of thin air.

 

I mean, I've just told you I have the book, but I can also repost the relevant pages so you can read them for yourself and see that there is no birth year set in stone for Cullen in it:

Spoiler

 

Page 224, the one used as citation at the wiki:

 

 

So you can see, no specific date. You can calculate a date backwards based on him being around 18 to 20 by the time he was assigned to Kinloch, but there is no hard date. Whoever wrote the very specific date of 9:11 at the wiki was just calculating backwards based on the assumption that he was exactly 18 when he went to Kinloch. They didn't pull it out of thin air, but it's not official lore either.

 

eta: removed the last part because R2 was more to the point, so. Yes. What she said.

[R2s Muse]

I mean, I've just told you I have the book, but I can also repost the relevant pages so you can read them for yourself and see that there is no birth year set in stone for Cullen in it:

Spoiler

 

Page 224, the one used as citation at the wiki:

 

 

So you can see, no specific date. You can calculate a date backwards based on him being around 18 to 20 by the time he was assigned to Kinloch, but there is no hard date. Whoever wrote the very specific date of 9:11 at the wiki was just calculating backwards based on the assumption that he was exactly 18 when he went to Kinloch. They didn't pull it out of thin air, but it's not official lore either.

 

eta: removed the last part because R2 was more to the point, so. Yes. What she said.

looking at other character pages, Cassandra has a range of years based, presumably, on her age. I don't know the protocol for vague ages on the wiki, but my feeling is that it should say either "approximately 9:11," or a range. But what range? 9:12-9:10??  That's a little silly. I'm thinking approximately is the way to go. 

[riverbanks]

Were there any scenes with Cullen you didn't like or wanted to change? For me, I didn't like how angry he got when you allied with the Mages. For someone who says they are trying to distance themselves from Kirkwall and the Templars and who says that they were wrong for distrusting Mages so much, he sure is acting like how he was in DA2, which doesn't show much growth at all.

 

If I could change it, it could be him not be as angry over it as he was originally but just debating about having Templars watch the allied Mages in case of abominations and not "It's not a matter for debate, there will be abominations among them." And not yelling at the Inquisitor what they were think "turning Mages lose with no oversight" but something like "I'm glad you foiled the Magister's trap but you really should have discussed offering an alliance with the Mages with us first," like how he is at the end of Champions of the Just.

 

I thought he wasn't nearly hard enough on the Inquisitor for siding with the rebellion and declaring the mages free, lol. Yeah, Cullen has come around to realizing it's not fair to paint all mages with the same stroke, and he has been trying to distance himself from the corrupt side of the Templars, but that doesn't mean he's now in favour of unchecked freedom for all mages everywhere. He's in favor of treating mages humanely and fairly, not just letting them go. He still believes mages need to be educated and trained in institutions like the Circle for their own safety, and that of the general civilian people, and he poses that mages should be able to interact more with society to be better understood and less feared, but at no point he agrees that all mages should just be free to do whatever they want. So when you Inquisitor sides with the rebellion and basically declares that mages don't need any oversight but their own... yeah, it makes sense that he doesn't like it. I was expecting a lot more than just a momentary hissy fit from him and then never touching the subject again, based on his beliefs.

 

To be fair, though, I was also expecting him to have a lot more to say about the Inquisitor siding with or disbanding the Templars, and on those cases too he only has a snappy line and some minor grumbling, no consistent long-reaching reaction to your decisions. This aspect of Cullen unfortunately was handwaved a lot, and it's what I personally don't like and would want changed. He should react more strongly to you completely freeing the mages or disbanding the Templars, both of those things go so against his beliefs that he shouldn't just grumble for a minute but accept it with no further issue. He also should question your motives if conscripting the mages, as that's not something he should agree to based on his experiences in Kirkwall, and question how you intend to keep the Templars in line if you ally with them, as he's had enough experience with the worse side of the Order to not want to see it go bad under his watch again. In general, he should just react more consistently, not just be a voice of dissent for one war table conversation and barely touch the subject again.

 

But alas, what's left for us is just a grouchy remark no matter who you side with, and then Cullen promptly forgets about the whole thing in favor of smooching your Quizz.

[riverbanks]

looking at other character pages, Cassandra has a range of years based, presumably, on her age. I don't know the protocol for vague ages on the wiki, but my feeling is that it should say either "approximately 9:11," or a range. But what range? 9:12-9:10??  That's a little silly. I'm thinking approximately is the way to go. 

 

Yeah, I feel that "approximately" would convey the general timeline that we do have, without establishing a fixed date that we don't.

[SgtSteel91]

I thought he wasn't nearly hard enough on the Inquisitor for siding with the rebellion and declaring the mages free, lol. Yeah, Cullen has come around to realizing it's not fair to paint all mages with the same stroke, and he has been trying to distance himself from the corrupt side of the Templars, but that doesn't mean he's now in favour of unchecked freedom for all mages everywhere. He's in favor of treating mages humanely and fairly, not just letting them go. He still believes mages need to be educated and trained in institutions like the Circle for their own safety, and that of the general civilian people, and he poses that mages should be able to interact more with society to be better understood and less feared, but at no point he agrees that all mages should just be free to do whatever they want. So when you Inquisitor sides with the rebellion and basically declares that mages don't need any oversight but their own... yeah, it makes sense that he doesn't like it. I was expecting a lot more than just a momentary hissy fit from him and then never touching the subject again, based on his beliefs.

 

To be fair, though, I was also expecting him to have a lot more to say about the Inquisitor siding with or disbanding the Templars, and on those cases too he only has a snappy line and some minor grumbling, no consistent long-reaching reaction to your decisions. This aspect of Cullen unfortunately was handwaved a lot, and it's what I personally don't like and would want changed. He should react more strongly to you completely freeing the mages or disbanding the Templars, both of those things go so against his beliefs that he shouldn't just grumble for a minute but accept it with no further issue. He also should question your motives if conscripting the mages, as that's not something he should agree to based on his experiences in Kirkwall, and question how you intend to keep the Templars in line if you ally with them, as he's had enough experience with the worse side of the Order to not want to see it go bad under his watch again. In general, he should just react more consistently, not just be a voice of dissent for one war table conversation and barely touch the subject again.

 

But alas, what's left for us is just a grouchy remark no matter who you side with, and then Cullen promptly forgets about the whole thing in favor of smooching your Quizz.

 

I see, though I think it would have helped if you could explain your reasoning more than that one conversation after the mission. Like, I allied with the Rebel/Free Mages but to me Cullen and I have different views of what that means. Cullen seems to think I just allied with and support Mages like the ones in the Witchwood while I allied with and support Mages described in Codex entry: Rebel Mages who would work with me to stop the Mages Cullen is thinking of.

[Vanalia]

I'm glad that he looks better in the game than on the first concept artworks. (on the concept arts he looks too old, like 40 or more, and too much like Anders I think).

 

We can headcannon his "angry moments", and imagine that after a passionate kiss, he adds: "but I still disagree with your choice about the mages" , haha 

[MaethorialBelle]

I could have sworn that if you side with the templars (as allies) Cullen doesn't have a bad thing to say. I seem to remember Cassandra being the one who's angry about it, saying something about them needing to answer for their crimes. Cullen just says something along the lines of "not all templars"... But I don't know, I left Haven ages ago so I could be remembering it wrong.

[riverbanks]

I could have sworn that if you side with the templars (as allies) Cullen doesn't have a bad thing to say. I seem to remember Cassandra being the one who's angry about it, saying something about them needing to answer for their crimes. Cullen just says something along the lines of "not all templars"... But I don't know, I left Haven ages ago so I could be remembering it wrong.

 

Allying with the Templars and conscripting the mages are the two scenarios where Cullen's not outright unhappy about your choice, yeah. He's a bit grouchy about the Order in general in the sparring grounds later if you went Templar-side, but at the war table he's neutral (if not even a bit defensive of them).

 

Of all the four possible choices, allying with the Templars is the only one that no one really gets too hard on your back about. Cassandra claims you (collective you) should have been harsher with them, Cullen actually defends the Templar soldiers, and Leliana complains a bit that you (single you) should have consulted them (like, when???), but no one is grumpy about the alliance itself, as someone always is under the other scenarios.

[SgtSteel91]

Allying with the Templars and conscripting the mages are the two scenarios where Cullen's not outright unhappy about your choice, yeah. He's a bit grouchy about the Order in general in the sparring grounds later if you went Templar-side, but at the war table he's neutral (if not even a bit defensive of them).

 

Of all the four possible choices, allying with the Templars is the only one that no one really gets too hard on your back about. Cassandra claims you (collective you) should have been harsher with them, Cullen actually defends the Templar soldiers, and Leliana complains a bit that you (single you) should have consulted them (like, when???), but no one is grumpy about the alliance itself, as someone always is under the other scenarios.

 

It's understandable, the entire organization is made up of Andrastians and they generally favor/sympathize with the Templars so there would generally be bias favoring giving them a second chance at being a free order compared to giving the Mages a second chance at being a free order (save for outliers like Leliana).

[riverbanks]

It's understandable, the entire organization is made up of Andrastians and they generally favor/sympathize with the Templars so there would generally be bias favoring giving them a second chance at being a free order compared to giving the Mages a second chance at being a free order (save for outliers like Leliana).

 

True, it does make sense considering the specific pool of the war table.

 

Still, I found it a little enjoyable to shush them when playing a different option with my alternate Inquisitors that didn't ally with the Templars. My dwarf was all "yes, yes Leliana, go sit in a corner and pout about it" when she whined about conscripting the mages. My qunari was going "yes, Cullen, fascinating opinion you have, I don't really care" in her head the whole time he was complaining about conscripting the Templars. For people who weren't actually there to help you make the decision when the pot was boiling, they sure have a lot of opinions about your last minute calls.

[Tishina]

True, it does make sense considering the specific pool of the war table.

 

Still, I found it a little enjoyable to shush them when playing a different option with my alternate Inquisitors that didn't ally with the Templars. My dwarf was all "yes, yes Leliana, go sit in a corner and pout about it" when she whined about conscripting the mages. My qunari was going "yes, Cullen, fascinating opinion you have, I don't really care" in her head the whole time he was complaining about conscripting the Templars. For people who weren't actually there to help you make the decision when the pot was boiling, they sure have a lot of opinions about your last minute calls.

Cassandra, at least, realizes what she was doing when you talk to her about it later and admits she thinks you did the best you could under the circumstances (she always does, and I've done everything except ally with the Templars so far, and that's only because I haven't gotten that far with the right IQ.)

 

I agree that they kind of smoothed over some things for Cullen in game that should have allowed more discussion (while I can see him developing a good relationship with a mage, it shouldn't have been that simple. Asking him if he's really OK with a mage lover over and over is not at all the conversations that were needed.) I think there were two reasons - they may have gone a bit too far in trying to make him the one male LI for female IQs who had broad appeal; and they tried to bite off more overall than they had the resources to finish. But however much we love Cullen, it isn't DA: Cullen, it's DA: Inquisition, and despite the fact I'd personally like to have them fill in several things connected to Cullen better, those problems are realistically way down the list behind things that are far worse gaps and companions with much less romance content that really, in all fairness, needed to be addressed even more. And they can only invest so much in one NPC - add something to fix that, and maybe they would have had to take away a wildly popular cutscene, for instance, to balance it?

 

Not that I don't love the game and I think in general they did a wonderful job in many ways, and the best they could with the time/money/people limits they had, but I'm part of dwarfdom where your entire playthrough is huge illogical holes (the Fade, anyone?) in the dialogues and cutscenes that make you want to pound your head on the desk (I know you've seen some of my collection of "dwarven wall of shame" screenshots.) I don't want to trivialize the problems with Cullen's storyline, but remember, when you get to enjoy that first cutscene talking to Cullen at Skyhold, you not only got the flirt, you got to actually enjoy looking at his face while he was being passionate about not letting another Haven happen, rather than the bottom of his work bench. I mean, we don't even get to admire him sometimes.  

[SgtSteel91]

 

I agree that they kind of smoothed over some things for Cullen in game that should have allowed more discussion (while I can see him developing a good relationship with a mage, it shouldn't have been that simple. Asking him if he's really OK with a mage lover over and over is not at all the conversations that were needed.) 

 

There really should have been a scene where Cullen asks if you're okay with a Templar lover, especially one who was Knight Captain/Commander of the Kirkwall Templars if you were a Circle Mage.

[skylark]

Sorry, off-topic question for my Cullenites who romanced Alistair- (I'm replaying Origins and this is the first time I'm actually romancing him. I used to be a Zevran girl. *shrug* and I wanna make sure I don't screw things up.)

 

Spoiler

Is the only way for a female-human-noble to rule as queen with Alistair, where they don't die, - to do the dark ritual? I've been trying to sift through the wiki, honest, but it's not helping... I just want a happy ending, and I hated doing that to Alistair when I wasn't romancing him. ugh

[skylark]

I agree that they kind of smoothed over some things for Cullen in game that should have allowed more discussion (while I can see him developing a good relationship with a mage, it shouldn't have been that simple. Asking him if he's really OK with a mage lover over and over is not at all the conversations that were needed.) I think there were two reasons - they may have gone a bit too far in trying to make him the one male LI for female IQs who had broad appeal; and they tried to bite off more overall than they had the resources to finish. But however much we love Cullen, it isn't DA: Cullen, it's DA: Inquisition, and despite the fact I'd personally like to have them fill in several things connected to Cullen better, those problems are realistically way down the list behind things that are far worse gaps and companions with much less romance content that really, in all fairness, needed to be addressed even more. And they can only invest so much in one NPC - add something to fix that, and maybe they would have had to take away a wildly popular cutscene, for instance, to balance it?

Do you think it would've been better if they just gated him having a romance with a mage? I know everyone hates that sort of thing, but I've never played a mage so I'm genuinely curious. Would Cullen refusing a mage relationship have been more believable/acceptable then him just repeatedly asking if it was okay? I know you're saying you think the relationship is possible, but I'm referencing specifically to what we were given in the game versus not having it. _{god I hope that didn't sound belligerent... T^T}

[Ariella]

I mean, I've just told you I have the book, but I can also repost the relevant pages so you can read them for yourself and see that there is no birth year set in stone for Cullen in it:

Spoiler

Page 224, the one used as citation at the wiki:

So you can see, no specific date. You can calculate a date backwards based on him being around 18 to 20 by the time he was assigned to Kinloch, but there is no hard date. Whoever wrote the very specific date of 9:11 at the wiki was just calculating backwards based on the assumption that he was exactly 18 when he went to Kinloch. They didn't pull it out of thin air, but it's not official lore either.

eta: removed the last part because R2 was more to the point, so. Yes. What she said.

And as I said, I wondered how someone was getting that specific of a number without pulling it out of their tuchas. A valid point, And R2 to the rescue.

Wasn't trying to poke you, riverbanks, but it seemed damned weird that it wasn't like Hawke's estimated age since unlike some wiki I've seen DA community tends to be pretty damn good about being accurate, so I trust the information.

But even with it being +/- a year, my original point remains about Hawke being older and thus amusing as hell.

As for the whole life experience thing, I base a lot of my assertions on research done for a different project. Nothing DA related, but I find it a decent real world analog for templars. Very specifically a book called 'What Cops Know' by Connie Fletcher. It's an oral history of police officers who served in Chicago's Detective Area Six in the 70s and 80s.

To make a long story less long, the cliche about police getting a somewhat... jaded view of the world and their fellow man isn't. Some of the stuff here is nightmare fodder. And while it isn't one to one, when Cullen talks about lyrium's effect on the memory, and that the older templars tend to welcome that forgetfulness because of things like past falled Harrowings. I can't imagine developing emotional scar tissue fast or go nuts.

Cullen doesn't seem to have that in the mage origin. He's got a rather romantic view of what he's doing, which is why what happens next hits like it does. And while this next bit is pure headcanon, I have no trouble believing that of all the surviving templars in the tower, Uldred torture Cullen for that exact reason. Well that and there are mountains that will move sooner than Cullen when he puts his mind to it.

Speaking of canon, where do those pre da 2 shorts fit?

[MaethorialBelle]

Sorry, off-topic question for my Cullenites who romanced Alistair- (I'm replaying Origins and this is the first time I'm actually romancing him. I used to be a Zevran girl. *shrug* and I wanna make sure I don't screw things up.)

 

Spoiler

Is the only way for a female-human-noble to rule as queen with Alistair, where they don't die, - to do the dark ritual? I've been trying to sift through the wiki, honest, but it's not helping... I just want a happy ending, and I hated doing that to Alistair when I wasn't romancing him. ugh

Yes, unfortunately. Or fotunately I guess, if you enjoy being stabbed in the heart that added drama.

[R2s Muse]

 

I like to imagine there's an entire region of the multiverse filled with the bad original concepts like that... so the resident version of Back to the Future starred Dan Ackroyd and Eric Stoltz and instead of a De Lorean, had the time machine in a fridge that would get struck by a nuclear blast. Still, at least that movie showed it was such a stupid idea, it would never get dusted off and reused for another Spielburg-produced project in 20+ years.

 

 I don't want to trivialize the problems with Cullen's storyline, but remember, when you get to enjoy that first cutscene talking to Cullen at Skyhold, you not only got the flirt, you got to actually enjoy looking at his face while he was being passionate about not letting another Haven happen, rather than the bottom of his work bench. I mean, we don't even get to admire him sometimes.

[riverbanks]

Sorry, off-topic question for my Cullenites who romanced Alistair- (I'm replaying Origins and this is the first time I'm actually romancing him. I used to be a Zevran girl. *shrug* and I wanna make sure I don't screw things up.)

 

Spoiler

Is the only way for a female-human-noble to rule as queen with Alistair, where they don't die, - to do the dark ritual? I've been trying to sift through the wiki, honest, but it's not helping... I just want a happy ending, and I hated doing that to Alistair when I wasn't romancing him. ugh

 

Yeah, the only way to get the queen ending is by forcing Alistair to do the Ritual himself. No other way around it.

 

*grumbles stuff about what horrible writing this game had for female characters, having to force your partner/friend/ally to have borderline non-consensual sex with someone he hates, despite his very clear protests, just so you can get a less miserable ending, when male characters could have all their cake and eat it too grumble grumble grumble*

[R2s Muse]

Do you think it would've been better if they just gated him having a romance with a mage? I know everyone hates that sort of thing, but I've never played a mage so I'm genuinely curious. Would Cullen refusing a mage relationship have been more believable/acceptable then him just repeatedly asking if it was okay? I know you're saying you think the relationship is possible, but I'm referencing specifically to what we were given in the game versus not having it. _{god I hope that didn't sound belligerent... T^T}

This is sort of a touchy subject, so I caution everyone to be diplomatic. 

 

I think Tish's point is that a relationship with a mage is doable, but that the questions should have been different. Instead of beating the deadhorse of "are you ok I'm a mage?" it should have delved into why he might not be ok with her being a mage. (edit: Or rather, what it might mean that they might have been on opposites sides of a mage-templar conflict or a billion other things. the "are you ok I'm a mage?" keeps suggesting that he shouldn't be, which makes the issue a bit too black and white for my own tastes.)

 

Personally, I don't see any reason why he couldn't be with one, so I think it would be odd for them to gate that off. TBH, given the dev's assumptions about Cullen fans all being Amell shippers, I would almost expect the opposite. That you could only romance him with a mage.

 

Speaking of canon, where do those pre da 2 shorts fit?

You mean, are they canon? Or where do they fit chronologically? They are canon, and happen before DA2 begins.

[Ariella]

You mean, are they canon? Or where do they fit chronologically? They are canon, and happen before DA2 begins.

That they're considered canon and had not been retconned out, especially since I found Anders' story... problematic with the claim the Wardens allowed the templar to set a watch on him.

I figure somebody is lying his tongue black, but I don't see the Warden Commander (either the HoF or the Orlesian WC) accepting what is implied as a sudden influx of templar recruits. So there's an odd disconnect. Though I like the idea that Anders and his escapes have reached vendetta level on the templars part.

[riverbanks]

Do you think it would've been better if they just gated him having a romance with a mage? I know everyone hates that sort of thing, but I've never played a mage so I'm genuinely curious. Would Cullen refusing a mage relationship have been more believable/acceptable then him just repeatedly asking if it was okay? I know you're saying you think the relationship is possible, but I'm referencing specifically to what we were given in the game versus not having it. _{god I hope that didn't sound belligerent... T^T}

 

Speaking only for myself as someone known to dislike Cullen/mage romances in general and Inquisition's in particular - I still don't think gating him against mages is the answer. The mage romance should have just been written better, not written out.

 

But then we get into issues of how to give this particular romance the depth it should have without making it unfairly balanced against non-mage players? As it is, the mage romance already has slightly more meat than the non-mage one (even if that "meat" is that problematic constant mutual insecurity/reassurance that doesn't address the actual underlying issues between them), so making that particular branch of romance further developed would need the non-mage romance further developed in the other direction too, to keep things even. And hey, what I wouldn't give for more meat in the relationship between a proud noble and a commoner who notably disdains nobles! It really needed to be addressed further than that one line too (that, sigh, mages also get, for some reason).

 

But that goes into what Tish said about it not being DA:Cullen, unfortunately. As much as we want more writing! All the writing! for Cullen, the rest of the game needs that word count too. What I think would have helped all romances would have been... less romances overall. I know this is not a very popular opinion because no one wants to think of their fave not being romanceable, but we just have to look at the differences between DAO/DA2 romances (Sebastian notwithstanding  ) and DAI romances - the less love interest options we had, the better written and more in-depth their romance paths were. I think that shaving off a few romances from Inquisition (while still offering choices for everyone - really the DA2 model was ideal) might have made for meatier, better written romances overall, without having to stretch the word count everywhere until each LI barely gets a bucketfull.