138820 réponses à ce sujet

[CuriousArtemis]

So yeah, he was bait to the girls out there who still carried a torch for him.  

 

Honestly that's the problem though? The reason people (like me) liked him was because he was a complex and interesting character; he was a character of fascinating and REAL contradictions: an honorable, moral man, a good man at heart, but a man who had made questionably moral choices in the past and who stubbornly held to his beliefs about mages for a long, long time. This could've been explored to its fullest extent in DAI but instead they essentially gave us a pretty ken doll whom we help kick a LIFELONG addiction in a couple months. And that's pretty much his entire story in DAI. 

[VivainaDX]

Oh, I don't think he was just a pretty Ken doll, there were subtle indicators to that. I don't think his distrust of mages was there until after what happened with Uldred.

 

Up until then he was young a faithfully following what he was being told to do, but he had doubts about the chantry's attitude with the mages and their treatment. The upheaval in the circle terrified him, so in DA2 he glommed onto Merideth's leadership, it was fear that wouldn't allow him to find the holes in her ways because it would bring back old memories and it sounds like Meredith kept a lot from him and used his fear as a smoke screen, she knew if she presented herself as caring and confident, he wasn't going to ask questions.

 

I don't see how his being duped can be questionably immoral, I'd say it was more desperate naivety. He desperately needed to believe there was concrete way to prevent another circle incident from happening again and he was basically conned into thinking Meredith had the answer so he blindly followed her. He didn't start questioning her until began talking to Hawk and started seeing the differences Hawk was making by taking actions against Meredith's men and exposing some of their activities, activities Cullen would've acted against IF the experience with Uldred hadn't clouded his judgement and IF Meredith hadn't gone to great lengths to cover up what her men were doing.

 

Putting Cullen as second in command would've served 3 purposes- 1) It gave Cullen the impression she respected him and would confide in him on all issues so he wouldn't doubt her intentions.2) He was the perfect 'good guy' to present to the public. He was kind, trustworthy and nice to look at, anyone hearing gossip about the Templars wouldn't believe it because dear sweet Cullen wouldn't allow it to happen. If Cullen brushed off any complaints then they must be false information. And 3) It made him unapproachable to the other Templars who knew better but didn't trust that he wouldn't go directly Meredith if they spoke at against her to him.

 

The whole situation in Kirkwall was a vicious circle that produced MORE blood mages than it prevented. It gave Orofino reason not to report suspected blood mages, the blood mages would convert other mages, a handful of blood mages would be exposed and made tranquil, this would validate Meredith's claims that all mages needed more scrutiny and would come down harder on all the mages, so Orofino would be more focused on protecting the mages than reporting blood mages and the blood mages were able to slowly infiltrate the Templars ranks.

 

Unfortunately Cullen was so caught up in the 'discovery' of another blood mage, didn't recognize the cycle and only thought Meredith's methods were effective and she was the only thing standing between the city and the abominations. If the red lyrium hadn't driven her to recklessly try to take full control of the city in one fell swoop, I doubt Cullen would have ever caught on to her slow, methodical take over of Kirkwall, but as things went, the best thing to happen for Cullen in that situation was that her aggressive take over woke him up to her tyrannical, power hungry ways and her call to execute Hawk, (the only person who was DOING something to effectively aid the city as a whole instead of just warring against the mages), caused him to balk at her orders, and allowed him to start thinking for himself. 

 

I thought there was a lot of symbolism and inferences in Cullen's DAI story, it was subtle and didn't need to be long and drawn out. It's Dragon's Age, not Cullen's story. The game had a lot of information to get across and Cullen's part had a lot of substance to it, as it was. (mind you, omitting Blackwall from the game and expanding on Cullen and the other characters would've made the game better. IMO)

 

I'm going to stop here, I'm sitting on a kitchen chair and it's really doing a number on my back. If it's ok, I'd like to expand on my Cullen character analysis later, but right now I have to take a break.  

[Hellion Rex]

That's fair analysis, from both you and Artemis. I think it comes down to a matter of preference, really.

That said, while Cullen is cool and all for doing it, I do think that lyrium addiction (which is something we were led to believe that no one has ever broken) was done within the span of a year. While I do credit his strong willpower and having Cassandra being his coach, it ended up feeling as a bit more of a hand wave than a character's triumph. I was left with a pretty singular thought: "Wait, that's it?"

Side note: did he stop after Kirkwall went boom? Or was it only once we got to Haven? Or do we even have a timeline for when he stopped using it?

Further though, I'm hard pressed to see what else they really could have done that wouldn't have overshadowed both the other two advisors as well as the companions. Like others have said, it's not Cullen's story. It's ours.

[Tishina]

Oh, the issue a lot of people have is there's not a lot of continuity between DA2 Cullen and DAI. DAO to DA2 Cullen makes sense. DA2 Cullen to DAI Cullen, too much of his changing went on offscreen for a lot of people. I still like his romance a lot, but even I feel like he's a bit disconnected from the Cullen of the first two games (and I'm familiar with DA2 from clips and not particularly attached.) It's true they could only do so much with one character in DAI, but I'd have swapped a little of the random conversation stuff with him for a bit more explaining or showing him changing.

[SamaraDraven]

I too would have preferred Blackwall being swapped out for expansions on other characters. I just don't like the guy. He seemed cowardly and preachy to the point of ringing false to me, even before his duplicity comes to light. I get what he intended but overall, he just didn't work for me.

[wiccame]

That's fair analysis, from both you and Artemis. I think it comes down to a matter of preference, really.

That said, while Cullen is cool and all for doing it, I do think that lyrium addiction (which is something we were led to believe that no one has ever broken) was done within the span of a year. While I do credit his strong willpower and having Cassandra being his coach, it ended up feeling as a bit more of a hand wave than a character's triumph. I was left with a pretty singular thought: "Wait, that's it?"

Side note: did he stop after Kirkwall went boom? Or was it only once we got to Haven? Or do we even have a timeline for when he stopped using it?

Further though, I'm hard pressed to see what else they really could have done that wouldn't have overshadowed both the other two advisors as well as the companions. Like others have said, it's not Cullen's story. It's ours.

He says he stopped when he joined the Inquisition so a few months before arriving at Skyhold.

 

I too was really miffed they washed over the whole issue he had with mages and we met him after he sorted that out. I would have much preferred that to the lyrium story. I think though they decided to go with that because 'only mages would have more of a connection with that story', they needed to make his story more general for all classes.  Seriously though I think he should have had a bit more of a connection with mages with him being an ex templar but eh...

As it ended up he was too watered down and lost most of his character along with it.

[R2s Muse]

Oh, the issue a lot of people have is there's not a lot of continuity between DA2 Cullen and DAI. DAO to DA2 Cullen makes sense. DA2 Cullen to DAI Cullen, too much of his changing went on offscreen for a lot of people. I still like his romance a lot, but even I feel like he's a bit disconnected from the Cullen of the first two games (and I'm familiar with DA2 from clips and not particularly attached.) It's true they could only do so much with one character in DAI, but I'd have swapped a little of the random conversation stuff with him for a bit more explaining or showing him changing.

Pretty much this. No one is suggesting that Cullen was a bad person, but DA:I pretty much brushed all his nuance from DA2 under the table. He was in a difficult, conflicted position in DA2 and had to come to terms with the fact that he's been supporting a leader who no longer follows the ideals he has come to believe the Templar Order stands for. He says this explicitly on multiple occasions, so I think we can all just take that as a given. 

 

He does, however, end DA2 as someone who still believes in the Order and what the Circles are trying to do. He also still has trust issues with mages and their ability to control their magic, and he also evinces this a bit in DA:I. It is, however, significantly downplayed in DA:I, and instead of delving into the gray areas of how you can be a good person and still support order and limitations for mages... he  is turned into the anti-lyrium, anti-templar poster child. All of a sudden. 

 

As I've said a billion times before, and apparently, one more time, "Can you see why I wanted nothing to do with that life?" No, Cullen, actually no, without seeing the past three years, we don't. You didn't quit the templars after everything with Meredith. Instead, you took on the thankless job, for three years, of leading the Kirkwall templars, putting the city back together, protecting the mages, doing the right thing, even without the title of knight-commander in some world states. But apparently that, or the breaking of the Nevarran Accord, or the red lyrium mojo in Kirkwall that no one knows about, changed your mind.

 

Or is it just... the lyrium all of the sudden? sigh. Because folks new to Dragon Age and to his story will relate more easily to a simplified templars-are-evil addiction recovery story. 

 

/end Tuesday's rant

[Hellion Rex]

I too would have preferred Blackwall being swapped out for expansions on other characters. I just don't like the guy. He seemed cowardly and preachy to the point of ringing false to me, even before his duplicity comes to light. I get what he intended but overall, he just didn't work for me.

To be honest, I think having nine companions was a tad bit too much this time around. I'd have cut back maybe two (?) of them to really focus on expanding some others. All of them were really hit or miss for me. The ones I loved, I really really loved. The ones I wasn't a fan of, I really really was irritated by.

[R2s Muse]

To be honest, I think having nine companions was a tad bit too much this time around. I'd have cut back maybe two (?) of them to really focus on expanding some others. All of them were really hit or miss for me. The ones I loved, I really really loved. The ones I wasn't a fan of, I really really was irritated by.

Me, too. Altho, once we get into this conversation, everyone has a different character they would have cut. But it is the first game that I've considered not even recruiting someone. :shrug: 

 

Of course, once we start talking about time saving measures and last minute additions that could have been time/zots spent elsewhere, I still feel like I should hide and protect my precious Cullenmance and Solasmance. The irony is not lost on me.

[SamaraDraven]

To be honest, I think having nine companions was a tad bit too much this time around. I'd have cut back maybe two (?) of them to really focus on expanding some others. All of them were really hit or miss for me. The ones I loved, I really really loved. The ones I wasn't a fan of, I really really was irritated by.

Yeah. At the very least, I think they could have made a couple of them lockouts so you can't recruit all of them at once, depending on how you play the game. Cole is a good example. As much as I like him, he could have been unavailable if you chose In Hushed Whispers over Champions of the Just. I know you can tell Sera she isn't a good fit for the Inquisition, but why do that? I think it's fine if some just aren't recruitable based on choices you make.

[SamaraDraven]

Somehow that posted twice and I can't figure out how to delete in mobile right this moment.

[Hellion Rex]

Yeah. At the very least, I think they could have made a couple of them lockouts so you can't recruit all of them at once, depending on how you play the game. Cole is a good example. As much as I like him, he could have been unavailable if you chose In Hushed Whispers over Champions of the Just. I know you can tell Sera she isn't a good fit for the Inquisition, but why do that? I think it's fine if some just aren't recruitable based on choices you make.

NO. NO LOCKOUTS ON MY SPIRIT CHILD. 

 

Lol, my canon choice though is to do Champions of Just (I really preferred the characters and writing of it to In Hushed Whispers, and Under Her Skin was fantastic) so I'd be ok if the tradeoff was no Dorian. I like Dorian a lot, but he isn't a make or break character to me, personally. Not like Bull, Cassandra, or Cole. They are my favorite party, bar none. 

 

And I agree on Sera.

[Hellion Rex]

Me, too. Altho, once we get into this conversation, everyone has a different character they would have cut. But it is the first game that I've considered not even recruiting someone. :shrug: 

 

Of course, once we start talking about time saving measures and last minute additions that could have been time/zots spent elsewhere, I still feel like I should hide and protect my precious Cullenmance and Solasmance. The irony is not lost on me.

Oh yeah, we can play the woulda-shoulda-coulda game all day long lol.

[CuriousArtemis]

Further though, I'm hard pressed to see what else they really could have done that wouldn't have overshadowed both the other two advisors as well as the companions. Like others have said, it's not Cullen's story. It's ours.

 

But well they somehow managed to make us see what a fascinating complex character Cullen was in DA2, and the guy was barely in it. That was just great writing, and included a shorter, much tighter narrative, a smaller cast of characters, and a more linear story. 

 

And it wouldn't have been too hard to work some of that into the story. Take, for example, when the advisors are arguing over whether to approach the mages or the templars. Cullen finally says something like "But you can't trust mages! I of all people know that!" He looks perhaps a little embarrassed after the outburst; Leliana or perhaps the inquisitor has the option to tell him that's uncalled for/not true (or even agree with him). Later on, during one of the little chats in the courtyard, the inquisitor brings it up. Cullen rubs the back of his neck, looks annoyed/embarrassed, and apologizes for what he said. He gives little hints of what happened to him in the past, and admits he still has trouble with magic and the people who are cursed with it. Etc. etc.

 

I too would have preferred Blackwall being swapped out for expansions on other characters. I just don't like the guy. He seemed cowardly and preachy to the point of ringing false to me, even before his duplicity comes to light. I get what he intended but overall, he just didn't work for me.

 

I like Blackwall though? He was just... boring. Like a great number of the companions/advisors. His story was rail thin. If Blackwall had been the only other warrior besides Cassandra, his story would have shone through more prominently. The same could be said for Bull, but Bull is actually less relevant to the story than Blackwall. (Though Blackwall actually NOT being a Warden makes him virtually pointless in the grand scheme of things. He contributed exactly nothing to the story. But how many characters did? How many actually did things that affected the outcome? Solas, Cassandra, Dorian, Cole... the latter two simply on account of their recruitment missions (and I happen to like both actually! I particularly like the music throughout In Hushed Whispers.) Vivienne is amazing, but WHAT DOES SHE LITERALLY DO IN THE GAME?? Same with Blackwall, Sera, and Josephine.) 

 

The game was just a bloody mess. TWO. MANY. CHARACTERS. Sprawling, lengthy storyline trudging through map after map after map. Several of those beautiful maps should've been removed, and several of the companions/characters should've been consolidated into one character. I honestly cannot imagine the conversation that led to the inclusion of a character like Blackwall. "I have an idea for a guy who pretends to be a warden!" "Cool, so what happens??" "Well, that's pretty much it. He pretends to be a warden and you find out he was lying. Then you can either kill him, make him a warden, or keep him." 

 

Someone like Blackwall or even Sera serves zero purpose in the storyline. They not only aren't actively involved in the story, but they don't shed light on anything, they don't add depth to the world, etc. A character like Fenris you could say adds absolutely nothing to the storyline; you can not recruit him and it changes nothing. But in fact he not only introduces us to the nation of Tevinter (more than the "blink and you miss it" alienage sub-plot in DAO); he also acts as the opposing voice to Anders's pro-mage viewpoint. Blackwall has no viewpoint and reveals/illustrates nothing. Sera, to some very tiny extent, brings the viewpoint of "the little people" (we know this because she uses that phrase approximately 58 times), but we never see any of these "little people," we never get anything from them, they never affect our story in any way, and so on. And it freaking kills me to say this because I like both these characters and feel they could have been so much more. 

 

I could make similar arguments for Vivienne and Josephine, too.

 

To be honest, I think having nine companions was a tad bit too much this time around. I'd have cut back maybe two (?) of them to really focus on expanding some others. All of them were really hit or miss for me. The ones I loved, I really really loved. The ones I wasn't a fan of, I really really was irritated by.

 

Yep. Number one, I'd have nixed the advisors. The War Table and its stupid little text missions were a massive miss for me. Cassandra and Leliana serve as excellent advisors and could have also been companions; ditto for Cullen. Keep Dorian, Solas, and Cole. Varric was extremely unnecessary; he was literally only there so that he could introduce us to Hawke. And let me just say, unless the next game reveals otherwise, Hawke's part in the story was ALSO utterly pointless. It was just a "YAY!!!" moment for the fans. We did not literally need him or her there.

 

So that would leave us with two of each class: Warriors (Cullen, Cass), Rogues (Leliana, Cole), and Mages (Solas, Dorian). And it would allow them to expand on characters like Cole and Dorian, who were pretty meh. Flesh out what Cass, Cullen, and Leliana have been doing and how they got to where they are today. Solas is already pretty much perfect as a character. Homerun on that one.

 

Lol, my canon choice though is to do Champions of Just (I really preferred the characters and writing of it to In Hushed Whispers, and Under Her Skin was fantastic) so I'd be ok if the tradeoff was no Dorian. I like Dorian a lot, but he isn't a make or break character to me, personally. Not like Bull, Cassandra, or Cole. They are my favorite party, bar none. 

 

It's hard to be objective and try to figure out who to ditch, I know. I agree Bull's a fun guy to have in a party. And honestly so is Dorian. But get rid of Bull, and Dorian's story can be expanded upon more. Or vice versa, but then you'd have to really work to make Bull's story matter period, which it does not in the base game. Though only time will tell... it's possible that, like Fenris, he's giving us a little premature glimpse into a foreign culture we haven't yet explored.

 

But damn it, I wanted that with Dorian. Instead we got "I'm rich and so slaves are totally okay." Okay thanks pal.

[DarkAmaranth1966]

I would ditch Sera, usually don't even recruit her anyway - she comes off as to stupid, narrow minded and, short sighted for me. Personal opinion, she is well written for what she is, just useless to the story and, no better on a team than Varric so, why have two archers? If I had to have two archers, better Leliana.

 

Blackwall I would either ditch or make honest - either he's a warden or, hes a prisoner we can rescue, not both. He isn't very talkative, won't share anything about himself and, his personal quest is a charade, just more of his warden lie at work.

 

Cassandra would have been better as an advisor though she does make a good tank. I'd replace her on the team with Cullen, he should have Templar abilities, not her, seekers should be different.

 

Iron Bull is fun in a party and, with the DLC does have a more important place now.

 

Vivienne is a snob but at least she is clear about her views and opinions and, honest about it.

 

Varric is good for his quips and, pretty useful late game.

 

Dorian is only useful to the story if you side with mages which i usually do but, if going Templar, he doesn't add anything significant.

 

Solas is key to the story and cool if you are pro free mage, pro elf but if you go the opposite, he can be an insightful annoyance.

 

Cole is interesting, I liken him to a savant in his speech and mannerisms, things he does and, he does add insights in his own way. I like him.

[The Elder King]

To be honest, I think having nine companions was a tad bit too much this time around. I'd have cut back maybe two (?) of them to really focus on expanding some others. All of them were really hit or miss for me. The ones I loved, I really really loved. The ones I wasn't a fan of, I really really was irritated by.

i was actually fine with all companions ,and fine them interesting in a different way, but I do agree that the cast of 9 companions plus 3 advisors was way too huge. It's fine to have characters in your 'base' that you can interact with, but when they're enough big as the advisors, plus you get that many companions, the number will obviously cut the writing content for each of them. The same thing happened in ME2, where compared with ME you have perhaps more dialogue overall (and a lot of companion dialogues in ME was just codex fill in), but the number of them affected the number of dialogues for each of them.

 

On Cullen though, I don't have a problem with his stance being more moderate or different from DA2. The events of Kirkwall did change his stance before the start of the Inquisition, so going on to act in a more anti-mage way would've been redundant. I think the purpose of all the events of DA2, as well his doubts towards the end for Meredith was mean to make his stance change a bit, even if not in turning pro-mage. The major problem, I believe, is that I think dialogues with him where we'd know his background and the change of perspective were needed. But with the number of companions and advisors in the game I feared we'd have got not enough dialogues with them.

 

If in MEA important npcs on the level of the advisors return, I hope they don't put as many companions as we have in Inquisition.

[R2s Muse]

You guys all make good points about how the stay-at-home companions essentially functioned like advisors anyway. You can't take most of them with you. Most players end up with a core team they usually use for a given PC, so most of them are grounded for the duration. It then felt a bit like a chore after a while doing the lap around Skyhold to try to talk to ALL of them and make sure I didn't miss anything they might say each time I came home. 

 

There were characters I loved that I never took anywhere, because I didn't need to. 

 

Now the upside to having so many companions is that each of us, the players, got a chance to form unique attachments and avoid the characters we didn't like. So yay choice? But again, this game went with broad instead of deep in so many ways, and this is one of them. My kingdom for a proper third act and boss battle to match act one! Out damn eighteenth desert area!

 

I try to take this all as hope for DA4. DA:I accomplished all BW's core goals: adapt frostbite into a massive, beautiful gaming experience. The devs have acknowledged some of these same weakness, so I have confidence that DA4, now that the frostbite platform is built, will be kick ass. And, I think JoH is already a positive sign for the future.

[R2s Muse]

On Cullen though, I don't have a problem with his stance being more moderate or different from DA2. The events of Kirkwall did change his stance before the start of the Inquisition, so going on to act in a more anti-mage way would've been redundant. I think the purpose of all the events of DA2, as well his doubts towards the end for Meredith was mean to make his stance change a bit, even if not in turning pro-mage. The major problem, I believe, is that I think dialogues with him where we'd know his background and the change of perspective were needed. But with the number of companions and advisors in the game I feared we'd have got not enough dialogues with them.

I agree that leaving his viewpoint static would have been boring. But, this character already had his issues galore to give his dialogue color. They touched a little on his remorse and atonement for not seeing through Meredith sooner, etc. I find all that plausible. I would have preferred that his atonement for those prejudices be his central issue then, and not the "lyrium bad" storyline we got. It could have been very interesting as part of a redemption arc, and like curiousartemis said, could be explored within the word budget he had. In DA2 he also showed evolution over the game, and he had almost no lines in comparison. 

 

Now, I can see why they went this way. We heard early on that the devs planned to tell a lyrium story, and I guess the one templar on your team gets to be the guy.  It's also a far easier story to tell and to assign good guys and bad guys, instead of having the roots and nuance of his storyline lie not in just one but two previous games. Plus, we all know there are other reasons his more problematic character traits were summarily changed off camera. Ahem. 

 

And, on that romanticizing note...

 

[wiccame]

I agree that leaving his viewpoint static would have been boring. But, this character already had his issues galore to give his dialogue color. They touched a little on his remorse and atonement for not seeing through Meredith sooner, etc. I find all that plausible. I would have preferred that his atonement for those prejudices be his central issue then, and not the "lyrium bad" storyline we got. It could have been very interesting, and like curiousartemis said, could be explored within the word budget he had. In DA2 he also showed evolution over the game, and he had almost no lines in comparison. 

 

Now I can see why they went this way. We heard early on that the devs planned to tell a lyrium story, and I guess the one templar on your team gets to be the guy.  It's also a far easier story to tell and to assign good guys and bad guys, instead of having the roots and nuance of his storyline lie not in just one but two previous games. Plus, we all know there are other reasons his more problematic character traits were summarily changed off camera. Ahem. 

 

And, on that romanticizing note...

 

His little bits of remorse thrown into lines didn't really make me feel they were trying to 'not forget about his past troubles' more like they were trying to make him apologise to all those that hated that part of him. Along with random comments from people that praised him for being a good leader. He's a commander of an army, of course he is good at leading or he wouldn't be there. I think they tried too hard to apologise for him, that still makes me angry.

[R2s Muse]

His little bits of remorse thrown into lines didn't really make me feel they were trying to 'not forget about his past troubles' more like they were trying to make him apologise to all those that hated that part of him. Along with random comments from people that praised him for being a good leader. He's a commander of an army, of course he is good at leading or he wouldn't be there. I think they tried too hard to apologise for him, that still makes me angry.

And then there's that.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard "Even Cullen hates da2!Cullen."

[The Elder King]

I don't think they made those lines for Cullen to 'apologize' for his behaviour in DA2. I don't think they really care about people complaining about that.

Also, I think it was a reasonable development that he'd feel guilty for some of his actions or stances in the past, without going to become full pro-mage. 

[wiccame]

I don't know....it sure feels like it. Esp when you have Sky Watcher obviously pointing out that he trains his people well, Bull comments on it too. Both random comments out of thin air that really was not necessary and his comment on not seeing through Meredith sooner mirrored a lot of arguments on why people hated that he acted too late in DA2 and he should have disobeyed her. 

It just felt they were trying too hard to justify his inclusion to those that did not think he should have been or that they did not want him in.

[DarkAmaranth1966]

I have no problem with DA2 Cullen, he was being a good soldier and it took a lot to override both his training and what we would call PTSD with anxiety today to frag Meredith. There were lines where he voiced concern, he never stopped thinking but, at that point he had his own negative view of mages in general and, Meredith was his Commander, he was trained to both trust and obey her.

 

I take his DAI apologies more as apologies to himself than anyone else and, when you Romance him it's also him trying to be honest about his issues. Thedas doesn't call it PTSD, anxiety or anything, he has to try to explain it the best he can within the constraints of his time and place. "Sometimes I feel as if I'm back there." can be taken as Cullen having flashbacks but, in Thedas they have no word "flashback" so he's trying to say it the only way he knows how.

[Hellion Rex]

I'll disagree on the War Table bit, Artemis. It was interesting as it gave us more info and expanded upon what the Inquisition was doing in other places on the continent. It also was done in a way that was probably cost effective for the company, since it wasn't narrated nor animated.

I will also disagree on Vivienne being nixed. She had a strong place being in Inquisition, as she represented those mages within the Circles. She was really important because of how this whole game started with the Mage Templar War, which she was a figure in.

[Hellion Rex]

I'd definitely have cut Sera and Blackwall, if there were any companions to be on the chopping block.

And it might surprise you, but I wouldn't cut Solas at all. Despite my issues with him, he's an important player on the metaphorical game board now. He also serves as a big lore dump in the Arbor Wilds. An irritating one, but a lore dump nonetheless.