(deep breath)
Hi, y'all! I'm a long time lurker who finally worked up the nerve to post in the forums for the very first time a few days ago. Figured I should come over here and say hello, as well since I've been reading this thread off and on for, um, quite a while, if I'm honest, lol! I'm just kind of shy, you know? Plus, this thread has such a high volume of traffic, it makes it a little difficult for me to keep up.
But! Cullen fans! I found the other Cullen fans! Yay! That makes me ridiculously happy. None of my RL friends play Dragon Age, and while they've become used to my nattering about the game, it's really not the same. Well, okay. One of those friends is also a GE fan, so she at least understood why I was making flail-y hands at the news he would be singing in the game. But still!
It's just nice to be able to squee with like-minded souls, you know? And there has been a lot to squee about lately. 
Um. Yeah. Don't really know what else to say. Did I mention the shy part? I also have kind of craptastic health (and by kind of, I mean seriously) so I probably won't be posting a whole lot. But y'all have made me smile and laugh on days when I didn't have a lot to smile and laugh about, and I just wanted to thank you properly for it. I'd thank GE, too, if I had a Twitter account. Dragon Age has helped get me through some really rough patches, and that ... well, it means a lot to me, dorky as that may sound.
Hey, welcome! You can make a twitter account, and write to GE, he reads and faves our tweets all the time! 
Wait, what? I've never made Carver a Templar before. If you make him a Templar he dates Merrill?! Whoa.
Well, they really like each other, and Carver always says something nice to her, and they are so cute together, like a couple of kittens 
First time I played DAII I accidentally made Carver a Grey Warden, and then I was really sad about it, because I thought I ruined his love with Merrill, because Carver was always away, and they couldn't keep seeing each other. So next time I went for full rivalry, and left him at home, and he joined the Templars. But when I took him along on the DLC missions, they never exchanged a word with Merrill
I don't know if it's a glitch, or maybe Carver took his vows too seriously (the guy who makes the Chant sound dirty, really?), but it's the only thing I regret about him becoming a templar. I prefer him as a templar for a lot of reasons, and the most important of them is that it's the choice he makes himself, while when he becomes a warden - it's the choice between life and death, and therefore not really a choice.
Anyway, Carver and Merrill are still my DAII OTP, and I ship templar Carver and Merrill regardless of what the game does
And always will!