"Can Merrill live if she "doesn't stay with hawke"? It's one of those things where I thought one meant the other but I could be wrong. Like ginis and the viscounts son, picking one automatically means the other is picked but here I'm not to sure for once."
Ok but also what about that part? That strikes me as another bug but I've never really explored killing companions by actually doing per say, I just know how to or only did it once and never really explored it thoroughly. Doesn't her not staying with hawke force you to fight her? also it seems like "Merrill didn't stay with Hawke" isn't conflicting with siding with the mages? Am I just wrong about what staying with hawke means? It seems like she dies if she doesn't stay with you, which means she can't be alive and you can't side with the mages and all 3 of those can happen at once, as well as siding with the Templars.
Merrill didn't stay with Hawke is basically "did you have Merrill at full friendship/rivalry and choose to side with the Templars?" If yes, then she stays with Hawke, if no, then she fights with the Mages. Then there's a second point where you can bring her back to your side(like Fenris on if you side with the mages and he's not 100% friend/rival). If you get her back to your side, you don't kill her. I suppose that's the reason for the two flags.
Well there's a panel for both Ginis of the winters and The viscout's son, which are both dependent on the same thing. did you save the son or not? If yes Ginis dead. If no ginis alive. So some things might need to be combined.
Edit: It might be there to say how Wynne died, as agreeing to his request forces you to fight Wynne.
Wynne could die on the ground floor though. That's why it's iffy to me. You can kill Wynne before she becomes a companion by saying you're there to annul the Circle(or bringing Morrigan with you and choosing the right dialogue options). This mean Wynne is dead. You can still agree with Cullen's request, but it's not what kills her...
And that's where the conflict comes up with Wynne being alive but Irving dead, or Wynne being dead but Irving alive. Because, by killing Irving, the Keep assumes you agreed to Cullen's request, for which Wynne would turn on you. But you could say no to Cullen, and still "accidentally" let Irving die...