32 réponses à ce sujet

[Killdren88]

I recently played the Dalish Origin and I noticed Merril seemed to be uptight and a bit blunt if not a tad rude. Yet in DA2 she acts all wide eyed and quirky. Did I miss something in her personality change or was that simply a  retcon when making her a companion?

[Zjarcal]

She also acts different around her clan in DA2 than with Hawke and company, very confrontative with everyone when in Sundermount, while she lacks confidence and is very naive when in Kirkwall.

 

Imo there is no real change between games, it's just a way of showing how her confidence lowers when living in a strange place (one which she never really adapts to since she's mostly isolated in her home in the alienage) as opposed to how she was back with her clan.

[Killdren88]

Makes some sense I suppose when it is put that way.

[Dutchess]

It was a retcon.

 

Yeah, I'm going with that too. She wasn't awkward at all around Duncan either. 

[TEWR]

There was no personality change. She remains internally consistent.

[Sarcastic Tasha]

I think the voice is the biggest change. Obviously the accent but sometimes the tone of voice too. I think if you imagine the same words but with DA2 Merrill's voice they wouldn't seem out of place.

[Pateu]

She just adapts in DA2. She's alone in a human world in which elves are pretty much slaves. She can't be picky.

[Ulnarv]

She was not in conflict with her Keeper and clan in DAO. It is only natural that she is less confident and sure of herself in Kirkwall.

[Jedi Master of Orion]

I recently played the Dalish Origin and I noticed Merril seemed to be uptight and a bit blunt if not a tad rude. Yet in DA2 she acts all wide eyed and quirky. Did I miss something in her personality change or was that simply a  retcon when making her a companion?

 

It's a total retcon. Her appearance and voice are also different.

[dragonflight288]

It's a total retcon. Her appearance and voice are also different.

 

As are Zevran's and Isabella's. 

 

Yet they are not given the Merrill treatment.

 

Okay, so she and all the elves look a lot skinnier (I preferred their origins appearance) and she has a new voice actor (as does Anders,) but she is a lot more confident, blunt, and sarcastic with the people she knows in her clan than in Kirkwall, and in Act's 2 and 3, she's delightfully sarcastic and blunt with the members of the party and with Hawke, it's just easy to miss.

 

I don't see any real retcons here. 

[Jaison1986]

As are Zevran's and Isabella's. 

 

Yet they are not given the Merrill treatment.

 

Okay, so she and all the elves look a lot skinnier (I preferred their origins appearance) and she has a new voice actor (as does Anders,) but she is a lot more confident, blunt, and sarcastic with the people she knows in her clan than in Kirkwall, and in Act's 2 and 3, she's delightfully sarcastic and blunt with the members of the party and with Hawke, it's just easy to miss.

 

I don't see any real retcons here. 

 

I would rather she acted in the overal game the way she acts when speaking with her clan. It's almost as if she is bipolar, acting like an completely different person when she is amongst her people compared when she is living in Kirkwall.

[Sarcastic Tasha]

I would rather she acted in the overal game the way she acts when speaking with her clan. It's almost as if she is bipolar, acting like an completely different person when she is amongst her people compared when she is living in Kirkwall.

 

Most people act differently when they are with different people. I don't act the same in work as I do with close friends and family (I don't want my colleagues to see all my crazy). Its a different thing again to be with people from a different culture, humour is something that frequently doesn't travel well which Merrill seems to struggle with.

[thats1evildude]

Yes, she changed quite a bit. They decided to give her an actual personality in DA2.

[teh DRUMPf!!]

 Merrill is a walking retcon and contrivance. Unless the writer intended to show character regression, her change from mature and intelligent to childish and naiive is the first one. Second is when she says she's only ever fought alone when you fight with her and possibly Fenarel. The third is her being the only one of the clan interested in restoring the Eluvian and discovering more about elven history when Marethari expressed the same interest in DA:O.

 

And hell there are a few others that are just not coming to mind right now, but yeah, you get the picture.

[Zubi Fett]

I recently played the Dalish Origin and I noticed Merril seemed to be uptight and a bit blunt if not a tad rude. Yet in DA2 she acts all wide eyed and quirky. Did I miss something in her personality change or was that simply a  retcon when making her a companion?

 Off topic but,

 

I did not see Merril on my play, although I was a "Human Noble", was not I suppose to see her or I just don't remember?

 

Thank you!

[Han Shot First]

 Off topic but,

 

I did not see Merril on my play, although I was a "Human Noble", was not I suppose to see her or I just don't remember?

 

Thank you!

 

She only appears in the Dalish origin. The Dalish clan you meet while running around Ferelden with the Warden treaties is a different clan than the one that Merrill and the Dalish Warden hail from.

[Zubi Fett]

She only appears in the Dalish origin. The Dalish clan you meet while running around Ferelden with the Warden treaties is a different clan than the one that Merrill and the Dalish Warden hail from.

 

Thank you! 

[Jedi Master of Orion]

As are Zevran's and Isabella's. 

 

Yet they are not given the Merrill treatment.

 

Okay, so she and all the elves look a lot skinnier (I preferred their origins appearance) and she has a new voice actor (as does Anders,) but she is a lot more confident, blunt, and sarcastic with the people she knows in her clan than in Kirkwall, and in Act's 2 and 3, she's delightfully sarcastic and blunt with the members of the party and with Hawke, it's just easy to miss.

 

I don't see any real retcons here. 

 

Her goofy quirkiness was completely absent from the first game. If anything it was the polar opposite of the sort of no nonsense one she had in Origins. She also seemed to be particularly opposed to "breaking the rules" when she refused to let you take Fenarel without the Keeper's permission, making her open rebellion against Marethari in the second game especially out of character.

 

Zevran had the same actor. And Isabella's personality was spot on. Neither one of them was altered like Merril was. I wasn't really a huge fan of how different Anders was either, but at least he has an ostensible explanation for why he's different (at least for part of his differences).

[Ruru]

The only thing i could think of that would drastically change Merrill's attitude from the first game is that she was working on the mirror during that time and had been butting heads with Marethari because of it.

 

But in all reality her character seems to have just been completely rewritten in DA2. She had very little personality in origins (albeit in the short time we got to see her) compared to what we got to see of her in DA2, and even from the first meeting it took me a while to realize this was the same Merrill from origins and i'd just come from playing a Dalish elf playthrough.

[TEWR]

She also seemed to be particularly opposed to "breaking the rules" when she refused to let you take Fenarel without the Keeper's permission, making her open rebellion against Marethari in the second game especially out of character.

 

Note that if you pick the right options in DAII she tells you that she initially went to Marethari for aid on the Eluvian.

 

Marethari refused because of the Taint and they argued about it, prompting Merrill to go for blood magic (the only viable route since Marethari won't team up with her to pool their healing magic and she has no lyrium) to cleanse the shard. When it works, she tells Marethari of this and how they can now work on it safely, to which Marethari asks her how she came to do so. She tells her, they argue some more, and this ultimately leads to her choosing self-exile.

 

Merrill's always gone by the rules. She's always followed protocol which is to go to the Keeper first about any new information about Dalish lore (I think that was stated in the DE origin). But she firmly believes the Eluvian is too important to ignore and that you can't just toss out history because you don't like it. So she tried to find a balance between the two.

 

It's not open rebellion against the Keeper. It's more trying to find a middle ground that Marethari staunchly refused to go near for stupid reasons and Merrill decided she wasn't going to get anywhere.

 

I've gone over this before a year ago on my blog... and I probably should start Part 2 on my Dire Bunnies thing sometime.

 

But alas, I have so much to do and not enough time to do it.

[dragonflight288]

Note that if you pick the right options in DAII she tells you that she initially went to Marethari for aid on the Eluvian.

 

Marethari refused because of the Taint and they argued about it, prompting Merrill to go for blood magic (the only viable route since Marethari won't team up with her to pool their healing magic and she has no lyrium) to cleanse the shard. When it works, she tells Marethari of this and how they can now work on it safely, to which Marethari asks her how she came to do so. She tells her, they argue some more, and this ultimately leads to her choosing self-exile.

 

Merrill's always gone by the rules. She's always followed protocol which is to go to the Keeper first about any new information about Dalish lore (I think that was stated in the DE origin). But she firmly believes the Eluvian is too important to ignore and that you can't just toss out history because you don't like it. So she tried to find a balance between the two.

 

It's not open rebellion against the Keeper. It's more trying to find a middle ground that Marethari staunchly refused to go near for stupid reasons and Merrill decided she wasn't going to get anywhere.

 

I've gone over this before a year ago on my blog... and I probably should start Part 2 on my Dire Bunnies thing sometime.

 

But alas, I have so much to do and not enough time to do it.

 

Alas, you and I both have made the same arguments for years. 

[TEWR]

Alas, that much is true. No amount of facts and logic on our part have managed to sway the dissenters in the past. Same with Loghain. Yet we persist with our love of them!

[SerTabris]

I would rather she acted in the overal game the way she acts when speaking with her clan. It's almost as if she is bipolar, acting like an completely different person when she is amongst her people compared when she is living in Kirkwall.

 

That's... not what being bipolar is (http://www.nimh.nih....lts/index.shtml).