Yeah, it gets tiresome hearing the term "pragmatic" bandied about as a catch-word to forestall critical judgment of one's actions. Whenever folks want to rationalize their brutal acts they tend to bring out the p-word. I'm not a big fan of the terms "good" and "evil" either given how miserably subjective they are, but calling something "pragmatic" neither makes it so nor provides a more respectable replacement of "evil." Pragmatism does not require selecting the most harmful alternative, only the most effective on a practical level. It is also a morally ambivalent term. One can pragmatically seek to save Ferelden or pragmatically seek to squeeze the most XP and gold from every situation for oneself. The Connor killing is probably the most pragmatic "rescue" application since, unless you employ metagame information about Connor staying put while you seek the Tower mages (or just play someone who can't bring themselves to kill either one and would rather potentially sacrifice a powerful mage or oneself just to spare one kid), you really have no way to ensure Redcliff survives your departure. Killing Connor or Isolde are the most pragmatic choices- immediately effective and assured of success. The Tower purge is arguably another of these- immediately and effectively deals with the situation and guarantees success without risking one's life and others' to save potentially demon-infested mages. Plus, is there really time for all these side-ventures with Archy looming over every decision? (I always save the mages regardless...)
It is simply not enough to say, "But I'm being pragmatic!" The ends and means are all on one continuum in estimating a decision. And the variables are not always certain. No one knows for sure what the Dark Ritual does before they let Morry do it- other than sex with Morry- and she's not exactly forthright about her own intentions. Sparing Loghain and jeapordizing Alistair's contribution- the "evil" choice? Pragmatic? It's just a judgment call based on preferences and your character's tendencies. If the only way to gain dwarf forces vs Archy was to support Bhelen, the pragmatic choice would necessarily take you down the road of manipulating Orzammar's public officials with forged documents and enduring that smarmy whelp's voice. With both options open (and no metagame knowledge of the epilogue slides) there's no clear pragmatic choice... except that Harrowmont just wants a Provings win while Bhelen requires a more time-costly venturing into the Deep Roads as well, so the fast and effective (and far less lucrative) pragmatic route gives it to Harry... (Actually even that becomes irrelevant: the final choice of Orz King is made regardless of prior support, but still...)
That said, I've gotten most of the badges for both paths- albeit using my character's Power of Reload to change history after. (Bad guys never count on me having that power...) There's only one I can't bring myself to do: killing the Dalish for a werewolf "army." The main reason appears to be that all the other "evil" choices are relatively quick and easy to play through. Leaving Redcliffe is just a run to the exit and a departure- done. Reload save from before. Even the CE Origin one- you have to fight your way to Mr. Rapehappy anyway, so all you have to do to get the badge is select a conversation option a couple times and click through the cutscenes- done. Reload save from before. Maybe playing out the whole series of events involved in killing the Dalish- somehow convincing the Lady and werewolves that temporary revenge is better than a permanent cure, trekking back to the elf camp with ill intent, starting the fight, and then engaging in the slaughter itself- only takes 15 min- maybe only 10- but it's longer and more involved than I can bear doing something so stupid, particularly to the elves who suffer enough by DAO's storyline... and particularly to get a useless badge of dishonor for doing it.
Arguably the Anvil fights are both hard as well- taking perhaps as much effort as raiding the elf camp- but making it happen is only a quick few conversation selections in a conversation that was inevitable anyway... and, meh, golems. I think I accidentally fought on Branka's side the first time simply because I tried to discuss it with Caridin longer than he apparently had patience for.
The "evil" stuff in DAO is either not that bad, bad but not clearly or decisively so if you're roleplaying your character to be ignorant of metagame info, or, lastly, clearly just bad (say, needlessly destructive and harmful without even any great advantage to be gained from it). In the former category you might add, say, killing the bandits outside Lothering- needless since you can bypass them violence-free... but, heh, a bit spineless. Most situations are in the middle category and are generally the most gripping situations to endure because they involve a lot of genuine decision-making on the player's part. The Vaughan murder is kinda there- depending on if your character spoke to Soris first and chose the conversation options that make it clear what Vaughan had done. Even then though, you knife him needlessly while he's defenseless and not hurting anyone. (I haven't played a character who doesn't...)
The latter situations are fewer- unsurprisingly most often to do with the elves: taking Vaughan's bribe in the CE Origin, killing the Dalish camp, killing the few human explorers in the DE Origin, trapping the ancient elf in that Elven Ruins stone forever, murdering that dying elf out in the woods (just robbing him before helping him is in a different category), killing the Alienage folks held by the Tevinter slavers for a measely +1 CON... The devs really want to keep your most wantonly destructive options open when it comes to elves... Might throw in poisoning the Urn as well, but I've never gone far with that path (just got the Reaver spec from it and reloaded), so I'm not sure if Eamon dies this way or what.
I'd put the Anvil in the latter camp as well, but I think it's probably feasible to play a character who may very well be disgusted by the decision to give Branka (who killed everyone in her own House in her greed) the power to turn people into golem drones... yet who also is just as naive as the historical dwarven golem fans who thought the Anvil's ultimate effect would be to win a final victory over the darkspawn rather than further ruin and demoralization for dwarven society. Tough call though. This is where "pragmatic" can arise, but only subjectively qualified: i.e., role-playing someone naive or somewhat foolish and desperate for solutions in a pressured situation or someone calloused enough to care nothing for others or for dwarves (a weak character), it can seem the most promising of bad alternatives. It is not ultimately the most pragmatic solution to give Branka (of all people) the Anvil if the idea is to defeat the darkspawn completely: the epilogue slides make this fairly unequivocal in every eventuality- never ultimately goes well, even if you do get a few golems for the end game vs Archy. (One doesn't need to kill folks as golem-creation fodder to take down Archy...)
Not going to categorize every "evil" choice in the game, but I did play a fairly ruthless character once- an elf (*evil grin*) Tower mage who I let be aware of the very real game aspect of XP. If killing stuff grants her XP, and XP grants her more power, she's all for it. And dead folks also drop loot, do they not? So I did a lot of things that aren't official "morally despicable" game choices, but... For instance, the battle for Redcliffe. Oh, she fought it. Hell, yeah, with all the undead XP to be reaped. Ever notice that you also get XP if you kill allies with friendly fire? Mage AoE blasts- especially elemental- are the most effective. Well, the well-grouped villagers outside the Chantry temple made for easy targetting. No one survived... not even the knights or Dwyn at the top of the hill. Oops. But we won! Hurrah! At least they don't make chuckling or scoffing a dialog option when they do the eulogy later. No approval loss from Alistair or Leliana for it either... and the Hero of Redcliffe demanded compensation for the "rescue." But no official badge to "earn" from it... shucks.
Retour en haut
