Never ever do I spare Loghain. He sells elves into slavery to be tortured, maimed, sexually abused and killed in Tevinter, No Fricking Way does he live. ( and thats with all origins not just the elf ones )
Funny how Orlais "enslaving" Ferelden is the worst travesty ever, but actually enslaving elves is totally fine as long as it fills his own coffers.
Glad to see where Loghain draws the line.
I'm starting to read the book "The stolen throne" and you discover other aspects of Loghain, and it is interesting.
At first when I played the game I didn't really think, I executed him because I did not really try to understand why he did what he did (and I wanted to keep Alistair). But I think now that he is a much more complex character than just "a traitor" "he sold elves" "he sent assassins".
I didn't think the book was all that redeeming for him. Most of the "sympathetic backstory" stuff we could already infer from comments he and other nobles made throughout the game (like being the reason Maric won against Orlais, the Orlesians burning his field and raping someone he loved, etc), so it wasn't exactly enlightening for me. (And from a city elf perspective, I just find it that much more disgusting that he experienced "slavery" firsthand yet thinks nothing of selling my people into slavery to fill his own coffers.)
Besides, I thought whatever sympathy the game provided was snatched away the moment Flemeth warned Maric that Loghain would betray him, "each time worse than the last," and he does so in the book and in the game, showing that he was always a liar and back-stabber, not just suddenly out of the nowhere after Ostagar. (I could almost forgive his actions in Ostagar since every character said he had always been loyal and honorable until he was suddenly driven mad by pride and paranoia following Ostagar, but the book reveals, "Nope. He was always a liar and traitor.")
I guess now that if he had fought side by side with Cailan, all their soldiers would have died anyway, and everyone would be dead for nothing. Of course, his honor would be intact, but sending all his men to death just because the king was too immature to listen and wanted to fight even if his army was outnumbered? the choice is hard, but I guess he decided that he would not sacrifice all his men in vain or send them to a certain death for nothing. He disgraced himself that day, but for a reason he thought just.
We don't know that for sure. The only person who claims so is Loghain, and that conveniently lets him off the hook for deserting and committing regicide.
(It's like Howe claiming that the Couslands were Orlesian spies/collaborators. The only person who claims so is him, and that conveniently lets him off the hook for massacring them.)
For the rest... he is the villain of the story, so yes he did bad things or took bad decisions. I just think that everything is not "black or white", he is not "pure evil" to me.
I really wish people would stop using this argument. Like you think Loghain is so sympathetic that the only reason anyone wouldn't forgive him is if we didn't know his backstory and/or willfully decided that he's "pure evil," and if we just understood that it's not all "black and white" and that he's "not all black" we'd spare him, right?
Well, I've seen. I know. I don't think Loghain is "pure evil," but I also don't think he's good enough to be let off the hook for his many crimes and travesties.
Besides, since this is the "Sparing Loghain as a City Elf" thread, if your city elf can forgive him for selling your family and friends into slavery to fill his own coffers? Go knock yourself out. But if you think that every other city elf character will forgive the man who sold their family and friends into slavery to fill his own coffers (which he's not even sorry about, and which he never apologizes for even if you spare him) just because "he's not pure evil," you're barking up the wrong tree.
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