So I just finished my first playthrough. I know I'm like 6 months behind and maybe this thread won't pick up at all, but whatever. I wanted to write this out as I've been ruminating on it since I started the game. Feel free to share yours.
I played a gay male Qunari mage. My backstory is that my parents raised me outside of the Qun because one of them was a mage and didn't want to be subjected to all the torturous things the Qun does to mages. I got a rudimentary bit of training from them but didn't get the bit about potential possession by demons and my powers remained pretty insignificant. Just enough training to control them kind of thing. I've heard about the Circle and understand the possibilities but I was not recruited by the circle because I am Qunari. Generally I'm agnostic to atheist and don't care much about religion, as my parents raised me as an outsider to both my people's way of being and the Circle.
As a young adult I joined up with a mercenary group, as that's generally what Tal - Vashoth do for their livelihood. My mage abilities gained strength and I was taken in by a Ferelden noble Mage after the rebellion. He was my teacher and we were lovers.
At some point I was pulled into the Fade and there the Inquisition storyline takes off. It's not clear how and there is possibly a divine hand at play but most likely not Andraste... maybe I was being played by you-know-who from the beginning, who knows. My Inquisitor didn't question it much and remained neutral throughout the game in regards to the Chantry and the Old Gods and the Elven Gods. He just isn't that deep of a thinker and is pretty focused on immediate goals - closing the Rift, stopping Corypheus, etc. He would actually prefer to dissolve the Inquisition after all this is done but the game world won't let me so he sticks to the tasks at hand.
He comes into the Inquisition naive and with almost zero leadership skills but quickly rises to the occasion and fills the boots of the name Inquisitor. He relies heavily on council from his advisors and learns a great deal from them. He shares power and is more interested in being friends with his companions than being a leader. He is generally Order / Good in terms of old school D+D alignment, but he makes unconventional decisions. Most decisions are based on what would be best for the Inquisition, with the exception of two: recruiting the Mages, which was done because he believes mages can govern themselves (based on personal experience and disliking the Qun / Circle approaches), and supporting Leiliana as Divine, which was a favor to a friend as well as generally liking her ideas for reform, regardless of being aware that she was not the best fit. Honestly Vivienne would have been better.
Romance:
First off, the friendships / romances with companions is honestly the best I've ever seen. I don't understand the haters. I had real emotions about it from the beginning and felt very immersed with this portion of gameplay. Way more than the previous two games.
My Inquisitor started out head over heels for Solas, like he had him at hello. Literally. He was also pretty sure it was a go and was confused about Solas' very personal and emotional way of interacting, combined with the way Solas would back off at the last moment. They had a deep respect for each other right off the bat. The bit where they dreamed in the Fade together and then the Inquisitor woke up and Solas said "did you sleep well?" really hooked my Inquisitor. My Inquisitor thought that maybe that was the equivalent of sex to Solas. And then the bit where Solas told the Inquisitor that he was unlike others he has met... but then walked away saying something like "I don't want to distract from the task at hand." Roleplaying wise, the Inqusitor was just very sure Solas didn't understand or desire relationships and that even friendships outside of the Fade were novel to him and that the idea of a relationship challenged him emotionally beyond what he could handle. And maybe uncomfortable gay feelings from a mostly straight guy. It was too bad. My Inqusitor carried a flame for him right up until he cemented a relationship with Iron Bull. They maintained a deep and respectful friendship centered around similar ideas regarding the Fade and demons / spirits and a desire to know more. I loved Solas' parting words to the Inquisitor (which I'm guessing you only get with a high approval rating).
Iron Bull, by the way, turned my inquisitor off from the very beginning. His hatred of the Tal-Vashoth, his constant mansplaining about how to be a leader, and his early belief that my Inquisitor sucked at leadership led me to believe they would be fast rivals. I kept flirting though, mainly out of curiosity. In the meantime my Inquisitor hooked up with Dorian... oh, Dorian....
Honestly during the romance I was pretty disgusted with him. I mean, my Inquisitor beheaded Alexius after they started dating and Dorian was like "I hate that you did that and he meant so much to me but whatever." I took him to meet his father and was honest about it and supportive, but I could've been a jerk and not told him or forced him to talk to his father and I'm pretty sure we still would have hooked up. I got his amulet back even though he explicitly told me not to, and then he expressed not wanting to be indebted to me, and then was secretly grateful and initiated sex with me as a result... Really dude? And then all the dancing around being serious, saying that he felt all the feels and then when I was like "okay, let's make this serious, that's what you want, right?" and his totally "no means yes" response. And all the stuff about what people would think and his role in my life. And when we talked about "after" and he basically said he couldn't make any promises. I saw right through him and was unimpressed. My Inquisitor just wanted a little stability in the midst of all the craziness. Dorian was only making things more chaotic. So we broke up.
Honestly his break-up lines were better than his relationship lines, and the response you get if you try to get back together with him after you've started up with someone else is perfect. But seriously Dorian, there's only one other dude here who will sleep with me, so at least use his name. And all three of use could probably be a thing if you wanted, but you don't... so too bad for you. Also the rest of your interactions, intentionally or not on behalf of Bioware, make perfect sense as ex - lovers. The way you don't talk for a little while after breaking up (at least we didn't). When you come back from the Fade and he pretends to be irritated about not being able to find his book but then finally breaks and tells you how worried he was about you. From here we built a strong but bittersweet friendship. I supported him going back to Trevinter when he talked about wanting to help his people, because I believed in him. And then he stayed, because I was his closest and only friend.
I just want to add that Dorian really irritated me IRL, but I thought about him for a couple days and then his whole story arc and emotional landscape made perfect sense to me. And I felt really, really bad for breaking it off. He had put it all on the line, from leaving his family and homeland because of his sexuality to reaching out to the Inquisition for help to dating the Inquisitor himself. My Inquisitor let him down when we broke up. I'm glad we were able to heal things.
Meanwhile, after the break up, Bull finally shows up in my room. It's all over from there. No one else exists. No Solas (who I was still crushing on through the Dorian relationship), no Dorian, only Bull. He offers stability and sexiness. Between him and Krem I feel like I've found my queer, kinky family. He manages to basically be a pro dom, his relationship style is non conventional while still being stable and emotionally available, and he's not afraid to say "I love you". IRL my heart is going pitter patter and my Inquisitor can't get enough. Plus, the scene where everyone walks in on us is extremely funny. I laughed out loud, poor Cullen. And the way Cass just walked right in and didn't avert her eyes while she told you to get back to business.
Unfortunately, after the initial love affair chilled out, my Inquisitor realized he wasn't into Bull's personality outside of the bedroom. The macho warrior drunk guy who plays it like he's a little bit dumb just doesn't do it for me. But I've already got the romance card (which is super beautiful) and the relationship is sealed. And it's still hot, so I just decided that their relationship happens behind closed doors and Bull's outward persona falls to the wayside when he is all alone with his love.
Having spent that much time talking about relationships... whoops. But seriously, good job, Bioware.
Friendships... my Inquisitor got so close with Sera I got a cutscene where we eat cookies on the roof. That was accidental and a nice surprise. Then I get the opportunity to eat cookies whenever I want, and to know a bit more about her. I talked about Dorian... and Solas... both besties, although Solas and I can really argue. As the game progressed we had more and more arguments about our fundamental belief systems. It never moves us out of the friends category though. I'm tight with Cullen because we work together well and I helped him through his addiction by issuing a command not to take Lyrium any more. Josephine and I are surprise friends although I think it's a little one sided on Josephine's part, she likes that I tell her to chill out. I get along with Cole - I made the decision to help him become Compassion again, because of my views on the Fade and spirits and because my Inquisitor would bend over backwards for Solas. Between this and leaving Hawke in the Fade (made more sense tactically - I wanted the Wardens to join the Inquisition and they needed a leader) Varric and I were pretty neutral to each other. Vivienne and I never really hit it off, I supported Leiliana as the Divine and we work well together but she was never that interesting to me, and Cass actively hated me. I got the drunk Cass scene where she blamed me for everything that was wrong in the world. Later though she said that although we didn't see eye to eye she respected me as a leader and would stay on with the Inquisition when I asked her if she was leaving. So there's that.
Basically my Inquisitor gets along great with the rabble and has a respect based relationship with those he can't really identify with, who are mostly human nobles.
Other notes: Trying not to make this a spoiler so I will leave things as vague as possible... The ending was spoiled for me but it was actually pretty cool because I read up on lore as a result and understood a lot more of what was going on. It also gave me insight into a lot of what a certain character had to say, they don't actually do a lot to disguise their true identity, it's more like it's totally out of the realm of possibility for most people because of the current belief systems in Thaedus and therefore nobody guesses. I'm pretty sure the old elves at the Temple of Mythal knew exactly who they were though. It's surprising to me that Morrigan didn't catch on.
My Inquisitor enlisted the Mages without conscripting them, left Hawke in the Fade, and let Morrigan drink from the well. He supported Leiliana as Divine. Next game looks interesting as a result... I'll leave that stuff out. I am super excited for the DLC and i hope that it either flushes out the ending more or takes place in Tevinter.
Maybe I'm the only one that roleplayed so deeply, DA games just work for me in that way for some reason. I become much more interested in the characters and lore than I do in the combat and gameplay. If you did this kind of roleplay, please share (or even if you did less).
Retour en haut
