135 réponses à ce sujet

[Qun00]

I think she was being completely sincere: it's only a danger to people standing right under it. It will not pose any threat to Kirkwall. I think the only issue there was that Merrill was somewhat embarrassed over not knowing exactly what it did, but that thing is not "release a horde of darkspawn" or what have you.

If it were sincere, she would have given a serious and straight forward answer:

"No, Aveline. There is nothing to worry about" or even argue "People fear what they don't understand".

I think there is a good reason why Aveline felt like her question wasn't answered and kept trying again.

[Pasquale1234]

Hmm... I've played enough of DAI to have seen Morrigan's eluvian, but not enough to know what really happens with any of it.

My initial reaction to Merrill was that she was essentially abandoning her responsibilities as her clan's First, and abandoning her clan to move to the alienage because she stubbornly persisted in chasing some ancient artifact, the purpose and function of which was not fully known. It didn't really seem to me that she was motivated by a desire to help her people; she already had an important role that her people needed her to fulfill, and she bailed on them.

She was arrogant enough to believe that she knew better than Marethari and that she could handle her dalliance with demons and starting down the path of blood magic. Her choices led to the death of Pol, Marethari, and unless Hawke is willing to accept responsibility for her - her entire clan. Granted, some of these events occurred as a result of the actions of others (Marethari in particular), but you have to be awfully naive to believe that you could pull off what she was attempting to do "for their own good", with the entire clan against you, and not pay a hefty price.

Arrogance and naivete are a deadly combination.

I suppose there's an argument to be made for the idea that Merrill did not feel she had the social skills or whatever to be their First-->Keeper, and that might be valid. She chose to leave her role with the clan, but still expected the benefits of clan membership - including the use of the Arulin'Holm.

I don't especially fault her for wanting to restore the eluvian, just her methods and impatience in achieving that goal. She could have tried to transfer to a different clan with a more supportive Keeper, waited until she became the Keeper, or perhaps tried to find some other mage(s) and/or lyrium to help with the process.

I've done DA2 playthroughs on both sides of the issue.

But to directly answer the question posed by the thread title: I can support Merrill's goal to restore it, but disagree with her methods.

[ModernAcademic]

I bet that eluvian lead to the Vir Dirthara. I have a feeling the demon behind it was once a librarian, who turned into a demon like so many others we meet later on in Trespasser.

 

So I'm torn between supporting Merrill's decision - which would enable her to learn a great deal more about the truth behind Arlathan's fall - and not supporting, because she could easily become possessed in the Vir Dirthara. The place is overrun by demons now.

[TEWR]

With rivalry points.

 

It's very easy to max out her Friendship and then avoid killing the clan with no Rivalry points gained

[SgtSteel91]

It's very easy to max out her Friendship and then avoid killing the clan with no Rivalry points gained

 

I like to think at that point, their friendship (or love ) is so deep that Merrill knows Hawke doesn't mean what he says when he takes that option, he's just telling the Dalish what they want to hear so they don't get themselves killed, so there's no rivalry gained.

[TEWR]

I like to think at that point, their friendship (or love ) is so deep that Merrill knows Hawke doesn't mean what he says when he takes that option, he's just telling the Dalish what they want to hear so they don't get themselves killed, so there's no rivalry gained.

Been my head canon since release of daii yup

[Qun00]

I like to think at that point, their friendship (or love ) is so deep that Merrill knows Hawke doesn't mean what he says when he takes that option, he's just telling the Dalish what they want to hear so they don't get themselves killed, so there's no rivalry gained.

Merrill clearly doesn't know that, as you get rivalry points with her. So as far as the game is concerned, Hawke did mean it.

[congokong]

I like to think at that point, their friendship (or love ) is so deep that Merrill knows Hawke doesn't mean what he says when he takes that option, he's just telling the Dalish what they want to hear so they don't get themselves killed, so there's no rivalry gained.

If you do that though, you miss a fun battle wiping out a dalish clan.

[SgtSteel91]

Merrill clearly doesn't know that, as you get rivalry points with her. So as far as the game is concerned, Hawke did mean it.

I thought when you get to max friendship, it's locked in and it's not affected by any options that would normally give you rivalry with her?

[TBastian]

Seriously. What's next, are people going to to start *****ing about how people like Marie Curie were basically throwing their lives away for the sake of studying something that ultimately killed them?

And as someone already pointed out friendship with Merrill basically amounts to building up her confidence (by accepting what she does), to the point where she begins to make more positive (herself-wise) decisions and starts to question whether all her work on the mirror is actually worth it when she has you. Rivaling her is basically building up her rebellious side (because THAT's going to work out sooo well).
Congrats, you figured out that she continues working on the mirror whether you want her to or not.

Oh, and Merrill likes sarcasm. Especially around Anders. She's socially inept, but incredibly smart.

And seriously, we're on DA:3 now. DA:O/DA:2's blood magic hype was OBVIOUSLY exaggerated, and one can even argue that a spirit healer could actually be EVEN MORE dangerous than a blood mage if he/she loses sight of her values/morals.
Blood Magic, at least, is an "evil" that we know more about. Considering how Tevinter is not (AFAIK) overrun with demons and how many generations of mages have been using it there then we know that it corrupts only in the sense that power also corrupts.
Meanwhile, all it takes is for a spirit healer to have some sort of breakdown and BOOM. Literally. Cue one of the most horrible wars in Thedas history with such terrible implications that they basically trigger the events behind DA:I.

 

I think it's pretty obvious that Merrill and Anders are supposed to be a study in similarities (both are mages, both ultimately lose someone very close to them as a result of what they do, both are intent on "saving" their people) and contrasts (a blood mage and a spirit healer, a Dalish second and a Chantry devout, a socially retarded figure who isolates herself from other people and a charismatic figure who works closely with them).

Guess who ends up blowing up the world.

 

And to answer the OP, I support her in the sense that doing so makes her rethink the wisdom in doing what she does.

[Riverdaleswhiteflash]

Like a bunch of the people on the first page, my only objection to this idea is that it uses a demon. Though even then the demon is under a seal the whole time. Still, that's not an absolute guarantee that the demon won't find a way out. Depending on how exactly the seal worked, for example, the demon might have been able to get out through the eluvian... though since we only have Marethari's word for it and I don't think she understands the eluvian properly I doubt it.

 

But my opinion on her goal in and of itself? If Merrill can figure out even a bit of how it works, that's more of elvenhan's magic restored. I can't find fault with that, especially given what the eluvians can do. Quick and easy long distance travel can make people's a lot easier, especially if Merrill manages to find a way to spread the knowledge so that the Dalish aren't the only ones to have it. (Though ideally she'd take some precautions so that the human nobility didn't muscle in and make it exclusively theirs, which we all know they'd be inclined to do. Maybe she could make enough of them to form two separate networks, if she figures them out well enough to make them out of whole cloth?)