15 replies to this topic

[The_Shade]

I wish it was but it isn't.

 

Bioware decided to bring back the Warden to play a crucial role in discovering a potential cure for the Calling. One of the most significant aspects about being a Grey Warden that determines whether Hero of Ferelden and countless other Grey Wardens across Thedas live or die earlier. 

 

Did the Hero of Ferelden successfully find a cure in time? 

If so, what did the cure involve? 

Where did the Hero of Ferelden travel to find the cure? 

Why was there no mention of this in the Trespasser DLC? (Two years after the events of Inquisition) 

Why couldn't Kieran (the Warden's son in some cases) travel where the Warden went as Morrigan states?   

 

All of these questions and more, deserve clear answers. Not just because they are vital parts of the Dragon Age lore but also, because they are interesting in their own right. 

 

Furthermore, the Warden's story cannot be over with the continued inclusion of all the Warden's lovers and partners. If you include the Warden's husband, wife and son with a given story it shouldn't come as any surprise that people such as myself ask where the Warden is. I don't think that's unreasonable at all. 

 

*If the Warden died, another Warden can replace the HOF and take their role. Similar to how the Orlesian Warden became Warden-Commander in Dragon Age Awakening

 

I also refuse to accept the assertion that the Warden's inclusion is somehow too impractical or complex. In a game where people can travel through time, shapeshift and Gods & different dimensions exist, it should be possible, with a degree of creativity, to allow for the Warden to return in some capacity. It's just a question on whether Bioware wish this to be the case. (For example, Leliana's survival in DAI if she died in DAO). 

 

The Warden's quest to cure the Calling requires a conclusion. I'd quite happily have it told through interactive storytelling via Dragon Age Keep. Where players decide the decisions the Warden makes on their quest to cure the calling and can then choose a conclusion via options on Dragon Age Keep. Thereby allowing Bioware to focus much of its time on new Dragon Age titles while providing a sufficient conclusion to the Hero of Ferelden's story. 

 

Thank you for reading 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[straykat]

I don't think it's bringing the Warden back... so much as tying up a loose end. It's pretty half-assed otherwise.

 

And it means nothing to those (me included) who have dead Wardens. I'm not against the Orlesian Warden idea exactly,, but they're going to get in the way of how I played that character. I imagined her like a Duncan or Riordan.. an senior Warden.. an older Orlesian woman. Amaranthine was her one last hurrah. 

[The_Shade]

And it means nothing to those (me included) who have dead Wardens. 

 

Isn't this bigger than the Warden though? Obviously the Warden is the one searching for the cure (which is why I don't think their story is finished) but the significance of the cure has far reaching implications upon the whole of Thedas and especially the Grey Warden order. How can that mean nothing? 

 

 

 I'm not against the Orlesian Warden idea exactly,, but they're going to get in the way of how I played that character. I imagined her like a Duncan or Riordan.. an senior Warden.. an older Orlesian woman. Amaranthine was her one last hurrah. 

 

You can still headcanon that character anyhow. Personally, I don't think that should be an obstacle to allowing greater detail on whether the Calling was cured. The Calling that compelled the Wardens to take drastic measures and effectively, almost destroy the world in DAI. 

[Jeremiah12LGeek]

I'm likely to amicably part ways with the DA series from here on out, so I suppose my feedback on this one should be taken with a grain of salt.

 

I think BioWare is really going to have to settle on one of two choices:

 

1 - Continue with the current model of a new cast and a new protagonist/antagonist every game.

 

2 - Embrace making true sequels that continue from the story of the previous installment.

 

At the moment, they won't commit one way or the other, and the results have been... poor, to say the least.

 

Leaving everything else (both good and bad) about DA 2 and DA:I aside, neither game excelled when it came to returning characters or storylines. DA 2's efforts may have been underwhelming in that regard, but DA:I's were positively awful. It was impossible to bring back either the Warden or Hawke without screwing it up, but they did it anyway. The results were overwhelmingly off-putting for people. The Warden was very poorly handled, story-wise, and Hawke's appearance was a slow-motion trainwreck. The wildly out-of-character performance of Morrigan in Orlais was like nails on a chalkboard.

 

So my advice to BioWare would be to embrace the first choice. Stop making sequels, and start making games unconnected to previous characters or storylines. Stop bringing back characters only to screw them up. The new cast in DA:I was excellent, but the returning cast (our little dwarf bard excepted) was a bad experience that detracted from the rest of the game.

[straykat]

Isn't this bigger than the Warden though? Obviously the Warden is the one searching for the cure (which is why I don't think their story is finished) but the significance of the cure has far reaching implications upon the whole of Thedas and especially the Grey Warden order. How can that mean nothing? 

 

 

 

You can still headcanon that character anyhow. Personally, I don't think that should be an obstacle to allowing greater detail on whether the Calling was cured. The Calling that compelled the Wardens to take drastic measures and effectively, almost destroy the world in DAI. 

 

Fair enough. The Calling issue could be addressed. I just don't think any of my possible characters need anything to do with it. 

 

The good thing is, there's all kind of Wardens to bring back into the story. Be it the HoF, Orlesian, Hawke siblings, or the Awakening recruits. Or a new one for that matter.

[The_Shade]

Fair enough. The Calling issue could be addressed. I just don't think any of my possible characters need anything to do with it. 

 

The good thing is, there's all kind of Wardens to bring back into the story. Be it the HoF, Orlesian, Hawke siblings, or the Awakening recruits. Or a new one for that matter.

 

Yeah I'd happily accept a new Warden to deal with the Calling issue. That could be quite refreshing too. It's only because Bioware said that it's the Hero of Ferelden searching for the cure that I feel it has to be him/her. It's always possible for Bioware to re-write events I suppose.  

[dgcatanisiri]

Oh, it easily can not involve the Hero of Ferelden - all they have to do is say that any future successes are due to their investigations, saying what they discovered, and that it was passed back along to other Wardens. Or, hell, they could introduce a character who worked with them in the process and have them say that they returned to civilization to, again, get those results to the other Wardens.

 

Also, there's a good chance that there's nothing to be found - the Wardens have existed for close to a thousand years and haven't found anything that serves as a cure, other than Fiona. The fact that, to our current knowledge, the Hero of Ferelden didn't seek out the only person known to have undergone a reversal of the Joining and will be free of the Calling says that this is could easily be a doomed endeavor, a goose chase that, from an out of universe standpoint, they're on solely to keep the Hero of Ferelden busy during the events of Inquisition and future games, rather than something that will ever be resolved.

[Lucidae]

I'm likely to amicably part ways with the DA series from here on out, so I suppose my feedback on this one should be taken with a grain of salt.

I think BioWare is really going to have to settle on one of two choices:

1 - Continue with the current model of a new cast and a new protagonist/antagonist every game.

2 - Embrace making true sequels that continue from the story of the previous installment.

At the moment, they won't commit one way or the other, and the results have been... poor, to say the least.

Leaving everything else (both good and bad) about DA 2 and DA:I aside, neither game excelled when it came to returning characters or storylines. DA 2's efforts may have been underwhelming in that regard, but DA:I's were positively awful. It was impossible to bring back either the Warden or Hawke without screwing it up, but they did it anyway. The results were overwhelmingly off-putting for people. The Warden was very poorly handled, story-wise, and Hawke's appearance was a slow-motion trainwreck. The wildly out-of-character performance of Morrigan in Orlais was like nails on a chalkboard.

So my advice to BioWare would be to embrace the first choice. Stop making sequels, and start making games unconnected to previous characters or storylines. Stop bringing back characters only to screw them up. The new cast in DA:I was excellent, but the returning cast (our little dwarf bard excepted) was a bad experience that detracted from the rest of the game.

I have to disagree with you on a few points here. I thought the way they put Hawke in this game was great. Very well done. They included the HoF in a way where the voiceless issue wouldn't have been a problem, and it was a short thing. Really meant to let us know why that character didn't join the inquisition.

Also I don't think Morrigan was out of character at all. We haven't seen her in about 10 years. Something character development occured with her off screen. You can even get dialog about how she has changed.

[The_Shade]

Oh, it easily can not involve the Hero of Ferelden - all they have to do is say that any future successes are due to their investigations, saying what they discovered, and that it was passed back along to other Wardens. Or, hell, they could introduce a character who worked with them in the process and have them say that they returned to civilization to, again, get those results to the other Wardens.

 

Also, there's a good chance that there's nothing to be found - the Wardens have existed for close to a thousand years and haven't found anything that serves as a cure, other than Fiona. The fact that, to our current knowledge, the Hero of Ferelden didn't seek out the only person known to have undergone a reversal of the Joining and will be free of the Calling says that this is could easily be a doomed endeavor, a goose chase that, from an out of universe standpoint, they're on solely to keep the Hero of Ferelden busy during the events of Inquisition and future games, rather than something that will ever be resolved.

 

Yeah I'm cool with other characters performing the role instead of the HOF. It's only because the one character mentioned thus far searching for the cure was the Warden. So I was interested in finding out what's up with them too.

 

I agree, it's possible there is nothing to be found (that's a harsh yet mature conclusion if that's the case). At the same time, as I also said in my original post, it would be nice to find out where the Warden travelled and or see what they are up to if just out of interest, since fans of DA like us have yet to explore much of the far west in Thedas. 

[veeia]

 

I also refuse to accept the assertion that the Warden's inclusion is somehow too impractical or complex. In a game where people can travel through time, shapeshift and Gods & different dimensions exist, it should be possible, with a degree of creativity, to allow for the Warden to return in some capacity. It's just a question on whether Bioware wish this to be the case. (For example, Leliana's survival in DAI if she died in DAO). 

 

The Warden's quest to cure the Calling requires a conclusion. I'd quite happily have it told through interactive storytelling via Dragon Age Keep. Where players decide the decisions the Warden makes on their quest to cure the calling and can then choose a conclusion via options on Dragon Age Keep. Thereby allowing Bioware to focus much of its time on new Dragon Age titles while providing a sufficient conclusion to the Hero of Ferelden's story.

 

This is an interesting proposition.  The Keep is essentially a data collection/filtration tool, not a storytelling tool (even though they did present some of their data narratively), but it could (theoretically I assume) be used that way. It would have much less emotional impact, but I would prefer to wrap that story up and move on, so if that was the way Bioware decided to do it, I'd be behind it. 

[Abyss108]

I don't really see why a few lines of text to explain why the Warden doesn't show up in Inquisition are that important. I'm sure plenty of people have looked for a cure, actually I'm sure all the Wardens are looking for one in their down time. Why wouldn't they be? 

 

And if they do manage to find a cure, so what? Now a few people won't die a few years earlier. It's not really interesting to me. But then, I'd be happy if every Warden suddenly dropped dead tomorrow.

[Aren]

I'm likely to amicably part ways with the DA series from here on out, so I suppose my feedback on this one should be taken with a grain of salt.

 

I think BioWare is really going to have to settle on one of two choices:

 

1 - Continue with the current model of a new cast and a new protagonist/antagonist every game.

 

2 - Embrace making true sequels that continue from the story of the previous installment.

 

At the moment, they won't commit one way or the other, and the results have been... poor, to say the least.

 

Leaving everything else (both good and bad) about DA 2 and DA:I aside, neither game excelled when it came to returning characters or storylines. DA 2's efforts may have been underwhelming in that regard, but DA:I's were positively awful. It was impossible to bring back either the Warden or Hawke without screwing it up, but they did it anyway. The results were overwhelmingly off-putting for people. The Warden was very poorly handled, story-wise, and Hawke's appearance was a slow-motion trainwreck. The wildly out-of-character performance of Morrigan in Orlais was like nails on a chalkboard.

 

So my advice to BioWare would be to embrace the first choice. Stop making sequels, and start making games unconnected to previous characters or storylines. Stop bringing back characters only to screw them up. The new cast in DA:I was excellent, but the returning cast (our little dwarf bard excepted) was a bad experience that detracted from the rest of the game.

Bravo!

[Captain Wiseass]

Yeah, who ever heard of a fantasy video game series that had different protagonists in every installment? Why, they might as well make the setting different every time, too! That could never become a wildly successful franchise that spawned fourteen sequels across nearly every generation of console, numerous spinoffs (including a collaboration with Disney that became a successful franchise in its own right), and innumerable licensed tie-ins.

[GoldenGail3]

Yes, yes the Warden story is indeed over.

[Exile Isan]

I agree with this guy: 

 

 

I never thought much of the Hero of Ferelden. 

 

The rest of that note is hilarious. 

[Inkvisiittori]

The Warden's quest to cure the Calling requires a conclusion. I'd quite happily have it told through interactive storytelling via Dragon Age Keep. Where players decide the decisions the Warden makes on their quest to cure the calling and can then choose a conclusion via options on Dragon Age Keep. Thereby allowing Bioware to focus much of its time on new Dragon Age titles while providing a sufficient conclusion to the Hero of Ferelden's story. 

 

This is a good idea. They should consider using the Keep and other methods to give us a way to make more decisions for our character. I liked Last Court (though it didn't have much to do with Inquisition)... maybe a game like that could tells us about the Warden's search for a cure and give us the control of their fate again. After they have found the cure... what do they do with it? Do they share it with other Warden's or keep it to themselves? After the cure has been found and decision what to do with it has been made - what happens next? Do they return to the Wardens or retire, start a family or live as a hermit, continue magical research or rule a small kingdom somewhere, go to the Deep Roads to look for the sleeping Old God dragons or what? This could give the character a conclusion. Let the player decide their ultimate fate.