I kind of wish we could have asked Morrigan if she was married. I can only imagine the snippy answer.
"You're married?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I refuse to have some Chantry zealot tell me what is considered real when they themselves follow a being that has never been proven to exist."
When it comes to the possibilities of her intentions with the ring, I think it could be interesting either way and both are plausible. It wouldn't be a stretch of the imagination for Morrigan to have misjudged the nature of the ring. Obviously, the ring was given to her by Flemeth, and all she knew about it at the time was that it was tracker. Perhaps it wasn't until the Warden wears the ring that she realized that it has other properties. She'd probably feel quite foolish asking to see the ring again in order to make another alteration. So she leaves it alone, seeing it as harmless at the time.
Of course, there is the flip-side of things. She knew the whole time or perhaps added the "emotional bonder" herself in order to make that connection seeing as Morrigan sometimes struggles with her emotions. She dismisses that the ring actually means anything, but in truth, it is a sentimental action. She wasn't anticipating on becoming close to the Warden.
There's the sister comment that she gives a female Warden, and I can kind of see this as an equivalent to the ring. She says this with the DR in mind and she wants the Warden to know she deeply values her friendship. She gives the male Warden the ring as a means to show that what they had actually meant something to her. Either way, she wants the Warden to know that she does care about them, even though she has been deceiving them and that she will part ways with them in the end.
But I think her DAI comments about a Warden who didn't go with her through the Eluvian are proof enough that she wanted to be with him, and perhaps she had intended to have him find her in the end. So it is possible that she knew the ring could work in reverse and had it all planned out from the beginning.
I completely agree about Bioware assuming the player has a past knowledge. And I see what you're saying about the whole "breaking the fourth wall" thing. More than once I felt like I was having those "wink wink nudge nudge" moments. Despite efforts to make DAI "open" to newcomers, it doesn't really do its job. I lent my copy of DAI to a coworker last week and I showed up to work yesterday and my coworker tells me that he feels like he's missing something half of the time.
So either they need to start fresh for real and just build a brand new cast with no returning characters, or handle returning characters better, or they need to make actual sequels. This kind of "meet us in the middle" set up isn't immersive. My Inquisitor couldn't completely be her own character as she was just my way of interacting with former friends.
Very comprehensive response and I agree with you on all points, I enjoyed reading your thoughts on the issue, I hadn't really thought much on that sort of possible deeper motivation for giving HoF the ring before now. With regards to the bolded section, that's exactly my feeling and it's a good way of putting it. Essentially, the game isn't looking out for the interests of my previous PCs & companions (it's actively doing the opposite, quite egregiously), so I have to step out of character and do it for them, all too often.
Anyway, enough on that - I've also wondered on any additional purpose the ring might have been meant to serve when Flemeth gave it to Morrigan, when pressed further as to the ring's origins Morrigan says:
"Flemeth used to say that 'twas a link between us, one that I presumed worked both ways."
What if the ring originally were set up to receive Flemeth's thoughts and influence her subliminally, maybe to make Morrigan pliable over time or something? And when Morrigan adjusts the ring, it does the opposite, broadcasting rather than receiving. Pure conjecture on my part though.
This is part of the reason I wonder if the DR lacked an original intent other than Morrigan leaves, just because. Either it lacked a real storyline, or Morrigan is just playing hard to get. When she gives you the Ring, the Warden can pointedly ask, “So I could use it to find you if need be?”
Morrigan responds, “Perhaps, I’ve never tested it… “ so she has this plan from the beginning, she’s going to use the Warden to get the OGB and then disappear forever, but turns around and gives the Warden a method to find her.
Would have been nice if in WH the ring played a more significant role in tracking her down, but even still… in WH she senses your approach… does she leave?
No, she waits around for you to catch up with her.
Its irony of the DAO Morrigan romance. As she states when you ask her, "Do you really want to end this…," her response is revealing... "Yes… No… I do… but cannot…”
Seems at the very least that she is so unexpectedly conflicted that the original plan, whatever it might have been, takes a back seat to the spark in her heart that she never was expecting or prepared for.
Viv would rate about a tier 1 Boy Scout merit badge. Once (my head-canon DW Warrior) introduced Viv to Mr. Starfang (yes, my warden recovered it) and Mr. Vigilance, she’d would be incredibly cooperative in restoring a certain witch of the wilds back to her original form.
"Mr. Vigilance" - heh, you're making it hard for me not to do a follow up now. What Vivienne probably doesn't know is that HoF is an expert in dealing with Ice Queen type characters, it's practically been his full time job for years. I think preventing them from trying to kill each other will probably prove to be the greater challenge for Aedan.
I actually thought BioWare and Chee especially did a really good job with the ring in WH, I certainly wasn't expecting it to factor in like it did and it was a welcome surprise, plus I love being able to define the exact nature of your relationship with another character through dialogue, like that whole sequence you have at the beginning of Pillars.
With the revelations that Eleanor Cousland was operating as a raider during the Orlais-Ferelden war, can you imagine Kieran reading books about seafarer adventures when Morrigan isn't looking.
She knows but does nothing. Let the boy have one grandmother he can be fond of.
Cousland origin = best origin. So Kieran is now to be a seafaring pirate warden-wannabe mage. At the very least I'd expect it'd further fuel his desire to practice swordfighting with his father. And wear eyepatches.
Alas, I didn't really find anything super insightful. The whole book is centered on the characters but given the variable nature of the games, most of the entries on companions and characters are centered on little vignettes about them before they have their role in the games. So like Morrigan's main entry centers on some of her time before meeting the HoF in the Korcari Wilds and of her time in Orlais post Origins, getting into Celene's court.
These things all pique my interest, does any of the post-Origins Orlais material conflict/prevent what I'd consider to be the desired canon of most people in this thread?
- It mentions Morrigan as a kid (maybe around 12, according to the POV of the Templar report) in the Korcari Wilds being seen with Flemeth, who is said to have looked like her grandmother (doesn't that contradict what Morrigan says in Origins about remembering Flemeth looking young?)
- Little stories of Morrigan venturing into villages around the Korcari Wilds, having socially awkward moments and then transforming into a bird or bear and running off.
- Little story of Morrigan as told from a Lothering villager, about how this villager's kid goes up to Morrigan and asks for one of Morrigan's feathers from her outfit. Morrigan gives the kid a feather and the kid cherishes it, thinking its magic... until the kid dies of plague.
- The Flemeth entry mentions other Witches of the Wild being spotted in other specific locations around Thedas, besides Yavana and Morrigan.
- Morrigan was seemingly going around Thedas digging up ancient artifacts like Eluvians and bringing them back for Celene.
- There is one piece of art, maybe its unique for the book or concept art of some kind showing what looks like a bunch of Ferelden people, gathered around a fire with one guy looking like he's telling a story. I don't recognize any of the people in the picture, except for Morrigan who's sitting there listening with a goblet in her hand. It's strange since you've very clearly got Morrigan but then a bunch of nondescript people.
- Little vignette from the POV of some Orlesian noble describing how scandalous it was when Morrigan strode into Court wearing dark purple and black when the fashion of the day dictated she should be wearing white and blue. At the next Orlesian Ball, most dresses were dark purple and black.
- The ending to Morrigan's entry makes it ever so ominous- " Once again, after the Inquisition's victory at the Temple of Sacred Ashes, Morrigan vanished...though not without the kind of attention and infamy that guarantee, should she appear again, it will certainly be noticed by all."
On Templar POV report as a retcon- Maybe, though she does mention that Flemeth might have disguised her appearance to lure men and whatnot. Might be a retcon of sorts or an oversight, or simply part of the frail old grandma & little girl act Flemeth had her partake in, considering it's a templar making the report, that seems likely to me. Was it ever implied that Flemeth might "recharge" her vitality/youthfulness by draining the life from the men she captures? Relevant dialogue branches for reference:
Waiting on your big post before I'll get into the nitty-gritty of Flemeth any more with you, this quickly gets into the whole series of Mythal theories.
On Morrigan venturing into villages:
This is something I'd been toying with writing about recently and it's an area that might have been good to explore in Origins. Particularly when you get past the romance cut-off point, it would be cool to dig a little deeper into her past on this front. As an aside, I've always been quite fond of the Korcari Wilds for some reason so learning about the surrounding area sounds good, I've always found Morri's story about stealing the golden mirror quite endearing.
On the plague feather:
This is quite interesting, though it certainly escalated quickly toward a nasty outcome from the way you describe it. It'll be good to read that in more detail nonetheless. Makes you think about if these types of events also fuel the survival of the fittest mentality and even if at a stretch (if it is an act of kindness) Flemeth might have something to do with the outcome, to engineer Morrigan away from that mindset. To that end, you have the enterprising Morrigan stealing out of the Wilds proper, maybe Flemeth kept tabs on her activities more than she realised?
As for the act and outcome itself:
-Was it intentional? Did the villagers wrong her?
-Can't do good for doing bad? Is this Morrigan trying to do something nice but bad things happen regardless?
On other Witches of the Wilds:
Raises questions as to the "retconnish" nature of Flemeth's goals with Morrigan. "I raise my daughters to pass on this spirit to them, except that I don't tell the daughter that I actually want to pass the soul onto, they run away and I only happen upon them by chance." Riiigght. Although I think the general idea of what they're going for with Morrigan is to break the cycle as it were, but I'll get into that in a future post.
On that subject, it occurs to me that if they'd wanted to do this whole Flemeth & her daughters thing and combine it with the problematic separate PC per game approach, why exactly aren't they utilising these other daughters they keep alluding to when they switch games? We've been waiting for some Morrigan answers and closure since what, 2009? The current approach just seriously screws with us and is handwaved away with "Morrigan's story isn't just about the romance" which is dismissive BS at its finest.
On searching for artifacts:
I'll be interested to read more on this, seems to be a mutually beneficial arrangement, though it seems Morrigan gains the most from this setup.
On that image:
I'd need to see the image to say for sure but it could possibly be a metaphor for Morrigan standing apart from society/without friends/allies, maybe?
On fashionista Morrigan:
That's some classic Morri. As I've commented on before, it was good to see those personal developments in her character and she's able to blend in to some extent whilst still standing apart.
On more Morrigan in the future:
It will be noticed by the Morri thread, no doubt. What more is there to say really that we haven't covered already, you know my thoughts on this tend towards the negative. Suffice it to say if we find ourselves in a similar situation to the Leliana fans and have to prod the writers for a 140 character *idea* of what a character *might* do via Twitter because her relationship/family was deemed unimportant, I shall not be impressed. Like we've mentioned before, you can only drag out the secrecy BS for so long before it loses meaning and we're already looking at 7+ real world years on from DAO and dealing with her via another irrelevant PC. It's hardly ideal.
Its a really nice book just physically. Usually I don't get this sort of stuff but the illustrations and everything in it are all really nice. It's got what seems to be a pretty complete version of the Chant of Light and some other bits in it on the lands outside of Thedas which are interesting too. Forgot to add that they have nothing in there for Kieran, which makes sense I suppose given he's completely optional. His only appearance is in the huge group shot illustration of basically every Dragon Age NPC they have in the front of the book.
Well, I'll almost certainly get it digitally, my house is already full of collectible stuff that goes unused and I still have to find a safe spot for the Witcher 3 CE edition goodies... Anyway, I think they could have put in something regarding Kieran, especially considering his role in Morri's life, so I find that more than a little disappointing. But much like BioWare's default worldstate, I find their attitude towards squandering potential to be baffling.
Anything in there regarding the lands to the west where our good pal HoF has headed off to? That info would be very useful.
The whole token for shapeshifting idea is interesting too. Although I'm guessing the visuals there are probably dictated the other way around- the concept artists or whoever is drawing Morrigan or Flemeth just toss in some little visual cues that tie into their shapeshifting nature.
Then again, we never really know how the learning of shapeshifting works, except for what Morrigan says in Origins, right? Like Vivienne says in Inquisition how most Circle mages don't know much about shapeshifting magic and Vivienne is probably about as well educated a CIrcle mage as you could find. As I recall, doesn't Morrigan just say how she learns the forms of other animals by basically studying them or kind of living amongst them? Then of course you have Morrigan potentially picking up the dragon form in Inquisition by osmosis from Flemeth via the WoS.
I'm just trying to think of any other shapeshifter characters in the Dragon Age lore besides Morrigan, Flemeth and Yavana or any other Witches of the Wilds?
Regarding character appearances, sure, that's likely the case. On that note, I think I'd have liked to see a slight wardrobe change for Morri, a little closer to her sacred ashes/concept look considering the climate but with a little of the Orlesian flair subtly added in here and there. But then there were those theories some years back about Morrigan not feeling the cold iirc, which tied in with the dragon blood theories that were floating around at the time.
Anyway, as far as the shapeshifting goes, I can't recall any other shapeshifters off hand. The shapeshifting conversation was the only other time Morrigan touched on the preservation angle (with the DR being where the motive is put into action) - during the chat on shapeshifting she mentions a desire to preserve non-circle magic traditions and talks about possible Dalish origins of the magic. To the point though, no I don't recall the exact specifics being divulged, from her descriptions though it would seem it requires one to watch, study and understand the subject. You've also got the "call of the wilds" side of her, which somewhat suggests maybe something of their behaviour rubbed off on her as well and was possibly as aspect of learning the technique. What's odd though is that Morrigan can teach Wynne/Warden how to shapeshift quite quickly, but I suspect that's more of a gameplay necessity than anything else.
The highlighted sections below, in addition to expressing a desire to preserve non-Circle magic traditions also make me think of how maybe Flemeth was passing on the dragon-specific shapeshifting knowledge to Morrigan (and everything that goes with it). The ideas of successors/inheritors, the passing of something from one generation to the next certainly seem to tie in with this.
Edit: And I just remembered another tidbit I came across. It's sort of insinuated in the little entry they have on Finn and Arianne from Witch Hunt that Dog probably went with the Warden through the Eluvian after all! I don't remember the exact wording but it was described how Arianne and Finn had gone off after they left the company of the Warden and Dog. So if Dog didn't remain with Finn and Arianne, I imagine he probably went with the Warden.
Awesome!
Retour en haut
