I think he became a Templar in my game, which I don't recall improving his personality much.
Dalisclock plays through the Dragon Age Trilogy and makes a lot of running commentary along the way. Spoilers abound.
- Thread starter Dalisclock
- Start date
It does not. Because it’s a decision more or less made out of spite.
Yeah, I found those and normally just turned them in when I was in the area. They feel very phoned in, comparable to some of the meh quests in origins.
But yeah, I didn't take him to the deep roads and act 2 opens with him joining the Templars and then I pretty much never see him again. Then again, he's kind of a prick with a combat style I don't use so I barely notice most of the time.
Last edited:
It took me a little bit to even figure out what was going on. Like, Hawke finds a random fork or whatever in a crate somewhere, and then later you talk to someone and get some money with no dialogue. How did Hawke even know who it belonged to?!
Engraved cutlery must be a big thing in Kirkwall
So along the many things I've picked up over the course of DA2 are a bunch of codex entries, most of which I've skimmed. Howevere, there's a series I've picked up and it's caught my interest because of how fuckng creepy it seems to be. Known as the Enigma of Kirkwall, it almost reads like a Lovecraft Story or something but it heavily, heavily implies one of the reasons Kirkwall seems to have so many issues is because it wasn't just a slave colony and a place of mass suffering, it was one by design.
Among the more interesting ones.
It also reminds me of this.
Among the more interesting ones.
and this one, which is even more disturbing.
It seems to imply the entire city is one massive Blood Magic Altar or something like that, and thousands were sacrified for some horrific purpose and....I mean, holy shit, no wonder Kirkwall has ever other mage turning to Blood Magic and Demons just popping up in the streets seemingly at Random. The veil must be very, very thin in Kirkwall.
It also reminds me of this.
That sounds much more interesting than what the plot actually focuses on.
Its interesting background lore and probably a good reason that any city taken from the Tevinter Imperium should be knocked down and rebuilt, but if they’d made this the focus of the story then eventually they’d need to explain it. And as the people who endlessly bitched about the Leviathan DLC for Mass Effect 3 have made clear, mysteries suck after you explain them.
Besides, why would Hawke or anyone in their circle (har har) know or care about it? They’re not scholars of magic academia or Imperial History.
The game would have also been better if you played as scholars of magic and not Hawke. Because Hawke sucks, and doesn't really do very much apart from beat up random thugs and twiddle their thumbs for 10 years.
I'd say that's more along the lines of "if your explanation is fucking stupid, don't bother".
So what does Hawke do? The story sets up like The Champion of Kirkwall did some amazing stuff that influenced the course of history, but Hawke is kind of just there as events unfold around them. Hawke has no influence, and no proactive role in the story. Nobody listens to Hawke. You can't even make Carver stop whinging at you. Hawke kills who needs killing, but only after everything's been screwed up, and the other person has made the first move and forced the fight.
It's not for a lack of trying on Hawke's part, though. Pretty much the entire point of Dragon Age II's story is that yes, sometimes the right person in the right place at the right time can fix things...but they can't stop things that have been festering for literally years, and that goes double when you have other parties actively sabotaging your efforts. Hawke might have been able to at least slow down if not outright prevent the Quanari uprising, because they got the respect of the Arishok...except the Viscount didn't do anything to help, and Sister/Mother Petrice actively sabotaged any of Hawke's efforts in order to spark the uprising, and she posthumously got her wish. Things go to shit in Act III not because Hawke doesn't use their position, but because they are basically outranked by everyone who is truly causing the problems, and the problems have been brewing for literally over a decade by this point.
Going on the deep road expedition is very much a proactive decision, so was leaving Ferelden for Kirkwall in the first place. As discussed, you can give Aveline to the Arishock to have them relatively peacefully leave the city and you have quite a bit of leeway on how to handle a lot of quest which can end in completely different way. Yeah I guess this isn't a game where you have completly different act depending on what you do, but that's pretty much impossible to do because it would involve making dozen of acts. As for Carver, depending on your decision he can end up a templar, dead or a grey warden.
The point of why the story is setup as a review of what Hawke did is ultimately because of the action of Anders, which are a pretty fucking big deal, now Inquisition kinda shit all over that, but that's an inquisition problem.
Most of which time Hawke has been sitting around twiddling their thumbs, only waking up once every 3 years or so.
This really feels like a byproduct of the 18 month dev cycle, like many of the other flaws. They had to get something workable in a year and a half because either Bioware higher ups or Papa EA demanded it. And having big chunks of the plot happen through Varric Narrating was one of the compromises. Arguably with a longer dev cycle we would have seen more story development within the framework of the game.
Honestly I'm shocked the game is as good as it is considering.
Last edited:
Eh...The problem with the Leviathan DLC was much less in that it explained a mystery and more that it was...too intimately tied to the storyline. Rather than being a side-plot, it was built from the ground up to better set up the Starchild. This created a double-dose of resentment. First in that its raison d'etre was to 'foreshadow' (albeit post-release) what was easily the most hated segment in the entire trilogy. Second, that same purpose meant that what was essentially a missing chapter in the main plotline had been turned into paid DLC, which is never a good look. This is especially true when the game had already gotten similar criticism for cannibalizing its content for Day 1 DLC with From Ashes (the Javik DLC).
Mark of the Assasin
Finished most of the Sidequests/Companion quests in act 3. The Zevran one was fine, though it was nice to see him again. Having Isabella along is quite amusing for that one because they have a history. And there's one with Isabella that's also fun, clearing her debt. The one with Nathaniel from Awakening is basically running around part of the Deep Road Map again with Nathanial in Tow and fighting so Orges and it's fine. I forgot to take Anders and that probably would have been more fun to hear them banter about the old days. Apparently there was a Fenris Sidequest I missed in Act 2 and i had to have him with me for it to trigger, which I almost never do. I have no idea if I can even trigger it now or the one in Act 3 either. OTOH, I'm not really into Fenris so maybe it doesn't matter?
I left the Anders one alone for the moment("Justice") and did the Mark of the Asassin DLC and that was a fun Diversion. You get to go to an Orlesian castle up in the mountains, go on a hunt, attend a party, break out of prison and all sorts of japes. Oh, and you get to hang around with a guest star party member named Tallis. So Tallis...I haven't quite made up my mind about her. She's an Elf Rogue who is secretly a Qunari agent(though she hints at such a couple times before the reveal), but she's also played by Felicia Day. There's also a tie-in Web series called Redemption also about Tallis, though it's unclear if that's before or after this adventure.
I enjoyed her being around for an hour or two but it's hard for me to shake the feeling this is Day's Original DA character(DO NOT STEAL) and she's friends with someone at Bioware and that's the big reason she's even here at all. The character is this wierd mix of Qunari believer who you can have discussions with the Qun about and Snarky geeky action girl Assasin.......and Im not exactly sure it works. I'm not saying a character like that can't work but OTOH I'm not sure it works here.
Tallis aside it's a fun DLC, with a lot of funny dialogue and getting out of Kirkwall is nice. I do believe this is the first time we've actually seen Orlais at all in the series so far and it was a nice departure. There's also an option to do a sneaky mission to get inside the castle, which isn't particularly well implemented because the engine just isn't cut out for for it and Tallis just kind of teleports once you've cleared a few guards but is otherwise no help here.
I'll probably start the Legacy DLC today so I can focus on finishing up DA2 once this is done.
Finished most of the Sidequests/Companion quests in act 3. The Zevran one was fine, though it was nice to see him again. Having Isabella along is quite amusing for that one because they have a history. And there's one with Isabella that's also fun, clearing her debt. The one with Nathaniel from Awakening is basically running around part of the Deep Road Map again with Nathanial in Tow and fighting so Orges and it's fine. I forgot to take Anders and that probably would have been more fun to hear them banter about the old days. Apparently there was a Fenris Sidequest I missed in Act 2 and i had to have him with me for it to trigger, which I almost never do. I have no idea if I can even trigger it now or the one in Act 3 either. OTOH, I'm not really into Fenris so maybe it doesn't matter?
I left the Anders one alone for the moment("Justice") and did the Mark of the Asassin DLC and that was a fun Diversion. You get to go to an Orlesian castle up in the mountains, go on a hunt, attend a party, break out of prison and all sorts of japes. Oh, and you get to hang around with a guest star party member named Tallis. So Tallis...I haven't quite made up my mind about her. She's an Elf Rogue who is secretly a Qunari agent(though she hints at such a couple times before the reveal), but she's also played by Felicia Day. There's also a tie-in Web series called Redemption also about Tallis, though it's unclear if that's before or after this adventure.
I enjoyed her being around for an hour or two but it's hard for me to shake the feeling this is Day's Original DA character(DO NOT STEAL) and she's friends with someone at Bioware and that's the big reason she's even here at all. The character is this wierd mix of Qunari believer who you can have discussions with the Qun about and Snarky geeky action girl Assasin.......and Im not exactly sure it works. I'm not saying a character like that can't work but OTOH I'm not sure it works here.
Tallis aside it's a fun DLC, with a lot of funny dialogue and getting out of Kirkwall is nice. I do believe this is the first time we've actually seen Orlais at all in the series so far and it was a nice departure. There's also an option to do a sneaky mission to get inside the castle, which isn't particularly well implemented because the engine just isn't cut out for for it and Tallis just kind of teleports once you've cleared a few guards but is otherwise no help here.
I'll probably start the Legacy DLC today so I can focus on finishing up DA2 once this is done.
Last edited: