Dragon Age II: EA boogaloo

[name_here]

Is there a consistent theology in DA:I between the Fade, Corypheus, the Golden City, and the Maker & Andraste? I haven't played DA:I (or Legacy for that matter), so I'm asking based almost entirely on what we saw in Origins and Awakening.

We know that Andraste was real, she did have (possibly divine) powers to the point where even her ashes could heal. The entire religion of the Chantry stems from Andraste, and everything in the tomb points to her being truly a prophet of the Maker - is there anything that links her to what we learn from Corypheus? Could she have been possessed by a particularly powerful fade spirit that granted her those powers? Could those spirits have remained after her death and guarded her tomb like we saw in DA:O?

You pretty much have to take the existence of the Maker on faith. You do not meet him, and no one who you meet who is older than the First Blight has met him either. Furthermore, the Fade is shaped by human emotions, and mages were much more accepted during Andraste's time than the present; the original Inquisition had a mage as its leader. So the supernatural defenses around the Urn could easily have been constructed by proto-Chantry mages, and the healing powers could originate from Lyrium as Oghren speculates or from a supercharged Faith spirit.

Also, yes, it's totally possible Andraste was a powerful mage who led a crusade against the Magisters for their casual use of human sacrifice and mind control.

[MetalixK]

On the subject of Anders one thing that has always bugged me is just how differently he's written in DA2 in contrast to how he's written in Awakening. In DAA he's a bit of a twat but still a good guy and doesn't so much hate Templars as he hates being locked up while in DA2 he's a just a utter wanker who does nothing but complain about how much he hates the Templars, is so clinging to Hawke even if you haven't romanced and a utter hypocrite.

But you know what the worst part about Anders in DA2 is originally his role would have been filled by Velanna and once you know that a billion puzzle pieces just fall into place. The overreaction to every minor injustice, being a jerk to anyone and everyone who doesn't agree with you in every minor way and being so filled with hate that they turned Justice into a spirit of Vengeance everything about Anders makes so much more sense when you replace him with Velanna.

The only thing that doesn't work is the whole obsession with mages being oppressed by Templars and how that ties into the ending of DA2 but you can work around that if you assume that the real reason for doing this was Velanna's way of making humans pay for the injustice put upon by elves by having them destroy each other.

Sure it likely wouldn't have made her better but it would have made more sense as Velanna is the companion that changes the least in DAA while Anders, Nathanial, Justice, Sigrun and Oghren go through some rather big changes thanks to their character arc. Also Anders could shows up when the Qunari start attacking Kirkwall in place of Stroud and I honestly wouldn't be surprised if that was that case.

Chalk it up to Anders' writer for DA2. She was a fangirl of the character. She also wanted there to be a button to skip gameplay parts.

[CharlesPhipps]

Velanna is also a poor choice.

Because Velanna is pretty much the embodiment of all the worst stereotypes of the Daelish, wouldn't live in a human community, and doesn't strike me as selfless enough to take Justice into herself. So, really, there's no way the story would be remotely similar.

Mind you, I think Anders was written the way he was so he would be less like "Alistair as a mage."

[Winter]

Chalk it up to Anders' writer for DA2. She was a fangirl of the character.

She had a funny way of showing it given how poorly written Anders was.

[CharlesPhipps]

Chalk it up to Anders' writer for DA2. She was a fangirl of the character.

She had a funny way of showing it given how poorly written Anders was.

I'm one of the people who liked Anders. Or, more precisely, I'm a person who likes Anders while also thinking he'd be an especially tiresome friend to have around in real life. Then again, I've always loved playing Mageneto, destroyer of the Templars.

[chaos42]

I felt a little board at the mid point i just felt like nothing was really happening to me just around me an im trying to drive evens but have no control of the accelerator. i know whats happening but i have no third choice the illusion of choice is important so it doesn't make you feel boxed in

[MetalixK]

Chalk it up to Anders' writer for DA2. She was a fangirl of the character.

She had a funny way of showing it given how poorly written Anders was.

Talent and Admiration for a character don't go hand in hand I'm afraid.

[CharlesPhipps]

I felt a little board at the mid point i just felt like nothing was really happening to me just around me an im trying to drive evens but have no control of the accelerator. i know whats happening but i have no third choice the illusion of choice is important so it doesn't make you feel boxed in

I always argue that when Gamemastering the important thing isn't necessarily that your PCs drive events but they have control over their reactions to events.

[Winter]

Chalk it up to Anders' writer for DA2. She was a fangirl of the character.

She had a funny way of showing it given how poorly written Anders was.

Talent and Admiration for a character don't go hand in hand I'm afraid.

I don't think it's so much a case of a lack of talent as it is the singular problem with DA2, the fact that it was rushed through development. Same thing happened with The Legend of Korra: Book 2 Spirits a lot of ideas that would have likely been worked out managed to make their way through as the second season, much like DA2, wasn't actually planned and the writers weren't given enough time to properly develop the story.

This is likely why Korra is so poorly written in the first half of the season, the writers didn't have the time to flesh out their her character arc and bits that likely would've been dropped made their way through so Korra goes from hot headed but overall nice person to utter twat who mistreats her boyfriend at every opportunity.

Also the creators of the show were still convinced that Mako was the best thing about the show so but couldn't think of a way to make the viewer like him so they just turned everyone around him into a jerk or a idiot so he would look better by comparison but that's for another time.

Anyways, same thing with Anders there was very little time to actually write the story or flesh out his character and as a result of that he is written very poorly. So my snark aside I do think that if there was more time put into developing DA2 Anders might have acted more like he did in DAA instead of what we got in DA2.

[CharlesPhipps]

I liked Mako just fine until he became a cheating scumbag who didn't back up his friends.

Some basic rules of writing likable characters.