Livia Herathinos as a companion?

I'm not sure she was as unhappy with the betrothal as he was. As far as I am aware the only real reference to her was to Varric when he says: "Relieved I'm gone, I expect." So it could be simply what Dorian wants to believe. She may have been content enough to carry through with the arranged marriage and even happy to let Dorian indulge himself as he pleased provided she was allowed to do the same. She could even be furious with him for breaking the engagement as he does because of her own ambitions. That could actually be more interesting than someone who couldn't care less about the fact it came to nothing.

Not sure why it should be assumed she would approve of the Lucerni though. If she was unhappy with the betrothal, it could be because she had her own ideas about the direction Tevinter should take, which was at variance with both her own family and that of the Pavus'. It would actually be rather intriguing to have someone as a companion with that sort of background connection to Dorian but totally opposed to what the Lucerni stand for. What if she was an ally of the Black Divine or secret follower of one of the Old Gods? Either of those would be interesting for any mage companion but particularly someone who was actually familiar with Dorian.

Yes please, I would love for BioWare to lecture me all about how living openly as a gay man hurts the feelings of teh straight wimmenz.

Dorian described her as having an hourglass figure, so I’m on board.

Personally, I always thought that Dorian's personal story would've been better if she was involved rather than his father. It'd have been more interesting and fitting to see her want the marriage to go through in order to strengthen both households against a common enemy, rather than it turning into a conversion therapy/gay acceptance after school special like it is now. I would have liked Dorian's character more had he stuck to his personal beliefs and refused someone whose family was in danger from being destroyed instead of the black and white story we had with his father.

Yeah, Gil's story in Mass Effect didn't focus nearly enough on lady opinions. We need a woman who will LITERALLY DIE if a gay guy doesn't marry her RIGHT NOW.

Dorian’s story isn’t black and white, that’s what I found so relatable about it.

Lots of people have sketchy relationships with their parents (not just gay folks with homophobic families — see “narcissist parent” forums for example), or have to come to terms with the fact that a parent did extremely regrettable things. But it’s all mixed together with fun times you’ve had with that parent, so it’s very emotionally confusing. A piece of you comes from them, so there are times when they understand you better than anyone in the world. But at the same time they’ve done this horrible stuff, possibly in a misguided bid to protect you, possibly to protect themselves, and that gets jumbled together with the good times. Plus, since you grew up with them, every molecule in your body wants to treat what they’re like as normal, because you’ve known no other way.

So if they come to you with something sort of resembling an apology, it’s really hard to process what your best option is. Will forgiving them give me the most personal closure? Will I feel better if I hold firm? Are they expecting anything in return for their apology? They were only doing what they thought was best, right? Hold on, what if they still think “what’s best” is manipulating me into complying with them? God, are my friends judging me for being on such poor terms with my parents?

I appreciate that Gaider explored that grey area, because it’s something I struggle with myself.

Geez, in all the thinking I've done about Dorian, I never considered this aspect. He even alludes to it back at Skyhold when he says, "Maker knows what you must think of me now, after that whole display." I never looked at it at that angle before, but I think that's right for him, too, considering how he feels about the Inquisitor's friendship.

Damn, like I needed another reason to want to hug the guy.

Well, to be fair, I doubt Dorian actually told that to many people, if any, given his reticence over personal issues. Those that he did tell probably would not be of the sort to say such things. Also, he was a grown man when this happened in his late 20s.

As far as I know, no. You get the exact same scenes on the friend path as on the romance path, only the romance scenes have alternate dialogue. Initially, he just tells you about Jill when you have your game out together. At high enough friendship, he introduces her (with different dialogue depending on romance yes/no), and later on there is the baby discussion (with different dialogue depending on romance yes/no).

I'm guessing it is the joke about Gil not fulfilling his duty as a man or however it went. 

As for the topic, if we are to have a female Tevinter mage as a companion I'd rather have Francesca from the recent comics over Livia.