DA 4 Romances! New info for real this time!!! Zom-bangin'?

The advantage of having a big cast (and lots of romances) is that there's more chance for everyone to find someone they like. None of my Inquisition favourites are central to the plot, but I'd find the ensemble a lot less interesting without them. Without Blackwall and Sera and Dorian - none of whom have much to do with the story - I'd be missing all my favourite romances. As for the most plot-relevant ones - Cassandra's is OK but not really for me, and Solas was one of the weakest romances in the game, IMHO. (No relationship where all the interesting bits are in the compulsory break-up scene or after it is going to win my seal of approval.) Obviously plenty of people disagree with me about all of the above, but that's the beauty of having eight romances available!

What really bugs me about Blackwall is that... if he's not a representative for the Grey Wardens, then what the fuck is he doing here?

Half the party members are already there just because "It's The Right Thing To Do (tm)", which is a terrible and boring motivation, but at least they also bring resources, connections, knowledge or, at the bare minimum, in the case of Cole, an interesting character hook that is clear from the outset. You know, stuff I can actually use. Stuff that might actually matter to the main story (although ultimately most of it doesn't).

Obviously some people here think Blackwall's character hook is interesting, but I can't understand why. "Grey Warden who is mysteriously immune to Corypheus' influence" is an interesting character hook that at least has the potential of plot relevance and a satisfying payoff. "Random dickbag who murdered kids and then caused massive inconvenience to me and my entire organisation by lying about it" is, if anything, the opposite of a pay-off, though I have no idea what the term for that might be. Sure, if you pay attention, you might see some foreshadowing that Blackwall isn't who he says he is, but the fact that he's lying about his identity is not my problem. My problem (at least from a narrative perspective) is that he essentially turns out to be nobody. If you're going to go that way, then the truth needs to be more interesting than the lie, not less.

I mean, who the fuck is Thom Rainier, and why should I care? I never heard of him before, or any of the people he killed, so from a player perspective, I don't really give a shit. I don't have it in me to get emotional about fictional innocent children who were murdered offscreen, several years before the events of the game even took place. The most I feel is annoyance at the time I spent running around picking up Grey Warden shit for him.

Also, if he was never really a Grey Warden, then why was he in possession of Grey Warden treaties? Was Original Recipe Blackwall carrying them when he died? Why would he have them on his person when he was just wandering aimlessly around Thedas, scouting out potential recruits?

I don't believe that this particular story was somehow more interesting and worthwhile than the character concepts that were left on the cutting room floor.

Actually, what I find strange about Blackwall is that he tells the Inquisitor that he was in Ferelden during the 5th Blight. I just recently played that part and that is kinda lame TBH. Everyone who played DA:O knows it as a fact that only two Grey Wardens survived the Battle of Ostagar (there was Riordan too in the final battle) unless they think it is retconned (TBH I thought they retconned it somehow). The Inquisitor also heard stories about the Blight as he/she can talk about Loghain with Threnn. And of course there is Leliana who would obviously know the truth but she kept the knowledge for herself for some reason. I mean it was kinda obvious he was lying when he said he was in Ferelden. Yes, the Inquisitor may not know it for a fact but players who played Origins can actually realize he is lying the second he starts to talk about Grey Wardens. I think he is not really a good liar after all.
I agree that they could have made his real identity more plot relevant but I still like him.

The number of times Leliana should have known something but either didn't or for some peculiar reason decided not to tell was really irritating. She was meant to be an expert spy master and yet revelations like those of Thom Rainier proved she wasn't. The bit about Blackwall having been part of the Orlesian army waiting on the borders of Ferelden during the 5th Blight was actually upstairs in her raven loft.

What is daft is that World of Thedas 2 has the entry for Blackwall as part of the inner circle giving the history of the actual Blackwall whilst Thom Rainier is included among the section headed "The Inquisition's Allies". Even if WoT2 is meant to be written in the style of a locally produced historical record, by the time it was produced the whole business of Rainier was out in the open. So why still pretend that the real Blackwall had anything to do with the Inquisition? His history was totally irrelevant considering no one referred to it in the actual game and clearly Rainier was the member of the inner circle even if it was not under his true name.

It is strange, given the history of Blackwall that is outlined there that no one we met realised Rainier was an imposter. Blackwall had been a prominent member of the Grey Wardens in Orlais since 9:17. He was awarded Silverite Wings of Valor for his actions in saving fellow Orlesian Wardens in the Deep Roads following the 5th Blight but during that action he acquired an injury to his leg that left him with a limp thereafter. I don't recall Rainier even attempting to limp, which would be odd if you are trying to pass yourself off as someone who did. Also, whilst Stroud spent most of his time in the Freemarches, you think he would have known enough about a decorated hero of the Wardens to spot the fake, or alternatively would have been informed that Blackwall had gone AWOL and asked him why he had lost all contact with the Wardens over the preceding years. If Warden Blackwall had gone missing with Warden Treaties in his possession, you'd think they'd have made a bit more effort at trying to locate him.

Actually according to WoT2 he left his Warden-Commander in Montsimmard saying that he was returning to Val Chevin but failed to arrive. Instead of thinking maybe something bad had happened to him along the way, apparently the other Wardens just assumed he had gone rogue. Why would they automatically assume that a Warden hero who had faithfully served the order for some 20 years prior to his disappearance had gone rogue? You know, very little of any of the plotlines that involved the Wardens in DAI made any sense to me.

This is honestly what I assumed when I heard that line. I mean it's not like everyone had a "find the grey wardens" app on their iphones or anything.

Damn all this Blackwall hate is really getting me down  Why is it so hard sometimes to just accept other people like characters/romances that you don't? First Solas, now Blackwall. Y'all comin for my heart, you bastards! Damn!

Well, as I said, the issue is not that he lied, it's that the truth is boring.

Basically, he was set up to be Buffy and then his big character reveal is that he was actually Xander all along.

Sort of OT, but I love how incredibly shifty the Wardens can get away with being.

They’ve been questionable from The Calling, which IIRC even came out slightly before Origins. But since we played as a warden, all the weird shit they do is put down to a few bad apples. Like, we could easily find out the Blight’s been puppeteering the whole damn order, orchestrating some millennia-long scheme, and it would 100% fit their behavior so far.

It’s like that trope in murder mysteries, where the best place to hide the killer is in the very first person you meet — you haven’t started looking for villains yet.

I suggested over on the Blackwall thread that they could have changed his backstory slightly;

Have Thom Rainier be one of the soldiers responsible for attacking Highever during Origins, causing him to go on the run. This leads to him running into Warden-Constable Blackwall, transferring to Ferelden to bolster the Warden ranks in the country, only for Blackwall to die during the attack on Vigil's Keep at the start of Awakening.

Thom Rainier, fearing no-one will believe he was recruited and feeling guilty that Blackwall died protecting him, steals his armour and identity, before going on the lam. As far as history is concerned, Thom Rainier died in the Blight and Warden Blackwall is missing, presumed dead after the attack on Vigil's Keep.

And, bold statement here: I find Blackwall's history more interesting than Solas's. I would've actually PREFERRED Solas be little more than crotchety old elf who's interested in the Fade. His whole "mwahahaa I'm actually a god" reveal irks me and doesn't intrigue me at all. But Blackwall? Blackwall intrigues me.

(p.s. I love them both)

It's interesting. I don't like Solas as a character, but I found him more interesting than Blackwall because he served as a lore reveal about the past and part of the mystery that has plagued the series since the beginning. He's a terrorist who wants to commit genocide because he can't get over the fact that his world is dead and honestly should stay dead.



As to Blackwall, I honestly couldn't find myself to like anything about him. Especially when one of his comments to Dorian read as kinda homophobic, I really didn't lose any sleep when I sent his ass to the Wardens at the end.