Merrill - “It's a Keeper's job to remember.”

I adore Merrill, even though she makes a lot of grievous mistakes. The clumsiness, innocence and her shy personality are what I liked about her and made me vastly prefer her over Isabella, unpopular opinion, but there it is XD

Best character in Dragon Age

I always thought Merrill was a great character; she was intelligent, dedicated, witty. I thought she was one of the best examples of the Dalish, and I wish that she had been a companion in Inquisition. She was willing to sacrifice a future with her clan because she felt that advanced, revolutionary technology could potentially and irrevocably change the lives of the People for the better. She was adept with magic, never abused blood magic, was able to discern whether the templar recruit Keran was possessed, and could immediately distinguish the natures of the Profane Abomination and Torpor.

In Act I, you see her show empathy for human refugees from Ferelden, for the elves living in the Alienage, for the human Starkhaven Circle mages. In Act II, you can hear an exchange with Fenris where she makes it clear that the plight of the Andrastian elves matters. During the time of Inquisition, she has dedicated her life to help the elves who were bereft of their homes because of the Mage-Templar War; she's pretty much a de facto hahren (if not the actual hahren of the elves). There's a nice piece of art by cicadagirl here showing Merrill helping the elves.

When people tried to push their views on Merrill, she wouldn't succumb and stood up for herself, including Anders (when he tried to push Chantry teachings onto Merrill because she was Dalish):

Anders: Do Dalish honestly not recognize the difference between demons and beneficial spirits?

Merrill: We've never thought of the Fade as the home of our gods. It is another realm, another people's home. No different or more foreign than, say, Orzammar.

Varric: You can say that again.

Anders: But have you never studied the types of demons? They break down very clearly into different sins...

Merrill: Spirits differ from each other, just as you and Hawke and Isabela are all human. More or less...

A lot of people don't give her the credit she deserves, and I think that's a real shame. I also thought that Merrill would have easily filled the void of Inquisition with a pro-Dalish, pro-elven point of view by someone well-versed in the history of the Dalish and the history that's been pieced together over the centuries by the Elvhen.

In short, Merrill is a really wonderful character, and I think Inquisition would have been much better had she played a part in the story.

@bayonet: You sure do like bringing NSFW images into my character threads, huh?

Merrill has random bouts of insight that I really love. Like this comment re: Anders and Justice.

"Poor Anders. (...) I think he's broken the thing he wanted to save."

Owww.

Now here is a question that could lead to an interesting conversation: How do you think Merrill would have reacted to all of the revelations about the elves in Inquisition? 

Merrill might be my favorite Romance in any BW game I've played. She's sort of what Tali is supposed to be I think. (I care nothing for Tali, never saw her appeal but those who do describe her in very "Merrill-like" terms)

Her voice-actress is great, she has amazingly hilarious dialogue all over the place, she's innocent as can be... On my second run of DA2, to contrast with my staunchly Pro-Mage Hawke that I played the first time, I played a Pro-Templar Hawke who hated magic. But she always had a soft spot for Merrill because...well, just look at her! Just listen to her! Only Fenris and the ingrates in Merrill's clan can defy all this and be cruel to her. Rivaling Merrill is something I will never do again. I did it once just to see it and...it was horrid. I'm an awful person.

She meant well and she wasn't as stupid as the Keeper thought. I told Merrill at the end it was all th eKeeper's fault (because it was) and that it was time for Merrill to start living for herself and not her racist, narrow-minded, murderous clan. That was the lesson Merrill had to learn, not that she should be ashamed of her talents and gifts. She had to learn to think of herself for a change. She and Hawke will live a nice, happy life together now.

Yeah, while I think such revelations about the Elven Pantheon and Elvhanan would devastate Merrill, I think she would accept it and with that new knowledge try to find some new way to help build a better future for the elves. We see her do this in Dragon Age 2 where after the Eluvian was a bust and she was exiled from her clan(or the only survivor), she grieves but then focuses on helping the City Elves of Kirkwall and as Inquisition tells us a bunch of elves affected by the war. So it is logical that she would do the same with this. 

And I agree, while I'm not a fan of some of the Dalish stuff, a Dalish perspective outside the Inquisitor was needed to really reflect how the elves would take this. While Solas was pro-elf, he was more just pro-ancient elf and didn't react the same way as someone whose whole culture was built around this idealized utopian society only for it to be on par with the worst humanity has ever done. Maybe not Merrill specifically since she can be dead, but yeah some Dalish should have been there.

Merrill says that she only resorted to blood magic because there were no other options.

But what are the odds that she will actually drop it once she is done working on the eluvian? If another magic related need arises in the future, maybe she will deal with a demon again.

In other words, she will never stop doing it.

Plus as we learned in the Descent DLC, all modern magic is blood magic. Most people just use Titan blood aka Lyrium. 

"Blood magic comes from demons. They could counter every bit of lore I know."

Avernus, a blood mage.

And when Merrill dispelled a barrier by doing something as basic as cutting her wrist to boost spell power, Bethany felt a demon's presence.

Even if it can be done safely, as a general principle I wouldn't want to touch anything related to beings whose existence revolves around misery and deception.

Likewise, I wouldn't accept a gift from a drug dealer.



Lyrium isn't required to use magic.