The next DRAGON AGE™: Behind the scenes at BioWare

yeah, this thing had upset me too. A lot. One of the most disturbing thing in the trilogy.
Cornering Fiona in front of the trebuchets and then blowing her up during the battle of Haven was one of the highest moments of satisfaction and enjoyment of my entire playthrough.



Solas, if not properly racist, is definitely a classist. A Nietzschean. He loves and appreciates exceptional individuals (like him), who stand out, who fight to save the world and people.
The inquisitor is certainly exceptional, a hero, a legend, an Übermensch, and therefore worthy of respect.

I would not be surprised if, the moment he destroy the veil, Solas guarantees the inquisitor (a "special safe-passage to the new world".
or that if he could, he would

I completely agree, the writers were pulling some serious power moves. Just the fact they were building up to that epilogue over the course of three games....I still remember the moment finishing the game for the first time and watching the epilogue and being like omfg....WHAT. I honestly didn't notice the hints at all, over the course of my entire 100+ hr playthrough. Honestly the writing and foreshadowing in DAI really holds up, even today as a 2014 game I'm still blown away at how they managed to subtly hint at Solas being Fen'Harel the entire game.

I'm not even sure that kind of game planning is viable in this day and age which is a shame. I just hope the momentum is maintained for DA4 and the veil isn't a five minute apocalypse before the status quo is restored, because there is so much they could do from here.

I wish they had done this too. If I went the conscript the mages path because as the Inquisitor says they would be mad to trust them after everything they have done, you are made out to be in favour of the old style Circles and anti mage freedom. I just didn't trust Fiona as a leader, or those who encouraged her to betray the monarch and people of Ferelden after they offered them sanctuary, and through inaction and turning a blind eye if nothing else, were responsible for the attrocity against the tranquil. We should have been able to judge Fiona as well as Alexius but that was denied us.

As you say, at least if you take the Templar path, you get to kill Fiona, so she is no longer leader of the mages in anything. I always disband the Templars and then Leliana frees the mages, so ultimately I feel that gives me a greater sense of justice being served than the mage path.

I'd love to have that in game.

I hope we go back to the old school magic system. Spirit, Primal, Entropy and Creation. Splitting magic among the elements (only 3! Where Earth at, or is it too associated with the Titans?) always confused me. Mages biggest strength is their versatility. If you simplify among basic elemental lines it becomes a game of rock, paper, scissors (or Storm, Inferno, Winter, with Spirit as a second skill tree everyone needs). Thankfully we mages are returning to a more civilized land and not the ill-educated barbarians of the South.

Indeed, avoiding Time Travel shenanigans is one of the major reasons I always went for the Templars. It also added nicely into the personal story of my Inquisitor. Seeing how corrupt the Inquisition could potentially become was one of the major reasons I disbanded in Trespasser, that and minimising the risk of infiltration, sabotage, abuse of Inquisition resources and that and not becoming a hypocrite after dealing with the corruption of Templars, Seekers, Grey Wardens, the Chantry, the Orlesian Empire, etc.

I liked how the time travel showed us what would happen if we fail, really driving it home more than just being told like in the Templar version and serving as a good driving force for the Inquisitor to seal the Breach and stop those responsible.

Make Thedas Great Again.

That was a nonsense. Why was she desperate? The monarch of Ferelden had offered them sanctuary, quite possibly even before the Conclave was called. They had been subject to trade sanctions by Starkhaven as a result and yet still didn't back down. They persuaded a leading noble to offer them greater security by giving them the run of his Castle, one of the most defensible locations in Ferelden, so even had the Templars attacked them there, they would be in a strong position to repel them until the monarch could turn up and deal with the assailants causing trouble. There was no suggestion that after the explosion at the Conclave the monarch had asked the mages to leave.

Then Alexius, a foreign national from the one power everyone in southern Thedas fears, rolls up and offers them indentured servitude as an alternative, right after the explosion at the Conclave (highly suspicious in itself). Why would Fiona see this an acceptable alternative to digging in and staying independent? Particularly since in order to get to Ferelden in the first place, her rebel "army" had to leave another defensible location on the border of Tevinter. If things were going so badly for them, why not simply cross the border and throw themselves on the mercy of Tevinter then, not accept the offer of sanctuary by a nation state in the south, travel across half of Thedas to get there and then sell out that ruler at the first sign of trouble? Then they kick the noble and his family out of their castle and stay there with their new master. Did not Fiona ask when they were going to leave? If they were going to stay on in the Castle regardless, then why surrender your autonomy to Alexius at all?

I feel that Buckledemon was right in that it was never intended to be a grey choice. Because they knew people had a tendency to sympathise with the mages in previous games, they rigged the entire plot line to make going to the Templars the sensible (and moral) choice and to make it seem as though people in the south were right to be prejudiced against mages because the moment they are given the chance they sell out to Tevinter. Then on top of that, if you do a search of Redcliffe village, you discover the shed with the skulls in it. Forget all the time travel nonsense. Those are essentially the facts when you turn up to potentially do a deal with the mages. Yet in order for Fiona to have acted in this way towards the people of Ferelden and not realised the tranquil were constantly disappearing she had to be deaf, blind and stupid. She had been an appalling leader and if we do decide to take a chance on the mages because it is clear there are those in the rank and file who are unhappy with her decision, we are forced into having to continue having her as the leader of the free mages, although at least if you conscript them she has to answer to the PC. By the epilogue to Trespasser it is clear that Fiona continues to be a hopeless leader of the College of Enchanters because they are shit scared of Vivienne no matter who is Divine. At least the Bright Hand of formerly conscripted mages have a bit more backbone and stand up to her, likely because they ditched Fiona as their mouthpiece.

If they had wanted a truly grey choice they should have dropped the time travel explanation for Fiona's behaviour, which as I say still doesn't explain the logic of it, and have Alexius controlling her with blood magic.  So you now have a valid reason for wanting to rescue the mages from his control, rather than simply walking into an obvious trap, but at the same time it might still seem expedient to deal with the Breach first by going to the Templars for help.  The problem is having an either or choice in the first place and then trying to give the illusion that it is grey.   Then tying in consequences down the line to this choice, rather than letting you state why you are taking the action you are.  See below.


Yes, you can do this but so far as the game is concerned, this makes you pro-Circles and greatly increases the chances of getting Vivienne or Cassandra as Divine.   So it is preferable to go to the Templars and disband them because you are still on track to get Leliana that way and you have the best of both worlds in that scenario, the mages are officially free (all those mages who never sold out to Tevinter) and the Templar Order is officially no more.    Of course all this is knowledge you have in hindsight.    When you go to the Templars you don't know there is going to be the option of disbanding them, any more than you know that if you opt for the mages you are not totally condoning their actions.  At the time you don't know you can rig things in this way and doing anything other than allying with the mages is presented by the game as you not being in favour of free mages.