Here's What I (and maybe You) Did in DA2 Today

They only spent a night together, then Fenris leaves Hawke – so: they're not exactly a couple, until the end when Fenris feels prepared for a committed relationship. This can be disappointing but to me rather an interesting, good romance, maybe a little lame, but shows, he should heal before he can handle it. If you complete his romance, he's very nice.
Then not do it.
You can avoid it – but they attacked. Blame Marethari's stupidity.

***

It is.
In my last and probably favourite PT I rivaled both. It was surprisingly good (especially Aveline's rivalry – Varric's was not completed, just ~50%, because it hard with a not absolutely humourless, cruel sociopath – and my Hawke was a funny, rather merciful sociopath)
Nicer? She interrogated Varric, not invited him to a five-o-clock tea... (But true as well: she showed some common sense.)
Orsino and Meredith far not that equally bad as the game tried to suggest badly.

***

Probably the Templars such idiots...
He's great, of course, but not that great...

I did. I'm now seeing events in DAI in an entirely different light. I had no idea how DA2 was a direct set-up for DAI. This was not the case between DAO and DA2.

The Meredith thing wasn't so far off. She did have a piece of the idol. She might qualify as a red lyrium statue. I remember the red lyrium in Legacy but don't recall anyone seeing it as remarkable. Even when Bodahn looks at it all he says is that it's raw lyrium. Not comment about the color. Too bad Sandal wasn't around in DAI to fix all the red lyrium issues. Thanks for pointing me to this. I always had to use the SS Kaidan mod in ME but I'm not [yet] as invested in DA2

Sebastian ASAP sounds sketchy because I think it would too greatly alter his story. I just wanted to be able to romance him in the same way female Hawke could have. Never Hostile Dalish sounds good but I think I'll just try to make better choices with Merrill.

I do like Sebastian, as character – as Anders' opposite. It's a shame, he's DLC character. I think, his quests are good addition to the story, lore. 

I am starting a new playthrough today. And it is one that will actually be streamed live, starting tonight and likely twice a week on Fridays and Saturdays.

Hoping to do a full playthrough and role-play of it, so Friendship/Rivalry gains/losses will be real-time and not an attempt to game the system. Also likely going to go Male Mage, which was my original playthrough and havent done in years.

Hope it will be fun, will be interesting to see folks watch me play this time around. 

DA2 gets a lot of flak, but I think it did several things really well. Better than DAI even. I think most quests and characters are more interesting than DAI which was largely boring to me on both fronts. Hawke as a character is extremely entertaining (and more grounded) as is the banter between he/she and the party members. I like the more personal and smaller scaled story. I do not mind how depressing the game is as I think its a strong point of the game. Its just a shame that the game repeats so many environments and the gameplay is not fun. It would be a great game otherwise.

However, I'm not sure how much changes if Isabella is not recruited. I've always recruited her. She is a character I want to like more, but I just can't. I find her actions incredibly selfish and hard to forgive. Her romance is also pretty weak and it makes Hawke look like a putz. He's literally waiting years for her to come around it seems. Its also really dumb your decision to

You did nothing wrong – true, the pt's mostly in that thread, but you can post here anything about DA2, including the parts of your Hawke's adventure.

Well...

Yesterday I somehow beat the Sky Horror without losing a single party member.

It took me 4 hours but somehow Isabela survived, Aveline drew all the mobs and most importantly my mage Hawke and Tallis drew three Winter's Grasp + Drop Dead combos in a row.