Role of Inquisitor and Inquisition in DA4

"Solas has all the advantages and the Inquisitor has none". To me, that proves my point. A new protagonist is not going to be getting their own new story in DA4, they are ultimately going to be shoved into the Inquisitor's story. I don't see how that works.

A few examples.
So I went to talk to Solas. And the first conversation we have is about agriculture. And I'm like ... OK. So I went the second time and he talks to me about sanitation. And I'm wondering why do I talk to this person. So I go talk to him a third time and now he's talking to me about democratic elections. And I'm thinking, is the next conversation I'm going to have with Solas going to be about the public elementary school system, or basic economics? Because I really don't give a fuck about any of this.

And then I talked to Varric and I talked to Cassandra and their conversations were "Varric, you're in trouble" followed by "Save me, Inquisitor". And we did this something like 4 times, before the conversation escalated to Cassandra being a fan of Varrick's gay fanfiction novel, at which point we went to "Varric, finish your book, or you're in trouble" followed by "Save me, Inquisitor". Like this is some "Three Stooges" skit.

Not to mention the thrilling banter comprised by Cassandra saying "Did you just stereotype me, because I am a woman? You should be more sensitive in the future", Solas going "Did you just stereotype me, because I am an elf? You should be more sensitive in the future" and Varrick going "Did you just stereotype, because I am a dwarf? You should be more sensitive in the future". And I really didn't care about being more sensitive toward them in the future. Fuck them.

Then I met mr. Sarah Michelle Gellar, who only has one voice, Fred from Scooby Doo and I never felt like talking to him, then I met Sera, who I didn't even want to deal wish, so I sent her straight away, then I met Blackwall, who was OK and the rest I forget, because I was very much done with the game, at that point. I wasn't going to play a game with a bunch of nobodies, just for the off line by Blackwall, not to mention that the VO I chose for my Inquisitor at that point was getting on my nerves, because he was the most "m'lady" kind of guy I've ever had the displeasure of playing, I'd rather neck myself, than keep playing.

In stark contrast, let's take Grunt from ME2. In his introduction, he takes out 4-5 cerberus crewmen and fights Shepard in a tense scene. Later, when you talk to him, he tells you about the great Krogan generals of the past, their glorious battles, their strategies, he talks about literature and what it means to be a Krogan, a tankborn, the mother voice, interesting things. You talk to Thane and he talks about his training as an assassin, his wife and her tragic death, he's like a film noir assassin, he's unique, interesting, he has a backstory, vivid in his descriptions of his memories. You have Jack who talks about her time as a pirate, the cult she was in for a while, her dead "sisters" that she immortalized as tattoos on her arms, Cerberus, their experiments, her biotics, stuff I want to hear about.

And are any of them "sensitive" about each other? No. They're hardened. Grunt warns Shepard that if Garrus so much as looks at him wrong, he's going down, Jack tries to literally kill Miranda in the mesh hall, there's tension, but these people can handle themselves and if any of the others have a problem with them, that's their problem to handle. They're not going to let the others try and get under their skin and if they have a problem with someone, they're going to confront them about it. They're not going to whine about how the others are being "insensitive". They're not children.

Bioware has failed to make me care about any one single character they've introduced in any game, since DA2. I'm sure they all have their fans, more or less, but most of these games have not been well received and their casts are widely considered forgettable. It is difficult to strike up conversation about any of these characters and even when you do, there is little to be said. They're not particularly interesting, nor well thought out with little lasting appeal. Maybe that suits Bioware just fine, but it doesn't build fanbases. It procures an ephemeral crowd that is here today, gone tomorrow. You can't capitalize on that. In that sense, it is good that most of them will not be returning. But the expectation is that we are just getting a new batch of the same. I don't have expectations from the next Bioware game, other than it will have companions. Yes, I expect games to have characters in them. Do I care who they will be, or that I will care to talk to them? Highly doubtful. They'll be there, then they'll be gone the next and good riddance to them, once more, so we can repeat that with the next title. What is there to care about? I wish Bioware would at least give us the option to murder them all, on sight, because that's the extent of their usefulness. In Skyrim I would be able to, at least.

As I explained, IN THE VERY POST YOU ARE QUOTING, the advantage a new protagonist would have over Solas that the Inquisitor does not is that Solas would not respect them, and thus would underestimate them.

And it works by not involving the Inquisition at all and giving a new protagonist a reason to go after Solas that has nothing to do with the Inquisition.

As I keep saying, I advocate a time-skip to Solas already ruling the world, and the Inquisition eliminated.

And as I have said many times around the forums now, I never cared about Solas in the first place and I wish DA4 was about something else entirely so I ESPECIALLY don't care if I get a weak or strong version of the story.

As far as I'm concerned, it's already the weakest version it can possibly be, barring some miracle, because "ancient wizard back from the dead to rule the world" is the EXACT same plot we got in Inquisition! If BioWare are capable of taking the most played-out plot in the entire genre of fantasy and making it remotely interesting, the time to do that was in Inquisition!

I feel like most of the Solasmancers want to redeem him.

So giving him the idiot ball? I hope not. Mr "I got spies everywhere" should know better than that.

You can whine about "feelings" all you like. Emotiniality is what makes people connect to stories. Most of humanity enjoys that aspect.

But why would I want the lead protagonist to have some kind of an inherent advantage over Solas before the game even begins? That doesn't really make for a very good or compelling storytelling, and it makes the new protagonist a Mary Sue type of character who's only purpose in the story is that they are the "chosen one", ala Luke Skywalker. They are just there to clean up the previous hero's mess after they failed (which DAI already made the mistake of doing with the Inquisitor fighting Cory).

So your argument is "well they aren't telling the story I want them to tell anyway so who cares if its good or not?"

If I'm supposed to believe that the Inquisitor represents any sort of serious threat to Solas or his plans, then Solas is already an idiot, for letting them live at the end of Trespasser.

Luckily, BioWare can easily rectify that by having Solas kill the Inquisitor in the opening act of DA4.

Him telling the Inquisitor about his plans was a moment of weakness, as he himself admitted in Tevinter Nights. Solas is not an omnipotent character with no flaws or weaknesses.

I also disagree with what you are saying about Trespasser here. It was a great DLC and made DAI as whole much better... the only problem with it is that the devs seemed to think it was a great way to end the Inquisitors story. Which it clearly was not. It felt like a beginning not an ending. If they had wanted to end the Inquisitors story they really should've just let the anchor kill them.

Him telling the Inquisitor about his plans was a moment of weakness, as he himself admitted in Tevinter Nights. Solas is not an omnipotent character with no flaws or weaknesses.

I also disagree with what you are saying about Trespasser here. It was a great DLC and made DAI as whole much better... the only problem with it is that the devs seemed to think it was a great way to end the Inquisitors story. Which it clearly was not. It felt like a beginning not an ending. If they had wanted to end the Inquisitors story they really should've just let the anchor kill them.

I disagree completely. Trespasser is the worst DLC in Dragon Age, maybe BioWare, history since it managed to ruin not just one game but two. They took a game and character whose story had a good ending, completely undid it to make a DLC that’s a glorified advertisement, then tossed that game and protagonist away like trash.
And that’s just one issue I have with it.