Dragon Age Short Story 2022: As We Fly

I am in agreement with you on this (see my previous post). It is also possible that we will need to persuade the Ben'Hassrath to work with us because we need their intelligence on Solas. Now I'm not entirely convinced the Ben'Hassrath aren't working with the Inquisition on this. I think Charter was being evasive when questioned about their involvement at her meeting because that was a stipulation they made before they would co-operate. The Ben'Hassrath know that Solas will be watching them, so they would naturally be suspicious of attending anything involving outsiders. However, Gatt directed the two characters to Varric in Kirkwall at the end of Half Up Front, which seemed to suggest there was already some degree of co-operation between them. Nevertheless, it was possible that subsequent to that story, the Ben'Hassrath decided the Inquisition were taking too many risks in their search for Solas and stopped co-operating.

It'll be interesting if our decision to make the alliance in DAI comes into play with that. If we make the alliance, perhaps the Arigena and Ariqun will help us against both Solas and the Antaam. While if we didn’t, that isn’t offered since they have no basis for an alliance with Thedas. Maybe other choices in the past games too, like befriending Sten (assuming he is against the invasion but infighting), if Hawke was made basalit-an, etc. Sort of like how the peace option for the Geth and Quarians required choices from ME2 as well as ME3.

One of the things I fear is the presence of an over abundance of Marvel/Whedon-esque quipping in serious situations.  It’s more cringing to me than amusing and I grew tired of it about six years ago.

I’m somewhat on board with some more brutal Qunari commanders if they play it off as the Antaam requiring the influence of the priesthood to restrain these impulses.

As you say, you can have dark episodes in a game without giving us choices like those you have mentioned. I honestly don't think they would make you choose between Solas and the Qun, though, unless it was merely a decision about which method to achieve a desired goal, like eradicating the Blight, rather than simply end of the world versus entire world under the domination of the Qun. Mind you, the latter would mean they had suddenly made the Qun vastly overpowered. However, it could have something to do with how we stop Solas. The Qun were working on a plan to strengthen the Veil and that could have implications for magic users generally, even if it did prevent Solas' plan from succeeding. The thing is that unless they want to reset the entire world in a permanent way, neither destroying the Veil, nor strengthening it, is going to be an outcome.

I don’t see a choice between the Qun or Solas happening either. It’s more going to be “do you support the invading nation of murdering brainwashers or the empire that practices slavery and human sacrifice for kicks and giggles”
Hope there is an option to help the innocent people on both sides while letting the bad ones destroy each other.

I never actually agreed with the idea that DA, especially DAO, was grimdark, either, but I'm not a developer or decision maker on the series, so my opinion matters little on this.
Like you said, there was horror and cruelty but there was always enough joy to counterbalance it. I'm one of those people who defend that third option in Redcliffe and the Brecillian Forest where you get to save everyone. Either killing a desperate mother or her scared child and either killing an entire Dalish clan or the victims of a grief maddened father "for the greater good", with no other option, would have been the epitome of grimdark. Even if you save the main people, there's still enough bitter in that bittersweet ending, because there are still people that lost their lives along the way, people that will be forever scarred by what they went through.

Beyond unrecognizable, I would say that softening the tone too much would also trivialize the hardships being overcome. If you're going for a mature story, with mature themes, you can't shy away from the darkness some things are going to bring about. That maturity will allow you to analyze what it means to go through those hurdles and what you can do to come out the other side and keep going. Craft a narrative of hope, if you will, the opposite of grimdark and this, to my mind, wouldn't be exhausting for developers to work on because you ultimately bring in the good.

I've been having a blast the past year and a little playing Final Fantasy 14 and the latest 2 expansions are chock full of existential dread and just horrible things happening to good people. But the endings, the lessons the characters learn along the way and the joy and love they draw strength from to keep forging ahead (excuse my cheese), are exactly the perfect counterbalance. Where there is deep darkness, there is also shining light. (And now I made myself wanna NG+ those expansions )

It does fit the pattern though.  

DAO- Ferelden Civil War/ The Blight...as well as technically the conflict in each zone.  

DA 2- The Deep Roads expedition, the Qunari war, the mage templar issues.  

DA I- The Mage/ Templar war/ the struggle with Corypheus.  

Yes, not all of these plots were handled equally in their respective games in terms of time devoted or quality, but each Dragon Age game has had multiple conflicts for the character to wind their way through.  One usually down closer to earth and the other high end.  

I think the key difference here is that the Mage Templar War, in Inquisition, was basically just active in the Hinterlands and nowhere else.  If I'm right then we know of at least two zones where the conflict will be active which suggests more attention given.  And hopefully we'll get something more along the lines of what happened with DA 2.  Also, given how video games work and given what Solas is, despite the game being called Dreadwolf we might not get that much time for a conflict with him it will just be in the background waiting for us as a 'final boss'.  

I'm still with you though.  I'm not expecting the Qunari conflict to be resolved in this game per se.  Either we'll get a peace treaty/ cease fire with the stated expectation that hostilities could resume at some point in the future, or the Qunari will still actively be fighting everyone after the Dreadwolf is dealt with and that will be dealt with via DLC.  

I think we'll get the option to sarcastically mock everyone in site.  Hawke, the Inquisitor, and Ryder all had the option not sure why it'd change.

I agree with this. In Heimdall 's recent video, he reminded me that the previous Qunari Invasion spanned 150 years and that they, at worse, withdrew due to the local population doing so poorly, not so much that they'd given up their takeover plans. With the help Mythal's vessel herself and the mighty Plot Shield, we overcame a Blight in a year when many Blights before spanned decades. I hope they don't do the same to a Qunari Invasion.