Finished the game. Sad thoughts and replays [Full spoilers]

Letting Harding go was the easiest decision of my life.

Why!? Omg. I think they both made sense, but Davrin being a Grey Warden and swearing to sacrifice himself after taking the oath is what made me choose him. It’s just… Assan. Baby boy died with his dad when I would have happily raised him! He didn’t have to jump after him!

I said it last night. I felt emotionally abused even if I had the "good" ending aka it can be way more worst than just the 2nd squad leader choice.

As for Varric, I guessed toward the end of Act 2 (then I was spoiled about it by a screenshot shot elsewhere). It's something Isabela said at some point and how the scene were presented at the round table toward the end. It just sneaked in and I still cried when Rook realized.

It makes more sense for her character arc. She takes what the Evanuris have done to her people really strongly, and it's as if the her whole arc is pointed towards that specific scene, where she gets to take personal revenge on everything the Evanuris and Solas did, to the Titans, to her people, to Varric, to the Inquisition. Even at the cost at her life, she is the hero of the hour, and she gets to deal the decisive blow against the ancient elven tyrants. I also mentioned it before but there's this final moment in her companion quest where she is looking to the distant horizon, with the Oracle whispering something to her, and she looks so determined.. to do whatever it takes, perhaps? And that is exactly what she does.

Davrin on the other hand, might have great use for the future battles ahead. The blight is not over, and I'd rather have Davrin at our side for the final confrontation. While Harding has her strengths, she is no Grey Warden. It's pretty simple really.

Also I like Davrin (and Assan) more than Harding. Bye bye Harding 

I cried Varric died for this shit. I really did. It felt bad. I LOVED da2, Varric was comfort food.
Didn't care for the ending, romanced Harding, she died (i knew about Assan, and I didn't want that) ...companions throw you a random line after and it all sounds like they're saying the same.
Had a 2 second feeling of satisfaction when I stabbed Solas.
That's it.
Then the lazy "epilogue" with Harding repeating "Whatever it takes" and flower blooming for the grey wardens, I pressed escape.

When replaying the first Lighthouse conversations, it's clear what Harding and Neve are saying about Varric, they're just not using the 'D' word (as often people don't like to).

'Varric paid the price'
'how many more people will get hurt - get killed ... ?'

I don't quite understand why Rook is so attached to Varric. Varric's opinion is important to him throughout the game.
What do we know?
Neve and Rook were brought in around the same time by Varric (That's what I understood.) for the task of being the new division of the Inquisition. The two don't meet until 9 months after Rook joins. Okay.
What did Rook and Varric experience in between?
How does the reveal trailer with the bar brawl that Rook joins there fit in with the backstories? As Crow, Rook takes out Antaam and frees hostages. In doing so, he unintentionally disrupts one of the crows' plans. Although this is now more in question after experiencing the Treviso story. And Varric was among the prisoners? Where was the bar brawl?

Did you understand how Rook fits into the chaos? And that as a newcomer he suddenly sees Varric as a mentor, somehow the most important figure in his life. But Rook also doesn't give the impression that he knows Varric's stories. Where is Hawke anyway?
Do you think the Inquisitor knew that Varric had died?


But honestly, I don't care. If something is too confusing and inaccurate in a story, I can't leave it as it is. I have to talk about it a bit. Probably because when the game hands me the character sheet, I just add the other fields to indicate who my character is if they're missing.

The Harding vs. Davrin and Assan choice was brutal. Picking between having your second dwarf friend - and one of the dwarves' few connections to the Titans and their past - die or letting Davrin do his job and reducing the griffon population of Thedas down to twelve is one of the hardest dilemmas in a BioWare game for me. And I loved it! My problem with the ME2 suicide mission is that it's just too easy to get out with everyone alive - I was completely unspoiled on my first run of the game and still saved everyone except Kelly Chambers with no problems at all. I like that this time around they actually committed to making you sacrifice someone, they haven't done that since Virmire. People say Origins was a dark game, but it never killed a baby griffon I'd spent the whole game bonding with right in front of me .

I saw the Varric twist coming from early Act II (there's a lot of hints, but the one that tipped me was a really jarring moment when Bellara said 'not like Varric Tethras' and I realised that she was talking like she'd never met him, because she never had) so I feel like I was grieving him for half the game already by the time I got to the reveal. As someone who's long counted him as one of my favourite Dragon Age characters, I thought the game handled his death well (even if it's one of the areas where I itched for a proper world state import so his shade could have spoken about the specifics of his time in Kirkwall and the Inquisition in more specific terms.) They've been trying to kill him off since the cancelled Exalted March expansion, makes sense for him to go out at the same time the arc that's been building since DAO ends.

And since we're discussing endgame in this thread: I got everyone possible Veilguard through the last mission up until I sent someone to defend the barricades before the last fight. I assumed that all factions being at full strength and everyone's personal missions being done would save whoever I sent, but, uh, nope. Do you have to send Taash to defend them if you want everyone to live? Because Taash and Harding were my regular squad and with Davrin gone I felt like they were the only option against the last boss fight. I was probably wrong about that, though - having Felassan's rune available made fighting Elgarnan a walk in the park compared to everything else in Act III (thanks buddy!) and I didn't fight Solas so I probably could do it with two Mages or Rogues instead if that's the only way to save Bellara.

You must send Harding or Davrin on that mission, I think. I chose Harding and everyone lived.

From what I understand through the second dialogue with Solas, Varric and Rook have been hunting him for about a year and over that time he’s been mentoring Rook like a father figure. Rook gets somewhat abandoned by whatever faction they’re working with in their backstory, meets Varric around the same time and he’s kind of all they have for almost a year. I think that’s enough to get attached to someone but the player doesn’t experience it from the beginning.

That also seemed so strange to me. This delay in action seemed so unnecessary that everyone waited to act.
My guess now is that Bioware was going for symbolism, to foreshadow the episode in the fade with Solas. Since Inquisition, Tarrot has become an accompanying element and DA4 plays a lot with interpretation.
The tower that stands on its head.
In the Tarrot interpretation, this symbolises impending doom. A collapse.