Your romance choice

From a storytelling perspective, Alistair is probably the best romance option, followed by Morrigan. I have issues with all of them though which makes it hard for one particular romance to stand out. My canon did choose Alistair, however.

Alistair:

His hypocritical idolizing of the Grey Wardens despite actually objecting to their methods, along with his unshakable reverence for Duncan, made him rather irritating at times. For example, when Duncan kills Ser Jory after almost no effort of negotiation, Alistair brushes it off as a casualty of the joining; as if he died the same way as Daveth instead of being stabbed. Yet if the warden had done this, you could be sure he'd disapprove heavily.

He can occasionally be funny but tries way too hard to be so that it often falls flat. He's also very selective on when it's ok for you to use humor yourself. Picking one humor option actually ended a romance and earned like 26 disapproval, which leads to another point.

Alistair is very disapproving by nature. I've only successfully romanced him by showering him with Feastday gifts because, unless you're playing a white knight who behaves nothing like how Alistair's precious Grey Wardens are supposed to, he disapproves ...hard. Even seemingly innocent comments can earn disapproval; including romantic ones.

Ex: "Hah! You're so goofy!" Alistair disapproves -8
Ex: "If we care about each other that's all that matters." Alistair disapproves -10

Earning his favor feels a bit like maneuvering through a minefield, but pales in comparison to the next love interest.

Morrigan:

She's a royal bitch, plain and simple. Like Alistair, it is very difficult to successfully romance her without showering her with gifts, unless you're an immoral character. Romancing her often made me question why I was even bothering besides "to do a Morrigan romance." This is reinforced further when she literally begs you to end it.

Maneuvering her romance successfully is a true case of trial and error. I never would have guessed "Get in the tent, woman" would be so acceptable to her, for example, when other aggressive options have accidentally ended her romance.

Morrigan's beliefs fit most definitions of "evil." Her only redeeming quality is that she doesn't actually do such things herself (in-game), but rather urges the warden to do them and disapproves when refused.

Zevran:

My only real problem with romancing Zevran, excluding potentially having a moral issue with falling for an assassin (who also tried to kill you), is how doing so requires heavy meta-gaming and accepting that your warden is a moron. I can't conceive of anyone ever actually taking an assassin who tried to kill them along as a companion on a lengthy journey; letting them guard your back, having them sleep near you at night, and eventually sleeping with him as well (which is how assassins kill some targets). I really wish Bioware introduced him as a companion in a less controversial manner.

On a personal level, Zevran is very charming and quite intelligent. I've seen very few players who didn't like him. He lacks the strong opinions of the others (something which generally makes characters more likeable, like Varric) and is very easy to get to like you. It's pretty obvious what he'll approve of. As long as you don't flat out insult him or argue against him being an assassin, he'll approve. ...Just don't slaughter large groups of innocent elves though.

Leliana:

She's the only one I've never fully romanced because I just wasn't that fond of her overly religious (and hypocritical) manner. However, while she'll be disapproving of many arguably evil/selfish actions, she's very predictable. Her romance can take a lot of work and upkeep without endless gifts, as she'll actually stop sleeping with you if you don't maintain near maximum approval.

This poll is rather strange, in a wiki I read that Leliana is the most popular romance in DAO

Agreed. Once you figure out your companions and what kind of actions they approve, it's pretty easy to make them adore your character pretty fast, and you don't even have to spam them with gifts - you can limit them to the ones that trigger cutscenes so that they're meaningful in the story.

It's also true that the potential for companion combos suffers. I always play goody two-shoes characters, so if I want to gain approval, I need to have Wynne, Alistair and Leliana with me. That means companions like Sten, Zevran and especially Morrigan stay in camp - a shame, really, because that limits the banter and interruptions.

I don't think it's that simple to divide the characters into two parties. This may be for another thread but I'll go on.

My main point about this issue is this: Thedas is a dark, medieval-phantasy inspired game. It is a brutal world that shapes people, with more or less resistance, into its ways: the ways of violence, limited trust, need for survival, etc.

The Warden is special exactly because you can fit your morals in him, he's the protagonist, a character that is not directly affected by all that ambient and THAT is exactly what it makes him/her so influential, charismatic, inspiring leader.

This is why I find it so dull and infantile when people say ''Morrigan is evil, Sten is merciless'', etc. Reality is a bit more complicated than that, and I think Dragon Age has worked that out pretty nicely. All the characters have been shaped by this ambient I was talking about in one way or another, mostly in a negative sense, but letting almost intact, also, their inherent positive traits:

- Morrigan takes her admiration for uniqueness, passion and energy (both in bed and on the battlefield), striving for one's power and improvement and respect for knowledge, ancient creatures and magic, which in themselves are not inherently ''bad'' values, as a means to despise the weak. She was raised by a vengeful goddess in an almost complete isolation who taught her to distrust, to hate. Nonetheless, the way she reacts to the feelings that begin to spring within her for the Warden, specially in the romance but also in the friendship background, is one of the best written things I've seen in a game, and her character development through Origins and Inquisition if you decide to confront her darkest side is yet to be matched in the saga.

- Sten is a killing machine, he also respects nothing but might, the way of the warrior, and also hates the weak, and when he found himself in an alarming situation of vulnerability, he murdered an entire family out of panic. He's extremely contemptful towards the Elven (''they are good at being poor'') and if your Warden is an elf, he will question your leadership constantly, even leading him to actually trying to kill you and take over the entire group if the disapproval rating sinks (something I consider to be way, way worse than the ''great betrayal'' of Morrigan when she decides to abandon you if you decide to reject the Dark Ritual). But when getting his best side afloat, he proves to be capable of respecting other cultures and being the most loyal comrade in arms of Thedas.

- Alistair, as correctly said by someone here, is completely delusional about the Grey Wardens and only likes a good sense of humor when he's the one being witty. He's a golden hearted comrade for sure, but he's also absolutely incapable of assuming control of his own life and assuming responsibilities. This is something that can dramatically change if you inspire him to accept his self-worth in the King election quests.

- Leliana, after spending her whole life murdering and stealing people, desperately crawls back her way to the Chantry, looking for a redemption that she would do better to find in actually facing her problems and finding her redemption through actual, real life people. She can learn though thanks to the interaction with the Warden, to face her past, through a great friendship or romance.

- Wynne, even when not given proof to do it, is extremely judgamental, when not paternalistic, about you and almost every companion, specially Morrigan. She has a good point when she recognises a genuine passion and love if you may romance Morrigan to the end and retracts, while she can also learn to address that not every spiritual possession is evitable nor evil.

- Oghren and Zevran just like to kill. As simply as that. The dwarf is not only not sorry for having murdered a poor young bastard in the Orzammar's Games even when there was no need to do so, he also mocks civilized rules about not attacking people when in a city (''swords are for killing'' dialogue), while also having a generous amount of misogynism inside him. He was raised that way. The same goes to Zevran, another poor bastard who couldn't choose his life and ended up finding ''poetry'' in the way a blade plunges into a man's flesh. Both also improve their morals and are actually capable of trusting a good friend if the Warden inspires them to do so.

What I want to say with all this is simple: there are no ''evil'' characters. There are characters molded by their circumstances in a grim world who have very bright and very dark sides: the point of Dragon Age is that you actually have the power to inspire them, to change them, in one way or the other. The choice is up to you.

Leliana

Or, I have romanced all of them, but Leliana is my absolute favorite and my canon romance.  

Why do you all Morrigan-haters seem always to have personal shit into this? Lmao

The fact that characters are called ''good'' or ''evil'' in 5 lines in other titles says nothing. Also: ''DA:O is not dark, and it is not medieval''. What? Like... hello? I guess that's like it's exactly and on purpose made on the image of feudal relations and ancient primitive communal regime-like myths, with both ruthless Feudal Lords, crushed peasantry classes and witches outcast of society and an almost unforgiving struggle for existence that lead people to do shitty things. But hey, it's not dark fantasy and also not medieval.

Sorry, but the more people with your point of view try to portray this or that character as inherently ''evil'', specially Morrigan, the more ridiculous it seems. You also forget that Morrigan can also have the ''redemption'' with a high approval friendship, not only with a romance. And you also seem to have problems with the fact that Morrigan is romanceable or with the fact that Alistair enters the scenario with huge confidence problems (which has nothing to do with ''hating'' him because ''he's not alpha''). Let feminism aside when playing games, it'll do you good.

Well I'm sorry for u pal but...


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My Brosca didn't romance anyone - I couldn't see him with any of them. If only there was a dwarf romance option!

Apart from Gorim, I guess, but that didn't last long. Sigrun and Varric could have been great ones.

So true. DA2 romances feel like a bad imitation of Origins ones, and DAI romances are just... not enough. Thy have the thrill of the beginning but they have almost absolute 0 development