Maker's Breath.... (Official Cullen Rutherford discussion)

The whole thing about 'Divine Rights' and the rest that it entails are Chantry teaching.
It is something that he has been taught MOST of his teenage and adult life. Not to mention he DID suffer brutally when Uldred went crazy in Kinloch.
When suddenly he finds himself out of lyrium and has to fight those withdrawals, seeing his friends die and demons messing up with his mind badly, it's little wonder why he has the opinion he has THAT time.

I'm not saying he's without flaws. I'm loving him because he HAS flaws. Due to bad experience and a flawed belief that the Chantry impose (how they twist the 'magic should serve man' part)
But did he changed for the worst?
He could have gone full 'Meredith' but in the end he ends up a better man. And he figure that out on his own, not being prompt by that 'special snowflake pc'..

And I guess that's why I always play as a Dalish mage in romancing the dude.

Not only I wanted him to be faced in a situation where he finds himself being close with a mage, but also pit his Andrastrian beliefs with Lavellan's faith in her Creators.
And y'know what?
It was really awsome when he never see it as an issue from the beginning and later tells Quizy she could say whatever vows she like, because he wanted her promise to be true
.. unlike 'some' character I know of (*cough* Sers *cough* .. who breaks up with you in the end if you affirmed your belief on the Elven Pantheon)

Sorry long post XD

About 'comparing' Cullen to Blackwall...

I wouldn't say that one is more honorable than the other.
In light of Blackwall, considering his past, personally I think he was more flawed than Cullen.

Cullen started out with a normal child hood with loving siblings. He always wanted to do the right thing, he has this 'drive' in wanting to serve, thus he joined the Templars (why wouldn't he? Templars were always painted to be that perfect KISA to the ordinary folks. Thing is, the ideal often doesn't match up with reality, putting it mildly) now that's when things went wrong. The Chantry make use of his drive, ideals and trust and mold them into their doctrine. Why one Templar can have a varying degree of stances depends largely on their trust to the Chantry. How much a believer is s/he to the Chantry and then there is another thing called piety (or obedience) and those stuff.

Now Blackwall, iirc he began to make his mark by winning the grand tourney because there was this honoroble sort who teamed up with him and later when the veteran fighter offers BW to teach him more, he declined it due to arrogance (I don't need to learn anything from you) and he admitted as such.
Joined the Orlesian army and rise to the rank of officer because of his skills and then got tempted to enter The Game. He agreed to kill of Calier in exchange for personal gains. And when he's about to execute his target by duping his men, turns out the cariage contains Callier AND his family. He panicked, but didn't call off the execution because he was worried of his own hide resulting the death of Callier, the wife and 4 young children.
In fact even after this event, his persona hasn't really change much. He left his men to take the blame and go wandering off somewhere to erase his tracks (not for atonement).
Until he met the Warden Constable. (I wished we could have met the real Wall, because he certainly did an awsome job on Rainier). Wall was able to change Thom's flaws into something good. Changed his careless self serving attitude into one who is willing to make that sacrifice and redilly defend others who cannot defend themselves. Ready to join the Wardens. Even if that means not surviving the Joining.
This is where Thom gets my utmost respect (his willingness to learn. To change into something better) and changing who you are as a person is aint no easy matter, yo'..
And when the Constable dies, Thom was left sad and clueless on what he should do. He could have picked the mercenary life and revert back to his old self, but he picked 'taking on' Blackwall's life. So the world doesn't lose a good man. Going to Anderfels and join the Warden should be the more honorable choice, yes (just like the real BW) would've wanted.
But here is Thom JUST at the begining of his road to atonement and I'm not picky about that
He wanted to do good and he has to start from somewhere, from the best way his mind can think of at THAT time. And I salute his resilience in maintaining goodwill through out his jorney from then on.

I guess the underlying differences from these 2 guys are the starting point and what teacher that they have.

Cullen started out as a good person with a strong sense of wanting to do what's right. Until his teachers in the heavily politicised Chantry mold him into their ideals.

Thom Rainier started out as a selfish b*stard with good fighting skills that got tampered by loosing the game and met up with a brilliant mentor who managed to inspire him to be a better man.

Nonetheless.. both man ended up being honorable people.

Cullen being chill with Dorian (concerning he is a MAGE from TEVINTER no less). And if the Inquizzy didn't steer him off lyrium, he fully accepts that sustance to break him slowly if it means he could serve the Inquisition in full capacity. Dementia followed by innevitable death, is a price he's willing to pay for his atonement.

And Thom adamantly facing death sentence, saving his former subordinate. He could have just lied his way through by invoking the Right of Conscription (like that Orlesian guard suspected) but he didn't. He wanted to be honorable to the end, even if that means his life is forfeit.


Daaaammmnnnnn... I'm so sorry my post got sooo long again. It's just that Bioware makes such awsome character with so much backstory, rich in their emotional journey and I can't help but to just burst out when talking about them XD (and don't get me started on Solas XD pls don't)

Yes. It's a sickness. Don't judge me XD