Alright guys I’ve been thinking a lot about the Redcliffe Arc in DA:O and you know I’m serious about this because I’m actually using grammar
A big portion of the spiderweb of my thoughts is this: killing Connor is so amazing in narrative, the voice-acting for Isolde is top-fucking-tier, the way the characters react is absolutely STUNNING. It is seriously one of the best scenes in the ENTIRE game and that’s tea
Isolde’s character and VA was paid dust by this fandom, who characterized her as the Orlesian whore who married for power and never loved her family and was bitchy all around. Make her as evil as you need her to be because she didn’t like your fave when he was a kid. Okay, yeah sure. But HEAR ME OUT. Killing Connor opens up a whole new dimension in her character, it opens up fucking six. Six whole ass dimensions. It’s an AMAZING option in story-telling. But it makes me feel bad. Like really bad. Like I just murdered a kid when I the player know there’s another option that could have made everyone happy. And that right there is my issue with this arc
I think the only flaw in this arc is the option to recruit the Circle’s help. Everyone who gets too heartbroken at choices like killing Connor (like me) chooses the Circle because there is literally no consequence. It ALWAYS ends happily. You vanish for at least two days to make the trip, probably more akin to 3-5 if you haven’t already saved the Circle considering how terrible that whole ordeal is (and then try getting enough sleep during it), and NOTHING BAD HAPPENS. THE DEMON IS JUST CHILLIN
There absolutely should have been some consequence to leaving because without any it makes this option far too safe, too easy, and it creates a superiority complex about it being the “only moral option” and if you do anything else – you’re a dick. The point of the Redcliffe Arc to me is there is no Good and Moral option, only what your character thinks is best at the time
If villagers in Redcliffe had died while you were away, or the zombie attacks had returned and wiped out half the town, or something terrible happened inside the castle like Teagan getting killed by the demon then there would FINALLY be depth to the choices. I wouldn’t feel like I could just take this potentially week long trip, go to the Circle, save everyone, and make a big fucking happy ending and only ever feel like I can choose THAT choice because I know there isn’t any consequence and it makes me feel happy I did the “Right Thing.” If shit went down while the player was away from Redcliffe it would force the player to think more about what they were actually doing. To really think about the actual Grey Morality^tm that BioWare loves so much
Who’s life is worth sacrificing? Potentially the lives of a whole town or one little boy’s or his mother’s? Do the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few? Does going to the Circle actually become the evil option to fandom because it sacrifices a town all for one nobleborn person? And I don’t just want these questions to be something that I as a storyteller decide my character is thinking. I want to SEE THE RAMIFICATIONS OF MY ACTIONS IN-GAME. I wish there were CONSEQUENCES to being some good and virtuous saintly hero all the time!! It’s naive to think there wouldn’t be any and I’m disappointed the game didn’t acknowledge that reality. How in the world can a character grow like that? How can a story be built like that?
ajklsdfja;lskdjf sorry to waste your time I’M JUST PETTY about how even in the Good Ol Days of Origins BioWare still didn’t get grey morality and also that Lady Isolde has been ignored at best and mischaracterized to hell at worst
U RITE
Or like hell, at the very least they could make it mandatory for you to leave all your team mages (and maybe like 90% or even all of your team as well) behind to keep the demon at bay (good luck getting to the Circle with just the doggy as your companion). That would have at least cost you something, if you still want to have a choice that leads to a somewhat happy ending.
I mean, I like grey morality, but I still prefer the idea of having the third option that is incomparably harder to achieve, but still achievable. I like happy endings, just… make me work for it, don’t give it away like that.
funeral-biscuit 