30 Days of DA: Least favorite character

[owlmoose]

So I thought that favorite character was going to be a hard decision to make, but that was nothing in comparison. This, the least favorite character, is nearly impossible, because I am largely invested in the series for the characters. Even the characters I expect I would dislike as people if I met them in real life, such as Loghain, are such fascinating, deep, well-realized characters that I have a hard time calling them a "least favorite". But I suppose I have to pick someone, and it would probably be unfair to pull out a secondary character such as Howe or Bhelen. So I considered the main party characters, and others on that level, and thought about the character I found the least interesting, the one I connected with the least, and came up with Velanna.

Maybe it's not fair to have high expectations for a character you only have in your party in a DLC, but Nathaniel and Sigrun are among my favorites, so I don't think it's too much. In comparison to most of the other companions, Velanna has always struck me as being a little bit one-note: defined by her temper and her quest for revenge, and not much else. Other characters are certainly angry and ill-tempered -- Morrigan and Fenris come to mind -- but that's not all they are, and both of them are developed beyond that. For me, Velanna is not. She's so focused on revenge against humans and for her sister, even when she learns a bit of the truth behind her sister's situation, and it's hard for me to see past that with her. It's too bad that she's not brought into DA2 and developed further there.

Again, it's not that I hate Velanna, or even dislike her very much. But she could have been more, and I wish we'd seen her that way.

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Comments

[sarasa_cat]

It's finally safe for me to read this. :)

I am quite surprised to say that my Warden is getting along great with Nathaniel and I absolutely love him as a character.

Yes, Velanna is very one-note. I'm starting to wonder if there is a pattern with underdeveloped Dalish characters because, over all, I have not really warmed to any of Dalish despite everything about their culture and history being so interesting. Odd.

[owlmoose]

Nathaniel is excellent, and I will say more about him later, as he is my answer to a future question.

There is a much better-developed Dalish character in DA2, about whom I hesitate to say more. ;) And you do get a little more in the Dalish origin, although so far it's the origin I find least interesting -- it actually connects more strongly to DA2 and the Witch Hunt DLC than it does to anything that happens in Origins, and I wonder if that leads to the underdevelopment.

[sarasa_cat]

Nathaniel is really growing on me. :)

Phew. Glad to know that the Dalish get better treatment later on. Hopefully I'll start DA2 before the end of the month.