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Round Two
So I mentioned earlier that I was playing DA: Awakening again, with my Cousland Warden; the reason I gave at the time was to get Elissa's voice back in my head for the DA/FFXII crossover, and that was true, but I also wanted to set up a DA2 import with the Awakening flags on and a Warden Alistair ending for Origins. I finished up that playthrough yesterday, and today I started my long-awaited second run through DA2 as a mage.
But first, some Awakening thoughts. Took Anders, Nathaniel, and Sigrun into the final battle, killed the Architect, and beat the Mother on the second try; I had remembered Drake's Fall as being longer and more difficult, but maybe I'm mixing it up in my head with Legacy, which has a similar feel to the terrain. The epilogue seems so ridiculous now -- every single thing it says about Anders is flat-out contradicted by DA2, and Justice's "death" in the siege of Vigil's Keep doesn't really work either. I never managed to trigger Velanna's personal quest, and also somehow I lost half of the conspiracy thread, which is weird, because I got both of those things to work the first time. On the flip side, I did complete Sigrun's personal quest, and yet I still got the "ran away to Kal'Hirol" ending for her, which bummed me out. But I'm happy to ignore that, just as I will happily ignore the suggestion that the Warden also disappeared right after the events of Awakening. Yay, epilogue denial.
And now, let's talk a little bit about Marissa Hawke, who I seem to be playing as an aggressive combat mage who will do almost any job if the price is right, is protective of her family even if she doesn't always like them much, doesn't seem to have particularly strong opinions about mage freedom as long as no one gets in her way, and might end up rivaling pretty much everyone. Very, very different from the character archetype I usually play, but that was kind of the point -- I wanted to see how far in the other direction I could make myself go. We'll see how well I can make it stick. Much as I love Bethany -- and I felt a serious pang when she got killed in Lothering -- I understand why Carver, the snarkily insecure little brother, is such a fan favorite. He's hilarious, for one, and as a possessor of two younger brothers myself, the dynamic certainly rings true. I had been planning to send him to the templars, but I'm not so sure about that anymore, because irritating as Marissa finds him, she wants this Deep Roads venture to succeed, and I wonder if she'll think that he's earned his place on the team. I guess I'll see when I get there.
The romance plan is to go for Fenris (meeting him was the last thing I did tonight), although it might be tough with an aggressive mage unless I go the rivalmance path. The one line Marissa has already declared she won't cross is helping slavers, so that may help a romance between them ring more true. The other significant change I made was buying the Sebastian DLC -- I've triggered his quest but haven't really met him yet, but I'm looking forward to getting to know him, too.
But first, some Awakening thoughts. Took Anders, Nathaniel, and Sigrun into the final battle, killed the Architect, and beat the Mother on the second try; I had remembered Drake's Fall as being longer and more difficult, but maybe I'm mixing it up in my head with Legacy, which has a similar feel to the terrain. The epilogue seems so ridiculous now -- every single thing it says about Anders is flat-out contradicted by DA2, and Justice's "death" in the siege of Vigil's Keep doesn't really work either. I never managed to trigger Velanna's personal quest, and also somehow I lost half of the conspiracy thread, which is weird, because I got both of those things to work the first time. On the flip side, I did complete Sigrun's personal quest, and yet I still got the "ran away to Kal'Hirol" ending for her, which bummed me out. But I'm happy to ignore that, just as I will happily ignore the suggestion that the Warden also disappeared right after the events of Awakening. Yay, epilogue denial.
And now, let's talk a little bit about Marissa Hawke, who I seem to be playing as an aggressive combat mage who will do almost any job if the price is right, is protective of her family even if she doesn't always like them much, doesn't seem to have particularly strong opinions about mage freedom as long as no one gets in her way, and might end up rivaling pretty much everyone. Very, very different from the character archetype I usually play, but that was kind of the point -- I wanted to see how far in the other direction I could make myself go. We'll see how well I can make it stick. Much as I love Bethany -- and I felt a serious pang when she got killed in Lothering -- I understand why Carver, the snarkily insecure little brother, is such a fan favorite. He's hilarious, for one, and as a possessor of two younger brothers myself, the dynamic certainly rings true. I had been planning to send him to the templars, but I'm not so sure about that anymore, because irritating as Marissa finds him, she wants this Deep Roads venture to succeed, and I wonder if she'll think that he's earned his place on the team. I guess I'll see when I get there.
The romance plan is to go for Fenris (meeting him was the last thing I did tonight), although it might be tough with an aggressive mage unless I go the rivalmance path. The one line Marissa has already declared she won't cross is helping slavers, so that may help a romance between them ring more true. The other significant change I made was buying the Sebastian DLC -- I've triggered his quest but haven't really met him yet, but I'm looking forward to getting to know him, too.