Pardon the rest of my circular response here but, er, circular response is circular. ;)
Given that I'm far more of a role player that someone who games the game, once I got a feel for the world my Warden was in, I role played as "in character" as possible within the limits of the dialogue options presented. Thus, hardening Alistair was never in cards once, after finishing the game, I later looked up how to harden Alistair. When playing, I never selected dialogue options that my warden would not say and if that lopped of dialogue trees forever or left dialogue options unsaid, so be it. ^^ My goal was to run through one play of the game while constantly staying in character for one character and *NEVER* reloading to redo outcomes.
...Warden neutrality (although the last becomes less of an issue if Alistair officially quits the order)...
THAT! That right there! Yes, so, that's the question NOTHING in the game could answer. Can a person officially resign from the Order of Wardens without political consequences haunting them after they took up their name and title? Completely glossed over, at least, to my eyes. The political quandaries that my warden was having were, perhaps, caused by a small spot of weak writing in the story?? Also, the whole matter of one warden pushing another warden onto the throne seemed very wrong, as confirmed by other characters (not Eamon, of course!!). By the way, my Warden thought Eamon was only interested in the game of politics. That also biased her.
There's just the conversation I mentioned in my comment, and that only happens after the decision to put Alistair on the throne has been made.
MMMM. That's why I didn't see it because my warden was playing a devil's advocate negotiator role rather than seriously promoting Alistair.
And I agree, when you put it that way -- it should have been dealt with in a better way than Alistair shying away from the topic whenever it comes up, until the Landsmeet is upon him and suddenly he can't put it off any more.
In retrospect, I cannot tell if I (the player) like or dislike this lack of information. My Warden was on the verge of becoming furious with Alistair's silence and wishy-washy responses, although, as a negotiator, she did her best to never blow up at him. Literally. With a fireball. At least twice I looked for the option "kick Alistair" but with no avail. ;)
I the player, on the other hand, really appreciated how well unhardened Alistair was written. He felt absolutely lost in a bucket of confused contradictions regarding his conflicting sense of duty and the things he wanted out of life. I firmly believed that every single time my warden poked him to see if he had anything to say, all Alistair wanted to do was go to a pub and get a drink. ;) He actually came off a goodly bit frightened of the entire situation like he just wanted it to all go away, which, if I remember correctly, was part of his response to someone (party banter? with morrigan?) when asked why he hid his parentage from the party. Thus, his silence is in character. It felt very frustratingly real although I (the player) am still not sure if that makes for good game play or not.
Now that I've played through once, I'm thinking about the kind of warden I could play who would naturally, in character, say what it takes to harden Alistair just because I want to see that side of him too. :)
But, back to this recent play through-- in it, my warden learned a lot about Anora as a person while having a private conversation with her. When the option of talking to her about a political marriage came up, her response was not enthusiastic and she was well aware of my warden's "joined at the hip" relationship with Alistair, which she mentioned at least twice so, while she eventually admitted that a marriage was a useful political alliance, she appeared to have very reasonable doubts and she worried Alistair would be too much like Cailan. By then, my warden knew far too much about her relationship with Cailan and given that my warden (who fancied herself as a neutral negotiator*) appeared to be getting along with Anora pretty well on a girl-to-girl level, my warden just didn't see benefit in actually brokering the marriage. Also, many people liked her as queen and the whole brokered marriage talk was purely academic, just to get Anora talking and to learn more about her.
Meanwhile, Alistair, in private conversation, appeared Not Amused by the things Anora said to him (while my warden was not there) and on the verge of being horrified by the entire idea once my warden confirmed that she and Anora had considered the possibility. So, in my game play, the whole option of a brokered marriage looked like a miserable situation and, even without Anora in the picture, my warden thought that King Alistair was a stupid decision for Ferelden and for Alistair.
(* by neutral negotiator, I mean that my warden attempted to get people within a conflict to air their sides through talking while she helped them make the best decision that they could comfortably agree on. Needless to say, this approach failed spectacularly in a few situations but, all in all, reduced bloodshed whenever possible).
no subject
Given that I'm far more of a role player that someone who games the game, once I got a feel for the world my Warden was in, I role played as "in character" as possible within the limits of the dialogue options presented. Thus, hardening Alistair was never in cards once, after finishing the game, I later looked up how to harden Alistair. When playing, I never selected dialogue options that my warden would not say and if that lopped of dialogue trees forever or left dialogue options unsaid, so be it. ^^ My goal was to run through one play of the game while constantly staying in character for one character and *NEVER* reloading to redo outcomes.
...Warden neutrality (although the last becomes less of an issue if Alistair officially quits the order)...
THAT! That right there! Yes, so, that's the question NOTHING in the game could answer. Can a person officially resign from the Order of Wardens without political consequences haunting them after they took up their name and title? Completely glossed over, at least, to my eyes. The political quandaries that my warden was having were, perhaps, caused by a small spot of weak writing in the story?? Also, the whole matter of one warden pushing another warden onto the throne seemed very wrong, as confirmed by other characters (not Eamon, of course!!). By the way, my Warden thought Eamon was only interested in the game of politics. That also biased her.
There's just the conversation I mentioned in my comment, and that only happens after the decision to put Alistair on the throne has been made.
MMMM. That's why I didn't see it because my warden was playing a devil's advocate negotiator role rather than seriously promoting Alistair.
And I agree, when you put it that way -- it should have been dealt with in a better way than Alistair shying away from the topic whenever it comes up, until the Landsmeet is upon him and suddenly he can't put it off any more.
In retrospect, I cannot tell if I (the player) like or dislike this lack of information. My Warden was on the verge of becoming furious with Alistair's silence and wishy-washy responses, although, as a negotiator, she did her best to never blow up at him. Literally. With a fireball. At least twice I looked for the option "kick Alistair" but with no avail. ;)
I the player, on the other hand, really appreciated how well unhardened Alistair was written. He felt absolutely lost in a bucket of confused contradictions regarding his conflicting sense of duty and the things he wanted out of life. I firmly believed that every single time my warden poked him to see if he had anything to say, all Alistair wanted to do was go to a pub and get a drink. ;) He actually came off a goodly bit frightened of the entire situation like he just wanted it to all go away, which, if I remember correctly, was part of his response to someone (party banter? with morrigan?) when asked why he hid his parentage from the party. Thus, his silence is in character. It felt very frustratingly real although I (the player) am still not sure if that makes for good game play or not.
Now that I've played through once, I'm thinking about the kind of warden I could play who would naturally, in character, say what it takes to harden Alistair just because I want to see that side of him too. :)
But, back to this recent play through-- in it, my warden learned a lot about Anora as a person while having a private conversation with her. When the option of talking to her about a political marriage came up, her response was not enthusiastic and she was well aware of my warden's "joined at the hip" relationship with Alistair, which she mentioned at least twice so, while she eventually admitted that a marriage was a useful political alliance, she appeared to have very reasonable doubts and she worried Alistair would be too much like Cailan. By then, my warden knew far too much about her relationship with Cailan and given that my warden (who fancied herself as a neutral negotiator*) appeared to be getting along with Anora pretty well on a girl-to-girl level, my warden just didn't see benefit in actually brokering the marriage. Also, many people liked her as queen and the whole brokered marriage talk was purely academic, just to get Anora talking and to learn more about her.
Meanwhile, Alistair, in private conversation, appeared Not Amused by the things Anora said to him (while my warden was not there) and on the verge of being horrified by the entire idea once my warden confirmed that she and Anora had considered the possibility. So, in my game play, the whole option of a brokered marriage looked like a miserable situation and, even without Anora in the picture, my warden thought that King Alistair was a stupid decision for Ferelden and for Alistair.
(* by neutral negotiator, I mean that my warden attempted to get people within a conflict to air their sides through talking while she helped them make the best decision that they could comfortably agree on. Needless to say, this approach failed spectacularly in a few situations but, all in all, reduced bloodshed whenever possible).