DA2's intro scenes and intro quests for Isabela and for Merrill showed everything that a new player needs to understand about them without requiring the new player to play DA:O.
On the other hand, while Anders (JAnders) has a self-contained story in DA2 (I say that based on what others have said when playing DA2 without playing DA:O/A), it is enlightening to have the backstory for Anders & Justice, and Anders was definitely a character who was loved and hated by Awakening players so people were coming in with biases. Still, I know people who fully appreciated DA2's Anders without playing Awakening.
Based on how the team brought Anders forward into DA2, I generally trust Bioware's writers to put together a self-contained story in DA:I for Cullen that doesn't require seeing any of his various prior story arc. In series like these, writers almost always make it possible to on-board new players without forcing them to play through the entire franchise.
Looking at this with some a narrative theory perspective, Cullen has had a full story arc (introduction, inciting incident, conflict, climax, resolution) across DA:O+DA2 so I'm pretty certain the writers have written a completely new story arc because ... there really isn't a choice once an arc is finished. That said, unlike Anders, people are expecting some sort of hole filling. I have a few educated guesses on how they will write it without relying on branched/flag-triggered dialogue.
...
On a different topic: is it me or does the new DA:I trailer look just like the new Skyrim trailer?
Re: The woes of spoilers, Alistair, very non-spoilerish DA:I talk.
On the other hand, while Anders (JAnders) has a self-contained story in DA2 (I say that based on what others have said when playing DA2 without playing DA:O/A), it is enlightening to have the backstory for Anders & Justice, and Anders was definitely a character who was loved and hated by Awakening players so people were coming in with biases. Still, I know people who fully appreciated DA2's Anders without playing Awakening.
Based on how the team brought Anders forward into DA2, I generally trust Bioware's writers to put together a self-contained story in DA:I for Cullen that doesn't require seeing any of his various prior story arc. In series like these, writers almost always make it possible to on-board new players without forcing them to play through the entire franchise.
Looking at this with some a narrative theory perspective, Cullen has had a full story arc (introduction, inciting incident, conflict, climax, resolution) across DA:O+DA2 so I'm pretty certain the writers have written a completely new story arc because ... there really isn't a choice once an arc is finished. That said, unlike Anders, people are expecting some sort of hole filling. I have a few educated guesses on how they will write it without relying on branched/flag-triggered dialogue.
...
On a different topic: is it me or does the new DA:I trailer look just like the new Skyrim trailer?