some thoughts about hardening Alistair I posted on Reddit before and want to post it here too to see what ppl think
In DAO, if you want to harden Alistair, you’ll need to tell him “everyone is out for themselves, you should learn that” after his unlucky meeting with his sister. It just… doesn’t make sense to me? How can I blame Goldanna for “only caring about herself”? I know that Alistair’s biggest dream is to have a loving family and I love my boy, but it’s really not Goldanna’s fault that she doesn’t live up to his expectations. She already has a rough life and Alistair is never a brother to her. It’s unfair to expect her to suddenly become his big sister and love him unconditionally (and from what I’ve heard, according to the novels, they aren’t even actually related. That makes the whole situation even weirder!)
When I compare his hardening to Leliana’s, I find that Leliana’s hardening makes much more sense. Her personal quest revolves around Marjolaine, who used to be her mentor, a very important part of her past life, and the reason why she was in Lothering in the first place. Depending on your choices, you make an influence on her faith in the Maker and her opinion on her previous life as a bard.
Now come back to Alistair. In my opinion, Goldanna doesn't have the same kind of importance or impact on his life as Marjolaine did in Leliana's life. She represents his hope to have a big and loving family and it sucks when that hope got crushed, yes, but she's also not the reason why he grew up feeling unloved and unwanted. I really think Eamon should take on that role. He's a father figure to Alistair and has everything to do with how he was treated as a child. Also, hardening Alistair is basically about making him king, which is a plotline directly related to Eamon. Did Eamon choose to neglect him and lie about his mother because Alistair was unimportant and useless as a child? Does he want to make him king now because he sees an opportunity to be the puppeteer behind the throne? What would Alistair feel when he realize that Eamon is not the man he thinks he is? That would be interesting.
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