ok so with the understanding that it is Bad Writing that vivienne is never permitted, in DAI, to change her perspective on the necessity of the circle system and the character of the mage rebellion. & also that there's kind of a tough line to walk here when talking about fixing this without taking away the thing that makes her so compelling, which is that she is a character who Cannot be won to your perspective by spamming the approval button if you stand for all the things she stands Against, which I would personally fix with a Two Trackers situation so that vivienne's perspective can be shaped by the state of the cause of mage liberation over the course of the game (how much the inquisition supports the mages, how successful the inquisition's efforts are, etc)
i think the simple approval system also does her a disservice, because it limits her to only being able to see the inquisitor on one single gradient from "good" to "bad" and some nuance is lost. and this is obviously true of Every character, but it's sad to me in vivienne, because we see her develop some fairly nuanced opinions on the rest of the cast, and you kind of lose this fine-grained distinction between how much she agrees with your politics and how much she respects your character which you absolutely see in how she interacts with other characters. but i also don't want to create a situation where, in order to "fix" her, she's getting made more accessible — her ability to really disagree with you and also not respect an inquisitor who doesn't live up to her expectations (and it being Difficult to win her trust and respect!) are some of her most compelling and sympathetic characteristics to me!
so I pitch: separate affinity bars for politics and approval. such that, if you are playing a character who is vocally pro mage and doesn't give ground on that (or on defending their people, if they're nonhuman) but is consistently competent, compassionate, composed, those two things are tracked separately — she can both like and respect you, and Disagree with your politics (and having this relationship with her would also potentially lower the bar for her politics shifting, although it will not lead to her changing her mind on its own if certain criteria aren't met wrt How The Mage Thing Is Actually Going). similarly, you can agree on everything and also still not have her respect or her friendship, if you consistently play as callous, spineless, etc (also I would love to be able to track whether players are expressing the same opinion to each companion or just telling everyone what they want to hear for approvals. The companions should be comparing notes. It Will Be Funny).
I also wouldn't get rid of the dialogue in which she compares chantry practices to dalish and qunari practices where mages are concerned, but I would love to give those characters more opportunity to push back; to not just say "don't tell me about my own practices" but "That Is Simply Not Correct/this is chantry propaganda, it's more like X," and I would love to give her the ability to react to that and take this on board, because I just do not believe that Vivienne of all people is going to refuse to believe a person about their own background.
& this combined with giving her the ability to shape her perspective based on the actual state of the world — whether her fears are being validated or put to rest, whether the inquisitor proves able to deliver on the promises she initially sees as naive — would I think go a long way to doing her some justice
that being said I think Many of us are going to have to make peace with the idea that even in this true and beautiful world she probably doesn't think our inquisitors are The Best Guy Ever Born. The evidence of her chantry upbringing and the flawed beliefs that echo those of the other circle-raised companions (wynne and anders), and the high bar she sets for the people around her, are key parts of her characterisation and just making her basically Niceys and calling that a fix misses the point sorry
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