Spoilers through moving to Skyhold (I'm sure there are proper quest names but they're not on the wiki yet)
If you'd told me that Chancellor Roderick was the person in this game I'd cry about first? I would be surprised but also not. This company hits me in my ordinary people rising to the occasion when needed buttons so fucking hard. The Cousland parents, Emily Wong, Kal'Reegar? Ugh. Ughhhhh.
I know half the time you're not expected to save all the NPCs, but it still sucks when you can't. I regret not being able to get to Minaeve specifically, and I wonder who's going to help watch over the Tranquil from her Circle now that she's gone.
HAVEN OH MY GOD. My husband tells me I was making little noises of distress while doing all the combat in this part. I did not notice.
I know the singing was totally emotionally manipulative but I cried anyways because it was beautiful. I think at that moment Sayet wanted to believe she really was sent by Andraste and the Maker, so very very much.
(Incidentally, I like that the game makes clear that your Inquisitor's beliefs/feelings/opinions on theological matters are not necessarily taken into consideration when official Inquisition missives go out.)
As I mentioned on Twitter, one of the things I really love about Bioware games is that you get that sense of NPCs living lives outside of the times your character interacts with them, as well as the ways their experiences muddy already complicated ethical issues. Minaeve is a really good example of that. (For those who never talked to her, she is Dalish by origin, but was cast out from her clan when she was seven after her magic started manifesting. [What's supposed to happen is the clan arranges for her to be fostered with another clan, possibly to train as a new Keeper.] The templars rescued her and sent her to a Circle, where she thrived and specialized in creature research. The mage-templar conflict was not kind to her.)
What's really interesting about the characters in the game is that for the most part, you don't really have anybody you interact with who is adamantly pro-mage independence (that I've met yet) except for Dorian? And I'm not sure he counts, since he's Tevinter (Tevene?). I mean, there's Grand Enchanter Fiona, but I'm not sure even she ever had a solid plan in place to safeguard the general populace or even the mages themselves for when some idiot or malicious asshole inevitably gets possessed/turned into an abomination. There are reasons Circles exist and why institutions evolved the way they did, and without any sort of threat management plan, it's difficult to be convinced the mages can police themselves. (Sayet's run is part 3 of the all mages all the time playthrough, so lol and yolo etc etc, but personally, I am not convinced the Circles won't come back in one form or another.)
Fiona asking about Alistair just killed me. I wish there was a way the Inquisitor could introduce them.
Also in other heart-rending references to previous events, Connor. D:
Vivienne is super great, as expected, but oh my god she comes along with so much classism and establishment privilege. Everything she says regarding mages and Circles is correct, but with a certainty of opinion that comes from living a life of extreme privilege in one of the best regulated Circles in Thedas. She acknowledges that life in the Kirkwall Circle was terrible, because she isn't stupid or uncompassionate, but I have a feeling her opinions on the matter would not be anywhere near as solid if she had lived elsewhere.
I don't know what they're trying to do with Sera. She's not Dalish obviously, and she mentioned being from Denerim, among other places. I wonder if she was there for what happened to the alienage in Origins, and how that's affected her outlook. (It's my understanding that whatever background you take for your Warden, it's assumed the events of other ones still happen, except for the bit where Duncan recruits you.)
Solas is boring. I'm sorry. The work he does is absolutely fascinating, but personally? He's not very interesting to me.
I am still deeply confused by this not hating Cullen thing. He was a total creeper to my Warden in the Circle (although I do not remember this amaze adorably awkward post-Harrowing scene, probably because I never spoke to him) and I did not like him in Dragon Age 2 because he was a giant ass, even if he did end up helping Hawke in the giant end battle. But this Cullen? Who's had a chance to reflect on the things he's done in Fereldan and Kirkwall and conclude he might have been wrong about a lot of things? This one I respect, and find interesting. (Considering a warrior Trevelyan romance in the darkest timeline playthrough, even if V will probably no longer speak to me for this. :P)
Cassandraaaaaaaa. I adore Cassandra Pentaghast enough that I'm going to roll a dudequisitor to romance her. I couldn't figure out why I love her so much (I mean, besides the obvious), but then I realized she reminds me of Emilio Sandoz from The Sparrow. They both have this beautiful purity of devotion and rock-solid faith that anchors them, but they do not live apart from the world. That faith inspires them to do great and beautiful things, and it is rare that you see that sort of character at all. I see Cassandra and Leliana as a pair, the way they both struggle with their faith and what happens at the Conclave and come out on different sides. (And oh Leliana. How much you've changed from Origins.)
