Thank you for asking.I fell in love with Samson as a character because I found him to be incredibly well-written, realistic, and multi-dimensional. His struggle with lyrium addiction, his originally merciful and kind nature (Maddox and his letters,) the way he tried to make things right (albeit in the wrong way) to the very end. I do not defend his actions themselves - he is inherently very flawed, he is what happens to a good person in an unjust system - but I deeply love Samson as a person.Several things cemented that love, and they include: Samson delivering that letter even though it was a great risk to himself; Samson taking Maddox with him and demanding that Maddox be treated as Samson himself is treated; his self-awareness (“It ended as well as anything else I’ve done,” said at his trial); his refusal to stop fighting (even if he did choose the wrong thing to fight for, under a great deal of pressure). Perhaps the chief reason why I can safely say my heart absolutely aches for Samson is the unrealized potential, and the (to me, heartbreaking) way he’s vilified. Of course, what he did is definitely wrong, but where he is almost universally vilified for it in the fandom, Cullen’s slights tend to be overlooked.Cullen had a support system when dealing with lyrium addiction. Samson was left to his own devices, out in the street (homeless and without money,) to struggle alone with a substance dependency that literally kills, and which is torture to deal with. Yet, Samson is called “junkie” and “addict” with no small amount of scorn. Corypheus used Samson’s addiction to secure his support - it was never a fair choice.Even during Inquisition, Cullen’s view of mages (in my personal opinion) is questionable at best. Samson has always supported mages and shown mercy and kindness whenever possible, even while he himself struggled in Kirkwall’s streets.Given the acceptance and support that Cullen received, I believe Samson could have easily risen far above what he was ultimately reduced to, if he only had access to at least half of those things.tl;dr - I believe Samson to be a good person in a terribly unjust system who suffered much and made mistakes, while I don’t believe Cullen was inherently a good person (stalking the mage warden in Dragon Age: Origins, while such a huge power imbalance existed, and admitting he’d kill her if commanded to do it while also doing nothing to make the system more just)… Therefore, I’ll always regret the fact that we got Cullen instead of Samson.I wish we could have recruited Samson, and given him the respect and support he deserves.All of this is, of course, my personal take on things, and I do not clam it to be canon. I respect other people’s right to have a different opinion. But me? I’ll always love Samson with my whole heart.Thank you again for the ask, anon.
