I'd love to see your take on Cullen's recovery arc as an alternative analysis! I feel like we're only ever presented with the two options of: "he needs to atone!" Or "he was a victim that needs protection!", neither of which I've ever fully agreed with. I think it's a result of the lack of attention given to his arc in DAI, which leaves a ton of room for interpretation, and results in people swaying towards either camp depending on how sympathetic they are towards him and his history.
I totally agree with this.
The problem with the way Cullen is presented in DAI is that he’s presented in an unambiguously positive light, and as @tokutenshi pointed out in this post (which I do agree with) if your Hawke was hostile to him you don’t get some of his dialogue about questioning Meredith. Additionally if you side with the mages rather than the templars Cullen has some realizations about the Order that you’re not going to hear. It’s too little too late for a lot of people, though I would also argue with what tokutenshi said, he was severely traumatized after the Blight (if you take a female mage Warden in the tower during the Witch Hunt DLC you will get lines that indicate he is suffering from PTSD, notice the lines about him being “twitchy” and “jumpy”) Personally I think we can find a middle ground between Cullen being a victim of manipulation and indoctrination, someone who suffered after experiencing trauma, and someone who works hard in the moment to do some good, whether we can or should call it “atonement” or not. That being said, he does acknowledge in Inquisition that the war against Corypheus is his chance to atone, and he works overtime to the point where it’s commented upon by several characters including the Inquisitor how hard he works.
By the time we meet Cullen in Inquisition a couple of years have passed since the chantry’s explosion. This is where I will be critical of the writing because I do think the game should have better established what exactly Cullen was doing in the time in between, though we get bits and clues from dialogue if you pay attention: He served as Kirkwall’s knight Commander after Meredith died, and he and presumably Aveline’s guard worked to basically repair the city, as Rylen says in Griffon Wing Keep that there was a lot of rubble, a lot of people without homes. Cassandra noticed Cullen’s work and recruited him to the Inquisition. (Also, keep in mind that the Inquisition was originally going to help quell the worst excess of the mage and templar fighting, restore order because the chantry lost control. Then the conclave happened, it went boom, and suddenly the Inquisition’s purpose became far greater than anyone would have expected. So Cullen as Cassandra’s choice of Commander makes total sense to me, considering he was a former templar and bringing him in basically acted as a symbol to any wayward templar, letting them know that there could be another way. But I digress on that part, haha.)
I *think* some people are dissatisfied with Cullen’s “redemption” arc in DAI because we don’t really see him fall on the sword or beat himself up for his past. There’s also no moment where he like, faces a mage he maybe knew in Kirkwall or has to deal with the mages not trusting him. Obviously of course there is nuance there as well as Toku and I mentioned--he wasn’t allowed to heal as much as he should have before being shipped to Meredith. However, here’s an interesting bit of dialogue you can get if you pick the right options after Perseverance if you tell him he doesn’t need lyrium:
Quiz: The man you were. You can’t pretend like he never existed.
Cullen: Not even if I wanted to. But I’m here now. I can make that mean something.
Cullen knows he screwed up. What’s more, he doesn’t want to forget he screwed up. But he lives in the moment to make things right. Blackwall’s arc actually shows him falling on the sword and wanting to atone, versus with Cullen it’s implied he has come to terms with his screw ups off screen. He doesn’t continuously beat himself up, he does what he can for the Inquisition to the point where if the Quiz tells him to go back on lyrium for the better of his soldiers, he does, knowing it just may kill him. There is also limited dialogue that challenges his views which turns some people off, but I know for my Inquisitor she’s very much about the now and what they both can do in the now. I won’t blame anyone who wants to be able to challenge him more, but frankly I find the fact he doesn’t continuously fall on the sword or beat himself up interesting.
All that being said, I do think of his arc as more of one of recovery versus redemption. And to be frank I’m kind of critical of the term “redemption” and what makes good redemption arcs or not. Someone having a “redemption arc” seems to imply that there’s only one road to the top of the mountain when maybe redemption is something you should always strive for? But as for the “recovery” arc: the chantry, IMO, purposely devoids both mages and templars of a personhood or life outside the order and Circle and treats them as objects. Many templar recruits are children and are basically indoctrinated to believe they serve the Maker and they are needed and that they do the Maker’s will. There’s an interesting bit of dialogue you can get if your character is a warrior and talks to Cullen about the templar spec, basically if the Quiz says “templars serve the Maker, I’d do the same.” Cullen basically replies, “uh, yeah, that’s not going to make you righteous, believe me,” implying this was the way he once indoctrinated to think, but he no longer believes it so. Templars are given lyrium for their abilities, but also to placate them, something Alistair says in DAO.
After Kirkwall Cullen sees where the Order is going, gets an offer from Cassandra and decides that if he removes the “part that kept [him] chained,” he would find his own purpose again. (He says this is your Quiz makes him take lyrium.) In Inquisition we learn he always wanted to protect people. (Our local mind reader Cole says “some templars want to only protect, like Cullen” if you ask him about templars.) And as a kid living in rural nowhere Ferelden, he saw the templars as protectors. Why I interpret his arc as more about recovery than redemption all has to do with Perseverance and the way you as the player can handle it: You can either let him know he can start over, he can endure and one day find a life of his own away from duty and battle, or you can make him take it and thus let him remain indoctrinated to what the chantry taught him, that there is nothing outside of duty and battle. It comes down between a choice of “you are leashed to what the chantry made you till you die” to “you are more and you can recover and make your own life,” which he does do by Tresspasser, romance or not. At the end of the game if you keep him off lyrium he basically thanks the Inquisitor for giving him a chance, letting him know he could be more. Additionally, a lyrium free Cullen in Tresspasser speaks of meeting his siblings again, developing a relationship. If you make him take it forever he refuses to see them.
I could also see the arc as one of faith, and finding it again. If you keep him off lyrium the prayer in the chantry he speaks is one of quiet reassurance and finding strength through his faith, but if you make him take it the prayer is “blessed are the peacekeepers” and it’s uttered desperately as if he is trying to believe it. He also mourns how far he fell. All this to say that I find it very interesting his writer focused his personal quest around the lyrium and what lyrium represents rather than say, him meeting a mage who lived in Kirkwall or something and him trying to atone to them.
When I wrote my post about why Cullen gets so much fandom related wank I got a lot of different responses that echoed the same thing about Cullen’s arc not getting a lot of attention. I think there is a lot of good writing there with his personal quest, but his writing doesn’t fill in every single gap---not to mention people are going to have vastly different experiences on how they played the games till Inquisition. And my examples of dialogue are things you may not get if you don’t pick the right options. And heck, some people only have played Inquisition.
So, I think me calling his arc in Inquisition a recovery arc has partially been not me trying to justify why I like him, but analyze a differing way a character who has screwed up in the past is written. Blackwall’s arc is a true redemption arc IMO. Cullen’s isn’t so clear cut as a redemption arc, but at the end of the day it is truly about him finding his own purpose again, which leads me to lean more toward calling it a “recovery arc.”
Hey Lydia, do you know of a good resource to donate to to help support the Mi'kmaq people that have been affected by the terrorism directed at them? I've seen an e-transfer address, but was wondering if you knew of any other efforts. Sorry if you've posted about this before and I missed it.
E-Transfers and PayPal funds can be sent to [email protected]
Here is the Band’s letter about donations
Please also consider taking a few moments to sign these:
Collective Action’s campaign to email representatives
The NDP call to action
@ my followers unaware of what my people have been dealing with the the past couple months, I have a couple of things on my main blog: [Link] [Link] [Link] [Link] [Link]
the lighting and overall atmospheric feel in the segment reminds me of the red lyrium future in DAI
the whole thing also feels quite dark in tone in that gothic or Lovecraftian-type way, which was a feeling several of the stories in Tevinter Nights evoked (at the time of TN we wondered if this was a hint about the direction of the tone of the next game)
the bearded statues aren’t just DAI game assets, they were in one of the artbooks
the sky above the ruined building reminds me of the healed scar from the Breach in the sky in one of the DAI epilogue images
@resjade pointed out to me that the red lyrium looks kind of like deep mushrooms, or rather, like what corrupted deep mushrooms might look like. interesting if this is the case, as it could lend credence to the idea that what we’re seeing in the center is a Blighted/corrupted titan heart (being that titan hearts and deep mushrooms are both found underground)
@isseyas wondered if perhaps the locale we’re looking at in parts is Nevarran, owing to the presence of what looks like skull-topped urns
the spread of red lyrium is concerning considering how it spread and impacted across Emprise. it’s v hard to destroy, there are growths of it all over Orlais and Ferelden, it’s also found in the Deep Roads etc. an NPC in Emprise says there’s only a 0.014% chance of eradicating it from the region. if it’s anything like the spread of mould through bread it’s extremely worrying.
troubled also by the tainted-darkspawn-sac looking things being so close to growths of red lyrium.
the chicken, the egg, and the other egg: is the Fade-looking atmosphere and red lyrium spread a side effect of Solas’ ritual to bring down the Veil, or is it part of the terrible thing he sometimes seems to allude to knowing is coming, or was the Veil brought down already by the time of these screens and that’s why everything looks like that?
People not communicating effectively and then blaming it on you/getting passive aggressive later is one of my biggest pet peeves. It's like driving - I'm happy to let people in in front of me, but if they don't signal I won't know what they want! I find if you spell out/reiterate someone's half-assed request really bluntly it helps cut the BS, especially if you sprinkle in a little patronization, but yeah the emotional energy 🙄
TRUE
I love working with folks who are very direct and literal. Vauge instructions and assumption-based tasks isn’t my strength at all lmao.
Hey, you there! Go look in a mirror. See that person looking back at you? They're amazing, intelligent, lovely, kind, stunning, gorgeous - inside and out! And that's YOU! I'm so glad, and honored, to know you. 😊 ~❤ I'm making it my mission today to pay forward the kindness and support that has been shown to me by others. I encourage everyone to please do the same. Thank you! ❤~
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Hey, you there! Go look in a mirror. See that person looking back at you? They're amazing, intelligent, lovely, kind, stunning, gorgeous - inside and out! And that's YOU! I'm so glad, and honored, to know you. 😊 ~❤ I'm making it my mission today to pay forward the kindness and support that has been shown to me by others. I encourage everyone to please do the same. Thank you! ❤~
Omg @resjade thank you so much and right back at you!! You're one of the smartest, most level headed, and compassionate people I've had the absolute HONOR of speaking to lately!!
text overlaid atop the dragon age logo that reads, “ Have you seen @resjade’s art? Ahhh it’s gorgeous! And they are literally The sweetest! I adore them!”
