Dragon Age Series. Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account? Romance Dragon Age II. Edit source History Talk Do you like this video? Play Sound. One of the characters, Diane, has a crisis when she realizes that she's settled into a comfortable relationship where her husband never challenges her, and as a result, she stays the same, never growing as a person or overcoming her faults.
Diane fell into her relationship with Mr. Peanutbutter because it was safe. She could be her flawed self and be loved unconditionally. There's nothing wrong with that. But at the same time, being married to someone who just went along with everything was stifling her potential to be the best person she could be. In the end, her relationship with Mr. Peanutbutter was more about getting the unconditional love she never got from her parents than actually being in a loving relationship.
So Diane winds up divorcing him. This basically made me realize that I was doing the same thing with Isabela, my imaginary video game girlfriend. Instead of killing Castillion, for example, I let her take his ship. Anything to make her happy. And during the qunari attack on Kirkwall, I gave her the relic and didn't scold her for stealing it.
I was a doormat, joining Isabela in her misdeeds and enabling her toxic flaws with some codependent hope that she would love and accept Hawke if I did. But when I challenged Isabela by calling out her behavior, sticking to my own morals, and refusing to tolerate her bad decisions.
Isabela learned from me and grew as a person. By the end of Dragon Age 2, she was a better woman, ready to stand by Hawke and help her defend Kirkwall, rather than running away. I'm not saying it's someone's partner's job to fix them, but if a relationship is appeasing your worst flaws rather than challenging you to be your best.
You're probably wondering how the heck Merrill is any different. After all, her entire arc and her romance is about Hawke either challenging her or enabling her.
My Hawke always challenged Merrill, and if you play the romance in rivalry mode, Merrill will actually break the mirror and learn from her mistakes. So it's not so much that Merrill never changes at all. What drove me from Merrill and running back to Isabela was the fact that Merrill is a huge child and a foolish one at that.
I know I wrote a big, long article about how Merrill is an adult who looks like a child and as a result, has to put up with a lot of condescending people. She pretends to be an idiot some of the time to get out of conversations she doesn't want with Carver in particular. I think my problem is that Merrill is a really annoying, borderline-pedophiliac trope that I'm really, really tired of. Merrill is essentially the girl trapped in the woman's body. She's older than she looks, she's viriginal, she seems like an idiot but she's only half idiot, and she loves and adores the protagonist no matter what.
BioWare has done this way too many times. It's my belief that Merrill was supposed to be a subversion and a mockery of the trope, but it was so poorly done that she still comes off as just the same plain old trope. And the more I examine this trope, the more I'm disgusted by it. Why do all the elves in Dragon Age have the bodies of teenage girls? That's a rhetorical question.
I know there's a lore reason the elves were physically diminished over time because they lost their magic but it's still really. Why should our grown-ass protagonist, who is typically close to thirty, want to be with someone who looks and acts like a teenage girl? I mentioned in my Merrill article how lesbians tend to end up with huge age gaps because there aren't a lot of us, but most lesbians in their thirties would make a hard pass on dating someone who's barely twenty. Hawke is twenty-five when the game begins and Merrill is barely nineteen.
It just seems so. Cutesy fanart of Merrill, who looks twelve years old. A lot of fans have also claimed that they feel the relationship between Hawke and Merrill is manipulative. I made some very weak arguments against this in my Merrill analysis, but if I'm completely honest with myself? Merrill's romance does feel manipulative. When Hawke romances Anders, she winds up being emotionally abused by him, but if Hawke romances Merrill, she winds up emotionally abusing Merrill. If you take the rivalmance path, Hawke can be very verbally cruel, but even on the friend path, Hawke is an enabler, taking advantage of a vulnerable person who has no one else in the world.
This did not hit home for me until I thought about Isabela and how she's the exact opposite. Isabela is completely emotionally independent, but in such an unhealthy way, she keeps people at a distance for fear of hurting them. This is why she never says she loves Hawke until the end of the game and why she pretends that their romance is just about sex when in reality, she's really sad if Hawke leaves her for someone else. When I said Merrill never changes, I think I meant emotionally.
Merrill never becomes emotionally independent. If anything, she becomes more emotionally dependent on Hawke after losing Keeper Marethari and her clan. In stark contrast, Isabela learns to let down her walls and remains independent but in a healthy way. For this reason, her romance is more healthy and more fulfilling to the story than any other romance in the game. I recently looked at Isabela's tavern fight introduction scene, and I thought to myself, "Isabela is a woman, not a little girl.
Why would I romance any less? Now, whether or not this next step of the relationship is worth it is up to some debate, but these companions are well worth the investment. Updated on August 19, , by Juliet Childers: The romance aspect of any BioWare game is a main feature with lots of robust and branching options. As such, many fans have pretty strong opinions about which ones hold a coveted spot in their player character's heart.
But here are TG's 10 best romances in the Dragon Age series. Dorian's inclusion as the first male companion romanceable only by a male Inquisitor earned many positive reactions from fans. But his romance is also one of the better ones in the Dragon Age series. Dorian starts off their friendship in a friendly, flippant way that makes him instantly endearing. But it isn't until you start to learn more about his difficult backstory that it becomes clear how much Dorian comes to trust a romanced Inquisitor.
He's initially irreverent because he's keeping you at a distance until the Inquisitor's finally able to convince him he actually wants to be with him. Then, the floodgates of love open, and Dorian gives himself to you entirely. Fenris isn't exactly the most in touch with his emotional center if you will.
He's a former slave who underwent an horrifically painful procedure to have lyrium grafted onto his body only to then be a killer for a Tevinter magister. He harbors no good will toward mages which makes a romance with a mage Hawke an incredibly engaging one. Whether you win Fenris' heart through compassion and like-mindedness or by sheer force of will, he stands out as a fan-favorite romance across the series.
Josephine is one of the bisexual romance options across the Dragon Age series. As a very diplomatic person, she blushes easily and, though she can hold her own in verbal volleys, the Inquisitor can fluster her with their advances. At one point in flirting with her, however, Leliana threatens you not to hurt her or you will have to answer to her knives.
Plus, there's a duel, a broken betrothal, a contract with a house of assassins, and then the reinstatement of her family's reputation and nobility. You know: sweeping, romantic novel stuff that Cassandra loves, but without the swords. Or with them just Your very first suspicious apostate witch a series favorite actually has one of the better romances in the series. Perhaps this isn't surprising, with Morrigan being a fan-favorite character and almost the face of the franchise.
The relationship is rewarding because of Morrigan's contempt for sentimentality of any kind; you really have to work for it. She initially comes off as aloof and sarcastic, but as the Warden slowly builds a relationship with her, she reveals more and more of her true self — which isn't any less sarcastic but is certainly warmer.
No matter what else happens, she leaves the party after the final battle in Origins.
0コメント