It was love at first ass whooping

kisses: Warden/Morrigan

It has been four centuries since that victory and we have kept our vigil. We have watched and waited for the darkspawn to return. But those who once called us heroes… have forgotten. We are few now, and our warnings have been ignored for too long. It may even be too late, for I have seen with my own eyes what lies on the horizon. Maker help us all.

“There I was, poised for the final strike when a shingle came loose and my opponent slipped, plunging to his unceremonious death.”

Zevran looks into the camera like on The Office.

You don’t know real fear until you are traveling in Dragon Age: Origins and the crossed swords appear before you’ve reached your destination. When was the last time you saved? Please let it not be the one with the spiders. You were a good person, you didn’t deserve this. The Maker truly did turn his back on his children

The best part is when you picked all the companions you haven’t leveled up in awhile because they’re not part of your main team. 

And your incredible relief when it’s just old Tegrin.

your fave is problematic: zevran arainai

I have the feeling that out of all the DA and ME3 games, DAO is the weakest in terms of convincing protagonist motivation. I can understand it — with six different origins it is hard to cook up something that works for everyone. However, I can’t help but wonder — why the hell would a newly recruited character agree to spearhead a potentially suicidal world rescue mission, instead of running for the trees. Even Hawke fled after Ostagar, and Hawke is a badass unicorn.

I felt like it was done a lot better in Mass Effect — not only is Shepard an officer and is used to following orders, assume responsibility and helping old ladies cross a potentially lethal street anyway, but there is also additional, more personal motivation leading to the gigantic clusterfuck that is the Reaper invasion, like the Prothean beacon in your head and the hunt for your mentor’s enemy.

The Warden, however, is stuck in a weird position. At this point in the game, you are thrust into leadership of an order that you barely knew and don’t identify with yet. And it’s supposed to feel like there is no other way but there actually is. You could try and leave Ferelden. If you are a Cousland, you would probably look for Fergus first. If you are a mage, you could enjoy your new life on the outside (to quote a friend: "Fuck stopping the demon army, Sandy is gonna go whoring!”). I don’t know much about other origins, but I suspect fleeing Ferelden is the common denominator we could agree on.

I had a hard time figuring out why the character would do what she does. In the end, I fell back on the “family, duty, honor” explanation. The daughter of the teyrn of Highever, second only to the royal family, born to rule and command, would probably consider it her responsibility to protect her home country. With the king and her father dead, her brother missing, Loghain a traitor and Alistair so pathetically unwilling to step up, there really is nobody else. This is not an ideal explanation, but it will do for now.

So now I am really curious — why did your Warden stay and fight? :)

On protagonist motivation in DA:O.  My answer outstripped both the answer and reply character limit.  (Brevity?  What?)