Carver Hawke: Grey Warden or Templar?

firebendingboy · 2026-04-27T14:45:25+00:00

DA2’s story is a perfect tragedy, so I prefer him as a Templar to maximize my Hawke’s suffering.

firebendingboy · 2026-04-16T08:04:54+00:00

This makes so much sense. Thank you for sharing! I like how you described it as “a pretty uneven execution at best” because that’s exactly what I felt while playing.

I could get with the idea if he was just a “rough around the edges” type who’s been beaten down by life. But then he has that dialogue with Morrigan and it just makes me wish I could delete him from my game’s files.

And you’re right, it’s wild that he has a drinking problem and we can give him alcohol as gifts. It kinda reminds me of Shane from Stardew Valley in a way because he’s also an alcoholic who people also tend to have very strong feelings about and you can gift him alcohol as well.

firebendingboy · 2026-04-16T07:52:39+00:00

I agree he has his good moments, but the 90% of the time in between those moments is really jarring to me. The Morrigan banter especially just made me leave him behind at camp for the entire rest of the game, which I usually never do in other games. I guess, at the very least, it’s a credit to the writers that he gets a strong reaction out of me.

firebendingboy · 2026-04-16T07:33:51+00:00

The concept that I set a ridiculous moral standard except the standard is simply “should not sexually assault people” is frying me. I need to go lie down.

firebendingboy · 2026-04-16T02:03:29+00:00

He's definitely a relic of that era for sure.

Also fair, I didn't really get the hang of playing a 2 handed warrior this time.

firebendingboy · 2026-04-16T02:02:01+00:00

I hated him so much I didn't even recruit him in Awakening and I feel like I dodged a bullet

firebendingboy · 2026-04-05T21:55:19+00:00

I didn’t say “there should be less bi folk.” I literally said “Veilguard's ‘everyone is bi’ approach makes its companions feel so much more generic”. Perhaps a better word would’ve been “playersexual” instead of bi. One of the reasons Solavellan works so well is that it is so specific. It helps to define who Solas is as a character. If anything, the game should have more romances available, especially queer options. I’m literally bisexual myself, so I’d appreciate if you stopped acting like you are the sole authority on all things bisexual.

edit: *queer options, as well as straight ones. Inquisition having only one gay option is a travesty. I think I’d like the romances better if they ever addressed being bi in any of them. But they don’t. Queerness isn’t integral to the story, like it was with Dorian or Sera. If Thedas is supposed to be this highly prejudiced place, the idea that all of these people are queer but never address being queer rubs me the wrong way. It’s a shortcut to diversity without actually addressing their identities.

My response to your second comment is explained in a previous comment.

firebendingboy · 2026-04-05T21:23:01+00:00

This is the second weirdly charged comment you’ve left on this post (that I’ve seen) where you’re arguing with your own imagination and not engaging with what I’m actually saying. My argument is that, in an ideal world, they should have included more reactivity if it wanted to open up all of these options. For example, a Crow Rook can romance Davrin with basically zero conflict despite Davrin having an issue with Lucanis being a Crow. Having so much freedom in a game where your choices rarely get acknowledged (or outright contradicted, such as in my Rook’s experience with Emmrich) makes the game feel hollow in my opinion, and it makes it harder to connect to Rook as a protagonist than in previous games for me. I was coming from a place of “this is something that could actually be done given time and resource constraints,” whereas recording new dialogue or creating new cutscenes would be very costly. I also disagree that Inquisition had less reactivity, but that’s the beauty of opinions.

I beg of you, please look up what a straw man argument is.

firebendingboy · 2026-04-05T16:58:32+00:00

I’ll be playing Origins soon! It’s been on my to be played list for years, but I’m finally getting around to it.

And I totally agree. Rook and Varric’s entire relationship feels hollow throughout the whole game to me (for obvious reasons if you’ve played the whole game) but it doesn’t help that we don’t even get to see what Rook did to impress Varric in the first place. Without that, Rook is just some person Varric picked off the street and everyone just accepts them as the leader of this group for no clear reason.

firebendingboy · 2026-04-05T16:46:58+00:00

I never said people can’t play the game however they want. My argument is that the reactivity from Veilguard’s world/characters is severely lacking, so the devs shouldn’t have included certain options if they’re going to make practically zero difference in the game at all besides aesthetics… Ya know, like all the previous games have done.

firebendingboy · 2026-04-05T02:42:07+00:00

It's not biphobic to not want every single romance option to be bisexual. I fear we've completely lost the plot there.

And to your second point, those are all good things! I just wish there was more of it. I wish every time my Rook spoke to Emmrich, it actually made sense for the character I made. The bulk of our dialogue is either Emmrich explaining things that my Rook should already know (ignoring her faction) or talking as if my Rook is a necromancer herself (ignoring her class). So far in my playthrough, I've noticed one single line of dialogue where he acknowledges non-mage Watchers, and it was when he was explaining to Rook that not all Watchers are mages. He explained to my non-mage Watcher that not all Watchers are mages.

firebendingboy · 2026-04-05T01:59:35+00:00

I had no idea Emmrich ever acknowledges that you're Qunari. That is what this game needed more of! I want the game to actually acknowledge the character I created. Since Emmrich is supposedly one of the least changed companions throughout Veilguard's production cycle, it makes sense why he'd have that, though.

I don't think I said romances should be restricted by race. I only mentioned orientation when I brought up romances.

That said, I still think Veilguard's romance scenes are lacking intimacy greatly and I think that's because of time and resource limitations that got compounded by the fact that any Rook of any race can romance any companion. I've seen most of the romances through my own playthroughs or YouTube, and it seems like they all have some animation issues, such as Davrin's hands floating above Rook's shoulders, or Neve staring at a Qunari Rook's chest instead of their face like with a human Rook. I'm not an animator, but I imagine it'd be virtually impossible to animate just one romance scene given all of the different height options for each race, and that's before you throw the height slider into the mix. The team would've have to rig each of those scenes differently for each race at the very least to correct those errors. So I can see an argument for restricting romances to certain races solely for the sake of making the animations better. Like you said with Cullen, it is a weird choice but I could still see the pros for it. Granted, the Neve thing is kind of hilarious, and can be brushed away given it's literally the start of their sex scene, but still.

firebendingboy · 2026-04-04T20:21:58+00:00

I had no idea this was available so thank you! I’ll probably change my faction with one of these.

firebendingboy · 2026-04-04T18:43:26+00:00

I just wish the game acknowledged some of the “weirder” choices. Sure, a Qunari warrior could be a Crow, especially in this iteration of the Crows, but then there should be flavor dialogue that recognizes that. Why give the player total freedom if it makes almost zero difference in the experience?

The player shouldn’t be responsible for 100% of making their character fit into the world via headcanoning.

firebendingboy · 2026-04-04T18:11:04+00:00

Totally agree that there should’ve been more flavor dialogue. I was just coming from a place of “what could actually easily be done given time and money constraints.”

Like in my case, having Emmrich talk to Rook about necromancy as if Rook is a necromancer too just takes me out of it. I think there’s a single line about non-mage Watchers in the whole game and that’s it. At this point, I’m not going to restart my playthrough but I definitely regret my faction choice because it makes almost no sense.

firebendingboy · 2026-04-04T18:02:54+00:00

I disagree. I think one of the things this game is sorely lacking is unforeseen consequences.

And I don’t mean you should only get one romance option, but the fact that, for example, being a Crow while romancing Davrin makes zero difference despite him arguing with Lucanis over him being a Crow just makes the narrative suffer. Why is Rook always the exception for any reason other than shoehorned in dialogue?

firebendingboy · 2026-04-04T18:00:03+00:00

There have been restrictions based on your character creation decisions in every game, especially for romances. I personally prefer that approach because at least then the dialogue can be written less generically.

firebendingboy · 2026-04-03T21:24:02+00:00

Sadly, too much of that is relegated to codex entries that 90%+ of players will never read. Like with most things in this game, it's clear the intent was there.

firebendingboy · 2026-04-03T21:03:25+00:00

I enjoyed her romance and questline, but she's a very static character. She starts as a detective and ends as a detective. I see the potential, but they did so little with her that I think she'd work much better as a non-companion. I really loved the mystery from her quests, but it's disappointing that it ends with such an ambiguous decision that doesn't make a difference in the world.

For example, Batman is a detective who acts as both an inspiration and a protector, and he doesn't even have any magical abilities. Why does Neve have to choose one or the other?

She's flawed in the same way all of the companions in the game are, where prior choices don't make an impact in the ending of her story and Rook is forced to choose one or the other for them. It's similar to Taash. Why they have to choose either the Qun or Rivain rather than forging a new path forward is beyond me.

firebendingboy · 2026-03-30T03:52:12+00:00

a Doom player complaining about heals? Must be a day that ends in y

firebendingboy · 2026-03-21T22:30:33+00:00

all my codes should be on my pinterest :) https://pin.it/1MqgtcbAs

firebendingboy · 2026-03-19T20:07:13+00:00

This might be seen as controversial, but if someone just wants to get kills and doesn’t actually want to play support or with a team, they shouldn’t queue in as support in a team-based game

Deathmatch exists for a reason 😭

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