This was sure to happen sooner or later
The newest GameInformer showed up in our mailbox today. There's a special 23 page article titled "The 30 Characters Who Defined A Decade" to honor the video game characters who are arguably more memorable than others. This post is about a Dragon Age character who is featured in this article: teyrn Loghain Mac Tir.
"When Logain withdraws from the Battle of Ostagar and leaves King Cailan to die on the battlefield, one can't help but see him as a sinister turncoat. In the early stages of the game, players envision a final confrontation in which the usurper receives a bloody comeuppance. However, by the time the critical moment arrives, the Grey Warden has learned that all of Loghain's actions do not spring from a well of evil intent; he is a patriot first and foremost."
I was able to replay Dragon Age from beginning to end multiple times for many reasons. One reason of course would be to play through each origin. The other would be to experience all the endings (five in total if I'm counting correctly). Honestly, during my first playthrough I was getting familiar with the Dragon Age universe. I knew it had a medieval feel to it, what with the sword and shield, kings and queens, magic, etc. but it was also to get familiar with each of the characters. Before my character was able to talk to Alistair at camp, I thought of him to be a snarky know-it-all, but my opinion changed quickly the more I played.
But I'm not writing this to talk about Alistair or the other characters; this is about Loghain. I did think of him as being evil, someone who deliberately left the battle field to leave Cailin to die so he would be able to take the throne. My opinion changed about Loghain after talking to Ser Cauthrien before the Landsmeet. She did have some comments about Loghain that made me think differently about him, and that's when I realized that he wasn't spewing lies that what he was doing was for the good of Ferelden.
I understand why he made his decision at Ostagar; Cailin grew up as a child who only knew of tales of battles rather than earning his spot on the throne through winning battles. Cailin didn't care much for strategies as he was more interested with fighting in a battle, which was a combination of his inexperience, overconfidence, and being blinded from reality by following his childhood fantasies. Loghain knew that the Battle of Ostagar was a battle they wouldn't win, so he did the "smart" thing and pulled out his troops before any of them were lost.
I do sympathize Loghain to an extent, but I'm not trying to say that I agreed with everything that Loghain did. With some of his major decisions of the game, I can understand his reasoning why. One of my big disagreements I had was blaming the Grey Wardens for killing the late King Cailin. In a way, it was Cailin's fault for having all the Grey Wardens of Ferelden killed. Loghain accusing the surviving ones of killing the king is adding insult to injury.
Unfortunately, I haven't had a playthrough yet where I spared Loghain, but I plan to rectify that soon. I've already watched videos on his ending, but I still want to play through them.
And by writing this, what am I trying to get at? You can always trust Bioware's games to have a great storyline. A lot of the characters they create have depth to them; they aren't one-dimensional in the least. That's what makes them likeable, or unlikeable in some cases.
[Now I need a Dragon Age icon. >>]
"When Logain withdraws from the Battle of Ostagar and leaves King Cailan to die on the battlefield, one can't help but see him as a sinister turncoat. In the early stages of the game, players envision a final confrontation in which the usurper receives a bloody comeuppance. However, by the time the critical moment arrives, the Grey Warden has learned that all of Loghain's actions do not spring from a well of evil intent; he is a patriot first and foremost."
I was able to replay Dragon Age from beginning to end multiple times for many reasons. One reason of course would be to play through each origin. The other would be to experience all the endings (five in total if I'm counting correctly). Honestly, during my first playthrough I was getting familiar with the Dragon Age universe. I knew it had a medieval feel to it, what with the sword and shield, kings and queens, magic, etc. but it was also to get familiar with each of the characters. Before my character was able to talk to Alistair at camp, I thought of him to be a snarky know-it-all, but my opinion changed quickly the more I played.
But I'm not writing this to talk about Alistair or the other characters; this is about Loghain. I did think of him as being evil, someone who deliberately left the battle field to leave Cailin to die so he would be able to take the throne. My opinion changed about Loghain after talking to Ser Cauthrien before the Landsmeet. She did have some comments about Loghain that made me think differently about him, and that's when I realized that he wasn't spewing lies that what he was doing was for the good of Ferelden.
I understand why he made his decision at Ostagar; Cailin grew up as a child who only knew of tales of battles rather than earning his spot on the throne through winning battles. Cailin didn't care much for strategies as he was more interested with fighting in a battle, which was a combination of his inexperience, overconfidence, and being blinded from reality by following his childhood fantasies. Loghain knew that the Battle of Ostagar was a battle they wouldn't win, so he did the "smart" thing and pulled out his troops before any of them were lost.
I do sympathize Loghain to an extent, but I'm not trying to say that I agreed with everything that Loghain did. With some of his major decisions of the game, I can understand his reasoning why. One of my big disagreements I had was blaming the Grey Wardens for killing the late King Cailin. In a way, it was Cailin's fault for having all the Grey Wardens of Ferelden killed. Loghain accusing the surviving ones of killing the king is adding insult to injury.
Unfortunately, I haven't had a playthrough yet where I spared Loghain, but I plan to rectify that soon. I've already watched videos on his ending, but I still want to play through them.
And by writing this, what am I trying to get at? You can always trust Bioware's games to have a great storyline. A lot of the characters they create have depth to them; they aren't one-dimensional in the least. That's what makes them likeable, or unlikeable in some cases.
[Now I need a Dragon Age icon. >>]