#except instead bioware went in the complete opposite direction and went oh no they were evil mage slavers!! as bad as tevinter magisters

[foxx-queen]

what do you think about the way dai handled the wardens?

see I feel like inquisition could've said something interesting about an organisation that can do whatever necessary in the name of saving the world, but they just? didn't do it well? (it's something I feel like is never really addressed with the power of the inquisition itself either but that's off topic). tdlr at the end because this got long whoops

like I think the idea of the wardens all panicking about getting the calling all at once is a really interesting idea! but the way the writers went about it was so??? like it just made the wardens (specifically clarel) seem really dumb? not with using blood magic, because despite all the anti blood magic stuff from the characters (especially hawke which is bizarre when they... can be a blood mage), da2/dai also tell us it's just a tool and not inherently evil. which is fine, we've seen that throughout all three games! but the fact that clarel and the wardens are listening to erimond and that none of them suspect him or question is plan is just so stupid. erimond is the most cartoon stereotype of an evil tevinter magister and will literally Evil Grin half the time and none of the wardens thought that was weird??

up until dai we/the characters see the wardens as this group that seems like it knows exactly what it's doing, is always going to be around, is completely necessary, and can't really 'fall' aside from in battle against darkspawn. having them be suddenly vulnerable and in need of help could've been really interesting! it could've also been an opportunity to actually tell us more about the wardens origins. solas has this belief we've never seen before that the wardens are actually fools/potentially completely wrong with the way they're going about defeating the blight, but we're never able to find out why he thinks that or what he thinks the alternative is (this is a general fault with his character imo, they never let you push him because he has to stay Mysterious). there's a lot about the wardens we don't know, and I feel like dai would've been a good time to tell us more since we're facing off against one of the og magisters who started the blights.

it all just feels very contrived to push the 'inquisitor chooses to kick the wardens out or not', so as a result a lot of it just feels?? stupid sjekskw especially because at this point even despite what's happened ... the wardens are the only way to stop a blight? and so many of the companions are like oh kick them out :/ but guys... what about the blights??

on the other hand, I actually really like the fade quest. it's so different from the fade quests in previous games and its really interesting seeing the 'raw' fade. the scene where clarel is dying and blasts the red lyrium dragon as she's reciting the wardens oath and the ledge crumbles as everyone falls into the fade is actually one of my favourite scenes in the game. the whole falling into the fade feels a lot more ?? natural I guess than some of the other quests in the game and is genuinely a surprise when it happens.

basically I think that dai could've done something really interesting with the wardens as a group who are usually the people you turn to when things are extremely dire suddenly needing your help, instead of oh a whole group of people are blindly following a cartoon villain without question, isn't that bad of them we should punish them!

this is off the top of my head, but i think an interesting way of doing it that would tie more into the main story maybe would be to have that corypheus is directly influencing the warden commanders (cut erimond out completely), since we know he can do that, and he's managed to spread that influence (maybe still using the nightmare demon), and that the wardens themselves turn to the inquisitor after hearing about how they survived corypheus at haven and allied/recruited the mages/templars. (it was weird to me that clarel was like??? corypheus is dead tho?? like surely she would've heard the rumours about haven at least? anyway). maybe if you ally with the mages, fiona tells you the wardens have reached out to her for help, or you're able to ask her opinion once the wardens have reached out through hawke or something. it would make the whole 'the inquisition is developing into a group that people respect and see as a source of help' feel more real I think. have the build up to fighting the wardens at adamant be longer and more in depth, with the warden contact taking the inquisitor to meet more wardens and giving us the opportunity to learn more about the order or something. personally I've always wondered if the first warden, or whoever created the wardens, was one of the original tevinter magisters like corephyus. I think maybe also get rid of the demon army bit? because I'm not sure I get why corephyus even needed one if his main goal was to break into the fade. like why not just influence the wardens to obey him into gathering people for a sacrifice to enter the fade like he did with the other magisters?? idk

anyways ajaja this got long so tdlr: I think dai handled the wardens 'corruption' poorly and that helping / saving the wardens from themselves could've been really interesting but ultimately is kind of annoying and in the end kind of feels like bioware being like surprise this organisation we told u is good in dao is now the enemy!