#i'd sooner call aveline a decent guard before i'd side with the templars soooooo~

[stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage]

Dragon Age really peaked with Loghain as an antagonist, and it sucks because Meredith was right there. But unfortunately, she was heavily underutilized and it drives me nuts.

Y'know, when Loghain says everything he did was for Fereldan, I believe him. When Meredith says everything she did was for Kirkwall, I roll my eyes and say, "Mmhmm, sure, I totally believe Kirkwall is your first priority. Your head definitely isn't shoved up your own ass."

Her words never match her actions, so why should I believe anything she says?

She claims she's not a tyrant, but she breaks Chantry law frequently to make harrowed mages tranquil over petty things. She's executed mages at random to make an example of them. She lets her templars do whatever they want to the mages... but y'know, she's definitely not a cruel, oppressive leader or anything.

She claims she keeps Kirkwall safe from dangerous blood mages, but remind me, who actually stopped Quentin? The blood mage who murdered several women, including Leandra, so that he could stitch them all together to recreate his dead wife? Oh right, it was Hawke who put a stop to that, not Meredith or her templars because none of them believed Emeric or put in the actual effort to do their job.

She claims she has to enact the Rite of Annulment after the Chantry blows up because the people will demand justice... as if she didn't already send for permission to carry out the rite at the beginning of Act 3. If you wanted to give the people justice and blood, you'd demand to publicly execute Anders, the one who actually did it. Why pretend to be sympathetic and patient when you wear your bloodlust on your sleeve?

My interpretation of Meredith has always been that she's self-righteous and egotistic. Maybe she didn't start out that way; I'm aware that her backstory involves her sister turning into an abomination who then murdered her family and 70 more people, all because Meredith's parents didn't send her to the circle in the first place. This left Meredith an orphan and that's why she has such a strong and harsh opinion of magic. I mean, fair enough. I'm not going to pretend like that's not understandable.

But, I think there came a point where it stopped being about protecting Kirkwall from magic, and it become more about how much power Meredith could grasp in her iron fist, and then abusing it to prove herself in charge. And no, it's not the corruption of the red lyrium; Meredith was corrupted long before she got her hands on that idol.

I mean, c'mon-- she wears a goddamn replica of Andraste's crown, okay? Meredith really believes herself on the same level as Andraste. Do you want to tell her, or should I, that if Andraste ever came back and witnessed the bullshit that happened in Kirkwall, she'd run Meredith through herself?

Hate to break it to you lady, but the Maker isn't going to make you his new bride because you murdered an entire tower of mages.

And it drives me nuts because she has the foundation to surpass Loghain as most interesting DA antagonist. But just like with a lot of things in DA2, there wasn't enough time dedicated to her. What do you mean I only get to talk to this lady at the end of Act 2 and in Act 3? You spend nearly two acts building her up and that's it?

Oh and don't even get me started on how underutilized Orsino was because oh my god-