#just giving up the reins completely and following orders as (imo) a method of coping with massive loss and trauma | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

aces-to-apples · 1 year

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Frankly I think Alistair being mildly shitty to that mage in Ostagar seems pretty in-character for the guy he is before the massive, life-altering trauma that is the Ostagar massacre wherein he sees all of his Grey Warden comrades, his beloved mentor/father figure, and his beloathed half-brother/convenient-target-of-projection absolutely torn to shreds by literal Thedas boogeymen. IIRC Morrigan and Flemeth both comment on his wack behavior after Ostagar and then by the time we get to Lothering Alistair just fully surrenders any and all responsibility (and, frankly, agency) to the player's Warden for the foreseeable future. It can then take anywhere from a couple IRL hours to the entire second act of the game for him to retake almost any amount of it back. And depending on the player's choices in dialogue, and especially whether or not they choose to romance him, we may only see flashes of that guy we met at Ostagar before he potentially morphs into almost someone else entirely (hardened!King!Alistair). All that to say, I don't actually think it's a useful criticism of "characterization" to bring up Alistair's glibness as compared to his behavior in the majority of the game because from where I'm standing (looking directly at his snottiness about Cailan, his complaints about being assigned to the Tower of Ishal, his Templar-esque focusing on Morrigan and Flemeth being apostates, his generally pretty brusque manner with the Warden recruits) it seems fairly in-line with the rest of his behavior at Ostagar.

#like seriously he's a bit of a dick (more than what becomes usual) while at ostagar #before his world is shattered and his brain (and personality) is completely rearranged by seeing everyone important to him slaughtered #he clings so hard to the warden as a lifeline that he kind of goes full-on fawning mode for a little bit there #just giving up the reins completely and following orders as (imo) a method of coping with massive loss and trauma #throughout the course of the game he recovers somewhat and goes back to being kind of a dick #and/or growing up pretty extensively and becoming a much better and more tolerant person as a whole #but the idea of him being a dick to a mage because he's being moved around like a chess piece rather than a person #by someone who should NOT have the authority to do that and that fuckin ANNOYS him and then this dude's getting all up in his face about it #as if this was HIS decision and then being accused of harassing this random ass dude he could not give less of a fuck about for funsies #and thus him going full obnoxious shithead teenager about it is somehow OUT of character?? for ALISTAIR??? wack #like nah bro i know we all love ali but our vision is being obscured by that love and also how sweet he is in a romance #just being besties with him unlocks an incredible amount of unfiltered BITCHINESS that is fully in-line with ostagar!alistair's shenanigans #dragon age: origins #alistair theirin #by apples #da meta #anyway there's been disk horse on my dash for the last couple days and this is my take on it

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