I just finished Dragon Age: Origins the other day, and was truly surprised to have enjoyed it as much as I did. I'm not really a fan of tactical RPGs, nor the swords-n-sorcery setting Dragon Age halfheartedly gussies up with a few dozen buckets of blood. Still, I have to admit it's one of the better RPGs I've ever played.
Part of that is due to the fact that, for seemingly the first time ever, I actually enjoyed playing as a mage.
Equally surprising, however, were the characters: yes, they fell into the established tough guy/sexy chick/pure woman cliches, but they never really felt as boring as they by all rights should have. Sten is a slave to idiotic traditions that have made him equal parts honorable warrior and aloof, monosyllabic monster. Zevran is charming and sexy (in a Jack Harkness sort of way, come to think of it), but he's also a duplicitous scumbag.
And then, of course, there's Morrigan. In my fortyplus hours with the game, I was never quite sure how to feel about her -- and I mean that in the best way possible. She's extremely useful in combat, but she's also the most unrepentantly amoral character in the entire game. Her sarcasm and occasional (and very, very brief) moments of goodness makes her strangely likable, yet I never, for a second, trusted her.
Then the ending came around, and I felt conflicted enough about the final choice regarding Morrigan to write an editorial about her.
This is that editorial. Spoilers for Dragon Age and Mass Effect. And Fallout 3, come to think of it.
The problem with BioWare RPGs, at least in my experience, is that the characters, the gameplay, and the story often seem to be pulling in different directions. Good drama necessitates that bad things should occasionally happen to characters whom you like, but the player's combat strategies are ruined if they are suddenly and permanently forbidden from using a character they like. Because of this, you end up with situations like Wrex's maybe-death scene in the original Mass Effect, or Zevran's betrayal in Dragon Age: if you like a character a lot and have proven so through dialogue and constant use of them in battle, then the character stays around and the story dramatically suffers for it. If you haven't shown an intense desire to keep the character around, then the character is killed off, which, unfortunately, changes neither the gameplay nor story as far as the player is concerned.
Morrigan's final conversation with the player does an interesting job of circumventing these problems, even if only partially.
In case you don't remember, or just don't care about spoilers: the night before the Last Big Epic Fight Against the Archdemon, Morrigan appears in the player's room and offers him a deal. If the Warden has sex with her, she will immediately bear a child (I can't help but imagine her stomach instantaneously getting twenty times larger without warning, accompanied by this noise) who will absorb the Archdemon's soul once the Warden kills him. After the Archdemon's death, Morrigan will take the kid away to raise it as her own and will never again speak to the Warden.
If the player does not give Morrigan a child, or at least persuade one of the other Grey Wardens to do so, then she will immediately leave (rendering her unavailable for the final boss fight) and the player will be forced to sacrifice either his own life, or the life of another Grey Warden in order to kill the Archdemon once and for all.
Unlike in Fallout 3, however, the player's ultimate fate sort of matters, in the grander scheme of things. Given the way BioWare is handling the Mass Effect series, wherein the player controls a single, persistent character through three different games, it is not altogether unreasonable to assume that they'll do the same thing for the Dragon Age series (and considering how well it's doing, it almost certainly will be a series). Thus, Morrigan's proposition has a greater sense of consequence attached to it: do you want to give birth to a demon baby and let Morrigan do whatever she wants with it, or do you want to run the risk of your character never seeing Dragon Age 2?
Ideally, the choice would be made even more complex due to Morrigan's promise that she will leave before the fight if the player doesn't impregnate her. That this effectively becomes a moot point is probably the ending's biggest flaw. As incredibly useful as Morrigan is in the first half of the game, she becomes less and less deadly compared to her companions as the campaign wears on. Once everybody (except the dog) starts getting spectacular area-of-effect attacks and damaging hexes, Morrigan becomes somewhat redundant. Morrigan's gameplay relevance would have ideally been the deciding factor in the dilemma she presents, but it instead took a backseat to how I personally felt about her, as a character.
Luckily, my own feelings toward Morrigan were so confusing and contradictory and weird that, ultimately, I still had a surprisingly hard time with the decision.
On the one hand, I would have absolutely no qualms about killing Morrigan if I had to. None. Through every other moral quandary in the game, Morrigan forever plays the part of the devil on your shoulder, advocating the exact wrong course of action. Don't destroy the magic anvil that enslaves innocents and grants power, she says; use it yourself and sacrifice innocents to make yourself stronger. In the beginning of the game, she shrugs and sighs and loses affection for the player every time he or she chooses to take optional side quests that would benefit innocent people (I don't know why Morrigan stops reacting this way after a few hours of play, because she really should have continued to do so -- it creates an interesting conflict between doing what is right and making her like you). Even after she begins to warm up to the player, she remains a cold, selfish sociopath who the player can never fully trust.
That said, I would also have no qualms about having the Warden marry her (apart from how incredibly, incredibly awkward and weird and sad that would be). I hate to say it, but there's something kind of admirable and alluring about how unrepentantly bad a person Morrigan is; unlike many BioWare characters of the past, she never warms up in any significant way, never changes her philosophies, and thankfully, never tells the player character that she "loves" him (as I type this, I am wincing at the memory of KotOR's Bastila Shan admitting that she truly, madly, deeply loved me in the game's final moments).
Since I met her early on in the game and frequently used her in battle up until the last fifth of the game, I couldn't help but feel a connection to her. Usefulness breeds empathy: it's why I cared about the dog in Fable II, and why I didn't care about Cole's friends in inFamous. Morrigan is initially very useful, and thus -- quite against my own will -- I found myself beginning to like her.
Also, she is sexy.
I don't say that in a drooly, were-she-a-real-woman-I'd-bum-her kind of way -- Jim's got that area covered with his own particular juices -- but in that she's one of the few sexy characters I've seen in a game whose sexuality is an actual aspect of her persona, not just a bottom-of-the-barrel method of selling more copies to virgins. Yes, Morrigan is heavily defined by her plunging neckline and whorish makeup, but that's because she's a manipulative bitch who uses sex to make people stupid. She's not Lara Croft. She's not shouting, "respect me as a strong female character" while slowly disrobing; she's trying to seduce every man around her because they're simply more useful when they're horny.
That such a person would accidentally find themselves caring about the player's character after receiving a few gifts and wisely-chosen dialogue responses represents an interesting complication: does she really care about the Warden, and literally does not know how to deal with those feelings? She'll have sex with the player once (and if we're being honest, the less said about that sex scene, the better), but never again, claiming that the intimacy frightens her. Is she simply engaging in the longest performance of "not tonight, honey, I have a headache" known to man, or is she legitimately terrified of her own attraction to him? We're never given answers, and are thus free to believe pretty much whatever we wish to believe, within reason; I choose to decide that Morrigan was being honest with me.
But that didn't stop me from kicking her ass out when she asked me to impregnate her with an Archdemon spirit.
I liked her, I valued the time I'd spent with her, and I wanted her by my side when I felled the Archdemon, but in the end I simply could not trust someone as knowingly amoral as her with a potentially omnipotent devil child. I do not think I am exaggerating when I say I've never felt so ambivalent about an NPC before -- I've truly liked a few characters and truly hated many more, but before Morrigan, a character had never made me feel both emotions simultaneously.
That said, I'll be very irritated if, in the sequel, Morrigan magically has a devil-child anyway. The epilogue says that a woman who may or may not be Morrigan was seen heading into the sunset, and also that she may or may not have had a child with her. Despite the fact that I didn't impregnate her, and the only other surviving Grey Warden (Alistair) wouldn't have touched her with a ten foot rod, it sounds like it was the power of sequel necessity, rather than any elven sperm, that managed to impregnate Morrigan's festering womb.
Maybe that's just me, though. Morrigan walks a fine line between "well-written amoral female" and "porn star with a magic wand," so perhaps my Y chromosome is causing me to see things that aren't there. What did you think of the Dragon Age companions? How did you feel about Morrigan?
Contest:
4:00 PM on 12.17.2009
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The fact that she was so conflicted with this intimacy she had with my character and yet she sticked to me, that she battle with herself was very endearing. That's why I ended up caring about her and trusting her.
Also, I guess you considered her to progressively get less useful because you yourself were a mage; I'm assuming you went for primal magic too. But no other character in the game has her primal AoE spells. So for me, being a warrior, she was always vital to my team.
I really enjoyed Dragon Age as well. On my first play through, I also noticed that Morrigan was a bit of the evil voice whispering in my ear. However, as I progressed her personal story, I began to notice something more. She's a slave to her upbringing, and her time with the Warden and his (or her) companions has led her to question it.
If you take certain dialogue trees, you can see her make pained expressions and stumble over what she wants to say and what her mother's values DEMAND she say. I felt that, in a way, her reactions were her way of asking my character to save her.
In the end, I told her I would go after her. She gave a reaction that was at once filled with hope and sorrow. I have no doubt in my mind that she wanted to stay with me, to raise the child together and hope to redeem the Old God the child would have the power of, but her upbringing nagged at her and told her this was the way it had to be.
I feel bad for Morrigan. She's really just a lost little girl who had her life robbed from her.
And it hurt me at the end of the game, gameplay wise. I was left with Wynn as my only mage. A very potent healer but massively lacking in the crowd control and area damage that Morrigan had at that stage. Wynn didn't even prove useful enough in the last fight, her amazing healing powers being nullified by a few salvoes of arrow fire just a minute in. Cone of Cold would have been useful.
I did a bunch of different endings and such, and I gotta say I would do the ritul, because I mean there is no real negative consequence...everybody lives and she a baby who you dont have to pay child support for, plus you get her for the final battle, in which I stuck her at te gate doing the blizzard, lightning, and firestorm attacks
SPOILER TIME
At one point in the game you can pickpocket "Arl Foreshadow" in which he drops a codex note that tells of "Raising an Old God Child: Terrible Twos Indeed!"
Probably a reference to Dragon Age 2. So what this means is that no matter what you do, Morrigan has a demon child. How could this be? One word:
Riordan.
Who knows who Morrigan approached with her offer, and you know that swarthy Frenchman would have jumped at the opportunity. A shame, since once again our choices (and sacrifices! My character DIED) matter not for a sequel's narrative.
Still, Dragon Age is one great RPG, they did more than most to give us choices that mean something.
One thing to note is that I can't fucking stand Alistair. He is a whiny bitch that never shuts up about how everything bad happens to him and how he doesn't want to be king. So when Morrigan approached me I decided to fuck over Alistair. I convinced that virgin to sleep with Morrigan and impregnate her. Serves him right.
Or course on my second playthrough I was playing a Lawful Good character and never used Morrigan and told her to fuck off when she wanted to get all preggers.
^.^
P.S. For me the hardest choice you make ingame was the Loghain choice. I really liked Alister and i understood usefulness of Loghain (and actually even admired him simply because he was voiced by Templeman:( ), so it was a very hard choice for me.
Fuck. You have a point. If Riordan does end up being the father, then goddamn BioWare's sequel-baiting pseudochoices.
zadruga:
...You can do that?
Klarden:
The Loghain dilemma surprised me if only because it showed how quickly I could turn to pragmatic violence. Typically in these sorts of games, I'm ALWAYS merciful whenever the option is presented, but by the time the game implied that I might be able to spare Loghain I (having not read the books, and I guess subsequently having no reason to think of him as anything other than a murdering asshole) goddamn LEAPT at the chance to kill him before anyone could convince me otherwise.
"That said, I'll be very irritated if, in the sequel, Morrigan magically has a devil-child anyway. The epilogue says that a woman who may or may not be Morrigan was seen heading into the sunset, and also that she may or may not have had a child with her"
Did you ever find her mothers book? That would provide the perfect reason for her having a child even after turning her down.
The Riordan option is not even close. Morrigan says so herself when she says that the father has to be someone who is "freshly tainted," and seeing as Riordan tells you that he too is starting to feel the signs that his time is near... he is clearly too tainted to be the father.
Ultimately, I was disappointed by both choices. The "text" based ending really turned me off and I think if there was a short snippet of Morrigan somehow it would have made the ending a bit better. It's pretty obvious that they're going to continue on with the story of Morrigan with the sequel.
you have 1 less game ending (of 3 possible. well, 4 officialy, but 3rd and 4th are just variations)
Morrigan was a real piece of work. She came off as a real bitch at first, but the more she antagonized poor Alistair, the more I liked having her around. The fact she was useful in combat was also nice.
Since my character was a chick, her offer at the end was different. Instead of having me knock her up, she offered to bed Alistair instead. I couldn't let her do it and told her to get lost.
For me, her main purpose was to make fun of Alistair, not have sex with him and have his demon baby. Call me old fashioned.
I found this a tough choice too though. I saw one person make it crystal clear to me though: Either create the antichrist demon baby that will destroy the world OR superaweseome many self sacrifice.
Yeah...
On a side note, Oghren was also kind of an enigma to me during the course of all the dwarven issues...
The main difference here is that Morrigan isn't quite as open-minded about our 'relationship' as, say Leliana. She does not consider you a lover, and quite obviously cannot ask you to impregnate her yourself. However, she does think of you as something arguably just as important and possibly even more revealing, considering her character, a true friend.
After coming back from killing Flemmeth for her, her initial response was that she was shocked anyone would be willing to do this for her. After some heartspilling dialogue she admits the one thing she never expected to find on her journey is a friend. I think at that point, between my 'selfless' actions of helping her when she needed it and having time to contemplate the truth of her own upbringing, she had a bit of a change of heart.
I don't mean she went full-swing turn around and became a goody-two-shoes moral saint, but it definitely felt like she had her eyes open. Before, her only ideals were self-preservation and freedom/independance, instilled by the years and years of living under Flemmeth, but now she saw that Flemmeth's ideals were so self-serving that she only passed them on to Morrigan because it was of direct benefit to her to do so. I don't think she wants to become like Flemmeth, and she saw the flaws in her power-hungry form of immortality.
Likewise, she spent so much time following the Warden around and seeing them justify their existence through constantly endangering themselves for Ferelden's sake. I think that's part of why she stops complaining at every menial sidequest after a little while. She never quite compromises her beliefs of independant thought, which sort of shows through her hatred for the chantry, but she begins realizing that helping people can provide the same self-validation that she had been seeking by spiting everyone who didn't agree with her.
By the time she had come to me, asking to take the Archdemon's soul and bring it to some far-off place, I had come to trust her enough to know that this wasn't some point where she saw an opportunity to make herself more powerful and pounced at the chance to take it. She was trying to do right by the world and save the lives of one of us while she was at it. There wasn't a doubt in my mind that she would kill it off, even at her own expense, if it ever got out of control.
And thus, poor Alistair was no longer a virgin.
I got that codex too and didn't even think of that... I don't know if they would force that or not. Just look at the way they are using the ME saves for ME2... Plus it will probably be a couple hundred years later for DA2 because, well, Blights don't happen that often.
I like the Concept of "game usefulness" creating a emotional connection. Thus game Mechanics can pre-suppose which characters we will use, so in DA:O Mages = OP FTW. But I digress.
For me, Morrigan Isn't evil or a 'Bitch'. She's Practical, using others to get what she needs. Hence the use of sexuality since, as what helped sell this very game, just the suggestion of it gets people interested. This is where you could 'legitimize' Morrigan's feelings in relation to a male protagonist. The Protagonist is showing her that there is a difference between sexuality and Intimacy. She's used to using and dumping. Emotions make the dumping part difficult.
I played a Female, so Sex was never on the table from her. She claims you as a friend on the high-end of approval. It should be noted (maybe obvious) that Morrigan doesn't have any friends.
The ending scripts are a bit buggy; for mine, she was never impregnated and thus was 'seen leaving" and then became an adviser to (I forgot the countries name). The main point it, it clearly states she isn't pregnant, no old God babies (from this blight). Thus according to my DA:O ending, a mystical preggers would be a head-scratcher for DA:2.
My biggest problem with Morrigan is that she isn't well-written. As you mentioned, She is that devil on your shoulder, telling you to use things to your advantage. Yet get's mad when we 'help the innocents'. There is no way to tell her that "Actually Morrigan, Don't you see? I AM using these poor people to further myself!" Granted she can't see the experience gains, but the monetary and item gain from these quests ARE visible. And gaining influence and power over others is, I'd say, Powerful indeed. But what happens is a quick "What? Wasting our time again?" Snipe and no chance for me to explain my true nefarious plans. To RP this, we can just say Morrigan's Practicality or selfishness is short-sighted. I'd like to know what the writer's intentions were!
In regards to Porn Star, that would be the "boobs = selling" talking. Allistar is easily persuaded into sleeping with Morrigan for the ritual's sake(as is Allistar's "alternative"). And by persuade, I mean you don't need the skill to get him to do it. Heck, A porn star IS someone who uses their sexuality for Profit. It seems there is a negative connotation being slipped in here somewhere...
The Root of the problem is, do you trust Morrigan. Is the rebirth of an untainted old God a good thing? Or is it Flemmeth gained the ability to shapeshift into a dragon and extend her life? How Emotionally involved ARE YOU with Morrigan that marriage would even seem feasible? Much Offense, but, Morrigan doesn't seem like the monogamous type. Part of our Love/hate with Morrigan IS her selfishness and practicality. To remove that, we wouldn't have Morrigan anymore.
Yes, you can have a four-way between Warden, Leliana, Zevran, and the Duelist instructor in The Pearl. Though it doesn't actually show anything.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBrxG_qifHQ
Decent enough article, however,(also this is my first post on D-toid, avid reader but you made a hard-to-find mistake)
SPOILER ALERT:
You said that Morrigan will never say she loves you, which is false in a way.
If you get her favor up to 100, on the meter it goes from adore/care to Love, it says so if you hover your mouse over it. Dont ask how i got the favor so high, I just played through being an asshole and getting her gifts. Furthermore, at this point, she will stop having sex with you/ invite to tent. She comes to this decision because she begins to feel "weakness and apprehension" when she gazes upon you, she also quips about wondering what youre thinking above. Through and through, this is all rather un-Morrigan junk and as far as I could tell, there is no way to get her to stay in love with you, as her approval will immediately drop from this state after your conversation and she will no longer go into your tent. She will still giggle when you initiate conversation and will kiss you but thats it. Just had to clarify, that Morrigan will fall in love with you at approval 100. If you do the grimoire quests and get her lots of jewelry its not that hard to do.
that's all,
Toodles.
Excellent Write-up on the Friend perspective. I came away with the same feelings, that she saw something more than what her sheltered existence had left her to believe.
@Blasto:
I found Allistar Humorous, until a near the end scene where you make a pretty serious decision, then he came out as the whiny wanker everyone discredits him for. THAT was my biggest emotional take away moment. Mainly because Allistar proved to me how weak he is. (And how useless my Persuade skill was).
(oh, and I didn't use Zev much, nor did I sleep with him, but I did give him the occasional present so he didn't betray me!).
This game really is very unique for everyone that plays it - it would likely take years to find out all of the possible sequences and varied options and events that can take place for every character.
So in short, Morigan's a bitch. Here's to hunting her down in Dragon Age 2.
Spoilers for taking Morrigan's deal.
I had untill that point, sorta, liked her. She was a bitch and expected others to treat her as a queen. To paraphrase Shamus Young from the Escapist, she acts like a bitch to everybody but will hate you unless you're a bootlick.
Anywho, I didn't plan on letting her leave. She had lied to me throughout the game, I didn't trust her, but didn't want to die. However I didn't get the chance. In the after-game decisions I made it clear that I would find her, but aparently she "proved impossable to find".
Which I suppose makes sense.
Here's the kicker though, Dragon Age is the first game that's really had me look at and implement my core belief set as a person, not just as a character in a video game. For that it should be applauded.
P.S Foursome is achieved by talking to Leliana after her personal quest and basically telling her she should return to her old ways. Then you go to the person in the brother who teaches the dueling specialization with her and Zevran. You then persuade her to nail you for the specialization and thus three/foursome based on who you want to nail
P.P.S It's also possible to be having sex with Morrigan and Leliana at the same time (Not threesome, merely cheating) if your persuade skill is high enough. Yes, I did exactly what I would do in real life with a persuade skill that high.
Punctuation, dude. Sentence breaks. Use them.
I personally didn't really -like- her, in the sense that I was emotionally attached to her character, and I was somehow expecting her to leave or do something dramatic at the end. Still, I ended up with a satisfying conclusion.
In the end Morrigan convinced me to give her a baby. The point that tipped me was that when you slayed the archdemon it's soul, which had been corrupted by the darkspawn when they awoke him, would once again be pure and it was the pure soul of an old god that the baby would receive. Sure you're still giving her what might grow up to be the most powerful mage of all time but for some reason I trusted her.
For me, the end decision was the biggest "you were being used" revealing ever. The entire game I thought she was breaking down her wall from humanity, maybe I have finally cracked Morrigan. She was opening up to me, and as cheesey as it sounds (and as much as I would've hated the game if it did this) I wanted to live happily ever after with her.
I was crushed, just like my character was crushed. But despite this, contrary to your experience I found Morrigan to be the most powerful member of my party. I was going back and forth as to make a demon child, but ultimately it came down to the fact that I would probably need her for the final battle. And I'm still debating if that made the choice "cheap" or if it intensified it since their were gameplay repercussions.
Anyway, this editorial made me realize what a fantastic character Morrigan was. Makes my GOTY decision harder now :(.
She appears in my room and asks me to convince the male NPC to sleep with her? THAT's the best compromise the writers could come up with? Really? Completely sidestepping my character, making everything I've done in the game ultimately irrelevant to any sequels? I got to that point and the game lost all sense of immersion. Killed the game for me. I was so disappointed I'm now even considering not purchasing Mass Effect 2, since I no longer have faith that BioWare will treat female gamers as equally relevant. It's too bad, the game was pretty fun up until the sideways detour into the boys' storyline.
But I agree... I will be pissed if they say "Nope, too bad. She has your demon baby for the sequel."
My character is DEAD. He died to ensure Alistair became king. He gave everything to make sure his best friend was around to lead the nation back to glory.
If BioWare takes that away for the sake of having a "canon" ending, I'll be so pissed.
Yes. Loghain killed a lot of innocents. yes. he was an intolerant fucktard. But I spared him. why/ because he cared enough about ferelden to throw away his reputation, his daughter's respect, and even the life of the son of the man he respected most in the world to do what he thought was necessary to protect Ferelden.
When Allistair reacted by acting like a total manchild, nevermind as a GREY WARDEN, our job was to do whatever wa necesary to save the world, even if that meant making hard choices, then I didnt need his ass anymore.
I did feel bad about his epilogue..but honestly, Allistair deserved rotting in misery and beer the rest of his life if he couldnt suck it up and realize Loghain alive was far more helpful to uniting the realm then me slaughtering Loghain and showing the mercy he didnt show to other Wardens.
Also, I chose NOT to impregnate Morrigan and the epilogue text said something like, "You never found Morrigan again, but you heard rumors that someone matching her description had been taken into the confidence of the royalty of the neighboring nation of Orlais."
One more thing, if you impregnate her, the soul of the old god/archdemon seeks out the newly conceived embryo. She does not go to full-term in a single night.
Blegh....I wish Anthony had truly played and understood most of the game before writing this article. Not doing so really degrades the validity of anything he says in it.
I think everyone's playthrough and opinion is valid. One of the game's strengths is the ability to run it however you want, and take the consequences as you choose to see them. While I personally run a similar line as you do, trying to suck in minutia and being empathic to just about everyone (something I do, maybe to a fault, in my real life), this game could very easily allow you to disregard that and experience the game full on Conan the Barbarian style. The only persuasion you need is your fists, and let the consequences lie where they will. I'd consider it a strength of the game rather than the deficiency of any player's playthrough.
We do agree in that I'd love to see this make anybody's GOTY list!
@at all
As a consequence of my ultra diplomatic leanings, the choices at the landsmeet really made me pause like Anthony describes. I enjoyed Alistair alot on my first playthrough, and though everything would be cool. But I really empathized with Logain, and didn't want to see him sacrificed. Even in trying to tear him down, it started to make sense, these extremes he was going to because he thought he was right.
Further, I had no faith in Alistair's ability to lead, and refused to saddle the world with that fate.
So by the time I got to Morrigan, I ultimately bedded my "friend" for the greater (and partially selfish) good. Logain lives to redeem himself, Morrigan has a demon child, but hopefully sees the world in a less cruel light because of me and I get to live. Had I not, the city elves perhaps would have been worse off in the short run, thanks to the Queen's promise.
Also Sten and Shale were my favorite characters to talk to, though they ended up having not nearly enough to say by the end of my playthrough. Sten opened up a bit later, and I really started to respect and value his presence by the end. More tan anything else, his special interaction with the Dog convinced me he wasn't just a stubborn stoic prick.
And her song is amazing as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-X2TfXAK4U
There needs to really be a write up on her.
This was definitely a break in the immersion for me.