Dragon Age: Absolution {Overview. - Spoilers All} 

Hey everyone! I wanted to get this out the door asap, like I said in my very quick intro slide, but one thing that accidentally made the cutting room floor was me talking about my feelings on the show, so I thought I would throw that here! In short, I liked it! While some parts were rushed, I felt that was to be expected from a short series on Netflix. While I have heard complaints about the dialogue being ‘cringy’, for the most part it didn’t bother me, and overall I was impressed that the main story did one thing right that a number of DA tie-in’s don’t: Have the main part of the story be about interpersonal relationships. I’ve said this a dozen times, but to me, DA is about people and their struggles, and I was really invested in Miriam, Neb, and Rezaren’s past. As of posting this, it’s been about 4 months since its release, and I find myself still thinking about the climatic ritual- really loved that part. As of ‘The Ending’, my thoughts on THAT did survive the final edit, so please watch for those feelings, haha.

It's kinda hilarious to me that the villains Hawke defeats just won't stay dead 😂

I like to think Fairbanks just bluffed his way into the city with a Tevinter coin he didn’t realise wasn’t currency, but the guard he payed off was just secretly a really avid coin collector, so he accepted it as a bribe lol

Aaaah to hear Cassandra's voice after 8 years how calming.

"Elven Loki who is actually real and shows up in Thedas." is my new favourite description of ANYTHING.

This show feels like the adaptation of a campaign of the Dragon Age pen&paper RPG. I wouldn't even be surprised if that turns out to be true.

Some of my thoughts. Rezaren: -He actually reminded me of Solas, and not in a good way. They both leave nothing but pain and misery in their wake, while using the "greater good" as a justification for it. Meredith: -I don't know how to feel about her appearance in the show either. However. Unlike you, i did not liked her at all in DA2. She was delusional and a hypocrite. So i wouldn't be surprised to see her using blood magic. Qwydion: -I was a little surprised to see how easily she walked around in Tevinter, but then it came to my mind what Dorian said. He mentioned encountering some Tal-Vashoth Merchants and Merceneries in Tevinter. So seeing Qunari in Tevinter might be rare, but not impossible.

With Meredith, maybe it’ll come up in Dreadwolf. Absolution could be part of the setup of the game, either as a main or side quest.

I love the simplification of Elven Loki because you’re SO RIGHT SPEAKING STRICTLY MYTHOLOGY

They mention in Dragon Age 2 that blood mages can force possession into an unwilling host. It's said during the quest where the Templar recruits go missing and it turns out to be a blood mage that supports Tevinter

I think the thing with Tassia gets at what you were talking about with Meredith in the video and what you've talked about as being a bit of a brand for Dragon Age overall which is people getting _really close_ to a revelation and then snapping back and doubling down. Tassia had a revelation about Rezaren when she realized he was doing exactly what she was afraid he would do. *But,* his death actually prevented her from having to follow through on her oath to stop him if he ever crossed a line with blood magic, and so she was able to just grieve him and start to build an alternate narrative in which he was the victim. It's awful to watch as an outsider because you're yelling "Girl, no!" at the screen while she's having this moment over his corpse, but at the same rate, it's _extremely believable_ when it comes to how humans process the emotional gutpunches.

I literally dropped everything to come watch this. I hope everything is good with you Caitie and know you are Loved!!

I think there's two possible reasons the Circulum was never used: Amelia Pavus was aware when she made it that the cost was essentially a life for a life (the blood needed to make it work would have been all of Miriam's if the dragon hadn't been there) and she didn't think the trade off was worth it. Or she knew that it DOESN'T bring back the actual dead, it just calls/imprints a spirit that mimics the dead, essentially making some kind of revenant or something.

Fairbanks being voiced by Matt Mercer will never *not* be a perfect match

I certainly enjoyed the show! And as for a season 2, if there is one thing that Netflix loves, it's money. So far, it looks like the show preformed fairly well on both a critics and audience perspective. While I don't think that guarantees us a season 2, I do think it certainly increases our chances of seeing one!

I love these so much as a long time dragon age fan! It just helps to have a completely better understanding of the lore ESPECIALLY as a writer.

id like to mention that there's dialogue between dorian and bull in game where bull describes a plaza in tevinter and dorian says "youre making me homesick" and while it may be hard for qunari to roam around tevinter, it might be possible...

I didn't notice any timestamps so i thought I'd put some together. Please comment if there are any mistakes to edit. (Ghil Dirthalen, please let me know if this was disrespectful, I only meant to be helpful but will delete it if asked) Episode Summary 0:20 Episode 1: The Woman Unseen 5:19 Episode 2: The Will of the Maker 10:45 Episode 3: The Serpent's Coil 12:49 Episode 4: Those Who Falsely Dream 18:26 Episode 5: An Altar of Fire 22:37 Episode 6: The Price of Salvation The Discussion (sections labeled on whether they focus on characterization, lore, or otherwise) 27:38 Pre-discussion 29:05 Meredith - Who is Meredith? (Lore) 35:17 Souls (Lore) 35:29 Meredith - Why is Meredith? (Lore) 36:32 Meredith - The Artifact and motivation (Lore) 38:47 Message to the writers (Production) 40:00 Circle Tower (Lore) 40:40 Miriam and Hira (Character) 41:14 Fairbanks (Lore) 43:09 DA timeline and Worldstate (Lore) 44:15 The Lords of Fortune (Lore) 44:39 Palace Rumor (Lore) 45:15 Map (Production) 45:41 Qunari in Tevinter (Lore) 46:42 Huh? Carastes? (Lore) 47:41 Fairbanks' Pilgrimage Lie (Lore/Characters) 48:24 Money (Lore) 49:44 Temple Mural (Lore) 50:36 The Bar Fight (Characters) 51:47 The Tattoos (Lore) 52:57 The Betrayal (Characters) 53:42 The Harrowing and Possession (Lore/Characters) 55:04 Circulum Ritual (Characters/Lore) 56:05 Odds and Ends (Misc Characters/Lore/Production) 57:23 Season 2 Theories: Tassia and Rezaren (Characters) 58:17 S2 Theories: Ships (Characters) 59:03 Connection to DA: Dread Wolf (Lore/Production) 1:00:29 Conclusion

Rizaran was doing good up until the end part of the dream sequence where he started to sound a lil twisted in his morals. Then it just went downhill from there, kinda wish they would have kept him as the mage that wanted to reunite his family by any means and that’s it, not turn on them

I can't personally like the Meredith thing, because Corypheus' ability to leap bodies/"stay alive after death" was briefly shown in the DA2 Legacy DLC when he gave that odd look to Larius before seemingly allowing himself to die. Then in Inquisition we see it in full as he erupts from a nearby blighted body. You have a whole video on how this seems to work with Flemeth, which backs it up further. Meredith however, practically melts into solid, pure lyrium, her giving out a huge death scream. To give them credit, lyrium has been said to be able to store memories, as you pointed out with the obvious example of golems, also possibly the Leliana Lyrium Ghost theory. It just seems a huge difference to have kept herself intact in all that chaos as opposed to the purpose and precision of the other examples. It could indeed just be a case of holding onto enough of yourself, as with spirits entering the waking world and *not* being warped into demons. As you also said, blighted lyrium has been said to feel "angry", which yeah, sorta supports that the part of her holding on is her unbridled anger, which was practically all that was left by the end. TL;DR Corypheus' "resurrection" was set up, shown in full and backed up by other cases. Meredith has a teeny tiny string of setup, with factors stacked against its likelihood. I do agree her voice actor slaps hard though :P Voice acting alone isn't enough for me to want her character to return, but y'know, kudos. Anyway, cheers for covering this. Was unsure about watching the series - still unsure, but leaning toward doing so now :) Oh and side note, the Solas banter about bearded elves was Blackwall saying he'd never seen any, and Solas laughing and saying "You haven't seen many elves, then". So it's the opposite - he's not denying they exist, in fact he's surprised Blackwall hadn't seen any, suggesting it's potentially common. Or perhaps *was*, during Solas' time.

The first thing I wanted when finishing the show was a GhilDirthalen video about it! :D Thank you!!!

Finally a new video, now I have something to listen to! We appreciate the work you put into these videos

I really liked DA: Absolution, it is as you said in your pinned comment, DA is about interpersonal relationships and I feel they did that really well. I'm glad we're getting these side stories in TV format and am happy to have subtle references to the games but still have the stories stand out on their own and do their own thing.

I really enjoyed this show! There's a lot to love in it and while I do have my issues with it, the good far outweighs the bad. Hopefully it does get a 2nd season because the story clearly isn't meant to be the end of it. Edit: Yet... Netflix is Netflix and.... it may not happen sadly....

I WAS WONDERING WHEN YOU WERE GOING TO DO THIS I am so exciteddddddddd

I’m glad your back ♥️ I hope things are going good!

I really loved the family drama of it all. I hope DAD (will never not giggle at the acronym) has some of the family drama flavor from DA2 and to a lesser extent DAO origin stories. Great video as always, Ghil!

Been waiting for this, was not disappointed! Glad to have you back Ghil!

For the argument about the afterlife: I know it's technically not official but the short story about Dorian burying his father and then doing a blood ritual to say goodbye does come to mind. I feel like they def have some knowledge of how it works in a series bible somewhere

I do like how the show explains what happens the the red templars. While a good deal of Ventori were with corypheus, they started off in Tevinter and are based there. While the inquisition probably got rid of the venatori that sided of corypheus that attacked the south, the remainder of the organization probably stayed in tevinter and is now trying to take over their own nation. I guess we just assumed that the red templars were more or less done after inquisition because if the inquisition didn't get rid of them, the red templars seemed like a ticking time bomb and on borrowed time. It does make sense that if there were red templars that survived, that they would retreat to kirkwall, the main source of templar power during the games, and most likely found and started following Meredith, the craziest reddest templar.

The sad thing is throughout the show you clearly see that Tassia is genuinely a good person, she just happened to be on the side of tevinter because that's her home and the crazy slave owning blood mage she was hooking up with (people have probably done worse lol). They spent a lot of time focusing on her, even giving her multiple scenes where she's the focus towards the end, specifically being disgusted by seeing the blood magic and mourning the bowl cuts death. If there is a season two, I really hope she returns as a character and ultimately siding with Mariam and the group seeing that the circulum is evil and wants to destroy it by working with them. Though she may want revenge for tevinter trust fund babies death, but let's hope just cause she's a tevinter templar means she doesn't join the red templars. Also it took me way to long too realize that the "crimson knight" is just red templars lol.

I actually was hoping that the hypothetical wife of Fairbanks might be the NPC who you free from the Veridium mine. I think her name is Gertrude? She seems more even keeled and more suited to Fairbanks than the young and perhaps naive Clara.

First Morrigan, then Anders, then Solas and now Hira. It seems like Bioware has a habit of making a mage character a love interest to the main character (Warden, Hawke, Inquisitor, Miriam) only for them to betray them for morally grey and very questionable goals.

Yay! Was waiting for a video like this!

Neb really be like "Dude I'm tired, OKAY BYEEEEEE"

I have waited months for you to make a return! I love your videos! :)

One hundred percent agreed on just....THRIVING hearing Jean Gilpin again. God she's so good.

Damn… finally a nice in-depth review of this show. Amazing as always

Your videos are great, and I hope they hit you up to help them keep the Lore straight with future animation projects.

I think Meredith was just grown back from a piece of her red lyrium, she was probably already turning into red lyrium before she become the statue and since red lyrium can grow I think someone just grown her back.

Yaaasss she’s back 🔥

Whoooooo!! You’re baaaaack🎉🎉 Hope you’re well! Thank you so much for caring so much about your content

I was waiting for you to make a video about this, he,he.

As a somewhat less-engaged DA fan (my wife LOVES this franchise and introduced me to this very enjoyable channel), I found I could follow everything pretty easily. A very fun romp, all around.

Glad to hear you again hope you're doing well

Excellent show, I really enjoyed the main cast and I wish we had more time to spend with them its a shame the show was so short because I think they nailed Dragon Age. I hope there is a season two.

I hate how they did Fairbanks dirty and killed him off so easily.

Leaving Hawke in the Fade sounds more appealing after the show. Helps to explain why the champion isn't dealing with the returned Bosses. One the other hand I really want to play as Hawke again and fight a Red Golem Meredith.

You know what is interesting? Knight Commander Meredith and Corypheus not only both returned after being defeated by one of our hero characters, they are also both visible in the artwork for Dragon Age Dreadwolf. The image where they are in the bottom with two yet unconfirmed-but-presumed bad guys upsidedown and the big multi-eyed wolf looming over the black city. If Meredith is back... and visible on that mural-like image.. Is Cory back as well, again?!

KC Meredith is one of my fav characters in the series so I was excited to see her back, especially if she becomes like, a TITAN or something

For what flaws it has I enjoyed it because it surprised me. I wasn't expecting it to feel so authentic to Dragon age and feature DA characters and the core story it tells is really good enough in it's own right even if I didn't feel like all the characters go good development.

Before dreadwolf comes out it would be cool if you made a comprehensive video or split the veil episode detailing all the lore that will likely be relevant for dreadwolf

Thanks Dragon Age. Now every time I see a mage I start feeling suspicious 🤨

I really enjoyed the show I just wish it was a bit longer but I am excited for a possible season 2.

I'm a year late and this isn't related to the show or your analysis but I love the little nugs on the tablecloth and scarf 😭

I had very low expectations but it turned out to be quite good, definitely hope we see more. Though I assumed it would be more of a setup for D:ad than stand alone

Whilst I don't believe Tevinter made a Summer Palace to compete with the Orlesians, they did make Divine Joyous' death a fucking holiday (petty af) so I wouldn't be surprised honestly lol

The Spirit did witness the forging of the Circulum but it makes me wonder if, given the potency of the magic and the surprise it gets, whether it is somehow related to the Old Gods. Perhaps even a repurposed 'Divine Foci'? Of Dumat? And while yes, Meredith is probably hinted by the Spirit to destroy Tevinter I feel like there is another that wants it. Meredith isn't someone a Spirit would fear or be silenced by, she's not magical. But the idea that something else wants it is terrifying, given its capabilities. I mean, just imagine if an Old God wants it and/or an Evanuris. And in fact, if Meredith is trying to bring back the soul of Andraste and she IS an OGB of Dumat, then wouldn't that be just bringing back Dumat?

'It's been 84 years...' jokes aside, I have been patiently waiting for your take on the lore/plot/characters/show in general for so long! Love your content, can't wait to watch!

Did I hate Absolution? No, I didn't hate it. But if this was the first exposure I ever had with Dragon Age, then I wouldn't have any interest in playing the games.

I’m imagining that we may see Miriam, Hira and Tassia again in Dreadwolf. Honestly I’m hoping that we fight Hira, and throw back that line about her not realizing she’s a villain either before the fight or before we (potentially) kill her. I’m honestly hoping that if we get Tassia as a companion, she may be a potential love interest as well. With her Companion Quest being centered around moving on from Rezaren.

I saw this head canon on TikTok and I love it - Hawke is a descendent of Andraste on Malcom’s side. Her descendants probably wouldn’t want to stick around Tavinter and might have gone back to the tribes of Fereldan

Hey I am doing another post because I did a recant playthrough of DA2. During the quest Enemies Amongst Us Cullin says that a blood mage can summon a demon and forcibly cause it to possess an unwilling host if you choose the second option on the left hand side. Which surprised me to be honest.

so i guess this means that the Inquisition remains intact in BIoware's canon?

I assumed that the meredith angle was being set up for dreadwolf as compared to being in a season 2. I reckon all the stuff were getting right now is connected to it, like the missing comic atm.

>about the scene with fairbank's ring OOHOOOOHUUUUUUUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH i had to pause and run to my bed to be sad

I would argue you are underestimating just how far hypocrisy can go, also meridith could be like "hey there's gonna be a lot of dead bodies because of our crusade, might as we use them"

Qwydion looks like me of the companions in the dreadwolf trailer

The first episode felt like a really rough beginning, but in true dragon age fashion, it gets good immediately after the setup

I really love the show uses the same sounds as in DAI

Oh, the Crushing Prison love! Heck yeah.

I think my biggest issue with the series is...I just really, REALLY dont like them bringing back Meredith. Its not even that I dislike her character, but as stated, it really felt like the ending of DA2 was wrapped up pretty neatly, and I dislike the using of old villains. Meredith was good, but bringing her back feels like a massive slap in the face to the ending of 2, and retroactively (at least to me) makes the ending feel more...hollow. Im a little more forgiving of it being used with Corypheus given he was a DLC villain. But I feel like reusing maingame characters who we ourselves killed is biting a bit to much off of past content, as well as just kinda lazy feeling. It also brings up quite a few questions for me, given Varric is currently the vicount, dosent seem like hes doing a good job, which I also just kinda dislike. I think alot of the best spinoff shows dealing with pre-existing content like videogames just dosent touch main series stuff, or at least, not in any long lasting way. My best example would probably be cyberpunk edgerunners. I do hope they get a 2nd season, but im hesitant at best to see what they have in mind going forward, and can only hope they are EXTEREMLY careful how they handle it.

Thats the next hour of my life sorted!

With the way that Netflop is going, I doubt there would be a S2, I would actually enjoy it more if they did a little spinoff game of the serie! pd: I loved the serie and now I have even more trust issues with mages lol

Slayyy! 🐉💖

Red lyrium Golem! Maybe Meredith will take over one of the Minrathous Juggernauts...or ya know maybe transfer herself to other red Templar like Cory did with darkspawn 🤷‍♂️

Hour long video hell yeah 😆

Great recap. If you are tainted with red lyrium it seems it captures your soul. So there’s a good chance Coryephus is still alive as well. It all has to be tied to red lyrium. I hope it’s not the real Fairbanks in this movie.

Very happy to see a video about this show! I feel like there has been so little discussion about it, and I have just... so many thoughts. To be honest, my thoughts are majority negative, and I came away from the show thinking it was mediocre and feeling disappointed. Unfortunately, as time has gone on, the taste has just soured and soured in my mouth, and I really do not like this show. My biggest issues are a couple of weird lore discrepancies or things that bring up crazy lore implications. I feel like the most obvious is a portal to seemingly the afterlife. That's... a lot. And in order to use this ancient artifact, I get the sense Rezaren has done quite a bit of research, and I would really like to hear SOMETHING from him about what his research into the Circulum indicates or his own personal theories about death and the afterlife. It feels super weird to bring that into the story with so little commentary on its full implications from characters in the show. My other lore gripe is everything about how this show treats blood magic. Firstly, in Inquisition, Dorian indicates that not all blood magic is frowned upon; using your own blood or the blood of a willing participant is not considered "blood magic" in Tevinter and is generally acceptable. So it's a bit odd that the templar in the show is threatening to turn in Rezaren for blood magic, even if he does no harm with it and isn't actually doing any sacrificing. For another thing, in both the first and the second game, you enter others' dreams and can communicate with them there. Both times it was an involved ritual intended to get rid of demons, but neither instance necessitates blood magic; for instance, in Redcliffe, the Circle mages are just as capable of sending someone to deal with Connor's demon as Jowan is, they just use nice clean lyrium instead of a human sacrifice. I would assume that a magister, given all the power and influence they have, would be able to call on resources and get some lyrium to make a dream phone call. Either way, it feels super weird to me that Rezaren's fall to magic is something that is relatively small and not an emergency. If he wanted to dream-contact someone in a dire situation he found himself in where he did not have access to other resources, I think it would have made much more sense and been much more compelling if he used blood magic then. Even better, I would love if blood magic was more tempting to him because he is implied to actually be a rather weak mage. After all, he fully failed his Harrowing; he doesn't have the will and strength that is expected of him. Using blood magic to get an edge could make sense for a magister trying to match his peers without their raw ability. On the other hand, having that traumatic experience that resulted in losing his whole family due to his lack of willpower could also make him extra leery of blood magic, since blood mages are generally supposed to be more susceptible to possession and temptation than your average mage. Heck, maybe that's why he hasn't used any blood magic to this point--which would make him being on the Magisterium absolutely incredible, when you combine it with his apparent youth. In all, I do also wish more was done with Rezaren. I hate that he only started acting evil after Miriam stated her opposition to him; it felt very, "The main character said she's opposed to my thing, so I guess I gotta act villainous now!" The idea of a character who loves someone but feels entitled to them is great in my mind, having been in that kind of relationship myself, but this just did not resonate and did not feel well-written. We have no indication that he himself was controlling or abusive before the events of the show; the flashbacks seem to show him as a wee lad treating the elves as equals, then at the Harrowing crawling to Neb's body before his own mother. We see how abusive and controlling his mother is, but not him; if the show really wants me to buy him as this abusive family member-type character, I would like to have seen that before his dream interaction with Miriam. I would have at least liked hints. As it is, with how he's initially characterized, I would have liked a much more morally grey Rezaren, rather than this one that just became uncomplicatedly evil, and I think it would have been very Dragon Age-y for him to become a "party member," so to speak, so we could get more time and interaction with him. Maybe he really loves Miriam and also really sees it as her proper destiny to join him on his personal mission, and that speaks to a very deterministic philosophy that the show can explore. And he can get the chance to overcome his false beliefs and his upbringing--and if/when he fails to better himself, he becomes a truly tragic character. Much more compelling. Plus, in the dream, he offers Miriam a future of changing Tevinter for the better, and that ties into what I thought was going to be her character arc, since that is something that gets brought up repeatedly in the first few episodes: Miriam's unwillingness to fight for the greater good or a similar cause, in favor of her own needs and wants. It could be such an interesting dynamic! The thing that bothers me most about Rezaren's treatment, though, is that Miriam is constantly fighting him, flinging things in his face (mostly unfairly--"How dare you not stand up to your evil controlling mom as a child," being one, and "How dare you not protect my brother in your most vulnerable moment of abject failure when you could not even protect yourself," being another), and just generally hating him, as if she has no fond memories of their time together. That could all be done really interestingly from a character and writing standpoint, in my opinion--one character in a relationship having such soured memories of her past that she cannot see anything good in it--but this show, again, is kinda mediocre and doesn't do much interesting with that idea. But that's not the real problem in my eyes. No, the real problem is that Miriam at the end reaches out to Hira and is ready to forgive her (conditionally, which is good). This feels very out of order to me. She's known Hira for a much shorter period of time, and Hira literally made a deal to sell her. But she is worthy of a second chance, while the brotherly dude with shared trauma who led with gentleness and reassurances gets none? It just feels weird to me. Maybe if we had more hints that he himself treated her poorly in their shared backstory, my attitude would change--actually, my attitude on most of the show would change--but as it is, we don't get that. Yeah, those are my gripes with the show in a nutshell. I enjoyed the setup, and I thought it had some really intriguing ideas that could lead to something interesting. But at the end of the day, it felt weird, disjointed in spots, deeply flawed, and deeply disappointing. I think it really fell short of its potential. I know part of that is the short six episodes they had to work with, and from a certain standpoint, I think they did a good job; they picked a manageably sized piece of the larger story going on in the world and they told it in a pretty well-structured way. But there are just too many severe shortcomings and missed opportunities for me to like it personally. Thanks for the video. It was nice to hear someone else discussing and breaking down some of the stuff in the show! I like the way you tie things to lore and build your theories, and I'm actually reassured with regards to DA's future by a lot of your thoughts and ideas. Consider me a new subscriber. :)

I thought this was an adaptation of the original idea for Dragon Age 4. I remember reading that the original idea for DA4 was to have it be a series of heists set in Tevinter.

Wasn't there a complete revamp of the story for the sequel to Inquisition at one point? Because I swear the leaked plot points we got originally for it was that there was a heist in Tevinter, and you'd be playing a member of the heist crew...is this what came of that original plot arc?

I think it's implied Amelia Pavus has to be at least 900 years before Dorian because the dragon would probably one from before they were nearly wiped out

Finally got around to watching this, and like everyone else, I have some points: When Jowan suggests the "mind into fade" ritual using blood magic, it's pointed out that lyrium could also power it, but you'd need a lot more. Blood is a power source, not a requirement. Specific rituals might differ, but a crazy rock might be willing to give it a go anyway. They probably didn't use magic in the bar fight for the same reason most people don't pull out guns. They're looking to hurt, not wound or kill. I don't feel like Miriam post-bar fight was a 180. The way I read the scene, her complaints about the bar fight was just undirected anger latching onto whatever it could find. Her actual problem was that she figured out how to get in and didn't want to do it, but felt compelled to do it anyway because everyone stuck up for her. I didn't see Mira's betrayal coming, but it makes so much sense. Fairbanks was killed shortly after discussing his wife back home and making plans to live a simple life, which is the biggest death flag ever. Mira, meanwhile, is a mage love interest in a dragon age story. How else was it going to go? Personally, I think we might get a companion from the show, but I have no idea which one (a la Cole). If we don't, then maybe a storyline to wrap up loose ends (a la Imshael). Dragon Age has always tried to tie in EVERY side piece of media into the world, and even one of the TTRPG adventures was referenced in Codex, so the idea of this being purely independent seems weird to me. Overall, I liked the show! I wanted it to be Dragon Age on Netflix, and it was. Meredith was a bizarre twist, and might be a way of keeping the Red Templars in the world's lore after Cory died. All the characters were fun, or just interesting. I loved what they did with Memory. Good show!

I was actually baffled Fairbanks was in this. I guess his side quest is pointless in hindsight now...

Does Cassandra and Liliana appearing as they do in the show not imply that it was Vivienne who canonically took the seat of the divine?

While I have no issue with people who enjoyed this show, I must confess I did not. Our protagonist did not particularly endear themselves to me, I mean even her first interaction is her betraying her compatriots (admittedly not all of them). Furthermore, her vendetta towards Rezeran felt odd to me as the show seemed to be portraying him in a sympathetic way? For instance when he was challenged about the past he idealized, he points out how he was a child incapable of doing much about the abuse our MC suffered. Which is a good point that is given no counter argument by my recollection. In like manner, some of his statements implied to me he may also have been abused (he certainly never took part in the abuse on the MC)? Which may be why he so idealized the one positive relationship he had. Even if it had obvious power disparities he refused to acknowledge. In addition, I guessed who the real villain was extremely early (first episode/interaction), and Rezeran's descent into full villainy felt like a real out of nowhere turn. In like manner, the traitor's motivation felt...just very cartoonishly evil? Wanting to burn an entire nation to the ground, even the good people (by their own admission) just felt very shallow as a motivation. Overall, I think the show could have been a lot better if it did not sprint through its entire story. Giving us time to actually get to know these characters and give them depth beyond the things we seemingly learn in the first few minutes of their arrival in the story. Granted, I was quite happy to get another glimpse back into the world of thedas, just wish it had not left such a bitter feeling in me to do so.

I do hope that there is a second season for this show. I really do. But if they don't, I do hope that the next game, Dread Wolf, do allude to the events of this show. And this is me being an hopeful idiot, maybe have one or two characters make a surprise appearance in the game. Though that is just wishful thinking on my part, as I am not the developers. But I was surprised to see Meredith again. And I hate to see that plot point not getting resolved.

I call it now, the religions will melt together someday, turns out they're all the same but just have different names in different religions °^°

I really enjoyed it and I hope they get a season 2 🙏

Not related to the video (sorry) but does anyone know what happened to Sten after the Blight?

My main problem with the series is the ending plot twist. 😂 There are so contraddictions about it for several reasons. (And sometimes I truly hope they cancel the second season, because I don't want this to be solved by four random people and not by characters with, Idk, ACTUAL HISTORY with The Crimson Knight) Also try to compare Fairbanks in the series and in the game. They are literally two different people. They wasted his character in the series.

Elven Loki, I would seriously love if in Dread Wolf we see Solas behaving more like the Trickster God he is

Watched it. I did like it :)

Perhaps Meredith has no intention of using the artifact at all. Unless that was stated in the show and I've missed it. What if she just wants to take a powerful magical object from tevinter? 🤷🏼‍♀️

I know the video is a year old at this point, but I just had a thought. There's a LOT of theories out there about Andraste being an Old God Baby from the first Blight. We can guess that it would have been Flemeth/Mythal who put the Wardens up to it. So if Meredith is truly trying to bring Andraste back and needs a blood relative of hers to do it - could she be after Flemeth? She would be Andraste's biological mother, after all. That would be a way to tie in this side story into what is presumably the main thing in the new game (the Evanuris returning and all that).

I have to say, this show was so fun and had so much heart it's really the only thing that can compete with Vox Machina (that is to say Amazon and yes I know Matt is in this too)

So are we gonna see first enchanter orsino again?

I am sure we will get a Season 2. The big difference between Absolution and a regular Netflix Show is that Absolution was commissioned by an outside party, in this case, EA. So for Netflix, production of the show will be based on something other than their criteria of how many views it should have but rather from EA, with Netflix only deciding to drop if the show is genuinely becoming an expense.

Mer is alive? Da fuck?! Guess she'll be a big baddie alongside egghead?

Meredith is alive for sure and is ganna be in dreadwolf