If you can raise your standing with Alistair high enough, he will teach you the Templar specialization.Īlistair is also a potential love interest for a female main character. His expertise with the sword and shield make him an excellent main tank for your party, and his training as a Templar can make a big difference when fighting magic users. He, along with the main character, is the last of the Grey Wardens in Ferelden.
He joins your party automatically at Ostagar, and cannot be removed or forced to leave until after the Landsmeet. AlistairĪlistair is the first (or second, depending on whether or not you began with the Human Noble origin) companion that you will encounter. The assorted companions that players can collect and interact with are incredibly useful and fully developed additions to the story. From HK-47 in Knights of the Old Republic to Wrex in Mass Effect, your companions are always fleshed out enough to make you want to explore their backstories, rather than simply being cookie cutter damage-dealers or healers.īioware’s latest game, Dragon Age: Origins, is no exception to this rule. And the fact that Hawke can become viscount while still publicly romancing Fenris (an elf) or Merrill (an elf-mage) makes Alistair look twice as sh*tty.One of the best parts of a Bioware RPG is the diverse and interesting cast of characters that players can add to their adventuring party. The point is, Alistair treats non-noble Warden pretty badly. (Don't even get me started on the Dark Ritual.)Īnyway. She can only avoid this if she doesn't make him king. The female non-human-noble will always find herself in a situation where she must become Alistair's mistress or get dumped. But that situation can be avoided entirely.
Why was it even necessary to humiliate the female Warden like this? And when does the male Warden ever have to go through something similar as far as romances go? Because not only does Alistair dump you, he does it in front of your entire party, with everyone gathered in the room watching. Like I've said on other articles, it often feels as if female Warden is continuously being punished in Origins. Makes sense that a human-elf marriage would also be torn apart and ridiculed here.īut either way, dumping the non-noble Warden makes Alistair look cowardly, and frankly, it's insulting that the Warden's only choice is to be his mistress or get dumped. Meanwhile, the qunari are just "orcs" who, instead of being minions dumbly following a mage, actually hate magic and are quite intelligent to boot. Instead of being powerful and angelic beings of beauty and light, the elves in Dragon Age are angry, oppressed, small, bald, and ugly.
For instance, Zevran and Oghren make a cheeky remark about elves and dwarves hating each other. The thing is, Dragon Age was based on A Song of Fire and Ice, not Lord of the Rings, which it actually went out of its way to subvert. and then he dumped her in front of her all of her friends? No happy Lord of the Rings alliance for me. So how ironic was it when she made Alistair king.
In fact, my Dalish mage who romanced Alistair (who is half-elven, lest we forget) was named Arwen. To be honest, I mostly feel this way because I'm a Lord of the Rings fan, and I always loved it that Aragorn, a human (of elven descent), married Arwen, an elven princess. If Alistair isn't willing to face possible assassination and political intrigue in the name of love, then he isn't worthy of the Warden, dammit.