#dawn of the seeker

Crosspost. Originally posted on dreamwidth on 06/17/20.

Dawn of the Seeker is a 90-minute animated film made by BioWare and FUNimation and released in 2012 in both Japanese and English. Set in the year 9:22 Dragon in Orlais, it follows the early career of Cassandra Pentaghast as a Seeker of Truth.

This film is fun to watch and the animation is very pretty, but I honestly don’t have a lot to say about it. The story is fairly predictable, with the main antagonists being set up early and paid off about as you’d expect, and the heroine’s journey playing out in kind. There is also a touch of the old Obligatory Heterosexuality.

It’s easy to see how the brash and angry young woman Cassandra was in her youth grew into the more measured but still passionate Cassandra we know in the games. The English voice actor for young Cassandra is excellent and fits her well.

Cassandra’s Tragic Backstory is that her brother was murdered in front of her by blood mages when she was young, and she’s harbored anger against mages ever since, though this is tempered by her partnership with Circle mage Regalyan in the film. “Mages hurt me or someone I love” is a pretty stock backstory for mage-hating characters in Dragon Age, so I don’t know if it really adds a lot of depth to Cassandra per se, but it’s backstory, and one I believe you can discuss with her in Inquisition if your approval is high enough.

The plot of the film centers around a plot by a blood mage cult to assassinate Divine Beatrix III in the most dramatic way possible: with dragons. More specifically, by kidnapping a young elven mage child with a gift for controlling wild beasts from the Circle, mind-controlling her with blood magic, and making her control several dragons to make them attack the Grand Cathedral during a big important gathering at which the Divine will be present. Also in league with the blood mages are the templar Knight-Commander Martel, and the Grand Cleric of Orlais who hopes to succeed Beatrix as Divine.

One thing that’s really confusing, because it’s never explained in the film, is what exactly the Knight-Commander’s beef is with the Divine. He mentions wanting to see to it that “events like Kirkwall will not be tolerated,” and as we’re many years before the events of Dragon Age II, it’s unclear what he’s talking about if you don’t already know. What he’s actually referencing is the events leading up to Marlowe Dumar’s installation as Viscount, in which the previous Viscount had attempted to oust the Templar Order from Kirkwall for political reasons. Apparently, Martel was not satisfied with the way Beatrix handled the situation. Beatrix therefore ends up in a position where basically everyone wants her dead: mages, templars, her own Grand Clerics.

Despite all this, I unfortunately didn’t get a very strong sense of Beatrix from the film, or of what kind of Divine she was. I had hoped some of my questions about her might be answered, particularly how she came to appoint an apparent radical like Mother Dorothea to be her successor. Sadly, those questions remain unanswered!

Cassandra eventually foils the plot to assassinate the Divine, due in part to her skills hunting dragons learned from her family. In the process, she survives not one but two terrible falls, so we might say the Maker’s favor is upon her! As a reward for her efforts, she becomes the Right Hand of the Divine at quite a young age. By Inquisition, then, she has been the Right Hand for nearly twenty years. I guess Justinia liked her enough to keep her on.

Not a groundbreaking installment, but a fun one and worth the watch if you love Cassandra.