#its that theres not enough info
another long rambling meta on dragon age inquisition, i’m sure it comes as a shock that i am, once again, yelling into the void about characters
#i would have to say that sera is just about as much of a mystery#you get a story about cookies#thats it
except that you learn that sera is a notorious kill-stealer, didn’t always have a lot to eat growing up, is a natural with a bow, has traveled to minrathous at least once, joined the jennies really young and learned how to pick locks, doesn’t like thinkingabout hurting people - she just shoots arrows, plays pranks but has ‘lines’ she doesn’t cross even for a joke (even if those lines are different than everyone else’s), she sketches & draws really well and tries to keep little mementos of things she considers important, probably cuts her hair with arrow tips, has a natural talent for sensing the fade that she refers to a ‘weird deja-vu’ and refuses to acknowledge, and thinks dwarves are adorable & qunari are hot.
you actually learn more about sera than you do vivienne.
Okay, is this because you only get to know him if you romance him or…? Genuinely asking because most of those things you think we know about Sera comes from banter, which is ooh so easy to miss, considering you get one every 15 minutes. And most of it is from Cole revealing shit, and he does that with Solas as well. If you just try to ask Sera, she will reveal shit, and even gets mad for asking too many questions. Even if you romance her, you don’t get a lot, but you do get a lot of info if you romance Solas. He even says after you confront him after he broke your heart in Crestwood. “You have seen more then most.”
Like yeah, do we enough to actually actually know him, probably no. But we do know he hates tea, likes frilly cakes, is friends with spirits, likes to watch movies about angels in the fade, think memories are solid gold, likes to visit old places to see what memories they hold, has been hurt in the past so badly he doesnt trust anybody anymore, but cares still so much, dislikes waking up early, has known more war then we can possibly understand, wonders about how qunari put on shirts, is a master in chess, and is a pretty aggressive player who is more then happy to sacrifice key pieces if it means he gets to win an unwinnable game, cares enough to distract an Iron Bull with said game, read all of Varrics books, tries to help Sera by giving her tactical advice, and is a master painter with a deep understanding of symbolism.
Are all these things he actually tells you true? Perhaps not, but he let his guard down long enough to paint a pretty terrifying picture of who he can be if you want to stop him at all costs.
…i keep forgetting that not everyone hyperfixates and triggers all the banter naturally through multiple playthroughs and an embarrassing amount of hours logged in-game.
you’re right! most of that information is easy to miss since it’s not cutscened and some of it comes from reading the codex entries. none of it is cole exclusive though, but the fade-stuff sera-banter does only come up with him & solas.
you do learn all those things about solas! the romance does glean more information (it’s my absolute favorite heart-breaker) and it seems like you learn a lot but it’s- hm. how to put it. it’s less personal? not quite that. less….useful? not quite that either. it’s minutia. scraps. tidbits. it’s the stories he tells on purpose and the brief slip ups behind his masks. like you said, it’s enough to paint a terrifying picture, but it’s still only glimpses.
the others feel like you get to know them, and then know them behind their public projections. josephine turns out to be actively choosing her kindness, dorian gains depth beyond the sass, cassandra is a human being behind being a scary seeker, etc etc & they all feel like fleshed out actual people that you’ve gotten familiar with. solas is familiar too…but then it turns there’s so much more and now he’s not talking.
the trick is that you feel like you know him! look at all those things written above, he’s not some random stranger! but you don’t realize that you don’t really know him until after. because if you go into it blind, no bright red flags pop up in-game until the reveal.
andthat’s the scary part.
