YMMV / Dragon Age

See the separate YMMV subpages for the individual installments of the franchise:

The games

• Dragon Age: Origins
• Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening
• Dragon Age II
• Dragon Age: Inquisition
• Dragon Age: Dreadwolf

The novels

• The Stolen Throne
• The Calling
• Asunder
• The Masked Empire
• Last Flight
• Tevinter Nights

The comics

• Until We Sleep
• Magekiller
• Knight Errant
• Dragon Age: Deception
• Blue Wraith
• Dark Fortress
• The Missing

Other

• Dragon Age: Redemption
• Dawn of the Seeker
• Dragon Age: Absolution

The franchise as a whole

• Broken Base:
  • Mages vs Templars. Are Templars fanatics who mercilessly hunt down innocent mages? Or protectors of mages and non-mages alike who do what they have to do? Are Mages victims of a bigoted worldview pushed by the Chantry, which keeps them permanently oppressed? Or are they narrow-minded and selfish, and only end up justifying everyone's fears about them? The conflict between the two factions plays a major role in the second and third games in the series.
  • The Qunari as a whole. Are they the Only Sane Man species of Dragon Age, a complex, flawed society that, like most things in Dragon Age, can't be defined as right or wrong, or pretentious, self-righteous murderers who deserve to all die? Inquisition has fanned the flames of this as new insight from Iron Bull downplays several of the negatives.^note You don't get to choose your job, but the actual duties of that job are likely no different than it is for anyone in the same line of work in a different society, offering the chance for downtime. You don't know your blood relations, but you still have friends who're as close to you as a family. There are strict gender roles that keep men and women in their respective kitchens, but you can be declared Aqun-Athlok and allowed to assume a role opposite of your biological gender. You don't have sex for love, but it turns out that they do practice a form of sacred prostitution; free, no attachment sex whenever you want it with whatever gender you prefer in the sack, no more stigmatized than seeing a doctor, and it can get... kinky. The Trespasser DLC of Dragon Age: Inquisition cast the Qunari as the primary antagonists, and showed them doing some deeply disturbing and downright villainous things, and seems to indicate that BioWare intends them to be bad guys. All this has done is escalate the debate about the Qunari from the fandom's perspective, however.
  • As of Dragon Age: Inquisition, the topic of transgender people among the Qunari. Another layer to Qunari society that makes them seem more progressive and sympathetic, or a cheap Author's Saving Throw by BioWare done in a poor attempt to retcon how they wrote the Qunari as having strict gender roles in earlier games? That it intersects with a sensitive Real Life issue doesn't help matters.
  • The Dalish. Some respect their dedication to preserving their religion and culture, their refusal to bow to humans that would convert and subjugate them like their city elf brethren, and their commitment to holding out for a homeland. Others see them as an overly haughty, elitist, Cultural Posturing White-Dwarf Starlet race that cling too much to past glory, are overly hostile and distrusting to all non-Dalish (including fellow elves), and feel they are largely responsible for their own plight since they continually alienate anyone that might help them.
• Complete Monster: See here.
• Cry for the Devil: The Archdemons. While we don't know much about the Old Gods and what their alignment was, since the Darkspawn are drawn to uncover them and infect them with the Taint, it's possible they're not so much evil as merely Brainwashed and Crazy. Furthermore it's a telling sign of the physical toll that the corruption takes, when you learn that Urthemiel, the Archdemon of the Fifth Blight, was once known as "The Dragon of Beauty".
• Die for Our Ship: Bianca Davri got a lot of this since she is the main reason why the wildly popular Varric is not a romance option for both Hawke and the Inquisitor as well as the fact that she treats him very poorly and is largely seen as borderline emotionally abusive.
• Draco in Leather Pants:
  • The Qunari society is seen by a large margin of players as superior to the others in the setting due to providing clear metrics of success and failure without ambiguity, being equal with everyone having the same prestige and place as well as being taken care of by the state. These fans also seem to downplay the bad elements of the Qun in their heads. No family, no opportunity to choose one's own role or path in life. You go where you are told and do what you are told. Personal happiness is not a concern. You should be happy in the Qun's role for you. If you're not, then there is no recourse because the problem is you. Enjoy being "re-educated" until you either are successfully indoctrinated or are turned into a mindless slave.
  • Same case about the Tevinter Empire. It is the textbook example of 'mages gone bad', with slavery, blood magic, human (and elf) sacrifice, and power abuse on a regular basis, yet many people who are pro-mage and anti-Templar uphold them as a positive example of mages being able to govern themselves, which is totally backwards.
• Fandom Rivalry: With fans of CD Projekt RED's The Witcher adaptations, chiefly over the protagonist choice, tone, and sexual content. This was mostly in early 2011, with both Dragon Age II and The Witcher 2 coming out in the same period, though it has flared up occasionally between Dragon Age: Inquisition and The Witcher 3.
• Friendly Fandoms: Anyone who doesn't fall into the above entry generally gets along with Witcher fans over the differences and similarities between the franchises. They may even like playing both.
• Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Divisive companions and NPC's tend to get much more dedicated hatedoms than most of the series' actual villains — probably since the player spends much more time with them, form emotional bonds with them, and can feel scorned when trust is betrayed or mundane-feeling jerkassery hits too close to home. One example includes Bianca Davri (see Die for Our Ship above) getting far more hate for her perceived mistreatment of fan-favorite Varric than the game's Omnicidal Maniac, Corypheus.
• LGBT Fanbase: One of the most beloved video game series among the LGBT community thanks to having a wide variety of LGBT characters with different characteristics while generally avoiding the typical gay tropes. The fact that all the love interests are bisexuals and of equal gender numbers (barring a DLC party member) in Dragon Age II has been applauded by the bisexual community as well as having gay, straight, and bisexual love interests and the series' first transgender character in Dragon Age: Inquisition.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • The mysterious Flemeth, Witch of the Wilds, is shrouded in mystery, a seemingly dotty old woman who speaks in riddles. In truth a mortal who bonded with the soul of Mythal, Flemeth deals in bargains but is swift to twist them to her own benefit. Saving the Grey Warden of Ferelden, Flemeth assists them and sends her daughter Morrigan with the secret hope that Morrigan will conceive a child using the soul of the Darkspawn Archdemon. Setting up her own survival by manipulating the hero Hawke, Flemeth returns years later to secretly assist Morrigan and potentially take the Archdemon's soul from her grandson before seemingly giving her life to the mysterious Solas for his own purposes.
  • Leliana is an initially carefree Orlesian bard who helps save Thedas on more than one occasion. After helping the Grey Wardens defeat the treacherous Loghain and the darkspawn, a hardened Leliana years later becomes the spymaster for the Inquisition, and helps track down many of the order's foes through coercion, bribery and murder. Despite her newfound ruthlessness, Leliana can be softened and persuaded by the Inquisitor to use more merciful methods, and if she's elected Divine Victoria, she abolishes the Circle of Magi and opens priesthood to all races. If she remains hardened, she has a rebellion that opposes her reforms infiltrated and destroyed from the inside.
  • Zevran Arainai is a former member of the Antivan Crows. An assassin whose brilliance is focused on seduction, Zevran deserts the Crows to join the Grey Warden and assists them with flair and intellect the whole way through. Later returning to Antiva, Zevran begins to bring the Crows down, converting some to his cause and infiltrating and destroying other Houses of the Crows, with full intent to see them burn for what they have done.
  • For Solas and the Iron Bull see Dragon Age: Inquisition.
• Misaimed Fandom: It's not uncommon to hear complaints in the fandom over the reduced importance of the Grey Wardens in the sequels. This typically comes from those who hold the first game in the highest regard and feel that the Wardens should remain the focus of the series. They tend to ignore the fact that even going back to the first game, their only purpose is to fight the Darkspawn and the Blight, and as the franchise grew beyond this initial plot Wardens were appropriately phased to the background.
• Pop Culture Holiday: December 4th is "Dragon Age Day", which was originally spelled "Dragon 4ge Day", but was later changed to prevent confusion with the upcoming Dragon Age 4 game.
• Ron the Death Eater:
  • Many Mage supporters tend to paint the Chantry, and particularly the Templar Order, as the ultimate source of evil in Thedas. While it is outdated in some aspects and quite a few members like Sister Petrice or Ser Alrik are horrible people, there are many decent people among them too, and the conflict is much more complex than just evil fanatics trying to oppress the innocent minority - among other things, the number of innocent minorities that can shoot fire from their hands and raise the dead in reality remains zero.
  • Dalish haters also tend to paint them all as violently haughty, elitist Dalish supremacists who want to wipe out or enslave all humans and city elves for being Race Traitors, even though the games have shown many times that most Dalish just want one nation of their own where they can live in peace away from humans, which is not unreasonable considering how elves are treated in human nations. This also ignores how most Dalish Clans shown don't even think twice about helping city elves in need,^note Keeper Marethari's Clan takes in both Pol the escaped city elf criminal in DAO and potentially Feynriel the half-elf apostate in DA2. Keeper Zathrien's Clan took in Lanaya the city elven mage and made her their First some time before DAO. Velanna's Clan actually kicked her out for being too hostile to humans and city elves in DAA. Keeper Hawen's Clan can send a Dalish ambassador to foster good relations with humans in DAI, and Clan Lavellan, provided their quest chain is completed and they aren't killed off, willingly risk their own lives in a hostile human city to protect city elves that would have been scapegoated and purged for a human noble plot. and that the level of friendliness to and acceptance of outsiders varies from clan to clan and individual to individual, just like people of every other nation and culture in Thedas.
• Underused Game Mechanic:
  • In Dragon Age: Origins, BioWare initially intended for every playable character to become a Grey Warden potentially. Originally, Bioware wanted for the taint to infect all of the companions, meaning the player would have to make them into a Grey Warden. This mechanic was incorporated into Awakening in a way, but there are very few consequences gameplay-wise for not making Nathaniel, Velanna, and Sigrun into Grey Wardens save Nathaniel being executed.
  • Post-Origins, the Rogue class' iconic Stealth ability becomes practically useless, since your non-stealthy party members are hard-wired to follow you even if you order them to stay back. Its only use is to quickly de-aggro yourself when surrounded and to shift positions, similar to the Tactical Cloak in Mass Effect. In DAO, by contrast, a good enough rogue could scout out the entire map, stealthily disarming traps right under the enemies' noses and thus making upcoming fights a lot easier.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: A lot of people are drawing parallels between the Templars and mage conflict to real-life issues of security vs. freedom. 1, 2, 3.
• Woobie Species: After the elves had their homeland invaded, were enslaved, freed, had their homeland invaded again, and now are either second class citizens or living in the forest, with uneasy relations with humans, it's hard not to pity them. Though their descendants certainly suffer greatly, it's heavily implied that the attacks on the Dales weren't unprovoked. The Inquisitor discovers some letters from those involved in the attack on Red Crossing, which sparked the war against the Dales: It was a tragic case of Poor Communication Kills, fueled by years of growing hostility and distrust from both sides. Whether or not one feels the war was justified, most Thedas humans now consider the conflict just another footnote in their long history, while the entire elven race (outside Tevinter) is still being punished for it over 700 years later.

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