The Inquisitor Should be the Storyteller of DA4
Spoilers for all three DA games ahead.
About a year ago I wrote this piece - my theory was that Solas drew the Tarot cards of DAI, and that as such he was the game’s storyteller. More to the point, I talked about how Dragon Age is deeply concerned with stories and myths - how they’re told, the power they have and how truth figures into that power (or doesn’t).
I’ve also been thinking a lot about DA4. Many of us here agree that the Inquisitor won’t be the protagonist of the game, and as much as I want her to be (I really, really want her to be), I concede that it seems unlikely given the ending to Trespasser and the way the series is structured overall. However, I think an off-screen role like the Warden got is insufficient. The story of Solas’s betrayal, after all, is the Inquisitor’s story, regardless of her relationship with him, and for her to have no direct involvement in the way that plays out would make DA4 feel emotionally unfulfilling. The way they dealt with Hawke in DAI doesn’t quite work either - it was frustrating for a lot of players to see their Hawke poorly represented by dialogue that didn’t quite fit with their headcanons. So we want an Inquisitor who has some bearing on the plot, but who isn’t pigeon-holed into particular viewpoints or choices. And we want a new player character who also makes their own choices. How to get out of this bind?
As in the title: I think that the Inquisitor should be the storyteller of DA4, and that the player should be able to make choices as them to determine how the story is told.
This works on a number of levels. Structurally, it makes for a great framing device. Imagine the cutscenes from DA2 or DAO but with dialogue options - the player gets to not only impact the major events of the story, but the way it’s told. Is the Inquisitor angry at Solas? Is she in love with him? Or does she just want to move on with her life? Perhaps these options have an impact on the gameplay or the new PC, but even if they don’t, they allow for replayability by setting a different tone in each playthrough.
Logistically, it allows for a new PC who can make their own choices, but keeps the Inquisitor as an influencer - and as player-controlled. Perhaps as the game progresses and the PC becomes more independent/impactful in their actions, the Inquisitor’s responses become more automatic according to earlier tonal choices (as Bioware did with ME:A and Ryder’s conversation system). Or maybe the Inquisitor makes a brief in-person appearance or has a level dedicated to them at some point. Giving the Inquisitor a limited voice throughout the game makes any appearances they do make feel a lot more natural. There are a lot of themes Bioware could tackle with this as well. In any case, the point is that this doesn’t just get Bioware out of the hole they’ve written themselves into - it opens them up to new and expansive possibilities.
To me, though, it’s most interesting on a narrative level. As I said, Solas’s story is the Inquisitor’s story and vice versa. If Solas drew the Tarot cards - which were the primary narrative framing device of DA:I - then in some sense, Solas was the one telling the Inquisitor’s story (just as he did with the frescoes). It makes for nice poetic symmetry, then, that the Inquisitor should tell Solas’s story even if she can’t participate directly in it. So much of Solas’s anger and sadness is bound up in his story being told wrong. In that way, the Inquisitor would be in a powerful position in telling his story again and choosing the telling. It also allows for the new PC to transition smoothly into their role as the main protagonist - it’s a nice passing of the torch. Finally, it keeps the story personal - and with so much destruction set to happen in DA4, it really needs to be.
What do you all think? Would this be an interesting structure? How would you have it work? Can you imagine other gameplay structures that involve the player somehow controlling both the Inquisitor and a new PC?
Thanks for reading!