Small Town Geeks

The Two Heirs to the Throne

So I Just finished my first run through of Dragon age: Origins (yes I know it’s a year late) And here are some things I noticed with the story. (Disclaimer: I am comparing the Game DAO with the movie LOTR. I have not read any DAO literature, and though I have read LOTR in the past, Its been a while so i’m going to stick with the movie.)

Dragon age Similarities with lord of the rings:

• There are Elves, Dwarves, and Humans, and that’s about it (besides the darkspawn or orcs)
• It seems like “the dwarves delve too deep and greedily” applies here too. The darkspawn (orc look alikes) seem to come out of the middle of the dwarven kingdom.
• In your party there is a guy who doesn’t want to be king, yet is heir to the throne (well, only if you want him to be)
• Your group sets out on a quest to defeat the darkspawn (orcs) by destroying the Arch Demon (or the ring of sauron).
• If you kill the arch demon, the spirit will try to possess the nearest thing with darkspawn blood (which so happens to be you if you kill it) and it will kill you. This is kind of similar to Frodo realizing the destroying the ring will take his life…and almost does if not for Gollum.  You also have a way of cheating this death (Which I highly recommend)
• Once you kill the Arch Demon (or ring) all the darkspawn (orcs) will get scared and run away. This does not completely eradicate the problem of having darkspawn (orcs) in Ferelden (a country in middle earth, like Gondor) . So this is up to the new king, Probably Alistair (Aragon) to spends his years cleaning up the mess of the darkspawn (orcs).
• The dwarven kingdom used to be really awesome…but now is mostly in ruin (kinda like the kingdoms in LOTR).

Differences:

• In the LOTR the orcs/uruk-hai/goblins seem to have minds of their own. They’re usually just the typical stupid bad guy.  In Dragon Age, the Darkspawn don’t really talk. They just make a really creepy laugh. And they take women, make them eat their fellow companions and drink darkspawn blood, and turn them into brood-mothers to make more darkspawn. Creepy. Darkspawn are definitively scarier bad guys.
• The elves in DAO are not cool. They are smaller than humans and look like they’ve been through a lot, which they have. They’ve spent a long time being slaves to humans, and I guess that makes them smaller and no longer immortal. There are references to a past where they were immortal, which would be cool to see in further games, because elves aren’t elves in my mind unless they’re super suave, really tall and pretty. But I do how DAO has started to separate their world from LOTR here.
• Religion is a big thing for humans in Ferelden, making the world seem more realistic. In fact they are obsessed with “the maker” and try to press this religion on as many as possible.  They are their saints and myths and moral stories. In LOTR (at least the movie version) The only time you get close to any religious reference is when someone is mourning the loss of their child (theoden) or when you go “into the west,” and even that stretches it. The lack of religion and religious wars in LOTR makes it almost a perfect place to live, but not too realistic.
• The future heir to the throne is kind of a jerk to women. Alistair at first seems to be this awkward but cute and funny innocent virgin, but make him king and he will dump you the first chance he gets if you are not a human noble. I guess he’s supposed to have an heir and two grey wardens getting it on doesn’t work. But if you were a human noble and decided to rule with him, he will make some comment about how you’ve saved him the trouble of asking you to marry him, and how having a child isn’t all that important. Also even if you are not a human noble and one of you must sacrifice yourselves to kill the arch demon, Alistair will try very hard to be the one to kill himself as the king. I guess an heir was so important to him enough not to marry the “woman he loves,” but sacrificing himself (which so happens will also not get him an heir) is a-ok. If you really want to stay with him as the main character, if will allow you to remain his mistress if you’ve toughened him up. Lucky you.  Aragon on the other hand remains in love with the same elf throughout the whole story even though he thinks she’s left him for the grey havens.  Maybe this makes DAO more realistic (for a fantasy?) .