In response to your question, I think my take on Duncan depends on which origin story I play (like so much in DA). My f!surana was definitely put out, pissed, and angry when she was "recruited," mostly because she is such a goody two-shoes that she betrayed Jowan without a second though, did exactly what Irving told her to do, and ended up getting burned in the worst of ways (this, though, puts her on a serious trajectory for character development that I've been itching to write). Getting pawned off on the Wardens, leaving the Circle, and getting plunged in the midst of civil war and blight are not things that she feels grateful about.

On the other hand, my f!Cousland really, really, really wanted to be a warden, and so when she's forced to flee Highever, albeit under really horrible and traumatic experiences, she doesn't feel so much that Duncan exploited and manipulated the situation, but rather that he saved her from the Howes in the one way that was open to him. Still, I totally see how that 'power of conscription' business and the way that it gets used in the origin stories (in some ways, I think, sloppier than others, which I attribute to the usual spectre in all things Poorly Plotted by Bioware, which is the collaborative process of writing the story, blah blah).

Off-topic, I love the icon of your mage, Winterborn. Glad to see that I am not the only one who created a silver-haired, dark-skinned character. My first Cousland favored that look, complete with tattoos, and when I saw what her parents looked like the first time, I amused myself with trying to figure out where the hell Vanora came from. A changeling's child, quite clearly. ;)

Also off-topic, I glad to see that my contemplation of buying a new laptop in order to run DA, rather than on console, is notabsolutely effing crazy completely unusual. Am so jealous of all the fun mods and such that PC players can access...