Math is Hard! (age question)

[darkrose]

How old is Loghain at the beginning of Origins? How old was Maric when he disappeared? (I know DG has confirmed that he's dead, but for fic-writing purposes, as far as I'm concerned he's only comic-book dead.)

The inconsistency of dating between novels and game makes my poor little non-mathematically-inclined brain hurt.

Comments

[elysium_fic]

everyone talks about how much he adores Anora in game

Who talks about this, besides Anora pre-Landsmeet? I've been taking meticulous videos of every conversation cutscene, often reloading and pursuing different dialogue choices to be sure I didn't miss anything, and with everything except the Deep Roads and the Landsmeet done, there hasn't been so much as a peep about him adoring Anora.


he's crumpled up the letter telling him to divorce her

Actually he crumpled the letter from Celene not the one from Eamon.

[darkrose]

The only other person I can think of who mentions it is Eamon, when he talks in his incredibly condescending way about how Anora had Cailan wrapped around her finger from the time they were children.

[niniane]

Um, Eamon says something about how Cailan was a "good boy" had no chance after Anora "batted her eyes at him". Loghain remarks that Anora "led Cailan around like a puppy on a leash", and Wynne says, "Cailan loved Anora with every ounce of his heart. It was plain for all to see. The only thing that ever stood between them was you." (Although how Wynne would know is so far beyond me as to be totally baffling.)

I mean, it's possible that they're all wrong. Also possible that they were mistaking Cailan's affection for something else. *shrugs* I'll admit that I find Anora as a femme fatale almost laughable, don't think that Wynne is a great observer of the Anora-Cailan marriage, *and* think it's entirely possible that either Loghain wanted to believe they were happier than they were *or* was referring more to them playing a kids than any real affection. But...it is remarked on.

[elysium_fic]

Okay, thanks. It's been a while since I've been to the Landsmeet portion of the game and I haven't gotten there yet on my "vid-cap EVERYTHING" play-through (seriously, I have, like, 400 videos already) so it's possible I just haven't seen these references yet.

[niniane]

Yeah, the game is so complex that it's really hard to get to *all* of the dialogues, I think.

[elysium_fic]

Well, like I said, I've been going through, reloading and choosing different dialogue options, and also checking out the dialogue in the toolset. So of all the stuff that I've encountered up until now on this playthrough, I'm certain I got it all. But I'm just about the head into the deep roads, so there's a ways to go yet.

I shudder to think how many vids there will be of all the cutscenes around the Landsmeet.

[niniane]

It really is crazy. When I think of it objectively, I'm kind of amazed that there are as few plot bunnies as they are. You figure 6 origins. Plus two genders. Plus all of these crazy branching dialogs...

There's a lot of stuff out there.

[niniane]

Oh, sorry. But still...it's possibly meant to be read as a sign (otherwise, why mention that it's crumbled!) that Cailan's not 100% happy with this plan of "get rid of Anora, marry Celene". Again, that would be my read on it. It's possible to interpret it differently.

[elysium_fic]

I figure the crumpled note can go one of two ways.

1) He's angry and frustrated that Celene isn't coming (likely this was how it was intended to be interpreted, given the axed Celene subplot, and the "crumpled" aspect is simple another one of those things that didn't get fixed in rewrites.

2) He's disgusted at Celene's hinting about a marriage alliance. Whether that's due to his devotion to Anora, or the fact that even Cailan isn't idiot enough to fail to see that attempting to marry the empress of Orlais would go over like a pregnant pole vaulter is completely open to interpretation.

[niniane]

Yeah, I'd totally agree that it's open to interpretation. (And kind of love the "OMG, no Celene! But I wanted hot Empress sex!" interpretation.) Then again, he's never met Celene, so I'm not sure why he'd be super disappointed at her loss...although maybe he's seen her picture. Or is really curious.

[elysium_fic]

It's weird. The first time I read through those codices, I totally had the impression that Cailan and Celene had met before. Can't for the life of me figure out why, now.

[niniane]

It's possible they did. It would seem kind of weird to be flirting via letter if they hadn't. Then again, Cailan strikes me as a bit of a flirt, so maybe he's just being friendly. (Or trying to be.)