Rant, rant, RANT

[scarylady]

OK, I'm about to have a serious Fenris-shaped rant here, so don't come in unless you're prepared.  Romance spoilers included >:

So, here I am, pretty much at the end of Act Three, and I stumble on a spoiler on the wiki that tells me I fucked up my Fenris romance a full Act ago and didn't even know.

Apparently I ONLY get to progress my romance with him if I fling coin at the slave girl in Act 2.  Silly me, I thought a job in a mansion might be a better, safer option for a naive girl who's never set foot outside the protection of her Tevinter masters, and Fenris certainly didn't seem bothered by my choice at the time, once he'd established I was paying her.

But apparently that's that.  No forgiveness scene, no make-up kissy face, no nothing.

So now, here I am, being told by him that he won't follow me into the final battle.  Apparently, his romance can convince him to change his mind. It seems that, despite believing myself to be his romance throughout everything, despite telling him that he had me when his sister turned on him, I don't get that option.

I'm fucking gutted.

I feel like my entire first run has been ruined by a single action, <i>where I didn't do anything wrong</i>.  What the <i>hell</i> were Bioware thinking?

Short of going back an entire Act, is there anything at all that I can do to fix this?  Because currently I'm wondering whether to just sack the run which - considering it's my first - will pretty much kill the game for me.


EDIT:  Problem solved, thanks to the lovely Sephiaz *blows her a kiss*
Just a technical note for the record, guys and gals, so no-one else falls into the same pit: apparently anything less than 100 friendship/rivalry does not = a relationship.  Which is BLOODY STUPID.

Comments

[sephiaz]

Yeah, it looks like you're just missing that last dialogue after the deal with his sister - let me know what happens. The only other thing I could think of would be the gifts - did you give him both?

[scarylady]

I'm definitely missing that dialogue. This agrees with that wiki entry, that you only get that dialogue if you fling money at her. With is bloody stupid, what's wrong with giving her a job?

Er... the elven slave book and the sword he repudiated? Yup, done both of those.

[scarylady]

OK, have checked my saves. I haven't missed any available dialogues with Fenris. Not in Act 2, nor in Act 3. I'm not at absolute max rivalry, as occasionally he approves of something I do or say, but surely they won't penalize for that?

My gut feel is that this is a Bioware screwup, where you should get your romance in 2 out of 3 options, and they have misprogrammed it.

[sephiaz]

You may actually need maxed-out friendship/rivalry to get that last scene. According to the guide (which I don't have, but someone posted on BSN):

2: Complete remaining companion quest and dialogues, give him both gifts, reach 100% friendship or rivalry, then complete the Questioning Beliefs final-stage relationship conversation before the start of The Last Straw.

I honestly think that's your issue, not the slaver girl. Might not be too difficult to fix - can you skip back a few quests and choose something to piss him off? A pain, I know, but definitely not as bad as having to go back to Act 2!

[scarylady]

OK, I'm sorted. Thank you very much for putting up with me through that.

I had to be nice to Merrill during that HORRIBLE final mirror quest (which was just terrible roleplay), but if I didn't then I got Fenris +5 friendship dropping me from 95 to 90.

I think they are crazy to insist on 100, it feels wrong that you can't have true love unless you are either at 100 friendship or 100 rivalry. It's massively artificial and the whole process has left a sour taste in my mouth. But the alternative was messing up my LI for the sake of 5 points of rivalry... I mean...wtf?

Anyway, thank you Sephiaz, I appreciate it.

[(Anonymous)]

According to the guide, you must side with the templars if your romance is on the rivalry path and you want to keep him. You can only persuade him to stay if you're on the friendship path.

Bioware seems to love dooming my escapist romances.

[scarylady]

Are you saying that a friend can persuade him to stay, but a lover can't? Cos that's just... daft.

Having said that, Merrill's insane escapade (which I did my damnedest to prevent)may have been the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I've stuck by the mages all the way through, but I have my limits.

[sephiaz]

According to BSN (and quite a few YouTube videos - why yes, I do cheat a LOT), the guide is actually incorrect on that angle - he should still side with you as long as you're maxed out, did all the quests, got all the dialogues, etc. The whole thing is complete insanity, really. I didn't have any issues, but only because I metagame like a fiend - it's a little absurd that you have to break immersion and "cheat" to make sure all these little angles are covered.

And I agree on the Merrill angle - I wanted so much to like her, esp since I'm a huge fan of her VA, but that last quest especially... gah. This whole game is just, "Here, have some tragedy and stupidity and CONSTANT MISERY. Free box of tissues and stress-relief ball not included."

Glad I could be of help, anyway!

[nahtanha]

This thread has made me horribly glad that I'm completely uninterested in the romances for DA2. Aveline and Varric are my BFFs, and all the other chumps can suck it. The amount of metagaming required to get the romances to work is absolutely stupid. If you want to actually RP your character (*gasp*! Who on earth would want to do that in an RPG!) you end up with all the LI's being more or less neutral with your PC.

Perhaps I'm the chump for not wanting to play a mage. Once these bastards give me my sister back, I want an option to burn Kirkwall down behind me.

[scarylady]

I usually meta-game like a fiend too, but for once I've not set foot on the wiki. The only reason I even tripped over my little problem was because I tiptoed onto the BSN Fenris thread out of curiosity and spotted it there.

I would have been livid if I'd been cheated over 5 points, but having to pet Merrill and say 'there, there the keeper was wrong' when I'd refused to even give her to mirror-fixing tool... grr, it left a sour taste in my mouth.

I'm finding this storyline HUGELY heavyhanded. Pretty much every mage except the First Enchanter and Bethany is on a demon-hairtrigger and the Knight-Commander is almost as nutty as the one I wrote. They've made BOTH sides untenable. I'd much rather they had made the decision a less black/white agony, grey is so much more believable.