@Melody Ackerman well it doesn’t help that every bad thing Fenris predicts comes true....

Solas is Merrill if she had charisma

i think she definitely patronized merrill a lot, especially when you as hawke can decide whether or not to give her the arulin holm? or when she just takes the demon into her body so it doesnt kill merrill? shes like.. not letting merrill make any of her on experiences which adds to her being so "naive" in the first place

Marlowe exactly. If you feel she’s making a bad decision...let her and she will learn from the consequences. I mean if she supported her, she’d never would’ve been desperate enough to go to the demon.

So let me get this straight. The Keeper was a bad parent to Merrill because she said "you cant use blood magic or play with demons" even though Merrill showed herself absolutely incapable of dealing with Demons? Or that she put the discovery of Elven lore over the lives of anyone including herself. Youd condone that as a parent?

Joseph Moore you’re manipulating my argument. I’m saying that instead of immediately condemning her decision she could’ve supported her so she wouldn’t resorted to demons and blood magic. All Merrill wanted was to bring back the glory of the Elven people...which is the duty of the Dalish. There’s nothing inherently wrong with seeking knowledge or bringing back a piece of the past. But how is the Keeper right, by immediately condemning her amongst her people? The only people, the only life she’s ever known...making her an outcast just for wanting to investigate something she didn’t agree with.

Joseph Moore she never put the discovery above her people or hell even Hawke and his friends. She obviously valued them a lot more than the mirror. She just had an almost obsessive desire for the history of the Elven people, which again isn’t inherently bad.

LOL that’s basically my relationship with nearly every character from DA2

@@violetraven8323 Exactly, death count-wise, Merrill can potentially have the least compared to Isabella, Fenris and Anders.

Same. She didn't make the best decisions at times but she's one of my top 5 characters

I always ended up gravitating tward her every play through even if i was trying to romance someone else in intention

@@aaroncarr3413 same

I agree with you Merrill and her myopia about consequences when she has a goal in mind would make her eminently manipulatable by the likes of Solas.

There's a theory that Sera is the sundered but remaining piece of Andruil..........what if she is a piece of Dirthamen?!?!?

I was going to comment this!! Her little speech about how "keepers are meant to preserve elven history" would back this up too, because what's better than preserving elven history? Resurrecting it

Totally true, I pointed out in my post, Merrill and Solas clinging to the past, Merrill just moved on at the end and learned, Solas not. I like both of them, they are flawed, that's ok. If they were flawless and loved by everyone, they would be "Merry Sues" or in this case Merrill Sue.🤣👍

So, as someone who doesn't like Merrill, but does like Solas, I feel the need to the defend myself, haha. So I see this argument a lot in regards to people who don't like Merrill because her use of Blood Magic, view of spirits, and that she made a deal with a demon. If that's the only reason people don't like her, then I can see why people would find that hypocritical if they like Solas. But that doesn't include everyone that doesn't like Merrill. What I dislike most about Merrill is honestly her personality. The constant self-doubting gets on my nerves. While I am sympathetic as to why she does it, and I understand the need to have a character like that, it doesn't change my feelings. When I say 'I have no respect for her life choices', I was half joking, as it I just like how scathing it sounded. But in all seriousness, she wants to throw her life away to unlock the secret of her Eluvian... when she has no idea what it does. She wants to make herself out to be a martyr to fix this thing, but I don't think you can really be one when you don't know what you are trying to accomplish. Now, if she was sure what it did, and had a plan, then my mind would change a lot. If she knew that the Eluvian was a vast network, or at least if she thought it was a communications device and had made two and had this plan to create Thedas Phones or something, that would be cool! But to just fix something, hoping to turn it on because why not and expect to change the way of life for you and your people... is honestly pretty stupid in my book.

Except Solas actually knows what hes doing, Merrill does not. Also Solas is attempting to make up for what he considers the neutering and genocide of the elves while Merrill is recklessly stumbling through life getting people hurt and killed around her. Shes basically where Solas WAS. I didnt teust Merrill in the slightest. If you take her with you into the fade she turns on you at the drop of a hat, so I'm supposed to trust that she can stop a demon as old as Arlathan? Nah. I do t like when people rationalize Merrill playing Merrill truly to how you would a regular person doesnt end well.

​@@GhilDirthalen I appreciate your reply and your rationale. Thank you. It's been a long day so hopefully this reply makes sense: It depends on what you're talking about in regards to self-doubt. In some ways she's very self-assured. When it comes to romance... not so much. And yeah, I do agree on that. While I like her more as a younger sister, her romance isn't really my cup of tea, to the point the Hawke I romanced her with was the Hawke I left in the fade. I'd view it as less of her wanting to throw her life away, and more of her wanting to take a calculated risk to try and discover more about her past. Hell, you can say the same thing about Solas because fuck if he knows what will happen if he takes down the Veil now. He THINKS he does, but he's kinda proven he doesn't exactly know everything about modern Thedas (see: Weekes' comments about how he honestly knew next to fuck all about dwarves). When you say this... it seems like you're forgetting that the Dalish lost a lot, and it's a Keeper's job to try to find more lore. While she doesn't know if it'll be amazing or not, she's trying to figure that out. Discovering more about your lost culture can be an admirable goal even with the risks. Furthermore, she took precautions. That's why she asked Hawke to help. It was her choice to make, about her culture, and her ability to MAKE a choice for herself was denied again and again. You don't have to agree with her, but the fact of the matter was, Marethari did not exactly help matters (and given what we learn about Eluvians and spirits from Solas, it's pretty obvious the spirit/demon was manipulating Marethari). We have no idea what would've actually happened with her plan because she was denied autonomy again and again. It just feels like (and I'm not saying this is you) Solas gets a free pass for a lot of shit by virtue of him being a man and Merrill being a woman. I'm not saying you need to like both characters, and I certainly didn't find Merrill's romance to be my personal cup of tea (and the same can really be said for Solas, but that's more for my dislike of how it's pushed as the One True Way for DAI). It just gets tiring hearing her referred to as "stupid" again and again while Solas is lauded and hearing the whole "I don't respect her life choices" just kinda struck a cord with me and reminded me a little too much of the shit I've heard again and again from this fandom and the double standard.

@@GhilDirthalen I ask you for pardon from you in all formalities if I and my phrasing made you feel bad in anyway, that you feel like you have to defend yourself. It was not ment from me that way, I feel sorry for hurting you. I didn't thought enough about my answer and take my responsibility in this attempt to excuse.

Oh my .......I really hope not Dx

I agree!

Yeah the Keeper was always the target for Audacity. It was never Merrill.

I relate to her a lot through this, too. It's frustrating how she gives it all (and, probably on a better note, ends up accomplishing a lot even with the Eluvian never been completed. She's one of the few people with the most knowledge on them, so it's a must that she comes back for DA4), just to be dismissed all the time and then be blamed when she didn't even do anything in the first place.

I second that!

Yes! It would be fun to hear about Wynne's friendship with Shale, as well.

@@ohitshilary looking forward to finding Shale in Tevinter, as it definitely hints that's where she will be, in Tevinter trying to become mortal again

That and the way she looks after you romance her 😁

It's strongly implied that that is what happened. That Merethari went into the cave expecting to see a demon, & as such, that is what she got. Her preconceptions twisted it into a Pride Demon.

@@ObsdnBlck "strongly implied" by your need to absolve Merrill of any responsibility? She tells Fenris during "Pride's End" that the spirit first called to her in her sleep. Even if you want to retroactively apply what Solas says to this (and it's not like consistency is even one of DA's strong points (or honesty one of Solas')), this isn't the behavior of a spirit of wisdom.

@@user-wx9oi1rk7o The Spirit called to both Merrill and Merethari, and yes, it IS the action of a spirit that is TRAPPED to call out for help. And it's not 'retroactively' applied. Spirits being twisted into demons is established in Origins in several places. It's never DIRECTLY stated until Inq, but what the Mage Warden is told by Mouse during their Harrowing is the same thing that Solas says: That the true dangers of the Fade are preconceptions. Not to mention that Anders directly stated that his anger twisted the spirit Justice into a demon of Vengeance. It's not my fault, or Merrill's fault, that you didn't notice those very obvious hints about what was really going on. I swear, the contortions Merrill haters will go through to keep from admitting they were wrong, that they let the game fool them. And by the way, Mary Kirby, who wrote Merrill, made it clear on Twitter that MERETHARI had been the one the spirit/demon had been influencing the entire time.

@@ObsdnBlck so, what you're saying is - BioWare writers can't keep their lore straight or twist it for their fanbase full of radical manchildren. Nothing new.

@@user-wx9oi1rk7o Or maybe their lore is more complicated than you are capable of understanding, in that it mirrors real life. See, I don't think you realize this, but the lore in the Dragon Age games is NOT written as non-diegetic. It's written as an in-universe writers INTERPRETATION of what is happening. Thus, the lore cannot be taken to be 100% truthful, because it's often incorrect in-universe. We know of the lore what the characters know, and what the characters know is often not the actual truth, but either someone else's in-universe subjective analysis of the truth, or intentional twisting of the truth to fit a political agenda, , much as real history records are often based on incomplete or faulty evidence, or influenced by the bias of the historian recording it (See, for example, Great Zimbabwe, when the actual history of the construction of the ancient city was suppressed and re-written to support the racist policies of Rhodesia, or how the different versions of the Bible are translated in such a way as to support specific policies or political agendas, as happened with the King James Version). The Lore of Dragon Age was deliberately written to mirror reality in that way, and it's also made blatantly clear that it's happening, and that it's just one possible interpretation, and not necessarily a correct one. Notice that ALL the lore is presented as the writings of some in universe scholar or historian. That's a BIG clue as to how what is said in the lore is often influenced by the writer, and often coming from a biased perspective. A Chantry scholar, such as Brother Genetivi, is naturally going to interpret his findings in a way that confirms to Chantry doctrine, and is more inclined to overlook or discard anything he finds that contradicts that. Similarly, an Orlesian historian is going to be biased towards recording and interpreting history in a way that reflects well on Orlais, and dismissing anything that casts the country in an unfavorable light. It's not my fault or anyone else's but yours that you took blatantly biased lore as if it was completely factual.

Dragon Age 2 actually had a Japanese dub for the Japan Version. And Merrill was voiced by Ikue Otani, aka Pikachu.

Omg she is a water fairy mouse

Allie A lot of this had to do with culture and experience. Merrill was a first. She was basically trained her while life to preserve elven history. The eluvian specifically then costs her a friend (or maybe more). So yes this will be extremely important to her. Telling her to just let it go is a very big ask. The more the keeper does to get her to stop the more solving it means to her. After all she lost her friends, then her respect, then her clan, and finally her mentor to just let it go means all of it was for nothing. Sera conversely grew up in an alienage where the elves had it particularly bad. Then she's was fostered by Lady Emal who she didn't feel loved her. She was angry at the vendor who she taught hated her because she was an elf. As an adult she met Dalish elves who spurned her for not being good enough not elf enough. Yeah of course she's gonna reject everything elven especially the Dalish beliefs that are extremely foreign to her as an Andrastian. If you befriend her or even romance her as an elf,. You are literally provide the first real positive experience on her life (at least that she can remember) and it changes her

When you take a risk no one asked you to do you AREN'T doing it for their benefit you are being passive aggressive and assigning noble intentions to a selfish act because you know that it is. Merrill isn't a good or honest person. She has been much abused which one can have sympathy for but she isn't above abusing others herself. Essentially her relationship with her clan is entirely toxic

Do you think Merrill would have behaved any differently, since as Hawke you can basically do that and how does she react?

Seconded. Merrill is an adorable creature and must be protected.

NaterPotater 24 Merrill is best girl of the DA franchise! Seriously, I always admired her determination to lift her people out of the state that they languished in. She fights against overwhelming odds to save the elves, so she is the very definition of a hero.

They wouldn't like each other xD

Yes she did have a different voice actor

@@mysticonthehill thanks