Best of the four options for Divine...and why?

[Vashra]

Let's open up and rehash an old argument!

Cassandra?

Hardened Leliana?

Softened Leliana?

Vivienne?(!?!)

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My biggest reason to put Cassandra on the Sunburst throne is her dedication to the idea of researching and reversing the Tranquility rite. I see all sorts of lovely plot potential for DA4 in the idea that completed Seeker rites result in post-Tranquil red-lyrium-resistant folks who still have full emotional capacity and such. You *gotta* wonder what plugging a *mage* into the full Seeker rites would create.

I like softened Leliana's idealism, but I'm afraid all that "Can't we all just get along" will get trampled hardcore.

Hardened Leliana creeps me t.f. out .... pretty sure nobody needs that in a position of power.

I don't think Vivienne would do anything but try to restore the status quo....and we've seen how that worked.

[Pendergast891]

Hardened Leliana needs to be in place to make the hard choices for whats to come from the main antagonist for the next game

[LukanGamer]

Casandra imo is the only good choice mainly for all you said.

[Arlen]

Am pretty bummed the Giselle is not an option. Far better then Cassandra and Lillianna, and I would not trust Vivienne with any sort of position of authority - she has the earmarks of a tyrant who would believe she is doing things for the right reasons but tramples upon free choice and will.

[Vashra]

Originally posted by billybobtexan1000:

Am pretty bummed the Giselle is not an option. Far better then Cassandra and Lillianna, and I would not trust Vivienne with any sort of position of authority - she has the earmarks of a tyrant who would believe she is doing things for the right reasons but tramples upon free choice and will.

The core of Viv's psych profile is fear. If you force her into groups with Cole and listen to some of the chatter, it's made clear that deep down, she's terrified of many things, most notably herself.

That's a strong motivator, but also quite volatile fuel on any fire and it tends to make an asset unreliable at best. I can't call that woman an ally...too many private agendas.

I tend to see her and hardened Leliana as two sides of the same dented coin. Folks will say "you need someone hard to make hard choices." But history has *frequently* proven that wrong. One of the closest historical profiles to how they wrote hardened Leliana was Emperor Hirohito. Had he stuck to the *ideals* of both Shintoism and Buddhism as practiced in Japan at the time, he would have *allied* with the US. Instead...he ordered the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He lost sight of some things...and it cost him and his nation in a way from which they *never* fully recovered.

As the Inquisitor says in the first conversation to dial Leliana back a bit, "Now is *precisely* the time for ideals."

[Arlen]

Originally posted by Vashra:

Originally posted by billybobtexan1000:

Am pretty bummed the Giselle is not an option. Far better then Cassandra and Lillianna, and I would not trust Vivienne with any sort of position of authority - she has the earmarks of a tyrant who would believe she is doing things for the right reasons but tramples upon free choice and will.

The core of Viv's psych profile is fear. If you force her into groups with Cole and listen to some of the chatter, it's made clear that deep down, she's terrified of many things, most notably herself.

That's a strong motivator, but also quite volatile fuel on any fire and it tends to make an asset unreliable at best. I can't call that woman an ally...too many private agendas.

I tend to see her and hardened Leliana as two sides of the same dented coin. Folks will say "you need someone hard to make hard choices." But history has *frequently* proven that wrong. One of the closest historical profiles to how they wrote hardened Leliana was Emperor Hirohito. Had he stuck to the *ideals* of both Shintoism and Buddhism as practiced in Japan at the time, he would have *allied* with the US. Instead...he ordered the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He lost sight of some things...and it cost him and his nation in a way from which they *never* fully recovered.

As the Inquisitor says in the first conversation to dial Leliana back a bit, "Now is *precisely* the time for ideals."

I see both Cassandra and Lillianna suited the roles they occupied for Justinia - the left and the right hands. Not as the Divine itself. Viv needs to go back to being a minor court mage, and away from Global influence, she literally terrifies me. But then, I would not disband the Inquisition, All 3 institutions (Chantry, Templars, and Mages) have shown they cannot work together, and need outside oversight. Eventually, the Inquisition will fall to the petty squabbles of power and curruption. But thats a problem for future generations.

[Vashra]

Originally posted by billybobtexan1000:

I see both Cassandra and Lillianna suited the roles they occupied for Justinia - the left and the right hands. Not as the Divine itself. Viv needs to go back to being a minor court mage, and away from Global influence, she literally terrifies me. But then, I would not disband the Inquisition, All 3 institutions (Chantry, Templars, and Mages) have shown they cannot work together, and need outside oversight. Eventually, the Inquisition will fall to the petty squabbles of power and curruption. But thats a problem for future generations.

Well yeah, eventually it will *all* corrupt, crash, and burn...because Entropy is a Thing(tm). Even our universe is spiraling towards "boom" ;)

We agree that Viv is scary. She's just a mage version of the Knight Commander from Kirkwall. She'd bleed all of the mercy and sense out of whatever system she controlled until all you had left was cold calculation. Worse thing is that she doesn't see it coming herself.
She'd phase us back into prison Circles and jackboot Templars in a decade or so *OR* she'd overcompensate so hard *not* to end up "quite" there...that she'd spiral us into a soft Tevinter scenario. No bueno either way.

Leliana would just get us there faster, if hardened. She's about on par with Calvin as he went from reforming the Church with sermons...to "reforming" the church with stake-burning executions. She'd start out "reforming" everything -- at swordpoint -- and any and all dissenters would "disappear." In the end, you'd have a Chantry run like you'd have gotten if Machiavelli had decided to be a Priest instead of a Prince *shudder*. On the bright side, that kind of shock and awe BS tends to trigger revolts faster than Viv's insidious damage would do.

If we *have* to pick from available options, I still think Cassandra is the best option for Divine, though the system will probably crash around everyone's ears 10 minutes after her death or retirement. Softened Leliana *with* a huge chunk of support from external forces might hold together long enough to institute some serious reform.

I just wonder what Bioware can trot out next as a major plotline....it feels a little "jump the shark" already.

[EA Latium]

Not sure, they all make good candidates. So far my favourite is hardened Leliana, as it fits with the other major choices I took (free mages, Inquisition disbanded).

I still don't know which one (and ending) I'll take to DA4 though.