Summary
Ever since being introduced in Dragon Age 2, Varric has been a fan-favourite companion. Returning forInquisition- and also poised to play a role inDragon Age: The Veilguard- it’s unsurprising that many players want to hook their characters up with him. Now, it turns out that this was actually considered.
Dragon Agecreator and former lead writer David Gaider just shared this as part of a discussion on how RPGs handle romances. Here, he says that he feels that a character being romanceable limits their scope, something the team wanted to avoid with Varric.
BioWare Decided Against A Varric Romance In Dragon Age: Inquisition
The Twitter thread discusses Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s decision to let players romance all of the companions, regardless of race and gender. This is more in line with Dragon Age 2’s approach, but a huge departure from the strict preferences that Inquisition romance options had. However, Gaider argues that not all companionsshouldbe romance options, feeling that this removes their agency.
“The DA writers realized, eventually, that as soon as you make a character romanceable it limits the type of character they can be and the types of stories they can tell,” says Gaider. “Why is that a limitation? Because not all character story arcs are defined by being appealing to the player.”
He continues: “It’s why the DA team, after a discussion during DAI’s development, eventually decided to keep Varric as non-romanceable. Already I hear some fans groaning in disappointment, even though we did it so as not to destroy Varric’s character. You can’t have it both ways, I’m afraid.”
He adds that he supports Inquisition’s method of writing romances. “I didn’t like what taking away the followers' agencies did, that it turned them into sex dolls whose only purpose is to have the player mash them together and go ‘now kiss!'”
It has previously been shared thatVarric was quickly ruled out as a romance option in Dragon Age 2as well, which makes sense. Both he and Aveline weren’t romanceable, leaving an even split of two guys and two ladies for Hawke to get with in the base game.
Now, we’re getting our first romanceable dwarf with the Dragon Age: The Veilguard companion, Lace Harding. You couldkindaget with her in Inquisition, but it was all off-screen and only mentioned briefly.
