5 Reasons You're Wrong About Dragon Age 2's Story
1. You Aren't Meant To Have All The Answers
The tragic flaw of Hawke, their Achilles heel, as it were, is that they are human.
You can make Hawke as quick, clever, silver tongued, strong, or adept in magic as you please, but you can't talk your way out of everything. While you can certainly game the companion system, as well as talk your way out of some particularly unsavoury moments, the endgame is inevitable, and everything we've talked about up until now comes into play.
There is no way to stop Anders, he even tricks you into helping him pull off his insane scheme. There's no talking down the Knight-Commander or Grand Enchanter either, the trauma and pressure are too great. If you didn't get on your companions' good side, sorry bucko, but they choose the sides they do, and that's your fault.
The lack of options in the finale can seem like lazy game design, until you look at it as the culmination of a tragic narrative that's been building this entire time.
Dragon Age 2 even berates you when you try to talk down the Knight Commander or Grand Enchanter. The Chantry is destroyed, hundreds are dead, there's no talking out of what comes next. Because unlike Origins, for the most part you aren't roleplaying a wish-fulfilment fantasy hero. You're playing a tragic hero; you're playing a person.
The ultimate tragedy of Dragon Age 2 is: You're only human.