There are two kinds of people in this world: friends and rivals. At least, that’s the approach Dragon Age 2 (DA2) takes to the relationships between Hawke (the player character) and their six companions; each falls somewhere along a friendship/rivalry spectrum depending on your choices. The system works well enough, but it fails to capture my feelings about one companion in particular. Meet…

Varric

In his own words, Varric is a “rogue, storyteller, and occasionally unwelcome tagalong.” He’s also incredibly easy to befriend. I’ve run through the game twice, and despite choosing vastly different personality types and political allegiances in each playthrough, I ended up maxing out Varric’s approval points. It might be possible to make Varric your rival, but I have no idea how; Varric seems to like me no matter what type of Hawke I play. That’s strange since Varric has never been among my favourite DA2 companions. In fact, I’d go so far as to say I consider him a personal rival.

Stay in Your Lane

My issue is with one of the keywords that Varric uses to describe himself: “storyteller.” It’s a role he performs in DA2, where the game’s events are played as a retrospective. The present-day is shown in the cutscenes scattered throughout the game, where Varric is interrogated by the Chantry Seeker Cassandra Pentaghast. It goes like this: Cassandra asks Varric a question about the events of the narrative; Varric begins his response; as he speaks, the gameplay resumes. He spins a tale and allows the player to take on the role of Hawke. It’s a neat gimmick and an effective way to show (not just tell) that Varric is indeed a storyteller. Yet there’s a problem here—when I play an RPG, I’m the storyteller. Got it?

Okay, maybe I should explain a little more before getting all angry. What I mean by “I’m the storyteller” is that when I play a game like DA2, I rarely think to myself, “I am Hawke.” Likewise, I don’t think of Merrill as my love interest; that’d be confusing when I turn off my computer and re-enter the real world. No, I think, “That’s Hawke’s lover.” And so on and so forth. I don’t self-insert or project myself onto the player avatar; when I have a customizable protagonist, I plan out a rough story arc for them, and then I enact that story arc through the game’s dialogue and dilemmas. My approach here sounds a lot like roleplaying (probably because it is), though there’s another layer here on top of all that. I plan my roleplaying within the context of a wider narrative, constructing a character arc to produce the most interesting story possible. In other words, I use my character as a kind of pen to write the story of my choice, creating different pens for different tales. As it happens, my most recent playthrough of DA2 is a good illustration of this process.

Unlike the protagonists of most CRPGs, Hawke’s rags-to-riches story is not one of unambiguous success; regardless of player choice, at least two members of Hawke’s immediate family die, their adoptive home of Kirkwall is devastated twice over, and they end the game in exile. Every one of Hawke’s successes is accompanied by an even greater failure. While that may seem frustrating (games are supposed to be winnable), it can make for a satisfying narrative given the right approach—in this case, the right Hawke. So, I created a Hawke that would spiral along with the world around her. She began the story as a mage with nothing to lose, one who supported the freedom of her oppressed fellows, only to turn on them later in a futile attempt to save the wealth and status she’d spent the game accumulating. If Kirkwall was to suffer, then Hawke and I would make it suffer. In this story, I found little use for someone like Varric. It was nice for my troubled Hawke to have a sure confidante in this easygoing dwarf, but I usually wanted other companions at Hawke’s side. Ones more strongly aligned in the mage-templar conflict, who would criticize decisions, flare up in anger, and carry out betrayals. I needed actors who would add to this drama of heartbreak and loss; what I didn’t need was a rival narrator. So Varric usually stayed at the Hanged Man.

No Hard Feelings?

Varric is more than just a gimmick narrator; he’s also the only character to be a permanent companion in multiple Dragon Age games. Yup, Varric returns in Dragon Age: Inquisition (DAI). Though I’ve only played through that installment once, I took Varric with me just about everywhere I went in that playthrough. Removed from his duties as narrator, Varric becomes just another character in DAI, a pretty good one at that. The writers expanded on his relationship to his family, his roots, and his lover. His unique take on religious faith and storytelling was one of my DAI highlights. This version of Varric blends into the world, adding to its colour through drama, dialogue, and his own experiences—not Hawke’s—and I started to like him. In conclusion, I don’t begrudge Varric his friendships, with me or with Hawke. I just hope he stays in his own lane from now on 😉