Dragon Age II / Tropes A to C

A

• Abandoned Warehouse: So many it's a Running Gag. Fenris finds the few warehouses which are actually used to store things (and not just for clandestine meetings) rather novel. At one stage, Varric wonders if the warehouse owners charge the clandestine groups rent.
• Abnormal Ammo: Shows up every now and again. Varric can use Bianca to launch grenades, for example. Duke Prosper gets a little more bizarre, though, wielding a pistol... crossbow... thing that fires large globs of sticky green goo, which serve as an "Attack me!" sign for his trained alpha wyvern, Leopold.
• Aborted Arc: Intended to represent the beginning of Hawke's rise to heroism, the low sales of the DLC and relative unpopularity compared to Dragon Age: Origins ensured that Dragon Age: Inquisition would be about a new character, rather than Hawke as previously intended.
• Absurdly High Level Cap: The game has a level cap of fifty, but without using an exploit there is only enough content to reach the low to mid-twenties by endgame. Presumably, this level cap was set in anticipation of future DLC that won't be coming, as Mark of the Assassin was confirmed as the final one when Dragon Age III was announced.
• Accidental Pun: Lampshaded in-universe by Hawke if you choose the snarky option: a potion shop in the Gallows is low on stock and is looking for Hawke to "remedy that." He says it wasn't meant as a pun, but that he should remember it for future use.
• Acquitted Too Late: Seen in the optional side quest "The Paragon's Heir" in the Legacy DLC, in which the party learns the ultimate fate of a relation of Varric's who was wrongly convicted of murder a few ages earlier.
• Actionized Sequel: Compared to both Origins and the third game, Dragon Age: Inquisition (which tried to combine elements from both Origins and Dragon Age II, making Inquisition into more of a strategic title). This is especially true of the console versions of II, where the auto-attack function was left out due to a technical oversight, requiring Button Mashing to fight until auto-attack was later included through a patch.
• Adopt-a-Servant: One option when Hawke and co. meet Orana is for Hawke to invite her to come and live on the estate as a resident housekeeper. She's recently been orphaned and has nowhere else to go.
• An Aesop: The game has a moral about self-reflection and responsibility. In the entire game, every single side is blaming each other and urging them to better themselves. While they are all justified, none of the groups ever take a second to look at themselves to see how flawed they are and that they are just as responsible for the mess as all of the other sides in the conflict.
• After-Combat Recovery: Health, stamina, and mana are instantly restored as soon as everyone puts their weapons on their backs. However, injuries persist, lowering your maximum health, until you use an item to fix them.
• Age Without Youth: Xenon, the proprietor of the Black Emporium.
• Aggressive Negotiations: A frequent option, depending on what companions you have with you. Bringing Fenris with you to confront some slavers will result in him rearranging the leader's internal organs to make him talk. A Rogue Hawke, facing a man with a sword to his hostage's throat, can put a knife through the thug's own neck at range. Bring Varric on the "Fool's Gold" quest and he can "settle on a price" just by reaching for Bianca.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Bartrand and Meredith by game's end. Neither were sweethearts prior to obtaining the lyrium idol, but they got really bad afterwards.
• Alien Geometries: In the Primeval Thaig, although you'll have to take the characters' word for it.
• All-Natural Snake Oil: Hawke can receive a letter advertising a virility drug made from "natural" herbs.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The Qunari invasion of Kirkwall. Subverted during the ending when you learn that Cassandra has been interrogating Varric in Hawke's estate. You learn this after it's revealed that Cassandra is on Hawke's side.
• Alliance Meter: Sometimes interactions with faction members will be colored by previous actions, but it has far less impact than Relationship Values and Karma Meter.
• Aloof Leader, Affable Subordinate: Knight-Commander Meredith is a lot more hard-line and brutal than her more diplomatic and practical second-in-command Cullen.
• Amazon Brigade: A party comprised of any four of the female companions (Female Hawke, Bethany, Aveline, Merrill, and Isabela, as well as Tallis in Mark of the Assassin) is this. What is noteworthy is that it's a rather well-balanced team, with its only real deficiency being healing magic. (Bethany can act as a healer but you won't have her after Act 1, unless she's brought along for the DLC campaigns.)
• Ambition Is Evil:
  • Anders and Merrill are the only companions who seek to actually change the status quo in Thedas; neither are outright evil, but both end up in Well-Intentioned Extremist territory. Played dead straight with Varric and Bartrand.
  • Fenris treats ambition with extreme disgust, which is why he has a major Heroic BSoD when he finds out that as Leto, he was the most ambitious of all the introduced characters in the game.
• Ancestral Weapon:
  • The Staff of Parthalan, a limited item that was received by subscribing to the Dragon Age II newsletter, was used by a mage ancestor of Hawke's who fought alongside the legendary King Calenhad. Or who was a Tevinter magister sent to quash a slave rebellion in Kirkwall during the Exalted Marches, and then disappeared along the way. The in-game codex entry differs from the initial description given before the game's release.
  • The "Mage Pack" DLC includes the robes and staff of Malcolm Hawke. The item descriptions tell the story of Malcolm's courtship and elopement with Hawke's mother Leandra. A couple of items in the Legacy DLC are indirect hand-me-downs from Malcolm as well, most notably the Hawke's Key.
• And I Must Scream: Xenon of the Black Emporium was granted eternal life but not eternal youth. After 400 years, he's an immobile desiccated corpse that's still alive. Still has a sense of humor, though.
• Animal Motifs:
  • Kirkwall's architecture (Hightown in particular) has a predilection for bird imagery.
  • Both the Hawke and Amell family names derive from birds of prey.
• Anti-Nepotism: In Act 3, Aveline, who is the Captain of the Kirkwall Guard by then, is accused of "coddling" her husband Donnic, also a guard, by allegedly assigning his unit to the safest patrol routes. To disprove these allegations, she asks Hawke, the Champion of Kirkwall by that point, to accompany her on a nighttime patrol inspection, so they can interview the guards personally and later vouch for her fairness and strict adherence to the law.
• Anti-Smother Love Talk: If you take your sole surviving sibling to the Deep Roads expedition, your mother will beg you to leave them at home, since she cannot bear to lose both of you. You then select your party, and if you insist on including the sibling, you give her the reassurance that everything will be fine and that you are both responsible adults, persuading her to relent. Naturally, if both of you go to the Deep Roads, your sibling contracts the Taint and dies (or, under very specific circumstances, becomes a Grey Warden—a Fate Worse than Death by many standards), so your mother was right.
• Apathetic Citizens: The people of Kirkwall will walk straight through battle scenes and don't care if it's raining fireballs, arrows and blood. May overlap with Weirdness Censor.
• Appeal to Audacity:
  • What ultimately convinces Cassandra that Varric is (mostly) telling the truth. Parts of Hawke's story are so fantastic that he simply couldn't have made them up, nor does Varric have anything to gain by lying about them, so they must have actually happened.
  • Legacy DLC:
    • Cassandra notes he's omitted the event that took place at the Grey Warden fortress, causing Varric to admit he left it out intentionally; said event was so unbelievable that, despite witnessing it firsthand, even he still can't believe it actually happened.
    • If the DLC is done after the completion of a specific quest in Act 2, Varric admits to lying about one incident (Hawke's conversation with their dead mother's ghost). His reasons for doing so are very good, though.
• Appropriated Appellation: One of the Fantastic Slurs used to refer to Fereldan refugees is "dog lord." In Act 2, Hawke encounters an expat street gang called the Dog Lords.
• Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Averted in some parts of the endgame, where the rest of your party helps you fight, although you can't control them. Justified during the Deep Roads expedition, as Bartrand will not allow you to bring all of your allies with you, citing the cost of supplies for a weeks-long trip and logistics of taking those with the expedition. Also, your companions have very demanding lives even outside the group - the fact that Aveline (in charge of law enforcement for the whole city) manages to follow Hawke in her "off-duty hours" downright scares Varric.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: If Alistair is King of Ferelden, when he speaks of the turmoil in Orlais...
  Alistair: Oh, you know, the usual. Attempted assassinations, uprisings, fancy dress parties with stinky cheeses.
• Art Evolution: The physical appearances of various characters and entire races differ noticeably from Origins.
  • Flemeth looks less like an old peasant crone in rags and a lot more badass in her partially armored mage attire and her horn-shaped hairdo.
  • Isabela got an entirely different face and hairstyle.
  • So did Merrill, although this can at least be partially attributed to the fact that the entire Elven race got a makeover.
  • The Elves changed noticeably in physical appearance (and jarringly, if you didn't find/read the Codex explaining it) by getting protruding brows and sellions coupled with larger manga-like eyes, and look a lot less like short humans with pointy eyes than they did in DA:O. They also gained Scotireland accents.
  • Qunari now all have horns, and many seem substantially larger and more brutish-looking than good ol' Sten did. (The horn bit is handwaved with an explanation that some few Qunari are born without horns, which is taken as a sign that they are meant for great things. However, this doesn't explain why there's no mention in DA:O of most of them having horns in the first place.)
  • Dwarves weren't exactly redesigned like the other races; but got their own physique (the Dwarves in DA:O used a human body with a shorter torso).
  • The Darkspawn were partially changed: While Ogres and to a lesser extent Hurlocks stayed mostly the same (Ogres lost their vaguely chimp-like face from Origins in favour of one more brutish), Genlocks got a complete overhaul (from being basically short Hurlocks to becoming quadrupeds with humongous forearms).
• Artifact of Death: Hindsight. The belt only offers protection against the things that killed its previous owners (including its creator Thaulid) and ultimately no protection against the horrible death that is sure to befall you. Take comfort in the fact that your painful end will protect another temporary owner from suffering your exact fate.
• Artifact of Doom: The lyrium idol, which gives its wielder a massive power boost at the cost of sanity. If your sibling is with you in the Deep Roads when you find it, its corruption of Bartrand leads to them either dying or becoming a Grey Warden. It finds its way into Meredith's possession and is indirectly responsible for the mage/Templar war.
• Association Fallacy: Used by both sides to demonize the opposition.
• Attempted Rape: The young girl that Hawke was supposed to rescue from a group of bandits in Act 3 was instead protected by Feynriel from being gang-raped; he made the bandits kill each other while they were still awake.

B

• Back-to-Back Badasses:
  • One ability on the Scoundrel tree allows Varric, Isabela, Sebastian, and/or rogue Hawke to appear next to a chosen ally. It can be upgraded to allow the rogue to be in stealth when they do so.
  • Merrill has a unique spell that also lets her do it.
  • The launch trailer has Anders and Aveline pull this off.
• Badass Family: Hawke, Bethany and Carver. Their father Malcolm was an apostate mage who trained Bethany (and Hawke, if they are a mage), and their mother Leandra is a member of the noble Amell family, being distantly related to the Human Mage Warden from Dragon Age: Origins. If said Human Mage Warden in the first game was male and he performed the Dark Ritual, the Hawkes are also distantly related to Morrigan's demon-god baby. The Mage Kit DLC reveals that Malcolm Hawke had a Dark and Troubled Past whilst traveling a long way from his homeland in order to reach Kirkwall. He also was a skilled unarmed combatant from working as a mercenary, since he had to hide his magic from the Templars. Furthermore, Legacy shows that Malcolm was badass enough that the Grey Wardens came to him for help.
  Malcolm: I have made a solemn vow. Magic will serve that which is best in me, not that which is most base.
• Bad Boss: Hubert qualifies. He pays the miners at the Bone Pit as little as possible, forces them to use shoddy equipment, and strikes his employees. He also assumes, wrongly, that tales of a dragon attacking the mine are just excuses for his workers to take a vacation.
• Bad Guy Bar: The Hanged Man, although this is also the favored hangout of both Varric and Isabela, and Hawke is implied to spend a lot of time there. Its status is lampshaded in Act 2.
  Seneschal Bran: Though where you would find a guardsman so eager to sell his honor and sword, I'd never know.
  Isabela: Hanged Man.
  Fenris: Hanged Man.
  Merrill: Hanged Man.
  Aveline: Got to be.
  Sebastian: Even I know that.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Repeatedly.
  • In Act 1, Bartrand takes the idol and leaves Hawke and Varric trapped in the Deep Roads. This might even lead to the death of Bethany/Carver.
  • In Act 2, Sister Petrice's plan to start a war between the city and the Qunari may blow up in her face and get her killed, but it still succeeds in the end and gets her what she wants.
  • In Act 3, no matter what Hawke does, Anders's Well-Intentioned Extremist actions ignite a massive war between the mages and the Templars. And the whole world considers Hawke to blame.
  • In Legacy, Corypheus escapes with Hawke none the wiser.
• Bad Powers, Good People:
  • Mage Hawke, if playing as a paragon but also a Blood Mage.
  • Merrill is another major example. Most of her spells are aimed towards turning people into little chunks of meat in various horrible ways, but she's very sweet. It ends up deconstructed as part of Merrill's Fatal Flaw. Merrill knows that she would never use blood magic for nefarious purposes, so she expects everyone else to automatically know that too, and is inevitably left angry and confused when they react badly.
  • If Bethany survives the prologue and is later sent to the Circle, it's indicated that this is how the Templars (even Meredith) more or less see her; despite the general mistrust of magic, she's held up as an exemplary mage and deeply respected.
  • Much to the chagrin of Knight-Commander Meredith, this is how the people of Kirkwall see Mage Hawke once they become the Champion.
  • Fenris develops this opinion of either mage Hawke or Bethany, depending on the playthrough; party banter with Anders in Act 3 has him observe that they're responsible enough with their magic to live outside of a Circle without supervision.
  • Legacy makes it clear that this is how Malcolm Hawke saw himself. He could do nothing about his inherent magic powers, so he exerted himself to the extreme to be a good person in his use of them.
• Banister Slide: Hawke does one while racing to stop Bartrand from trapping the party in the Primeval Thaig.
• Batman Gambit: Anders pulled one on the entire Circle of Magi system by destroying the Kirkwall Chantry. He knew that Meredith would use it as an excuse to wipe out the Gallows, which would outrage mages in the rest of southern Thedas, which would prompt more crackdowns from the Templars, until enough mages got fed up and rebelled.
• Battle Couple:
  • Aveline and Ser Wesley are definitely this before his death.
  • Later, Aveline and Donnic.
  • Hawke and their love interest.
  • Varric and Bianca... even if she is a crossbow.
  • Using party tactics can allow you to turn any two companions into one of these by directing each of them to specifically target enemies who are targeting the other. If one of the pair is a rogue with the Back to Back ability from the Scoundrel tree, you can also assign a tactic to make them go back-to-back with the other companion.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • In one banter, Sebastian says that the reason why he doesn't return to Starkhaven to claim his throne is because he is waiting for a sign from the Maker. Boy howdy does he get one. This is especially evident if you spare someone.
  • Friendly banter between Aveline and Anders brings us this exchange:
    Aveline: I have to admit, Anders: of the mages I know, you're the one I expected to go out in a blaze.
    Anders: The day is young.
  • In-universe, this is invoked in the codex "The Demon's Gift." This is a parable about how an elderly couple gives shelter to a beautiful young woman and she presents them with a mirror that can grant three wishes. The wife wishes to be young and beautiful, which causes her husband to berate her for not wishing to give them both youth. He then wishes she "weren't so stupid," which grants her insight and makes her realize that her husband never truly loved her and only tolerated her because her ignorance made his seem less so in comparison. In the end, they both wish at the same time that the other gets exactly what they deserve — at which point the woman's beauty and intelligence fades away and the couple is left with nothing but their contempt for one another.
  • Xenon the Antiquarian, the proprietor of the Black Emporium, was granted immortality by a witch centuries ago - but he failed to specify that he also wanted eternal youth, so by the time you meet him, he's so emaciated that he's barely more than a corpse and has gone completely insane.
• Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: Female Hawke, especially a non-mage Hawke, and her first two female companions.
  • Bethany - Beauty (She has the sweetest disposition, and multiple characters comment on her attractiveness.)
  • Hawke - Brains (No matter their class, gender, or personality, Hawke is the de facto leader of the group and makes all the decisions.)
  • Aveline - Brawn (She's tall, muscular, and wields a sword and shield; there's also a running joke about her being able to lift a cow.)
• Belligerent Sexual Tension / Slap-Slap-Kiss: It's possible to pursue romances with companions who are rivals.
• Benevolent Boss: Hawke can be this:
  • In Act 1, Hawke's first act as co-owner of the Bone Pit is to offer the Fereldan workers double their salary to return to work, despite it being out of Hawke's own pocket.
  • Rescuing Sandal on the Deep Roads Expedition and later giving Bodahn and Sandal a place to stay in the Hawke Estate, despite Hawke insisting that Bodahn doesn't need to repay them by acting as the estate's manservant.
  • Offering Orana, a rescued Tevinter slave, a paid job and home at the Estate as a maid, if she wishes it, and by Act 3, also generously paying for her music lessons.
  • Lastly, the people of Kirkwall seem to see the Champion as this; by Act 3, it's a common discussion by various parties that they want Hawke to take the position of Viscount.
• Better Partner Assertion: At one point in Act 3, if Hawke is romancing Merrill or Fenris, Anders will ask Hawke if they're sure about the romance; if the romance partner is Fenris, Anders will further ask if they wouldn't want someone more open-minded, referring to himself. Neither elf, if present for the discussion, appreciates his commentary. (He doesn't make such an assertion about Isabela, because he presumes the relationship to be purely physical, or about Sebastian, because of his DLC status.)
• Betty and Veronica: One of each gender: sweet Merrill versus the no-strings-attached-growing-into-something-else relationship with Isabela and the romantic Anders versus the cynical Fenris. However, neither Merrill nor Anders are as entirely Betty-like as they seem. This trope is actually subverted - the female "Betty" is a blood mage who deals with demons, and the male "Betty" is actually possessed by a demon. The male "Veronica" has serious issues due to his enslavement and the female "Veronica" is, at least at first, even more likely to betray you than any other party member, but, well, demonic possession probably tends to put a crimp on intimacy even more than those flaws.
• Between My Legs: A framing shot in an Act 3 cutscene of two boys who are running away from a woman in the Undercity who is a blood mage, only to run into her.
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • Just because Diplomatic Hawke is the most benevolent of the personalities doesn't mean that they're any less imposing.
  • Sweet, cheerful Blood Mage Merrill is also an example, as is sunny and kind-hearted Bethany; they're both lovely young women who are perfectly capable of destroying you.
  • Varric is also a genuinely Nice Guy who goes out of his way to help people, but don't underestimate him just because he's a friendly dwarf.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Hawke, if you take enough snarky dialogue options, is shown to be a highly intelligent and cunning individual who uses Obfuscating Stupidity and Buffy Speak in order to lure enemies into a false sense of security, that the gibbering moron in front of them can't possibly be dangerous... right?
  Snarky Hawke: I'd make a terrible slave; for one thing, I talk too much. [materialises a knife out of thin air and holds it to Danzig's throat] And I also do that!

• Big Bad: Cassandra spends nearly the entire game trying to figure out who in the story is the Big Bad responsible for sparking the Civil War which began in Kirkwall. By the end of his story, Varric makes it clear that there was no single person masterminding events, but that everyone involved bears some responsibility and that events spiraled wildly out of anyone's control.
• Big Bad Ensemble:
  • Most of the villains (if you can call them that) have their own agendas that frequently clash against each other. Due to the game's moral ambiguity, who the true Big Bad is - or if there is one at all - is a matter of debate.
  • Cassandra actually thinks that Hawke is the Big Bad at first for causing the mess the Chantry is in, until Varric explains to her that things are more complicated than that.
  • The lead designer has said in a few interviews that the "villain" was actually meant to be the circumstances, not the individual antagonists. Some have even argued that the antagonist is Kirkwall itself.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Hawke's timely intervention during the Qunari invasion is why they become the Champion of Kirkwall.
  • Knight-Commander Meredith also has a BDH moment saving Hawke from a powerful Saarebas.
• Bigger on the Inside: Somewhat less noticeable in Lowtown, where the houses are very cramped, both inside and outside. Some buildings in Hightown, however, especially ones in the middle of a square (like the Hawke Estate), look like they would have a few rooms at most, only to be revealed as being enormous estates on the inside.
• Bilingual Bonus: "Chateau Haine," from the Mark of the Assassin DLC, translates from French as "Castle Loathing" or "Castle Hatred."
• Blatant Lies: What happens when Varric wants to talk up Hawke's badassery or, in one notable case, avoid dealing with an absolutely horrific event.
• Bling of War:
  • Most armor in the game is subdued in its appearance, if sometimes fanciful. However, the "Golden Prince's Raiment◊," found in the Warrior Pack DLC, plays this trope straight.
  • Played straight with Prince Sebastian Vael. Merrill occasionally wonders how he manages to get his armour to be so shiny all the time, while Isabela uses it at one point as a mirror.
• Blood Magic: A key plot element and far more prevalent than in Origins. By Act 3, nearly all the mages in Kirkwall are blood mages; Hawke's sister Bethany, if she was sent to the Circle, is the only mage in the entire city-state that we know for sure has never used blood magic or been possessed. There may be others, but she's the only confirmed case.
• Bloodier and Gorier: Enemies are more likely to be dismembered by your attacks than they were in Origins. Enemies can also be blown completely apart by attacks or critical hits.
• Bloodstained Glass Windows: The Chantry has no shortage of fight scenes - Act 1 has Isabela and Anders's recruitment quests. Act 2 has a run-in with Petrice's followers or the Arishok's men. One wonders how Elthina explains all the corpses they must keep finding. Finally, Anders blows the whole thing off the map.
• Bloody Murder: Reavers grievously wound themselves to damage their enemies.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: The Qunari and their Qun, although not all Qunari follow the Qun (either willingly ignoring its teachings, or through ignorance); anyone willing to learn about the Qunari can understand their behavior, and will often end up converting to the Qun in the process. You can even earn an achievement if you sufficiently impress the Arishok in your dealings with him and his people.
• Body Horror:
  • All Qunari mages have their mouths stitched shut. However, this appears to be a form of magical seal that can be removed.
  • Towards the climax, Hawke fights a Harvester, a creature that is made from corpses.
  • Not to mention what happens to Hawke's mother.
  • Xenon the Antiquarian, if you purchase the Black Emporium package, is an immortal emaciated corpse, with numerous extra limbs protruding from his torso due to magical experimentation to try to prevent his own decay.
• Bond One-Liner: The snarky option after beating the final boss of Mark of the Assassin results in one:
  Hawke: Looks like the Duke... has fallen from grace.
• Book Ends: The game begins and can end with Hawke fleeing their home.
• Boss-Altering Consequence:
  • Choosing to be forthright with the Arishok in Hawke's encounters with him, letting Isabela return with the Tome of Koslun, or bringing along Fenris for the ending of Act 2 of the game will allow Hawke to fight him one-on-one as a Duel Boss. Otherwise he's fought alongside several of his soldiers with Hawke fighting alongside their party.
  • In the Mark of the Assassin DLC, Hawke can make a stop in Chateau Haine's kitchen and prepare a meal to be fed to Leopold, Duke Prosper's pet wyvern. When Leopold is fought at the end of the DLC's quest, it will be stunned at the start of the battle if said meal was prepared due to it making the wyvern sick.
• Bottomless Magazines: Unlike in Origins, where arrows needed to be found or purchased, no archer in this game ever runs out of arrows.
• Bows and Errors:
  • The "Hail of Arrows" archery talent lets the archer loosen "an entire quiver" of arrows all at once.
  • One of Varric's Marksman abilities is "Rhyming Triplet", which has him fire three bolts at the same time. An upgrade has him fire five simultaneously.
• Brain Bleach:
  • Hawke needs some after finally seeing whatever lewd thing Isabela sees when one looks at the Amell coat of arms in juuust the right way.
    Hawke: All right, so she said to look at the crest sideways, then cover the... Sweet Maker! Isabela! I cannot unsee that!
  • Bethany needs some in the Blooming Rose if Hawke accepts an elven prostitute's offer, only to soon afterward turn him down upon Bethany's objection.
    Bethany: Too late. The images are in my head and they are never, ever going away.
• Break the Cutie:
  • Merrill goes through this in the course of her personal quests. Regardless of how Hawke proceeds with the arc, at the end Merrill will discover that her surrogate mother, the clan's Keeper, made a deal with a demon and they're forced to kill her - after which she either has to kill the rest of the clan or, at best, she's permanently exiled from it.
  • If Bethany is taken to the Deep Roads, she contracts the Blight. If Anders is in the party, he will save her life by arranging for her to become a Grey Warden, thanks to another Warden owing him a favor. She will be forced to spend the rest of her life hunting down darkspawn before committing ritual suicide (so she can't be taken as a broodmother), and in the meantime she finds that she's extremely sensitive to the Taint and has terrible nightmares every night. Her resentment of the situation causes her to be a very broken cutie for a very long time, though she eventually starts growing out of it near the end of the game.
• Breaking the Fellowship: Circumstances following the ending force all of the party to part with Hawke, except for Hawke's love interest.
• Breast Expansion: If Hawke is a warrior or rogue, Bethany experiences this when Varric starts telling the story: Cassandra waits until he mentions the dragon before calling bullshit and he stops exaggerating how well endowed she is. A female Hawke, by comparison, gets no such visible enhancements; nor is there ever an explanation offered for why, of all the things Varric might elect to exaggerate, he chose that one.
• Brick Joke: One of the miners who fled from the first Bone Pit massacre is wary of going back, drunkenly suggesting "What if something worse comes, like... bigger dragons?" Well, guess what happens much later in the game...
• Bring My Brown Pants:
  • If you talk to him after finishing "Blackpowder Courtesy," the viscount has this to say:
    Viscount Dumar: I'm preparing for the worst. The very worst. This may require absorbent linens.
  • Also if you bring Isabela on the "Haunted" companion quest at Bartrand's estate:
    Isabela: I really should have visited the privy before coming here.
• Broken Bridge: Rarely addressed as a plot point, and even then it's incidental, such as the barrier Merrill must break in order to demonstrate her use of blood magic. The frequent rubble-strewn passages and sealed doorways section off dungeons, but their appearance and removal goes without explanation.
• Bullying a Dragon: No one ever seems to realise why antagonising Hawke is a bad idea.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer:
  • If played as a Deadpan Snarker, Hawke can come across as heroic, intelligent, and totally bonkers.
  • Merrill is one of the sweetest characters in the game and the official resident Cloud Cuckoo Lander. This doesn't stop her from being a Blood Mage who wields some of the most powerful abilities in the game.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday:
  • Played for Laughs in Mark of the Assassin DLC, if you choose the aggressive option.
    Tallis: Inherited may be the wrong word, though. What do you call it when you kill someone to get all their stuff?
    Hawke: Tuesday.
  • After being congratulated on wiping out a gang of raiders in Act 2, a Deadpan Snarker Hawke can comment that they seem to recall that, but they do kill so many people...
• But Thou Must!: Some quests in the main plot will offer a "choice" to accept or deny the task, but either way it'll be added to the journal. Some requests are required, despite seemingly having nothing to do with the current plot. Of particular note, even though it's not technically tied to the main plot, there is absolutely no way to avoid the quest which ends in the death of Hawke's mother.
  • It's noteworthy that accepting or turning down quests will affect how certain companions see you. For example, you can refuse the seemingly non-critical "Shepherding Wolves" quest, thus making Anders upset with you, only to find that it's mandatory and that you've set back your growing friendship for nothing. This is mitigated somewhat by the fact that your actions will only affect your relationships with the characters who are in the active party at the time.
  • Even if Hawke is a warrior or rogue (thus in no danger of being dragged off to the Circle), Bethany is dead or in the Grey Wardens (thus outside Templar jurisdiction), and Hawke has cut ties with Anders in Act 2 and made it clear that they want nothing to do with either the mages or Templars at the beginning of Act 3 (thus leaving Meredith with no blackmailing leverage), there is no option to refuse "On the Loose" and no reason is given as to why they would suddenly change their mind.
  • From the framing narrative, we know things will get bad despite (or because of?) Hawke's actions. Turns out the last straw is Anders blowing up the Chantry, which cannot be avoided in any way, however good your relationship is with him and however badly you think handing the vengeance-obsessed mage the basic ingredients for fantasy gunpowder will turn out. The "best" case is him recognising his actions as monstrous a few seconds too late to change them.
• Button Mashing: The console versions of this game have the player constantly hitting the attack button during combat for the player-controlled character instead of the automatic fighting of the computer version, although an auto-attack toggle was meant to be in the console versions and was only omitted due to a manufacturing error, and was later included in the patch. Even with the auto-attack patch, though, you still have to constantly press the attack button to engage your next target due to the speed of the game.

C

• Cain and Abel:
  • Bartrand and Varric.
  • Fenris and his sister Varania.
  • Hawke and Bethany can become this, depending on player choices, though it's by no means required and is in fact easily avoided. Oddly, Carver, the sibling who has the most issues with Hawke, refuses to raise a hand against Hawke and gets pissed when other people threaten to do so.
• Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": For dramatic purposes. Anders's "potion ingredients," sela petrae and drakestone, are actually saltpeter and sulfur.
• Call-Back:
  • In the prologue, some darkspawn inexplicably have vials of their own blood as loot - a Call-Back to the Joining quest from the first game.
  • Isabela's first appearance in Dragon Age II is similar to her introduction in Origins.
  • Additionally, Isabela turns call backs into innuendo:
    Isabela: Does he Arl your Eamon? Or Cup your Joining? Shank your Jory?
  • One of the ways to get Isabela to teach the Warden the Duelist specialization in Origins was to catch her cheating at cards. At the beginning of the second act, Hawke walks on Merrill asking Isabela why she always wins at cards, to which Isabela responds, "Because I cheat, Kitten."
  • Another way to convince her involved sleeping with her, possibly using various combinations of party members, one of which could be Alistair if you were romancing him. If you did that, then ended the game by having the Human Noble Female Warden marry Alistair, and then meet him in this game with Isabela in your party, she's delighted to find out that she slept with the King and the Queen of Ferelden.
  • And also this:
    Alistair: Yes, swooping is bad.
  • Flemeth's first words to Hawke & Co. are the same words first spoken by Morrigan in Origins.
    "Well, well... what have we here?"
    • She also, in a later conversation with Hawke, explicitly mentions "my Morrigan" and makes a subtle reference to the possibility of Morrigan convincing the Warden to kill Flemeth, which may or may not happen in Origins.
  • In a further nod to Origins, when confronted with Sandal standing alone amidst a pile of darkspawn corpses, like the Warden, Hawke can say something to the effect of "Sandal, you're surrounded by darkspawn corpses. What happened here?" The first answer is the same: "Enchantment!" But when confronted with a frozen solid ogre? "Not enchantment!" What is up with that kid?
  • When you ask the Arishok about further information about the Qunari, the following dialogue occurs, very much reminiscent of a conversation between Sten and the Warden:
    Hawke: Tell me more about your triumvirate.
    Arishok: No.
    Hawke: Now you're just being difficult.
  • A very subtle Call-Back can be found inside a chest after completing the penultimate boss fight midway through the final quest. Opening the unlocked chest will yield a rod of fire order form, presumably just like the one which served as a plot coupon in the original game's Mage origin quest. The item itself appears to be worthless.
  • If you ask the bartender for the latest news, he says that there's been a sudden thinning of pigeons in Ferelden. He goes on to ask who would hurt such innocent creatures. Who indeed...
  • Anders references his experiences in Awakening quite frequently. These range from the blatantly obvious - he mentions Sir Pounce-a-Lot in his second line - to more subtle in-jokes. For example, he says that in his experience, "all Dalish women are crazy," probably referring to Velanna. According to Varric, he and Anders have conversations about the latter's time with the Wardens, and we can hear them talking about the Blackmarsh incident.
  • Duke Prosper is killed by tossing him off a cliff, replete with bouncing off one of the rocks below. This is exactly how Leliana deals with her jailer in her DLC.
  • In the Mark of the Assassin DLC, Tallis mentions that the Antaam has "made grousing a sport", which we saw earlier with Sten's memories of his soldiers in the Fade in Origins.
• The Cameo: Several of your companions from Origins and Awakening show up, although the circumstances of their appearance vary depending on the choices in the saved game you imported (or the pre-set backstory you selected at the start).
  • Leliana appears in both the Exiled Prince and the Mark of the Assassin DLC, having become a "Hand of the Divine" - a sort of secret agent for the head of the Chantry. She also makes an appearance in the ending of the main game, having been working with Cassandra the whole time. (As we learn in the next game, they are known as the Left and Right Hands of the Divine, respectively.)
  • Also, Alistair and Teagan may appear and mention the Warden. Alistair can show up as a drunk, a Grey Warden, or the King of Ferelden. Teagan also makes an appearance in Mark of the Assassin, along with Isolde.
  • Zevran appears in a side quest where the Crows are still pursuing him. He also provides backup in the final battle if you help him during his quest, but doesn't say anything.
  • Nathaniel crops up in a side quest where he acknowledges Anders (if he's in the party) and whichever decision you made about the Architect in Awakening, implying that the Architect is an ally of the Wardens if he's spared (the Disciples are also mentioned). Like Zevran, he'll also appear in the final battle after his mission, but he won't say anything.
• Captain Obvious: Some of Hawke's sarcastic lines are this, especially if they have the "gemstone" icon rather than the "comedy mask" - meaning they're meant to be charming rather than snarky.
  Hawke: Sundermount seems very... mountainous today. Lots of... rocks, and... hillside.
• Cargo Ship:
  • invoked A canon one, at that: Varric/Bianca OTP.
    Fenris: The way you fondle your weapon is disturbing.
    Varric: Hey, I'm a perfect gentleman! In public.
  • Isabela hits on Bianca a few times as well, suggesting she needs "a woman's touch."
    Varric: Bianca responds to my touch. She'd never give it up for you.
    Isabela: That's what they all say, and I always prove them wrong.
    Varric: Stop it, you're confusing her. And me.
  • Sebastian, at one point, says he thinks Bianca's sight might be crooked and offers to fix it. Varric reacts as though he'd suggested devouring a living baby. Hilariously, he's still a bit salty about this conversation in the next game.
    Varric: (aghast) You want to touch Bianca's cocking ring?
    Sebastian: ...never mind.
• Carpet of Virility: Varric Tethras. Everyone loves to bring up his chest hair. Fenris jokes that unlike other dwarves, Varric's beard fell from his chin onto his chest.
• Cast from Lifespan: The Elixir of Heroism, which gives an instant level up, works by aging the drinker a few years, granting them the skills and experience they would have earned over that time instantaneously.
• Casual Danger Dialogue:
  • Unintentional examples of this pop up whenever a random encounter and a random Party Banter trigger end up a bit too close to each other. Thus, while heads are being severed and fireballs are raining from the sky, you'll have Merrill asking Fenris why he's so cross all the time, or Aveline and Isabela bickering about relationships.
  • A good in-story example would be the Hawke family's flight from Lothering. They spend a couple of minutes talking about Kirkwall with the darkspawn horde contained only by a foot-high wall of fire. Smartass Hawke actually lampshades this.
  • During the introduction of Tallis in Mark of the Assassin, Hawke wonders aloud who she is during the fight.
    Hawke: Who the blazes is that?!
    Varric: Don't know! Kill people, then ask!
  • The majority of the Party Banter in Legacy. Even when you're not in combat, the banter seems way too lighthearted for the setting. Possibly justified in a sense - given that the situation is so dangerous, they could be seen as trying to keep each other's spirits up. ^note This is especially true if one of the companions is the surviving sibling, who has also been attacked by the Carta. Act 1 Bethany in particular is shown to be very rattled by the situation, as she was attacked in Gamlen's house and hasn't been sleeping well since.
• Cat Fight:
  • Hawke can walk in on the beginning of one between Aveline and Isabela in the Hawke estate. The best part is a smartass Hawke's reaction: rushing in and gasping, "Are there any good seats left?"
  • Another one, between the same characters, can also happen if you bring Isabela along when you start Aveline's companion quest "The Long Road."
  • There's one with Aveline and female Hawke on the second "Questioning Beliefs" quest if Aveline is at high rivalry. You have to get real catty with Aveline if you want her to stay in Kirkwall! She actually punches Hawke to the ground.
• Category Traitor: Mages with different politics frequently accuse each other of letting the side down. As early as Act 1, Grace throws this at a mage Hawke or companion after the fight with Decimus. Anders protests that he attacked them, Bethany objects to his blood magic and necromancy, and Merrill points out that she's a Dalish elf as well as a mage.
• Central Theme:
  • The theme of the main plot is that there may not always be a single driving force behind a disaster: sometimes many small things keep adding up until everything goes to hell, and there's nothing that can be done. This is what Varric practically has to spell out in the epilogue for Cassandra, who still didn't get it.
  • The central theme of the character ensemble is being an outcast. The Hawke family and Aveline are refugees from Ferelden (Leandra is doubly an outcast, having previously been disowned by the Amells); the Tethras brothers are surfacers, i.e. outcasts from the dwarven society; Anders fled both the Circle and the Grey Wardens; Merrill has been exiled by her clan; Fenris doesn't even know what he is an outcast of, just that he doesn't fit anywhere; Isabela is stuck on land after losing her ship; and Sebastian was Locked Away in a Monastery for being a disgrace to his family.
  • No matter how individually powerful you are, you're still powerless against history's inertia, especially when it involves centuries of festering hatred and prejudices.
• Character Development: Most companions have mostly the same character arc, the only difference being their relationship with Hawke as either a friend or rival. The only exceptions are Anders and Merrill, whose arcs are actually influenced by friendship and rivalry.
  • Anders spends the entire story championing for mage rights, forming a mage underground to help mages escape Kirkwall. However, the worsening situation in Kirkwall combined with the influence of the spirit Justice (with whom Anders fused before the events of the game) cause his actions to become increasingly extreme. If he is friends with Hawke, Anders will take full responsibility after destroying the Chantry and kickstarting a war between mages and Templars, believing it was for the best and practically begging Hawke to kill him so Justice can be free and Anders can become a martyr for the mages. However, if he is rivals with Hawke, Anders will have second thoughts and try to back out of blowing up the Chantry, only for Justice to take control and cause him to do it anyway. Anders will be completely horrified by what he's done and will fully admit that his own anger at the Templars has corrupted Justice into a spirit of Vengeance. In this case, he asks Hawke to kill him out of guilt and fear that Vengeance will cause more damage, but will even side with the Templars if Hawke asks it of him, something a non-rivalry Anders will flat out refuse to do (or at least, he would before the last patch, which corrected this glitch).
  • Merrill's arc revolves around learning blood magic from a demon in order to rebuild an Eluvian and restore her people to power. If Hawke supports her the whole way as a friend, Merrill will blame Marethari for not trusting her (even after Marethari sacrificed herself to protect Merrill from the demon) and thanks Hawke for their support even though it didn't go to plan. If Hawke instead works against Merrill's efforts and becomes rivals with her, Merrill will become increasingly bitter with them and Marethari. However, after Marethari sacrifices herself, Merrill will break down and admit that Hawke and Marethari were right all along before destroying the Eluvian in tears.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • The relic Isabela is looking for turns out to belong to the Qunari and is the entire reason they cannot leave.
  • The Red Lyrium Idol from Act 1 returns in Act 3, where it's revealed to have caused Meredith's Sanity Slippage.
  • Those big bronze statues in the Gallows Courtyard? They come to life in the final battle.
• Chekhov's Gunman:
  • Meredith is mentioned almost immediately after the Hawkes arrive in Kirkwall, and is seen walking by and frowning at a beggar-pickpocket at the beginning of Act 1, though on a first run the player probably won't know who this is. The character doesn't come into play directly until the very end of Act 2.
  • In Act 2, there is a beggar named Evelina in Darktown who, if you click on her, asks for a few coins to feed her starving children. In Act 3 you learn that she is an apostate-turned-abomination and have to kill her.
• The City Narrows: Darktown, supposedly. In actuality, the other city districts are way more dangerous, especially at night, since that's where all the bandits and muggers are. Varric even mentions, in one bit of banter, that Hightown is arguably the worst part of town in this regard.
• City of Adventure: Except for the first half of the prologue and the two DLC campaigns, the entire game takes place in Kirkwall and its surrounding countryside.
• Civil War: The final conflict of the game is a civil war between mages and Templars. While we never really get to see it in full, we do get to see the opening shots. Hawke is forced to pick a side, and the companions, having their own allegiances, may turn on Hawke depending on the player's choices and the characters' relationship values.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: What Ser Varnell does to the Qunari delegates captured during "Offered and Lost."
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: In cutscenes, magic appears this with different characters. With Bethany it appears to be a wispish purple; Anders appears to cast his as a flaming dark blue (usually when manifesting Justice); Mage Hawke's appears as an intense white.
• The Comically Serious: The Arishok and most of the Qunari can come across as this, having a very understated sense of humour, particularly if dealing with Hawke.
• Conflicting Loyalties: One of the major themes of the game, even much more so than in the first one. Pretty much every major quest is about finding a solution for mutually incompatible goals. Usually, the end result turns out worse than either of the alternatives.
• Conspiracy Theorist:
  • The talkative man in the Hanged Man. Among other things, he thinks the Fifth Blight (in other words, the whole plot of Origins) was invented by Ferelden and didn't actually happen.^note He's not alone. One of the codices notes that because the Hero of Ferelden wrapped things up in such a short time, there are many non-Fereldans who think they made the whole thing up. Blights normally last for years, sometimes even decades, and are fought by whole armies of Grey Wardens. The fact that the Fifth Blight lasted roughly a single year and was ultimately defeated by three Wardens makes many people skeptical.
  • Cassandra in the framing story. Some of her theories on Hawke's history and motives are a little... out there. She initially seems to be under the assumption that Hawke and company all came to Kirkwall together as part of a large plot to incite mage sedition against the Chantry, were allied with the Grey Wardens (depending on player choices), and that Hawke knew about the lyrium idol hidden in the Deep Roads. Her view is somewhat justified by the fact that she's operating largely on rumor and hearsay, plus whatever Varric wrote in his books; she knows that the facts with which she's working are skewed, and she wants the truth from the only person she thinks can give it to her.
• Continuity Lockout: To a minor extent. The game makes very little effort to actively explain the setting to new players, though it's traditional enough that most people will catch on quickly, and lore really isn't relevant to most of the gameplay. However, those looking for references to the first game's lore will have to search the Dragon Age Wiki.
• Continuity Porn: Depending on player choices in Origins, over the course of Hawke's seven years, they might encounter Alistair, Leliana, Zevran, Flemeth, Bodahn and Sandal, Cullen, Nathaniel, Merrill (and anyone from her clan), Anders, Bann Teagan, Isolde, Sketch, Sophia Dryden, and Isabela. This is in addition to hearing about other characters, general mythology gags, and references to the Origins Warden.
• Corralling Vacuum: The spell "Pull of the Abyss" creates a vortex of energy that pulls all enemies within a certain distance towards its center, while also slowing them down. This provides crowd control, while also making them vulnerable to devastating AoE follow-ups which would otherwise be impractical.
• The Corruption:
  • Due to Blood Magic, Fade Demons, and the Black City, many feel this is universally inherent in magic talent. And then there's the lyrium idol, which can inflict this even on Templars and dwarves.
  • If you collect all of "The Enigma of Kirkwall" secret messages, it is revealed that Kirkwall itself is a giant example of this, thanks to its peculiar placement of the streets and the human sacrifices that went on in huge quantities for decades.
• Corrupt Church: The Kirkwall Chantry isn't the best example of a Saintly Church. Petrice and Meredith are the main perpetrators, but Templars and fanatical citizens are also part of the problem. Act 2 focuses around people in the Chantry trying to stir up trouble with the Qunari, mostly because they're "heretics" (which is to say, have beliefs outside the Chantry) and deserve to be wiped out. This is in spite of the fact that the Qunari that are in the city are hundreds strong, all of them warriors, and have zero interest in conquering anybody... until they're antagonised enough. It flares up at the end of Act 2 with predictable consequences. Also, while priests are seen canvassing local prostitutes for donations, they are noted to be singularly unhelpful when it comes to the poor of Darktown, hence the fierce loyalty Anders inspires by offering healing magic.
• Cowardly Boss: The High Dragon and both Orsino and Meredith.
• Crapsack Only by Comparison: Played with. Leandra was born in Hightown but eloped with an apostate. When the family is forced to return due to the Blight, they find the Hightown mansion is gone and they have to live in one of the (admittedly terrible) lower towns: Lowtown (a smoggy slum), the Alienage (the elven slum), or Darktown (the bleak underbelly). Lowtown is easily the nicest of the slums, and a few characters can point out in Act 1 that the family could easily start over somewhere else — maybe start another idyllic farm like in Lothering. However, this suggestion is always dismissed since none of those options are nearly as nice as a mansion in Hightown. Hawke doesn't seem to personally care one way or the other, but is apparently determined to get the mansion because that's what their mother wants.
• Crapsack World: Despite the Warden's best efforts in the first game, the land of Thedas is still a rather bleak and depressing place. Not only that, but it goes From Bad to Worse, partly thanks to you and your party's actions.
• Cut and Paste Environments:
  • A frequently cited complaint is that the dungeons and cave areas are all identical, but with various impassable doors thrown up to create a different flow. Lampshaded by Varric in the quest "On The Loose."
    Varric: Another secret society meeting in a warehouse. You think the owners charge them rent?
  • The Legacy and Mark of the Assassin DLCs, however, have taken this into consideration and feature unique dungeons.
  • A line of party banter from Merrill in Mark of the Assassin lampshades this as well, saying that everywhere in Kirkwall started looking the same after a while.
• Cutscene Power to the Max:
  • Not "cutscenes" per se, but Varric's story framing invokes a variation of this trope at times. Occasionally, Varric will embellish his tale, which in gameplay terms translates to being given A Taste of Power. The very beginning is an example. Varric initially romanticizes Hawke's tale, portraying them as a badass mage/warrior/rogue capable of cutting up darkspawn left, right and center before Hawke even met Varric. Then the Seeker calls him out for his exaggeration and Varric is forced to admit that Hawke had a far humbler beginning - the game's true prologue opens with a scene of Hawke fleeing for their life with their family in tow. A more humorous scene has Varric portraying himself as a One-Man Army when he single-handedly breaks into his brother's mansion.
  • A pretty awesome straightforward example occurs while playing the "Wayward Son" quest as a rogue, which even comes with its own Badass Boast line.
  • At the end of the boss battle against Orsino, Hawke kills the last iteration of the Harvester simply by squishing it underfoot like a bug.

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