YMMV / Dragon Age: Absolution

• Base-Breaking Character: Qwydion is either a refreshingly intelligent take on the Plucky Comic Relief character and a breath of fresh air in a cast full of broody squares, or an incredibly irritating, shrieky pest whose antics contrast jarringly with the overall vibe of the show.
• Critical Dissonance: Critics have a generally higher opinion of the show than audiences. As of December 2022, its Rotten Tomatoes score stood at 89% for the former and 48% for the latter.
• Just Here for Godzilla: While the series clearly has its fans, it seems that a big chunk of the Dragon Age fandom cares more about the Crimson Knight turning out to be the resurrected Meredith Stannard than the rest of the story.
• Memetic Mutation: See here.
• Older Than They Think: Some people praised the LGBTQ representation in the show for being new, despite such representation existing in the series as early as Dragon Age: Origins.
• Shocking Moments: The Stinger reveals the identity of the Crimson Knight mentioned towards the end of the show. It's Meredith, Kirkwall's former Knight-Commander, who is somehow leading the Red Templars despite now being little more than a chunk of red lyrium.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Given that the show is set in the Tevinter Imperium, which fans have been dying to see or get a glimpse of for years (especially when the epilogue scene of Trespasser and trailers for the upcoming Dread Wolf game confirmed we'd be seeing the Imperium), there was a lot of hype. Sadly, many expectations were let down in that very little of Tevinter is explored; barring the beginning and ending portions, Absolution occurs in a single area of Tevinter, and even that isn't well explored beyond sneaking into the Summer Palace and stealing a priceless Tevinter artifact.
• Unexpected Character: The final scene of season one reveals Meredith Stannard is both alive and leading the Red Templars as the "Crimson Knight", planning on starting a war with the Tevinter Imperium.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • The show largely presents the cast as sympathetic to the audience. However, over the course of the first season, they carve up dozens of Templars whose only crime was working for the Imperial Chantry and unleash a freaking dragon (which Lacklon even notes is just going to ravage the countryside) for the sole purpose of saving Hira from Rezaren's clutches. And given the revelation that Hira is a genocidal maniac set on destroying Tevinter and who planned to betray Miriam, all of this death and destruction was for nothing.
  • Hira's Dark and Troubled Past gives her good reason to hate Tevinter, but any sympathy fans have vanish the second they learn she wants to start a war that will destroy the Imperium regardless of any innocents living in it. That's not even going into her willingness to hand Miriam over to Rezarem with some half-baked plot to "steal her back", nevermind the emotional manipulation she used to get Miriam on board with the heist in the first place just to get at the Circulum.

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