Dragon Age Franchise: Falling into the Marvel Trap!

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Dragon Age Franchise: While the Dragon Age series hasn’t seen a new mainline installment from BioWare in quite some time, fans are getting excited for the upcoming release of Dragon Age: Dreadwolf.

Dragon Age: Absolution, available on Netflix, is one of the more recent additions to the canon, and it did a great job of both expanding the series by introducing new characters and settings and paying satisfying homage to the original Dragon Age games.

Even so, some viewers were annoyed by Meredith’s antagonistic return. It should come as no surprise that the various Dragon Age games connect to one another, reusing elements like characters and locations.

The games’ timelines aren’t too far apart from each other, so this makes sense. However, some features, such as recurring villains, may be less than welcome to players. One of Marvel’s ongoing issues is the reappearance of foes who were supposed to have been defeated in earlier games.

There are, of course, exceptions to this rule, such as Solas’ reappearance in Dragon Age: Dreadwolf.

Dragon Age Franchise
Dragon Age Franchise

The Villains of Dragon Age Make a Comeback

Corypheus and the Warden in red on a white background. Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is the first installment in the series to follow directly from its predecessor. Since it has been nearly a decade since Dragon Age: Inquisition was released, fans of BioWare’s acclaimed RPG have been waiting a long time for the next chapter.

The opportunity to learn more about Solas’ backstory after having spent time with him as a companion in the previous title is appealing to many players, and his return as an enemy makes perfect narrative sense. However, some previously eliminated villains have returned and don’t quite fit into the narrative.

Some players may have been confused by Corypheus’ reappearance as a major antagonist in Dragon Age: Inquisition because they thought the ancient Darkspawn threat had been eliminated after Hawke and Varric’s efforts in Dragon Age 2.

Corypheus’s return in Dragon Age: Inquisition is somewhat explicable given that he was able to survive the encounter by transferring his essence to another being. On the other hand, the reveal of former Knight-Commander Meredith at the end of Dragon Age: Absolution is less likely.

The Marvelous Dilemma of Dragon Age

It was revealed in Dragon Age: Inquisition that Meredith’s body, which had been defeated in Dragon Age 2, was still a petrified, red lyrium-encrusted cadaver. In light of this, her appearance in Dragon Age: Absolution, apparently still alive (albeit still encased in lyrium), comes as something of a surprise.

The revelation that she was the mastermind behind Hira’s betrayal and is now planning to start a war with Tevinter only adds insult to injury. In light of the game’s setting, Dragon Age: Dreadwolf may feature her as a playable character.

Fans were divided on whether or not Dragon Age: Absolution made the most of its opportunity to establish a compelling villain rather than relying on established characters. Dragon Age seems to be developing a Marvel problem with the return of these antagonists and the minor retconning of previous storylines.

It’s to be expected that previously established canonical elements of the massive entertainment franchise will be altered to make room for new stories, as there are many such threads to keep track of.

Fans who long for new antagonists may also find Marvel’s tendency to recycle old foes annoying. Despite the fact that Dragon Age: Dreadwolf will feature Solas’s return, we can only hope that the game will also feature new foes who haven’t been mysteriously resurrected from the dead. The next Dragon Age game, Dreadwolf, is currently in production.

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