I’m pretty sure Varric is going to die inDragon Age: The Veilguard. It could be a red herring, but the gameplaytrailerall but screams it at you. Near the end, as Rook and friends prepare to confront Solas, Varric tells Rook that he’s going to try and talk Solas out of his ritual. Harding says, “Varric, Solas isn’t going to stop just because an old friend asks nicely.” Varric insists that he has to try and reason with his former friend, but that he’ll shoot Solas with his trusty crossbow Bianca if necessary.
Here’s the first crucial thing: Varric tellsRookto “take care of the team” for him. Huge red flag. This is the line that we’ve seen countless characters say right before they die in the fray of battle – take care of everyone for me, will you? Dude is going to die. Right after this, we see Varric trying and failing to talk Solas out of his mission, and Solas destroys Bianca. Second red flag. Bianca is practically an extension of Varric’s character, the thing he values most. Right after this, Solas says, “People are always dying. It is what they do.” Third red flag. Rook manages to disrupt the ritual, but Varric is nowhere to be seen. What’s happened to him? My guess: death!
Again, this could be a red herring. The scene is so unsubtle about the prospect of Varric dying that death seems almosttooobvious an outcome. But the signs are there. Here’s my problem: I haven’t played enough Dragon Age for this to be a big deal to me. My relationship with Varric is limited to the couple of hours ofDragon Age: InquisitionI’ve played, and since I didn’t know who he was, the snarky dwarf was just another companion to me. Oh, he showed up again, and he died? Sure, I guess. Why should I care? I don’t care about any of these companions just yet.
That’s not a fault on BioWare’s part, it’s a direct result of me not having played enough of the series yet. While the games don’t share a protagonist, Dragon Age isan epic told over the course of several games, rather than a collection of standalone adventures. Characters recur over time, and a lot of fans practically grew up with Varric, considering he was the narrator of Dragon Age 2 and a companion in Inquisition.While it might be time for Dragon Age to move past Varric, it’s still going to sting for a lot of people if hedoesdie.
I want it to sting too. I don’t want to go into Dragon Age: The Veilguard with no attachments to these characters, knowing that a dramatic death will have no effect on me because I have no stakes. I’ve been working my way through the series, not just because I want to understand the larger setting and lore, but because I want The Veilguard to have an emotional payoff. I want Solas’ betrayal to hurt, even though I already know it’s coming. I want to feel my heart shatter as Bianca falls to the ground in pieces.
I know I can’t manufacture the attachment that longtime fans might have to the game. I will never know what it feels like to grow up playing this series, because I don’t have a time machine. But I’m doing what I can in the run up to The Veilguard by playing as many of the games as I can, and I hope it’s enough that I well up a little when we (probably) find Varric’s body in the rubble.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
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Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the long-awaited fourth game in the fantasy RPG series from BioWare formerly known as Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. A direct sequel to Inquisition, it focuses on red lyrium and Solas, the aforementioned Dread Wolf.
