Dragon Age ONE AND TWO

I have Things to Say about the real world.  But right now I just want to absorb as much Dragon Age as I possibly can.  I've been looking at all the different epilogue variations for the main game and Awakenings.  Apparently the codex that listed Anders and Nathaniel as dead was a bug, and the epilogue was the intended outcome.  I did, actually, do everything right and it did keep my people alive.  Sadly, I also missed a companion quest for Sigrun which would have kept her alive and happy longer.  And if Teryna Jenny and Alistair rule together then she still disappears later, and "no one knows where she's gone."  But she's referenced in DA2, and I choose to believe that either she comes back before that game starts, or that Alistair knows where she is but won't tell.  They are not Reven and Carth, dammit.  I will make a happily ever after for them.

I watched the trailers for DA2 and 3, and my thoughts, in order of appearance, are:

1.  Damn, canon Hawke is hot.  I mean, seriously.

2.  Same as above.  I don't know if it's just the better rendering for trailers/cutscenes.  I might actually play male so I can keep looking at him.  I hear this is common for male players who enjoy watching pixel-lady-butts, but it's a first for me.

3.  Luckily for me, DA trailers give away almost nothing at all.  No spoilers.  Just some pretty renderings.

4.  I looked stuff up and discovered that there are a few web miniseries.  They could, actually, be really good.  I might look them up.

5.  The worst thing about the world-building and plot of DA:O was the Big Bad.  The rest of the world, the tensions between and within countries and factions, was all pretty well put together.  (For example, elves that aren't Better Than You At Everything with Perfect Beautiful Forest Lives.  Oppressed, second-class-citizen elves!)  And it seems like, maybe, the next games have plots related to those tensions within the world, rather than a mindless horde of Evil Evilness.  So I am optimistic.

6.  I tracked my copy of DA2.  The internet says I can pick it up NOW.  Do I want to start playing before I have the right world to start with?  I mean, I'm assuming that the differences are mostly background.  Minor character appearances and the like.  But still.  I care.  Do I care enough to finish the game again first?  Can I wait that long?  Teryna Jenny still has a LOT of game to go.  And it's a little different playing a melee character, but I don't love it.

What if I reload Mage Jenny right before the assault on Denerim, take Morrigan up on Dark Ritual, and then use that save game?  That leaves Annora as queen, and Mage Jenny and Alistair get to ride off into the sunset as Gray Wardens.  I don't even have to play the end battles, as long as I make a save game with those decisions made. After that, there is no other ending possible.  THIS IS SUCH A GOOD IDEA.  The world isn't perfect, because Harrowmont is actually a really crappy king, and not killing the optional extra dragon means the sacred ashes will disappear.  But, overall, I like it.

THAT MEANS I GET TO START TONIGHT.