With the inclusion of a new animated show, a forthcoming comic book series, and the following video game, if you’re a Dragon Age fan, now is a great time to be alive.
We were given the chance to review the new Dragon Age Absolution series and we jumped at it. Being a huge fan of the video game in the past, I couldn’t wait to return to the world of Dragon Age. As always though, we tackle our reviews by breaking them down based on the story, acting, and overall. So let’s jump on into it.
Story 8/10
A story that starts with a heist, a couple of betrayals, a heel turn, and then a double heel turn. All of this action and heisting crammed into a ten-episode animated series. There’s just so much going on in this show, but it’s not hard to keep track of the events. It’s just quite the ride.
The series starts off with Miriam and Roland being tempted away from their current group of thieves and dragged into a plot to steal a powerful artifact by a mysterious man, and a woman from Miriam’s past.
To be able to complete the assignment Miriam will have to directly face her troubled past in Tiventer. That’s right the animated series finally takes fans into Tiventer. You get to see what life is like in one of Tiventer’s cities, and spoiler alert, apparently they have real estate agents.
At the end of the day the story has teeth, heart, and enough action to keep a variety of fans interested in it.
Acting 10/10
Miriam, played by Kimberly Brooks, has a lot to do in the series. She goes through so many betrayals and false hopes, it can leave your head spinning but Brooks does a great job portraying the character as a lovable, yet jaded, figure who is more than skilled at her job.
”Brooks does a great job portraying the character as a lovable, yet jaded, figure who is more than skilled at her job.”
Supporting characters like Lacklon and Qwydion, played by Keston John and Ashly Burch respectively, are definitely lovable in the series, but Roland, played by Phil LaMarr, truly stands out above the rest. When you add in the Roland and Lacklon relationship, it gets even better.
The journey parallels the antagonist, Rezaren who is played by Josh Keaton. His story is incredibly sad, but ultimately well-earned in the end.
While some might say this is simply voice acting, they’d be wrong. Every single voice is masterly produced and added to the show to give it weight and transform the medium of moving animated pictures.
Overall 9/10
I love the inclusion of LGBTQ+ relationships within the series. The video game always allowed you to pretty much sleep with whatever you wanted, Dragon Age has been very openly supportive of relationships being between two people, not two specific genders. You love to see it in a big company’s creative direction.
There is definitely more of the world of Tevinter that I would have rather seen, but I appreciate the fact that this series was a heist story and it was very fine-tuned to its specific story. As for the outlook of potential further seasons, I am also excited at how it left off, and wonder if and how the series will be included in the new video game.
Conner’s Final Thoughts
I will say one thing but this show did, which specifically frustrated me when thinking about the original dragon age game, being able to use your environment to benefit you in combat. It feels like something the original Dragon Age games could have incorporated into their combat system. However, who knows maybe the new game will be able to incorporate it, and they wanted to showcase what you could potentially do in the new animated series. Whatever it is, at the end of the day I just wanted an interactive environment in my video games damn it!
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