A Needlessly Thorough Analysis of What Hardening Actually Means for Alistair

You can also read this analysis in a Google Doc if you find that format more palatable: here.

(I do recommend desktop for the comfiest viewing in either case, but both should be serviceable.)

Disclaimer: If critical discussion of a character’s feelings, motivations, and reactions to certain in-game choices could be personally upsetting to you, maybe don’t read this. None of this analysis is me judging you/your choices as a player, I am simply looking through the lens of Alistair’s characterization and the in-universe consequences of choices. Of course this analysis will be colored by my own bias, it’s inevitable. I can’t realistically include every potentially relevant line of dialogue, but I’m always happy to discuss if you think there’s something crucial I left out.

Hardened Alistair is often described as learning to stand up for himself and becoming more assertive, but why? Is it an accurate assessment? Even Alistair himself reacts to the hardening dialogue by saying he’s going to start thinking for himself and looking out for himself more, so surely it’s true… right?

To the contrary, I would actually argue that hardened Alistair tends to put others before himself more than unhardened Alistair. Let’s start by looking at how he becomes hardened.

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alistair’s idealization of the wardens fascinates me to no end because if you prod him about it, even he can admit the wardens aren’t so noble

(two dialogue lines from ostagar plus the coordinating vo comments)

duncan saved alistair = duncan is good

duncan is a warden = wardens are good. if not, that calls duncan’s goodness into question. alistair can’t tolerate that

he struggles to integrate the facts that the wardens are a bit shady, that duncan himself is a bit shady! how could he be when he, to alistair, is the thing that saved him from a life of misery? he sees duncan and the wardens actively do questionable things but he has to kind of dismiss that bc even though he knows these are the facts about the wardens, he can’t find a way to make this line up with his need for duncan and the wardens to be good.

this makes warden alistair in dai even more fascinating to me bc by that time he DOES integrate all this into a coherent point of view that aligns with his values. he doesn’t try to sweep the wardens’ shadiness under the rug anymore. the wardens are doing something he finds abhorrent. he loudly opposes it and takes action to do something meaningful about it. he fights for what he believes is right anyway.

in origins, we can see alistair struggle with black and white thinking when he’s too emotionally involved (see: duncan, loghain). but he notably doesn’t do that at this point. the maturation!! the growth!! he could’ve either gone along because the wardens are his family (ergo good) or he could’ve simply ragequit and given up (bc now they’re bad). but he doesn’t do that. he doesn’t put them into an all good or all bad box. he finds a way to fight it and try to shape the wardens into something that aligns with what he believes is right.

i just think he’s neat

neristair relationship progress in 4 steps: pre-relationship to later in life