A review by ladyfives
Asunder by David Gaider

4.0

"Look at me," he asked her.
She blinked in confusion, but complied.
"No, look at me."
And she did. The girl looked at Cole, looked into him. He was going to kill her, and she knew it. He went through life, unnoticed and quickly forgotten by all, but to her, at that moment, he was the most important thing in the world. She knew what he was, now. Cole was her deliverance, a way out of a world filled with terror. He saw weary relief in her eyes, mixed with the fear. In those eyes he was anchored, and he felt real.
"Thank you," he breathed, and plunged the dagger into her chest.

So I'll fully blame my enjoyment of this on the fact that Cole is one of my favourite characters from anything, of all time. Weekes's writing in the game has this perfect balance of naive sweetness, unpredictable danger, and utter creepiness. Gaider's Cole doesn't speak in riddles and can't read minds & emotions (and doesn't have his big ol' hat), but he's still the boy that you can't help but want to protect even if he seems one wrong move away from hissing at you and slashing something important.

But wow was he hard to not protect here. I love that Gaider didn't shy away from emotions the whole time - even if it nearly tumbled into melodrama at some points - and Cole was free to be young and weak and broken and damn, all the crying. So much honesty with how much the mage situation sucks between Cole & Pharamond. Made my heart hurt. I feel awful that Cole had to leave the book thinking he was hated by Rhys, but that hurt's patched a bit by how I know no matter how many times I play Inquisition I'll always make sure things are fixed and somewhat better for Cole.

It was nice to meet Wynne, too, as I haven't yet reached her in Origins. Spoilers, I know. The mage vs templar politics were a bit of the same old, same old, especially coming off of DA2, but I appreciated this angle on them and how chaotic things really get even without an Anders to drive everyone to extremes. And neat angle with the mages Cole killed and his little sister, this idea of Cole holding on to things too tightly until he breaks them.

Ironically, it's Rhys and Evangeline that are falling out of my memory. Maybe it's enough to say that had I read this before Inquisition, knowing a companion was coming from this book, I definitely wouldn't be tricked for a moment into thinking it was either of them.

Anyways, Cole is great, adore him forever, miss the hat.