You know, as much as I enjoy Alistair’s character, I don’t enjoy him much as a person. And here’s why:

I found him to be extremely narrow-minded much of the time—even if he didn’t have the greatest family life, he was very privileged, and thus was allowed to cultivate a personality that was, in short, quite naive. 

Now, it wasn’t merely the naivete that irked me. It was his unwillingness to at least look at the opinions of the other side—or the grand scheme of what was going on. In my first playthrough, my Warden Surana and he had a very good [but not romantic] relationship. She was against killing throughout the whole game [being a healer], and felt as if he understood that as well.

As the player, I felt fairly close to his character—never taking him out of my party, buffing him when he needed it, getting him good armor. I listened to his complaints and met his sister… It was all cool. Until I spared Loghain.

I thought, naively perhaps, that throughout our travels in Ferelden he might’ve gleaned a bit about what compassion was, and how it made one a better person. There was also the fact that Ferelden needed as many able-bodied people as they could muster, and it would do well to have an experienced General on the field [closely monitored]. 

I was so sad to realize that he was willing to throw away friendship for revenge. I didn’t think he was that selfish. When he first raised his voice at my Warden I was shocked, and then hurt. It was a brilliant piece of writing on the part of the developers and storytellers at Bioware to make Alistair this way. It was a wonderful insight on human nature and hatred. But because Alistair was capable of hating so vehemently I return to my original point, and that is: I don’t particularly like Alistair as a person.

In a lot of ways, trading Alistair for Loghain was like trading one human weakness for another. But Loghain was able to overcome some of his faults and find some small redemption. I hope Alistair can do the same, and learn to hate less. I know that my Surana and I will never really be able to put all of our trust into Alistair again.

PS: Every time Surana was near death while I had Loghain in my party, he’d somehow always be there for my warden—just in the nick of time. But my Loghain rant and why I like him is saved for another time.