The fifth and penultimate episode of Netflix’s animated fantasy series Dragon Age: Absolution “An Altar of Fire” proves to be a true fantasy epic, bursting with action, romance, suspense, and magic, as the show resumes it’s typical breakneck pacing after its fourth episode expository pause.
1. Unpaused and Back in Action
With wounds mended and exposition posited, the protagonists left standing return to break into the Summer Palace one more time for the final showdown. The pacing picks back up along with the action, like a roller coaster tipping over its crest and zooming downward, towards the finale. This second caper is no less thrilling than the first, brimming and sparking with excitement, not wasting a single precious moment.
2. Ludonarrative Cohesion and Dissonance
In video games, ludonarrative cohesion and dissonance refers to how closely the minute-by-minute experience of playing the game aligns with the themes of the story. Famously, the Dragon Age video games are ludonarratively dissonant in how violent they are, but cohesive in how the party (the ensemble) can only succeed by combining their different strengths and compensating for each other’s weaknesses. The show captures both, as it gives each character a chance to show off their unique abilities as they fulfill their part of the second heist.
3. Romance
Dragon Age: Absolution has a little bit of everything for everyone, satisfying both a longing for and a cynicism towards romance in three refreshingly distinct relationships. Miriam and Hira are a couple refusing to be thwarted by tragic circumstance, Roland and Lacklon comprise a classic but not trite will-they-won’t-they odd couple romantic comedy, and Rezaren and Tassia’s affair must surely be doomed as we watch them constantly rebuffed by the complicated and unfair power dynamics between them. Most refreshingly, let the importance of queer romantic representation not be undersold.
4. Suspense
Dragon Age: Absolution plays with tropes without succumbing to them or cynically subverting them. It exists firmly and lovingly within the conceits of its genre without apologizing for them, and without sacrificing its own fresher sensibilities. This allows for real riveting suspense. Along with its lightning-fast pacing, the show keeps audiences on their toes, never certain what will happen next.
5. Magic and Lore
Longtime fans of the Dragon Age franchise will understand how magic works in this world, and how it fits into this society. Those for whom Dragon Age: Absolution is their introduction will not, and it’s difficult to imagine this detracting from their experience. In this show, you learn about this little slice of the world as it exists in the present moment through the lenses of these specific characters, and that’s all you need to know to appreciate this story.
Dragon Age: Absolution returns to its typical fast-paced form in “An Altar of Fire” and delivers a quirky, fun, romantic, historically relevant, and trauma-informed take on a high fantasy epic. It excels at doing something very new with something very old.
