The aptly titled finale to Netflix’s animated fantasy series Dragon Age: Absolution “The Price of Salvation” begs as many questions as it answers leaving viewers thirsty for a second season. While thematically and visually it fits in perfectly with the rest of the Dragon Age ouvre, it has something new to say about dragons, and may offer some hints on what’s to come in the upcoming fourth Dragon Age video game “Dreadwolf.”
1. The Ending
Dragon Age: Absolution ends with a delicious twist and a cliffhanger, befitting its twisty and suspenseful six-episode run. Though the show overall is enjoyable for people who aren’t longtime fans of the Dragon Age franchise, including video games, comic books, and novels, the ending is admittedly a lot more fun for people who are, shedding some new light on old characters. The cliffhanger definitely teases a second season, though at the time of writing, it hasn’t been renewed.
2. Salvation and Absolution
“The Price of Salvation” is an apropos title for the finale. Salvation means something different for each character, and they each pay a different price. The deeper meaning of “Absolution” is a little more ambiguous. None of the true villains find absolution, nor did they express any desire to be absolved. Absolution is instead reserved for the heroes, who have perhaps done wrong on their way to doing good. The finale and the show are well titled, begging us to question, in the end, who is saved, and who is absolved, and why?
3. Romance
Absolution is optimistic about love and romance; they are their own kind of salvation and absolution. That only one of the three couples works out in the end might point towards pessimism, but instead, it points to a veneration for the rarity that is a loving romance, and a reverence for the complicated and difficult nature of emotional labor. Hira and Rezaren were both incapable of prioritizing their girlfriends over their ambitions, and that is an obstacle to a lot of romances, even when the consequences aren’t life-or-death.
4. The “Dragon” in “Dragon Age”
In most of Dragon Age‘s many iterations, dragons serve as obstacles to be overcome, enemies to be defeated, and beasts to be slain. Absolution does something different, presenting its one mighty dragon as a prisoner to be freed. The characters see their own desires for freedom in the chained dragon, and its “salvation” becomes a sweet if on-the-nose metaphor for theirs. Lacklon the grumpy warrior notes that the dragon will probably just “ravage the countryside” allowing the audience to both acknowledge and ignore the gruesome implications in order to appreciate the allegory.
5. Hints for “Dreadwolf”
Much is unknown about the currently in development fourth Dragon Age video game “Dreadwolf,” though Absolution may provide a few hints. Since both take place in Tevinter, it’s very possible some Absolution characters make an appearance. The most likely one is Tassia, since she is probably now questioning her career trajectory (in addition to her taste in men). Meredith a.k.a. The Crimson Knight will almost certainly be involved in “Dreadwolf,” since the red lyrium idol that turned her into a statue at the end of “Dragon Age II” is prominently featured in in the “Dreadwolf” trailer, and The Price of Salvation only proves she’s still alive, at least in some sense of the word.
Through beautifully crisp design, a powerhouse ensemble cast, and a pithy, twisty, and exciting script, Dragon Age: Absolution ends its first season a roaring success. To deny it a second season would be a crime against art, and more importantly, a great disappointment to me personally.