‘Dragon Age: Absolution’ Ending Explained: Why Is Miriam Afraid of Going Back Home?
Welcome to the Ending Explained for Dragon Age: Absolution. The series is the latest Netflix video game adaptation to come to the platform. Netflix has been having great success in adapting video games to the medium of animation, with shows like Castlevania, Arcane, and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners doing exactly what live-action has been trying to do for ages. Dragon Age: Absolution takes characters, concepts, and places from the original series of video games and tries to tell an original story with them.
The result is quite successful, thanks to a great cast of characters, fabulous animation, action choreography, and also a pacing that is simply ridiculous. This first season of the show consists of only six episodes with a runtime of under 30 minutes. You can basically binge the entire season in two hours. Binging the show is very easy to do, and I would guess that is the way most people will end up watching. There is a fantastic setup for season 2, where we will probably see more characters from the games, which is always exciting.
The following paragraphs contain spoilers for season 1 of Dragon Age: Absolution, now available on Netflix. Read at your own risk.
Why Is Miriam Afraid Of Going Back Home?
Dragon Age: Absolution is set in the world built by BioWare for the Dragon Age series of games. In this season, we specifically found ourselves in a couple of locations, Nevarra, and Tevinter, where most of the action takes place. We are first introduced to our main character, Miriam, and her best friend, Roland. Miriam is a classic thief-type character. She moves in the shadows with great speed and stealth, and she is lethal with her daggers. We meet her as she manages to be successful at a little heist.
When she comes back to her base, it is revealed that the heist was just a test set by a man named Fairbanks. Fairbanks tries to hire Miriam and Roland into his team, as he has a bigger score in mind. Miriam is unconvinced, especially because the plan involves her going back to Tevinter, her home state. Miriam has very bad memories of that place. There, she used to be a slave. However, Miriam sees that a woman named Hira is working alongside Fairbanks.
Hira and Miriam have a lot of history together. In the end, Hira convinces Miriam to become part of the team. Hira promises that after the heist is done, they will escape together and have a cheese farm far from anywhere. It is clear that Miriam is in love with Hira. Miriam and Roland meet the rest of the team, which includes Qwydion, a Qunari mage, and Lacklon, a dwarf. It is also revealed that their objective involves a man called Rezaren, a powerful mage. Miriam seems to have not the best opinion about the man.
They arrive at Tevinter, and Miriam feels terrible about it. It is revealed that Miriam was a slave in Tevinter when she was a child, alongside her twin brother Neb. We also learn that her master was none other than Rezaren himself and that the three of them were raised as siblings. Fairbanks displays his plan for everyone. Their objective is a magical artifact called the Circulum, and once they have it, they must take it back to what remains of the Inquisition, an organization that looks to defend the world against the dangers of magic.
Do The Team Manage To Steal The Circulum?
The team enters the palace of Tevinter. They get ready to steal the Circulum but at the same time, the show introduces us to Rezaren, who is a magister of magic, which means he is a very powerful mage in service of the country Tevinter. He is accompanied by Lassia, the chief of security in the palace. They are both powerful warriors, and they are romantically involved. Rezaren is studying the Circulum because he believes it will help him restore people he has lost back to life. Lassie is afraid, as doing blood magic and returning people to life seem morally ambiguous.
Meanwhile, for Miriam and her team, the heist goes completely wrong, and they are quickly discovered. Fairbanks and Hira reach the Circulum, but Fairbanks stabs Hira in the back. They battle, and Fairbanks escapes wounded, while Hira is captured by Tevinter’s. Miriam is able to escape with the rest of the team after she battles Rezaren, and he calls her sister. Miriam explains her backstory and how she and her brothers were slaves to Rezaren, even when he calls her sister. It is revealed that Rezaren wants to bring Neb back from death and be together again with Miriam as a family.
Miriam and the team agree to go back to the palace and try to rescue Hira. They do it, and Hira manages to escape, but she goes back to their safe house immediately. There, Hira finds the Circulum and takes it. She is about to leave when she encounters Miriam and the rest. It is revealed that Hira is the actual traitor inside the team. Fairbanks found out, and that is why he tried to kill her. Hira was promised that if she managed to bring Miriam with her, Rezaren would give her the Circulum after bringing Neb back. Miriam was only being used by Hira.
Hira says she will take back the Circulum to The Crimson Knight, a radical faction of the Inquisition; she escapes, and the team cannot capture her as they need to face Rezaren. Rezaren brings back Neb’s spirit and tries to put it back in a body, but fails. Miriam then manages to kill him, and she promises she will never be a slave ever again. In the end, the team decides to go to the Inquisition and warn them about Hira and the fact that the Crimson Knight is getting ready for war.