When a liar in the Dragon Age series is brought up, most fans think of and talk about Solas. After all, his lie is the biggest yet in the series, and will have a big effect on Dragon Age 4. However, fans have pointed out that Dragon Age: Inquisition has a total of four liars, and they all have different strategies when it comes to their lying. One Tumblr user, rederiswrites, wrote their thoughts on the matter, and their insights are pretty interesting.
The four liars are Solas, Iron Bull, Varric, and Blackwall. Solas lies about his identity, past, and motivations. Iron Bull lies as a spy for the Qunari, and continues to do so if the Chargers are sacrificed. Varric lies about Hawke's location to the Inquisition until Skyhold. Lastly, Blackwall lies about who he is. Rederiswrites pointed out that while all these characters are liars, they use very different strategies to be believed.
How Iron Bull And Varric Lie
Iron Bull may be the best liar of them all, and he reveals information as a way to distract from other information he does not want to be known. He put the Inquisition under a false sense of security by admitting he was a Qunari spy right from the start. He does not reveal his true loyalty until Trespasser, be that with the Qunari or Inquisition. Unlike other companions, he never stumbles or gives hints about his possible betrayal. He offers certain information as a sacrifice so that other information is not examined.
Varric is a cheeky liar, but that cheekiness allows him to get away with some information of real consequence. He lies a lot, but in a playful way. He is a storyteller and is not afraid to get caught in a lie because it is all in good fun. The truth though is that he is like a mob boss of the Dwarven Merchants Guild, and likely does know a lot of big information that will die with him. The entirety of Dragon Age 2 had him tell the story of Hawke to Cassandra, and she accepted it all without finding out that he actually did know where Hawke went after the Kirkwall mage uprising.
How Blackwall And Solas Lie
Blackwall is the opposite of Iron Bull in terms of his lying skills. He is actually not a good liar and just got really lucky that no one knows much about the Grey Wardens. Whenever someone asks him a Grey Warden question, he can just make something up, and it would not matter because Grey Wardens are secretive people. In a sense, Grey Wardens are the perfect people to steal identities from, and Blackwall is a major example of that, as he was able to get past Leliana's investigative network.
Solas is a very interesting liar because he hates lying. Hating to lie works to his advantage, though. He lies through omission, avoiding any discussion that could lead to the truth about him. In many ways, he is honest about himself, but never in a sense of true vulnerability. This is why so many fans can point out hints of Solas' betrayal at various points in the game because he does tell the truth as much as he can without ever revealing his true identity and goals.
Why So Many Liars?
Betrayal has been a big theme in Dragon Age, and the theme has been expanding since the first title. Varric himself even mentions that he thinks the best stories are the ones where the bad guys are the ones who have been beside you the whole time. In the Winter Palace, the Inquisitor even gets the chance to say they don't trust anybody because everyone is out there for themselves.
However, Dragon Age also proves that lying does not always make a bad person. Varric is a fan-favorite character and lies to protect his friend. Solas has a ton of fans who love the drama of his true identity. Iron Bull only betrays the Inquisitor if they sacrifice his Chargers. If not, he remains loyal and stops communicating with the Qunari. Most fans also have not harbored bad feelings about Blackwall and quickly forgave him when the truth about him came out. At the end of the day, it is these complicated characters that make the franchise so fun.
Dragon Age 4 is in development.
