Question about Morrigan

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Hi, guys. Dragon Age and I go back a long time, and it's not been a good history, also more personal than I'd care to talk about. (Bait and switch, yes, I know.) In any case, I've ended up getting the game for a couple of euros on Steam long after any controversy surrounding was forgotten.

Right now I've surprisingly ended up having my Aedan Cousland drawn to Morrigan, as she's always been nice to him, despite her typical superficial mean streak — so he's not buying into that bad witch kind of thing, despite becoming growingly worried by whatever evil does really transpire her stories (such as the killing of the templars whom it had been possible to just avoid instead) or those moments where her teasing of Alistair or complaining about the Grey Warden helping people does sound a bit too real. Otherwise he views her as a paradoxically innocent post-teenager brainwashed by a jaded woman and prodded into a rebel attitude that doesn't actually fit her more conservative, studious personality. Or something along those lines. There hasn't been that much time to think. Obviously, she's attractive and she's just saved his life, and he's just promised her mother to look after her, pretty much as payment for his own saved life. Something's bound to happen in situations like that.

In any case, I know you can't really 'soften' her the way you can 'harden' Alistair or Leliana, though as far as I've read there is some change going on and an internal conflict and a soften side that's already in is shining through etc. etc. Hence the plan is to keep her in the team, be nice to her but avoid evil answers in her dialogues, do good things to people even if it means losing her approval and so on. Chances are quite likely, of course, that the approval will eventually become negative, breaking off the romance, getting her to leave, whatever.

He's already conflicted about Iona (flirted but didn't invite her, hence it's impossible to know whether she's dead or kept alive by Howe soldiers), grieving for his mother and father, nanny, teacher and best friend, then Leliana's going to come in with her positive personality, as well as Anora showing up as a viable marriage if not romance option, so I thought why not. I've never watched a player character lose an advanced romance in any of these games, so it could be a first and an interesting one at that.

I've watched Inquisition spoilers of her talking to the Inquisitor about the Warden ('my Warden'), so I know what her personality's going to be like. On the other hand, Aedan obviously doesn't have any foreknowledge of requests Morrigan's going to make of him (kill Flemeth, do the Ritual etc.).

Right now her approval is at +33 Interested, with pretty much all conversation threads bar one already exhausted by the time of Lothering. I suspect new topics aren't going to pop up at a machine-gun speed, so approval will be gained more slowly now or even lost (from good deeds and her views thereon) faster than gained.

So, being in Lothering, very early in the game yet but foreseeing trouble and knowing that if something happens there's still going to be enough time to get closer to Leliana, I wonder:

1. Will it be possible to get 100 approval with her while playing as a good character and having her in the party?
2. If #1 = false, is it possible to get her to 100 aproval by not having her in the party and only talking to her in the camp?
3. Will low or negative approval switch her from Interested to Neutral and break the romance?
4. If #3 = true, will she also leave the party and give Aedan some sort of conclusion?
5. In short, can I expect Morrigan to end the romance on her own initiative some time soon, leaving the Warden to pursue Leliana, or Anora, or nobody?
6. Alternatively, will Morrigan do or say something really, really bad earlier in the game than her end-game proposal concerning the ritual? Such as taking it one step too far in putting Alistair down?
7. If you've played this game a lot of times and know it all inside out: Is it a good idea for me to just wing it and see what happens, on my first run? Or would it be a better idea to take a more managed (meta) approach, considering that I'm not going to be replaying the game any time soon?
8. Is there a way to let Morrigan down gently and put the friendship more on a little sister kind of track (which would also be fitting for a woman who, after all, saved his life)?

 

I've played as a good character before and gotten morrigan's approval maxed out, so yes it should be possible.
there are a few situations where you would normally lose approval for picking the good option but you can usually circumvent them - for example, you can lose approval if you refuse kolgrim (leader of the dragon cult) outright without listening to his offer during the sacred ashes quest, however if you stall and make sure morrigan gets to express her view you can persuade her to make sure you don't lose any approval even if you refuse kolgrim.
Keep in mind however, that in some cases, even though youcan soften the blow you will still take a hit of some disapproval, so you might want to keep her in the camp when you know they are coming up. One example of this is helping the bar maid in redcliffe to start a new life by giving her 500 silver, normally you would get -10 approval with morrigan. you can persuade her but even then you still take a hit of -3 approval.

It is possible to break the romance and have it end if you pick certain options during dialogue, like saying you're not trying to court her, turn her down for good during the whole "it's cold in my tent" dialog, or if you already have hihg approval/are romancing another character and don't choose morrigan when she confronts you about it.
Most of the options are pretty obvious though - the only tricky one is when she tells you how the most important rule in the wilds is self preservation and you reply with it being a pathetic justification - she won't like it and any romance going on will end right there, while you also take a -15 hit in approval with her.

The romance ending does not mean that morrigan automatically leaves - you can however get her to leave at various points during dialogue by telling her she is not useful or just outright telling her you want her to leave. She will also leave if you don't agree to help her with acquiring flemeth's grimoire and later on to help her fight flemeth.
Once the romance ends or she leaves you should be able to romance another character if you so desire.

And no, morrigan won't really force your hand into doing anything right out bad - though if you're being too much of a goody two-shoes she will let you know how she feels about it.
If you don't plan on replaying the game anytime soon, you might want to use one of the romancing guides just so you make sure you get the best approval score possible.
You might get good results just winging it, but there are some instances where it's a bit unclear which option would give you the best approval rating. (usually there is a good option that gives +2 approval, and a best option that gives +4.)
It can be quite frustrating to be stuck on a lower approval rating if you make some misses here and there and have allready expended most if not all options the game offers you to raise approval, which has happened to me once or twice during past playthroughs.
The wiki page here should guide you through picking the best options, and avoid breaking the romance/having morrigan leave if you don't want her to : http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Morrigan/Approval

Your best bet of ending the (possibility) of romance with morrigan is to tell her early on you are 'not trying to court' her. you will still take a -5 hit to approval, but that's the best you can do. The other ways of breaking up the relationship will net you -10 or even -20 approval, depending on how much of a dick you are to her about it.

If you broke off the romance and want to restart it, you get 2 opportunities to do so - one is when you gift her the golden mirror, the other when you retrieve flemeth's grimoire for her during her personal quest.

 

If you do romance her, you get three rolls in the hay, IIRC. That's all I have to contribute.

 

This reminds me that I'm in the middle of a play-thru with a romance of Morrigan so that I can lead into the Witch Hunt DLC - but it's been months since I played last. Morrigan isn't as hard to romance as she might seem. Most of the points where you lose influence with her can be mitigated as previously mentioned - I've never really needed to keep her out of the party or curb my responses a lot to satisfy her other than to mitigate them a little. Also remember that she's been kept isolated without any friends or anyone who ever really showed concern for her so she may be stand-offish but she enjoys attention - which you can give her by remembering to always talk to her in camp to see if any new conversation options open up. She's also a bit vain, she enjoys jewelry gifts - specifically necklaces IIRC - that show that you think she's attractive. If you realize that Flemeth is essentially an Abomination (a mortal possessed by a "demon.") and Morrigan is an apostate mage you can understand that she'd be fearful and hateful towards "civilized" outsiders who in her experience generally only wanted to kill them both. Remember that the Inquisitors always started their conflicts; neither Flemeth nor Morrigan sought out the Inquisitors to stir up trouble, they were just trying to survive. If a bear is living quietly in the forest not causing any harm and you go attack it who is to blame if you get mauled?